In the current work various types of epoxy composites were added to concrete to enhance its effectiveness as a gamma- ray shield. Four epoxy samples of (E/clay/B4C) S1, (E/Mag/B4C) S2, (EPIL) S3 and (Ep) S4 were used in a comparative study of gamma radiation attenuation properties of these shields that calculating using Mont Carlo code (MCNP-5). Adopting Win X-com software and Artificial Neural Network (ANN), µ/ρ revealed great compliance with MCNP-5. By applying (µ/ρ) output for gamma at different energies, HVL, TVL and MFP have been also estimated. ANN technique was simulated to estimate (µ/ρ) and dose rates. According to the results, µ/ρ of all epoxy samples scored higher than standard concrete. Both S2 and S3 samples having higher values of µ/ρ, show minimum dose rate values. (µ/ρ) and RPE% values were enhanced, the concrete containing E/Mag/B4C (S2) had the best results, while the concrete containing Ep (S4) provide the worst results. The ANN prediction results take 15 sec for estimating gamma doses corresponding to seventeen shield thicknesses, while the theoretical MCNP-5 results took approximately between 7 to 10 hours for five gamma doses. ANN provides excellent predictions with a high degree of correlation depending on increasing the number of attenuation parameters used in the training process. Also, it predicts gamma dose rates for a large number of shield thicknesses that cannot be calculated theoretically in a very short time. This supports, the created epoxy composite offers good attenuation properties for many shielding applications and could be proposed as an injecting mortar for cracks in biological shields and the walls of diagnostic and radiotherapy rooms. However, further investigations are planned for different filler ratios, for comparison purposes, in order to reach optimal shielding properties
The study objective was to conduct Pharmacoeconomics study (cost-effective analysis) between infliximab reference (Remicade) and its biosimilar (Remsima) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in Iraqi hospitals.
This is a retrospective multicenter pharmacoeconomic analysis conducted at two large teaching governmental hospitals in Baghdad, Iraq which provided infliximab to patients with RA. Data were collected from patient’s medical records and face-to-face interviews with the patients from December 2021 to April 2022.
The study included 57 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The patients were categorized into two groups according to the type of infliximab they received over 30 weeks: 27 patients received
... Show MoreHybrid architecture of ZnO nanorods/graphene oxide ZnO-NRs@GO synthesized by electrostatic self-assembly methods. The morphological, optical and luminescence characteristics of ZnO-NRs@GO and ZnO-NRs thin films have been described by FESEM, TEM, HRTEM, and AFM, which refers to graphene oxide have been coated ZnO-NRs with five layers. Here we synthesis ZnO-NRs@GO by simple, cheap and environmentally friendly method, which made it favorable for huge -scale preparation in many applications such as photocatalyst. ZnO-NRs@GO was applied as a photocatalyst Rodamin 6 G (R6G) dye from water using 532 nm diode laser-induced photocatalytic process. Overall degradation of R6G/ ZnO-NRs@GO was achieved after 90 minutes of laser irradiation while it ne
... Show MoreA twisted-fin array as an innovative structure for intensifying the charging response of a phase-change material (PCM) within a shell-and-tube storage system is introduced in this work. A three-dimensional model describing the thermal management with charging phase change process in PCM was developed and numerically analyzed by the enthalpy-porosity method using commercial CFD software. Efficacy of the proposed structure of fins for performing better heat communication between the active heating surface and the adjacent layers of PCM was verified via comparing with conventional longitudinal fins within the same design limitations of fin material and volume usage. Optimization of the fin geometric parameters including the pitch, numb
... Show MoreIn this research, the performance of asphalt mixtures modified with polyethylene polymer (PE) by adding 2%, 4%, and 6% percentages was evaluated. Two kinds of PE are employed: Low-Density PE (LDPE) and High-Density PE (HDPE). The semi-wet mixing technique (SWM) was conducted to avoid stability issue for PE-modified binder during storage condition. Many experimental tests were conducted to evaluate the ability of these mixtures to withstand the effects of loads and moisture. The hardness index of these mixtures was also measured to determine their resistance to the effects of high temperatures without causing permanent deformations. The results showed that adding PE led to a remarkable enhancement in the performance of PE-modified mixtures.
... Show MoreAsthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of airways mediated by T-helper 2 (Th2) cells involving complex signaling pathways. Although resveratrol has previously been shown to attenuate allergic asthma, the role of miRNA in this process has not been studied. We investigated the effect of resveratrol on ovalbumin-induced experimental allergic asthma in mice. To that end, BALB/c mice were immunized with ovalbumin (OVA) intraperitoneally followed by oral gavage of vehicle (OVA-veh) or resveratrol (100 mg/kg body) (OVA-res). On day 7, the experimental groups received intranasal challenge of OVA followed by 7 days of additional oral gavage of vehicle or resveratrol. At day 15, all mice were euthanized and bronchioalveolar fluid (BALF), se
... Show MoreAccurate pore and fracture pressure detection is a major step in successful drilling operations design. The overestimation of these parameters absolutely leads to serious problems throughout and after well drilling. This study is concerned with the characterization and analysis of the most significant diagenetic processes that degrade or improve the reservoir characteristics of the Mauddud Formation in the Badra oil field. The primary goal of this research is to estimate the pore pressure and fracture pressure using well logging data by Techlog 2015 software in order to assess the impact on the estimation of the mud weight window (MWW). The estimated values of formation pressures are then analyzed according to different diagenetic p
... Show MoreGrey system theory is a multidisciplinary scientific approach, which deals with systems that have partially unknown information (small sample and uncertain information). Grey modeling as an important component of such theory gives successful results with limited amount of data. Grey Models are divided into two types; univariate and multivariate grey models. The univariate grey model with one order derivative equation GM (1,1) is the base stone of the theory, it is considered the time series prediction model but it doesn’t take the relative factors in account. The traditional multivariate grey models GM(1,M) takes those factor in account but it has a complex structure and some defects in " modeling mechanism", "parameter estimation "and "m
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