Objective Tea lovers are increasing worldwide. We hope that this report is the first to discuss the possible impacts of high black tea consumption on gestational weight gain (GWG) and birth parameters. Methods Throughout one year, a total of 7,063 pregnant ladies coming for first antenatal visit were screened in a major tertiary center. Of them, 1,138 were involved and divided according to their preference into 3 groups: excessive tea (ET), usual tea (UT), and mixed beverages group. The study included women who gave birth to healthy neonates. Results The rate of ET consumption was 4.13% with a total of 41 cases. The UT group (controls) comprised 94 women. ET was significantly associated (P<0.05) with maternal age, parity, occupation, smokin

The catalytic activity of faujasite type NaY catalysts prepared from local clay (kaolin) with different Si/Al ratio was studied using cumene cracking as a model for catalytic cracking process in the temperature range of 450-525° C, weight hourly space velocity (WHSV) of 5-20 h1, particle size ≤75μm and atmospheric pressure. The catalytic activity was investigated using experimental laboratory plant scale of fluidized bed reactor.
It was found that the cumene conversion increases with increasing temperature and decreasing WHSV. At 525° C and WHSV 5 h-1, the conversion was 42.36 and 35.43 mol% for catalyst with 3.54 Si/Al ratio and Catalyst with 5.75 Si/Al ratio, respectively, while at 450° C and at the same WHSV, the conversion w

Low bearing capacity of weak soil under shallow footings represents one of construction problems.
Kaolin with water content converges to liquid limit used to represent the weak soil under shallow
footing prototype. On the other hand, fly ash, which can be defined as undesirable industrial waste
material, was used to improve the bearing capacity of the soft soil considered in this research. The soft
soil was prepared in steel box (36×36×25) cm and shallow square footing prototype (6×6) cm were
used .Group of physical and chemical tests were conducted on kaolin and fly ash. The soft soil was
improved by a bed of compacted fly ash placed under the footing with dimensions equal to that of
footing but with different de

Shatt al-Arab is the only navigational artery in Iraq, extending from the city of Qurna to its mouth in the Arabian Gulf at the city of Al-Fao within the governorate of Basrah for a length of approximately 204 km. Its width ranges from 400 m to 2000 m, and its depth ranges from 8 m to 20 m. The southern part of it, 93 km long from Umm al-Rassas Island to Ras al-Bisha, represents the international border between Iraq and Iran, where the Thalweg line represents the border between the two countries, which is the deepest point in the riverbed (according to the 1975 Algiers Agreement). The western bank (the Iraqi side) within the common border of Shatt al-Arab is subject to continuous erosion, which leads to the shifting of t

Abstract Background Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) is a widely used test for glycemic control. It is done for chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients. Renal disease is accompanied by thyroid abnormalities, which affect HbA1c, especially in those taking erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs). We aimed to find the effect of thyroid dysfunction on HbA1c in hemodialysis patients taking ESAs and those who do not. Materials and Method Fifty six patients were included in this study, which was done between September 2017 and June 2018, in Baghdad Teaching Hospital. Thyroid stimulating hormone, free T3, free T4 and HbA1c measurements were done. The patients were divided into 2 groups; those who took ESAs and those who did not, then they were subdivided into

        In this work, analytical study for simulating a Fabry-Perot bistable etalon (F-P cavity) filled with a dispersive optimized nonlinear optical material (Kerr type) such as semiconductors Indium Antimonide (InSb). Because of a trade off between the etalon finesse values and driving terms, an optimization procedures have been done on the InSb etalon/CO laser parameters, using critical switching irradiance (I_c) via simulation systems of optimization procedures of optical cavity. in order to achieve the  minimum switching power and faster switching time, the optimization parameters of the finesse values and driving terms on optical bistability and switching dynamics must be studied.

This paper presents an improved technique on Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) algorithm. The procedure is applied on Single Machine with Infinite Bus (SMIB) system with power system stabilizer (PSS) at three different loading regimes. The simulations are made by using MATLAB software. The results show that by using Improved Ant Colony Optimization (IACO) the system will give better performance with less number of iterations as it compared with a previous modification on ACO. In addition, the probability of selecting the arc depends on the best ant performance and the evaporation rate.

The reason for conducting this study is to prolong release of miconazole in the ocular site of action by ocular-based gels (OBGs) formulations. The formulation factors affecting on the release from OBG should be studied using various gelling agents in various concentrations to achieve the improvement in retention and residence time in response to prolonged release. In this study, the formulations were prepared using carbopol 940, pectin, sodium alginate, poloxamer 407, and poly(methacrylic acid) at 0.5%, 1%, and 1.5% w/v, respectively. Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose E5 (HPMC E5) 1% was added as thickening agent/viscosity builder. The formulation containing carbopol 940, pectin and sodium alginate at 1.5% w/v, displayed a noticable im

This paper proposes improving the structure of the 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. Two learning algorithms are used to adjust the parameters weight of the hybrid neural structure with its serial-parallel configuration; the first one is supervised learning algorithm based Back Propagation Algorithm (BPA) and the second one is an intelligent algorithm n