113 research outputs found

    Synchronization of Time Delayed Fractional Order Chaotic Financial System

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    The research on a time delayed fractional order financial chaotic system is a hot issue. In this paper, synchronization of time delayed fractional order financial chaotic system is studied. Based on comparison principle of linear fractional equation with delay, by using a fractional order inequality, a sufficient condition is obtained to guarantee the synchronization of master-slave systems. An example is exploited to show the feasibility of the theoretical results

    Prevalence of blaIMP-1 among P. aeruginosa isolated from patients with burn infections

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    Carbapenems are often used as antibiotics for treating infections by multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria. Pseudomonas aeruginosa is considered a major cause of health care issues associated with higher mortality and morbidity rates worldwide. This study aimed to detect the prevalence of carbapenemase gene blaIMP-1 that is produced by carbapenem-resistant P. aeruginosa isolated from burn infection patients. A total of 137 burn swabs were collected from burn patients in different hospitals in Babylon province from December 2021 to April 2022. All of the swabs were streaked on selective media cetrimide agar. Antibiotic susceptibility was performed for Imipenem and meropenem and polymerase chain reaction for species specific 16S rDNA gene and blaIMP-1 gene was done for all isolates. 50 isolates were confirmed by amplicon of species-specific 16S rDNA for P. aeruginosa. Results of antibiotic susceptibility for imipenem and meropenem revealed that 5/50 (10%) and 13/50(26%) of P. aeruginosa isolates were resistant to imipenem and meropenem, respectively. Co-susceptibility (co-resistance or co-sensitive) for both imipenem and meropenem results showed 5/50 (10%) display resistance for both imipenem and meropenem, 8/50(16%) display resistance for only meropenem while 37/50(74%) sensitive for both and none was resistant to imipenem and sensitive for meropenem. Phenotypic detection of Metallo-β-lactamase gave inverse result while the Mean±SD of inhibition zone (mm) for imipenem disc (10μg) =29.34±7.11 and for imipenem+EDTA (10 μg+750 μg) =21.8±4.98. Investigation of blaIMP-1 gene revealed that 23/50 (46%) have blaIMP-1 while 18/50 (36%) were sensitive for imipenem and meropenem but have blaIMP-1.  The current study concludes the possibility of the presence of resistance gene among phenotypically sensitive isolates pushing great threat of antibiotic misuse and leaving the infection untreated.

    New Methods of Finite-Time Synchronization for a Class of Fractional-Order Delayed Neural Networks

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    Finite-time synchronization for a class of fractional-order delayed neural networks with fractional order α, 0<α≤1/2 and 1/2<α<1, is investigated in this paper. Through the use of Hölder inequality, generalized Bernoulli inequality, and inequality skills, two sufficient conditions are considered to ensure synchronization of fractional-order delayed neural networks in a finite-time interval. Numerical example is given to verify the feasibility of the theoretical results

    10  Gbps Mobile Visible Light Communication System Employing Angle Diversity, Imaging Receivers, and Relay Nodes

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    Over the last decade, visible light communication (VLC) systems have typically operated between 50 Mbps and 3.4 Gbps. In this paper, we propose and evaluate mobile VLC systems that operate at 10 Gbps. The enhancements in channel bandwidth and data rate are achieved by the introduction of laser diodes (LDs), angle diversity receivers (ADR), imaging receivers, relay nodes and delay adaptation techniques. We propose three mobile VLC systems; an ADR relay assisted LD-VLC (ADRR-LD), an imaging relay assisted LD-VLC (IMGR-LD) and select-the-best imaging relay assisted LD-VLC (SBIMGR-LD). The ADR and imaging receiver are proposed for the VLC system to mitigate the intersymbol interference (ISI), maximise the signal to noise ratio (SNR) and reduce the impact of multipath dispersion due to mobility. The combination of IMGR-LD with a delay adaptation technique adds a degree of freedom to the link design, which results in a VLC system that has the ability to provide high data rates under mobility. The proposed IMGR-LD system achieves significant improvements in the SNR over other systems in the worst case scenario in the considered real indoor environment

    Psychiatric Comorbidity in Neurological Disorders: Towards a Multidisciplinary Approach to Illness Management in the United Arab Emirates

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    Aim: To determine the prevalence of mood and anxiety disorders in undiagnosed patients attending neurological services, and detect rates of referral to and attendance of psychiatric services.Methods: Depressive symptoms and anxiety were assessed in 395 adult patients with primary diagnoses of neurological disorders. The Patient Health Questionnaire nine-item depression scale (PHQ-9), and Generalized Anxiety Disorder seven-item scale (GAD-7) were administered. Demographic details of the patients were recorded. Referral to and attendance of psychiatric services were recorded for patients scoring within the clinical range of depression and anxiety disorders (scores &gt; 10).Results: There was a 39% prevalence rate of depressive symptoms, 34% rate of anxiety, and 35.4% concurrent rate of both disorders in this cohort. The referral rate to psychiatric services was 33.6%, and attendance rate was 47.8%. There was significant association between severity of psychiatric symptoms and referral to psychiatric services, as well as significant association between comorbid psychiatric symptoms and attendance to psychiatric services.Conclusion: Our results indicate similar prevalence rates of comorbid psychiatric symptoms to studies carried out in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and relatively high attendance and referral rates to psychiatric services.Implications: The results shed light on the clinical profile of patients in this region and support the need for integrated collaborative medical services. Moreover, findings have important implications for health care policies pertaining to resource distribution and funding

    High-efficacy therapies for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis: implications for adherence. An expert opinion from the United Arab Emirates

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    The number of disease-modifying treatments (DMDs) for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis has increased. DMDs differ not only in their efficacy and safety/tolerability, but also in the treatment burden of, associated with their initiation, route/frequency of administration, maintenance treatment and monitoring. High-efficacy DMDs bring the prospect of improved suppression of relapses and progression of disability, but may have serious safety issues, and burdensome long-term monitoring. Studies of patient preferences in this area have focused on side effects, efficacy and route of administration. Adherence to DMDs is often suboptimal in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis and there is a need to understand more about how the complex therapeutic and administration profiles of newer DMDs interact with these barriers to support optimal adherence to therapy

    Distribution and environmental geochemical indices of mercury in tar contaminated beaches along the coast of Qatar

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    The current study aimed to gauge total mercury (THg) concentration and the environmental geochemical indices in tarmat contaminated sediments and test their presence in targeted coastal species. Layers of hard asphalt-like tarmats and sediment samples were collected from 34 sites along the coast of Qatar. The mean concentration of THg in tarmat-sediment mixture is 89 ± 20 ng·g−1. THg concentration varies significantly between the northern and eastern coasts. Geographically, sampling area were divided into four zones according to the relative closeness with low to serious potential ecological risk index (Er), moderate pollution load index (PLI), moderate Geoaccumulation index (Igeo), and no toxic risk (TRI) trending as Northern (Zones 4, 3) > North-Eastern (Zone 1) > Western (Zone 2) coasts. Three biota classes (Gastropoda, Bivalvia, and Crustacea) were sampled on the tarmat which the hermit crab (Clibanarius signatus) from Ras Rakan island obtained the highest THg (977 ng·g−1) and BSAF (29.70)

    Antimicrobial peptides in human corneal tissue of patients with fungal keratitis

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    Background Fungal keratitis (FK) is the leading cause of unilateral blindness in the developing world. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have been shown to play an important role on human ocular surface (OS) during bacterial, viral and protozoan infections. In this study, our aim was to profile a spectrum of AMPs in corneal tissue from patients with FK during the active pase of infection and after healing.Methods OS samples were collected from patients at presentation by impression cytology and scraping. Corneal button specimens were collected from patients undergoing therapeutic penetrating keratoplasty for management of severe FK or healed keratitis. Gene expression of human beta-defensin (HBD)-1, -2, -3 and -9, S100A7, and LL-37 was determined by quantitative real-time PCR.Results Messenger RNA expression (mRNA) for all AMPs was shown to be significantly upregulated in FK samples. The levels of HBD-1 and -2 mRNA were found to be elevated in 18/20 FK samples. Whereas mRNA for HBD-3 and S100A7 was upregulated in 11/20 and HBD9 was increased in 15/20 FK samples. LL-37 mRNA showed moderate upregulation in 7/20 FK samples compared with controls. In healed scar samples, mRNA of all AMPs was found to be low and matching the levels in controls.Conclusion AMP expression is a consistent feature of FK, but not all AMPs are equally expressed. HBD-1 and -2 are most consistently expressed and LL-37 the least, suggesting some specificity of AMP expression related to FK. These results will help to identify HBD sequence templates for designing FK-specific peptides to test for therapeutic potential

    The impact of macroeconomic variables on commodity futures prices: an evidence from Malaysian crude palm oil futures

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    The current study aims to fulfil the gap of knowledge in commodity futures by empirically examining the influence of selected macroeconomic variables on the prices of commodity futures particularly Crude Palm Oil Futures (FCPO). Cointegration, Vector Error Correction and Granger causality analyses are used to examine the nexus between macroeconomic variables (interest rate, exchange rate and Industrial Production Index (IPI)) and FCPO from January 1999 to December 2019. Results show that interest rate, exchange rate and IPI have a significant influence on FCPO prices in the long-run. While interest rate and exchange have a negative impact, IPI has a positive impact. VECM results suggest that the macroeconomic variables appear to have no significant shortrun causal effect associate with the FCPO prices. Granger causality test indicate that FCPO and exchange Granger cause IPI and act as leading indicators for IPI. The study implicates that policy makers should carefully design policy (monetary and fiscal intervention) to reduce swings in the commodity futures prices to protect hedgers and investor
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