Objective: The study aimed to screen the prepubertal children for idiopathic scoliosis at earlier stages, and find
out the relationship between idiopathic scoliosis and demographic data such as age, sex, body mass index,
heavy backpacks, and heart & lung diseases.
Methodology: A descriptive study was conducted on screening program for prepubertal children in primary
schools at Baghdad city, starting from 24th of February to the end of October 2010. Non- probability
(purposive) sample of 510 prepubertal children were chosen from primary schools of both sides of Al-Karkh
and Al-Russafa sectors. Data was collected through a specially constructed questionnaire format include (24)
items multiple choice questions, and researcher observation. The validity of the questionnaire was determined
through a panel of experts related to the field of the study, and the reliability through a pilot study. The data
were analyzed through the application of descriptive statistical analysis frequency, & percentages, and
inferential statistical analysis, chi-square, are used.
Results: The study results revealed that most of the prepubertal children have idiopathic scoliosis, two third of
the sample (88.4%) were at age 10-12 years and mostly boys. There is highly significant association with (low
Body Mass Index & carry of the school backpack) but no significant association with the age, gender, and lung
& heart diseases. There is highly significant association between prepubertal children's idiopathic scoliosis signs
& the researcher observation for the prepubertal body feature, and Adam's Bending Forward Test which
revealed highly significant association with their idiopathic scoliosis. The results of the study reflect that the
majority of prepubertal children's idiopathic scoliosis deformities have significant association at early detection
than the other spinal deformities (kyphosis & kyphoscoliosis).
Recommendation: The researchers recommended that Ministry Of Health should activate the screening program
of scoliosis within school health service programs, and Ministry of Education should be involved their teachers in
the screening & training program.
This paper focuses on Load distribution factors for horizontally curved composite concrete-steel girder bridges. The finite-element analysis software“SAP2000” is used to examine the key parameters that can influence the distribution factors for horizontally curved composite steel
girders. A parametric study is conducted to study the load distribution characteristics of such bridge system due to dead loading and AASHTO truck loading using finite elements method. The key parameters considered in this study are: span-to-radius of curvature ratio, span length, number of girders, girders spacing, number of lanes, and truck loading conditions. The results have shown that the curvature is the most critical factor which plays an important
Self-repairing technology based on micro-capsules is an efficient solution for repairing cracked cementitious composites. Self-repairing based on microcapsules begins with the occurrence of cracks and develops by releasing self-repairing factors in the cracks located in concrete. Based on previous comprehensive studies, this paper provides an overview of various repairing factors and investigative methodologies. There has recently been a lack of consensus on the most efficient criteria for assessing self-repairing based on microcapsules and the smart solutions for improving capsule survival ratios during mixing. The most commonly utilized self-repairing efficiency assessment indicators are mechanical resistance and durab
... Show MoreUltimate oil recovery and displacement efficiency at the pore-scale are controlled by the rock wettability thus there is a growing interest in the wetting behaviour of reservoir rocks as production from fractured oil-wet or mixed-wet limestone formations have remained a key challenge. Conventional waterflooding methods are inefficient in such formation due to poor spontaneous imbibition of water into the oil-wet rock capillaries. However, altering the wettability to water-wet could yield recovery of significant amounts of additional oil thus this study investigates the influence of nanoparticles on wettability alteration. The efficiency of various formulated zirconium-oxide (ZrO2) based nanofluids at different nanoparticle concentrations (0
... Show MoreA new method based on the Touchard polynomials (TPs) was presented for the numerical solution of the linear Fredholm integro-differential equation (FIDE) of the first order and second kind with condition. The derivative and integration of the (TPs) were simply obtained. The convergence analysis of the presented method was given and the applicability was proved by some numerical examples. The results obtained in this method are compared with other known results.
Orthophoto provides a significant alternative capability for the presentation of architectural or archaeological applications. Although orthophoto production from airphotography of high or lower altitudes is considered to be typical, the close range applications for the large-scale survey of statue or art masterpiece or any kind of monuments still contain a lot of interesting issues to be investigated.
In this paper a test was carried out for the production of large scale orthophoto of highly curved surface, using a statue constructed of some kind of stones. In this test we use stereo photographs to produce the orthophoto in stead of single photo and DTM, by applying the DLT mathematical relationship as base formula in differenti
... Show MoreDue to the high mobility and dynamic topology of the FANET network, maintaining communication links between UAVs is a challenging task. The topology of these networks is more dynamic than traditional mobile networks, which raises challenges for the routing protocol. The existing routing protocols for these networks partly fail to detect network topology changes. Few methods have recently been proposed to overcome this problem due to the rapid changes of network topology. We try to solve this problem by designing a new dynamic routing method for a group of UAVs using Hybrid SDN technology (SDN and a distributed routing protocol) with a highly dynamic topology. Comparison of the proposed method performance and two other algorithms is simula
... Show MoreBiodiesel as an attractive energy source; a low-cost and green synthesis technique was utilized for biodiesel preparation via waste cooking oil methanolysis using waste snail shell derived catalyst. The present work aimed to investigate the production of biodiesel fuel from waste materials. The catalyst was greenly synthesized from waste snail shells throughout a calcination process at different calcination time of 2–4 h and temperature of 750–950 ◦C. The catalyst samples were characterized using X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX), and Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR). The reaction variables varying in the range of 10:1–30:1 M ratio of MeOH: oil, 3–11 wt% catalyst loading, 50–
... Show MoreThe electrocoagulation process became one of the most important technologies used for water treatment processes in the last few years. It’s the preferred method to remove suspended solids and heavy metals from water for treating drinking water and wastewater from textile, diary, and electroplating factories. This research aims to study the effect of using the electrocoagulation process with aluminum electrodes on the removal efficiency of suspended solids and turbidity presented in raw water and optimizing by the response surface methodology (RSM). The most important variables studied in this research included electrode spacing, the applied voltage, and the operating time of the electrocoagulation process. The samples
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