Abstract Aim: Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder which affects communication and social interaction of children. It is a heterogeneous disease with various clinical presentations. Some genes are involved in its pathogenesis. It has been suggested that environmental exposure to lead can increase the risk of autism. The aim of our study was to compare blood lead levels among autistic and non-autistic children. Material and Method: This retrospective study included 107 children (60 with autism and 47 without autism) referred from the different Iraqi provinces, in the years 2015, 2016 and 2017, to the poisoning consultation center in Baghdad. Data collection including age, gender, residence, referral source, family history and blood lead levels was taken from their medical records. Results: No significant differences were noticed between the prevalence of autism and both of age (P=0.843) and gender (P=0.699). The majority of children have no family history of autism (85%). Mean blood lead level for all participants was 16.01 μg/dl. The statistically significant difference in lead level was found between autistic and non-autistic children (17.38± 1.86 μg/dl in autism group versus 14.27± 1.57 μg/dl in non-autism group) with a P value of 0.001. Discussion: Mean blood lead level was high in all participants, compared to the international values, which might indicate a high level of lead exposure in Iraqi children due to environmental pollution. Autistic children have higher lead levels than non-autistic ones and this might explain the role of lead in the etiology of autism.
When optimizing the performance of neural network-based chatbots, determining the optimizer is one of the most important aspects. Optimizers primarily control the adjustment of model parameters such as weight and bias to minimize a loss function during training. Adaptive optimizers such as ADAM have become a standard choice and are widely used for their invariant parameter updates' magnitudes concerning gradient scale variations, but often pose generalization problems. Alternatively, Stochastic Gradient Descent (SGD) with Momentum and the extension of ADAM, the ADAMW, offers several advantages. This study aims to compare and examine the effects of these optimizers on the chatbot CST dataset. The effectiveness of each optimizer is evaluat
... Show MoreActivation of farnesoid X receptor (FXR) markedly attenuates development of atherosclerosis in animal models. However, the underlying mechanism is not well elucidated. Here, we show that the FXR agonist, obeticholic acid (OCA), increases fecal cholesterol excretion and macrophage reverse cholesterol transport (RCT) dependent on activation of hepatic FXR. OCA does not increase biliary cholesterol secretion, but inhibits intestinal cholesterol absorption. OCA markedly inhibits hepatic cholesterol 7α‐hydroxylase (
As material flow cost accounting technology focuses on the most efficient use of resources like energy and materials while minimizing negative environmental effects, the research aims to show how this technology can be applied to promote green productivity and its reflection in attaining sustainable development. In addition to studying sustainability, which helps to reduce environmental impacts and increase green productivity, the research aims to demonstrate the knowledge bases for accounting for the costs of material flow and green productivity. It also studies the technology of accounting for the costs of material flow in achieving sustainable development and the role of green productivity in achieving sustainable development. According
... Show MoreThis paper assesses the impact of changes and fluctuations in bank deposits on the money supply in Iraq. Employing the research constructs an Error Correction Model (ECM) using monthly time series data from 2010 to 2015. The analysis begins with the Phillips-Perron unit root test to ascertain the stationarity of the time series and the Engle and Granger cointegration test to examine the existence of a long-term relationship. Nonparametric regression functions are estimated using two methods: Smoothing Spline and M-smoothing. The results indicate that the M-smoothing approach is the most effective, achieving the shortest adjustment period and the highest adjustment ratio for short-term disturbances, thereby facilitating a return
... Show MoreThe Frequency-hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS) systems and techniques are using in military and civilianradar recently and in the communication system for securing the information on wireless communications link channels, for example in the Wi-Fi 8.02.X IEEE using multiple number bandwidth and frequencies in the wireless channel in order to hopping on them for increasing the security level during the broadcast, but nowadays FHSS problem, which is, any Smart Software Defined Radio (S-SDR) can easily detect a wireless signal at the transmitter and the receiver for the hopping sequence in both of these, then duplicate this sequence in order to hack the signal on both transmitter and receiver messages using the order of the se
... Show MoreIn this work, mesoporous silica SBA-15 was prepared and functionalized with amine groups (i.e., NH2) to form NH2/SBA-15. The curcumin (CUR) was encapsulated into the surface and pore of NH2/SBA-15 to create CUR@NH2/SBA-15 as an efficient carrier in drug delivery systems (DDSs). The three samples (i.e., SBA-15, NH2/SBA-15, and CUR@NH2/SBA-15) were characterized. The study investigated the effect of the carrier dose, initial CUR concentration, pH, and contact time on the CUR loading efficiency (DLE%) via adsorption. The best DLE% for the SBA-15 and NH2/SBA-15 were found to be 45% and 89.7%, respectively. The Langmuir isotherm had a greater correlation coefficient (R2) of 0.998 for SBA-15. A pseudo-secondorder kinetic model seemed to fit well
... Show MoreWe report herein an innovative approach to prostate tumor therapy using tumor specific radioactive gold nanoparticles (198Au) functionalized with Mangiferin (MGF). Production and full characterization of MGF-198AuNPs are described. In vivo therapeutic efficacy of MGF-198AuNPs, through intratumoral delivery, in SCID mice bearing prostate tumor xenografts are described. Singular doses of the nano-radiopharmaceutical (MGF-198AuNPs) resulted in over 85% reduction of tumor volume as compared to untreated control groups. The excellent anti-tumor efficacy of MGF-198AuNPs are attributed to the retention of over 90% of the injected dose within tumors for long periods of time. The retention of MGF-198AuNPs is also rationalized in terms of the higher
... Show MoreExperimental model was done for pile model of L / D = 25 installed into a laminar shear box contains different saturation soil densities (loose and dense sand) to evaluate the variation of pore water pressure before and after apply seismic loading. Two pore water pressure transducers placed at position near the middle and bottom of pile model to evaluate the pore water pressure during pullout tests. Seismic loading applied by uniaxial shaking table device, while the pullout tests were conducted through pullout device. The results of changing pore water pressure showed that the variation of pore water pressure near the bottom of pile is more than variation near the middle of pile in all tests. The variation of pore water
... Show Morethe energy that a radiation source emits as light (photons), electromagnetic waves, or particles is known as radiation. X-ray is one type of ionizing radiation that falls within the electromagnetic wave category of short wavelengths. Because of their short wavelength. X-ray is a type of ionizing radiation that is used in a constantly growing number of diagnostic procedures. X-ray diagnostic imaging has been employed in the medical field for more than a century(Hariyoto et al., 2020). Radiation has advantages for human health, but there is also a risk. the impacts of Radiation on Fertility it is an oligospermia, or a reduction in the number of sperm cells, which is already possible after radiation exposure of 0.15 mGy. It Leads to impede
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