The Effect of Muscle Relaxation on Serum Calcium and Phosphorus Levels in Patients Undergoing Hemodialysis

Improvement of calcium and phosphorus level isconsidered as an important factor in reducing mortalityin hemodialysis patients. This study aimed toinvestigate the effect of muscle relaxation techniques oncalcium, phosphorus and phosphorus concentrations inpatients undergoing hemodialysis. A total of 90 hemodialysispatients in Zahedan hemodialysis centers were selectedby purposive sampling and randomly divided intocontrol and test groups with permutation blocks. Serumlevels of calcium and phosphorus were measured beforethe intervention. Benson’s muscle relaxation responsewas taught to the test group during three sessions andthey were asked to perform relaxation techniques for2-15 times each day for one month. The routine caregroup was provided. Then, the levels of calcium andphosphorus were compared in two groups and the datawere analyzed using statistical tests at a significance levelof 0<0.05. The results showed that the mean of calciumin the test group before and after the intervention was8.69±1.8.1 and 8.79±0.95, respectively. Independent ttestshowed that the mean of calcium after the interventionin the test group was significantly higher than thecontrol group (p=0.005). The mean of p-value before andafter the intervention in the two groups was not statisticallysignificant (P≤0.05). Regarding the improvement ofcalcium level to protect patients against complicationscaused by disorders of these indices, teaching this techniquein hemodialysis sections is recommended

Effects of tillage methods and sowing rates on the grain yields and yield components of rain fed wheat

A field study was conducted on the effect of four primary tillage implements and three seed densities on the grain yield of rain fed wheat (Tajan cultivar), using a drill planting machine with the end wheels. The experimental design was a split plot design in a 4×3 factorial with three replications. In this study, the main plots were the tillage treatments, namely Mouldboard plough, Disc Plough, Chisel Plough, Offset Disc, and sub-plots were seed rates of 350, 400 and 450 seeds.m-2-2 sowing rate, had the highest grain yield of wheat grown in the Golestan province (Iran), a region with an average annual rainfall of 450 mm

Assessment of Interface Shear Behaviour of Sub-ballast with Geosynthetics by Large-scale Direct Shear Test

AbstractA series of large-scale direct shear test were conducted to study the interface shear strength of subballast reinforced with different types of geomembranes and geogrids. The impact of normal stress (σn), shearing rate (SR), relative density (DR) and open area (OA%) on the behaviour of granular material was investigated in unreinforced and reinforced condition. The results revealed that the performance of material was markedly influenced by σn and OA. The results also showed that geogrids provided a greater value of passive resistance owing to have transverse ribs, but the mobilised passive resistance became smaller with increase in OA. The triaxial grids offered more passive resistance than biaxial geogrid

Set Theoretical Variants of Optimization Algorithms for System Reliability-based Design of Truss Structures

In this paper, recently developed set theoretical variants of the teaching-learning-based optimization (TLBO) algorithm and the shuffled shepherd optimization algorithm (SSOA) are employed for system reliability-based design optimization (SRBDO) of truss structures. The set theoretical variants are designed based on a simple framework in which the population of candidate solutions is divided into some number of smaller well-arranged sub-populations. In addition, the framework is applied to the Jaya algorithm, leading to a set-theoretical variant of the Jaya algorithm. So far, most of the reliability-based design optimization studies have focused on the reliability of single structural members. This is due to the fact that the optimization problems with system reliability-based constraints are computationally expensive to solve. This is especially the case of statically redundant structures, where the number of failure modes is so high that it is impractical to identify all of them. System-level reliability analysis of truss structures is carried out by the branch and bound method by which the stochastically dominant failure paths are identified within a reasonable time. At last, three numerical examples, including size optimization of truss structures, are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed SRBDO approach. The results indicate the efficiency and applicability of the set theoretical optimization algorithms to solve the SRBDO problems of truss structures

Optimal Design of Reinforced Concrete Cantilever Retaining Walls Utilizing Eleven Meta-Heuristic Algorithms: A Comparative Study

In this paper, optimum design of reinforced concrete cantilever retaining walls is performed under static and dynamic loading conditions utilizing eleven population-based meta-heuristic algorithms. These algorithms consist of Artificial Bee Colony algorithm, Big Bang-Big Crunch algorithm, Teaching-Learning-Based Optimization algorithm, Imperialist Competitive Algorithm, Cuckoo Search algorithm, Charged System Search algorithm, Ray Optimization algorithm, Tug of War Optimization algorithm, Water Evaporation Optimization algorithm, Vibrating Particles System algorithm, and Cyclical Parthenogenesis Algorithm. Two well-known methods consisting of the Rankine and Coulomb methods are used to determine lateral earth pressures acting on cantilever retaining wall under static loading condition. In addition, Mononobe-Okabe method is employed for dynamic loading condition. The design is based on ACI 318-05 and the goal of optimization is to minimize the cost function of the cantilever retaining wall. The performance of the utilized algorithms is investigated through an optimization example of cantilever retaining wall. In addition, convergence histories of the algorithms are provided for better understanding of their performance

Assessment of interface shear behaviour of sub-ballast with geosynthetics by large-scale direct shear test

A series of large-scale direct shear test were conducted to study the interface shear strength of subballast reinforced with different types of geomembranes and geogrids. The impact of normal stress (σn), shearing rate (SR), relative density (DR) and open area (OA%) on the behaviour of granular material was investigated in unreinforced and reinforced condition. The results revealed that the performance of material was markedly influenced by σn and OA. The results also showed that geogrids provided a greater value of passive resistance owing to have transverse ribs, but the mobilised passive resistance became smaller with increase in OA. The triaxial grids offered more passive resistance than biaxial geogrid

Performance evaluation of railway subballast stabilised with geocell based on pull-out testing

A large-scale apparatus was designed and built at the University of Wollongong to evaluate the pull-out strength of rail subballast reinforced with geocells. A series of tests were carried out to investigate the pull-out resistance, mobilised tensile strength (ttensile) and passive strength (tpassive) of a subballastgeocell assembly under a given range of overburden pressure (1 kPa \u3c q \u3c 45 kPa). The interface was held in a vertical alignment to better simulate the interaction between subballast and geocell in accordance with routine track practices. The test results show that the geocell reinforcement provides a considerable degree of passive resistance, where the opening area (OA) and lateral pressure (sn) over the geocell strip are found to be influential factors. A three-dimensional finite element simulation was also conducted. The numerical results show that the tensile strength mobilised in the geocell will increase as the geocell stiffness increases, but causes a reduction in tpassive. A parametric study was also developed to investigate the impact of geocell stiffness and friction coefficient on the passive resistance and mobilised tensile strength. These results indicate that the passive resistance and mobilised tensile strength increase with the increase in overburden pressure (q) and friction coefficient (d)

Experimental and discrete element modelling of geocell-stabilized subballast subjected to cyclic loading

This paper presents a study of the load-deformation behaviour of geocell-stabilised sub-ballast subjected to cyclic loading using a novel track process simulation apparatus. The tests were conducted at frequencies varying from 10-30 Hz. This frequency range is generally representative of Australian Standard Gauge trains operating up to 160 km/h. The discrete element method (DEM) was also used to model geocell-reinforced sub-ballast under plane strain conditions. The geocell was modelled by connecting a group of small circular balls together to form the desired geometry and aperture using contact and parallel bonds. Tensile and bending tests were carried out to calibrate the model parameters adopted for simulating geocell. To model irregularly-shaped particles of sub-ballast, clusters of bonded circular balls were used. The simulated load-deformation curves of the geocell-reinforced sub-ballast assembly at varying cyclic load cycles were in good agreement with the experimental observations. The results indicated that geocell decreased the vertical and lateral deformation of sub-ballast assemblies at any given frequency. Furthermore, the DEM can also provide an insight into the distribution of contact force chains, and average contact normal and shear force distributions, which cannot be determined experimentally