An infant incubator in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) is a medical instrument of care that provides oxygen, warmth and moisture to a newborn baby. Due to environmental conditions affecting the infants foster babies may experience discomfort and pain at some point. Thus, this study aimed to assess ambient air quality in neonatal incubators to improve the environmental quality of neonatal intensive care units and safety. Air pollutants concentrations consisting of particulate matter (pm2.5, pm10), hydrocarbons (HOCH), volatile organic compounds (VOC), air quality index (AQI), humidity and temperature, were measured at four selected Baghdad hospitals (Al-Karkh and Rusafa) . The results showed that the increase in rela

Assessment of Salivary Macrophage Inflammatory Protein-1 Alpha Level in Different Stages of Periodontitis, Riyam Muthanna Muhammed*, Hadeel Mazin Akram

Background: Pregnancy is a stressful state of increased inflammatory activity, and pregnancy – associated hormone changes can influence periodontal tissues, these inflammatory activity lead to production of inflammatory mediators. Interleukin 1 beta (IL-1β) is a potent pro-inflammatory cytokines that is consistently associated with periodontal diseases. This study was designed to determine the periodontal health status and detect the serum level of IL-1β in the healthy pregnant women at first, second and third trimester and compare it with healthy non pregnant women, and determine its correlation with different clinical periodontal parameters. M

The immune infertility caused by anti-sperm antibodies (ASAs) represented about 10–20% of infertility among the couples. The ASAs interfere with sperm parameters such as sperm motility and sperm ability to penetrate cervical mucus, sperm-oocyte binding, and fertilization and embryo development. Objectives: The present study designed to assess semen analysis, presence of ASAs and DNA fragmentation index as well as correlation within these parameters in normzoospermic Iraqi subjects Patients, Materials, and Methods: A total number of Iraqi subjects (116) with range of age (20-51) years and their mean duration of infertility (4.70 ± 2.77). Seminal fluid for macroscopic and microscopic assessments done according to WHO 2010 criteria. The

The gamma dose rates and specific activity of 137Cs, 60Co and 40K in
samples of soil taken from places near the landfill radiation at Al-
Tuwaitha site were measured using a portable NaI(Tl) detector. The
results of gamma dose rates in samples were ranged from 52.6
nGy.h-1 to 131nGy.h-1. Then the specific activity of 137Cs, 60Co and
40K in soil were determined using high pure germanium (HPGe)
detector. The specific activities were varied from 1.9 to 115500 Bq.
kg-1 for 137Cs, from 6.37 to 616.5 Bq. kg-1 for 60Co, and from 3 to
839.5 Bq. kg-1 for 40K. The corresponding health risk for the annual
effective dose equivalent varied from 1.85×10-14 to 15.7mSv/y. The
results were compared with various internationa

Inflammasome is a multiprotein oligomer complex which is the precursor procaspase-1 and is a component of the innate immune system so that this study aimed to determine the serum levels of interleukin-1? and 18 in patients with T2D and simple obesity in an attempt to clarify the role of inflammasome in these disorders.Twenty five known cases of T2D, twenty four patients with simple obesity and twenty healthy subjects were randomly recruited from AL-Kindy Teaching Hospital in Baghdad to enroll in this study. All the data about the demographic characteristics and anthropometric measurements were determined in all patients, also the C-reactive protein and serum interleukin (IL)-1? and IL-18 levels were obtained from each patient. The results s

The depletion of petroleum reserves and increasing environmental concerns have driven the development of eco-friendly asphalt binders. This research investigates the performance of natural asphalt (NA) modified with waste engine oil (WEO) as a sustainable alternative to conventional petroleum asphalt (PA). The study examines NA modified with 10%, 20%, and 30% WEO by the weight of asphalt to identify an optimal blend ratio that enhances the binder’s flexibility and workability while maintaining high-temperature stability. Comprehensive testing was conducted, including penetration, softening point, viscosity, ductility, multiple stress creep recovery (MSCR), linear amplitude sweep (LAS), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), F

Around fifty isolates of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi were isolated from blood specimens of patients referring to several hospitals in Kirkuk province, Iraq. The results revealed that all isolates developed resistance to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole and chloramphenicol. However, neither sul2 nor tem genes were detected. Moreover, only ten isolates were positive for catP. Our data suggested participation of other genes or mechanisms allow these multidrug isolates to resist the antibiotics in question.