Background: Neural tube defects (NTDs) are said to be inherited in a multifactorial fashion, i.e. genetic-environmental interaction. Maternal nutritional deficiencies had long been reported to cause NTDs, especially folate deficiency during early pregnancy. More attention had been paid to the exact mechanism by which this deficiency state causes these defects in the developing embryo. The most significant of all researches was that connecting reduced folate and increased homocysteine level in maternal serum on one hand and the risk of developing a NTD baby on the other hand. Objectives : to determine the significance of homocysteine level in Iraqi mothers who gave birth to babies with NTDs as compared to normal controls. Patients, Materials

Background: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of in vitro long-term simulation of oral conditions on the bond strength of PEEK CAD/CAM lingual retainers.

Material and methods: The sample consisted of 12 PEEK CAD/CAM retainers each composed of 2 centrally perforated 3x4mm pads joined by a connector. They were treated by 98% sulfuric acid for 1 minute and then conditioned with Single Bond Universal and bonded to the lingual surface of premolar teeth by 3M Transbond TM System. Half of the retainers were artificially aged using a 30-day water storage and 5000 thermocycling protocol before bond strength testing to compare with the non-aged specimens.

Results: The artificially aged retainers showed a marginally

Coronavirus disease (Covid-19) has threatened human life, so it has become necessary to study this disease from many aspects. This study aims to identify the nature of the effect of interdependence between these countries and the impact of each other on each other by designating these countries as heads for the proposed graph and measuring the distance between them using the ultrametric spanning tree. In this paper, a network of countries in the Middle East is described using the tools of graph theory.

The evaluation of residual stresses (RS) induced by the friction stir welding (FSW) process is crucial in anticipating the performance of the welded structure. The existence of such residual stresses within a friction stir welded structure may lead to excessive distortion and weakness to afford the applied external loads. To assess quantitatively the effect of these residual stresses generated by FSW process, the current paper implements a Coupled Eulerian–Lagrangian (CEL) finite element simulation to analyze both thermal and subsequent resulted remaining stress environments in dissimilar friction stir welding of AA6061-T6 and AA2024-T3 alloys. The thermal analysis step was conducted first and followed by a mechanical analysis step in whi

Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks (WMSNs) are a type of sensor network that contains sensor nodes equipped with cameras, microphones; therefore the WMSNS are able to   produce multimedia data such as video and audio streams, still images, and scalar data from the surrounding environment. Most multimedia applications typically produce huge volumes of data, this leads to congestion. To address this challenge, This paper proposes Modify Spike Neural Network control for Traffic Load Parameter with Exponential Weight of Priority Based Rate Control algorithm (MSNTLP with EWBPRC). The Modify Spike Neural Network controller (MSNC) can calculate the appropriate traffi

In recent years, the migration of the computational workload to computational clouds has attracted intruders to target and exploit cloud networks internally and externally. The investigation of such hazardous network attacks in the cloud network requires comprehensive network forensics methods (NFM) to identify the source of the attack. However, cloud computing lacks NFM to identify the network attacks that affect various cloud resources by disseminating through cloud networks. In this paper, the study is motivated by the need to find the applicability of current (C-NFMs) for cloud networks of the cloud computing. The applicability is evaluated based on strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) to outlook the cloud network. T

Mobile ad hoc network security is a new area for research that it has been faced many difficulties to implement. These difficulties are due to the absence of central authentication server, the dynamically movement of the nodes (mobility), limited capacity of the wireless medium and the various types of vulnerability attacks. All these factor combine to make mobile ad hoc a great challenge to the researcher. Mobile ad hoc has been used in different applications networks range from military operations and emergency disaster relief to community networking and interaction among meeting attendees or students during a lecture. In these and other ad hoc networking applications, security in the routing protocol is necessary to protect against malic

 In this paper, the human robotic leg which can be represented mathematically by single input-single output (SISO) nonlinear differential model with one degree of freedom, is analyzed and then a simple hybrid neural fuzzy controller is designed to improve the performance of this human robotic leg model. This controller consists from SISO fuzzy proportional derivative (FPD) controller with nine rules summing with single node neural integral derivative (NID) controller with nonlinear function. The Matlab simulation results for nonlinear robotic leg model with the suggested controller showed that the efficiency of this controller when compared with the results of the leg model that is controlled by PI+2D, PD+NID, and F

Rutting is a crucial element of the mechanical performance characteristics of asphalt mixtures, which was the primary target of this study. The task involved substituting various portions of virgin coarse aggregate with recycled concrete aggregate materials that had been treated or left untreated at rates ranging from 25 to 100%, with a constant increase of 25%. The treatment process of recycled concrete aggregate involved soaking in acetic acid, followed by a mechanical process for a short time inside a Los Angeles machine without the balls. This research utilized two primary tests: the standard Marshall test to identify the optimal asphalt contents and the volumetric characteristics of asphalt mixtures. The other one w