Background: Chronic cigarette smoking is one of the major risk factors for coronary artery disease. However, it has additional cardiac adverse effects independent of coronary atherosclerosis. Patient and Methods: After informed consent and perm- ission from the review board of the hospital, 80 healthy subjects who were classified as smokers or non-smokers were included in the study. They were examined by standard echocardiography protocol which was followed by two-dimensional speckle tracking to assess the functions of the right ventricle. Results: The tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE) was significantly reduced in smokers as compared to non-smokers (P < 0.05). The tricuspid flow peak late diastolic velocity (A wave) was significantly higher in smokers (P < 0.05, and hence the E/A ratio was signif- icantly lower (P < 0.05). The tissue Doppler imaging examination of right ventricular free wall showed that the peak systolic velocity of right ventricular (RV) free wall (S’), and the peak early diastolic velocity of RV free wall (E’) were significantly lower in smokers when compared to the control group (P < 0.05 for both). The global longit- udinal strain (GLS) assessed by 2D-speckle tracking echo- cardiography was also significantly reduced in smokers (P < 0.05). Conclusion: This study demonstrates that chronic cigarette smoking causes alterations in long-axis systolic and diast- olic functions of right ventricle in healthy young subjects. These changes can be detected early with 2-D speckle tracking echocardiography.
In this paper, an intelligent tracking control system of both single- and double-axis Piezoelectric Micropositioner stage is designed using Genetic Algorithms (GAs) method for the optimal Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controller tuning parameters. The (GA)-based PID control design approach is a methodology to tune a (PID) controller in an optimal control sense with respect to specified objective function. By using the (GA)-based PID control approach, the high-performance trajectory tracking responses of the Piezoelectric Micropositioner stage can be obtained. The (GA) code was built and the simulation results were obtained using MATLAB environment. The Piezoelectric Micropositioner simulation model with th
... Show MoreCarnitine is a regulatory amino acid, necessary for the metabolism of long-chain fatty acids in the ß - oxidation, and it is important in the organization of the work of the blood brain barrier, and is very important in the treatment of infertility and sexual apathy. This study was conducted at the Poultry Farm of the Department of Animal Resource, College of Agriculture, University of Baghdad during the period from 15/2/2011 to 1/8/2011. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of dietary supplementation with different levels of L - carnitin e on semen characteristics of guinea fowl male. A total of 24 guinea fowl male, 30 weeks of old were used in this study. Birds were randomly distributed into 4 groups (C0, C100, C200, C300)
... Show MoreThis study was investigated the role of garlic extracts on the reproductive functions, via the development of immature male mice (25 days old) un l puberty. Immature male mice were divided into 3 groups (n=25). Group 1 "control" was daily administrated with tap water. Group 2 was daily administrated with cold aqueous garlic extract. Group 3 was daily administrated with hot aqueous garlic extract. Each group was randomly consisted of 5 subgroups (n=5/ subgroup) and administrated for different periods i.e, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 weeks respectively. Animals were scarified after 24 h from last treatment. Our findings elucidated that, cold and hot aqueous garlic extracts, when administrated at 25 days old (Immature period) have different impact dep
... Show More11-22 Description An apology may be defined as “the act of declaring one’s regret, remorse or sorrow for having insulted, failed, injured, harmed or wronged another (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy IEP). A definition quite interested in the function suggests that “an apology is a speech act addressed to B’s face–needs and intended to remedy an offence for which A. takes responsibility.”(Holmes, 1990: 159). Apologies are also" speech acts" that are hard to identify, define or categorize, a difficulty that arises directly out of the functions they perform (Lakoff, 2001: 201) and the forms they take. In function, they range from selfabasement for wrongdoing to the formal display of appropriate feeling. In form, they range from
... Show MoreThe summary:
This research paper presents a standard economic study. This study aims to build an economic standard form of the investment effect in Human Capital on Economic Growth in Algeria. The study showed that there is an inverse relationship between the investment and human capital. This is expressed by expending on education and economic growth. This contradicts with the economic theory. Such matter could be explained by that expending on education does not contribute in the economic growth. This refers to that the education sector result does not employee or save jobs. Thus, it does not contribute in growth; in addition, the Algerian economy depends on petrol in the first class. This means the ab
... Show MoreThe feature extraction step plays major role for proper object classification and recognition, this step depends mainly on correct object detection in the given scene, the object detection algorithms may result with some noises that affect the final object shape, a novel approach is introduced in this paper for filling the holes in that object for better object detection and for correct feature extraction, this method is based on the hole definition which is the black pixel surrounded by a connected boundary region, and hence trying to find a connected contour region that surrounds the background pixel using roadmap racing algorithm, the method shows a good results in 2D space objects.
Keywords: object filling, object detection, objec
Solar tracking systems used are to increase the efficiency of the solar cells have attracted the attention of researchers recently due to the fact that the attention has been directed to the renewable energy sources. Solar tracking systems are of two types, Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) and sun path tracking. Both types are studied briefly in this paper and a simple low cost sun path tracking system is designed using simple commercially available component. Measurements have been made for comparison between fixed and tracking system. The results have shown that the trackin
A new mathematical model describing the motion of manned maneuvering targets is presented. This model is simple to be implemented and closely represents the motion of maneuvering targets. The target maneuver or acceleration is correlated in time. Optimal Kalman filter is used as a tracking filter which results in effective tracker that prevents the loss of track or filter divergency that often occurs with conventional tracking filter when the target performs a moderate or heavy maneuver. Computer simulation studies show that the proposed tracker provides sufficient accuracy.
Background: Interleukine-2 is a multifunctional cytokine, considered a central regulator of host resistance against a variety of pathogens and has been recently demonstrated to exert an active role in the pathogenesis of periodontal diseases. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of scaling and root planning on level of IL-2 in serum and saliva of patients with chronic generalized periodontitis, in relation to clinical parameters. Materials and Methods: A total of 50 subjects were enrolled, of which 25 had chronic generalized periodontitis and 25 periodontally healthy subjects as control. The clinical parameters included: gingival index, pocket probing depth, clinical attachment level and bleeding on probing. The level of
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