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.
Cystic fibrosis (CF) is an autosomal recessive multisystem disease that results from mutation(s) of the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (
Abstract
Paraffin wax is utilized for the heat storage applications taking advantage from the high stored latent heat during the phase change (from solid to fluid) period. What isn't right with this procedure is that the wax has a little heat transfer rate because of its low thermal conductivity. The thermal conductivity improvement of the paraffin wax has been examined utilizing nano-material with high thermal conductivity. In the recent study, (Al2O3) nanoparticles with weights of 1, 2, and 3% of the paraffin wax were added to the paraffin wax. The Iraqi paraffin wax accessible at the local markets was utilized as a phase change material (PCM).
Many properties of the
... Show MoreThe City of Ember is a very interesting novel that is although intended for young readers, have so many layers and messages that are misunderstood. In this research, both the novel and the film adaptation are studied with the intent to decode the warning messages that the novelist and the director tried to introduce to the audience. The research studies four vital messages; the first message is that history repeats itself for the novel has many allusions to the history of Jews and their painful holocaust and even goes back in history the days of Moses and the Exodus, the second message tackles the conspiracy theory that states nothing happens by accident and that everything is planned and connected hence comes the third message
... Show MoreThe current research is a spectroscopic study of Coumarin 334 dissolved in methanol. The range of concentrations of the prepared stock solution was (3.39x10-9 to 2.03x10-8) M. Some optical characteristics of this dye were investigated such as absorbance and transmission spectra, absorption coefficient, refractive and extinction coefficients, oscillation and dispersion energies, and energy band gap. The absorbance spectra were recorded at 452 nm using Broad Band Cavity Enhanced Absorption Spectroscopy (BBCEAS) which depends on increasing the path length of the traveling light from the source to the detector. The minimum absorbance amount was 0.07 with a low concentration of 3.39x10-9 M. As a result, the ot
... Show MoreThis study aims to investigate the effect of changing skins material on the strength of sandwich plates with circular hole when subjected to mechanical loads. Theoretical, numerical and experimental analyses are done for sandwich plates with hole and with two face sheet materials. Theoretical analysis is performed by using sandwich plate theory which depends on the first order shear deformation theory for plates subjected to tension and bending separately. Finite element method was used to analyse numerically all cases by ANSYS program.
The sandwich plates were investigated experimentally under bending and buckling load separately. The relationship between stresses and the ratio of hole diameter to plate width (d/b) are built, by
... Show MoreWhen the flange of a reinforced concrete spandrel beam is in tension, current design codes and specifications enable a portion of the bonded flexure tension reinforcement to be distributed over an effective flange width. The flexural behavior of the RC L-shaped spandrel beam when reinforcement is laterally displaced in the tension flange is investigated experimentally and numerically in this work. Numerical analysis utilizing the finite element method is performed on discretized flanged beam models validated using experimentally verified L-shaped beam specimens to achieve study objectives. A parametric study was carried out to evaluate the influence of various factors on the beam’s flexure behavior. Results showed that
... Show MoreNiO nanoparticle synthesis by chemical method and characterized by XRD with crystal size 11.72
nm and grain size 13 nm from FESEM image also NiO micro used ,two NiO as an additive to evaluate the
possibility of producing photodegradable polymers, the practical application of solid-phase photocatalytic
degradation of polyvinyl chloride (PVC- NiO composite films) was investigated. PVC has a negative impact
on the environment since its polymer degrades slowly, yet it has a wide range of industrial applications and
the amount used shows no evidence of diminishing use. Thus, a synthesis of modified PVC- NiO micro and
nano has been studied with 0, 50, 100, 150, 200, 250, and 300 (hours) as irradiation time a
The current research aims to identify: 1) the challenges facing blended education from the point of view of teachers of students with disabilities. 2) The challenges facing blended education from the point of view of teachers of students with disabilities according to the gender variable (males-females). 3) The challenges facing blended education from the point of view of teachers of students with disabilities, according to the academic qualifications of graduates
(institute-bachelors-masters). 4) The challenges facing blended education from the point of view of male and female teachers, according to the functional service period with students with disabilities (less than 8 years - from 9 to 15 years - 16 years and above). 5) the
... Show MoreIn this study, we set up and analyze a cancer growth model that integrates a chemotherapy drug with the impact of vitamins in boosting and strengthening the immune system. The aim of this study is to determine the minimal amount of treatment required to eliminate cancer, which will help to reduce harm to patients. It is assumed that vitamins come from organic foods and beverages. The chemotherapy drug is added to delay and eliminate tumor cell growth and division. To that end, we suggest the tumor-immune model, composed of the interaction of tumor and immune cells, which is composed of two ordinary differential equations. The model’s fundamental mathematical properties, such as positivity, boundedness, and equilibrium existence, are exami
... Show MoreGlobal warming and environmental damage have become major problems. The production of Portland cement releases large quantities of gas, which cause pollution to the atmosphere. This problem can be solved via the use of sustainable materials, such as glass powder. This study investigates the effect of partial replacement of cement with sustainable glass powder at various percentages (0, 15, 20, and 25%) by weight of cement on some mechanical properties (compressive strength, flexural strength, absorption, and dry density) of Reactive Powder Concrete (RPC) containing a percentage of Polypropylene fibers (PRPC) of 1% by weight. Furthermore, steam curing was performed for 5 hours at 90oC after hardening the sample directly. The RPC was
... Show More