Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is a public health problem and many studies support the link between kidney dysfunction and cardiovascular events.  Aldosterone has been shown for decades that a plasma aldosterone concentration is elevated in CKD. Whilst, Osteoprotegerin (OPG), after its capacity to protect bone, also osteoprotegerin is elevated in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), where it could predict the deterioration of kidney function, cardiovascular, vascular events and all-cause mortality. On the other hand, fibroblast growth factors (FGFs), in patients with CKD, its levels seem to increase progressively as kidney function worsens. The aim of the present study is to assess the correlations between serum osteoprotegerin

Most studies on deep beams have been made with reinforced concrete deep beams, only a few studies investigate the response of prestressed deep beams, while, to the best of our knowledge, there is not a study that investigates the response of full scale (T-section) prestressed deep beams with large web openings. An experimental and numerical study was conducted in order to investigate the shear strength of ordinary reinforced and partially prestressed full scale (T-section) deep beams that contain large web openings in order to investigate the prestressing existence effects on the deep beam responses and to better understand the effects of prestressing locations and opening depth to beam depth ratio on the deep beam performance and b

The electrocardiogram (ECG) is the recording of the electrical potential of the heart versus time. The analysis of ECG signals has been widely used in cardiac pathology to detect heart disease. The ECGs are non-stationary signals which are often contaminated by different types of noises from different sources. In this study, simulated noise models were proposed for the power-line interference (PLI), electromyogram (EMG) noise, base line wander (BW), white Gaussian noise (WGN) and composite noise. For suppressing noises and extracting the efficient morphology of an ECG signal, various processing techniques have been recently proposed. In this paper, wavelet transform (WT) is performed for noisy ECG signals. The graphical user interface (GUI)

Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Lean Construction (LC) are two quickly growing applied research areas in construction management. This study focuses on identifying the most essential benefits and analyzing the most affecting constraints on the construction sector that construction players face as they attempt to combine BIM-LC in Iraqi construction. Experts assessed 30 benefits and 28 constraints from examining the previous literature, and a two-round Delphi survey formed the responses. Expert consensus analysis was utilized to elaborate and validate responses after descriptive statistical checks had been used for data processing.

According to the study's findings, the benefits include ensuring the most ef

Many people take protein supplements in an effort to gain muscle. However, there is some controversy as to whether this is really effective. There is evidence suggesting that consuming high level s of protein may in fact have negative side effects for health. The current study included 29 young Iraqi building muscles in two different groups (taken and not protein supplements) (age range=17-31 years), the cases were selected from family, friends, college students, and Gyms), from November 2014 to March 2015. A careful history was obtained from each volunteer including age, duration of sports, type of supplements, and family history of diseases. Some biochemical parameters like (glucose, urea, uric acid, creatinine, bilirubin, serum protei

 

This work targeted studying organogel as a potential floating system. Organgel has an excellent viscoelastic properties, floating system posses a depot property.  Different formulations of 12-hydroxyoctadecanoic acid (HOA) in sesame oil were gelled and selecting F1, F3 and F5 HOA organogels for various examinations: tabletop rheology, optical microscopy, and oscillatory rheology studies. Also, the floating properties studies were conducted at in vitro and in-vivo levels. Lastly, the in-vitro release study using cinnarizine (CN) was to investigate the organogel depot property. Based on the results, the selected concentrations of HOA in sesame oil organogels showed temperature transitions fr

This study numerically intends to evaluate the effects of arc-shaped fins on the melting capability of a triplex-tube confinement system filled with phase-change materials (PCMs). In contrast to situations with no fins, where PCM exhibits relatively poor heat response, in this study, the thermal performance is modified using novel arc-shaped fins with various circular angles and orientations compared with traditional rectangular fins. Several inline and staggered layouts are also assessed to maximize the fin’s efficacy. The effect of the nearby natural convection is further investigated by adding a fin to the bottom of the heat-storage domain. Additionally, the Reynolds number and temperature of the heat-transfer fluid (HTF) are e