Article information: COVID-19 has roused the scientic community, prompting calls for immediate solutions to avoid the infection or at least reduce the virus's spread. Despite the availability of several licensed vaccinations to boost human immunity against the disease, various mutated strains of the virus continue to emerge, posing a danger to the vaccine's ecacy against new mutations. As a result, the importance of the early detection of COVID-19 infection becomes evident. Cough is a prevalent symptom in all COVID-19 mutations. Unfortunately, coughing can be a symptom of various of diseases, including pneumonia and inuenza. Thus, identifying the coughing behavior might help clinicians diagnose the COVID-19 infection earlier and distinguish coronavirus-induced from non-coronavirus-induced coughs. From this perspective, this research proposes a novel approach for diagnosing COVID-19 infection based on cough sound. The main contributions of this study are the encoding of cough behavior, the investigation of its unique characteristics, and the representation of these traits as association rules. These rules are generated and distinguished with the help of data mining and machine learning techniques. Experiments on the Virufy COVID-19 open cough dataset reveal that cough encoding can provide the desired accuracy (100%).
This study investigated the prevalence of quinolones resistance proteins encoding genes (qnr genes) and co-resistance for fluoroquinolones and β-lactams among clinical isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae. Out of 150 clinical samples, 50 isolates of K. pneumoniae were identified according to morphological and biochemical properties. These isolates were collected from different clinical samples, including 15 (30%) urine, 12 (24%) blood, 9 (18%) sputum, 9 (18%) wound, and 5 (10%) burn. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) assay revealed that 15 (30%) of isolates were resistant to ciprofloxacin (≥4µg/ml), 11 (22%) of isolates were resistant to levofloxacin (≥8 µg/ml), 21 (42%) of isolates were re
... Show MoreA disease of the reproductive system known as "infertility" is characterized by the inability to conceive after twelve months or more of sexual activity. This study was carried out to investigate the level of the DAZ protein in “Azoospermia” Iraqi patients. One hundred and fifty human blood samples were collected from different regions in Baghdad governorate include (private medicals Labs and “high institute for infertility diagnosis” assisted reproductive techniques and Kamal Al- Samara'ay IVF Hospital). The control group (fertile) consists of 50 males with an age range between 22-51 years old, while the patient (infertile group) consists of 100 sample males with ages ranging between 25-51 years old. The correlation of mean age for
... Show MoreUromodulin is the most abundant protein ordinary excreted in urine which could be used as a biomarker to diagnose kidney diseases. However, evidence suggests that it regulates salt transport, protects against urinary tract infection and kidney stones, and has a role in kidney damage and innate immunity. This study aimed to understand the association of uromodulin gene rs13332878 with chronic kidney disease. More than 100 people were selected for the study and the samples collected from the under study subjects were divided into two groups. 70 chosen subjects were under the dialysis with kidney failure, and aged between 18-88 years. The second group included 30 samples from healthy individuals, used as control. One of t
... Show MoreInhaled corticosteroids are the most effective controllers of asthma, although asthmatics vary in their response. FKBP51 is a major component of the glucocorticoid receptor which regulates its responses to corticosteroids. Therefore, the present study aims to identify the role of FKBP5 gene polymorphism in asthma susceptibility and corticosteroid resistance.
DNA was extracted from the blood of 68 asthmatic
One of the most opportunistic mycosis globally is the Candida ssp., which is considered as the most agent that cause nosocomial urinary tract infections (UTIs), oral candidiasis and genitourinary candidiasis. This study included 100 samples of Iraqi subjects suffering from urinary tract infections. Identification of Candida have been done by different methods such as; characteristic of colony on culture, gram stain, and microscopically. This study aimed to isolation and identification of Candida spp from urine sample of UTI patients and find the relevance of ages and blood group of patients with the infections rate, also determine the effect of age on ESR and CRP levels in the patients. The results showed the higher frequency of
... Show MoreBenign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is a prevalent condition among elderly and middle-aged men characterized by symptoms such as dysuria, urinary incontinence, and frequent micturition. The gold standard procedure for relieving BPH symptoms is transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP). However, some patients undergoing TURP are at risk of developing urinary tract infections (UTIs) due to uropathogenic bacteria. This prospective study aimed to investigate post TURP bacteruria alongside with multifactoria risk factors that implicated postoperatively compared to preoperative and intraoperative periods. Ninety patients undergoing TURP and 30 control subjects were included in the study. Urine specimen for urine analysis from pateints
... Show MoreBackground: Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a common health problem that has a worldwide distribution. Apart from the direct effect of the virus on the liver, there are many extrahepatic manifestations among which the probable effect on bone turnover associated with low bone mineral density (BMD). Objectives: This study aimed to determine the association between treated and untreated chronic HBV infection with BMD. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study which included a total of 48 patients with chronic HBV (28 patients treated with tenofovir-disoproxil-fumarate [TDF] antiviral drug and 20 patients have not yet started treatment). Other age- and sex-matched 30 apparently healthy individuals were recruited to represent the hea
... Show MoreHepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a global public health problem. It is estimated that there are 240 million HBV carriers in the world, of whom roughly 600,000 die annually from HBV-related liver disease. A total of 150 individuals were included in this study, 130 individuals of them had hepatitis B infection (patients group); HBs-Ag was detected in their sera by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) technique and was confirmed by real time PCR analysis to detect the viral genetic material, the others were control. Most of HBV patients in this study were located within 20-40 years group with a percentage of 47.7% and within the 40-60 years group with a percentage of 38.5%. Acute infection was confirmed by detection of anti-HBc IgM
... Show MoreMany studies revealed that Chlamydia trachomatis is the most prevalent bacteria “that cause sexually transmitted infections in the world.. Most of these infections are asymptomatic and there is a remarkable relationship between CT infections and male infertility. Therefore, “the present study is established to determine the effect of Chlamydia trachomatis infection on seminal fluid quality in males suffering from infertility compared with fertile males.. “Semen samples were collected from 63 infertile male and 13 fertile male as control group, attending the clinical laboratory for routine seminal fluid analysis. Seminal fluid was analyzed according to World Health Organization guidelines, the whole geno
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