Osteoporosis is a systemic disease of the skeleton, characterized by low bone mass and alteration in the micro-architecture of the bone tissue that lead to an increase in brittleness with the ensuing predisposition to bone fracture. Global statistics shows that women are more exposed to this disease than men and in particular at menopause. This study was designed to evaluate the use of some bone markers: serum osteocalcin (Ost), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), as bone formation markers, also parathyroid hormone (PTH), calcium and inorganic phosphate level, for the assessment of patients with osteoporosis and to evaluate their role in monitoring of several types of therapeutic interventions (such as bisphosphonates, hormonal replacement thera

When embankment is constructed on very soft soil, special construction methods are adopted. One of the techniques is a piled embankment. Piled (stone columns) embankments provide an economic and effective solution to the problem of constructing embankments over soft soils. This method can reduce settlements, construction time and cost. Stone columns provide an effective improvement method for soft soils under light structures such as rail or road embankments. The present work investigates the behavior of the embankment models resting on soft soil reinforced with stone columns. Model tests were performed with different spacing distances between stone columns and two lengths to diameter ratios of the stone columns, in addition to different

      A model using the artificial neural networks and genetic algorithm technique is developed for obtaining optimum dimensions of the foundation length and protections of small hydraulic structures. The procedure involves optimizing an objective function comprising a weighted summation of the state variables. The decision variables considered in the optimization are the upstream and downstream cutoffs lengths and their angles of inclination, the foundation length, and the length of the downstream soil protection. These were obtained for a given maximum difference in head, depth of impervious layer and degree of anisotropy. The optimization carried out is subjected to constraints that ensure a safe structure aga

This paper studies the combination fluid viscous dampers in the outrigger system to add supplementary damping into the structure, which purpose to remove the dependability of the structure to lower variable intrinsic damping. It works by connecting the central core, comprising either shear walls or braced frames, to the outer perimeter columns.

     The modal considered is a 36 storey square high rise reinforced concrete building. By constructing a discrete lumped mass model, and using frequency-based response function, two systems of dampers, parallel and series systems are studied. The maximum lateral load at the top of the building is calculated, and  this load  w

Hydrate dissociation equilibrium conditions for carbon dioxide + methane with water, nitrogen + methane with water and carbon dioxide + nitrogen with water were measured using cryogenic sapphire cell. Measurements were performed in the temperature range of 275.75 K–293.95 K and for pressures ranging from 5 MPa to 25 MPa. The resulting data indicate that as the carbon dioxide concentration is increased in the gas mixture, the gas hydrate equilibrium temperature increases. In contrast, by increasing the nitrogen concentration in the gas mixtures containing methane or carbon dioxide decreased the gas hydrate equilibrium temperatures. Furthermore, the cage occupancies for the carbon dioxide + methane system were evaluated using the Van der Wa

An experimental and numerical investigation of the effect of using two types of nanofluids with suspending of (Al₂O₃ and CuO) nanoparticles in deionized water with a volume fraction of (0.1% vol.), in addition to use three types of fin plate configurations of (smooth, perforated, and dimple plate) to study the heat transfer enhancement characteristics of commercial fin plate heat sink for cooling computer processing unit. All experimental tests under simulated conditions by using heat flux heater element with input power range of (5, 16, 35, 70, and 100 W). The experimental parameters calculated are such as water and nanofluid as coolant with Reynolds number of (7000, 8000, 9400 and 11300); the air

In this work, a joint quadrature for numerical solution of the double integral is presented. This method is based on combining two rules of the same precision level to form a higher level of precision. Numerical results of the present method with a lower level of precision are presented and compared with those performed by the existing high-precision Gauss-Legendre five-point rule in two variables, which has the same functional evaluation. The efficiency of the proposed method is justified with numerical examples. From an application point of view, the determination of the center of gravity is a special consideration for the present scheme. Convergence analysis is demonstrated to validate the current method.