Background: Sex variations in coronary artery disease (CAD) are well documented. However, sex differences in coronary artery calcium (CAC) and its role in the detection of coronary artery stenosis remain controversial. Objective: To assess the impact of sex variation on coronary artery calcification and its efficacy in predicting coronary artery stenosis. Methods: This is a cross-sectional observational study including 230 consecutive patients with suspected CAD (120 men and 110 women) referred for coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA). The study analyzed sex-based differences in the sensitivity and specificity of coronary artery calcification (CAC) for detecting moderate to severe stenosis across various coronary arteries. Results: The calcification scores 1-100 and 101-<400 were slightly more frequent in men (25% and 10%, respectively) than women (20.91% and 7.27%, respectively); however, the differences were not significant. For the left anterior descending artery (LAD), men showed slightly higher sensitivity and specificity (69.23% and 81.48%, respectively) than women (61.9% and 79.78%, respectively). For the left circumflex artery (LCX), men showed relatively higher sensitivity (68.75%) and lower specificity (89.42%) than women (50% and 98.81%, respectively). For the right coronary artery (RCA), women showed relatively higher sensitivity and specificity (75% and 93.4%, respectively) than men (50% and 91.82%, respectively). Conclusions: While the CAC has a relatively high specificity and low sensitivity in the detection of coronary artery disease, there is no difference in the score between men and women. When comparing vessels, women exhibit greater RCA calcification sensitivity and specificity than men, whereas for LAD, the opposite is true.
Lowering the emission, fuel economy and torque management are the essential
requirements in the recent development in the automobile industry. The main engine control
input that satisfies the above requirements is the throttling angle which adjusts the air mass
flow rate to the engine port. Due to the uncertainty and the presence of the nonlinear
components in its dynamical model, the sliding mode control theory is utilized in this work
for the throttle valve angle control system to design a robust controller for this system in the
presence of a nonlinear spring and Coulomb friction. A continuous sliding mode control law
which consists of a saturation function, instead of a signum function, and the integral of
ano
Reinforced concrete (RC) beams containing a longitudinal cavity have become an innovative development and advantage for economic purposes of light-weight members without largely affecting their resistance against the applied loads. This type of openings can also be used for maintenance purposes and usage space of communication lines, pipelines, etc. RC beams are primarily loaded in the plane of the members, which are two-dimensional in a plane stress state and the dominant structural behaviours include bending, shear, or combination of both. In the present study, six numerical models of RC beams with and without openings were simulated by using commercial finite element software ANSYS to evaluate the structural behaviours of those b
... Show MoreBilinear interpolation and use of perceptual color spaces (HSL, HSV, LAB, and LUV) fusion techniques are presented to improve spatial and spectral characteristics of the multispectral image that has a low resolution to match the high spatial resolution of a panchromatic image for different satellites image data (Orbview-3 and Landsat-7) for the same region. The Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) fidelity criterion for achromatic information has been calculated, as well as the mean color-shifting parameters that computed the ratio of chromatic information loss of the RGB compound inside each pixel to evaluate the quality of the fused images. The results showed the superiority of HSL color space to fuse images over the rest of the spac
... Show MoreA novel demountable shear connector is proposed to link a concrete slab to steel sections in a way that resulting steel-concrete composite floor is demountable, i.e. it can be easily dismantled at the end of its service life. The proposed connectors consist of two parts: the first part is a hollow steel tube with internal threads at its lower end. The second part is a compatible partially threaded bolted stud. After linking the stud to the steel section, the hollow steel tube can be fastened over the threaded stud, which create a complete demountable shear connector. The connector is suitable for use in both composite bridges and buildings, and using cast in-situ slabs, precast solid slabs, or hollow-core precast slabs. A series of push-off
... Show MoreAchieving a connection between sustainability processes and environmental protection, or what is known as sustainable development, requires paying more attention to environmental and sustainability issues for various projects and their effects on environmental problems. It involves determining the most appropriate ways to deal with them within pillars of sustainability (environmental, social, economic, and natural resources. As cement is a fundamental component of industrial services and construction in cities, it has a direct and significant interaction with the development process, making it one of the most important industries in Iraq. Because of the clinker particles and combustio
The main purpose of this paper, is to characterize new admissible classes of linear operator in terms of seven-parameter Mittag-Leffler function, and discuss sufficient conditions in order to achieve certain third-order differential subordination and superordination results. In addition, some linked sandwich theorems involving these classes had been obtained.
The aim of this paper is to investigate the effects of Nd:YAG laser shock processing (LSP) on micro-hardness and surface roughness of 86400Cu-Zn alloy. X-ray fluorescence technique was used to analyze the chemical composition of this alloy. LSP treatment was performed with a Q-switched Nd: YAG laser with a wavelength of 1064 nm. The results show that laser shock processing can significantly increase. The micro-hardness and surface roughness of the LSP-treated sample. Vickers diamond indenter was used to measure the micro-hardness of all samples with different laser pulse energy and the different number of laser pulses. It is found that the metal hardness can be significantly increased to more than 80% by increasing the laser energy and t
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