Life cycle costing of industrialized building system and conventional building system

Life cycle costing (LCC) is the process of identifying and documenting the initial cost and future cost of the project throughout the lifetime of the building. It is important in determining the design alternatives through analyzing the total cost of ownership over the life span of an asset. Lack of adaptation of the residents with the house design leads them to adjust the house to fit their needs. The aim of this study is to calculate the life cycle costing of the new project as well as the changes and modifications throughout assumed lifespan of two generations for conventional and industrialized building system houses. Furthermore, it also introduces an alternative design to suit the householder needs. To achieve the aims, a research questionnaire survey was distributed among householders to obtain the money spent on housing and the modifications that occurred in the house throughout their home occupation. Moreover, the Net Present Value (NPV) method was adopted to achieve the IBS life cycle costing. Besides, Auto CAD software use to draw different house layouts to fit the residents’ requirements obtained from the questionnaire. However, the results showed that the modifications cost of a conventional house equal to 57% of house selling price and the LCC of the conventional building system equal to 67% of the IBS. The research shows that the IBS is a better method of construction as an alternative to a conventional building system

INVESTIGATION OF Helicobacter pylori VIRULENCE GENOTYPE IN GASTRIC BIOPSIES BY PCR

  Background: Helicobacter pylori infections has been associated with the genetic diversity of their virulence factors, the virulence genotypes are valuable as molecular marker in the diagnosis of patients with bacterial infections . Our main objective was to analyze the frequency and allelic genotype of vacA , cagA also investigate another virulence genes of H. pylori. Methods: 75 biopsies of  patients with gastritis and peptic ulcer diseases were selected to investigate the presences of H. pylori and collected from them antrum biopsies, then  genomic DNA was extracted from  antrum biopsies using genomic DNA kit .Subsequently, the virulence genes of H. pylori   were amplified using specific primers including vacA , cagA, cagE and oipA and iceA by PCR in 49 cases that positive to 16SrRNA which previously investigated. Results: A high prevalence of genes cagA  (28.6%), vacAs1bm2 (56.8%), iceA2 (30.6%)  and oipA  (42.9%) was found, while  vacA s2m1  and iceA1 genotypes  was not found in our study.  There was significant correlation between the presence of cagA and cagE genotypes (p = 0.02), suggesting that these two genes almost used together as cag PAI integrity marker. The  presence of cagA gene was significantly associated with peptic ulceration (p ≤ 0.001), whereas different vacA genotypes or iceA2 genotype were no statistically significant  with clinical outcome.  Patients with peptic ulcer disease more likely to have oipA gene (61.9% ) than those with gastritis (38.1%), P = 0.037, also the presence oipA gene was statistically significant with presence iceA2. Conclusion : Most H. pylori genotypes which associated with peptic ulcer and gastritis were moderate virulent strains. Â

A New Approach to Automatic Saliency Identification in Images Based on Irregularity of Regions

This research introduces an image retrieval system which is, in different ways, inspired by the human vision system. The main problems with existing machine vision systems and image understanding are studied and identified, in order to design a system that relies on human image understanding. The main improvement of the developed system is that it uses the human attention principles in the process of image contents identification. Human attention shall be represented by saliency extraction algorithms, which extract the salient regions or in other words, the regions of interest. This work presents a new approach for the saliency identification which relies on the irregularity of the region. Irregularity is clearly defined and measuring tools developed. These measures are derived from the formality and variation of the region with respect to the surrounding regions. Both local and global saliency have been studied and appropriate algorithms were developed based on the local and global irregularity defined in this work. The need for suitable automatic clustering techniques motivate us to study the available clustering techniques and to development of a technique that is suitable for salient points clustering. Based on the fact that humans usually look at the surrounding region of the gaze point, an agglomerative clustering technique is developed utilising the principles of blobs extraction and intersection. Automatic thresholding was needed in different stages of the system development. Therefore, a Fuzzy thresholding technique was developed. Evaluation methods of saliency region extraction have been studied and analysed; subsequently we have developed evaluation techniques based on the extracted regions (or points) and compared them with the ground truth data. The proposed algorithms were tested against standard datasets and compared with the existing state-of-the-art algorithms. Both quantitative and qualitative benchmarking are presented in this thesis and a detailed discussion for the results has been included. The benchmarking showed promising results in different algorithms. The developed algorithms have been utilised in designing an integrated saliency-based image retrieval system which uses the salient regions to give a description for the scene. The system auto-labels the objects in the image by identifying the salient objects and gives labels based on the knowledge database contents. In addition, the system identifies the unimportant part of the image (background) to give a full description for the scene

Risk Management Techniques

The importance of risk management has been increasing for a lot of construction projects in different industries, and thus risk management department must be established to monitor the risks. The construction industry and its managers are exposed to a high degree of risk that leads to increasing the cost or delay in the projects. Therefore, there must be techniques used to control the risk and determine the best method to respond to it. Artificial intelligence and its techniques will be described includes the principle of and its advantages, types and the techniques that used for the classification that includes, decision tree and K-star, neural network and support vector machine and simulation techniques like system dynamic and also using optimization techniques, Particle swarm, Gravitational Search Algorithm as follows: Classification (decision tree, K-star, neural network, support vector. Machine and)

On 2- Self_adjoint Operators

In this paper we give a generalization of self-adjoint operators defined on a Hilbert space which we called 2-self-adjoint operators. In spite of that we established some characterizations and properties of such type of operators .Moreover we have found some of their relationships with the other classes of operators .Futhermore ,we study the spectrum of this type of operators   Keywords: Operators on Hilbert space ,Self-adjoint operator,Hyponormal operator,2-normal operators,n-power normal operator,Quasi-posinormal operator

Obesity and hyperlipidaemia in adult males in a Semi-urban community in Jordan

Objective:  To describe the relationship between obesity and hyperlipidaemia. Methods: Cluster sampling technique-probability of households from Sareeh area. A total of 400 apparently healthy adult males aged 30-50 years were invited to participate in the study, of whom 306 completed the study. A pilot tested interview questionnaire was designed in the study to collect  the dietary history. Height, weight, waist circumference, triglycerides (TRIG) and total cholesterol (CHOL) were measured.  Obesity was categorized into three groups as indicated by BMI-C based on WHO (1997) for generalized obesity and for classifications of central obesity using waist circumference categories based on (Lean et al, 1995). Results: The means of plasma triglycerides and total cholesterol increased significantly with increasing levels of waist circumference and BMI categories (P<0.05).  There was an increase in the prevalence rates (PRs) of hypertriglyceridaemia and hypercholesterolaemia with increasing levels of obesity and its duration. The proportion ratios of hypertriglyceridaemia and hypercholesterolaemia for subjects with high and moderate obesity levels compared with subjects with normal levels were (10.1-11.6) and (6.7 -8.1) times respectively; whereas for subjects with duration of overweight>20 years compared with subjects with duration of obesity <10 years ranged (2.11-2.96) times.  Also odds ratios (ORs) of hypertriglyceridaemia and hypercholesterolaemia after controlling for confounded factors were increased with increasing levels of obesity and its duration, the highest (OR) in high obesity levels ranged (11.59-19.18, 95% CI, P<0.001) whereas for duration of obesity >20 years ranged (16.78-20.94, 95% CI, P<0.001). Central obesity had a potential risk on hypertriglyceridaemia and hypercholesterolaemia more than generalized obesity.  Conclusions: amount of body fat, location and duration are the major risk factors on hyper- trigly ceridaemia and hypercholesterolaemia which emphasizes the need for concentrated e-ffort  to prevent and treat obesity rather than just any associated co-morbidities

Life cycle costing of industrialized building system and conventional building system

Life cycle costing (LCC) is the process of identifying and documenting the initial cost and future cost of the project throughout the lifetime of the building. It is important in determining the design alternatives through analyzing the total cost of ownership over the life span of an asset. Lack of adaptation of the residents with the house design leads them to adjust the house to fit their needs. The aim of this study is to calculate the life cycle costing of the new project as well as the changes and modifications throughout assumed lifespan of two generations for conventional and industrialized building system houses. Furthermore, it also introduces an alternative design to suit the householder needs. To achieve the aims, a research questionnaire survey was distributed among householders to obtain the money spent on housing and the modifications that occurred in the house throughout their home occupation. Moreover, the Net Present Value (NPV) method was adopted to achieve the IBS life cycle costing. Besides, Auto CAD software use to draw different house layouts to fit the residents’ requirements obtained from the questionnaire. However, the results showed that the modifications cost of a conventional house equal to 57% of house selling price and the LCC of the conventional building system equal to 67% of the IBS. The research shows that the IBS is a better method of construction as an alternative to a conventional building system

FEBUXOSTAT MODULATES OXIDATIVE AND APOPTOTIC PATHWAYS IN ACUTE DOXORUBICIN‑INDUCED CARDIOTOXICITY: AN EXPERIMENTAL ANIMAL MODEL STUDY

Objectives: Doxorubicin is one of the most important and powerful anticancer drugs, the most pronounced limitation for its use is toxicity on normal cells. Mechanism of doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity (DIC) is multifactorial and complex, including direct DNA damage, formation of free radicals, interference with DNA repair, and activation of immune reactions. Febuxostat is a non-purine-selective xanthine oxidase inhibitor decrease the production of uric acid. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the influence of febuxostat on doxorubicin-induced acute cardiotoxicity in rats regarding oxidative stress and antiapoptotic effects. Methods: A total of 30 Sprague Dawley male rats were used which subdivided into three groups: Group I (negative control group) received normal saline for 10 days, Group II (positive control group) received normal saline plus single dose of doxorubicin (15 mg/kg, IP), and Group III (treated group) received febuxostat (10 mg/kg, po), for 10 successive days plus single dose of doxorubicin (15 mg/kg, I.P.). Serum brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), cardiac troponin I (cTn-I), caspase-3, glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), lipid peroxidase (LPO), malondialdehyde (MDA), and tumor necrosis factor alpha were estimated by ELISA kit method. Results: Febuxostat administration before doxorubicin led to significant decrease on cardiac troponin, caspase-3, and elevation in GSH-Px levels significantly p<0.05. While the effects of febuxostat on BNP, LPO, MDA, tumor necrosis-alpha were insignificant p>0.05 compare to doxorubicin. Conclusion: Febuxostat attenuates DIC through modulation of antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antiapoptotic biomarkers

Effect of varicocelectomy on sperm parameters, oxidative stress and Chromatin maturity in seminal fluid of infertile patients with varicocele

This study aimed to determine the effect of varicocelectomy on sperm parameters, oxidant- antioxidant status and chromatin maturity percent. The current study has been conducted on 154 infertile patients complaining from varicocele and varicocelomized men in addition to 25 fertile men as control. The results revealed significant decrease (

Genetic Diversity of Iraqi Date Palm (Phoenix ‎dactylifera L.) by using RAPD Technique

 في هذه الدراسة اثبتت جميع مؤشرات التفاعل الثضاعفي لسلسلة الدنا متعدد الاشكال نجاحا مع 65 مستزرع من نخيل  التمر العراقي والتي جمعت من مدينة الحلة في العراق٬ وذلك لتحديد البصمة الوراثية والقيمة المتباينة الاشكال والعلاقة الوراثية بين تلك الانواع وكذلك مع الانواع نفسها المستعملة في الدراسة. وقد اظهر تحليل البيانات لعشرة من المؤشرات الجزيئية المستعملة في هذه الدراسة́٬ مجموع عدد القطع المتضخمة لقطع الدنا هي 592 حزمة ونسبة متعدد الاشكال لكل المؤشرات هي 64.2%٬ وان قيمة الفعالية لمؤشرات الدنا كانت 0.09%٬ كذلك اظهرت النسبة المئوية للتشابه الوراثي بين الانواع 67% الى 100% ما بين المستزرعات التي تعود الى نفس المستزرع. العلاقة الوراثية ل24 مستزرع من نخيل الثمر تقسم الى مجموعتين رئيستين٬ المجموعة الاولى تقع ضمن المدى الوراثي 0.74 الى 1.30 وتمثل (مدني واشرسي ورصاصي وسيسمي وسكري) والمجموعة الثانية تقع ضمن المدى الوراثي من 0.25 الى 0.60 وتقسم الى ثلاثة تحت مجموعات وهي: تحت المجموعة الاولى وتمثل (سلطاني وخستاوي وبريم وسبع ذراع وحمراوي وبربن وخضراوي) ٬  وتحت مجموعة الثانية تمثل (زهدي وتبرزل وبرحي وجبجاب وفوم الرمان) اما تحت مجموعة الثالثة تمثل (اسطة عمران ونيرسي ونجدي وكنطار وشويثي وغنامي احمر).In this study provided all molecular markers of Random amplified polymorphic (RAPD) successfully with the sixty five Iraqi date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) cultivars, which collected from Hilla city in Iraq, to determine fingerprinting, polymorphic value, and relationships among varieties of date palm cultivars, and also with the same type of cultivars. Data analysis of ten RAPD has been revealed. Number of amplified DNA fragments were (592) bands, polymorphism per all primers were (%64.2), primer efficiency was 0.1, and discriminatory value was (%0.09), which revealed a high percentage similarity about %67 to %100 between cultivars belong to the same variety. There are relationships with twenty four genotypes, divided in to two clusters, clusterΙ ranged distance from 0.74 to 1.30 represented(Maddany, Ashrasi, Greatli, Smeasmi and sukkary) and clusterII ranged distance from 0.25 to 0.60 which divided into three sub group, there are sub group I represented (Sultana, Khestawi, Breem, Sabb Drrah, Hamrawi, Brban, and Khadrawi), sub groupiesII represented (Zahdi, Tebarzal, Maktom, brahi, Chipchab and Fom Alrman), sub groupies III represented (Usta Umran, Nersi, Najdi, Guntar, Shwethi and Ghanami Ahmer)