Atherogenic Indices in Type 2 Diabetic Iraqi Patients and Its Association with Cardiovascular Disease Risk

Background: Diabetes is a serious risk factor for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and an important cause of mortality. Dyslipidemia is commonly related to type 2 diabetes, and the atherogenic index of plasma is a strong marker to predict the risk of atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease. Objective: To study the association of atherogenic indices lipids in type 2 diabetic Iraqi patients with cardiovascular disease. Patients and Methods: This clinical study was conducted at Baghdad Teaching Hospital/ Medical City-Baghdad from October 2022 to February 2023. Sixty type 2 diabetic patients were recruited for this study: 30 patients with cardiovascular disease and 30 without cardiovascular disease. Their ages were between 40-55 years. Another 30 healthy individuals were selected as a control group. Results: There were considerable rises in glycemic and lipid investigations in diabetic patients with cardiovascular disease compared to those without cardiovascular disease and the control group. The present results show higher levels of lipid ratios in diabetic patients with cardiovascular disease. The results also revealed high levels of non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol for diabetic patients with cardiovascular disease (241.8±12.24 mg/dL) versus (150.1±7.12 and 68.9±5.1 mg/dL) for those without cardiovascular disease and the controls group respectively. The atherogenic index of plasma in diabetic patients with cardiovascular disease compared to diabetic and healthy control groups were (0.8±0.09) versus (0.7±0.03 and 0.2±0.08) respectively. There was a significant correlation between the atherogenic index of plasma and anthropometric factors, glycemic and lipid profile with their ratios in diabetic patients with and without cardiovascular disease. Conclusions: The results of this study confirm that the lipid indices are risk indicators of glycemic control with higher prognostic value than traditional factors. So, non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and atherogenic index of plasma can be used as a significant predictor of glycemic control. Received: Feb., 2023 Accepted: May, 2023 Published: Oct. 202

Adherence to Immunosuppressive Medications in Kidney Transplant Patients at Three Centers in Khartoum State, Sudan: A Cross-sectional Hospital Study

Background: Graft survival post-kidney transplantation is of paramount importance to patients and nephrologists. Nonadherence to immunosuppressive therapy can be associated with deterioration of renal function and graft rejection. This study aimed to evaluate the adherence to immunosuppressive medications in kidney transplant patients at three centers in Khartoum, Sudan. Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional hospital-based survey, 277 post-kidneytransplant patients were recruited. Data were collected using a questionnaire and analyzed using the SPSS v.23. Our scoring method was calculated based on Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS-8) related to immunosuppressive medications and was expressed as questions in the questionnaire; every correct answer was given one mark, then the marks were gathered and their summation was expressed. Results: Overall, 33% ,45%, and 22% of the studied participants reported high, medium, and low adherence, respectively. The major factor for nonadherence was forgetfulness affecting 36.1% of those who did not adhere. The cost of the immunosuppressive medications did not negatively affect any of the participants’ adherence (100%). However, a significant association was seen between adherence and occupational status, duration of transplantation, shortage of immunosuppressants, recognizing the name of immunosuppressant, side effect, and forgetfulness (P-values = 0.002, 0.01, 0.006 , 0.000, 0.022, and 0.000, respectively). Logistic regression analysis showed a significant association with occupational status, side effects, and forgetfulness Conclusion: Only one-third of the participants were classed as “highly adherent” to their immunosuppressant medications. Factors that can affect adherence to immunosuppressant medications were occupational status, side effects, and forgetfulness

Application of R.E.N.A.L Nephrometry Score in Planning Type of Surgery and Predicting Complications in RCC Patients in Gezira Hospital

Background: Adult renal cell carcinomas account for 80–85% of all renal tumors, making them the most common primary renal tumors. As a method for categorizing renal masses by anatomical characteristics, R.E.N.A.L score is suggested to study the effect on surgical approach in addition to perioperative outcomes and complications. Methods: A cross-sectional prospective hospital-based study enrolled 48 RCC patients in GHRDS in the period between September 2020 and September 2021. Data regarding demographics, histological subtypes, surgical approach, intraoperative and postoperative complications were collected. Based on R.E.N.A.L score, the complexity of renal tumors is grouped into low, moderate, and high. Results: The study sample size was 48. Twenty-five participants (52.1%) were men with a mean age of 51 years. Most cases had clear cell RCC 22 (45.8%) and papillary RCC 19 (39.6%). Thirty-nine (81.5%) patients underwent radical nephrectomy (flank incision [extraperitoneal] in 32 [82.1%] and midline incision [transperitoneal] in 7 [17.3%]), and 9 (18.5%) patients underwent partial nephrectomy. One-third of the patients 15 (31.2%) had intraoperative complications and 7 (14.6%) had postoperative complications. All intraoperative and most postoperative complications were associated with radical nephrectomy (P = 0.001). According to complexity, 21 (43.8%) patients had moderate complexity, 15 (31.2%) high complexity, and 12 (25%) low complexity. Conclusion: Most RCC patients had moderate complexity and were subjected to radical nephrectomy. High complexities were linked to the decision of radical nephrectomy, and intraoperative and postoperative complications. More prospective research with large sample size and multi-centered studies is essential to ensure the generalizability of study findings

Firm Culture and Innovativeness Among Logistics Companies in Malaysia

The logistics industry environment is continuously changes with intense competition and demanding customers. Hence, appropriate firm culture that initiates firm innovativeness is required. At present, innovativeness research on logistics companies is still limited. Yet, empirical research showed firm innovativeness provide companies capabilities to achieve lower cost while rendering higher quality services that meet all requirements of potential customers, introduce new products, services, business, environmental issues and maximum utilization of information technology. Although there is general impression on low level of innovativeness in SMEs around the world, this research aims to demonstrate that there is potential higher degree of innovativeness within Malaysia’s logistics sector. Hence, this study objective is to gauge firm culture relationship with firm innovativeness. The study used simple random sampling technique where 226 companies were selected from total population of 500 logistic companies registered under Federation of Malaysian Freight Forwarders via survey. Findings revealed firm innovativeness among logistic companies is at high level and firm culture has a significant positive correlation with firm innovativeness. In fact, firm culture specifically adhocracy and market orientation culture significantly and positively influence on logistic firm innovativeness in Malaysia. This study brings new insight on innovativeness among Malaysian logistic companies

AN IMPROVED PARTICLE SWARM OPTIMIZATION ALGORITHM FOR SPECTRUM ALLOCATION IN COGNITIVE RADIO NETWORKS

The seriousness of the spectrum scarcity has increased dramatically due to the rapid increase of wireless services. The key enabling technology that can be viewed as a novel approach for utilizing the spectrum more efficiently is known as Cognitive Radio. Therefore, assigning the spectrum opportunistically to the unlicensed users without interfering with the licensed users, concurrently with maximizing the spectrum utilization is addressed as a major challenge problem in cognitive radio networks. In this paper, an improved metaheuristic optimization algorithm has been proposed to solve this problem that contingent on a graph coloring model. The proposed approach is a hybrid algorithm composed of a Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm with Random Neighborhood Search. The key objective function is maximizing the spectrum utilization in the cognitive radio networks with the subjected constraints. MATLAB R2021a was used for conducting the simulation. The proposed hybrid algorithm improved the system utilization by 1.23% compared to Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm, 5.57% compared to Random Neighborhood Search, 7.9% compared to Color Sensitive Graph Coloring algorithm, and 27.33% compared to Greedy algorithm. Moreover, the system performance was evaluated with various deployment scenarios of the primary users, secondary users, and channels for investigating the impact of varying these parameters on the system performance

Molecular Localization of Human Papillomaviru_18 (HPV_18) in Tissues from Thyroid Carcinoma in Mid-Euphrates

خلفية علمية: سرطان الغدة الدرقية هو السرطان الذي يبدأ في الغدة الدرقية و التي يعتقد أنها مرتبطة بتهيئة عدد من العوامل البيئية و الوراثية تربط  Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) المسبب لسرطان عنق الرحم ، وأيضا يعتبر المسبب لسرطان الحنجرة والذي يعد واحد من العوامل المعدية ذات الصلة.الهدف : تهدف هذه الدراسة للكشف عن الحمض النووي ل Human Papilloma Virus-18  باستخدام تقنية situ hybridization technique في أنسجة الغدة الدرقية المأخوذة من تضخم الغدة الدرقية الحميد و سرطان الغدة الدرقية ، و توضيح العلاقة بين هذا الورم الناجم عن HPV-18 وسرطان الغدة الدرقية.المرضى و طرق العمل : ستين ( 60 ) عينة من formalin-fixed paraffin ، وتم الحصول على أنسجة الغدة الدرقية كالتالي، من بينهم ( 30) خزعة نسيجية من سرطان الغدة الدرقية من الصنف الأول و ( 20) عينة من الأنسجة الحميدة Thyroidneoplasm وكذلك ( 10) من تشريح أنسجة الغدة الدرقية العادية التي تم جمعها من أرشيف معهد الطب العدلي/ بابل باستخدام عينات الغدة الدرقية لأصحاء. وقد تم الكشف عن فيروس Human Papilloma Virus-18  باستخدام نسخة حساسة للغاية من situ hybridization technique.النتائج : من بين أورام الغدة الدرقية الخبيثة نسبة ا 56.7 ٪ من المرضى مصابين بالفيروس HPV - 18 في حين تم الكشف عن 35 ٪ من مجموعة ورم الغدة الدرقية الحميدة مصابين بالفيروس HPV - 18   . لم تظهر أي من عينات مجموعة السيطرة ISH reactions. كان 32.7 ٪ إناث مصابات بفيروس HPV – 18، في حين كان 24 ٪ من الذكور مصابين بفيروس HPV – 18. ولم تظهر أي دلالة إحصائية بين وجود الفيروس وعمر هؤلاء المرضى .الاستنتاجات : HPV – 18 أن له دورا بالمشاركة في التسبب في الإصابة لدى مجموعة المرضى الذين يعانون من سرطان الغدة الدرقية.Background: THilnahyroid cancer is a cancer that starts in the thyroid gland and thought to be related to a number of environmental and genetic predisposing factors .Human Papil- loma Virus (HPV) the virus that causes cervical cancer ,is also linked to throat cancer and is one among their associated infective agents. Objective: This study aimed at detecting DNA of HPV genotype-18 using in situ hybridization technique in thyroid tissues from benign thyroid hyperplasia and thyroid car- cinoma, and elucidate the association between this HPV-18 and thyroid carcinogenesis. Patients and Methods: Sixty (60) formalin-fixed, paraffin embedded thyroid tissue blocks were obtained ,among them (30) tissue biopsies from thyroid carcinoma with grade I and (20) benign thyroid neoplasm tissue blocks as well as (10) autopsies from apparently normal thyroid tissues were collected from the archives of Forensic Medicine Institute / Babil and used as thyroid healthy control group. Detection of HPV-18 was done by using highly sensitive version of in situ hybridization technique. Results: Among malignant thyroid tumors 56.7% patients had HPV-18 while 35% HPV- 18 positivity was detected in benign thyroid tumor group. None of healthy thyroid tissues revealed ISH reactions. There was 32.7% female had HPV-18, and 24% male had HPV-18. No significant statistical associations were noticed between the presence of HPV-18 and the age of those patients. Conclusion: Human Papilloma virus genotype-18 could share a role in pathogenesis of this group of patients with thyroid cancers

Antennas Performance Comparison of Multi-Bands for Optimal Outdoor and Indoor Environments Wireless Coverage

This paper aims to implement a wireless Wi-Fi network (Indoor and Outdoor) in order to cover the environment of the Oxford Institute (to learn languages and computer skills) in the best methods and lowest cost in order to provide Wi-Fi service for faculty members and all members of the administrative board and students. The realistic three-floor indoor and outdoor environments of the Institute were designed with Wireless InSite Package (WIP). In addition, emphasis was focus on the use of two types of transmitting devices (Directional and Omni-Directional). The aim of using these two devices is to determine which device is better to cover the Institute's environment well. In this work, a different frequency bands scenario was used to determine which band is suitable for coverage and stability of the wireless network. These bands are S-Band (2.4GHz), C-Band (5GHz), C-Band (10GHz), Ku-Band (15GHz), Ka-Band (28GHz), and MmWave (39GHz). Moreover, the focus has been on the most important basic parameters to determine the performance level of the two devices (Directional and Omni-Directional) as well as to determine the performance level of the wireless network. The most important of these parameters are Path Losses (LPath), Path Gain (GPath), Received Signal Strength (RSS), Strongest Received Power, Coverage Ratio (CR), and Received Signal Quality Ratio (RSQR). According to the results that emerged, it was observed that Omni-Directional antennas are much better than Directional antennas, especially in NLOS (None-Line-of-Sight) regions. It was also noted that CR, LPath, and RSS at S-Band (2.4GHz) are much better than the rest of the bands, so that the CR and the RSQR at this band reach 83.2184% and 95.7383%, respectively. While at the MmWave-Band (39GHz), it reaches 31.0345% and 70.7937% respectively

Mineral Derangement and Bone Diseases in Uremic Patients on hemodialysis in Ibn-Sina Hemodialysis Center / Diyala

  Background: Chronic kidney disease is an international public health problem affecting 5–10% of the world population. As kidney function declines, there is a progressive deterioration in mineral homeostasis, with a disruption of normal serum and tissue concentrations of phosphorus and calcium, and changes in circulating levels of hormones. Objective: To determine the severity of bone and mineral disease in chronic renal failure and how efficiently controlled by drugs and hemodialysis procedure in Ibn sina dialysis center. Patients and Methods: A case control study was carried out among 75 patients with chronic kidney disease (stage5) on regular hemodialysis in Ibn Sina dialysis center. Blood was taken before dialysis session and measurements of serum calcium, phosphorus, serum alkaline phosphatase, .protein and albumin levels, Serum parathyroid hormone and VIT D3   were determined.  and another group of 25 normal peoples from surrounding area. Results: The mean parathyroid hormone level was 145.62pg/ml, with 57.33% having normal acceptable rang of parathormone level, 41% of patients having hyperparathyroidism and 1.33% having hypoparathyroidism. There was no significant correlation between serum PTH and dexa scan. Hypocalcemia was found in 52% of patients, 33% with hypercalcemia patients . There was a significant correlation found between Hypocalcemia and dexa scan results. Majority of patients had high serum phosphate levels (54.6%).and normal phosphate level in 40% while the hypophosphatemia result 5.33% and mean phosphate level is2.24 mmol/l.Total serum protein mean is 61.51 a 37.33% of them had hypoproteinemia and 62.66 %of them had normal serum protein. Also our results show 97, 33%of uremic patients have low vit D While 2.33% have normal level of serum vit D. There was a significant correlation between dexa scan and vit D level, calcium, alkaline phosphatase, female gender, smoking and body mass index. Conclusion: The current study demonstrated that we can predict the chronic kidney diseases- Metabolic bone disorder from mineral scores before potentates the diagnosis by dexa scan

A Review of Artificial Intelligence in Breast Imaging

With the increasing dominance of artificial intelligence (AI) techniques, the important prospects for their application have extended to various medical fields, including domains such as in vitro diagnosis, intelligent rehabilitation, medical imaging, and prognosis. Breast cancer is a common malignancy that critically affects women’s physical and mental health. Early breast cancer screening—through mammography, ultrasound, or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)—can substantially improve the prognosis for breast cancer patients. AI applications have shown excellent performance in various image recognition tasks, and their use in breast cancer screening has been explored in numerous studies. This paper introduces relevant AI techniques and their applications in the field of medical imaging of the breast (mammography and ultrasound), specifically in terms of identifying, segmenting, and classifying lesions; assessing breast cancer risk; and improving image quality. Focusing on medical imaging for breast cancer, this paper also reviews related challenges and prospects for AI

Newly recognized turbidity current structure can explain prolonged flushing of submarine canyons

Seabed-hugging flows called turbidity currents are the volumetrically most important process transporting sediment across our planet and form its largest sediment accumulations. We seek to understand the internal structure and behavior of turbidity currents by reanalyzing the most detailed direct measurements yet of velocities and densities within oceanic turbidity currents, obtained from weeklong flows in the Congo Canyon. We provide a new model for turbidity current structure that can explain why these are far more prolonged than all previously monitored oceanic turbidity currents, which lasted for only hours or minutes at other locations. The observed Congo Canyon flows consist of a short-lived zone of fast and dense fluid at their front, which outruns the slower moving body of the flow. We propose that the sustained duration of these turbidity currents results from flow stretching and that this stretching is characteristic of mud-rich turbidity current systems. The lack of stretching in previously monitored flows is attributed to coarser sediment that settles out from the body more rapidly. These prolonged seafloor flows rival the discharge of the Congo River and carry ~2% of the terrestrial organic carbon buried globally in the oceans each year through a single submarine canyon. Thus, this new structure explains sustained flushing of globally important amounts of sediment, organic carbon, nutrients, and fresh water into the deep ocean