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, Bayes estimators of the parameter of Maxwell distribution have been derived along with maximum likelihood estimator. The non-informative priors; Jeffreys and the extension of Jeffreys prior information has been considered under two different loss functions, the squared error loss function and the modified squared error loss function for comparison purpose. A simulation study has been developed in order to gain an insight into the performance on small, moderate and large samples. The performance of these estimators has been explored numerically under different conditions. The efficiency for the estimators was compared according to the mean square error MSE. The results of comparison by MSE show that the efficiency of B
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This study investigated the bioethanol production from green algae Chlorella vulgaris depending on its carbohydrate-enriched biomass. Four different phosphorous concentrations were employed to stimulate bioethanol production from Chlorella vulgaris. The impact of various phosphorous values on Chlorella vulgaris growth rate as well as primary product (carbohydrate) were evaluated. High performance liquid chromatography was utilized in this work. The stationary phase was identified as day 14, 12, 10 and 6 in treatments 6, 4, 2 and g/L, respectively. The findings suggest that the treatment without phosphorous addition had the highest record of carbohydrate content (22.64% dry weight) as well as the highest bioethanol yield (20.66% dry weight).
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Adsorption capacity of a waste biomass, date stones, for phenolic compounds such as phenol (Ph) and p-nitro phenol (PNPh) was investigated. The characteristics of such waste biomass were determined and found to have a surface area and iodine number of 495.71 m²/g and 475.88 mg/g, respectively. The effects of temperature, initial sorbate concentration, and contact time on the adsorption process were studied. Experimental equilibrium data for adsorption of Ph and PNPh on date stones were analyzed by the Langmuir, Freundlich and Sips isotherm models. The results show that the best fit was achieved with the Sips isotherm equation with maximum adsorption capacities of 147.09 and 179.62 mg/g for Ph and PNPh, respectively. The kinetic data wer
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Helicobacter pylori (H. Pylori) is one of the most common infectious human pathogens. H. pylori could induce inflammation, that causes illnesses and disorders of upper gastrointestinal which including peptic ulcer diseases, dyspepsia, gastroesophageal reflux disease and gastric mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma. It is important to use a better tolerated and greatly effective eradication regimen. In this study, 75 newly diagnosed adult patients with H. pylori infection were included and completed the study, they were allocated into three groups with three different treatment regimens for H. pylori eradications; Group A (25 patients) received oral standard clarithromycin-based tr
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It is well known that petroleum refineries are considered the largest generator of oily sludge which may cause serious threats to the environment if disposed of without treatment. Throughout the present research, it can be said that a hybrid process including ultrasonic treatment coupled with froth floatation has been shown as a green efficient treatment of oily sludge waste from the bottom of crude oil tanks in Al-Daura refinery and able to get high yield of base oil recovery which is 65% at the optimum operating conditions (treatment time = 30 min, ultrasonic wave amplitude = 60 micron, and (solvent: oily sludge) ratio = 4). Experimental results showed that 83% of the solvent used was recovered meanwhile the main water
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A variety of single-engine driven files and inematics have been introduced to improve the clinical performance of NiTi rotary files. The purpose of this in vitro study was to measure and compare the incidence of dentinal defects after root canal preparation with different single file systems.
The ionospheric characteristics exhibit significant variations with the solar cycle, geomagnetic conditions, seasons, latitudes and even local time. Representation of this research focused on global distribution of electron (Te) and ion temperatures (Ti) during great and severe geomagnetic storms (GMS), their daily and seasonally variation for years (2001-2013), variations of electron and ion temperature during GMS with plasma velocity and geographic latitudes. Finally comparison between observed and predicted Te and Ti get from IRI model during the two kinds of storm selected. Data from satellite Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) 850 km altitude are taken for Te, Ti and plasma velocity for different latitudes during great
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