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 and Methods: Fifty Iraqi women having babies born with NTDS, referred to the genetic clinic in Baghdad Teaching Hospital, were included in this study (the study group) as well as 37 healthy women having normal children (the control group). This study was conducted from November, 2002 till October, 2003. Analysis of total serum homocysteine level for all women was done using a computerized HPLC system. Results : the age of women in both groups was comparable (mean+SD in the study group was 26.2+5.14 years vs. 26.3+4.57 years in the controls). Among the study group, 4 (8%) had normal tHcy level; 44 (88%) had mildly elevated level, and only 2 (4%) had moderately elevated tHcy level, while all (100%) women in the control group had their tHcy level within normal level. This difference was statistically highly significant (p<0.001). Conclusions : Women become at an increased risk of delivering a baby with NTD when having an elevated tHcy level in their sera, and that tHcy level is an important marker in maternal serum that is associated significantly with pregnancy outcome.
In this paper we present a method to analyze five types with fifteen wavelet families for eighteen different EMG signals. A comparison study is also given to show performance of various families after modifying the results with back propagation Neural Network. This is actually will help the researchers with the first step of EMG analysis. Huge sets of results (more than 100 sets) are proposed and then classified to be discussed and reach the final.
The speech recognition system has been widely used by many researchers using different
methods to fulfill a fast and accurate system. Speech signal recognition is a typical
classification problem, which generally includes two main parts: feature extraction and
classification. In this paper, a new approach to achieve speech recognition task is proposed by
using transformation techniques for feature extraction methods; namely, slantlet transform
(SLT), discrete wavelet transforms (DWT) type Daubechies Db1 and Db4. Furthermore, a
modified artificial neural network (ANN) with dynamic time warping (DTW) algorithm is
developed to train a speech recognition system to be used for classification and recognition
purposes. T
Research on the automated extraction of essential data from an electrocardiography (ECG) recording has been a significant topic for a long time. The main focus of digital processing processes is to measure fiducial points that determine the beginning and end of the P, QRS, and T waves based on their waveform properties. The presence of unavoidable noise during ECG data collection and inherent physiological differences among individuals make it challenging to accurately identify these reference points, resulting in suboptimal performance. This is done through several primary stages that rely on the idea of preliminary processing of the ECG electrical signal through a set of steps (preparing raw data and converting them into files tha
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The current research aims to develop a guidance program suitable for high school students and apply it to them in order to ensure the reduction of addiction to the use of different means of communication. The researchers used the scale of addiction to the means of communication (SAS) to measure the level of addiction as well as to identify the impact of the proposed guidance program in reducing the degree of addiction to communication. It was applied to a sample of (20) female students divided equally into two groups: an experimental group of (10) female students and a control group of (10) female students from the secondary level in a school under the department of education in the education of the alma
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Most universities in the world are largely committed to creating credible and transparent admission standards that provide justice in admission and have the ability to predict students' performance in their chosen programs. Hence, this study aimed to reveal the predictive ability of the acceptance criteria for the level of performance of master's students in the College of Education at Sultan Qaboos University. Quantitative data were collected from (115) students' admission documents for those accepted in the postgraduate programs for the academic year 2019-2020, and GPA data was collected from students’ transcripts for the fall semester of 2019. Qualitative data were also collected from the interviews
... Show MoreIt is well known that drilling fluid is a key parameter for optimizing drilling operations, cleaning the hole, and managing the rig hydraulics and margins of surge and swab pressures. Although the experimental works represent valid and reliable results, they are expensive and time consuming. In contrast, continuous and regular determination of the rheological fluid properties can perform its essential functions during good construction. The aim of this study is to develop empirical models to estimate the drilling mud rheological properties of water-based fluids with less need for lab measurements. This study provides two predictive techniques, multiple regression analysis and artificial neural networks, to determine the rheological
... Show MoreThis work presents the construction of a test apparatus for air-conditioning application that is flexible in changing a scaled down adsorbent bed modules. To improve the heat and mass transfer performance of the adsorbent bed, a finned-tube of the adsorbent bed heat exchanger was used. The results show that the specific cooling power (SCP) and the coefficient of performance (COP) are 163 W/kg and 0.16, respectively, when the cycle time is 40 min, the hot water temperature is 90oC, the cooling water temperature is 30oC and the evaporative water temperature is 11.4oC.
In this paper, nanofluid of TiO2/water of concentrations of 0.002% and 0.004% volume was used. This nanofluid was flowing through heat exchanger of shell and concentric double tubes with counter current flow to the hot oil. The thermal conductivity of nanofluid is enhanced with increasing concentrations of the TiO2, this increment was by 19% and 16.5% for 0.004% and 0.002% volume respectively relative to the base fluid (water). Also the heat transfer coefficient of the nanofluid is increased as Reynold's number and nanofluid concentrations increased too. The heat transfer coefficient is increased by 66% and 49% for 0.004% and 0.002% volume respectively relative to the base fluid. This study showed that the friction
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