Bacterial toxins are considered to be virulence factors due to the fact that they interfere with the normal processes of the host cell in which they are found. The interplay between the infectious processes of bacteria and the immune system is what causes this impact. In this discussion, we are going to focus on bacterial toxins that act in the extracellular environment, especially on those that impair the activity of macrophages and neutrophils. These toxins are of particular interest since they may be found in a wide variety of bacteria. We will be concentrating our efforts, in particular, on the toxins that are generated by Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. These toxins are able to interact with and have an effect on the many dif

Background: Diabetes and hypertension are related to cardiovascular risk factors and are possible to detect development of atherosclerosis in cardiovascular system, were can predict their effect and measurement by ultrasound and Doppler study. These risk factors included increased intima-media thickness, resistive index (RI) and pulsatility index (PI) of the right common carotid arteries. Method: We studied 20 patients with diabetes and hypertension, and 20 patients with diabetes only, were examine right carotid arteries for these two groups. In this sample we studied the Lumen diameter of the Rt. carotid arteries, Intima – media thickness (IMT), peak systolic velocity, end diastolic velocity, and Pulsatility index, Resistance index were

This paper proposes and tests a computerized approach for constructing a 3D model of blood vessels from angiogram images. The approach is divided into two steps, image features extraction and solid model formation. In the first step, image morphological operations and post-processing techniques are used for extracting geometrical entities from the angiogram image. These entities are the middle curve and outer edges of the blood vessel, which are then passed to a computer-aided graphical system for the second phase of processing. The system has embedded programming capabilities and pre-programmed libraries for automating a sequence of events that are exploited to create a solid model of the blood vessel. The gradient of the middle c

The main objective of this paper is to study the behavior of Non-Prismatic Reinforced Concrete (NPRC) beams with and without rectangular openings either when exposed to fire or not. The experimental program involves casting and testing 9 NPRC beams divided into 3 main groups. These groups were categorized according to heating temperature (ambient temperature, 400°C, and 700°C), with each group containing 3 NPRC beams (solid beams and beams with 6 and 8 trapezoidal openings). For beams with similar geometry, increasing the burning temperature results in their deterioration as reflected in their increasing mid-span deflection throughout the fire exposure period and their residual deflection after cooling. Meanwhile, the existing ope

The performance of composite prestressed concrete beam topped with reinforced concrete flange structures in fire depends upon several factors, including the change in properties of the two different materials due to fire exposure and temperature distribution within the composition of the composite members of the structure. The present experimental work included casting of 12 identical simply supported prestressed concrete beams grouped into 3 categories, depending on the strength of the top reinforced concrete deck slab (20, 30, and 40 MPa). They were connected together by using shear connector reinforcements. To simulate the real practical fire disasters, 3 composite prestressed concrete beams from each group were exposed to high t

The main objective of this study is to characterize the main factors which may affect the behavior of segmental prestressed concrete beams comprised of multi segments. The 3-D finite element program ABAQUS was utilized. The experimental work was conducted on twelve simply supported segmental prestressed concrete beams divided into three groups depending on the precast segments number. They all had an identical total length of 3150mm, but each had different segment numbers (9, 7, and 5 segments), in other words, different segment lengths. To simulate the genuine fire disasters, nine beams were exposed to high-temperature flame for one hour, the selected temperatures were 300°C (572°F), 500°C (932°F) and 700°C (1292°F) as recomm

The main objective of this paper is to study the behavior of Non-Prismatic Reinforced Concrete (NPRC) beams with and without rectangular openings either when exposed to fire or not. The experimental program involves casting and testing 9 NPRC beams divided into 3 main groups. These groups were categorized according to heating temperature (ambient temperature, 400°C, and 700°C), with each group containing 3 NPRC beams (solid beams and beams with 6 and 8 trapezoidal openings). For beams with similar geometry, increasing the burning temperature results in their deterioration as reflected in their increasing mid-span deflection throughout the fire exposure period and their residual deflection after cooling. Meanwhile, the existing ope

AIM: The aim of this study was to measure the prevalence of myeloproliferative disorders in a sample of Iraqi patients and to measure the changes in patients’ blood parameters. BACKGROUND: Myeloproliferative disorders are a group of neoplasms affecting the bone marrow progenitor cells characterized by excess cells with a risk of transforming to acute leukemia. There is a gap in knowledge about the prevalence of Iraqi population. Thus, we investigated the prevalence and distribution of different types of myeloproliferative disorders in a sample of Iraqi patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Cross-sectional study is done at the National Center of Hematology from November 2019 till March 2020 on 75 patients who were diagnosed

In this paper, the time-history responses of a square plan two-story reinforced concrete prototype building, considering the elastic and inelastic behavior of the materials, were studied numerically. ABAQUS software was used in three-dimensional (3D) nonlinear dynamic analysis to predict the inelastic response of the buildings. Concrete Damage Plasticity Model (CDPM) has been used to model the inelastic behavior of the reinforced concrete building under seismic excitation. The input data included geometric information, material properties, and the ground motion. The building structure was designed only for gravity load according to ACI 318 with