Background: Osteoporosis is denoted by low bone mass and microarchitectural breakdown of bone tissue, directing to increased fracture risk and bone fragility. Fractures may lead to a decreased quality of life and increased medical costs. Thus, osteoporosis is widely considered a significant health concern.

Objective. This study aimed to compare quantitative computed tomography (QCT) and dual-energy X-Ray absorptiometry (DXA) to detect osteoporosis in postmenopausal women.

Subjects and Methods. We measured spinal volumetric bone mineral density (BMD) with QCT and areal spinal and hip BMD with DXA in 164 postmenopausal women. We calculated the osteo

This study aims to show the  effectiveness of immobilization of Chlorella green algae biomass in the form of bead for the removal of lead ions from synthetic polluted water  at various operational parameters such as pH (2–6), biosorbent dosage (0.5–20 g/L) and initial concentration (10–100 mg/L). More than 90 % removal efficiency was achieved. FTIR and SEM-EDX analysis of the biosorbent before and after sorption show differences in the functional groups on the adsorbent surface. Langmuir and Freundlich equilibrium isotherm, pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order kinetic models were applied to the experimental and results and show good conformity with Langmuir isotherm model and pseudo-second-order kinetic model with c

   The inhibitive action of a blend of sodium nitrite/sodium hexametaphosphate (SN+SHMP) on corrosion of carbon steel in simulated cooling water systems (CWS) has been investigated by weight loss and electrochemical polarization technique. The effect of temperature, velocity, and salts concentrations on corrosion of carbon steel were studied in the absence and presence of mixed inhibiting blend. Also the effect of inhibitors blend concentrations (SN+SHMP), temperatures, and rotational velocity, i.e., Reynolds number (Re) on corrosion rate of carbon steel were investigated using Second-order Rotatable Design (Box-Wilson Design) in performing weight loss and corrosion potential approach. Electrochemical polarization measurements

This paper proposes a novel finite-time generalized proportional integral observer (FTGPIO) based a sliding mode control (SMC) scheme for the tracking control problem of high order uncertain systems subject to fast time-varying disturbances. For this purpose, the construction of the controller consists of two consecutive steps. First, the novel FTGPIO is designed to observe unmeasurable plant dynamics states and disturbance with its higher time derivatives in finite time rather than infinite time as in the standard GPIO. In the FTGPO estimator, the finite time convergence rate of estimations is well achieved, whereas the convergence rate of estimations by classical GPIO is asymptotic and slow. Secondly, on the basis of the finite and fast e

A novel demountable shear connector is proposed to link a concrete slab to steel sections in a way that resulting steel-concrete composite floor is demountable, i.e. it can be easily dismantled at the end of its service life. The proposed connectors consist of two parts: the first part is a hollow steel tube with internal threads at its lower end. The second part is a compatible partially threaded bolted stud. After linking the stud to the steel section, the hollow steel tube can be fastened over the threaded stud, which create a complete demountable shear connector. The connector is suitable for use in both composite bridges and buildings, and using cast in-situ slabs, precast solid slabs, or hollow-core precast slabs. A series of push-off

The migration from IPv4 to IPv6 can not be achieved in a brief period, thus both protocols co-exist at certain years. IETF Next Generation Transition Working Group (NGtrans) developed IPv4/IPv6 transition mechanisms. Since Iraq infrastructure, including universities, companies and institutions still use IPv4 protocol only. This research article tries to highlight, discuss a required transition roadmap and extend the local knowledge and practice on IPv6. Also, it introduces a prototype model using Packet tracer (network simulator) deployed for the design and implementation of IPv6 migration. Finally, it compares and evaluates the performance of IPv6, IPv4 and dual stack using OPNET based on QoS metrics such as throughput, delay and point to

In modern hydraulic control systems, the trend in hydraulic power applications is to improve efficiency and performance. “Proportional valve” is generally applied to pressure, flow and directional-control valves which continuously convert a variable input signal into a smooth and proportional hydraulic output signal. It creates a variable resistance (orifice) upstream and downstream of a hydraulic actuator, and is meter in/meter out circuit and hence pressure drop, and power losses are inevitable. If velocity (position) feedback is used, flow pattern control is possible. Without aforementioned flow pattern, control is very “loose” and relies on “visual” feed back by the operator. At this point, we should examine how this valv

Photocatalytic materials are being investigated as effective bactericides due to their superior ability to inactivate a broad range of dangerous microbes. In this study, the following two types of bacteria were employed for bactericidal purposes: Gram-negative Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus). The shape, crystal structure, element percentage, and optical properties of Ag9(SiO4)2NO3 were examined after it was successfully synthesized by a standard mixing and grinding processing route. Bactericidal efficiency was recorded at 100% by the following two types of light sources: solar and simulated light, with initial photocatalyst concentration of 2 µg/mL, and 97% and 95% of bactericidal acti

     The increasing amount of educational data has rapidly in the latest few years. The Educational Data Mining (EDM) techniques are utilized to detect the valuable pattern so that improves the educational process and to obtain high performance of all educational elements. The proposed work contains three stages: preprocessing, features selection, and an active classification stage. The dataset was collected using EDM that had a lack in the label data, it contained 2050 records collected by using questionnaires and by using the students’ academic records. There are twenty-five features that were combined from the following five factors: (curriculum, teacher, student, the environment of education, and the family). Active learning ha