This paper presents a study (experimentally) for strengthening reinforced concrete (RC) beams with Near-Surface-Mounted (NSM) technique. The use of this technique with CFRP strips or rebars is an efficient technology for increasing the strength for flexure and shear or for repairing damaged reinforced concrete (RC) members. The objective of this research is to study, experimentally, RC beams either repaired or strengthened with NSM CFRP strips and follow their flexural behavior and failure modes. NSM-CFRP strips were used to strengthen three RC beam specimens, one of them was initially strengthened and tested up to failure. Four beam specimens have been initially subjected to preloading to 50% and 80% of ultimate load. Two of the specimens were either repaired or strengthened with NSM-CFRP strips. All the repaired/strengthened pre-damaged beams have been tested up to failure by using compression-testing machine. An appropriate-scale model was adopted. All the specimens have a cross-sectional dimension of 150 mm with an effective span of 110 mm. Depends on the experimental results, a better performance of the strengthened concrete specimens was obtained in both strength and serviceability. As a comparison with the control beam specimen, all the repaired specimens show a very good increase of about 40% in the load-carrying capacity and a high improvement in resistance to cracking of about 120% in NSM. On the other hand, the test results of NSM CFRP-strengthened concrete specimens with a preloading of 50% and 80% of the ultimate load show an increase of about 9% to 20% in the load-carrying capacity, for 50% and 80% pre-loading, respectively an improvement in deflection of about 2% to 27% in NSM, for 80% and 50% pre-loading, respectively.
Background: Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) is one of the largest causes of mortality worldwide. Clopidogrel, antiplatelet drug, has been widely used for management of CAD. The current study aimed to investigate the effect of clopidogrel on the oxidative stress in CAD patients. Methods: One hundred CAD patients, who were followed-up for 5 days after receiving clopidogrel, and 50 healthy volunteers were included in this study. Parameters include catalase (CAT), total antioxidant capacity (TAC), total oxidant capacity (TOC), total protein, albumin, and globulins were determined before and after treatment with clopidogrel. Results: CAT, TAC, and Tp were significantly decreased (P<0.0001) in CAD patients compared to healthy control and
... Show MoreMultilocus haplotype analysis of candidate variants with genome wide association studies (GWAS) data may provide evidence of association with disease, even when the individual loci themselves do not. Unfortunately, when a large number of candidate variants are investigated, identifying risk haplotypes can be very difficult. To meet the challenge, a number of approaches have been put forward in recent years. However, most of them are not directly linked to the disease-penetrances of haplotypes and thus may not be efficient. To fill this gap, we propose a mixture model-based approach for detecting risk haplotypes. Under the mixture model, haplotypes are clustered directly according to their estimated d
The study aimed to identify Human Papillomavirus (HPV) and its genotypes prevalent among Iraqi women. They collected 89 cervical swab samples from diagnosed patients at Baghdad Teaching Hospital's Early Detection Clinic. Using PCR technique on 19 samples, they found HPV16 (57.89%) and HPV6 (10.52%) genotypes, while HPV-11, 18, and 45 were absent. HPV 16 and HPV 6 were common in cervical cancer among Iraqi women. Sequencing revealed nucleic acid variants in HPV-6 (124A>C) and HPV-16 (225G>T) E6 genes, resulting in silent effects on the encoded protein. These changes didn't alter amino acid residues (p.74I= and p.L117=). Phylogenetic analysis showed substantial distances between their samples and other viral types, indicating di
... Show MoreIron status can affect the outcome of
Adherence to cardiac medications makes a significant contribution to avoidance of morbidity and premature mortality in patients with cardiovascular disease. This quantitative study used cross‐sectional survey design to evaluate medication adherence and contributing factors among patients with cardiovascular disease, comparing patients who were admitted to a cardiac ward (
