Determinants of maternal and umbilical blood lead levels: a cross-sectional study, Mosul, Iraq

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The populations who are most sensitive to lead exposure from various sources are pregnant women and their newborns. Aiming to explore the presence of correlation between maternal and cord blood lead levels and to identify potential predictors that may influence both levels, the present study has been conducted.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A cross-sectional study was conducted covering 350 full terms maternal-newborns pairs from Mosul maternity hospitals. Data were obtained directly from women just before delivery by the use of a detailed questionnaire form.</p> <p>Maternal and umbilical blood lead levels were estimated using LEADCARE^®Blood Lead Testing System and Kits.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A positive significant correlation was found between maternal and cord blood lead values (r = 0.856, p = 0.001). By backward stepwise logistic regression analysis the followings emerged as significant potential predictors of high maternal blood lead: low parity, smoking and Hb level <11 gm/dl. Regarding cord blood lead: coffee consumption and high maternal blood lead were significant risk predictors. Milk and milk products consumption, calcium intake and low level of physical activity were significantly operational in the prevention of high maternal blood lead levels. Iron intake and also low level of physical activity were shown as significant protective variables against high cord blood lead values.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Study results have provided baseline data needed to be transformed to decision makers to implement measures to eliminate lead from the environment and protect future generation from its deleterious effects.</p

Detection of irinotecan using titanium nanoparticles modified electrode

A tool has been developed in this study to estimate one of the Irinotecan (INR) cancer drugs used in the treatment of lung cancer by using square wave voltammetry (SWV) techniques, on surface of electrode graphite (GrE) and through of study the optimal condition that enhance the work of this electrode. The measurements are also enhanced by the electro-polymerization process of the neutral red pigment (NR) and using when presence of titanium nanoparticles (TiO2NPs) to be greatly enhanced by measuring of LOD, LOQ and applied to human serum samples. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; KEY WORDS: Irinotecan, Lung cancer, Square wave voltammetry, Titanium nanoparticles, Serum &nbsp; Bull. Chem. Soc. Ethiop. 2020, 34(2), 227-236 DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/bcse.v34i2.

The mental health disaster in conflict settings: Can scientific research help?

Neuner F, Elbert T. The mental health disaster in conflict settings: Can scientific research help? BMC Public Health. 2007;7(1): 275

Risk factors for pre-term birth in Iraq: a case-control study

BACKGROUND: Preterm birth (PTB)is a major clinical problem associated with perinatal mortality and morbidity. The aim of the present study is to identify risk factors associated with PTB in Mosul, Iraq. METHODS: A case-control study was conducted in Mosul, Iraq, from 1(st )September, 2003 to 28(th )February, 2004. RESULTS: A total of 200 cases of PTB and 200 controls of full-term births were screened and enrolled in the study. Forward logistic regression analysis was used in the analysis. Several significant risk associations between PTB and the following risk factors were identified: poor diet (OR = 4.33), heavy manual work (OR = 1.70), caring for domestic animals (OR = 5.06), urinary tract infection (OR = 2.85), anxiety (OR = 2.16), cervical incompetence (OR = 4.74), multiple pregnancies (OR = 7.51), direct trauma to abdomen (OR = 3.76) and abortion (OR = 6.36). CONCLUSION: The main determinants of PTB in Iraq were low socio-economic status and factors associated with it, such as heavy manual work and caring for domestic animals, in addition to urinary tract infections and poor obstetric history

Prevalence of childhood and early adolescence mental disorders among children attending primary health care centers in Mosul, Iraq: a cross-sectional study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Children and adolescents are more vulnerable to the affects of war and violence than adults. At the time of initiation of this study, nothing was known about the prevalence of childhood and early adolescence mental disorders. The aim of the present study is to measure the point prevalence of mental disorders among children of 1–15 years age in the city of Mosul, Iraq.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A cross-sectional study design was adopted. Four primary health care centers were chosen consecutively as a study setting. The subjects of the present study were mothers who came to the primary health care center for vaccination of their children. The chosen mothers were included by systematic sampling randomization. All children (aged 1–15) that each mother had were considered in the interview and examination.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Out of 3079 children assessed, 1152 have childhood mental disorders, giving a point prevalence of 37.4%, with a male to female ratio of to 1.22:1. The top 10 disorders among the examined children are post-traumatic stress disorder (10.5%), enuresis (6%), separation anxiety disorder (4.3%), specific phobia (3.3%) stuttering and refusal to attend school (3.2% each), learning and conduct disorders (2.5% each), stereotypic movement (2.3%) and feeding disorder in infancy or early childhood (2.0%). Overall, the highest prevalence of mental disorders was among children 10–15 years old (49.2%) while the lowest was among 1–5 year olds (29.1%). Boys are more affected than girls (40.2% and 33.2%, respectively).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Childhood mental disorders are a common condition highly prevalent amongst the children and early adolescents in Mosul. Data from the present study mirrors the size of the problem in local community. Several points deserve attention, the most important of which include giving care at the community level, educating the public on mental health, involving communities and families, monitoring community mental health indicators, and providing treatment at primary health care level.</p

Business models innovation in investment banks: A resilience perspective

© 2020, The Author(s). Firms frequently change their business models in order to respond to internal and external challenges. This study aims to explore how investments banks adjust their business models in response to internal and external challenges. Based on a qualitative data from ten major investment banks operating in the largest financial market in the Middle East, we show that investment banks can achieve resilience by adjusting their business models through continuous activity changes in response to internal and external challenges. Specifically, investment banks adjust their business models through deploying alternative combinations of activities from a broad repertoire of activities. Within the same bank, divisions that respond to external challenges tend to sustain their performance, whereas resilient divisions that respond to both internal and external challenges tend to bounce back or achieve substantial increase in performance levels. This study contributes to the literature by proposing resilience as an alternative approach to business model innovation and by providing insight into how firms adjust their business models by altering specific activities in response to both internal and external challenges

A Review on the Relationship between Computer Engineering, Discrete-Math and Graph Theory

This review is based on understanding the main concept between computer engineering and mathematics based on two of their most important fields, the discrete-math and graph theory. and answering the question that was asked by many students over the years of working in the university, about the necessity of studying mathematics while majoring computer engineering. Most of the students face the same problem over years for not having the vision to connect between studying materials of their specialization and general ones, in particular between studying discrete-math engineering as in Engineering analysis, and discrete-math as in the Digital signal Processing (DSP), and between algebraic mathematics. Moreover, they do not understand the main idea of the transition between different time or frequency domains, by converting the work in real-time domain systems to work in discrete–time or frequency domain systems. And they do ignore the importance of studying graph theory, in which recent researches have proved the powerful of using graphs in learning tasks, developing an important field of computer engineering, the machine learning, where the standard neural networks (SNNs) have been developed to graph neural networks (GNNs). A figure was concluded at the end of the review to brief the importance of discrete-math developing the relationship between computer engineering in general and graph theory’s role in developing machine learning in particular

New genetic algorithm based on dissimilarities and similarities

Optimization is essential for nding suitable answers to real life problems. In particular, genetic (or more generally, evolutionary) algorithms can provide satisfactory approximate solutions to many problems to which exact analytcal results are not accessible. In this paper we present both theoretical and experimental results on a new genetic algorithm called Dissimilarity and Simlarity of Chromosomes (DSC). This methodology constructs new chromosomes starting with the pairs of existing ones by exploring their dissimilarities and similarities. To demonstrate the performance of the algorithm, it is run on 17 two-dimensional, one four-dimensional and two ten-dimensional optimization problems described in the literature, and compared with the well-known GA, CMA-ES and DE algorithms. The results of tests show the superiority of our strategy in the majority of cases