Cardiovascular manifestations in echocardiography in patients recently recovered from COVID-19 Infection

Background: As a major source of morbidity and mortality, COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) has developed. In both COVID-19 and other pneumonias, high T/I troponin levels may indicate damage to the heart. Objective: ln order to expand our understanding of COVID-19 cardiology effects, as well as provide insights into the features of people who are more prone to cardiovascular diseases. Methods: At isolation hospital in Zagazig, and the isolation hospital in Tripoli, Libya, 42 COVID-19 positive subjects were studied for their echocardiographic parameters, the study was carried out from March 5th, 2021, to September 4th 2021. Results: Arrhythmias, myocardial infarctions, valvular dysfunction, pulmonary hypertension, and right ventricular dysfunction (RVD) were found to have no statistically significant association to the severity of COVID-19. Mean of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) was statistically lower among severe COVID-19 patients than moderate and mild cases but means of RV diameter (mm) was statistically higher among severe COVID-19 patients than moderate and mild cases, mean of fractional area change (FAC) was statistically lower in severe COVID-19 patients. Pulmonary hypertension was the second most common echocardiographic finding (38% of patients). There was no statistically significant difference in pulmonary hypertension across COVID-19 patients in relation to the severity (P=0.211).Conclusion: Echocardiography can provide us with important information which can help in managing of patients with COVID-19 while we must consider contamination risks as well as transmission of diseases

The contribution of rat studies to contemporary knowledge of Major Depressive Disorder: Results from citation analysis

Funding: This study was financed by Animalfree Research—Switzerland, a grant from the Johns Hopkins Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing (CAAT) and by Portuguese National Funds through FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, within the CFCUL Unit funding UIDB/00678/2020. TM thanks partial support by CEAUL (funded by FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal, through the project UID/MAT/00006/2019). FP thanks FCT/MCTES for the financial support to CESAM (UIDP/50017/2020 and UIDB/50017/2020), through national funds. Open access publication costs were covered by Animalfree Research-Switzerland and by funding provided by the Ketty and Leif Hjordt Foundation.Major depressive disorder (MDD) is the most severe depression type and one of the leading causes of morbidity worldwide. Animal models are widely used to understand MDD etiology, pathogenesis, and treatment, but the efficacy of this research for patients has barely been systematically evaluated. Such evaluation is important given the resource consumption and ethical concerns incurred by animal use. We used the citation tracking facilities within Web of Science and Scopus to locate citations of original research papers on rats related to MDD published prior to 2013—to allow adequate time for citations—identified in PubMed and Scopus by relevant search terms. Resulting citations were thematically coded in eight categories, and descriptive statistics were calculated. 178 publications describing relevant rat studies were identified. They were cited 8,712 times. More than half (4,633) of their citations were by other animal studies. 794 (less than 10%) were by human medical papers. Citation analysis indicates that rat model research has contributed very little to the contemporary clinical understanding of MDD. This suggests a misuse of limited funding hence supporting a change in allocation of research and development funds targeting this disorder to maximise benefits for patients.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

The Relationship between Major Depressive Disorder and Personality Traits.

Objective: The aim of this study was to compare the clinical temperaments and characters of Iranian patients with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) with healthy controls Method: The study participants included 47 outpatients with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and 120 normal controls with no psychiatric disorders. Sampling method was convenience. The MDD patients were diagnosed as MDD by a psychiatrist using the Persian structured clinical interview for axis I disorders (SCID-I), and they completed at least 8 weeks of antidepressant treatment. All the patients filled out the Persian version of the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI). Data were analyzed using SPSS version 17, Chi square, T test and Multiple Regression. The level of significance was set at 5%. Results: The present study demonstrates a link between depression and lower persistence (p≤0.001), self-directedness (p≤0.001) and cooperativeness (p≤0.001) scores. A negative correlation between age and Harm Avoidance (p≤0.001) was observed in both groups . Conclusion: Lower scores of persistence (P), self-directedness (SD) and cooperativeness (CO) were observed in patients with depression more than controls even in the remission phase which could indicate a relationship between these traits and depression

AC Components Manufacturer: New Product [Air Filter] Development

This paper researches and provides recommendations to an Original Design Manufacturer [ODM] company in Taiwan that is looking to venture into new air filter product-line. In addition to projecting the profitability, rate of return and sensitivity analysis done on the project, the team will also evaluate and help make recommendations on a couple key cost decisions this project will be facing. Many companies in Taiwan staff a good portion of their laborers from foreign countries. The company in this project, PK Inc., needs to determine whether they would like to hire their manufacturing floor operators domestically or from abroad. The economic factors in hiring domestically and abroad will be utilized to propose the optimum solution for the new project‟s staffing requirements. Secondly, a PK Inc. needs to evaluate and decide on a supplier for the aluminum alloy used in constructing the air filter casing. The various decision criteria will be evaluated to provide recommendations on the most suitable supplier for this project