Background: Neural tube defects (NTDs) are said to be inherited in a multifactorial fashion, i.e. genetic-environmental interaction. Maternal nutritional deficiencies had long been reported to cause NTDs, especially folate deficiency during early pregnancy. More attention had been paid to the exact mechanism by which this deficiency state causes these defects in the developing embryo. The most significant of all researches was that connecting reduced folate and increased homocysteine level in maternal serum on one hand and the risk of developing a NTD baby on the other hand. Objectives : to determine the significance of homocysteine level in Iraqi mothers who gave birth to babies with NTDs as compared to normal controls. Patients, Materials and Methods: Fifty Iraqi women having babies born with NTDS, referred to the genetic clinic in Baghdad Teaching Hospital, were included in this study (the study group) as well as 37 healthy women having normal children (the control group). This study was conducted from November, 2002 till October, 2003. Analysis of total serum homocysteine level for all women was done using a computerized HPLC system. Results : the age of women in both groups was comparable (mean+SD in the study group was 26.2+5.14 years vs. 26.3+4.57 years in the controls). Among the study group, 4 (8%) had normal tHcy level; 44 (88%) had mildly elevated level, and only 2 (4%) had moderately elevated tHcy level, while all (100%) women in the control group had their tHcy level within normal level. This difference was statistically highly significant (p<0.001). Conclusions : Women become at an increased risk of delivering a baby with NTD when having an elevated tHcy level in their sera, and that tHcy level is an important marker in maternal serum that is associated significantly with pregnancy outcome.
Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR)-based plastic optical fiber sensor for estimating the concentration and refractive index of sugar in human blood serum. The sensor is fabricated by a small part (10mm) of optical fiber in the middle is embedded in a resin block and then the polishing process is done, after that it is deposited with about (40nm) thickness of gold metal. The blood serum is placed on gold coated core of an Optical grade plastic optical fiber of 980 µm core diameter.
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Praise be to God, who created people from one soul, and made her husband, and prayers and peace be upon His Messenger, Mercy given and the grace given, and on a machine and companions pure. Divorce cases have increased in recent years in a worrying manner, especially since divorce has unforeseen consequences at the individual and social levels. The source of concern stems from the fact that the cohesion and integrity of society starts from a family as it is the cornerstone of the social structure, which is the foundation upon which the large society is based. Marital life may suffer from problems and obstacles that are difficult to solve, so the man presents the divorce of his wife and that the phenomenon of divorce is not a result of it, b
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The study aimed at identifying the level of administrative work quality of private Schools principals at Southern Governorates of Palestine from the teachers' point of view in their schools. To achieve the objectives of this research, a questionnaire was prepared by the researcher consisted of (28) items. It was applied to a sample of (350) teachers. The researcher adopted the descriptive-analytical approach. The results of the study showed that the degree to which principals of private schools in the southern governorates of Palestine practice Administrative Work Quality from the viewpoint of their teachers was very high, with relative weight (85.00%). The results also showed that there are statistically significant differences at the l
... Show MoreThe tax exemption, whether wholly or partially, and for an unlimited duration of the investment or for a limited period of few years, is one of the encouraging things to the flow of foreign capital. And if necessary, impose tax on the profits of the invested capital, the promotion requires that not be discriminatory taxes or payments in the amount of money with the need to avoid double taxation. The tax exemption is granted by the government and the feature according to the law of a natural person or legal entity seeking from the government purports to achieve a set of political goals, economic and social development. The reduction of taxes or grants partial exemption is one of the factors that encourage attract of direct foreign i
... Show MoreRheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a common inflammatory disease that associated with increased morbidity and mortality due to accelerated atherosclerosis. Rosuvastatin is a unique hydroxy methyl glutaryl Co A (HMGCoA) reductase inhibitor that has anti inflammatory effects.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of rosuvastatin as adjuvant therapy to methotrexate (MTX) on lipid profile and its possible cardioprotective effect in RA patients. A double blinded placebo controlled clinical trial with 8 weeks follow up periods at which 40 patients with active RA using MTX were randomized into 2 groups to receive either rosuvastatin 10mg or placebo as adjuvant therapy to MTX. In addition to twenty healthy subjects as control group.
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In this research the results of applying Artificial Neural Networks with modified activation function to
perform the online and offline identification of four Degrees of Freedom (4-DOF) Selective Compliance
Assembly Robot Arm (SCARA) manipulator robot will be described. The proposed model of
identification strategy consists of a feed-forward neural network with a modified activation function that
operates in parallel with the SCARA robot model. Feed-Forward Neural Networks (FFNN) which have
been trained online and offline have been used, without requiring any previous knowledge about the
system to be identified. The activation function that is used in the hidden layer in FFNN is a modified
version of the wavelet func
In this research the results of applying Artificial Neural Networks with modified activation function to perform the online and offline identification of four Degrees of Freedom (4-DOF) Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm (SCARA) manipulator robot will be described. The proposed model of identification strategy consists of a feed-forward neural network with a modified activation function that operates in parallel with the SCARA robot model. Feed-Forward Neural Networks (FFNN) which have been trained online and offline have been used, without requiring any previous knowledge about the system to be identified. The activation function that is used in the hidden layer in FFNN is a modified version of the wavelet function. This approach ha
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