The Study of Serum Vitamin D Level In Patient With Pulmonary Hypertension And Right Ventricular Systolic Dysfunction Detected by Transthoracic Echocardiography

الهدف: لفحص مستوى فيتامين (د) لدى مرضى ارتفاع ضغط الدم الرئوي وعدم كفائة البطين الأيمن الانقباضي المشخصين بواسطة فحص صدى القلب. طريقة العمل: أجريت هذه الدراسة على خمسة وعشرين مريضا مع ارتفاع ضغط الدم الرئوي الذين تم إدخالهم في مستشفى مرجان التعليمي في الحلة، بابل - العراق، خلال الفترة من حزيران إلى ديسمبر 2016. كان هناك 13 ذكور و 12 إناث من بين المرضى. تراوحت أعمارهم من 39 إلى 80 سنة مع متوسط ​​عمر 59.50 ± 11.881 سنة. وكانت مجموعة المقارنة أشخاص طبيعيون مساوين في العدد للمرضى وكانوا أقارب المرضى؛ كانوا اصحاء فيما يتعلق بأي أمراض القلب أو الامراض الرئوية ,وكانوا مطابقين للمرضى بالسن ونوع الجنس. جمعت عينات الدم من المجموعتين لتقدير مستوى الفيتامين "د" ودراسات صدى القلب من أجل تقييم الضغط الانقباضي البطين الأيمن و الانحراف الانقباضي للصمام ثلاثي الشرفات. النتائج: أظهرت نتائج الدراسة وجود فروق ذات دلالة إحصائية بين المرضى و مجموعة المقارنة فيما يتعلق بمستوى فيتامين (د) و الضغط الانقباضي البطين الأيمن  والانحراف الانقباضي للصمام ثلاثي الشرفات. الاستنتاج: نقص فيتامين (د) هو أكثر تواترا وانتشار افي المرضى الذين يعانون من ارتفاع ضغط الدم الرئوي و وعدم كفاءة البطين الأيمن الانقباضي مقارنة مع مجموعة الضبط. بالتالي فإن الدراسات على نطاق واسع في المستقبل مطلوبة للتحقق من فائدة اعطاء فيتامين (د) في المرضى المعرضين لخطر ارتفاع ضغط الدم الرئوي الذين من المرجح أن يكون فيتامين (د) ناقصا.Objective: To aim the vitamin D level in patient with pulmonary hypertension and right ventricular systolic dysfunction.   Patients and methods: This case-control study was conducted on twenty five patients with pulmonary hypertension who were admitted to Merjan Teaching Hospital in Al- Hilla, Babylon-Iraq, during the period from June to December 2016. There were 13 males and 12 females among the patients; ages of them ranged from 39 to 80 years with a mean age of 59.50±11.881 years. The controls were equal in number to the patients and were relatives of them; they were healthy with respect to any cardiac or pulmonary morbidity; and were matched by age and gender. Blood samples were collected from both groups  to estimate the level of vitamin D and transthoracic echocardiographic studies were done for them to evaluate right ventricular systolic pressure (RVSP) and tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE) to assess right ventricular systolic function.   Results: The study results demonstrated that there was a statistically significant dif- ference between patients and controls regarding vitamin D level, right ventricular systolic pressure (RVSP) and tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE) .   Conclusion: Vitamin D deficiency is more frequent and prevalent among patients with Pulmonary hypertension and right ventricular systolic dysfunction compared to con- trol group of subjects. Future large scale studies are therefore warranted to validate benefit of supplementing vitamin D in patients at risk for pulmonary hypertension who are likely to be vitamin D deficient.               &nbsp

Ultrafast and Efficient Scalable Image Compression Algorithm

Wavelet-based image compression algorithms have good performance and produce a rate scalable bitstream that can be decoded efficiently at several bit rates. Unfortunately, the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) has relatively high computational complexity. On the other hand, the discrete cosine transform (DCT) has low complexity and excellent compaction properties. Unfortunately, it is non-local, which necessitates implementing it as a block-based transform leading to the well-known blocking artifacts at the edges of the DCT blocks. This paper proposes a very fast and rate scalable algorithm that exploits the low complexity of DCT and the low complexity of the set partitioning technique used by the wavelet-based algorithms. Like JPEG, the proposed algorithm first transforms the image using block-based DCT. Then, it rearranges the DCT coefficients into a wavelet-like structure. Finally, the rearranged image is coded using a modified version of the SPECK algorithm, which is one of the best well-known wavelet-based algorithms. The modified SPECK consumes slightly less computer memory, has slightly lower complexity and slightly better performance than the original SPECK. The experimental results demonstrated that the proposed algorithm has competitive performance and high processing speed. Consequently, it has the best performance to complexity ratio among all the current rate scalable algorithms

Probing the Solute-Solvent Interaction of an Azo-Bonded Prodrug in Neat and Binary Media: Combined Experimental and Computational Study

Preferential solvation has significant importance in interpreting the molecular physicochemical properties of wide spectrum of materials in solution. In this work, the solute-solvent interaction of pro-drug Sulfasalazine (SSZ) in neat and binary media was investigated experimentally and computationally. The solute-solvent interactions of interest were spectrophotometrically probed and computationally investigated for providing insights concerning the molecular aspects of SSZ:media interaction. Experimentally, the obtained results in 1,4-dioxane:water binary mixture demonstrated a dramatic non-linear changes in the spectral behavior of SSZ indicative of the dependency of its molecular behaviors on the compositions of the molecular microenvironment in the essence of solute-solvent interaction. Computationally, geometry optimization and simulation of the absorption spectra of SSZ in media of interest were performed employing DFT and TD-DFT methods, respectively, where the solvent effects on the absorption were examined implicitly using IEFPCM method. Obtained results revealed a nonpolar nature of the molecular orbitals that are directly involved in the SSZ:medium interaction. As in good correspondence with the experimental results, these simulations demonstrated that these orbitals are of non-polar nature and hence minimally affected by polarity of the media and in turn favoring the non-polar molecular environments. On the other hand, the molecular origin of SSZ:media interaction was demonstrated explicitly through complexation of SSZ with water molecules revealing a cooperative hydrogen bonding stabilization with an average length of 1.90 Å. The findings of this work demonstrate the significance of the preferential solvation and composition of the molecular microenvironment on the physicochemical properties of molecules of pharmaceutical importance. © 2019, The Author(s).Scopu

Effect montmorillonite clay as aggregate in lightweight concrete cement-free

Light weight concrete has many advantages that can be used in the construction of buildings. Perhaps one of the most important of these features is its light weight, which contributes a lot to reducing stress on the soil, which provides the possibility of rising buildings and increasing the number of floors. In addition to its role in thermal insulation and its impact on reducing the consumption of energy sources in cooling and heating, light weight concrete is considered one of the sustainability factors in buildings. One of the second major factors in sustainability is to reduce or avoid the use of cement in the manufacture of this concrete, because of the harmful effects of cement on the environment and global warming. Cement-free concrete is considered a sustainable material in terms of its depletion of the waste materials and spin-off products from different industries apposite of consumption of natural resources in the cement industry (mud, limestone). In this research first aim is to produce lightweight cement-free concrete using pozolanic material and montmorillonite clay as coarse and fine aggregate. Studying some properties of producing light weight concrete (density, compression, tensile,) with different ages (7, 28, 56) days

First measurement of the 14N/15N ratio in the analogue of the Sun progenitor OMC-2 FIR4

We present a complete census of the 14N/15N isotopic ratio in the most abundant N-bearing molecules towards the cold envelope of the protocluster OMC-2 FIR4, the best known Sun progenitor. To this scope, we analysed the unbiased spectral survey obtained with the IRAM-30m telescope at 3mm, 2mm and 1mm. We detected several lines of CN, HCN, HNC, HC3N, N2H+, and their respective 13C and 15N isotopologues. The lines relative fluxes are compatible with LTE conditions and moderate line opacities have been corrected via a Population Diagram method or theoretical relative intensity ratios of the hyperfine structures. The five species lead to very similar 14N/15N isotopic ratios, without any systematic difference between amine and nitrile bearing species as previously found in other protostellar sources. The weighted average of the 14N/15N isotopic ratio is 270 +/- 30. This 14N/15N value is remarkably consistent with the [250-350] range measured for the local galactic ratio but significantly differs from the ratio measured in comets (around 140). High-angular resolution observations are needed to examine whether this discrepancy is maintained at smaller scales. In addition, using the CN, HCN and HC3N lines, we derived a 12C/13C isotopic ratio of 50 +/- 5.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ ; 19 pages, 5 tables, 12 figure

Reduced complexity detection for massive MIMO-OFDM wireless communication systems

PhD ThesisThe aim of this thesis is to analyze the uplink massive multiple-input multipleoutput with orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (MIMO-OFDM) communication systems and to design a receiver that has improved performance with reduced complexity. First, a novel receiver is proposed for coded massive MIMO-OFDM systems utilizing log-likelihood ratios (LLRs) derived from complex ratio distributions to model the approximate effective noise (AEN) probability density function (PDF) at the output of a zero-forcing equalizer (ZFE). These LLRs are subsequently used to improve the performance of the decoding of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes and turbo codes. The Neumann large matrix approximation is employed to simplify the matrix inversion in deriving the PDF. To verify the PDF of the AEN, Monte-Carlo simulations are used to demonstrate the close-match fitting between the derived PDF and the experimentally obtained histogram of the noise in addition to the statistical tests and the independence verification. In addition, complexity analysis of the LLR obtained using the newly derived noise PDF is considered. The derived LLR can be time consuming when the number of receive antennas is very large in massive MIMO-OFDM systems. Thus, a reduced complexity approximation is introduced to this LLR using Newton’s interpolation with different orders and the results are compared to exact simulations. Further simulation results over time-flat frequency selective multipath fading channels demonstrated improved performance over equivalent systems using the Gaussian approximation for the PDF of the noise. By utilizing the PDF of the AEN, the PDF of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is obtained. Then, the outage probability, the closed-form capacity and three approximate expressions for the channel capacity are derived based on that PDF. The system performance is further investigated by exploiting the PDF of the AEN to derive the bit error rate (BER) for the massive MIMO-OFDM system with different M-ary modulations. Then, the pairwise error probability (PEP) is derived to obtain the upper-bounds for the convolutionally coded and turbo coded massive MIMO-OFDM systems for different code generators and receive antennas. Furthermore, the effect of the fixed point data representation on the performance of the massive MIMO-OFDM systems is investigated using reduced detection implementations for MIMO detectors. The motivation for the fixed point analysis is the need for a reduced complexity detector to be implemented as an optimum massive MIMO detector with low precision. Different decomposition schemes are used to build the linear detector based on the IEEE 754 standard in addition to a user-defined precision for selected detectors. Simulations are used to demonstrate the behaviour of several matrix inversion schemes under reduced bit resolution. The numerical results demonstrate improved performance when using QR-factorization and pivoted LDLT decomposition schemes at reduced precision.Iraqi Government and the Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific researc

The Role of Green Activity-Based Costing in Achieving Sustainability Development: Evidence From Iraq

Purpose: This study aimed to assess the effects of applying green activity-based costing (GABC) on the Sustainability Development of companies.   Theoretical framework: The theoretical framework included highlight on environmental issues, and the role of Modern methods of Cost and managerial accounting in reducing the harmful effects of industrial waste.   Design/methodology/approach: there are variety of reasons to carry out the study; including regulatory compliance, sustainable consumption, public perception, potential competitive advantages, and the impact of Sustainability Development on economic performance, stakeholders are urging or requiring organizations to be more ecologically conscious with regard to their products and operations. In order to accomplish the study's goals, it was implemented at the Basra Oil Refinery and based on actual data from the study sample's activity. method was relied upon distribution of costs based on green activity, the identification of its effects on the facility's Sustainability Development, and the creation of a model for the use of GABC.   Findings: According to the results of the experimental study, the study's findings that GABC may be used to assign expenditures based on green activity and to show how it affects both economic and Sustainability Development.   Research, Practical & Social implications: Because all manufacturing and consumption activities have some sort of negative impact on the environment during the creation, use, and disposal phases of their respective value chains, environmental management issues have recently been linked to the economy.   Originality/value: The research value of our current study, by employ modern methods of commissioning accounting in Iraqi manufacturing companies

Detecting Sticky Costs in Iraqi Industrial Companies an Empirical Study of a Sample of Iraqi Companies Registered on Iraq Stock Exchange

Purpose: This research aims to reveal the sticky costs in Iraqi joint stock companies.   Theoretical framework: Sticky costs refer to the costs that increase with the increase in revenues by a greater amount than their decrease in exchange for a similar decrease in revenues. To manage cost, it is important to understand and know the behavior of cost.   Design/methodology/approach: This research uses inductive and descriptive analytical methods that is commonly used in applied and field studies on accounting and management issues, as well as in literature and empirical studies to verify research proposals. This study adopted multiple logarithmic linear regression analysis estimated by ordinary least squares (OLS) to examine asymmetrical behavior of selling costs, general and administrative costs, and costs of goods sold individually and collectively (total costs) for a sample (101) of published lists of Iraqi joint stock companies registered in Iraqi Stock Exchange for the period 2010-2019.   Findings: The results showed that sticky behavior of selling and general and administrative costs and their components is a common phenomenon in cost behavior of Iraqi joint stock companies during the study period, while costs of goods sold, and total costs are not. The latter may have been showing anti-sticky behavior.   Research, Practical & Social implications: Our work contrasts the conventional model of cost behaviour, in which costs move proportionately with changes in activity, with an alternative model, in which sticky costs emerge. This is because managers consciously shift the resources devoted to activities.   Originality/value: The sticky cost research that has been done in relation to the initial sticky cost research, particularly in industrialised nations like the UAS, Uk, and Canada, is the main emphasis of this study. Future research will take into account how sticky research is developing in any other nations, which could expand our understanding of sticky cost research as a whole