Effectiveness of Short-term Cardiac Rehabilitation on Clinical Manifestations in Post-MI Patients

Background & Aim: Cardiac rehabilitation is one of the most effective ways of secondary prevention in patients with myocardial infarction manifestations. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of cardiac rehabilitation on clinical manifestations of myocardial infarction in post-MI patients. Methods & Materials: In this interventional study, 66 patients (58 males and eight females) with myocardial infarction who were hospitalized in public hospitals of Ahwaz were selected using purposeful sampling. The participants were randomly allocated into intervention and control groups. Data was collected using a self-structured valid and reliable instrument. The intervention group participated in an 8-week cardiac rehabilitation program. Data on the clinical manifestations were collected eight weeks later. Data were analyzed in SPSS. Results: The results showed that there was significant differences between two groups in hypertension crisis (P=0.03), chest pain, dyspnea, fatigue and palpitation after the cardiac rehabilitation (P<0.001). Conclusion: Cardiac rehabilitation program decreased the clinical manifestations of myocardial infarction in post-MI patients. It is recommended to perform this procedure in the post-MI patients

Complement protein levels in plasma astrocyte-derived exosomes are abnormal in conversion from mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer's disease dementia.

IntroductionLevels of complement proteins (CPs) in plasma astrocyte-derived exosomes (ADEs) that are abnormal in Alzheimer's disease (AD) have not been assessed in mild cognitive impairment (MCI).MethodsParticipants (n = 20 per group) had either MCI converting to dementia within 3 years (MCIC), MCI remaining stable over 3 years (MCIS), Alzheimer's disease, or were controls. CPs of ADEs isolated from plasmas by anti-human glutamine aspartate transporter antibody absorption were quantified by ELISAs.ResultsADE levels of C1q and C4b of the classical pathway, factor D and fragment Bb of the alternative pathway, and C5b, C3b, and C5b-C9 of both pathways were significantly higher in patients with MCIC than those with MCIS. ADE levels of inhibitory CPs decay-accelerating factor, CD46, CD59, and type 1 complement receptor were significantly lower in patients with MCIC than those with MCIS.DiscussionADE CPs are components of neurotoxic neuroinflammation that may be predictive biomarkers of MCI conversion to Alzheimer's disease

Revisiting the Figure of Merit of Concentrated Solar Power Receivers

The figure of merit (FOM) is a widely used metric to characterize the performance of concentrated solar power (CSP) receivers by comparing the amount of solar thermal energy retained by the receiver to the incident concentrated solar radiation. However, the FOM is a strong function of the concentration factor and receiver temperature, thus direct comparison of FOM values measured under disparate operating conditions is inappropriate. To remedy this problem, the present study proposes a new metric called the receiver effectiveness calculated by normalizing the actual FOM with its theoretical maximum. The receiver effectiveness can be employed for comparing receiver performances regardless of their operating conditions, and can be treated as more-like the second law efficiency of thermodynamics. In addition, a theoretical limit of the CSP plant efficiency is also examined by combining the maximum FOM and the Carnot efficiency for different concentration factors and receiver temperatures. The calculated maximum CSP plant efficiency clearly indicate that optimizing FOM does not always lead to a better CSP plant performance. Along with the FOM, the proposed receiver effectiveness and maximum CSP system efficiency should be considered as complementary metrics to evaluate the performance of the CSP system

Hematology and serum chemistry reference values of stray dogs in Bangladesh

Hematology and serum chemistry values were obtained from 28 male and 22 female stray dogs in Chittagong Metropolitan area, Bangladesh. The goal of the study was to establish reference value for hematology and serum chemistry for these semi wild animals in relation to age, sex, reproductive stage and body condition. No significant differences were found for mean values of hemoglobin, packed cell volume, mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration, white blood cell, differential leukocyte count, total protein, albumin, glucose, cholesterol, phosphorus and potassium among or between sexes, ages, reproductive states or body conditions. Significant differences were noted for erythrocyte sedimentation rate (p<0.02) between sexes. Among different age groups significant differences were found for total red blood cell count (p<0.001). Different body conditions have significant differences in red blood cell count, mean corpuscular volume and mean corpuscular hemoglobin (p<0.001). Pregnant and non-pregnant females differed significantly in their red blood cell count, mean corpuscular volume and mean corpuscular hemoglobin (p<0.001)

Heating of galactic gas by dark matter annihilation in ultracompact minihalos

The existence of substructure in halos of annihilating dark matter would be expected to substantially boost the rate at which annihilation occurs. Ultracompact minihalos of dark matter (UCMHs) are one of the more extreme examples of this. The boosted annihilation can inject significant amounts of energy into the gas of a galaxy over its lifetime. Here we determine the impact of the boost factor from UCMH substructure on the heating of galactic gas in a Milky Way-type galaxy, by means of N-body simulation. If 1% of the dark matter exists as UCMHs, the corresponding boost factor can be of order 105. For reasonable values of the relevant parameters (annihilation cross section 3×10−26 cm3 s−1, dark matter mass 100 GeV, 10% heating efficiency), we show that the presence of UCMHs at the 0.1% level would inject enough energy to eject significant amounts of gas from the halo, potentially preventing star formation within ~1 kpc of the halo centre

Diversity analysis of maize inbred lines using DIVA-GIS under temperate ecologies

The vagaries of Climate Change variability need to be addressed and as climatic conditions change at particular experimental sites and maize producing regions, mega-environment assignments will need to be reassessed to guide breeders to appropriate new germplasm and target environments . The development of improved germplasm to meet the needs of future generations in light of climate change and population growth is of the upmost importance . Evaluation of the inbred lines from diverse ecosystems would be effective for production of lines with resilience towards climate variability. Hence, with this objective diverse set of inbred lines sourced from all over India were characterized and were evaluated with DIVA-GIS for diversity analysis of maize inbred lines. Grid maps generated for these maize inbred lines for eleven quantitative traits indicated that these lines can be sourced from North and South India. High Shannon diversity index with maximum range of 2.17-3.0, 2.25-3.0, 2.36-3.0, 2.4-4.0, 2.0-3.0, and 2.2-3.0 were recorded for the traits viz; plant height, ear height, grain weight, grain yield, kernel row and protein content respectively indicating the high response of these traits to ecosystem. However, inbred lines were found to be diverse for all the traits except for ears plant-1 (EPP) and they have been sourced from Northern and Southern parts of India while for EPP recorded less diversity index range of 0.4-1.0 indicating source from South India. Interestingly, less diverse inbred lines for all the eleven quantitative traits have been sourced from Indogangetic plains as indicated in diversity grid maps. Maximum diversity indices were recorded for anthesis silking interval (ASI), days to silking, days to tasseling, which are in the range of 0.97-2.0, 1.528-2.0, 1.516-2.0 and 1.528-2.0 respectively. Hence, DIVA-GIS enabled identification of diverse sources from varied ecosystems which can be used for developing improved lines/ cultivars with greater resilience towards climate change