A representative sample of a thousand volunteer university students was screened for evidence of thalassemia minor.Complete blood counts using automated blood cell analysers and blood smears were examined. Patients having anemia, abnormal red cell indices or morphological features of thalassemia minor like hypochromia, microcytosis, target cells erythrocytosis and family history of thalassemia were then investigated for determination of  HbA2 & HbF levels. Estimation of hemoglobin A₂ was performed by micro-column chromatography while HbF was done using alkali denaturation. Seventy seven out of the thousand samples tested positive for thalassemia minor. They all showed a hemoglobin A

Ecological risk assessment of mercury contaminant has a means to analyze the ecological risk aspect of ecosystem using the potential impact of mercury pollution in soil, water and organism. The ecological risk assessment in a coastal area can be shown by mangrove zonation, clustering and interpolation of mercury accumulation. This research aims to analyze ecological risk assessment of potential mercury (including bioaccumulation and translocation) using indicators of species distribution, clustering, zonation and interpolation of mercury accumulation. The results showed that the Segara Anakan had a high risk of mercury pollution, using indicators like as the potential of mercury contaminant in water body was 0137±0.0137 ppm, substrate a

This study was conducted to examine the discharge capacity of the reach of the Tigris River between Kut and Amarah Barrages of 250km in length. The examination includes simulation the current capacity of the reach by using HEC-RAS model. 247cross sections surveyed in 2012 were used in the simulation. The model was calibrated using observed discharges of 533, 800, 1025 and 3000m³/s discharged at Kut Barrage during 2013, 1995, 1995 and 1988, respectively, and its related water level at three gauge stations located along the reach. The result of calibration process indicated that the lowest Root Mean Square Error of 0.095 can be obtained when using Manning’s n coefficient of 0.026, 0.03 for th

According to the importance of the conveyor systems in various industrial and service lines, it is very desirable to make these systems as efficient as possible in their work. In this paper, the speed of a conveyor belt (which is in our study a part of an integrated training robotic system) is controlled using one of the artificial intelligence methods, which is the Artificial Neural Network (ANN). A visions sensor will be responsible for gathering information about the status of the conveyor belt and parts over it, where, according to this information, an intelligent decision about the belt speed will be taken by the ANN controller. ANN will control the alteration in speed in a way that gives the optimized energy efficiency through

Abstract- Asymptomatic or clinically silent kidney stones are possibly serious because, in their expected passage, they may cause infection, obstruction and renal impairment. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of silent kidney stones in a sample of Baghdad population and consider how this value could affect the justification for a screening system. To our best knowledge, this is the first study of its kind conducted in Iraq. We investigated 714 consecutive patients who sustained an abdominal ultrasound at our hospital with further kidney screening. All these patients did not have clinical signs and symptoms of nephrolithiasis. Age, sex, the indication for ultrasound, the size, side, and the number of the disco

Low-temperature stratification, high-volumetric storage capacity, and less-complicated material processing make phase-changing materials (PCMs) very suitable candidates for solar energy storage applications. However, their poor heat diffusivities and suboptimal containment designs severely limit their decent storage capabilities. In these systems, the arrangement of tubes conveying the heat transport fluid (HTF) plays a crucial role in heat communication between the PCM and HTF during phase transition. This study investigates a helical coil tube-and-shell thermal storage system integrated with a novel central return tube to enhance heat transfer effectiveness. Three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics simulations compare the proposed d

Several stress-strain models were used to predict the strengths of steel fiber reinforced concrete, which are distinctive of the material. However, insufficient research has been done on the influence of hybrid fiber combinations (comprising two or more distinct fibers) on the characteristics of concrete. For this reason, the researchers conducted an experimental program to determine the stress-strain relationship of 30 concrete samples reinforced with two distinct fibers (a hybrid of polyvinyl alcohol and steel fibers), with compressive strengths ranging from 40 to 120 MPa. A total of 80% of the experimental results were used to develop a new empirical stress-strain model, which was accomplished through the application of the parti