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, smoking, and poor GWG starting from 30 weeks’ gestation until delivery, low birth weight, and small for gestational age (SGA). Poor GWG had a higher relative risk (with 95% confidence interval) in the ET group than in the UT group in crude (1.84 [0.85–2.43]) and risk adjusted models (1.25 [0.28–2.26]). Further, similar results were obtained for SGA in the crude and 3 adjusted models, where the first model was adjusted for bio-obstetrical variables, the second for social parameters, and the third for all factors included in the previous models (1.53 [0.62–2.81], 1.52 [0.71–2.50], and 1.46 [0.78–2.39]), respectively. Conclusion Consumption of large amounts of daily black tea during pregnancy (≥1,500 mL) is a significant cause of poor GWG and SGA.
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has become a pandemic worldwide. On a daily basis the number of deaths associated with COVID-19 is rapidly increasing. The main transmission route of SARS-CoV-2 is through the air (airborne transmission). This review details the airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the aerodynamics, and different modes of transmission (e.g. droplets, droplet nuclei, and aerosol particles). SARS-CoV-2 can be transmitted by an infected person during activities such as expiration, coughing, sneezing, and talking. During such activities and some medical procedures, aerosols and droplets contaminated with SARS-CoV-2 particles are formed. Depending on their
... Show MoreThe aim of this work was directed to measure the cosmic ray (CR)
flux and the background (BG) absorbed dose rate for districts of
Baghdad city. The maximum values of CR flux was 2.01
(particle/cm2.s) registered for several Baghdad districts and the
minimum was 0.403 (particle/cm2.s) belonging to Al-kadhimiya
district, whereas the overall average value was 1.24 (particle/cm2.s).
The BG measurements showed that the maximum absorbed dose was
25 nSv/h belonging to Noab AL-Dhbat district and the minimum
absorbed was 19.01 nSv/h observed in Al-Ghadeer district, while
the overall average was 22.56 nSv/h, and this value is small than the
Iraqi permissible limit, which is restricted by Iraqi Center of
Radiation Pr
Background: Nickel-titanium (NiTi) archwires have become increasingly popular because of their ability to release constant light forces, which are especially useful during initial alignment and leveling phase. The aim of the present study was to investigate and compare the load–deflection characteristics of four commercially available NiTi archwires. Materials and methods: 200 NiTi 0.014, 0.016, 0.018, 0.016x0.022 and 0.019x0.025-inch nickel–titanium archwires from four different manufacturers (3M, Ortho Technology, Jiscop and Astar) were tested. The load-deflection properties of these archwires were evaluated by a full arch bending test in both palatal and gingival directionsat 37°C temperature using a universal material t
... Show MoreThe application of low order panel method with the Dirichlet boundary condition on complex aircraft configuration have been studied in high subsonic and transonic speeds. Low order panel method has been used to solve the case of the steady, inviscid and compressible flow on a forward swept wing – canard configuration with cylindrical fuselage and a vertical stabilizer with symmetrical cross section. The aerodynamic coefficients for the forward swept wing aircraft were calculated using measured wake shape from an experimental work on same model configuration. The study showed that the application of low order panel method can be used with acceptable results
It was aimed to understand the interleukin-4 (IL-4) role in etio-pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Two approaches were adopted. In the first one, a quantitative expression of IL4 gene was assessed by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR), and such findings were correlated with some demographic, clinical and laboratory parameters, which included gender, duration of disease, disease activity score (DAS-28), rheumatoid factors (RFs), C-reactive protein (CRP) and anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (ACCP) antibodies. In the second approach, a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of IL4 gene (rs2243250) was inspected by DNA sequencing using specific primers. Fifty-one Iraqi RA patients (22 males and 29 fem
... Show MoreBiodiesel define as the mono-alkyl esters of vegetable oil and animal fats is an alternative diesel fuel that is steadily gaining attention because the combustion of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas has been identify as a major cause of the increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere and causing global warming.
The present work concerns with estimating the physical properties experimentally such as kinematic viscosity, density, flash point and carbon residue of biodiesel that produced by the esterification reaction of methanol and oleic acid with homogeneous catalysts H2SO4 in a lab-scale packed reactive distillation column using the best operating conditions of methanol to oleic acid 8:1,
Background: The microbial production of substances that have the potency to suppress the growth of other microorganisms is probably one of the prevalent defense strategy developed in nature, microorganisms produce a variable bunch of microbial defense systems, which include antibiotics, metabolic by-products, lytic agents, bacteriocins and others. Objective: The purpose of the present study was to isolate and identify Enterococcus faecium isolates then detecting its ability of carrying the gene responsible for enterocin production in this species. Materials and methods: Out of 50 samples from different sources (food and clinical sources) were collected for the Enterococcus faecium isolation, and the isolated bacteria Enterococ
... Show More