This study evaluates the flexural behavior of ultra-thin (50 mm) one‑way reinforced‑concrete (RC) slabs retrofitted with near‑surface mounted (NSM) carbon‑fiber‑reinforced polymer (CFRP) rods under quasi‑static loading. T300‑grade CFRP rods (≈4 mm diameter) were bonded in pre‑cut 7 mm × 7 mm grooves using a two‑part epoxy. As a proof-of-concept experimental baseline, three simply‑supported specimens (1000 mm × 500 mm × 50 mm) were tested in a six‑point bending configuration (four applied loads + two reactions): two conventional controls and one strengthened slab. A load‑control rate of ~15 kN/min was applied; the controls were cycled twice and the strengthened slab four times. Relative to the average of

This study was conducted in the field of the Poultry Research Station of the Department of Animal Production / Department of Agricultural Research / Ministry of Agriculture for the period 4/4/2021 to 16/5/2021, in which 300 one-day-old Ross308 chicks that fed on diets used avocado oil and Chia with percentages 0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6% respectively, and their mixture consisting of 0.0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 each of avocado and Chia oil (50% avocado + 50% Chia oil). The experiment included 4 treatments with 3 replicates for each treatment (10 birds/replicates), in order to study the effect of using avocado and chia oil and their mixture in meat broiler diets on some physiological and microbial characteristics of blood plasma. The results indicate a

Pathological blood clot in blood vessels, which often leads to cardiovascular diseases, are one of the most common causes of death in humans. Therefore, enzymatic therapy to degrade blood clots is vital. To achieve this goal, bromelain was immobilized and used for the biodegradation of blood clots. Bromelain was extracted from the pineapple fruit pulp (Ananas comosus) and purified by ion exchange chromatography after precipitation with ammonium sulphate (0-80 %), resulting in a yield of 70%, purification fold of 1.42, and a specific activity of 1175 U/mg. Bromelain was covalently immobilized on functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT), with an enzyme loading of 71.35%. The results of the characterization of free and immobilized

Currently and under the COVID-19 which is considered as a kind of disaster or even any other natural or manmade disasters, this study was confirmed to be important especially when the society is proceeding to recover and reduce the risks of as possible as injuries. These disasters are leading somehow to paralyze the activities of society as what happened in the period of COVID-19, therefore, more efforts were to be focused for the management of disasters in different ways to reduce their risks such as working from distance or planning solutions digitally and send them to the source of control and hence how most countries overcame this stage of disaster (COVID-19) and collapse. Artificial intelligence should be used when there is no practica

Periodontitis is a chronic inflammatory disease resulted from aggravated immune response to a dysbiotic subgingival microbiota of a susceptible host. Consequences of periodontitis are not only limited to the devastating effect on the oral cavity but extends to affect general health of the individual and also exerts economic burdens on the health systems worldwide. Despite these serious outcomes of periodontitis; however, they are avoidable by early diagnosis with proper preventive measures or non-invasive interventions at earlier stages of the disease. Clinically, diagnosis of periodontitis could be overlooked due to certain limitations of the conventional diagnostic methods such as periodontal charting and radiographs. Utilization of re

Background/Objectives: The purpose of this study was to classify Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients from Normal Control (NC) patients using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Methods/Statistical analysis: The performance evolution is carried out for 346 MR images from Alzheimer's Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) dataset. The classifier Deep Belief Network (DBN) is used for the function of classification. The network is trained using a sample training set, and the weights produced are then used to check the system's recognition capability. Findings: As a result, this paper presented a novel method of automated classification system for AD determination. The suggested method offers good performance of the experiments carried out show that the

 Inflammatory bowel disease includes both Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, is a chronic, progressive relapsing disease of gastrointestinal tract that require long-term treatment or maintenance therapy. Taking patient’s beliefs about the prescribed medication in consideration had been shown to be an important factor that affects compliance of the patient in whom having positive beliefs is a prerequisite for better compliance. The aim of the current study was to investigate and assess beliefs about medicines among a sample of Iraqi patients with inflammatory bowel disease and to determine possible association between these beliefs and some patient-specific factors.

This study is a cross-sectional study carried out o

The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly affected the healthcare sector and the productivity of medical staff and doctors. This study employs machine learning to analyze the post-COVID-19 impact on the productivity of medical staff and doctors across various specialties. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 960 participants from different specialties between June 1, 2022, and April 5, 2023. The study collected demographic data, including age, gender, and socioeconomic status, as well as information on participants' sleeping habits and any COVID-19 complications they experienced. The findings indicate a significant decline in the productivity of medical staff and doctors, with an average reduction of 23% during the post-COVID-19 period. T

This research is devoted to study the strengthening technique for the existing reinforced concrete beams using external post-tensioning. An analytical methodology is proposed to predict the value of the effective prestress force for the external tendons required to close cracks in existing beams. The external prestressing force required to close cracks in existing members is only a part from the total strengthening force.
A computer program created by Oukaili (1997) and developed by Alhawwassi (2008) to evaluate curvature and deflection for reinforced concrete beams or internally prestressed concrete beams is modified to evaluate the deflection and the stress of the external tendons for the externally strengthened beams using Matlab

Background: This in vitro study compares a self-etch primer (SEP) to an etch-and-rinse (EaR) for bonding sapphire brackets by evaluation of the enamel etch-pattern, shear bond strength, amount of remnant adhesive and enamel surface damage following thermal and fatigue cyclic loading. Material and Methods: Ceramic (sapphire) brackets were bonded to 80 extracted human premolars using two enamel etching protocols: conventional EaR using 37% phosphoric acid (PA) gel (control), and a SEP (Transbond Plus). Each group was subdivided into two subgroups (n=20 teeth) according to the time of bracket debonding: after 24 h water storage or following 5000 thermo-cycles plus 5000 cycles fatigue loading, to determine the shear bond strength (SBS), adhesiv