It is widely accepted that early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) makes it possible for patients to gain access to appropriate health care services and would facilitate the development of new therapies. AD starts many years before its clinical manifestations and a biomarker that provides a measure of changes in the brain in this period would be useful for early diagnosis of AD. Given the rapid increase in the number of older people suffering from AD, there is a need for an accurate, low-cost and easy to use biomarkers that could be used to detect AD in its early stages. Potentially, the electroencephalogram (EEG) can play a vital role in this but at present, no reliable EEG biomarker exists for early diagnosis of AD. The gradual slowing of brain activity caused by AD starts from the back of the brain and spreads out towards other parts. Consequently, determining the brain regions that are first affected by AD may be useful in its early diagnosis. Higuchi fractal dimension (HFD) has characteristics which make it suited to capturing region-specific neural changes due to AD. The aim of this study is to investigate the potential of HFD of the EEG as a biomarker which is associated with the brain region first affected by AD. Mean HFD value was calculated for all channels of EEG signals recorded from 52 subjects (20-AD and 32-normal). Then, p-values were calculated between the two groups (AD and normal) to detect EEG channels that have a significant association with AD. k-nearest neighbor (KNN) algorithm was used to compute the distance between AD patients and normal subjects in the classification. Our results show that AD patients have significantly lower HFD values in the parietal areas. HFD values for channels in these areas were used to discriminate between AD and normal subjects with a sensitivity and specificity values of 100% and 80%, respectively.
A Schiff base ligand (L) was synthesized via condensation of N-( 1-naphthyl) ethylenediamine dihydrochloride with phthalaldehyde. The ligand was characterized by FT-IR, UV–Vis, 1H NMR, mass spectrometry, and elemental analysis (C, H, N). Five metal complexes (Co(II), Ni(II), Cu(II), Zn(II), and Cd(II)) were prepared with the ligand in a 1:1 (M:L) ratio using an aqueous ethanol solution. The complexes were characterized by FT-IR, UV–Vis, mass spectrometry, and elemental analysis (C, H, N). Additionally, 1H NMR spectroscopy was employed for Cd(II) complex. Antimicrobial activity of the ligand and its metal complexes against pathogenic bacteria (K. pneumoniae, E. coli, S. aureus, and S. epidermidis) and fungus (C. albicans) were evaluated
... Show MoreA Schiff base ligand (L) was synthesized via condensation of
A rapid high performance liquid chromatography method for the determination of sphinganine (Sa) and sphingosine (So) in urine samples by employing a silica-based monolithic column is described. The samples were first extracted using ethyl acetate and derivatized using ortho-phthaldialdehyde in the presence of 2-mercaptoethanol. C20 sphinganine was used as internal standard. Under the optimized conditions, separation was achieved using a mixture of methanol:water (93:7, v/v), column temperature at 30°C, flow rate of 1 mL min−1, and an injection volume of 10 μL. Good linearity was obtained for Sa and So over the concentration range 20–500 ng mL−1(correlation coefficients ≥0.9978). The detection limits were 0.45 ng mL−1 for Sa and
... Show MoreKE Sharquie, AA Noaimi, MM Al-Salih, Saudi Medical Journal, 2008 - Cited by 56
Red cabbage and garlic extracts have protective effect against liver damage induced by fumonisin B1 (FB1) in male mice was studied. Randomly sixty mice have been divided in to six groups. Group one are the healthy mice, Group two are mice received oral dose of only FB-1 (100 μg/kg.b.w) once on daily for 1 month, Group three: mice received with red cabbage extract (500 mg/kg.bw) plus FB1, Group four: mice receiving just red cabbage extracts, Group five: mice receiving garlic extract (500mg/kg.bw) plus FB1, group 6: mice received only garlic extract. After finished the experiment, samples of blood were used for biochemical examination. The results indicated that group (2) mice treated
Some biological aspects of the zebra mussel, Dreissena polymorpha have been studied at Al-Musayab thermal power plant ,sixty km. south west of Baghdad. Data collected during the period extended from November, 2002 to October, 2003 except for the month of April The population consisted of five age groups; O, I, II, III, and IV which have 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4 annuli respectively. The study also proved the validity of annuli readings for age and growth determination. The average annual growth rates for age groups O,I, II, III, and IV were 5.7, 5.5, 5.4, 5.2 and 5.4 respectively. Average calculated length for laboratory reared mussel was 2.5 mm compared to 5.4 mm in natural environment. Correlation coefficients were very high between age an
... Show MoreBackground Mirabegron is a β3-adrenergic receptor (β3-AR) agonist indicated for the treatment of overactive bladder. β3-AR agonists are located in the urinary bladder and adipose tissue, where they are involved in the regulation of thermogenesis and lipolysis. Objective To evaluate the effect of mirabegron on lipid profile (serum cholesterol and triglyceride) and BMI in patients with OAB. Materials and Methods In the medical city complex (Ghazi AL-Hariri Hospital) urology outpatient clinic, a prospective study of 40 patients diagnosed with OAB. These patients took a single dose of mirabegron 50 mg for 4 months and assessed its effect during this period on weight and fasting serum (s.) cholesterol and triglycerides. Results Investi
... Show MoreDue to the energy crisis and the stringent environmental regulations, diesel engines are offering good hope for automotive vehicles. However, a lot of work is needed to reduce the diesel exhaust emissions and give the way for full utilization of the diesel fuel’s excellent characteristics.
A kind of cetane number improver has been proposed and tested to be used with diesel fuel as ameans of reducing exhaust emissions. The addition of (2-ethylhexyl nitrate) was designed to raise fuel cetane number to three stages, 50, 52 and 55 compared to the used conventional diesel fuel whose CN was 48.5. The addition of CN improver results in the decre
... Show MoreRock type identification is very important task in Reservoir characterization in order to constrict robust reservoir models. There are several approaches have been introduced to define the rock type in reservoirs and each approach should relate the geological and petrophysical properties, such that each rock type is proportional to a unique hydraulic flow unit. A hydraulic flow unit is a reservoir zone that is laterally and vertically has similar flow and bedding characteristics. According to effect of rock type in reservoir performance, many empirical and statistical approaches introduced. In this paper Cluster Analysis technique is used to identify the rock groups in tertiary reservoir for Khabaz oil field by analyses variation o
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