Animal fats are a good, promising and ethical alternative source for biodiesel production, but they need more complex treatments than vegetable oils. Iraqi butchery plants waste fats (sheep fat) which are suggested as feedstock to produce biodiesel. This type of fat contains a large quantity of free fatty acids (FFAs) (acid number 49.13 mg KOH/g of fat). The direct transesterification of such fats produce high amount of soap instead of desired biodiesel, so a pre-treatment step (to reduce FFAs) is necessary before transesterification. This step was done by esterification of the free fatty acids in the fat by adding ethanol and using 1% acid catalyst (H2SO4) for 30 minutes. The results showed that the acid number of sheep fat after pre-tr

This study investigates the possibility of using waste plastic as one of the components of expired lead-acid batteries to produce lightweight concrete. Different percentages of lead-acid battery plastic were used in the production of lightweight concrete. The replacements were (70, 80 and 100%) by volume of the fine and coarse aggregate. Results demonstrated that a reduction of approximately 23.6% to 35% in the wet density was observed when replacement of 70% to 100% of the natural aggregate by lead-acid battery plastic. Also, the compressive strength decreased slightly with the increase in plastic content at different curing ages of 7, 28, 60, 90, 120 days. The lowest value of compressive strength was (20.7 MPa) for (wa

Non-thermal (low-temperature) plasma may act as an alternative approach to control superficial wound and skin infections when the effectiveness of chemical agents is weak due to natural pathogen or biofilm resistance. In this paper an atmospheric pressure plasma needle jet device which generates a cold plasma jet is used to measure the effectiveness of plasma treatment against different pathogenic bacteria and to test the individual susceptibility of pathogenic bacteria to non-thermal argon plasma. It is found that, Gram-negative bacteria were more susceptible to plasma treatment than Gram-positive bacteria. For the Gram-negative bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa, there were no survivors among the initial 1x10⁸C.F.U (Co

Critical buckling temperature of laminated plate under thermal load varied linearly along the thickness, is developed using a higher-order shape function which depends on a parameter ‘‘m’’, which is improved to obtain results for thin and thick plates. Laminated plates’ equations of motion are obtained using virtual work principle and solved for simply supported boundary conditions. Angle and cross laminates thermal buckled mode shapes with different E1/E2 proportion, number of plies, (α2/α1) proportion, aspect ratios, are investigated. It is observed that this shape function gives thermal buckling for thin and thick plates but with m = 0.05 that agree well with other theories and linear distribution of temperature giv

A numerical method is developed to obtain two-dimensional velocity and pressure distribution through a cylindrical pipe with cross jet flows. The method is based on solving partial differential equations for the conservation of mass and momentum by finite difference method to convert them into algebraic equations. This well-known problem is used to introduce the basic concepts of CFD including: the finite- difference mesh, the discrete nature of the numerical solution, and the dependence of the result on the mesh refinement. Staggered grid implementation of the numerical model is used. The set of algebraic equations is solved simultaneously by “SIMPLE” algorithm to obtain velocity and pressure distribution within a pipe. In order to

Sustainable crop production in a coarse soil texture is challenging due to high water permeability and low soil water holding capacity. In this paper, subsurface water retention technology (SWRT) through impermeable polyethylene membranes was placed at depth 35 cm below ground surface and within the root zone to evaluate and compare the impact of these membranes and control treatment (without using the membranes) on yield and water use efficiency of eggplant inside the greenhouse. The study was conducted in Al-Fahamah Township, Baghdad, Iraq during spring growing season 2017. Results demonstrated the yield and water use efficiencies were 3.483 kg/m² and 5.653 kg/m³, respectively for SWRT treatment p

The research dealt with the effect of the tax examiner's efficiency in detecting tax evasion, as the research problem dealt with tax evasion, especially in Iraq, for many reasons and factors, including those related to tax administration represented in administrative corruption and the complexity of procedures in the tax accounting process and failure to achieve justice in the tax treatment, including the taxpayer himself, as he tries to evade for reasons Related to the level of tax awareness, loss of confidence in the tax administration, and reasons related to the state's inability to manage the services file well and its ability to achieve the set goals, This reflected negatively on the emergence of some of the consequences of

Eleven hymenopterous species: two braconids, seven eulophids and two pteromalids
parasitized the larvae of Phytomyza horticola Goureau. The activity of the parasites began at
the end of April and evidently increased during May. The female of the parasites fed and
parasitized mostly on the second and third larval instars of P. horticola . Diglyphus iseae
Walker and Cirrospilus vittatus Walker were dominant larval parasites. Chrysocharis
pentheus Walker and Pediobius acantha Walker were main pupal parasites.

Objective: Conventional approaches for disinfection, including spraying and immersion, resulted in only surface disinfection of impressions. As a result, self-disinfecting impression materials incorporated with antimicrobial compounds require more extensive studies. The incorporation of a disinfectant into irreversible hydrocolloid impression materials could eliminate the need for the disinfection step by conventional approaches, including spraying and immersion which only result in surface disinfection of impressions. The study was aimed to investigate the effect of incorporation of hypochlorous acid in irreversible hydrocolloid materials on antimicrobial efficiency, detail reproduction, and dimensional stability. Materials and