Background: Zinc, selenium, and vitamin C are vital antioxidants that mitigate oxidative stress. Pregnancy-induced metabolic changes may alter their levels, affecting maternal and fetal health. Aim: This study evaluated zinc, selenium, and vitamin C concentrations in maternal and umbilical cord blood of women in labor in Enugu Metropolis, Nigeria. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 48 mother-neonate pairs. Maternal and umbilical cord blood samples (5 mL each) were collected postpartum. Zinc and selenium were analyzed using atomic absorption spectrophotometry, while vitamin C was measured colorimetrically. Results: Mean maternal and cord serum zinc levels were 41.61 ± 2.45 µg/dL and 42.65 ± 4.7 µg/dL, respectively, indicating deficiency. Selenium averaged 168.10 ± 14.47 µg/L in maternal serum and 197.56 ± 16.74 µg/L in cord blood, with neonatal levels exceeding physiological limits. Vitamin C concentrations were 7.53 ± 0.26 mg/L (maternal) and 7.11 ± 0.50 mg/L (cord), both within normal ranges. Correlation analysis showed a weak maternal-cord zinc relationship (r = 0.11, P = 0.46), a significant positive correlation for selenium (r = 0.48, P = 0.00059), and a slight negative correlation for vitamin C (r = −0.022, P = 0.88). Conclusion: Zinc deficiency in maternal and cord blood highlights the need for routine monitoring and supplementation. Elevated neonatal selenium suggests potential toxicity risks, requiring further research. Adequate vitamin C levels indicate sufficient nutrition, supporting immune function and oxidative stress reduction. These findings emphasize the importance of maternal micronutrient balance for neonatal health.
This paper shows that calculating $k$-CLIQUE on $n$ vertex graphs, requires the AND of at least $2^{n/4k}$ monotone, constant-depth, and polynomial-sized circuits, for sufficiently large values of $k$. The proof relies on a new, monotone, one-sided switching lemma, designed for cliques.
We provide bounds on the compression size of the solutions to 22 problems in computer science. For each problem, we show that solutions exist with high probability, for some simple probability measure. Once this is proven, derandomization can be used to prove the existence of a simple solution.
We provide tight upper and lower bounds on the expected minimum Kolmogorov complexity of binary classifiers that are consistent with labeled samples. The expected size is not more than complexity of the target concept plus the conditional entropy of the labels given the sample.
We show that given a quantum measurement, for an overwhelming majority of pure states, no meaningful information is produced. This is independent of the number of outcomes of the quantum measurement. Due to conservation inequalities, such random noise cannot be processed into coherent data.
The standard proof of NP-Hardness of 3DM provides a power-$4$ reduction of 3SAT to 3DM. In this note, we provide a linear-time reduction. Under the exponential time hypothesis, this reduction improves the runtime lower bound from $2^{o(\sqrt[4]{m})}$ (under the standard reduction) to $2^{o(m)}$.
The combined universal probability $\mathbf{m}(D)$ of strings $x$ in sets $D$ is close to max $\mathbf{m}(x)$ over $x$ in $D$: their logs differ by at most $D$'s information $\mathbf{I}(D:\mathcal{H})$ about the halting sequence $\mathcal{H}$.
Consider the problem of finding a point in a metric space $(\{1,2,\ldots,n\},d)$ with the minimum average distance to other points. We show that this problem has no deterministic $o(n^{1+1/(h-1)})$-query $(2h-Ω(1))$-approximation algorithms for any constant $h\in\mathbb{Z}^+\setminus\{1\}$.
We propose a funny representation of SAT. While the primary interest is to present propositional satisfiability in a playful way for pedagogical purposes, it could also inspire new search heuristics.
We show that the class BPP is in NP and coNP. This paper has been withdrawn by the author because B and B' are probabilistic and nonequalities 10 cannot be checked in polynomial time.
In a recent paper, two multi-representations for the measurable sets in a computable measure space have been introduced, which prove to be topologically complete w.r.t. certain topological properties. In this contribution, we show them recursively complete w.r.t. computability of measure and set-theoretical operations.
Removed by arXiv administration. This article was plagiarized directly from Stephen Cook's description of the problem for the Clay Mathematics Institute. See http://gauss.claymath.org:8888/millennium/P_vs_NP/pvsnp.pdf for the original text.