This paper presents the non-linear finite element method to study the behavior of four reinforced rectangular concrete MD beams with web circular openings tested under two-point load. The numerical finite elements methods have been used in a much more practical way to achieve approximate solutions for more complex problems.  The ABAQUS /CAE is chosen to explore the behavior of MD beams. This paper also studies, the effect of both size and shape of the circular apertures of MD beams. The strengthening technique that used in this paper is externally strengthening using CFRP around the opening in the MD beams. The numerical results were compared to the experimental results in terms of ultimate load failure and displace

Irisin is a novel myokine and adipokine, its role during pregnancy and its association with some metabolic risk factors especially pre-pregnancy body mass index (pre-BMI) need more evaluation. The aim of the study is to find whether the pre-BMI could predict irisin levels during normal pregnancy and to clarify associations of irisin with some pathological parameters.

Irisin levels were estimated by ELISA in sera of 59 normal pregnant women who enrolled from December 2016 to May 2017 at Maternity Hospital, Zakho city, Kurdistan region (Iraq). Thirty-two normal-weight pregnant (pre-BMI≤24.9 kg/m², Age=24.03 mean±3.7standard deviation) and 27 overweight/obese-pregnant (pre-BMI>25 kg/m², Age=27.6 mean±3.9

Beyond the immediate content of speech, the voice can provide rich information about a speaker's demographics, including age and gender. Estimating a speaker's age and gender offers a wide range of applications, spanning from voice forensic analysis to personalized advertising, healthcare monitoring, and human-computer interaction. However, pinpointing precise age remains intricate due to age ambiguity. Specifically, utterances from individuals at adjacent ages are frequently indistinguishable. Addressing this, we propose a novel, end-to-end approach that deploys Mozilla's Common Voice dataset to transform raw audio into high-quality feature representations using Wav2Vec2.0 embeddings. These are then channeled into our self-attentio

Before the start of delivery, any membranes rupture could be named as a premature rupture of membranes (PROM), which may need special obstetrical interactions to minimize perinatal complications, it is important topromptly diagnose PROM, the method used should be accurate, cheap, simple, and widely available. This was exactly the idea behind this study to use an ordinary pregnancy test kit aiming to confirm presence of PROM.Over a 6 months’ period, 60 pregnant women with a history of leaking liquor and a positive speculum examination for amniotic fluid pooling were collected prospectively and compared with other 60 women (control group) with uneventful pregnancy. Majority of patients with positive leaking liquor signs and symptoms had a p

Background: Repeated teenage pregnancy is a major burden on the healthcare system worldwide. Objective: We aimed to compare teenagers with their first and third pregnancies and to evaluate the likelihood of neonatal complications. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on female teenagers (aged ≤ 19 yr) with singleton pregnancies. The subjects (n = 298) were screened over 12 months. Ninety-six women were excluded, based on the exclusion criteria. The remaining subjects (n = 202) were divided into two groups: teenagers with first pregnancy (n = 96) and teenagers with third pregnancy (n = 47). The subjects were observed throughout pregnancy and delivery. The final sample size of the first and thi

Purpose The purpose of this study was to evaluate the complications associated with the use of reconstruction plates with or without non-vascularized bone graft in reconstruction of mandibular segmental defects caused by trauma and tumor resection and to analyze various factors that are associated with the development of complications. Methods A retrospective observational study was conducted, and the investigated variables included the age and gender of the patients, etiology of the defect, the site of the defect, the size of the defect, whether bone graft was used or not, type of plate used, and whether the reconstruction was immediate or delayed. The outcome variables were the postoperative complications and the success rate. Results Fif

miRNAs regulate protein abundance and control diverse aspects of cellular processes and biological functions in metabolic diseases, such as obesity and diabetes. Lethal-7(Let-7) miRNAs specifically target genes associated with diabetes and have a role in the regulation of peripheral glucose metabolism. The present study aimed to describe the gene expressions of the let-7a gene with the development of diabetes in Iraq and the difference in the expression of this gene in patients with diabetes and healthy individuals. The association between age and gender with the development of diabetes was studied in this study and the results were compared with those of healthy individuals in the group of control. Based on the obtained results, there was