Straight tendons in pretensioned members can cause high-tensile stresses in the concrete extreme fibers at end sections because of the absence of the bending stresses due to self-weight and superimposed loads and the dominance of the moment due to prestressing force alone. Accordingly, the concrete tensile stresses at the ends of a member prestressed with straight tendons may limit the service load capacity of the member. It is therefore important to establish limiting zone in the concrete section within which the prestressing force can be applied without causing tension in the extreme concrete fibers. Two practical methods are available to reduce the stresses at the end sections due to the prestressing force. The first method based

This study was conducted to identify the health status of children's nurseries in the city of Baghdad and to identify improper dietary habits practiced by these children have shown the results of this study that the same proportion of childhood diarrhea disease research and infections

Background: Psoriasis is a common inflammatory condition worldwide, with an average prevalence ranging from 2% to 3%. However, the incidence of psoriasis varies among different ethnic groups and regions. Elevated leptin levels have been associated with increased cellular proliferation, including T-cells. Additionally, high leptin levels may stimulate the synthesis of proinflammatory cytokines such as ILـ6 and TNFـα. Objectives: To evaluate the effect of Apremilast on Leptin in obese psoriatic patients. Subjects and Methods: Thirty patients with psoriasis were included in This prospective cohort study to measure the levels of serum Leptin by using the ELISA technique, before and after receiving Apremilast. Result: The present work

Massive multiple-input multiple-output (MaMi) systems have attracted much research attention during the last few years. This is because MaMi systems are able to achieve a remarkable improvement in data rate and thus meet the immensely ongoing traffic demands required by the future wireless networks. To date, the downlink training sequence (DTS) for the frequency division duplex (FDD) MaMi communications systems have been designed based on the idealistic assumption of white noise environments. However, it is essential and more practical to consider the colored noise environments when designing an efficient DTS for channel estimation. To this end, this paper proposes a new DTS design by exploring the joint use of spatial channel and n

This study is to evaluate plasma levels of several cytokines in preeclamptic pregnancies compared to those of healthy pregnancies. Ninety pregnant women with preeclampsia (37 mild & 53 severe) and thirty healthy pregnant women were enrolled in the study. Blood samples were taken and plasma levels of IL-8, IL-10, and IFN-? were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Preeclamptic women and their severe cases but not mild cases had significantly (P<0.05) increased levels of plasma IL-8, and IFN-? as compared with healthy pregnancies. By contrast, plasma levels of IL-10 was significantly (P<0.05) increased in healthy pregnant women as compared to all groups of preeclampsia. Preeclampsia is associated with an imbalance betwe

Recurrent respiratory tract infections are responsible for about 85% of all diseases in childhood, and are associated with significant morbidity and mortality. The aim of this study is to evaluate the main causes underlying recurrent respiratory tract infections in 176 pediatric patients aged 2 month to 4 year and weight from 4 to11 kg referred to the child center hospital and Al-sader hospital prospective study.All parents were given information sheet which then analyzed and the percentage of incidence of causes were recorded, we found that higher % related to many causes; mostly related to the parent like poor family education, mother carelessness, incomplete vaccination, other related to empirical diagnosis, and short course of t

Background: Ultrasound guided core needle biopsy is becoming a gold standard in the work up of suspicious breast lesion. In Iraq, radiologists are not taking the lead in core needle biopsy performance.

Objectives: To evaluate the radiologist performance of core needle biopsy highlighting the precession and accuracy of the procedure, the concordance of ultrasound and histopathology, and identifying challenges facing the radiologist during the procedure.

Subjects and Methods: A prospective study involving a total of 50 patients with ultrasound (US) BIRADS IV or V.  Ultrasound guided core needle biopsy was performed for each patient. Surgical pathol

Introduction and Aim: Kruppel Like Factor 14 (KLF14) gene plays an important role in metabolic illnesses and is also involved in the regulation of many other biological processes. This study's objective was to determine whether or not the KLF14 single-nucleotide-polymorphism (SNP) known as rs972283 was linked to an increased risk of peptic ulcer disease in the population that was being investigated.   Materials and Methods: Participants in this study included 71 people who had been diagnosed with peptic ulcers and 50 people who were considered to be healthy controls. In order to genotype the KLF14 SNP rs972283, an amplification refractory mutation system-polymerase chain reaction (ARMS-PCR) was carried out, and the PCR results were

Foreign direct investment (FDI) is one of the most practical types of foreign investment. FDI contributes to job creation, foreign exchange earnings and national income escalation, improving semi-skill and skilled labor. Based on our knowledge, this paper is the first study attempting to investigate the effect of political stability on the FDI in Turkey using an econometric approach. Achieving this objective, a co-integration analysis was conducted between the FDI and its determinants in the short-run and long-run including “macroeconomic indicators” and “Political Stability (PS)” in Turkey. Using annual data from 1974 to 2017 via Auto-Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model. The results confirm the positive correlation betwe

The study was conducted to measure diatom species diversity in the lotic ecosystem across the Wasit Province for 12 months. The quantitative study of diatoms (phytoplankton) was investigated in the Tigris river. The density of algae was ranged from 60989 cell×103/l to 112780.82 cell×103/l in the five sites. These algae were belonging to 39 genera. The richness index values ranged from 1.53 at site 5 in January 2016 to 6.34 at site 1 and June2015. Shannon-Weiner diversity index (H´) was 2.33 in February 2016 and 3.72 in June 2015 both values at site 3, whereas Evenness index was 0.54 at site 5 in March2016 and 0.98 at site 1 in both August2015 and May2016. The lack of homogeneity of the appearance of species indicates the dominance of a