Abstract

This study investigates the mechanical compression properties of tin-lead and lead-free alloy spherical balls, using more than 500 samples to identify statistical variability in the properties in each alloy. Isothermal aging was done to study and compare the aging effect on the microstructure and properties.

The results showed significant elastic and plastic anisotropy of tin phase in lead-free tin based solder and that was compared with simulation using a Crystal Plasticity Finite Element (CPEF) method that has the anisotropy of Sn installed. The results and experiments were in good agreement, indicating the range of values expected with anisotropic properties.

Keywords<

Background: Ankylosing spondylitis is a chronic inflammatory disease that mostly involves the spine and sacroiliac joints. It is associated with a decreased quality of life. Biological medicines such as infliximab and its biosimilar are the mainstay treatments for active ankylosing spondylitis.

Objective: The study objective was to conduct a pharmacoeconomic study comparing the cost-effectiveness of the reference infliximab with its biosimilar in ankylosing spondylitis patients visiting public hospitals.

Subjects and Method: This is a two-center pharmacoeconomic study performed at two large teaching governmental hospitals in Baghdad, Iraq, which s

Metaheuristics under the swarm intelligence (SI) class have proven to be efficient and have become popular methods for solving different optimization problems. Based on the usage of memory, metaheuristics can be classified into algorithms with memory and without memory (memory-less). The absence of memory in some metaheuristics will lead to the loss of the information gained in previous iterations. The metaheuristics tend to divert from promising areas of solutions search spaces which will lead to non-optimal solutions. This paper aims to review memory usage and its effect on the performance of the main SI-based metaheuristics. Investigation has been performed on SI metaheuristics, memory usage and memory-less metaheuristics, memory char

The estimation of the regular regression model requires several assumptions to be satisfied such as "linearity". One problem occurs by partitioning the regression curve into two (or more) parts and then joining them by threshold point(s). This situation is regarded as a linearity violation of regression. Therefore, the multiphase regression model is received increasing attention as an alternative approach which describes the changing of the behavior of the phenomenon through threshold point estimation. Maximum likelihood estimator "MLE" has been used in both model and threshold point estimations. However, MLE is not resistant against violations such as outliers' existence or in case of the heavy-tailed error distribution. The main goal of t

Recently, the development and application of the hydrological models based on Geographical Information System (GIS) has increased around the world. One of the most important applications of GIS is mapping the Curve Number (CN) of a catchment. In this research, three softwares, such as an ArcView GIS 9.3 with ArcInfo, Arc Hydro Tool and Geospatial Hydrologic Modeling Extension (Hec-GeoHMS) model for ArcView GIS 9.3, were used to calculate CN of (19210 ha) Salt Creek watershed (SC) which is located in Osage County, Oklahoma, USA. Multi layers were combined and examined using the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) ArcMap 2009. These layers are soil layer (Soil Survey Geographic SSURGO), 30 m x 30 m resolution of Digital Elevati

This study was performd on 50 serum specimens of patients with type 2 diabetes, in addition, 50 normal specimens were investigated as control group. The activity rate of LAP in patients (560.46 10.504) I.U/L and activity rate of LAP in healthy(10.58 4.39)I.U/L.The results of the study reveal that Leucine aminopeptidase (LAP) activity of type 2 diabetes patient s serum shows a high signifiacant increase (p < 0.001) compare to healthy subjects. Addition preparation leucine amide as substrate of LAP, identification melting point and spectra by FTIR. K

Antioxidant status imbalance and inflammatory process are cooperative events involved in type 2 diabetes mellitus. This study aimed to investigate     superoxide dismutase as a potential biomarkers of antioxidant imbalance, matrix-metaloprotinase-9,   and interleukin -18  as biomarkers of inflammation in serum and to estimate  the effects of other confounding factors  gender, age and finally measuring the relation among the interested biomarkers.

This case - control study included 50 patients,   and   45 of  healthy subjects matched age –gender were also enrolled  in this study as a control group.    The   focused &nbsp

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a chronic disorder that is associated with the imbalance of trace elements which are involved in many functions especially enzyme activities. Changes in the levels of serum elements probably can create some complications in type 2 diabetes mellitus.  Previous experimental and clinical studies report that oxidative stress plays a major role in the pathogenesis and development of (T2DM). However, the exact mechanism of oxidative stress could contribute to and accelerate the development of (T2DM).

The aim of this study contained the following sections: firstly, to determine some biochemical parameters in subjects with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) like lipid peroxidation marker, malondialdeh

In this work, an estimation of the key rate of measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (MDI-QKD) protocol in free space was performed. The examined free space links included satellite-earth downlink, uplink and intersatellite link. Various attenuation effects were considered such as diffraction, atmosphere, turbulence and the efficiency of the detection system. Two cases were tested: asymptotic case with infinite number of decoy states and one-decoy state case. The estimated key rate showed the possibility of applying MDI-QKD in earth-satellite and intersatellite links, offering longer single link distance to be covered.