Concrete structures are exposed to aggressive environmental conditions that lead to corrosion of the embedded reinforcement and pre-stressing steel. Consequently, the safety of concrete structures may be compromised, and this requires a significant budgets to repair and maintain critical infrastructure. Prediction of structural safety can lead to significant reductions in maintenance costs by maximizing the impact of investments. The aim of this paper is to establish a framework to assess the reliability of existing post-tensioned concrete bridges. A time-dependent reliability analysis of an existing post-tensioned involving the assessment of Ynys-y-Gwas bridge has been presented in this study. The main cause of failure of this bridge was c

BACKGROUND: Tribulus terrestris has been commonly used in folk medicine to energize, vitalize and improve sexual function and physical performance in men and laboratory rats. OBJECTIVE: To study the effect of Tribulus terrestris on the number of Leydig cells. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Tribulus terrestris was given to mature male rats as an oral single herbal suspension in a dose of 2.0mg /1000gbody weight for 14 days to stimulate spermatogenesis. Formalin fixed paraffinembedded tissue sections were performed for histological, immunohistochemical and morphometrical studies. RESULTS: Histological study revealed wider seminiferous tubules and increased spermatocytes population with an increased sperm density inside the lumen of the tubul

The effect of using different R -molar ratio under variable reaction conditions (acidic as well as basic environment and reaction temperature) have been studied. The overall experiments are driven with open and closed systems. The study shows that there is an optimum value for a minimum gelling time at R equal 2. The gelling time for all studied open system found to be shorter than in closed system. In acidic environment and when R value increased from 2 to 10, the gelling time of closed systems has increased four times than open systems at T=30 ?C and fourteen times when temperature reaction increased to 60 ?C. While in basic environment the influence of increasing R value was limited.

Background: Uncontrolled hyperphosphatemia is the main difficulty facing staff treating patients with end-stage renal disease on hemodialysis. Sevelamer and calcium-containing phosphate binders have been associated with cost burden and tissue calcification, respectively. Therefore, the current trial was targeted to investigate the efficacy of a new phosphate binder, ferric citrate, in a sample of Iraqi patients with end-stage renal disease on hemodialysis. Keywords: Ferric citrate, Hemodialysis Phosphate binder

Objective: The study aimed to assess Leucine-rich alpha-2-glycoprotein-1 biomarker serum level in hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Methods: The case control study from multi-centers in Baghdad included 45 adult patients (19 females and 26 males) with COVID-19, diagnosed with a positive real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and excluded negative RT-PCR for COVID-19 and comorbidity conditions. Second group, was 43 control (20 females and 23 males). Results: This study found a decrease Leucine-rich alpha-2-glycoprotein-1 biomarker serum level in these patients and a significant difference in D. dimer, neutrophil count, lymphocyte count, and the neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio between the patients and controls at a P valu

Atopic dermatitis (atopic eczema), is a common familial chronic inflammatory skin disease, determined by xerosis, itching, scaly and erythematous skin lesions, and high serum levels of IgE. Between 10 to 20% of children and 1 to 3% of adults worldwide affected by it and has negative medical and social effect on patients and their families. To evaluate the effectiveness of Phytosterol Fraction of Chenopodium Murale on induced atopic dermatitis (AD) of mice; Forty mice were included in the study, divided in to four groups (10 mice/group): apparently healthy, induced AD without treatment, induced AD treated with Tacrolimus 0.1% ointment, and induced AD treated with Phytosterol Fraction of Chenopodium Murale cream 3% topica

The effect of different cutting fluids on surface roughness of brass alloy workpiece during turning operation was carried out in this research. This was performed with different cutting speed, while other cutting parameters had been regarded as constants(feeding rate , and depth of cut). Surface roughness of machined parts that will be tested by electronic surface roughness tester .The results show that the standard coolant gives the best values of surface roughness for fixed cutting speed ,followed by sun flower oil that has approximately the same effect, while the air stream as a coolant gave unsatisfied results for the evaluation of surface roughness.

In the other hand the best values of surface roughness were recorded for max

In this paper, some relations between the flows and the Enveloping Semi-group were studied. It allows to associate some properties on the topological compactification to any pointed flows. These relations enable us to study a number of the properties of the principles of flows corresponding with using algebric properties. Also in this paper proofs to some theorems of these relations are given.

Background: Human semen contains high concentrations of fructose, zinc (Zn) and copper (Cu) in bound and ionic forms for Zn and Cu. The presence of abnormal levels of fructose and those trace elements may affect spermatogenesis with regard to production, maturation, motility and fertilizing capacity of the spermatozoa.Objective: To evaluate the levels of fructose, Zn and Cu in seminal plasma in different groups of male infertility and to correlate their concentrations with various sperm parameters.Methods: The concentrations of fructose, Zn and Cu were measured in 114 semen samples from normozoospermic, oligozoospermic, astheno-zoospermic, and azoospermic men using the electrothermal-atomic absorption spectrometry for Zn and Cu determinatio