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: The physiologic, biochemical and anatomic changes that occur during pregnancy are extensive and may be systemic or local. However, most of these changes return to pre pregnancy status six weeks postpartum. The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of dental caries among preterm postpartum women and it's relation to baby birth weight and salivary interleukin-6 (IL-6). Materials and methods: 66 postpartum women were examined, 33 preterm postpartum women (study group) and 33 full term postpartum women (control group). Dental caries was recorded using, decayed, missing and filled surfaces index, also assess the decayed lesion by severity. Salivary samples were taken from all subjects to estimate salivary IL-6 levels. Babie

Background: A Catheter-associated with candidiasis infection is the most common nosocomial infection and the objective of this work is to isolate and identify Candida species from catheterized patients by ordinary culture and PCR.Objective:To study the isolation and identification of Candida species from catheterized patients by culture media and polymerase chain reaction(PCR).Methods: One hundred and thirty five Candida species isolates were obtained from urine culture of catheterized specimens from male and female patients , During the period between October 2011 to April 2012 , attending AL-Ramadi general teaching Hospital. A quantitative urine culture for isolation and identification of Candida species was. The isolation of Candida s

Background: The anterior knee pain is an important chief complaint of the patients with knee osteoarthritis due to patellofemoral pathology. The pain receptors denervation can be achieved by circumferential denervation of the patellar area by a process of electrocautery.

Objectives: The aim of current study is to assess the pain after total knee arthroplasty (TKA) by patelloplastywith and without circumferential denervation via electrocautery at a minimum follow up with 1 year separately for each patient.

Type of the study:Cross- sectional study.

Methods: Thirty five patients,with mean age of about (62.8) years, were enrolled in this pros

Abstract Background: Kaposi’s sarcoma (KS) is an angioproliferative neoplastic disorder that occurs in different epidemiological forms. Human Herpesvirus type 8 (HHV-8) is established as a causative agent of KS that has been mentioned in textbooks and literature. In the last two decades, KS cases were up searched through many Iraqi medical researches which have been published, but unfortunately, none of which had confirmed this association. Objectives: To assess the association of latent nuclear antigen-1(LANA-1) of HHV-8 among KS patients with clinicopathological parameters and to evaluate if this procedure is valuable for diagnosing this disease through the first immunohistochemical study in Iraq. Methods: This is a clinico-immunohis

The current study, which extended from February 2020 to June 2021 at the University of Thi- Qar\ College of Education for Pure Sciences, aimed to follow the changes in external morphological features at different Embryonic Developmental stages in pregnant mice treated with different doses of Rapamycin (Rapa). Use In this study, 32 pregnant mice were divided randomly into four groups, each of which had eight pregnant mice. Each group received different dose of Rapa via intraperitoneally injection at different gestation days until the end of the specified periods, whereas the control group received a DMSO. Mice were administered under the same circumstances and dosages were determined based on body weight, as specified in pharmaceutical const

The main objective of this study is to experimentally investigate the effect of the CMC polymeric drag reducer on the pressure drop occurred along the annulus of the wellbore in drilling operation and investigate the optimum polymer concentration that give the minimum pressure drop. A flow loop was designed for this purpose consist from 14 m long with transparent test section and differential pressure transmitter that allows to sense and measure the pressure losses along the test section. The results from the experimental work show that increasing in polymer concentration help to reduce the pressure drop in annulus and the optimum polymer concentration with the maximum drag reducing is 0.8 kg/m³. Also increasing in flow rate a

Here, a high sensitive method for biomarker identification according to nanostructure, using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs), called Nano-ELISA, was presented. Different shapes of gold nanostructures (star and sphere; GNSs and GNPs) with a particle size of 40 nm for sphere particles were altered with a monoclonal antibody (Ab) as a detector Ab. To amplify the optical signal, gold nanostructures were employed as carriers of the signaling specific antibody against insulin growth factor binding protein- 3 (IGFBP-3). The substrate was catalytically oxidized by the Horseradish Peroxidase (HRP) conjugated gold nanostructure, and HRP also enhanced the optical signals, reflecting the amount of the targeting IGFBP-3. In comparison to t

Objective. This study aimed to evaluate and compare the force degradation of two types of elastomeric chains following different periods of immersion in zinc-containing mouthwashes. Materials and Methods. Four hundred and forty pieces of Elasto-Force and Super Elasto-Force elastomeric chains were divided into two control and eight experimental groups. The pieces were stretched to 25 mm on pins mounted on an acrylic block and stored in distilled water at 37°C. The experimental groups were immersed in four different types of mouthwash for one minute twice a day throughout the test period. Ten continuous thermocycles per day between cold and hot water baths (5–55°C) were carried out. Forces were measured at six-time intervals (in