A field experiment was carried out in one of the orchards of Al-Qassim district in Babel Governorate to find out the ability of a locally manufactured platform to serve palm trees by working in flat and uneven orchard land, palm tree heights of 4, 8, and 12 meters, and it performs pollination, pruning and harvesting services. The time of ascent and descent, the palm service, and the palm/hour productivity were measured. A randomized complete block design with three replications used a split split-plot arrangement. The nature of the land (flat or uneven) represented the main plots, the height of the palm trees (4, 8, 12) meters, the sub-plots, and the palm service operations (pollination, pruning, harvesting) of the sub-sub plots. The data were analyzed and compared according to the L.S.D test at the probability level of 0.05. The results indicated that there is a significant effect of the palm height factor and the type of service factor on the studied characteristics. The highest time for ascent and descent was 101.22 and 50.86 seconds, respectively, at the height of 12 meters, and the highest time for serving the palm tree was 95.40 seconds/palm for the pruning process, and the least productivity was 7.33 palm trees/hour for the pruning process. There was a significant interaction between the palm tree’s height and the land’s nature regarding productivity characteristics. There was a significant difference between the height of the palm tree and the type of service with both times of ascent, descent, and service of a palm tree. Based on the previous, it is possible to use the locally manufactured platform in palm groves to reduce the suffering of palm farmers from the difficulty of performing the necessary operations to serve palm trees, especially those of high altitudes.
Hard-grade asphalt binders, such as AC 20–30, offer excellent resistance to permanent deformation but are inherently brittle, making them highly susceptible to fatigue and low-temperature cracking. While polymer modification addresses these issues, virgin polymers remain expensive. Despite the growing interest in recycled plastics, the rheological impact of complex waste streams, specifically polyvinyl chloride (PVC) derived from flex banners containing plasticizers, on excessively stiff binders within the complete Superpave Performance Grading (PG) framework remains critically underexplored. This study introduces a novel valorization approach by utilizing solvent-extracted flex banner waste (WPVC) as a dual-action modifier. It leverages
... Show MoreAdvancing the multi-scale performance of asphalt pavements requires innovative binder modifications that address limitations in rutting resistance, fatigue resistance, and durability across the binder, mixture, and structural levels. This study evaluates the performance of asphalt cement, mixtures, and pavement systems modified with a combination of polyethylene (PE) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The binder was modified using 4% PE and varying CNT contents (0.5%, 1%, 1.5%, and 2% by weight of the modified binder). Binder performance was assessed through conventional and rheological tests, including penetration, softening point, viscosity, performance grade (PG) evaluation, and master curve analysis. Mixture-level performance was eval
... Show MoreIn this research, main types of optical coatings are presented which are used as covers for solar cells, these coatings are reflect the infrared (heat) from the solar cell to increase the efficiency of the cell (because the cell’s efficiency is inversely proportional to the heat), then the theoretical and mathematical description of these optical coatings are presented, and an optical design is designed to meet this objective, its optical transmittance was calculated using (MATLAB R2008a) and (Open Filters 1.0.2) programs
The aim of this research is to identify the extent to which the Conventional and Islamic banks are committed to implement the requirements of the corporate governance in its financial reports. In addition to its commitment to transparency and clarity in dealing with the shareholders and stockholders to protect their interests and to determine the impact of the commitment of the corporate governance on assessing the financial performance of the conventional and Islamic banks that participate in Bahrain Stock Exchange.