Dam operation and management have become more complex recently because of the need for considering hydraulic structure sustainability and environmental protect on. An Earthfill dam that includes a powerhouse system is considered as a significant multipurpose hydraulic structure. Understanding the effects of running hydropower plant turbines on the dam body is one of the major safety concerns for earthfill dams. In this research, dynamic analysis of earthfill dam, integrated with a hydropower plant system containing six vertical Kaplan turbines (i.e., Haditha dam), is investigated. In the first stage of the study, ANSYS-CFX was used to represent one vertical Kaplan turbine unit by designing a three-dimensional (3-D) finite element (FE) model. This model was used to differentiate between the effect of turbine units’ operation on dam stability in accordance to maximum and minimum reservoir upstream water levels, and the varying flowrates in a fully open gate condition. In the second stage of the analysis, an ANSYS-static modeling approach was used to develop a 3-D FE earthfill dam model. The water pressure pattern determined on the boundary of the running turbine model is transformed into the pressure at the common area of the dam body with turbines. The model is inspected for maximum and minimum upstream water levels. Findings indicate that the water stress fluctuations on the dam body are proportional to the inverse distance from the turbine region. Also, it was found that the cone and outlet of the hydropower turbine system are the most affected regions when turbine is running. Based on the attained results, a systematic operation program was proposed in order to control the running hydropower plant with minimized principal stress at selected nodes on the dam model and the six turbines.
Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the association between caries related microorganisms in children’s saliva, such as Streptococcus mutans and lactobacilli, and their demographic factors. Methods: This study involved a sample of 135, both sexes with an age range between 3 and 10 years. Unstimulated saliva was obtained and diluted in normal saline. Saliva was then placed in selective media. Salivaris agar was used for mutans streptococci while Rogosa agar for lactobacilli. After incubation, Streptococcus mutans counting of CFU (colony forming units) with morphology characterization and numbers of CFU per milliliter of saliva for lactobacilli. Demographic factors information was collected using a questionnaire.
... Show MoreThis study aims to formulate azithromycin oleogel to locally treat skin infections such as acne vulgaris and skin wound infection. Providing a form of azithromycin that can be administered topically is highly desired to prevent unwanted systemic complications including diarrhea, nausea, and abdominal pain. Additionally, it will avoid first pass metabolism, improves patient acceptance, provides an alternative in nauseated patients, decreases the dose by direct contact with the pathological site, and provides a noninvasive and convenient mode of administration. Furthermore, for treating wound infections, the gel will act as a scaffold biomaterial for wound closure besides its antibacterial effect. Herein, we propose the use of grapeseed oil-b
... Show MoreObjective: The aim of this study was to develop a bioadhesive gel of gatifloxacin for the treatment of periodontal diseases.Methods: Periodontal gels of gatifloxacin were prepared using different hydrophilic polymers such as carbopol 940 (CP 940), carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) and hydroxypropylmethyl cellulose (HPMC) in varied concentrations, either alone or as a combination. The prepared gels were evaluated for their physical appearance, pH, drug content, viscosity, bioadhesiveness and in vitro drug release profile. The influence of the type and the concentration of polymer on the drug release as well as on viscosity and mucoadhesiveness of prepared gels were investigated.Results: The prepared gels showed acceptable physical proper
... Show MoreFifty one patients with serologically confirmed brucellosis and 70 healthy controls were phenotyped for HLA-A, -B, -DR and -DQ antigens by using standard microlympho-cytotoxicity method, and lymphocytes defined by their CD markers (CD3, CD4, CD8 and CD19). The results revealed a significant (Pc = 0.001) increased frequency of HLA-DR8 (41.18 vs. 10.0%) in the patients . A significant increased percentage of CD8+ lymphocytes was also increased in the patients (25.15 vs. 22.0%; P = 0.006), while CD3+ lymphocytes were significantly decreased (75.1 vs. 79.4%; P = 0.02).
Introduction: Dental fear is defined as the patient’s specific reaction towards stress related to dental treatment in which the stimulus is unkn..
By definition, the detection of protein complexes that form protein-protein interaction networks (PPINs) is an NP-hard problem. Evolutionary algorithms (EAs), as global search methods, are proven in the literature to be more successful than greedy methods in detecting protein complexes. However, the design of most of these EA-based approaches relies on the topological information of the proteins in the PPIN. Biological information, as a key resource for molecular profiles, on the other hand, acquired a little interest in the design of the components in these EA-based methods. The main aim of this paper is to redesign two operators in the EA based on the functional domain rather than the graph topological domain. The perturb
... Show MoreWith the increasing integration of computers and smartphones into our daily lives, in addition to the numerous benefits it offers over traditional paper-based methods of conducting affairs, it has become necessary to incorporate one of the most essential facilities into this integration; namely: colleges. The traditional approach for conducting affairs in colleges is mostly paper-based, which only increases time and workload and is relatively decentralized. This project provides educational and management services for the university environment, targeting the staff, the student body, and the lecturers, on two of the most used platforms: smartphones and reliable web applications by clo
In recent years, the positioning applications of Internet-of-Things (IoT) based systems have grown increasingly popular, and are found to be useful in tracking the daily activities of children, the elderly and vehicle tracking. It can be argued that the data obtained from GPS based systems may contain error, hence taking these factors into account, the proposed method for this study is based on the application of IoT-based positioning and the replacement of using IoT instead of GPS. This cannot, however, be a reason for not using the GPS, and in order to enhance the reliability, a parallel combination of the modern system and traditional methods simultaneously can be applied. Although GPS signals can only be accessed in open spaces, GP
... Show MoreBackground: The repair of bone defects remains a major clinical orthopaedic challenge. Bone is a highly vascularised tissue reliant on the close spatial and temporal connection between blood vessels and bone cells to maintain skeletal integrity. Angiogenesis thus plays a pivotal role in skeletal development and bone fracture repair. The role of angiogenic and osteogenic factors in the adaptive response and interaction of osteoblasts and endothelial cells during the multi step process of bone development and repair will be highlighted in this study. This study aimed to identify the role of local exogenous vascular endothelial growth factor in bone healing and to analyze the expression of VEGF by immunohistochemistry in created bone defect af
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