Photoplethysmography (PPG) is a non-invasive optical technique that employs variations in light absorption produced by alteration in the blood volume in capillaries at the skin during the cardiac cycle. This study aims to understand factors related to PPG morphology; a hand-elevation, the study has modified blood flow to and from the finger was conducted in the laboratory. It is widely established that the position of the limb relative to the heart has an effect on blood flow in arteries and venous. Peripheral digital pulse wave (DPW) signals were obtained from 15 healthy volunteer participants during hand-elevation, and hand-lowering techniques wherein the right hand was lifted and lowered relative to heart level, while the left hand remained static. The pulse width, time to peak (TTP), the time to the maximum slope (TTMas) were computed from 30sec DPW signals at three positions of the right hand with regard to heart level, i.e. 35 cm above heart level (+35 cm), at the level of the heart (0 cm), and 35 cm below the level of the heart (-35 cm). DPW characteristics were found to alter with hand position. On lowering the hand to -35 cm relative to heart level, DPW width from the middle finger increased by (6%), but lowering the arm decreased the TTP (by 11 %), TTMas (by 18 %). These changes in time-dependent DPW indices may be attributed to changes in hydrostatic pressure and the venoarterial reflex that changes the blood vessels filling from completely filled one at -35 cm due to arterial vasoconstriction and decreased venous return to partially emptied blood vessels due to arterial vasodilatation and increased venous return at +35 cm. It was assumed that these time-dependent morphological DPW indices alterations were controlled by changes in downstream venous resistance rather than arterial or arteriolar, resistance. Keywords: photo plethysmography, hand elevation, vasoconstriction, vasodilation, vascular mechanics
Nanoparticles are a special group of materials with unique features and extensive applications in diverse fields. The use of nanoparticles of some metals is a viable solution to stop infectious diseases due to the antimicrobial properties of these nanoparticles. The present work demonstrates the effect of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) on the antibacterial activity of four different antibiotics (amoxicillin, ceftriaxone, chloramphenicol, and penicillin) against eleven Gram-positive and Gram-negative isolates. Disk diffusion method was used to determine the antibacterial activity of various classes of antibiotics in the absence and presence of sub-inhibitory silver nanoparticles of concentration (80 microgram/ml). A synergistic effect was o
... Show MoreThe interests toward developing accurate automatic face emotion recognition methodologies are growing vastly, and it is still one of an ever growing research field in the region of computer vision, artificial intelligent and automation. However, there is a challenge to build an automated system which equals human ability to recognize facial emotion because of the lack of an effective facial feature descriptor and the difficulty of choosing proper classification method. In this paper, a geometric based feature vector has been proposed. For the classification purpose, three different types of classification methods are tested: statistical, artificial neural network (NN) and Support Vector Machine (SVM). A modified K-Means clustering algorithm
... Show MoreThe study attempts to identify 1) the habits of playing video games among students, 2) the effect of playing video games on students’ academic achievement, 3) the statistically significant differences among students in regard of (gender, time of playing video games, number of hours). To this end, a five-likert scale questionnaire included four questions was applied to (250) male and female students chosen randomly from the second-intermediate stage at Al-Karakh side secondary schools. The findings revealed that students play games only on holidays and less than an hour daily, which means playing games does not affect their academic achievement. Additionally, the findings found there is a significant difference between male and female i
... Show MoreThe Messengers and the Imam of the God-fearing, Muhammad is God, his family, and all of his companions. As for what comes after... Fainting is one of the involuntary symptoms and states that occur to a person when carrying out his life’s tasks suddenly due to his loss of sense and movement, so he loses consciousness for a period of time that is short or may be long, and the person is held accountable and responsible for every moment of his life. He is required to perform duties specified by Sharia law, such as prayer, fasting, and Hajj...and fainting prevents him from performing these actions. We must consider the opinions of jurists and know the legal implications resulting from it. It was said that a person has a capacity that enable
... Show MoreObjective: The present study investigates whether the exposure to low-power diode laser induces denaturation in red blood cell (RBC) membrane protein composition, and determines the irradiation time for when denaturation of membrane protein process begins. Background: A low-energy laser has been used extensively in medical applications. Several studies indicated significant positive effects of laser therapy on biological systems. In contrast, other studies reported that laser induced unwanted changes in cell structure and biological systems. The present work studied the effect of irradiation time of low-power diode laser on the structure of membrane proteins of human RBCs. Materials and methods: The RBC suspension was divided into five equa
... Show MoreThe purpose of this study is to examine the moderating role of business environment on the relationship between Entrepreneurial Skills (ES) and business performance of Small Business (SB) in Iraq, Baghdad. This study aims to resolve the inconsistencies found in the contemporary literature regarding the relationship between ES and business performance. Questionnaire using a 5-point Likert scale was adopted from previous work to ascertain the responses of the respondents. Survey research design was adopted, and self-administered questionnaires were used to collect the data from small business owners in 9 districts in Baghdad the capital of Iraq. The analysis was conducted using SPSS version 23.0. The direct relationship and hierarchical regre
... Show MoreThe main objective of the audit process is to enable the auditor to express his neutral technical opinion as to whether the financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the financial reporting framework and fairly express the financial position, the result of the activity and the cash flows. A wrong opinion works to burden the beneficiary parties with great damages, and then the presence of any error or bias from the auditor when applying the rules of professional ethics (such as violating professional confidentiality and conflict of interest and moving away from impartiality and objectivity) negatively affects the performance of his
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