Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a multisystem autoimmune disease that affects 43.7 per 100,000 people worldwide, most commonly presenting in childbearing years. SLE pregnancies are complicated by cardiovascular events in up to 7.8% of cases, which translates to a 3.2- to 31.5-fold increase in severe maternal morbidity and a seven-fold increase in maternal mortality, compared to the general obstetric population. The highest risk is reported in cases with concurrent lupus nephritis or antiphospholipid syndrome [1]. These complications are not surprisingly seen; they are the end result of endothelial dysfunction, immune aberration, and placental dysfunction that precedes clinical decompensation by weeks [2,3].The current approach in management is reactive, while SLE needs proactive care. We suggest a structured three-phase approach to managing cardiovascular risk in pregnancy with SLE, from pre-conception through delivery and post-partum
Background: Preeclampsia (PE) is a major cause of maternal morbidity and mortality, complicating 3-14% of all pregnancies. Although the etiology remains unknown, placental hypoperfusion and diffuse endothelial cell injury are considered to be the central pathological process; many endocrinological changes have been linked to the etiology of preeclampsia including parathyroid hormone and calcium level. Objective: to compare serum parathyroid hormone and total serum calcium levels in mild and severe preeclampsia versus normal pregnancy. Patients and methods: Serum parathyroid hormone (PTH) level and total serum calcium level were measured in thirty normotensive pregnant women and thirty women with mild preeclampsia and thi
... Show MoreCancer 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 MoreResearchers dream of developing autonomous humanoid robots which behave/walk like a human being. Biped robots, although complex, have the greatest potential for use in human-centred environments such as the home or office. Studying biped robots is also important for understanding human locomotion and improving control strategies for prosthetic and orthotic limbs. Control systems of humans walking in cluttered environments are complex, however, and may involve multiple local controllers and commands from the cerebellum. Although biped robots have been of interest over the last four decades, no unified stability/balance criterion adopted for stabilization of miscellaneous walking/running modes of biped
In order to reduce the losses due to evaporation in the stored crude oil and minimizing the decrease in °API many affecting parameters were studied (i.e. Different storage system, namely batch system with different types of storage tanks under different temperatures and:or different pressures). Continuous circulation storage system was also studied. It was found that increasing pressure of the inert gas from 1 bar to 8 bar over the surface of the crude oil will decrease the percentage losses due to evaporation by (0.016%) and decrease the change of °API by (0.9) during 96 hours storage time. Similarly using covering by surfactant (potassium oleate) or using polymer (polyurethane foam) decreases the percentage evaporation losses compare
... Show MoreDrilling fluid loss during drilling operation is undesirable, expensive and potentially hazardous problem.
Nasiriyah oil field is one of the Iraqi oil field that suffer from lost circulation problem. It is known that Dammam, um-Radoma, Tayarat, Shiranish and Hartha are the detecting layers of loss circulation problem. Different type of loss circulation materials (LCMs) ranging from granular, flakes and fibrous were used previously to treat this problem.
This study presents the application of rice as a lost circulation material that used to mitigate and stop the loss problem when partial or total losses occurred.
The experim
... Show MoreThe intelligent buildings provided various incentives to get highly inefficient energy-saving caused by the non-stationary building environments. In the presence of such dynamic excitation with higher levels of nonlinearity and coupling effect of temperature and humidity, the HVAC system transitions from underdamped to overdamped indoor conditions. This led to the promotion of highly inefficient energy use and fluctuating indoor thermal comfort. To address these concerns, this study develops a novel framework based on deep clustering of lagrangian trajectories for multi-task learning (DCLTML) and adding a pre-cooling coil in the air handling unit (AHU) to alleviate a coupling issue. The proposed DCLTML exhibits great overall control and is
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