Kidney damage in workers within environments of highly expected exposure to toxin, including heavy metals, could be a primary marker to expect hazards in population exposed to low levels of many environmental pollutants. The present study was designed to evaluate the possible effect of environmental exposure to cadmium and zinc on renal function among painters in Sulaimani city. Cross sectional study was performed on 37 male painting workers in Sulaimani city. Each worker was interviewed using structured questionnaire. Twenty five non-exposed healthy subjects were included as control group. Venous blood samples (10 ml) were obtained by vein puncture from both subjects and utilized for estimation of serum urea, creatinine levels, serum levels of cadmium (Cd) and zinc (Zn), and for the estimation of malondialdehyde. The results show that serum urea levels were significantly elevated in painters; meanwhile, no significant difference was reported in serum creatinine levels. The results indicated that both serum levels of (Cd) and (Zn) were not significantly elevated in painting workers; however, MDA levels were significantly elevated in painters compared to control group. In conclusion, the association of cadmium and zinc levels with the disturbance in renal function is not clear in painters working in Sulaimani city.
Keywords: Painting workers, Cadmium, Zinc, renal function, oxidative stress
In this work, diamond-like carbon (DLC) thin films were prepared from Cyclohexane. Thin films were deposited on quartz substrate by atmospheric pressure Argon plasma jet system. The plasma jet system was applying high voltage sinusoidal waves of frequency 28 kHz and potential difference of 7.5kV peak to peak across the electrodes. The effect of annealing at 400, 500 and 600 °C under vacuum for two hours on optical properties and structural properties of the DLC thin films were investigated. This effect was clarified by X-ray diffraction (XRD), FTIR, UV-Visible absorption, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Raman Spectroscopy. The X-ray diffraction patterns for the annealing DLC thin films show two broad peaks at 2θ, 26.62° and 51.58
... Show More<p>Analyzing X-rays and computed tomography-scan (CT scan) images using a convolutional neural network (CNN) method is a very interesting subject, especially after coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. In this paper, a study is made on 423 patients’ CT scan images from Al-Kadhimiya (Madenat Al Emammain Al Kadhmain) hospital in Baghdad, Iraq, to diagnose if they have COVID or not using CNN. The total data being tested has 15000 CT-scan images chosen in a specific way to give a correct diagnosis. The activation function used in this research is the wavelet function, which differs from CNN activation functions. The convolutional wavelet neural network (CWNN) model proposed in this paper is compared with regular convol
... Show MoreIn this research, deposition of titanium oxide (TiO2) and vanadium oxide (V2O5) thin film in different mixing percentage (0, 25 ,50, 75 and100)% on the substrate of glass .The coating thickness was ( 50 nm ).
In this research contact angle was measured and the effect of weather conditions. Results showed that the value of the contact angle of the prepared films reached its highest value at 50% (TiO2+V2O5) was 160º.
The results showed that the optical transmittance of TiO2 and V2O5 thin film decrease with increasing the deposition angle and decrease with increasing V2O5 pro
... Show MoreIn this work, an experimental study has been done to expect the heat characteristics and performance of the forced-convection from a heated horizontal rectangular fins array to air inside a rectangular cross-section duct. Three several configurations of rectangular fins array have been employed. One configuration without notches and perforations (solid) and two configurations with combination of rectangular-notches and circular-perforations for two various area removal percentages from fins namely 18% notches-9% perforations and 9% notches-18% perforations are utilized. The rectangular fins dimensions and fins number are kept constant. The fins array is heated electrically from the base
... Show MoreLeaching process applied for the extraction of bio active compounds from dried roots of (Elecampane) Inula helenium. Ethanol, hexane and distillated water were used as solvents. Roots were soaked with ethanol (5% w/v) with various concentration of ethanol (30 to 98%) at one day to know effect concentration of the solvent with concentration of bio active compound in Inula helenium. The same procedure was done using hexane as solvent. Also distilled water was used as solvent for extraction 5%(w/v) where plant material was soaked in water at different temperatures (25, 40, 65, 80, and 90) C. In all solvents undertaken, the effect of time duration on active ingredient (Thymol, Isoalatolactone, Alatolactone, 10-isobutyryl-oxy 8-9-epoxy thymol is
... Show MoreImpact strength of self-compacted concrete is a field of interest, mostly when the concrete is produced from sustainable materials. This research's main objective is to clarify the ability to use two types of Portland limestone cement (Karasta and Tasluja) in self compacted concrete under impact loading, further to the economic and environmental benefits of the limestone cement. The impact loading was applied by a low-speed test, using the drop ball on concrete. Moreover, the study reveals the resistance of the grids reinforced concrete to impact loading by using polymer grid, and steel grid reinforced concrete slabs. Mixes reinforced by steel mesh had the highest results, indicating that the steel mesh was more robust because it had
... Show MoreThe aim of this research is to assess the validity of Detailed Micro-Modeling (DMM) as a numerical model for masonry analysis. To achieve this aim, a set of load-displacement curves obtained based on both numerical simulation and experimental results of clay masonry prisms loaded by a vertical load. The finite element method was implemented in DMM for analysis of the experimental clay masonry prism. The finite element software ABAQUS with implicit solver was used to model and analyze the clay masonry prism subjected to a vertical load. The load-displacement relationship of numerical model was found in good agreement with those drawn from experimental results. Evidence shows that load-displacement curvefound from the finite element m
... Show MoreThis paper proposes a novel finite-time generalized proportional integral observer (FTGPIO) based a sliding mode control (SMC) scheme for the tracking control problem of high order uncertain systems subject to fast time-varying disturbances. For this purpose, the construction of the controller consists of two consecutive steps. First, the novel FTGPIO is designed to observe unmeasurable plant dynamics states and disturbance with its higher time derivatives in finite time rather than infinite time as in the standard GPIO. In the FTGPO estimator, the finite time convergence rate of estimations is well achieved, whereas the convergence rate of estimations by classical GPIO is asymptotic and slow. Secondly, on the basis of the finite and fast e
... Show MoreIn this paper, a numerical model for fluid-structure interaction (FSI) analysis is developed for investigating the aeroelastic response of a single wind turbine blade. The Blade Element Momentum (BEM) theory was adopted to calculate the aerodynamic forces considering the effects of wind shear and tower shadow. The wind turbine blade was modeled as a rotating cantilever beam discretized using Finite Element Method (FEM) to analyze the deformation and vibration of the blade. The aeroelastic response of the blade was obtained by coupling these aerodynamic and structural models using a coupled BEM-FEM program written in MATLAB. The governing FSI equations of motion are iteratively calculated at each time step, through exchanging data between
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