Background: Fifteen percent of small for gestational age are small as a result of fetal growth restriction, which could be due to maternal, placental or fetal factors. It is an important clinical problem associated with increase perinatal mortality and morbidity. Leptin is a protein that produced by many tissues including the placenta (syncytiotropholoast). Dysregulation of leptin metabolism may be implicated in preeclampsia and IUGR pathogenesis.
Aim of the study: To study the trend of leptin level alteration in maternal serum and cord blood in pregnancies complicated by fetal growth restriction and its relation with fetal outcome.
Methods: An Analytic, cross- sectional study conducted in Al-Elwyia Maternity Teaching Hospital and Alkindy College of Medicine, from October 2009 to June 2010. Sixty seven pregnant women were included and they were divided into two groups: The first group (A) included 34 pregnant women with Intrauterine growth restricted fetuses with and without maternal diseases and the second group (B), included 33 pregnant women with normal pregnancies. Samples from maternal blood and umbilical cord blood were obtained at the time of delivery and leptin level was measured by Enzyme linked immunesorbant assey (ELISA) test.
Results:Umbilical cord leptin level was significantly lower in group A (medain1ng/ml) compared with group B (median10.2ng/ml); P<0.001, and maternal serum leptin was also significantly lower in group A (median19.8ng/ml) compared to control group B (median31.8ng/ml), P 0.042.
Newborn weight for age (Z score) and maternal body mass index were the most important and the only statistically significant determinants of cord blood leptin, while only maternal body mass index had a strong and statistically significant positive association with maternal serum leptin.
In group A, there was a linear correlation between cord blood leptin and placental weight, P<0.001, and a linear correlation between Apgar score at 5minutes and cord blood leptin level, P<0.001.
Conclusion: Women who had growth restricted fetuses had significantly lowered umbilical cord leptin level and maternal serum leptin level than women who had normal fetuses and the outcome of such fetuses could be related to leptin level.
In this paper the use of a circular array antenna with adaptive system in conjunction with modified Linearly Constrained Minimum Variance Beam forming (LCMVB) algorithm is proposed to meet the requirement of Angle of Arrival (AOA) estimation in 2-D as well as the Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) of estimated sources (Three Dimensional 3-D estimation), rather than interference cancelation as it is used for. The proposed system was simulated, tested and compared with the modified Multiple Signal Classification (MUSIC) technique for 2-D estimation. The results show the system has exhibited astonishing results for simultaneously estimating 3-D parameters with accuracy approximately equivalent to the MUSIC technique (for estimating elevation and a
... Show MoreHighly plastic soils exhibit unfavorited properties upon saturation, which produce different defects in engineering structures. Attempts were made by researchers to proffer solutions to these defects by experimenting in practical ways. This included various materials that could possibly improve the soil engineering properties and reduce environmental hazards. This paper investigates the strength behavior of highly plastic clay stabilized with brick dust. The brick dust contents were 10%, 20%, and 30% by dry weight of soil. A series of linear shrinkage and unconfined compression tests were carried out to study the effect of brick dust on the quantitative amount of shrinkage experienced by highly plastic clay and the undra
... Show MoreThe present investigation aims to study the effect of heat treatment by quenching in different quenching media (salt water, water and oil) following by tempering on wear resistance of EN25 steel. EN25 steel is an alloy of medium carbon low alloy steel which is used for many applications requiring high tensile strength and wear resistance such as connecting rods, adapters and in power sectors extensively. The specimens are machined to 20 mm in length and 10 mm in diameter. This study is done by two stages: The first stage is done by austenitizing EN25 steel to 850 for 1 hr by quenching the specimens in three different quenching media and then tempered at 300 in air. While the second stage is performed by wear
... Show MoreDirect contact membrane distillation is an effective method for production of fresh water from saline water. In this study two samples were used as feed solutions; the first one was RO waste from Al-Hilla Coca-Cola Factory (TDS= 2382 mg/l) and the other was Haji Ali drainage water (TDS= 4127 mg/l). Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) hydrophobic membrane supported with polypropylene (PP) was used as flat sheet form with plate and frame cell. Results proved that membrane distillation is an effective technique to produce fresh water with high quality from brine with low salinity content. With membrane area of 8x8 cm2, the volume of treated water decreased from 34.97 ml at first half hour to 33.02 ml after 180 min of
... Show MoreDue to the deliberate disposal of industrial waste, a great amount of petroleum hydrocarbons pollute the soil and aquatic environments. Bioremediation that depends on the microorganisms in the removal of pollutants is more efficient and cost-effective technology. In this study, five rhizobacteria were isolated from Phragmites australis roots and exposed to real wastewater from Al-Daura refinery with 70 mg/L total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) concentration. The five selected rhizobacteria were examined in a biodegradation test for seven days to remove TPH. The results showed that 80% TPH degradation as the maximum value by Sphingomonas Paucimobilis as identified with Vitek® 2 Compact (France).
The present study aims to evaluate the biosorption of reactive orange dye by using garden grass. Experiments were carried out in a batch reactor to obtain equilibrium and thermodynamic data. Experimental parameters affecting the biosorption process such as pH, shaking time, initial dye concentrations, and temperature were thoroughly examined. The optimum pH for removal was found to be 4. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis indicated that the electronegative groups on the surface of garden grass were the major groups responsible for the biosorption process. Four sorption isotherm models were employed to analyze the experimental data of which Temkin and Pyzhey model was found to be most suitable one. The maxim
... Show MoreIn this study, aromatic polyamide reverse osmosis membranes were used to remove zinc ions from electroplating wastewater. Influence of different operating conditions such as time, zinc concentration and pressure on reverse osmosis process efficiency was studied. The experimental results showed, concentration of zinc in permeate increase with increases of time from 0 to 70 min, and flux of water through membrane decline with time. While, the concentrations of zinc in permeate increase with the increase in feed zinc concentration (10–300 mg/l), flux decrease with the increment of feed concentration. The raise of pressure from 1 to 4 bar, the zinc concentration decreases and the flux increase. The highest recovery percentage was fou
... Show MoreThis paper introduces a Certain Subclass of Meromorphic Univalent Positives Coefficients Defined by the q-Difference Operator. Coefficient estimates are investigated and obtained, and the upped bound is calculated.