Current Concepts Underlying Benefits of Exercise Training in Congestive Heart Failure Patients

The pathophysiology of several conditions including heart failure is partly attributable to a failure of the cell energy metabolism. Studies have shown that exercise training (ET) improves quality of life (QOL) and is beneficial in terms of reduction of symptoms, mortality and duration of hospitalization. Increasingly, ET is now achieving acceptance as complimentary therapy in addition to routine clinical practice in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF). However, the mechanisms underlying the beneficial effects of ET are far less understood and need further evaluation. Evidence suggests that while CHF induces generalized metabolic energy depletion, ET largely enhances the overall function of the heart muscle. Hence, research efforts are now aiming to uncover why ET is beneficial as a complimentary treatment of CHF in the context of improving endothelial function and coronary perfusion, decreasing peripheral resistance, induction of cardiac and skeletal muscle cells remodeling, increasing oxygen uptake, substrate oxidation, and resistance to fatigue. Here we discuss the current evidence that suggest that there are beneficial effects of ET on cardiac and skeletal muscle cells oxidative metabolism and intracellular energy transfer in patients with CHF

DO DIFFERENT SECTORS AFFECT EQUITY RISK PREMIUMS IN EMERGING MARKETS? EVIDENCE FROM ASIA

This paper explores intricacies of the higher equity risk premia of emerging Asian economies within the context of industrial composition. The conventional ex-post empirical analysis is executed to scrutinize the impact of industries on the country's stock performance, diverging from the contemporary literature on finance, which was restricted to "total market indexes." By utilizing the DataStream’s Total Return Indices (TRIs) data of emerging market industries, this study highlights the contribution of various industries towards higher equity risk premiums across prominent Asian emerging countries. The study unearths several salient empirical findings. Primarily, the study confirms the "high-volatile highperformance nature" in conjunction with the time-varying dynamics of excess returns for emerging markets at the industry level. Secondly, the study's findings identify the industries accountable for the most significant contribution to higher stock premia of emerging markets at both the country and dynamic context levels. Thirdly, we observe that certain industries demonstrate greater exposure to global factors than others. It is, therefore, argued that these observations provide a crucial indication for international portfolio diversification. The investigation of diversification opportunities due to the impact of global factors on country indexes, and the existence of some industries that offer little but advantageous insurance components provide valuable insights for the higher equity premia of emerging markets. The overall study findings suggest that foreign portfolio investors must not only diversify across countries but also across industries to generate augmented returns in emerging stock markets

Experimental investigation on compression ignition engine powered with pentanol and thevetia peruviana methyl ester under reactivity controlled compression ignition mode of operation

In the current study, an effort is carried out to study the influence of pentanol as low reactive fuel (LRF) along with diesel and Thevetia peruviana methyl ester (TPME) as high reactive fuels (HRF) in reactivity controlled compression ignition (RCCI) engine. The experiments are conducted on dual fuel engine at 50% load for RCCI mode of operation by varying pentanol percentage in injected fuels. The results revealed that RCCI mode of operation at 10% of pentanol in injected fuels exhibited higher brake thermal efficiency (BTE) of 22.15% for diesel and pentanol fuel combination, which is about 9.1% and 27.3% higher than other B20 and pentanol, B100 and pentanol fuel combinations respectively. As the percentage of pentanol increased in injected fuels, hydrocarbon (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions are increased while nitrogen oxide (NOx) and smoke emissions are decreased. Among various fuel combinations tested diesel and pentanol fuel combination gives lower HC, CO and smoke emissions and higher NOx emissions. At 10% pentanol in injected fuels, the highest heat release rate (HRR) and in-cylinder pressure are found for diesel and pentanol fuel combinations compared with other fuels

Validation of the Internet Addiction Test in Students at a Pakistani Medical and Dental School

Despite growing concerns over pathological internet usage, studies based on validated psychometric instruments are still lacking in Pakistan. This study aimed to examine the psychometric properties of the Internet Addiction Test (IAT) in a sample of Pakistani students. A total of 522 students of medicine and dentistry completed the questionnaire, which consisted of four sections: (a) demographics, (b) number of hours spent on the Internet per day, (c) English version of the IAT, and (d) the Defense Style Questionnaire-40. Maximum likelihood analysis and principal axis factoring were used to validate the factor structure of the IAT. Convergent and criterion validity were assessed by correlating IAT scores with number of hours spent online and defense styles. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis reflected the goodness of fit of a unidimensional structure of the IAT, with a high alpha coefficient. The IAT had good face and convergent validity and no floor and ceiling effects, and was judged easy to read by participants

Optimization of Thermal and Structural Design in Lithium-Ion Batteries to Obtain Energy Efficient Battery Thermal Management System (BTMS): A Critical Review

Covid-19 has given one positive perspective to look at our planet earth in terms of reducing the air and noise pollution thus improving the environmental conditions globally. This positive outcome of pandemic has given the indication that the future of energy belong to green energy and one of the emerging source of green energy is Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). LIBs are the backbone of the electric vehicles but there are some major issues faced by the them like poor thermal performance, thermal runaway, fire hazards and faster rate of discharge under low and high temperature environment,. Therefore to overcome these problems most of the researchers have come up with new methods of controlling and maintaining the overall thermal performance of the LIBs. The present review paper mainly is focused on optimization of thermal and structural design parameters of the LIBs under different BTMSs. The optimized BTMS generally demonstrated in this paper are maximum temperature of battery cell, battery pack or battery module, temperature uniformity, maximum or average temperature difference, inlet temperature of coolant, flow velocity, and pressure drop. Whereas the major structural design optimization parameters highlighted in this paper are type of flow channel, number of channels, length of channel, diameter of channel, cell to cell spacing, inlet and outlet plenum angle and arrangement of channels. These optimized parameters investigated under different BTMS heads such as air, PCM (phase change material), mini-channel, heat pipe, and water cooling are reported profoundly in this review article. The data are categorized and the results of the recent studies are summarized for each method. Critical review on use of various optimization algorithms (like ant colony, genetic, particle swarm, response surface, NSGA-II, etc.) for design parameter optimization are presented and categorized for different BTMS to boost their objectives. The single objective optimization techniques helps in obtaining the optimal value of important design parameters related to the thermal performance of battery cooling systems. Finally, multi-objective optimization technique is also discussed to get an idea of how to get the trade-off between the various conflicting parameters of interest such as energy, cost, pressure drop, size, arrangement, etc. which is related to minimization and thermal efficiency/performance of the battery system related to maximization. This review will be very helpful for researchers working with an objective of improving the thermal performance and life span of the LIBs.Deanship of Scientific Research at King Khalid University [GRP/129/42]Deanship of Scientific Research at King Khalid University, grant no. GRP/129/42.WOS:0006443758000012-s2.0-85105359419PubMed: 3393548