This paper presents a parametric audio compression scheme intended for scalable audio coding applications, and is particularly well suited for operation at low rates, in the vicinity of 5 to 32 Kbps. The model consists of two complementary components: Sines plus Noise (SN). The principal component of the system is an. overlap-add analysis-by-synthesis sinusoidal model based on conjugate matching pursuits. Perceptual information about human hearing is explicitly included into the model by psychoacoustically weighting the pursuit metric. Once analyzed, SN parameters are efficiently quantized and coded. Our informal listening tests demonstrated that our coder gave competitive performance to the-state-of-the- art HelixTM Producer Plus 9 from

Parasitic diseases can affect infection with COVID-19 obviously, as protective agents, or by reducing severity of this viral infection. This current review mentions the common symptoms between human parasites and symptoms of COVID-19, and explains the mechanism actions of parasites, which may prevent or reduce severity of this viral infection. Pre-existing parasitic infections provide prohibition against pathogenicity of COVID-19, by altering the balance of gut microbiota that can vary the immune response to this virus infection.  

Low-intensity laser irradiation has been explored as an alternative, non-invasive method to encourage chronic wounds to heal. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of low level laser therapy (biostimulation) using semiconductor diode laser with wavelength (785 nm) on the enhancement of chronic wound healing. Fifty patients with chronic wounds were selected to be treated with Low Level Laser Therapy. Their ages ranged between 1 to 76 years. The wound sites were distributed in the lower limb, upper limb, trunk , perineum and head (70%,14%,12%,2%,2%, respectively). Application of laser therapy by noncontact method few millimeters from the skin for 15 minutes per one session twice weekly for two months ; ie,16 sessions for each patient. R

RESRAD is a computer model designed to estimate risks and radiation doses from residual radioactive materials in soil. Thirty seven soil samples were collected from the area around the berms of Al-Tuwaitha site and two samples as background taken from an area about 3 km north of the site. The samples were measured by gamma-ray spectrometry system using high purity germanium (HPGe) detector. The results of samples measurements showed that three contaminated area with 238U and 235U found in the study area. Two scenarios were applied for each contaminated area to estimate the dose using RESRAD (onsite) version 7.0 code. The total dose of resident farmer scenario for area A, B and C are 0.854, 0.033 and 2.15×10-3 mSv.yr-1, respectively. Whi

In this research, a low cost, portable, disposable, environment friendly and an easy to use lab-on-paper platform sensor was made. The sensor was constructed using a mixture of Rhodamine-6G and gold nanoparticles also Sodium chloride salt. Drop–casting method was utilized as a technique to make a platform which is a commercial office paper. A substrate was characterized using Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, UV-visible spectrophotometer and Raman Spectrometer. Rh-6G Raman signal was enhanced based on Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy technique utilized gold nanoparticles. High Enhancement factor of Plasmonic commercial office paper reaches up to 0.9 x105 because of local surface pl

Objectives: acute kidney injury (AKI) is a serious pathophysiology side effect of rhabdomyolysis. Inflammatory mechanisms play a role in the development of rhabdomyolysis-induced AKI. Citronellol (CT) is a naturally occurring monoterpene alcohol (3,7-Dimethyl-6-often-1-ol) found in aromatic plant species' essential oils. In this study, we explored the protective effects of Citronellol on glycerol-induced AKI.

Methods: Four groups of eight mice each (n=8) were formed by randomly dividing the animals into the groups, glycerol-induced AKI model group, low-dose CT-treated group (50mg/kg), high-dose CT-treated group (100mg/kg), and control group. The renal functions of mice from all groups were evalua

Various heavy metals, cations and anions of the Tigris River water in Baghdad regionwere studied during the winter, spring, summer and autumn of 2009, for 4 samplingsites. In the present investigation the levels of studied heavy metals, cations and anionswere found in the range of (0.011-0.333 mg/L) for As, in the water samples(undetectable-0.0043 mg/L) for Sb,( 0.011-0.080 mg/L) for Ti, (0.150-0.730 mg/L) forV, (0.01-1.06 mg/L) for Fe, (0.1-0.4 mg/L) for Zn, (0.011-0.15 mg/L) for Pb, (0.01-0.05mg/L) for Cd, (0.01-0.04 mg/L) for Ni, (50-290 mg/L) for Ca, (97-270 mg/L) for Mg,(0.65-1.74 mg/L) for K, (11-38.33) for Na, (35-113 mg/L) for Cl, (150-256 mg/L) forHCO3, (96-479 mg/L) for SO4, (0.93-3.9 mg/L) for NO3 and (undetectable - 0.360 mg/L)f