Geotechnical engineers have always been concerned with the stabilization of slopes. For this purpose,
various methods such as retaining walls, piles, and geosynthetics may be used to increase the safety factor of slopes prone to failure. The application of stone columns may also be another potential alternative for slope stabilization. Such columns have normally been used for cohesive soil improvement. Most slope analysis and design is based on deterministic approach i.e a set of single valued design parameter are adopted and a set of single valued factor of safety (FOS) is determined. Usually the FOS is selected in view of the understanding and knowledge of the material parameters, the problem geometry, the method of analysis and the consequences of failure. This results in different FOS obtained by different designers. This inherent variability characteristic dictates that slope stability problem is a probabilistic problem rather than deterministic problem. Furthermore, the FOS approach cannot quantify the probability of failure or level of risk associated with a particular design situation. The objective of this study is to integrate probabilistic approach as a rational means to incorporate uncertainty in the slope stability analysis. The study was made through a hypothetical problem which includes a sensitivity analysis. The methodology is based on Monte Carlo simulation integrated in commercially available computer program SLOPE/W. The output of the analysis is presented as the probability of failure as a measure of the likelihood of the slope failure. Results of this study have verified that the probability of failure is a better measure of slope stability as compared to the factor of safety because it provides a range of value rather than a single value.
A novel planar type antenna printed on a high permittivity Rogers’ substrate is proposed for early stage microwave breast cancer detection. The design is based on a p-shaped wide-slot structure with microstrip feeding circuit to eliminate losses of transmission. The design parameters are optimized resulting in a good reflection coefficient at −10 dB from 4.5 to 10.9 GHz. Imaging result using inhomogeneous breast phantom indicates that the proposed antenna is capable of detecting a 5 mm size cancerous tumor embedded inside the fibroglandular region with dielectric contrast between the target and the surrounding materials ranging from 1.7 : 1 to 3.6 : 1.
Acrylamide is a toxic chemical that is created when foods are heated; it is also available in foods containing different additives. The purpose of the study was to determine whether Bacillus spp. isolates could reduce the concentration of acrylamide in food, as well as to compare the different treatments of crude and pure L-asparaginase produced from the same bacteria in acrylamide reduction in potato slices. Our findings reveal that this bacterium could degrade acrylamide and reduce its concentration. Furthermore, the acrylamide content of potato slices reduced dramatically with increasing enzymatic treatment time, reaching the under detection limit (UDL) after 30 minutes of treatment with 84 U/ml of crude and purified
... Show MoreCloud computing offers a new way of service provision by rearranging various resources over the Internet. The most important and popular cloud service is data storage. In order to preserve the privacy of data holders, data are often stored in cloud in an encrypted form. However, encrypted data introduce new challenges for cloud data deduplication, which becomes crucial for big data storage and processing in the cloud. Traditional deduplication schemes cannot work on encrypted data. Among these data, digital videos are fairly huge in terms of storage cost and size; and techniques that can help the legal aspects of video owner such as copyright protection and reducing the cloud storage cost and size are always desired. This paper focuses on v
... Show MoreSystemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a heterogeneous autoimmune disease characterized by elevated levels of circulating anti-nuclear autoantibodies and interferon-alpha (INFs-α). Interferon regulatory factor-5 (IRF5) plays an important role in the induction of type I interferon and pro-inflammatory cytokines, and participates in the SLE pathogenesis. This study aimed to investigate the role of IRF5 gene expression levels in a sample of SLE Iraqi patients and its correlation with disease activity, and to identify its diagnostic ability as a biomarker reflecting disease activity. Blood samples were taken from 45 participants diagnosed with SLE cases classified according to the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria. T
... Show MoreThe health care industry is witnessing an increasing trend in the use of generic medicines because of their presumed low cost compared with innovator medicines. The aim of this study was to determine and compare the performance of the copy drug Osveral®and its innovator drug deferasirox (Exjade®).
A prospective observational study including 223 patients receiving the branded medicine Exjade®and 101 patients receiving the copy Osveral®was carried out. Data were assessed for a 1-year period and included clinical symptoms, serum ferrit
Cloud computing has gained considerable attention in academia and industry in recent years. The cloud facilitates data sharing and enables cost efficiency, thus playing a vital role today as well as for the foreseeable future. In this paper, a brief discussion the application of multi-tenant and load-balancing technologies to cloud-based digital resource sharing suitable for academic and digital libraries is presented. As a new paradigm for digital resource sharing, a proposal of improving the current user service model with private cloud storage for other sectors, including the medical and financial fields is offered. This paper gives a summary of cloud computing and its possible applications, combined with digital data optim
... Show MoreTuaimah GS, AQ Al-Awadi, Ahmed ME., Effect of Cutibacterium acnes cell free antigen (CFAg) immunization, levofloxacin and cinnamon oil on Cutibacterium acnes infection in rabbits, Onl J Vet Res., 22 (9):811-822, 2018. C. acnes causes acne vulgaris most commonly in 12-24 year olds. Five albino rabbits were immunized at day 1 and 14 with Cutibacterium acnes cell free antigen (CFAg) and then infected intradermally with 0.1 ml C. acnes suspension (2×108 cfu/ml) at day 30. Two groups of five infected rabbits were then treated at Day 30 with 0.5% levofloxacin or 0.2% cinnamon oil twice daily for 12 days. Five control rabbits were infected intradermally with 0.1 ml 2×108 cfu/ml Cutibacterium acnes n (2×108 cfu/ml). At day 42, skin test (mm), se
... Show More