Pushover analysis of reinforced concrete structures applied to blast load using different plastic hinge models

The current work developed a modified pushover method using the Dynamic Load Factor DLF concept to give reasonable results compared to the more complex and time-consuming method (i.e., the non-linear time history method). A charge of 100 kg TNT is assumed to explode at different stand-off distances to cover the three blast design ranges of the (UFC 340-02) Code. The values of (DLF) were checked by applying them to the value of the blast load at the stand-off distances range between (10-70m). The results of the modified pushover method approached that of nonlinear time history with differences not exceeding (11.8%) and (4%) for maximum displacement and shear force, respectively. The DLF was suggested to be constant and equal (2.5) for the (high-pressure) design range and (1) for the (very-low pressure) design range. A formula was proposed for the (low-pressure) design range to simulate the descending values from (2.5) to (1). The prior plastic hinge models proposed by other researchers (Hawraa 2019 and Samer 2020) were used to explore the more realistic structural response to blast loads compared to the standard model of ASCE41-17. Both models of the plastic hinge demonstrated a Collapse Prevention (CP) performance at the (high-pressure) design range. However, the ASCE model indicated that more columns failed in this range. Considering the ASCE 41-17 and proposed approaches, the building performance at the (low-pressure) design range corresponds to the CP and Immediate Occupancy (IO) categories. Some plastic hinges were found when using the proposed plastic hinge model, but the number was nearly identical to that obtained using the ASCE method. The structure did not go beyond the elastic behavior if the proposed plastic hinge model is used in the (very low-pressure) design range. In the same design range, the structure performance lies within the (IO) category concerning the ASCE model. Generally, the suggested plastic hinge approach has been deemed sturdy due to being developed using the blast load and considered more dependable than those of ASCE41-17, which is acceptable for seismic events

A Single Nucleotide Polymorphism in Interleukin–10 Gene SNP-819 Associated with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Type 2 diabetes is a multifactorial disease caused by a complex interplay of multiple genetic variants and many environmental factors. With the recent genome-wide association (GWA) studies, the number of replicated common genetic variants associated with type 2 diabetes has rapidly increased. In this study, our aim was to determine the role of IL-10 polymorphism among patients with T2DM. A total of 120 Type 2 diabetes mellitus patients (67 males and 53 females) with an age mean ± SD (62.8333± 9.46052), FBS mean ± SD (310.0000± 88.90737), family history (90 positive/ 30 negative to family history, Hypertension (86 positive/ 34 negative) and 120 non-diabetic controls (46 males and 74 females) of Iraqis ethnicity with an age mean ± SD (31.6583± 11.51579). There was significant difference between the groups (T2DM patients and their control) (P = 0.001). And IL-10 gene polymorphism in each group was compared (CC, TT, CT). There is an association between the IL-10 (SNP rs 3021097 (C/T) gene polymorphism among T2DM patients and healthy people. Keywords: IL-10, Genotype, T2DM, Genetic susceptibility, SN

Layer by Layer Silver Acetate based Coating on Glass and Cement Substrates to Tailor Reflectance and Conductance

Tailoring reflectance and conductance was achieved through layer by layer assembly of a silver acetate based multilayer coating. The coating was applied over glass and cement substrates by sol-gel spin coating and by brush painting, respectively. The structural, optical and electrical characteristics and the composition of the coating were studied. The diffraction peaks for all films revealed that the face-centered cubic lattice of the silver crystal structure and the films with more layers had a higher degree of crystallinity. The optical characteristics showed that having more layers leads to decreasing transmittance and increasing reflectance. The I-V characteristics of all samples showed typical ohmic contacts in a voltage range of -1 to 1 V. The conductance increased drastically as the coating developed into multiple layers. The eight-layer coated glass and cement based substrates had very low surface resistance, at 4 Ω and 2 Ω at 1 V, respectively. The study also revealed that the resistance behavior of a multilayered film generally is thermally stable for annealing up to 400 °C. The coating resistance was significantly increased by further increasing the post-annealing beyond 500 °C. The studied multilayered coating can be used to tailor the reflectance and conductance of dielectric substrate surfaces for various optoelectronics and sensor device applications

The Study of Association Between Handedness, Coronary Dominance and Severity of Lesions in Coronary Artery Branches

Objective: To determine the association between handedness, coronary dominance and severity of lesions in coronary artery branches.Methods: A total of 96 patients (64 male and 32 female) with an ages between (25-76) years old, ages range (51) and age mean ± SD (57.4063± 8.84793)  were diagnosed with ischemic heart diseases a proved by coronary angiography, 32 patients presented with family history to ischemic heart diseases and 64 patients without family history to ischemic heart diseases.Results: The current results showed significance between handedness and coronary dominance (<0.001) and handedness with lesion and severity in left anterior descending, right coronary dominance, left circumflex, and left main stem. Otherwise the family history and sex and coronary dominance with lesion and severity in left anterior descending, right coronary dominance, left circumflex, and left main stem ( <0.001). Conclusion: The study proved the presence of a relationship between handedness and coronary dominance; moreover we suggested there are relations between right handed and right coronary dominance with focal mid lesion in left anterior descending and right coronary. Keywords: Handedness, Coronary dominance, Coronary angiograph

Lack Evidence Between CTLA-4 Gene Polymorphisms Among Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory disorder that typically affects the small joints in hands and feet. Genes involved in T-cell regulation are potential candidates. Association to cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated-4 (CTLA-4) protein, a negative regulator of T-cell activation, has previously been described in Rheumatoid arthritis patients. In this study, our aim was to determine the role of CTLA-4 polymorphism among patients with Rheumatoid arthritis. A total of 120 Rheumatoid arthritis patients (69 males and 51 females) with an age mean ± SD (67.2000± 11.74133), family history (16 positive/ 104 negative), rheumatoid factor test (RF) (43 positive/ 77 negative), Anti-CCP antibody test (120 positive/ 0 negative), and 120 controls (46 males and 74 females) of Iraqis ethnicity with an age mean ± SD (31.6583± 11.51579). There was no significant difference between the groups (Rheumatoid arthritis patients and their control) (P = 0.478). And CTLA-4 gene polymorphism in each group was compared (AA, GG, AG). There is no difference between the CTLA-4 (SNP +49 A/G rs#231775) gene polymorphism among Rheumatoid arthritis patients and healthy people. Keywords: CTLA-4, Genotype, Rheumatoid arthritis, Genetic susceptibility, SN

Cancer in Children at El Obeid Hospital, Western Sudan.

Background: Cancers form one of the major causes of death in children. They differ markedly from adult cancers in their nature, distribution and prognosis. Objectives: To determine the pattern of childhood cancer at El Obeid Hospital, Western Sudan. Patients and Methods: The records of all patients admitted with cancer aged 15 years and below tothe wards of El Obeid Hospital, Western Sudan over two years were studied. The cancers were classified according to the organs affected and then ranked in their order of relative frequency. The mean age, age range, gender and the relative frequency rates were calculated. Results: There were 40 newly diagnosed childhood cancer patients during the study period. Males were 29 patients (72.5%). The age ranged three months to 14 years. Leukaemias were the most common malignancy in both sexes, followed by bone tumours and then nephroblastoma.Conclusions: Cancers in children were seen at Western Sudan, and cases admitted to hospital only reflect the tip of the iceberg as many cases were directly referred to Oncology Hospitals. Establishment of a local radiation and isotopes centre is needed in this part of the country to provide oncology services and to integrate preventive programs.Key words: Acute lymphocytic leukaemia, osteosarcoma, nephroblastoma, Western Sudan

Comparison Study Of Energy Efficiency Activities Programs Among The Selected Region And Countries: Lessons Learned For Malaysia

This study reviews the contemporary tendencies in energy efficiency performance in chosen regions and countries. It also reviews the energy efficiency strategies and activities accomplished in these countries which pursue the program of reduction in energy consumption while maintaining the comfort level. These become the objectives and today’s energy efficiency requirement. This study also aims to highlight these activities and the outcomes of the energy efficiency implementation. The extent of this action and its effectiveness is being ascertained. The indicator used to evaluate the Energy Efficiency activities is the Energy Intensity Indicator which is provided by International Energy Agency (IEA). The reports and measurements of the International Energy Agency (IEA) are considered in order to make comparison among the selected countries. The main reason of focus on Energy Intensity levels is because this indicator reflects the result of all activities in different sectors and make sense which country has fulfilled the requirement of Energy Efficiency. The regions and countries are selected on the basis that their level of achievement in the energy efficiency programs are high. However, comparison is still made because each region and country has different emphasis and focus. Despite that Malaysia is a developing country, the achievement towards satisfactory energy efficiency implementation can be considered as encouraging and can only advance further if energy efficiency practice in these selected countries will be learned

The Malaysia DREEM: perceptions of medical students about the learning environment in a medical school in Malaysia

BACKGROUND: Students’ perceptions of their learning environment, by defining its strengths and weaknesses, are important for continuous improvement of the educational environments and curriculum. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore students’ perceptions of their learning environment, among medical students in Malaysia. Various aspects of the education environment were compared between year levels and sex. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted at the Management and Science University, Shah Alam, Malaysia in 2012. A total number of 438 medical students participated in this study, and the response rate was 87.6%. Data were analyzed using SPSS. Comparisons of the mean scores of Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure (DREEM) subscales were calculated. The t-test was used to determine statistically significant differences. RESULTS: The majority of the study participants were female, Malay, and from year 3 (68.7%, 65.3%, and 55.7%; respectively). Analysis of each of the 50 items of the DREEM inventory showed that 47 items scored ranged between 2.00 and 3.00, and three items scored below 2.00. These were identified as problem areas in this medical school that are required to be critically addressed. The overall score showed that the medical students’ perceptions were positive. The students’ perception toward educational environment was positive for all five DREEM subscales. CONCLUSION: The study found that, in general, the perceptions of the participants about the learning environment were positive. Nevertheless, the study also found there is a need for curriculum improvement in this school and identified priority areas for such improvement

Detail-preserving switching algorithm for the removal of random-valued impulse noise

© 2018, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature. This paper presents a new algorithm for the denoising of images corrupted with random-valued impulse noise (RVIN). It employs a switching approach that identifies the noisy pixels in the first stage and then estimates their intensity values to restore them. Local statistics of the textons in distinct orientations of the sliding window are exploited to identify the corrupted pixels in an iterative manner; using an adaptive threshold range. Textons are formed by using an isometric grid of minimum local distance that preserves the texture and edge pixels of an image, effectively. At the noise filtering stage, fuzzy rules are used to obtain the noise-free pixels from the proposed tri-directional pixels to estimate the intensity values of identified corrupted pixels. The performance of the proposed denoising algorithm is evaluated on a variety of standard gray-scale images under various intensities of RVIN by comparing it with state-of-the-art denoising methods. The proposed denoising algorithm also has robust denoising and restoration power on biomedical images such as, MRI, X-Ray and CT-Scan. The extensive simulation results based on both quantitative measures and visual representations depict the superior performance of the proposed denoising algorithm for various noise intensities

Causes and differentials of childhood mortality in Iraq

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Limited information is available in Iraq regarding the causes of under-five mortality. The vital registration system is deficient in its coverage, particularly from rural areas where access to health services is limited and most deaths occur at home, i.e. outside the health system, and hence the cause of death goes unreported. Knowledge of patterns and trends in causes of under-five mortality is essential for decision-makers in assessing programmatic needs, prioritizing interventions, and monitoring progress. The aim of this study was to identify causes of under-five children deaths using a simplified verbal autopsy questionnaire.</p> <p>The objective was to define the leading symptoms and cause of death among Iraqi children from all regions of Iraq during 1994–1999.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>To determine the cause structure of child deaths, a simplified verbal autopsy questionnaire was used in interviews conducted in the Iraqi Child & Maternal Mortality Survey (ICMMS) 1999 national sample. All the mothers/caregivers of the deceased children were asked open-ended questions about the symptoms within the two weeks preceding death; they could mention more than one symptom.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The leading cause of death among under-five children was found to be childhood illnesses in 81.2%, followed by sudden death in 8.9% and accidents in 3.3%. Among under-five children dying of illnesses, cough and difficulty in breathing were the main symptoms preceding death in 34.0%, followed by diarrhea in 24.4%. Among neonates the leading cause was cough/and or difficulty in breathing in 42.3%, followed by sudden death in 11.9%, congenital abnormalities in 10.3% and prematurity in 10.2%. Diarrhea was the leading cause of death among infants in 49.8%, followed by cough and/or difficulty in breathing in 26.6%. Among children 12–59 months diarrhea was the leading cause of death in 43.4%, followed by accidents, injuries, and poisoning in 19.3%, then cough/difficulty in breathing in 14.8%.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In Iraq Under-five child mortality is one of the highest in the Middle East region; deaths during the neonatal period accounted for more than half of under-five children deaths highlighting an urgent need to introduce health interventions to improve essential neonatal care. Priority needs to be given to the prevention, early and effective treatment of neonatal conditions, diarrheal diseases, acute respiratory infections, and accidents. This study points to the need for further standardized assessments of under-5 mortality in Iraq.</p