Background: Birth defects are the leading cause of both neonatal and post-neonatal deaths, as an estimated 240,000 neonates die in their first month of life worldwide each year. In Iraq, local studies have shown varying frequencies and types of congenital anomalies. Objectives: To provide new insight into the incidence and types of congenital anomalies and to explore their possible risk factors in Baghdad City. Methods: In this cross-sectional observational study, a total of 2007 neonates were enrolled from six hospitals in Baghdad during the period extending between September and December 2020. Hospital records and personal interviews were used for data collection. These data included the neonates' demographic and clinical characteristics, maternal, pregnancy, and immediate postnatal conditions. Description of the defects in those with birth defects was recorded from hospital records and as described by the parents. Statistical analysis was performed as required. Results: There were 64 (3.2%) neonates with birth defects, i.e., an incidence of 32/1000 total births (28/1000 live births); of them, 38 (59.4%) were males, 8 (12.5%) were stillborn, 43 (66.2%) were born with a cesarean section, the majority (87.5%) had maternal age between 20 and 40 years, and 35 (54.6%) had a low birth weight and were statistically significant. In addition, reduced fetal movement, prematurity, and not receiving tonics during pregnancy were also statistically significant. Among the 64 births with congenital anomalies, multiple congenital anomalies were the most common defects [26 (40.6%)]. An isolated defect was detected in 38 (57.8%) of them. The predominant system involved was the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) [12 (18.8%)] cases, followed by the central nervous system (CNS) with 11 (17.2%) cases, and the musculoskeletal system (MS) with 6 (9.4%) cases. Conclusion: The incidence of birth defects in Baghdad is close to global figures at 28/1000 live births with multiple congenital anomalies, gastro-intestinal, central nervous, and musculoskeletal systems defects being the most frequent, while cardiovascular, genitourinary, and skin defects being the least frequent. Possible risk factors included maternal age, drug intake, and not receiving tonics during pregnancy.
A large amount of thermal energy is generated from burning hazardous chemical wastes, and the temperature of the flue gases in hazardous waste incinerators reaches up to (1200 °C). The flue gases are cooled to (40°C) and are treated before emission. This thermal energy can be utilized to produce electrical power by designing a system suitable for dangerous flue gases in the future depending on the results of much research about using a proto-type small steam power plant that uses safe fuel to study and develop the electricity generation process with water tube boiler which is manufactured experimentally with theoretical development for some of its parts which are inefficient in experimental work. The studied system gen
... Show MoreThis study aimed to extraction of essential oil from peppermint leaves by using hydro distillation methods. In the peppermint oil extraction with hydro distillation method is studied the effect of the extraction temperature to the yield of peppermint oil. Besides it also studied the kinetics during the extraction process. Then, 2nd -order mechanism was adopted in the model of hydro distillation for estimation many parameters such as the initial extraction rate, capacity of extraction and the constant rat of extraction with various temperature. The same model was also used to estimate the activation energy. The results showed a spontaneous process, since the Gibbs free energy had a value negative sign.
Dengke Naniura is a traditional food from Sumatera Utara, Indonesia, that is produced through fermenting process, and this food is believed to contain high probiotics. The objective of the current research is to determine the potential of LAB as a probiotic that has been obtained from Dengke Naniura. Dengke Naniura was traditionally prepared from Cyprinus carpio. Four LABs have been successfully isolated from Dengke Naniura, such as D7DA3, D7B3, D7DBF and D7DN3. Those four LAB isolates were identified as Lactobacillus sp. This result has been confirmed by the non-spore forming bacterium, non-motile, and Gram-positive. Also, it has been supported by biochemical test, for the example Voges Proskauer, catalase test, Methyl
... Show MoreAbstract
The hydrometallurgical method was used to platinum and palladium leaching with aqua regia solution (3HCl: HNO3). The leaching experiments were designed to obtain the optimum conditions by using Taguchi method with 16 experiments at three different factors (time, temperature and solid to liquid ratio), and each factor has four different levels. In this study, leaching the powder sample of catalytic converter that contains platinum and palladium was conducted on the basis of the formation of chloro complexes platinum and palladium (PtCl62-, PdCl42-) with different concentrations in the acidic solution. The optimum condi
... Show MoreThe importance of algae as a natural source of various bioactive compounds continues to grow due to their diverse biological activities. One of such compounds is n-hexadecanoic acid, more commonly known as palmitic acid; it is more lipidous than many algal species. It is one of the most common saturated fatty acids in nature. One can find it in algal, animal, and plant oils and is extracted from numerous natural sources. Its chemical and biological attributes enable its widespread use in the pharmaceutical, food, and cosmetic industries. Numerous studies have found that palmitic acid is effective for fungal activities and does have pharmaceutical and environmental promising antioxidant capabilities.
The removal of direct blue 71 dye from a prepared wastewater was studied employing batch electrocoagulation (EC) cell. The electrodes of aluminum were used. The influence of process variables which include initial pH (2.0-12.0), wastewater conductivity (0.8 -12.57) mS/cm , initial dye concentration (30 -210) mg/L, electrolysis time (3-12) min, current density (10-50) mA/cm2 were studied in order to maximize the color removal from wastewater. Experimental results showed that the color removal yield increases with increasing pH until pH 6.0 after that it decreased with increasing pH. The color removal increased with increasing current density, wastewater conductivity, electrolysis time, and decreased with increasing the concen
... Show MoreIn this study, the activity concentrations of indoor radon, thoron
and their progeny have been measured in air for 61 different
locations of Al-Maddan city using twin cup dosimeter. Furthermore,
some useful parameters concerning the health hazards have been
estimated; working level month (WLM), annual effective dose (Eff),
and excess lung cancer per million person per year (ELC).The results
show that the values of radon gas levels in the investigated districts
varied from 56.28 to 194.43Bq/m3with an overall average value
132.96Bq/m3, while 0.313 to 1.085 for WLM with an overall average
0.740, respectively. The value of Eff and ELC have been found to
vary from 1.420 to 4.918 mSv/y with an overall average valu
This paper aims to study the effects of the long term solar activity on the critical frequencies of ionospheric F1 layer over Baghdad city, during the solar cycle 22, within (1988- 1995). It is found that the critical frequency of this layer is closely related to the sunspots number during the years of the solar cycle 22, at a middle latitude region of the world. The study discussed the effect of sunspot numbers and solar events on the electron densities of F1 layer, which is the most important ionospheric parameter.