Effect of Deferent Type of Training on C-reactive protein Level in Healthy Middle Age Men

Objective: The goal of our study was to investigate the effect of different type of exercise training on C-reactive protein level in middle age men. Methods: A total of 20 male subjects’ mean age 45±5 years were investigated at the University of Jordan Hospital to evaluate CRP level after training. Subjects were divided randomly into two groups they participated in supervise exercise training resistance and endurance exercise for 11 weeks. CRP level was measured pre-post training. Results: Mean C-reactive protein level measured before training program was 1.82 mg/L. And 1.81 mg/L for endurance and resistance groups respectively. Measurement of the CRP after the completion of the exercise program was 1.654 mg/L and 1.764 mg/L for both groups the endurance and the resistance respectively. TC was significantly reduced from 199.1 ml/dl to 176.1 ml/dl, for the endurance group and from 193.50 ml/dl to 181.60 ml/dl, for the resistance group. TG reduced significantly from 172.2 ml/dl to 161.50 ml/dl for the endurance group, and from 163.50 ml/dl to 159.20 ml/dl for the resistance group. HR at rest reduced from 79.63 b.pm to 74.47 b.pm for the endurance group, and from 77.50 b.pm to 74.6 b.pm for the resistance group. Fat % reduced significantly from 25.25 to 23.22 for the endurance group and from 23.03 to 21.60 for the resistance group. BMI reduced from 28.82 to 27.41 for the endurance group and from 27.63 to 27.40 for the resistance group.VO2max increased significantly from 37.13 to 43.30 ml.kg.min for the endurance group, and from 37.67 to 39.3 for the resistance group. HDL also increased from 46.12 mi/dl to 48.25 mi/dl for the endurance group, and increased from 42.70 mi/dl to 44.30 mi/dl for the resistance group Training gropes had lower CRP, weight, BMI, and body fat after the completion of the exercise program. Conclusions: Plasma C-reactive protein levels are reduced in response to both strength and endurance exercise training in sedentary healthy men (there was no different in the type of exercise in reducing CRP level

Effects of Different Atorvastatin Doses on Immunohistochemical Markers in the Hippocampus of Male Adult Rats

Statins, beyond their lipid lowering role, exert beneficial effect by acting as a neuroprotective agent in some clinical cases such as brain injury, stroke, ischemia, seizures and Alzheimer’s disease. The aim of this study is toinvestigate the effects of different oral doses of atorvastatin on normal male rats, via studying immunohistochemical markers in the hippocampus. Twenty-four adult male Wistar rats were used in the experiment. They were obtained from the animal house (at Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology, College of Pharmacy/ Al-Mustansiriya University). Animals are divided into 4 groups randomly each group contains 6 animals as follow: Group 1: Animals are administered saline orally for 30 days and serve as (control group), Group 2: Animals are administered 5 mg/kg/day Atorvastatin in the form of oral suspension for 30 days, Group 3: Animals are administered 10mg/kg/day Atorvastatin for 30 days, Group 4: Animals are administered 20 mg/kg/day Atorvastatin for 30 days. All animals in this study were dissected under anesthesia; heads were decapitated for extraction of the brain. Immunohistochemical method was used to evaluate the expression of Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein, Glutathione Reductase and neuronal Nitric Oxide Synthase markers in the rat’s hippocampus. There was a significant reduction of GFAP expression in the group of rats treated with 20 mg/kg atorvastatin when compared with the control and 5 mg/kg atorvastatin. While, a significant increase in GR expression was noticed in the group treated with 20 mg/kg atorvastatin compared with other groups. Also, the results showed a significant reduction in nNOS expression in the hippocampus of rats treated with 20 mg/kg atorvastatin when compared with other groups. The present study demonstrates that atorvastatin exerts its neuroprotective effects in a 20 mg/kg dose, more than in 5 mg/kg or 10 mg/kg doses. The decreasing in astrocytes activity, promoting of anti-oxidant enzymes and reducing in nitrative stress were documented when a short term high atorvastatin dose used. Keywords: hippocampus, atorvastatin, neuronal Nitric Oxide Synthase (nNOS), Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein (GFAP), Glutathione Reductase (GR)

The Basic Tenets of Generative Phonology

Among the various schools of phonology, generative phonology is well-known because it has become a standard theory against which most other work in phonology has been measured and evaluated. It is a branch of phonology that came to prominence with Chomsky and Halle's (1968) "Sound Pattern of English" wherein their aim is to eliminate and factor out redundancy from phonological analyses by using phonological rules. Most phonologists agree that they should share the flavor, the spirit, and the mood of generative phonology. As such, the present study aims to limelight this phonological theory through presenting a theoretical framework about this branch of phonology focusing on its emergence, its components, its distinctive tenets, the phonological theories that stemmed from it as well as some post-generative theories and frameworks. Keywords: generative phonology, Sound Pattern of English, distinctive features, post-generative theories

Pragmatics and Discourse Analysis

It is said that pragmatics and discourse analysis are closely interrelated and that there is a considerable overlap between them to the extent that they can be regarded as sister disciplines. The current study aims at investigating the relationship between them highlighting their similarities and detecting their differences. In order to fulfill the objectives of the study, a number of procedures will be followed: (1)  Surveying the relevant literature about the two fields in question, (2) conducting a comparison between them and (3) drawing some conclusions grounded on the findings of the study. Key words: pragmatics, discourse analysis, context, discourse pragmatics, and critical discourse analysi

Design of Smart Home Energy Management System for Saving Energy

The rapid change and development in human life, information technology, and the increase in using home gadgets, modern appliances, and electric cars, leads to more dependency on electrical resources and consecutive increase in CO2 emission from generation plant. The current world issue is on how to save the energy by reducing the consumption and decreasing global warming. In this research, Smart Home Energy Management System (SHEMS) has been developed to operate home appliances in an optimum approach. It is aimed at reducing the consumption energy by detecting the residents’ activity and identifying it among three states: Active, Away, or Sleep. The SHEMS is designed with an algorithm that is based on Hidden Markov Model (HMM) in order to estimate the probability of the home being in each of the above states. The proposed system uses the WiFi technology for data transmission inside home and the GSM technology for external communication. The proposed system and its algorithm was successfully tested and 18% of energy saving were obtained

Continuous non-invasive eye tracking in intensive care

Delirium, an acute confusional state, is a common occurrence in Intensive Care Units (ICUs). Patients who develop delirium have globally worse outcomes than those who do not and thus the diagnosis of delirium is of importance. Current diagnostic methods have several limitations leading to the suggestion of eye-tracking for its diagnosis through in-attention. To ascertain the requirements for an eye-tracking system in an adult ICU, measurements were carried out at Chelsea & Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. Clinical criteria guided empirical requirements of invasiveness and calibration methods while accuracy and precision were measured. A non-invasive system was then developed utilising a patient-facing RGB camera and a scene-facing RGBD camera. The system’s performance was measured in a replicated laboratory environment with healthy volunteers revealing an accuracy and precision that outperforms what is required while simultaneously being non-invasive and calibration-free The system was then deployed as part of CONfuSED, a clinical feasibility study where we report aggregated data from 5 patients as well as the acceptability of the system to bedside nursing staff. To the best of our knowledge, the system is the first eye-tracking systems to be deployed in an ICU for delirium monitoring

What is the patient looking at? Robust gaze-scene intersection under free-viewing conditions

Locating the user’s gaze in the scene, also known as Point of Regard (PoR) estimation, following gaze regression is important for many downstream tasks. Current techniques either require the user to wear and calibrate instruments, require significant pre-processing of the scene information, or place restrictions on user’s head movements.We propose a geometrically inspired algorithm that, despite its simplicity, provides high accuracy and O(J) performance under a variety of challenging situations including sparse depth maps, high noise, and high dynamic parallax between the user and the scene camera. We demonstrate the utility of the proposed algorithm in regressing the PoR from scenes captured in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Chelsea & Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust a

The impact of Mesopotamian myths on the drawings of Al-Wasiti

Al-Wasiti's drawings are the first attempt to document the Arab landscape more than 778 years ago. These drawings were associated with a fine literary material, and the relationships between words and poetic sentences are matched by artistic, aesthetic and color relations in drawing, as they are all outputs of a sense that agreed in creativity and differed in the language of expression. Al-Wasiti was creative in drawing these events. Islamic painting has a goal that differs from the goals of the painting arts that preceded it or its contemporary, as it tends to “beautification” only. This is achieved by true copying from nature, just as it is achieved by drawing what is transmitted from nature, transforming and refining it. The shocking and ambiguous thing in these (Maqamah), especially in the thirty-ninth (Maqamah), He dared to draw a woman going through labor, revealing her body parts with a clear frontal drawing & we find that it exceeded what is expected of a Muslim painter. In another drawing from this (Maqamah), we notice the presence of strange beings that distort the human form and link it to some ancient Mesopotamian myths. After doing research to try to find the origin of these strange beings, the researcher reached the Mesopotamian origin of these figures (Ishtar and the Bird of Spirits), which go back to the Assyrian antiquities with ancient Babylonian roots

A Model for the Pragmatic Analysis of Gossip

Gossip is a positive or a negative evaluative information about contextually determined and deviant acts of third party(ies) (most often non-present, but potentially present in the conversation). However, gossip is a broad topic that has been approached from different angles. Several studies have attempted to tackle gossip pragmatically. Yet, those attempts have suffered from many gaps and drawbacks, in addition to the insufficient accounts that characterize them. Accordingly, this paper is an attempt to develop a pragmatic model for the analysis of gossip. This model is based upon two relevant previous models of gossip as well as the pragmatic observations made by the researchers concerning the topic. The validity of the developed model has been tested by means of analyzing twenty gossip situations taken form Jane Austen’s Emma. As a result, the developed model has proved its validity in pragmatically analyzing gossip on the basis of the pragmatic findings and conclusions arrived at in that novel

The Cognitive Principle of Relevance and its Application to Anti Iraq War Posters

Relevance theory is a psychological model for understanding the cognitive interpretation of language, was developed by Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson in 1986 and republished in 1995. They argue that the thing that causes an input to stand out from others is its relevance to the receiver and that every utterance creates in the addressee an expectation of relevance. The underlying assumption of relevance theory is that in any given context, the addressee has to assume that what people say is relevant.     In this paper the problem of the cognitive principle of relevance theory presented by Sperber and Wilson is approached in its application to the posters painted by people who are opposing an American led war against Iraq. The analysis will be conducted to find out how these posters achieve a successful communication and how is that the audience recognizes that the designer of each poster has something to say that matters, something that is relevant and how the addressee understands the content of these posters and how he/she uses their cognition to interpret the posters’ contents and finds them relevant as they are apposing the war against Iraq.