Introduction: Cardiovascular diseases are the main cause of death among type 2 diabetic patients. Higher levels of plasminogen activator urokinase receptor have been found to predict morbidity and mortality across acute and chronic diseases in the common populace. This study aims to explore the role of serum plasminogen activator urokinase receptor levels as a cardiometabolic risk factor among type 2 diabetic Iraqi patients. Methods: Seventy type 2 diabetic patients (40 male and 30 female) (mean age: 46.20±7.56 years) participated in this study; 35 patients were with cardiovascular disease and 35 were without cardiovascular disease; their ages range was 40-55 years. In addition, 30 individuals who apparently healthy were selected as the control group. Results: There were significant increases (P<0.05) in glycemic and lipid profiles in diabetic patients with cardiovascular disease as compared to those without cardiovascular disease and control group. The present results reveal high levels of plasminogen activator urokinase receptor (2500.72±12.36 ρg/mL versus 2255.32±10.15 ρg/mL) with OR=1.80, 95%CI 1.2, and P=0.0001 in type 2 diabetic patients with and without cardiovascular disease respectively as compared to healthy control (229.00±14.48 ρg/mL). Conclusion: It has been concluded that serum plasminogen activator urokinase receptor showed higher levels among type 2 diabetic patients with cardiovascular disease, this revealed it’s critical role in cardiac disease. Therefore, it could be considered a more sensitive biomarker for the detection of cardiovascular events among type 2 diabetic patients who were at high-risk.
Detection of early clinical keratoconus (KCN) is a challenging task, even for expert clinicians. In this study, we propose a deep learning (DL) model to address this challenge. We first used Xception and InceptionResNetV2 DL architectures to extract features from three different corneal maps collected from 1371 eyes examined in an eye clinic in Egypt. We then fused features using Xception and InceptionResNetV2 to detect subclinical forms of KCN more accurately and robustly. We obtained an area under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUC) of 0.99 and an accuracy range of 97–100% to distinguish normal eyes from eyes with subclinical and established KCN. We further validated the model based on an independent dataset with
... Show MoreMicro-perforated panel (MPP) absorber is increasingly gaining popularity as an alternative sound absorber in buildings compared to the well-known synthetic porous materials. A single MPP has a typical feature of a Helmholtz resonator with a high amplitude of absorption but a narrow absorption frequency bandwidth. To improve the bandwidth, a single MPP can be cascaded with another single MPP to form a double-layer MPP. This paper proposes the introduction of inhomogeneous perforation in the double-layer MPP system (DL-iMPP) to enhance the absorption bandwidth of a double-layer MPP. Mathematical models are proposed using the equivalent electrical circuit model and are validated with experiments with good agreement. It is revealed that the DL-
... Show MoreIn this paper, the Active Suspension System (ASS) of road vehicles was investigated. In addition to the conventional stiffness and damper, the proposed ASS includes a fuzzy controller, a hydraulic actuator, and an LVDT position sensor. Furthermore, this paper presents a nonlinear model describing the operation of the hydraulic actuator as a part of the suspension system. Additionally, the detailed steps of the fuzzy controller design for such a system are introduced. A MATLAB/Simulink model was constructed to study the proposed ASS at different profiles of road irregularities. The results have shown that the proposed ASS has superior performance compared to the conventional Passive Suspension System (PSS), where the body displacemen
... Show MoreMalaysia's growing population and industrialisation have increased solid waste accumulation in landfills, leading to a rise in leachate production. Leachate, a highly contaminated liquid from landfills, poses environmental risks and affects water quality. Conventional leachate treatments are costly and time-consuming due to the need for additional chemicals. Therefore, the Electrocoagulation process could be used as an alternative method. Electrocoagulation is an electrochemical method of treating water by eliminating impurities by applying an electric current. In the present study, the optimisation of contaminant removal was investigated using Response Surface Methodology. Three parameters were considered for optimisation: the curr
... Show MorePhotonic Crystal Fiber Interferometers (PCFIs) are widely used for sensing applications. This work presents the fabrication and the characterization of a relative humidity sensor based on a polymer-coated photonic crystal fiber that operates in a Mach- Zehnder Interferometer (MZI) transmission mode. The fabrication of the sensor involved splicing a short (1 cm) length of Photonic Crystal Fiber (PCF) between two single-mode fibers (SMF). It was then coated with a layer of agarose solution. Experimental results showed that a high humidity sensitivity of 29.37 pm/%RH was achieved within a measurement range of 27–95%RH. The sensor also showed good repeatability, small size, measurement accuracy and wide humidity range. The RH sensitivity o
... Show MoreThe stress(Y) – strength(X) model reliability Bayesian estimation which defines life of a component with strength X and stress Y (the component fails if and only if at any time the applied stress is greater than its strength) has been studied, then the reliability; R=P(Y<X), can be considered as a measure of the component performance. In this paper, a Bayesian analysis has been considered for R when the two variables X and Y are independent Weibull random variables with common parameter α in order to study the effect of each of the two different scale parameters β and λ; respectively, using three different [weighted, quadratic and entropy] loss functions under two different prior functions [Gamma and extension of Jeffery
... Show MoreThe cost of pile foundations is part of the super structure cost, and it became necessary to reduce this cost by studying the pile types then decision-making in the selection of the optimal pile type in terms of cost and time of production and quality .So The main objective of this study is to solve the time–cost–quality trade-off (TCQT) problem by finding an optimal pile type with the target of "minimizing" cost and time while "maximizing" quality. There are many types In the world of piles but in this paper, the researcher proposed five pile types, one of them is not a traditional, and developed a model for the problem and then employed particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm, as one of evolutionary algorithms with t
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