Background: Post-partum depression (PPD) is a form of postnatal depression that affects mothers. Clinical manifestations usually appear within six months after delivery. Risk factors that influence the severity of post-partum depression are not fully known in the Iraqi population.
Objectives: We aim to evaluate the risk factors and identify potential predictors that may influence the symptom levels (severity) of post-partum depression among Iraqi women from Baghdad.
Subjects and Methods: The current study is cross-sectional, and we used the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and a cut-off value of 13 to differentiate patients into two those with lower symptom levels (LSL) and higher symptom levels (HSL). We also explored patients' attributes, newborn-related parameters, and socio-demographics.
Results: The total sample included almost one hundred patients (n=101), including females with lower symptom levels (EPDS<=13, 48.51%) and others with higher symptom levels (EPDS>13, 51.49%). There were two significant risk factors of PPD, including marital problems (OR=3.60, 95% CI=1.54 to 8.41, p=0.003) and perinatal mood disturbances (OR=3.23, 95% CI=1.40 to 7.46, p=0.005). The former results are congruent with our multivariable ordinal regression, while path analysis and structural modeling conveyed an additional risk factor: the personal history of depression. ROC analysis did not convey any significant difference between the two groups (LSL versus HSL) based on age. However, mothers with HSL were older than the other group (29.19±0.88 versus 27.08±0.79, p=0.099).
Conclusion: Post-partum depression with higher symptom levels is frequent among Iraqi mothers. Healthcare institutes should be vigilant concerning the underlying risk factors. Intervention requires integrating the role of social workers to understand the patient's family dynamics.
One of the most common forms of diabetes is Type-2 that occurs due to the failure of cells in recognizing and responding to insulin if not accurately treated. The aim of this work is to evaluate the relations of thyroid hormones, vitamins, and lipid peroxidation with the glycemic index in patients experiencing Type-2 diabetes. Some tests of biochemical parameters and vitamins were conducted on 35 patients experiencing Diabetes Mellitus (DM) and 35 healthy subjects. The results indicated the increase in the levels of MDA (3.86 ± 0.97 µmol/L), HbA1c (8.27 ± 1.66 %), FBS (198.34 ± 32.41 mg/dl) and TSH (5.67 ±0.34 mIU/L) in the blood of diabetic subjects in comparison to the controls at a P value lower than 0.05. These incr
... Show MoreTen soil samples were collected from Ishaqi project area, Salah Al-Dean Governorate, and analysed for chemical elements (Fe2O3, Al2O3, CaO, K2O Na2O, Co, Zn, Cu, and Pb) to detect the pollution in the study soil using the indices of geo-accumulation (I-geo), contamination factor (CF), and pollution load index (PLI), The results of I-geo indicate that the soil of Ishaqi project area is unpolluted with Pb, Co and slightly polluted with Zn and Cu. The results of CF for Zn, Cu, and Co showed class 2 of moderate contamination and class 1 of low contamination in some samples while those for Pb demonstrated class 1 –of low contamination. The Pollution Load Index (PLI) values for Co, Zn, Cu, and Pb showed cla
... Show MoreBackground: It's believed that HBD-3 is involved in the tissue remodeling process of articular cartilage. Also, HBD-3 has anti-inflammatory properties. Objectives: The purpose of this study is to assay human beta-defensine-3 (HBD-3) in serum from rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients and investigate its correlation with proinflammatory cytokines. Methods: In this case-control study, fifty-eight RA patients were aged 20–65 years, and 29 age-matched healthy subjects (HS) had no inflammatory rheumatic diseases. The disease activity score-28 joint erythrocyte sedimentation rate (DAS28-ESR) was used to measure RA activity. CRP, ACPA, HBD-3, TNF-α, and IL-1β were assessed using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay technique (ELISA). Res
... Show MoreOsmotin and osmotin-like proteins belong to the PR-5 pathogenesis-related group of proteins and are induced in response to various types of biotic and abiotic stresses in several plant species. Carrot was transformed with a tobacco osmotin gene that encodes a protein lacking the vacuolar-sorting motif that is composed of a 20-amino-acid sequence at the C-terminal end, under the control of the cauliflower mosaic virus 35S promoter, using Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. Transgene integration and expression were confirmed by Southern and western blot analyses, and three selected transgenic lines were evaluated for their ability to tolerate drought stress. Under drought stress conditions, all transformants exhibited slower rates of wilti
... Show MoreBackground: This clinical trial aims to evaluate the color changes of direct resin composite veneer (DCV) restorations based on spectrophotometric analysis of 4 different types of resin composites between the baseline immediately after polishing and after one year of follow-up. Materials and methods: 28 patients were assessed for eligibility for participation, aged between 18 and 38 years old, who indicated for DCV restorations in anterior maxillary teeth were considered for participation in this study. In total, 25 patients who met the inclusion criteria were selected (6 males and 19 females, mean age: 20.9 at the time of restoration placement), and 3 patients were excluded. Partic
... Show MoreEpilepsy is one of the most common diseases of the nervous system around the world, affecting all age groups and causing seizures leading to loss of control for a period of time. This study presents a seizure detection algorithm that uses Discrete Cosine Transformation (DCT) type II to transform the signal into frequency-domain and extracts energy features from 16 sub-bands. Also, an automatic channel selection method is proposed to select the best subset among 23 channels based on the maximum variance. Data are segmented into frames of one Second length without overlapping between successive frames. K-Nearest Neighbour (KNN) model is used to detect those frames either to ictal (seizure) or interictal (non-
... Show MorePolyimide/polyaniline nanofiber composites were prepared by in situ polymerization with various weight percentages of polyaniline (PANI) nanofibers. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectra (FT-IR), proved the successful preparation of PANI nanofiber composite films. In addition, thermal stability of PI/PANI nanofiber composites was superior relative to PI, having 10 % gravimetric loss in the range of 623 °C to 671 °C and glass transition temperature of 289 °C to 297 °C. Furthermore, the values of the loss tangent tanδ and AC conductivity σAC of the nanocomposite films were notably higher than those of pure polyimide. The addition of 5 wt.% to 15 wt.% PANI
The study aims at knowing the relationship between retirement problems and psychological flexibility, besides identifying the difference of retirement problems and psychological flexibility due to the wok place variable and sex variable.
The study sample consists of 250 registered retirees in both associations of the government and the UNRWA. The researcher had prepared and used a retirement problems scale and a psychological flexibility scale. The study findings show the following:
- The economic problems were greatly common by a relative weight of 76.3 %.
- The psychological compatibility was the most widespread domain in the psychological fl