Healthcare professionals routinely use audio signals, generated by the human body, to help diagnose disease or assess its progression. With new technologies, it is now possible to collect human-generated sounds, such as coughing. Audio-based machine learning technologies can be adopted for automatic analysis of collected data. Valuable and rich information can be obtained from the cough signal and extracting effective characteristics from a finite duration time interval that changes as a function of time. This article presents a proposed approach to the detection and diagnosis of COVID-19 through the processing of cough collected from patients suffering from the most common symptoms of this pandemic. The proposed method is based on adopting a combination of Singular Value Decomposition (SVD), and Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT). The combination of these two signal processing techniques is gaining lots of interest in the field of speaker and speech recognition. As a cough recognition approach, we found it well-performing, as it generates and utilizes an efficient minimum number of features. Mean and median frequencies, which are known to be the most useful features in the frequency domain, are applied to generate an effective statistical measure to compare the results. The hybrid structure of DWT and SVD, adopted in this approach adds to its efficiency, where a 200 times reduction, in terms of the number of operations, is achieved. Despite the fact that symptoms of the infected and non-infected people used in the study are having lots of similarities, diagnosis results obtained from the application of the proposed approach show high diagnosis rate, which is proved through the matching with relevant PCR tests. The proposed approach is open for more improvements with its performance further assured by enlarging the dataset, while including healthy people.
The current work discusses the removal of brilliant dyes. These dyes were Brilliant Cresyl Blue (BCB) and Brilliant Green (BG) by the use of poly acrylic acid hydrogel beads (PAA). We examined the adsorption isotherms and found that the factors preferring it are temperature and salt, shaking effects, wet PAA, (BCB) and (BG) follows Freundlich equation more than other equations. Based on the results, there is a positive correlation between adsorption of dyes (BCB and BG) and temperature (Endothermic process). We calculated the thermodynamic functions (ΔG, ΔS, and ΔH). The ion strength effects on the adsorptions at (20 °C) increased adsorption if the salt concentrations is high. We treated the kinetics outcomes based on Lagergren Equation
... Show MoreZerumbone (ZER), a natural compound has been extracted from Zingiber zerumbet with known pharmacological activities. The aim was to determine the anti-human Burkitt’s lymphoma (Raji) cell effect of ZER. The 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5,-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay was used to determine cytotoxic effect while the Annexin-V-fluorescein isothiocyanate/propidium iodide-PI flow cytometric assays was used to determine apoptotic effect of ZER on the human Burkitt’s lymphoma (Raji) cell (ATCC CCL-86) cell line. The expressions of Bax, Bcl-2, and c-Myc genes were determined via real-time PCR. ZER suppressed the proliferation of Raji cells with a 48 h IC50 value of 5.1 μg/mL. Treated Raji cells also underwen
... Show MoreThis study uses an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) to examine the constitutive relationships of the Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) residual tensile strength at elevated temperatures. The objective is to develop an effective model and establish fire performance criteria for concrete structures in fire scenarios. Multilayer networks that employ reactive error distribution approaches can determine the residual tensile strength of GFRP using six input parameters, in contrast to previous mathematical models that utilized one or two inputs while disregarding the others. Multilayered networks employing reactive error distribution technology assign weights to each variable influencing the residual tensile strength of GFRP. Temperatur
... Show MoreThe possibility of using zero-valent iron as permeable reactive barrier in removing lead from a contaminated groundwater was investigated. In the batch tests, the effects of many parameters such as contact time between adsorbate and adsorbent (0-240 min), initial pH of the solution (4-8), sorbent dosage (1-12 g/100 mL), initial metal concentration (50-250 mg/L), and agitation speed
(0-250 rpm) were studied. The results proved that the best values of these parameters achieve the maximum removal efficiency of Pb+2 (=97%) were 2 hr, 5, 5 g/100 mL, 50 mg/L and 200 rpm respectively. The sorption data of Pb+2 ions on the zero-valent iron have been performed well by Langmuir isotherm model in compared with Freundlich model under the studied
Abstract To estimate the seroprevalence of HCV infection among HIV-infected haemophiliacs and to demonstrate the most prevalent HCV genotype, 47 HIV-infected haemophilia patients were screened for anti-HCV antibodies. By performing polymerase chain reaction and DNA enzyme immunoassay, HCV-RNA was detected with subsequent genotyping. Seroprevalence of anti-HCV antibodies was 66.0%. Of 31 HCV/HIV co-infected patients, 21 (67.7%) had no history of blood transfusion. We detected 4 HCV genotypes: 1a, 1b, 4 and 4 mixed with 3a, HCV-1b being the most frequent. Contaminated factor VIII (clotting factor) could be responsible for disease acquisition.
In this study, the response and behavior of machine foundations resting on dry and saturated sand was investigated experimentally. In order to investigate the response of soil and footing to steady state dynamic loading, a physical model was manufactured to simulate steady state harmonic load at different operating frequencies. Total of 84 physical models were performed. The footing parameters are related to the size of the rectangular footing and depth of embedment. Two sizes of rectangular steel model footing were tested at the surface and at 50 mm depth below model surface. Meanwhile the investigated parameters of the soil condition include dry and saturated sand for two relative densities 30% and 80%. The response of the footing was ela
... Show MoreEmotional competence, is relatively a new concept, stands for the ability of people to perceive their feelings and emotions, and sharing them with others. It also refers to capability in optimizing these feeling and emotions, and managing them over various situations. Thus, this study aims to examine the efficiency of counseling program in developing an emotional competence among intermediate school students in Baghdad city. The sample included group of female students at intermediate stage. The findings revealed none of experimental and control groups have statistically significant differences in pre-posttests of emotional competence efficiency.
This paper deals with the determination of stresses and deflections of clamped circular diaphragm strengthened by one or two ring-shaped concentric ribs, under uniform static and dynamic pressures. The simulation has been achieved by using the well-known engineering software finite element package MSC/NASTRAN.
As a design study, the effect of using a clamped ring, and the effect of using a ring-shaped rib on both surfaces of diaphragm instead of one, has been discussed in this work. To show the effectiveness of this study, results of this work have been compared with published data [1].
In the conclusion, the authors underline the validity of the&n
... Show MoreInformation systems and data exchange between government institutions are growing rapidly around the world, and with it, the threats to information within government departments are growing. In recent years, research into the development and construction of secure information systems in government institutions seems to be very effective. Based on information system principles, this study proposes a model for providing and evaluating security for all of the departments of government institutions. The requirements of any information system begin with the organization's surroundings and objectives. Most prior techniques did not take into account the organizational component on which the information system runs, despite the relevance of
... Show MoreThe prospective study has been designed to determine some biomarkers in Iraqi female patients with
breast cancer. The current study contained 30 patients whose tissue samples have been collected from
hospitals in Medical City in Baghdad after consent patients themselves and used immunohistochemical
technique to determine these markers. The results showed a significant correlation between ER and PR tissue
markers (Sig = 0.000) and a significant correlation between cyclin E phenotype and cyclin E intensity (Sig =
0.001).