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.
This research deals with the attitude of oil press towards oil industry in the world and the extent of their concerns with the stages of oil industry relating to the abundance of oil and natural gas, as it is an international strategic and complementary industry. The researcher uses the survey method for content analysis of the initial article and the press news for two: years (2011-2012). The results if the study are as follows
1- Oil press is concerned with developing and the stages of the Arabic oil industry in the interest of OAPEC in the first place.
2- It is concerned with exploring, extracting, and marketing oil in the first place, then with refining operations in refineries and petrochemical plants in the second place, an
BACKGROUND: Many genetic factors are known to be related to osteoporosis, and currently the role of the glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor (GLP-1R) gene in bone health has been studied intensively. Some variation of this gene, such as rs1042044 and rs6458093, are known to be linked to metabolic diseases and lower bone mineral density, however their specific contribution to osteoporosis remains largely unexplored. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate the combined genotypic effect of rs1042044 and rs6458093 as a genetic risk factor for osteoporosis in postmenopausal Iraqi women.METHODS: Blood samples from 75 osteoporosis patients and 75 healthy controls, aged 45-85, were collected. DNA was extracted, and a region of GLP-1R
... Show MoreBackground: Dyslipidemia is defined as an abnormally high level of various lipids in the blood. It is considered a major risk for atherosclerosis and coronary artery disease. Genetic susceptibility can have a significant influence on the development and progression of dyslipidemia. ApoB-100 R3500Q mutation and ApoE variants are among those genetic risks for dyslipidemia. This study aims to assess the possible contribution of ApoB and ApoE variants on lipid profile among a group of early-onset ischemic heart disease (IHD) patients in comparison to a group of controls. Methods: Forty patients with dyslipidemia and early-onset IHD without chronic conditions likely to cause derangement of lipid levels were recruited to this case-control study
... Show MoreThe study discussed here deals with the isolation of Aspergillus niger from palm dates, the formal and the most famous fruit in Iraq, to test and qualify this fungus isolate for its ability to produce citric acid. Submerged fermentation technique was used in the fermentation process. A.niger isolated from “Zahdi” Palme dates was used in the study of the fermentation kinetics to get the production efficiency of citric acid. Kinetics of CA production via fermentation by A. niger S11 was evaluated within 432 h fermentation time and under submerged conditions of 11% (w/v) sucrose, 5% (v/v) inoculum size, pH 4, 30 °C and 150 rpm. The maximum citric acid produced was (37.116 g/l). Kine
This study proposes a mathematical approach and numerical experiment for a simple solution of cardiac blood flow to the heart's blood vessels. A mathematical model of human blood flow through arterial branches was studied and calculated using the Navier-Stokes partial differential equation with finite element analysis (FEA) approach. Furthermore, FEA is applied to the steady flow of two-dimensional viscous liquids through different geometries. The validity of the computational method is determined by comparing numerical experiments with the results of the analysis of different functions. Numerical analysis showed that the highest blood flow velocity of 1.22 cm/s occurred in the center of the vessel which tends to be laminar and is influe
... Show MoreOlfactory impairment and abnormal frontal EEG oscillations are recognized as early markers of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Using a publicly available olfactory EEG dataset of 35 subjects spanning normal cognition, amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), and AD, each with MMSE scores and demographics, stimulus-locked epochs from four electrodes (Fp1, Fz, Cz, Pz) were processed with wavelet-based time–frequency analysis. Band-limited power ratios (delta, theta, alpha, beta) were computed as log-transformed post-odor/baseline values and aggregated to subject-level features. Statistical analyses revealed graded attenuation of odor-evoked frontal (Fp1) band-power ratios across groups, with significant differences in several band–od
... Show MoreThe current research aims to reveal the level of satisfaction of the mentors with the evaluation of their performance according to gender (male - female) and to formulate the predictive equation for the level of performance (dependent variable) from knowing the level of satisfaction with the evaluation (independent variable). (16 paragraphs) contains alternatives to the answer that measures the level of satisfaction (weak, medium, and high) (1,2,3), that is, with a hypothetical average of (32). It consisted of 100 educational counselors consisting of 45 males and 55 females, the results of the research concluded that the level of satisfaction with performance is below the mean when compared with the hypothetical average of the scale of s
... Show MoreThe effect of mental and physical health on the feelings of subject welfare is known as health-related quality of life. The chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is a common respiratory diseases. Assessment of health-related quality of life is considered important in such chronic disease. The objective of the current study was to measure health-related quality of life in a sample of chronic obstructive pulmonary patients in AL- Diwanyia city/Iraq. This study was carried out on 150 already diagnosed COPD patients who attended to the Center of Respiratory Diseases/AL-Diwaniyah Teaching Hospital during September 2019 to January 2020. The Arabic version of St George’s Respiratory Questionnaire was used to asses
... Show MoreThe Beggar (1965) is a story of isolation and depression which is written by the Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz who is considered the father of Arabic Literature in the modern era. Specifically, he refers in his great novel called The Beggar that the man unable to achieve psychological revival after Nasser’s revolution, the man sacrificed his own job and his family for a desire that increases his feelings of alienation and depression which leads him to an emotional outcry against the indifferent. The main aim of the study highlights the concept of existential dilemma as a philosophical problem and personality crisis by the protagonist of The Beggar novel, Omer Al-Hamzawi who had acc
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