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.
Film condensation of steam on a vertical tube is investigated numerically and experimentally, in the present work. A mathematical model was set based on the basic conservation laws of mass and energy, Nusselts analysis of film condensation, and empirical equations available in the literature. Then, a simulation program in FORTRAN language was developed which simulates the film condensation of steam on a vertical tube. A complete steam tables subprogram was also developed and incorporated with the main program. The experimental work was carried out using a steam condensation test bench. The inlet and outlet cooling water temperatures, steam temperature and pressure, tube surface temperature at center, and co
... Show MoreThe job that confronts players with the effectiveness of shooting with an air rifle is high, so it requires necessary functional adaptations that differ in their degrees from other sports. Regular training in air rifle shooting leads to physiological changes in most of the body's internal systems, and changes and responses can be identified. The functional accompanying physical activity through the presence of body components that reflect these physiological changes in the form of changes in some components, and the importance of research lies in studying the physiological changes accompanying the maximum physical effort and the consequent development of the level of achievement in the effectiveness of shooting with air rifle and body
... Show MoreThis paper proposes a new structure of the hybrid neural controller based on the identification model for nonlinear systems. The goal of this work is to employ the structure of the Modified Elman Neural Network (MENN) model into the NARMA-L2 structure instead of Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) model in order to construct a new hybrid neural structure that can be used as an identifier model and a nonlinear controller for the SISO linear or nonlinear systems. Weight parameters of the hybrid neural structure with its serial-parallel configuration are adapted by using the Back propagation learning algorithm. The ability of the proposed hybrid neural structure for nonlinear system has achieved a fast learning with minimum number
... Show MoreThere are significant differences between the pre and post-tests in favor of the post-test in the tests) stroke volume (S.V), cardiac thrust (C.O.P), left ventricular volume, maximum oxygen consumption Vo2max), which indicates the effect of the proposed training approach.There are significant differences between the pre and post-tests in favor of the post-test in the achievement level test with air rifle shooting for young female shooters, which indicates the effect of the proposed training curriculum.There are no significant differences between the pre and post-tests in the tests (heart rate (HR) before exercise, heart rate (HR) after exercise, systolic blood pressure rate before exercise, systolic blood pressure rate after exercis
... Show MoreTo study the qualitative changes in testis tissue after carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) administration and to determine whether citric acid (CA) has a protective effect against testis damage induced by CCl4. This study compared two types of CA by measuring the histoarchitecture of the testis and serum levels of progesterone, estrogen and testosterone on mice. One of the most produced organic acid is citric acid. In this study, CA produced by microbial fermentation using Aspergillus Niger 5mg/kg and derived from citrus limon 400mg/kg (lemon). Mice were treated with daily intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection for seven successive days after randomly separated into six groups: (1) control, (2) CCl4 (0.02%), (3) limon citric acid (400 mg/kg), (4) CCl4 (
... Show MoreIdentifying breast cancer utilizing artificial intelligence technologies is valuable and has a great influence on the early detection of diseases. It also can save humanity by giving them a better chance to be treated in the earlier stages of cancer. During the last decade, deep neural networks (DNN) and machine learning (ML) systems have been widely used by almost every segment in medical centers due to their accurate identification and recognition of diseases, especially when trained using many datasets/samples. in this paper, a proposed two hidden layers DNN with a reduction in the number of additions and multiplications in each neuron. The number of bits and binary points of inputs and weights can be changed using the mask configuration
... Show MoreShell-and-double concentric tube heat exchanger is one of the new designs that enhance the heat transfer process. Entransy dissipation is a recent development that incorporates thermodynamics in the design and optimization of heat exchangers. In this paper the concept of entransy dissipation is related to the shell-and-double concentric tube heat exchanger for the first time, where the experiments were conducted using hot oil with temperature of 80, 100 and 120°C, flow rate of cold water was 0.667, 1, and 1.334 kg/m3 respectively and the temperature of inlet cold water was 20°C. The entransy dissipation rate due to heat transfer and to fluid friction or pressure drop was studied.
ST segment, T wave changes, QT interval changes, and QTc dispersion are among the parameters used to diagnose ischemic heart disease. The increase in the QT dispersion can be caused by myocardial ischemia, among other heart diseases, whereas cardiac diseases such as coronary artery disease (CAD) can be diagnosed by observing an abnormally high QTc dispersion. This study aimed to evaluate the variations in the QTc dispersion (depolarization and repolarization) of surface electrocardiography as a result of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in patients with chronic total occlusion. This study took place in the Iraqi Center for Heart Disease from October 2020 to February 2021. 110 patients who suffered from chronic occlusion of t
... Show MoreThe education, especially higher education, is an essentially factor in the progress of any society, if we consider the higher education, represents the top of the education`s pyramid which take part in developing the human resources and provide the human staff to raise the productive efficiency, and improve the social , economic level
In order to face the increasing importance of higher education, great capabilities and expenditures must be available in a continous way, such expe
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