Deep beams are used in wide construction fields such as water tanks, foundations, and girders in multi-story buildings to provide certain areas free of columns. In practice it is quite often occurring to create web opening in deep beams to supply convenient passage of ventilation ducts, cable channels, gas and water pipes. Experimental studies of ten 10 deep beams were carried out, where two of them are control specimens without openings and eight with large web openings in the shear spans. The variables that have been adopted are the ratio of the shear span to the overall depth of the member cross-section, location and dimensions of the opening. Test results showed that there was a decrease in the load carrying capacity of deep beams with openings compared to the control deep beams. This reduction may reach 66% in particular cases. It is clear that, the position of opening in shear span has less effect on the performance of structural concrete deep beams at different serviceability stages. Only 11% increase in load capacity at failure was observed in specimens with openings adjacent to the interior edges of shear spans in comparison with specimens with openings at the center of shear span because the discontinuity of the load path is less. Also the midspan deflection at service load level of the reference beam in specimens with openings adjacent to interior edge of shear spans was less than the midspan deflection of reference specimens by 10% - 33%. Evaluating all these advantages facilitates to recommend, if it is very required, the creation of openings at the interior edges of shear spans of the structural concrete deep beams.
Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a progressive airflow limitation that is preventable but not curable. It is associated with persistent symptoms that cause a considerable burden on individual productivity at work, and daily activities, and reduced quality of life, also burdening the healthcare system and society. Objectives: The study aims to measure the burden of COPD on patients in terms of daily activities and work productivity. It also seeks to investigate some inflammatory biomarkers' levels and their correlation with selected outcomes. Patients and Methods: A cross-sectional study on 120 stable COPD patients who were diagnosed and treated according to the GOLD guidelines at Kirkuk General Hospital's
... Show MoreThis research includes a study of Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase gene’s allele 677C?T and its correlation with oxidative stress and their impact on female infertility. Fifty infertile women with the range age (23-42) years and twenty five fertile women with the range age (22-39) years as control group living in Erbil city were selected. The serum level of Malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD), prolactin hormone (PRL), Luteinizing hormone (LH), Thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), Triiodothyronine hormone (T3), and Thyroxine hormone (T4) were measured, also a body mass index (BMI) was calculated. A restriction enzyme (Hinf1) was used to improve the mutation in DNA bands of infertile women. The results showed significant inc
... Show MoreTwo-dimensional unsteady mixed convection in a porous cavity with heated bottom wall is numerically studied in the present paper. The forced flow conditions are imposed by providing a hydrostatic pressure head at the inlet port that is located at the bottom of one of the vertical side walls and an open vent at the top of the other vertical side wall. The Darcy model is adopted to model the fluid flow in the porous medium and the combination effects of hydrostatic pressure head and the heat flux quantity parameters are carefully investigated. These governing parameters are varied over wide ranges and their effect on the heat transfer characteristics is studied in detail. It is found that the time required to reach a desired temperature at th
... Show MoreObjective: Pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH) is a major pregnancy complication that leads to maternal mortality. Here, we have scrutinized the correlation between serum levels of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) in PIH.Methods: Serum samples were collected from 80 Iraqi women (40 women with PIH as patients group, 20 normotensive pregnant women as a positive control, and 20 normotensive non-pregnant women as a negative control) all groups were diagnosed clinically.Results: Serum of H2O2 and SOD levels was measured for all studied groups. Results showed that there were no significant variances in age and gestational age distribution between all studied groups. Furthermore, result showed that the serum level o
... Show MoreThis work studies the role of serum apelin-36 and Glutathione S-transferases (GST) activity in association with the hormonal, metabolic profiles and their link to the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in healthy and patients' ladies with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). A total of fifty-four (PCOS) patients and thirty-one healthy woman as a control have been studied. The PCOS patients were subdivided on the basis of body-mass-index (BMI), into 2-subgroups (the first group was obese-PCOS with BMI ≥ 30 and the second group was non-obese PCOS MBI<30). Fasting-insulin-levels and Lipid-profile, Homeostatic-model assessment-of-insulin-resistance (HOMA-IR), follicle-stimulating-hormone (FSH), luteinizing-hormone (LH), testosterone and
... Show MoreThe aim of the present study is to highlight the role of total cholesterol (TC), triacylglycerol (TG), Glycated hemoglobin A1c and iron in Iraqi women with multiple sclerosis and also to examine the biochemical action of copaxone (which is the most widely used in the 21st century to treat multiple sclerosis) on these biochemical parameters. This is the first study in Iraq which deals copaxone action on TC , TG , HbA1c and iron. Ninety women in their fourth decade suffering from multiple sclerosis were enrolled in this study. They were divided into: the first (group B) composed of (30) women without any treatment related to multiple sclerosis or any treatment linked with chronic or inflammatory diseases. The second (group A1) included (30)
... Show MoreBackground: Sialosis described as a specific consequence of diabetes. In diabetic sialosis, the increased volume of the glands is due to the infiltration of adipose in the parenchyma. The B-scan ultrasonography is a generally accepted tool for determining parotid gland enlargement. Oral health is, to a greater extent, dependent on quality and quantity of saliva, both of which may be altered in diabetics. This study was established to detect the enlargement of parotid gland in diabetic patient and study the changes in physical properties of saliva and its relation with the salivary gland enlargement. Subjects, Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study with highly specified criteria with ages ranged (20-65) years, male and female subject
... Show MoreThe problem of steady, laminar, natural convective flow in an square enclosure with and without partitions is considered for Rayleigh number (103-106) and Prandtl number (0.7). Vertical walls were maintained isothermal at different temperatures while horizontal walls and the partitions were insulated. The length of partition was taken constant. The number of partitions were placed on horizontal surface in staggered arrangement from (1– 3) and ratio of partition thickness (H/L= 0.033, 0.083, 0.124). The problem is formulated in terms of the vorticity-stream function procedure. A numerical solution based on a program in Fortran 90 with the finite difference method is obtained. Representative results illustrating the effects of the thickn
... Show MoreBackground: Monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1) is a chemokine expressed by inflammatory and endothelial cells. It has a crucial role in initiating, regulating, and mobilizing monocytes to active sites of periodontal inflammation. Its expression is also elevated in response to pro-inflammatory stimuli and tissue injury, both of which are linked to atherosclerotic lesions. Aim of the study: To determine the serum level of MCP-1 in patients with periodontitis and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease in comparison to healthy control and evaluate the biomarker's correlations with periodontal parameters. methods: This study enrolled 88 subjects, both males and females, ranging in age from 36-66 years old, and divided into four groups: 1<
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