In their cross-sectional study, Al-Rubaye et al studied the extent of vitamin D (VD) deficiency/ insufficiency, factors affecting its degree, and the adverse outcomes of the altered VD status among a group of mothers and their neonates from Baghdad, Iraq. They found that 96.6% of the mothers had VD deficiency/ insufficiency compared to 86.4% in their neonates. Maternal VD levels and neonatal weights were significantly correlated with neonatal VD levels. We believe that the study results need to be revised. This is based  two points listed in this letter to editor

Background: Vitamin D deficiency/ insufficiency is common in different age groups in both genders especially among pregnant women and neonates where it is associated with several adverse outcomes including preeclampsia and preterm delivery.   Objectives: To assess the extent of vitamin D deficiency/ insufficiency among mothers and their neonates and some factors related to it and identify some adverse outcomes of the deficiency/ insufficiency on neonates (preterm birth and low birth weight). Subject and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 88 Iraqi pregnant women and neonates admitted to “Al-Elwiya teaching hospital for maternity” in Baghdad- Al-Rusafah from 1st of June 2019 to 31st of August 2019. Dat

This study aimed to detect of contamination of milk and local soft cheese with Staphylococcus aureus and their enterotoxins with attempt to detect the enterotoxin genes in some isolates of this bacteria. A total of 120 samples, 76 of raw milk and 44 of soft cheese were collected from different markets of Baghdad city. Enterotoxins in these samples were detected by VIDAS Set 2 system and it was found that enterotoxin A is present in a rate of 44.74% in milk samples and in a rate 54.50% in cheese samples. While other enterotoxins B, C, D, E were not found in any rate in any samples.
Through the study 60 isolates obtained from milk and cheeses were identified as Staphylococcus aureus by cultural, morphological and biochemical test by u

In this study, performance characteristics such as power take off (PTO) power consumption, fuel consumption, fuel consumption for the unit field-unit product were determined at different working speeds with two different PTO applications (540 and 540E) in a single row disc type silage machine. In particular, the 540E PTO application greatly reduces fuel consumption for unit work. The best results in terms of hourly fuel consumption were achieved in 540E PTO application and V1 working speed. When the field - product fuel consumption is evaluated, the best results were obtained with the 540E PTO application at the V3 working speed. When an evaluation is made considering all the parameters, it is concluded that the 540E PTO application will p

Background: Mouthwashes used widely as ancillary to mechanical oral hygiene methods. Little information provided about the effect of mouthwashes on ions released from orthodontic brackets. Therefore, the present study has been established to evaluate the effect of different mouthwashes on the corrosion resistance and the biocompatibility of two brands of brackets. Materials and Methods: Eighty premolar stainless steel brackets were used (40 brackets from each brand). They were subdivided into four subgroups (n=10) according to immersion media (deionized distilled water, Corsodyl, Listerine and Silca herb mouthwashes). Each bracket was stored in a closely packed glass tube filled with 15ml of the immersion media and incubated for 45 days at

THE Schiff base reaction played an important role of the condensation reaction between 2-aminophenol and Glyoxylic acid in the presence of calculated amounts of KOH as a catalyst. The reaction has been carried out in ethanol under reflux and stirring condition for 3.5 hrs. All syntheses were carried out under hydrogen gas forming a new potassium (E)-1-hydroxy-2-(2-hydroxyphenylimino)ethanolate ligand type [NO2]. The ligand of the general formula K2[Mn(L2)] type and its Mnп complex K2[Mn(N2O4)] type, has been characterized by spectroscopic methods (F.T-I.R. and U.V-Vis.), elemental analysis (C.H.N) metal content, magnetic susceptibility measurement, Thin-layer chromatography (T.L.C), X-RD powder diffraction, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR molar conductanc

Kidney damage in workers within environments of highly expected exposure to toxin, including heavy metals, could be a primary marker to expect hazards in population exposed to low levels of many environmental pollutants. The present study was designed to evaluate the possible effect of environmental exposure to cadmium and zinc on renal function among painters in Sulaimani city. Cross sectional study was performed on 37 male painting workers in Sulaimani city. Each worker was interviewed using structured questionnaire. Twenty five non-exposed healthy subjects were included as control group. Venous blood samples (10 ml) were obtained by vein puncture from both subjects and utilized for estimation of serum urea, creatinine levels, serum le

Background and objective: Viral Hepatitis Type B&C is serious public health challenge throughout the world.Hepatitis B and C viruses still remain to be the major causes of chronic hepatitis.It is estimated that around 350-400 million people in the world are chronic carriers of HBV, which represents approximately 7% of the total populationwhereas infection with HCV is found in approximately 3% of the world population, which represents 160 million people. Hepatitis B infection has a wide range of seroprevalence in the Mediterranean countries ranging from intermediate (=>2% ) to high prevalence ( =>7%). World Health Organization estimated a prevalence rate for HCV infection of about 4.6% in Eastern Mediterranean in 1999. During the eightieths

This study was conducted in the field of the Poultry Research Station of the Department of Animal Production / Department of Agricultural Research / Ministry of Agriculture for the period 4/4/2021 to 16/5/2021, in which 300 one-day-old Ross308 chicks that fed on diets used avocado oil and Chia with percentages 0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6% respectively, and their mixture consisting of 0.0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 each of avocado and Chia oil (50% avocado + 50% Chia oil). The experiment included 4 treatments with 3 replicates for each treatment (10 birds/replicates), in order to study the effect of using avocado and chia oil and their mixture in meat broiler diets on some physiological and microbial characteristics of blood plasma. The results indicate a