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.
The natural ventilation in buildings is one of effective strategies for achieving energy efficiency in buildings by employing methods and ways of passive design, as well as its efficiency in providing high ranges of thermal comfort for occupants in buildings and raises their productivity. Because the concept of natural ventilation for many people confined to achieve through the windows and openings only, become necessary to provide this research to demonstrate the various passive design strategies for natural ventilation. Then, research problem: Insufficient knowledge about the importance and mechanism of the application of passive design strategies for natural ventilation in buildings. The research objective is: Analysis of passive desi
... Show MoreThe turning process has various factors, which affecting machinability and should be investigated. These are surface roughness, tool life, power consumption, cutting temperature, machining force components, tool wear, and chip thickness ratio. These factors made the process nonlinear and complicated. This work aims to build neural network models to correlate the cutting parameters, namely cutting speed, depth of cut and feed rate, to the machining force and chip thickness ratio. The turning process was performed on high strength aluminum alloy 7075-T6. Three radial basis neural networks are constructed for cutting force, passive force, and feed force. In addition, a radial basis network is constructed to model the chip thickness ratio. T
... Show MoreBackground: Crohn's disease (CD) is an immunological disorder associated with chronic inflammatory process of several unspecific regions of gastrointestinal tract but frequently detected in the terminal Ilium and proximal colon or both. This disease frequently presented with various oral manifestations as a consequence of inflammatory process of the disease, nutritional deficiency or medications side effects. Several therapeutic approaches have been developed for CD management that are targeting the inflammatory process and directed at controlling the host immune response. Immunosuppressants such as Azathioprine and anti-TNF α agents as well as the combination of them have been widely used as an effective therapeutic modality with a bett
... Show MoreBackground: There is a significant molecular response to imatinib given at standard doses in individuals with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) whose ABCB1 polymorphisms are present. Objective: To investigate the impact of the polymorphism in the ABCB1 gene rs1128503 on the effectiveness of nilotinib or imatinib therapy. Methods: From May 2022 until the end of January 2023, the current study was carried out in a single research institution, the National Center of Hematology, Baghdad Teaching Hospital at Medical City, Iraq. 76 people with chronic phase myeloid leukemia (CML-CP), who had previously received a diagnosis using the European Leukemia Net (ELN) criteria, enrolled in the trial. The PCR product was delivered to Macrogen Corpora
... Show MoreType 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a chronic disorder that is a serious health concern all over the globe, it is linked to Interleukin-10 (IL-10) single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at the promoter region. On the other hand, diabetes influences the cellular and humoral immunity predisposing the patient to a variety of opportunistic parasites one of them is Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii), which may infect any nucleated cell, including pancreatic cells. The purpose of this research was to explore the association of IL-10 genetic polymorphisms with T2DM and latent toxoplasmosis among Iraqi patients with T2DM. Fifty-five and fifty-eight venous blood samples were taken from T2DM patients and age-matched non-diabetic person
... Show MoreThe increase globally fossil fuel consumption as it represents the main source of energy around the world, and the sources of heavy oil more than light, different techniques were used to reduce the viscosity and increase mobility of heavy crude oil. this study focusing on the experimental tests and modeling with Back Feed Forward Artificial Neural Network (BFF-ANN) of the dilution technique to reduce a heavy oil viscosity that was collected from the south- Iraq oil fields using organic solvents, organic diluents with different weight percentage (5, 10 and 20 wt.% ) of (n-heptane, toluene, and a mixture of different ratio
... Show MoreAccording to the importance of the conveyor systems in various industrial and service lines, it is very desirable to make these systems as efficient as possible in their work. In this paper, the speed of a conveyor belt (which is in our study a part of an integrated training robotic system) is controlled using one of the artificial intelligence methods, which is the Artificial Neural Network (ANN). A visions sensor will be responsible for gathering information about the status of the conveyor belt and parts over it, where, according to this information, an intelligent decision about the belt speed will be taken by the ANN controller. ANN will control the alteration in speed in a way that gives the optimized energy efficiency through
... Show MoreThe drill bit is the most essential tool in drilling operation and optimum bit selection is one of the main challenges in planning and designing new wells. Conventional bit selections are mostly based on the historical performance of similar bits from offset wells. In addition, it is done by different techniques based on offset well logs. However, these methods are time consuming and they are not dependent on actual drilling parameters. The main objective of this study is to optimize bit selection in order to achieve maximum rate of penetration (ROP). In this work, a model that predicts the ROP was developed using artificial neural networks (ANNs) based on 19 input parameters. For the
This study dealt with the presentation and documentation of the Iraqi women's participations in athletics in the Arab sports courses since the establishment of the Federation of Athletics in 1948 to 2017 as well as analysis of the results achieved for these participations and discuss the reasons for not participating in some of these courses and the researchers try to show the distinct role of Iraqi athletes, And their active contribution to these courses to represent the country as well as to promote the sports reality of Iraqi women compared to their Arab sisters, whose names have become a symbol of every Arab woman and therefore benefit from the experience of the Arab teams In athletics for women.