Lipoprotein(a) and SYNTAX Score Association with Severity of Coronary Artery Atherosclerosis in North India

Objectives: This cross-sectional study investigated the association of lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)] levels  as an atherosclerosis predictor and their relationship to the severity of coronary artery disease (CAD). Methods: 360 consecutive patients at Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences and King George’s Medical University hospitals, Lucknow, North India, with chest pains, CAD symptoms and on lipid-lowering therapy were enrolled between June 2009 and October 2011. Before coronary artery angiography (CAG), a fasting blood sample was assessed for lipid and Lp(a) levels. The synergy between percutaneous coronary intervention with taxus and cardiac surgery (SYNTAX) score was calculated according to the CAG results. Patients were divided into 3 groups based on CAD severity and SYNTAX scores. Results: Angiography revealed CAD in 270 patients. Lp(a) levels were higher in CAD compared to non-CAD patients (48.7 ± 23.8 mg/dl versus 18.9 ± 11.1 mg/dl [P <0.0001]). The levels of Lp(a)were lower in single than in double and triple vessels (39.3 ± 18.4 mg/dl versus 58.0 ± 23.0 mg/dl, and 69.2 ± 24.1 mg/dl, [P <0.05]). Lp(a) levels were significantly higher in severe CAD with SYNTAX score >30 (88.0±24.0 mg/dl). Lp(a) levels correlated significantly with SYNTAX scores (r = 0.70, P <0.0001). Conclusion: In this study, Lp(a) levels were positively associated with a patient’s SYNTAX score in diseased vessels. Furthermore, an elevated Lp(a) level was a causal, independent risk factor of CAD. Lowering Lp(a) levels would reduce CAD in primary and secondary prevention settings. There is an urgent need to define more precisely which patients to treat and which to target for earlier interventions.

Diagnostic Accuracy and Agreement between Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Ultrasound Finding for the Diagnosis of Rotator Cuff Tears

Objective: To determine the diagnostic accuracy and agreement between ultrasound and magnetic resonance (MR) imaging in determining rotator cuff tears. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Place and Duration of the Study: Armed Forces Institute of Radiology and Imaging, Pak Emirates Military Hospital,Rawalpindi Pakistan, from Jul 2018 to Jan 2019. Methodology: Patients of either gender with a traumatic shoulder injury duration of less than 15 days were consecutively included. Rotator cuff tear on ultrasonography was diagnosed on the presence of a hypoechoic discontinuity in the tendon and accentuation of cartilage shadow, giving a 'double cortex' view while on MRI, the hyper-intense signal area within the tendon on T2W, fat-suppressed and GRE sequences, corresponding to fluid signal seen. Results: Of 88 patients, the mean age was 54.022±5.19 years. Ultrasound diagnosed rotator cuff tears in 42(47.7%) patients, and MRI diagnosed rotator cuff tears in 44(50.0%) patients. Diagnostic accuracy of ultrasound taking MR imaging as the gold standard showed sensitivity as 81.82%, specificity as 77.27%, negative predicted value as 78.26%, positive predicted value as 80.95%, and overall diagnostic accuracy as 79.55%. A moderate agreement was found between ultrasound and MRI findings (p-value=0.591). Conclusion: The findings of the current study showed significant moderate agreement between ultrasound and MR imaging in the determination of rotator-cuff tears

Support vector machine and neural network for enhanced classification algorithm in ecological data

The current economic scale is bigger and bigger, the social material living standard also along is also getting higher and higher with the rapid economic growth. However, the problems caused by economic development are also increasing, on the one hand, there is the contradiction between supply and demand caused by resource consumption and shortage of resources; on the other hand, there also is contradiction between the great pollution and destruction in the ecological environment and the public’s increasingly demanding ecological environment. Especially, the contradiction between the ecological environment and the social environment has become the focus of attention of the Chinese public. Therefore, the ecological environment protection becomes the current consensus either from the national level or the social level, how to manage and protect the ecological environment is also a question of the current social thinking. The common practice of ecological environment protection is to control and protect, at the same time, governance is to restore the damaged environment. There are many means for protection, such as energy conservation, emission reduction, monitoring and so on. Energy saving and emission reduction not only mean that the consumption of resources is reduced, but also mean that the discharge of pollutants and destroy the ecological environment are reduced. And monitoring refers to the existing ecological environment monitoring; the change of ecological environment is detected by real-time observation, so that counter measures are made according to the changes

Effective corporate governance and the cost of capital and financial performance: An empirical investigation into the peculiar link in Saudi stock market listed firms

Recent decades have experienced a trend in companies implementing scrupulous structures of corporate governance in response to various infamous commercial failings. It is vital that such structures are in place that would enable companies to operate openly and without the danger of being accused of inefficient management. This will help encourage foreign investors in addition to ensuring a healthy and efficient business environment. The aim of this study is to examine the effects of ensuring effective corporate governance mechanisms on the cost of capital and financial performance, focusing on non-financial companies registered with the Saudi Arabia Stock Exchange. Saudi Arabia is a developing market in the Gulf region where block-holding ownership dominates the business world. With this peculiar ownership structure, Saudi Arabia was relatively unaffected by the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) a quality that allows local companies, with limited influences from the external business world, to be subjected to a deeper analyses with regard to their corporate governance mechanisms and their impact on the cost of capital and financial performance. The agency theory was the primary model used in the development of the conceptual framework for this study with some borrowings from resource dependence and stewardship theories. The outcomes of existing studies in this field are largely inconclusive, with no ongoing research on the relationship between the cost of capital and corporate governance in Saudi Arabia and the limited number of studies examining this relationship between corporate governance and financial performance in the Kingdom. Thus, there is a gap in the research, which this study has aimed to fill. The findings of the current study, in addition to filling the void in the literature, are expected to influence policy-makers, practitioners, and those looking to invest in Saudi Arabian companies by equipping investors with more awareness about the information and security protection provided by the structure of corporate governance in Saudi Arabia. The current study used 84 non-finance companies registered in Saudi Arabia between 2006 and 2014. Two prominent issues have been examined in this study: the relationship between corporate governance mechanisms and the cost of capital, and the relationship between corporate governance mechanisms and firm performance. This study employed three regression techniques examine the relationship between corporate governance variables (measured as board structure, audit committees structure, ownership structure) and the cost of capital measured as weighted average cost of capital (WACC) in Saudi Arabia Stock Exchange listed non-finance firms. The three methods of regression included: First the, hypotheses being investigated using a pooled ordinary least squares (OLS) regression. This was followed by panel data models, both random and fixed effects, to control for any unnoticed heterogeneity. Lastly, a generalised least square (GLS) is used to investigate the hypotheses further, this time focusing on the peculiar problems of causality and endogeneity. The results showed that corporate governance mechanisms, such as board size and block ownership, have a significant positive effect on the cost of capital. Nevertheless, board independence has a significant negative effect on the cost of capital, which indicates that these findings align closely with the theoretical underpinnings of agency theory. The financial performance of a company is expressed in this study via return on assets (ROA) and Tobin's Q. The same three aforementioned methods of regression are adopted here to examine the relationship between the implementation of corporate governance mechanisms and firms’ performance. Results indicated that the governance mechanisms, including foreign ownership, government ownership, board meeting, and audit committee independence have significant positive effects on firm performance. On the other hand, board size, audit committee size and audit committee meetings have a significant negative effect on firm performance. The current study’s findings showed, as suggested by the agency theory, that corporate governance mechanisms and firm performance are clearly interlinked in the context of the emerging market of Saudi Arabia. The findings of the current study are largely aligned with the theoretical underpinnings of agency theory and with the findings of the existing literature in varying world contexts. These findings, due to their close touch with the practical world and relevance to the country’s current business scenario, are expected to be relevant and beneficial for managers, investors, policy-makers and other stakeholders considering involvement with Saudi Arabian companies

The influence of industrial attitudes and behaviours in adopting sustainable construction practices

Considering the rapid environmental changes, the transitions to sustainable practices in the construction industry is vital now. Though the developed construction industries have already made efforts to switching to more sustainable and environment friendly practices, the developing countries are still lacking it. This research was organised to understand the role of project management practises and integrated methods in the sustainable development in the developing countries, for looking on how such practices can help these construction sectors become sustainable. The moderation effect of industrial attitudes and behaviours on sustainable construction was also conducted to understand the intermediary impacts. A survey based on the snowball sample of 208 construction professionals in Ghana was conducted to determine the impact of project management practises and integrated methods on sustainable construction. Research model was tested by employing bivariate correlation and multiple hierarchical regression analysis techniques, to establish the interrelationships among the project management practices, integrated approaches, industrial attitudes and behaviours, and sustainable construction and to explain these constructs in terms of their common underlying dimensions. The findings highlight that the project management practices and integrated approaches are significantly impacting on the sustainable construction practices in terms of BIM, Digital Twin, LEED, and BREEAM. Whereas the industrial attitudes and behaviours were found to be affecting the project management practises and integrated approaches through moderating role on sustainable construction. The study was concluded by suggesting the importance of sustainable construction practices and shaping industrial attitudes and behaviours towards such practices in the developing construction industries

Cystathione gamma lyase/hydrogen sulphide pathway up regulation enhances the responsiveness of ?1A and ?1B-adrenoreceptors in the kidney of rats with left ventricular hypertrophy

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the interaction between H2S and NO (nitric oxide) in the kidney and to evaluate its impact on the functional contribution of ?1A and ?1B-adrenoreceptors subtypes mediating the renal vasoconstriction in the kidney of rats with left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH). In rats the LVH induction was by isoprenaline administration and caffeine in the drinking water together with intraperitoneal administration of H2S. The responsiveness of ?1A and ?1B to exogenous noradrenaline, phenylephrine and methoxaminein the absence and presence of 5-methylurapidil (5-MeU) and chloroethylclonidine (CEC) was studied. Cystathione gamma lyase (CSE), cystathione ? synthase (CBS), 3-mercaptopyruvate sulphar transferase (3-MST) and endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) were quantified. There was significant up regulation of CSE and eNOS in the LVH-H2S compared to the LVH group (P<0.05). Baseline renal cortical blood perfusion (RCBP) was increased (P<0.05) in the LVH-H2S compared to the LVH group. The responsiveness of ?1A-adrenergic receptors to adrenergic agonists was increased (P<0.05) after administration of low dose 5-Methylurapidil in the LVH-H2S group while ?1B-adrenergic receptors responsiveness to adrenergic agonists were increased (P<0.05) by both low and high dose chloroethylclonidine in the LVH-H2S group. Treatment of LVH with H2S resulted in up-regulation of CSE/H2S, CBS, and 3-MST and eNOS/NO/cGMP pathways in the kidney. These up regulation of CSE/H2S, CBS, and 3-MST and eNOS/NO/cGMP pathways enhanced the responsiveness of ?1A and ?1B-adrenoreceptors subtypes to adrenergic agonists in LVH-H2S. These findings indicate an important role for H2S in modulating deranged signalling in the renal vasculature resulting from LVH development

Effect of Obesity on Cognitive Function among School Adolescents: A Cross-Sectional Study

Objectives: Childhood obesity contributes to the risk of numerous health problems and has become a major global health concern. This study aimed to establish the association between obesity and cognitive function among healthy school adolescents. Methods: This study was carried out by taking school adolescents (n = 400) from June 2016 to December 2017. The mean age of the participants was 13.93 ± 0.81 years. The students were divided into group A (obese, n = 223) and B (non-obese, n = 177). Cognitive functions were recorded as per study tool of the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB). Results: Severely obese students showed a significant delay in cognitive functions as compared to students with normal BMI. Attention Switching Task (AST)-Latency among students with normal BMI was 647.88 ± 137.59 compared to the students with high BMI (685.08 ± 115.92, p = 0.05), AST-Incongruent was 680.78 ± 142.07 versus 726.76 ± 122.31 (p = 0.02), AST-Percent correct trials was 84.31 ± 10.45 versus 78.09 ± 14.87 (p = 0.001), and Intra-Extra Dimensional Set Shift (IED) Total errors among students with normal BMI was 33.93 ± 21.53 compared to the students with high BMI (42.86 ± 37.27, p = 0.03). Conclusion: Cognitive functions including AST-Latency, AST-Incongruent, AST-Percent correct trials, and IED Total errors were significantly weakened in markedly obese students. Significant impairments in their cognitive functions, especially attention, retention, intelligence, and cognitive flexibility, were observed. The findings of this study emphasize the need to involve school adolescents in physical activities to reduce body weight in order to have cognitive functions within normal range and also to minimize obesity-associated complications

Performance Analysis of YOLO-based Architectures for Vehicle Detection from Traffic Images in Bangladesh

The task of locating and classifying different types of vehicles has become a vital element in numerous applications of automation and intelligent systems ranging from traffic surveillance to vehicle identification and many more. In recent times, Deep Learning models have been dominating the field of vehicle detection. Yet, Bangladeshi vehicle detection has remained a relatively unexplored area. One of the main goals of vehicle detection is its real-time application, where `You Only Look Once' (YOLO) models have proven to be the most effective architecture. In this work, intending to find the best-suited YOLO architecture for fast and accurate vehicle detection from traffic images in Bangladesh, we have conducted a performance analysis of different variants of the YOLO-based architectures such as YOLOV3, YOLOV5s, and YOLOV5x. The models were trained on a dataset containing 7390 images belonging to 21 types of vehicles comprising samples from the DhakaAI dataset, the Poribohon-BD dataset, and our self-collected images. After thorough quantitative and qualitative analysis, we found the YOLOV5x variant to be the best-suited model, performing better than YOLOv3 and YOLOv5s models respectively by 7 & 4 percent in mAP, and 12 & 8.5 percent in terms of Accuracy.Comment: Accepted in 25th ICCIT (6 pages, 5 figures, 1 table

Effect of Energy Input on Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Titanium Aluminide Alloy Fabricated by the Additive Manufacturing Process of Electron Beam Melting.

Titanium aluminides qualify adequately for advanced aero-engine applications in place of conventional nickel based superalloys. The combination of high temperature properties and lower density gives an edge to the titanium aluminide alloys. Nevertheless, challenges remain on how to process these essentially intermetallic alloys in to an actual product. Electron Beam Melting (EBM), an Additive Manufacturing Method, can build complex shaped solid parts from a given feedstock powder, thus overcoming the shortcomings of the conventional processing techniques such as machining and forging. The amount of energy supplied by the electron beam has considerable influence on the final build quality in the EBM process. Energy input is decided by the beam voltage, beam scan speed, beam current, and track offset distance. In the current work, beam current and track offset were varied to reflect three levels of energy input. Microstructural and mechanical properties were evaluated for these samples. The microstructure gradually coarsened from top to bottom along the build direction. Whereas higher energy favored lath microstructure, lower energy tended toward equiaxed grains. Computed tomography analysis revealed a greater amount of porosity in low energy samples. In addition, the lack of bonding defects led to premature failure in the tension test of low energy samples. Increase in energy to a medium level largely cancelled out the porosity, thereby increasing the strength. However, this trend did not continue with the high energy samples. Electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction investigations were carried out to understand this non-linear behavior of the strength in the three samples. Overall, the results of this work suggest that the input energy should be considered primarily whenever any new alloy system has to be processed through the EBM route

Mechanistic Insight into the role of Vitamin D and Zinc in Modulating Immunity Against COVID-19: A View from an Immunological Standpoint

The pathophysiology of coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) is characterized by worsened inflammation because of weakened immunity, causing the infiltration of immune cells, followed by necrosis. Consequently, these pathophysiological changes may lead to a life-threatening decline in perfusion due to hyperplasia of the lungs, instigating severe pneumonia, and causing fatalities. Additionally, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection can cause mortality due to viral septic shock, resulting from unrestrained and backfiring immune reactions to the pathogen. Sepsis can cause premature organ failure in COVID-19 patients, as well. Notably, vitamin D and its derivatives and minerals, such as zinc and magnesium, have been reported to improve the immune system against respiratory illnesses. This comprehensive review aims to provide updated mechanistic details of vitamin D and zinc as immunomodulators. Additionally, this review also focuses on their role in respiratory illnesses, while specifically delineating the plausibility of employing them as a preventive and therapeutic agent against current and future pandemics from an immunological perspective. Furthermore, this comprehensive review will attract the attention of health professionals, nutritionists, pharmaceuticals, and scientific communities, as it encourages the use of such micronutrients for therapeutic purposes, as well as promoting their health benefits for a healthy lifestyle and wellbeing