chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a common respiratory disease with episodes of exacerbation. Variable factors including infectious pathogen can predispose for this exacerbation. The aim of this study is to evaluate the role of intestinal protozoa in COPD exacerbation. A total of 56 patients with COPD were included in this study. Patients were categorized into two groups based on the frequency of exacerbation during the last 6 months: those with ≤1 exacerbation (32 patients) and those with ≥2 exacerbations (24 patients). Stool specimens from each patient were collected two times (one week interval) examined for intestinal parasite. In univariate analysis, rural residence and parasitic infection were more common among patients with frequent exacerbation (45.83% and 33.33%, respectively) than patients with non-frequent exacerbation (18.75% and 9.38%, respectively) with significant differences. However, in multivariate analysis, only body mass index >25 kg/m2 (OR=4.59, 95%CI=1.18-17.86, P=0.028) and parasitic infection (OR=5.51, 95%CI=1.01-30.18, P=0.049) were independently associated with COPD exacerbation. These data indicate a significant association between frequent COPD exacerbation and infection with some intestinal protozoa. However, the cause-effect relationship is debatable.
Cancer is in general not a result of an abnormality of a single gene but a consequence of changes in many genes, it is therefore of great importance to understand the roles of different oncogenic and tumor suppressor pathways in tumorigenesis. In recent years, there have been many computational models developed to study the genetic alterations of different pathways in the evolutionary process of cancer. However, most of the methods are knowledge-based enrichment analyses and inflexible to analyze user-defined pathways or gene sets. In this paper, we develop a nonparametric and data-driven approach to testing for the dynamic changes of pathways over the cancer progression. Our method is based on an expansion and refinement of the pathway bei
... Show MoreAs they are the smallest functional parts of the muscle, motor units (MUs) are considered as the basic building blocks of the neuromuscular system. Monitoring MU recruitment, de-recruitment, and firing rate (by either invasive or surface techniques) leads to the understanding of motor control strategies and of their pathological alterations. EMG signal decomposition is the process of identification and classification of individual motor unit action potentials (MUAPs) in the interference pattern detected with either intramuscular or surface electrodes. Signal processing techniques were used in EMG signal decomposition to understand fundamental and physiological issues. Many techniques have been developed to decompose intramuscularly detec
... Show MoreEfficient operations and output of outstanding quality distinguish superior manufacturing sectors. The manufacturing process production of bending sheet metal is a form of fabrication in the industry of manufacture in which the plate is bent using punches and dies to the angle of the work design. Product quality is influenced by plate material selection, which includes thickness, type, dimensions, and material. Because no prior research has concentrated on this methodology, this research aims to determine V-bending capacity limits utilizing the press bending method. The inquiry employed finite element analysis (FEA), along with Solidworks was the tool of choice to develop drawings of design and simulations. The ASTM E290
... Show MoreThe Ligand 6,6--(1,2-benzenediazo) bis (3-aminobenzoicacid) derived from o-phenylenediamine and 3-aminobenzoicacid was synthesized. The prepared ligand was identified by Microelemental Analysis, 1HNMR, FT-IR and UV-Vis spectroscopic techniques. Treatment of the ligand with the following metal ions (CoII, NiII, CuII and ZnII ) in aqueous ethanol with a 1:1 M:L ratio and at optimum pH. Characterization of these compounds has been done on the basis of elemental analysis, electronic data, FT-IR and UV-Vis, as well as magnetic susceptibility and conductivity measurements. The nature of the complexes formed were studied following the mole ratio and continuous variation methods, Beer's law obeyed over a concentration range (1×10-4 - 3×10-4 M). H
... Show MoreThe variation in wing morphological features was investigated using geometric morphometric technique of the Sand Fly from two Iraqi provinces Babylon and Diyala . We distributed eleven landmarks on the wings of Sand Fly species. By using the centroid size and shape together, all species were clearly distinguished. It is clear from these results that the wing analysis is an essential method for future geometric morphometry studies to distinguish the species of Sand Flies in Iraq.
In this paper, a procedure to establish the different performance measures in terms of crisp value is proposed for two classes of arrivals and multiple channel queueing models, where both arrival and service rate are fuzzy numbers. The main idea is to convert the arrival rates and service rates under fuzzy queues into crisp queues by using graded mean integration approach, which can be represented as median rule number. Hence, we apply the crisp values obtained to establish the performance measure of conventional multiple queueing models. This procedure has shown its effectiveness when incorporated with many types of membership functions in solving queuing problems. Two numerical illustrations are presented to determine the validity of the
... Show MorePhytochemical Screening and Antibacterial Effect of Stevia Rebaudiana (Bertoni) Alcoholic Leaves Extract on Streptococcus Oralis (Dental Plaques Primary Colonizer), Manar Ibrahim