Roller-Compacted Concrete is a no-slump concrete, with no reinforcing steel, no forms, no finishing and wet enough to support compaction by vibratory rollers. Due to the effect of curing on properties and durability of concrete, the main purpose of this research is to study the effect of various curing methods (air curing, 7 days water curing, and permanent water curing) and porcelanite (local material used as an Internal Curing agent) with different replacement percentages of fine aggregate (volumetric replacement) on some properties of Roller-Compacted Concrete and to explore the possibility of introducing practical Roller-Compacted Concrete for road pavement with minimum requirement of curing. Specimens were sawed fro

This paper presents ABAQUS simulations of fully encased composite columns, aiming to examine the behavior of a composite column system under different load conditions, namely concentric, eccentric with 25 mm eccentricity, and flexural loading. The numerical results are validated with the experimental results obtained for columns subjected to static loads. A new loading condition with a 50 mm eccentricity is simulated to obtain additional data points for constructing the interaction diagram of load-moment curves, in an attempt to investigate the load-moment behavior for a reference column with a steel I-section and a column with a GFRP I-section. The result comparison shows that the experimental data align closely with the simulation

This study aimed at evaluating the torsional capacity of reinforced concrete (RC) beams externally wrapped with fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) materials. An analytical model was described and used as a new computational procedure based on the softened truss model (STM) to predict the torsional behavior of RC beams strengthened with FRP. The proposed analytical model was validated with the existing experimental data for rectangular sections strengthened with FRP materials and considering torque-twist relationship and crack pattern at failure. The confined concrete behavior, in the case of FRP wrapping, was considered in the constitutive laws of concrete in the model. Then, an efficient algorithm was developed in MATLAB environment t

A study of characteristics of the lubricant oils and the physical properties is essential to know the quality of lubricant oils. The parameters that lead to classify oils have been studied in this research. Three types of multi-grades lubricant oils were applied under changing temperatures from 25 ^oC to 78^oC to estimate the physical properties and mixture compositions. Kinematic viscosity, viscosity gravity constant and paraffin (P), naphthenes (N) and aromatics (A) (PNA) analysis are used to predict the composition of lubricants oil. Kinematic viscosity gives good behaviors and the oxidation stability for each lubricant oils. PNA analysis predicted fractions of paraffin (X_P), naphthenes (X_N),

Objectives: Dickkopf-1 (DKK-1) is WNT/b-catenin pathway antagonist which plays a detrimental role in the development of diabetic retinopathy (DR). This research aimed to assess serum DKK-1 levels in diabetic patients who have and have not developed DR and, compare them with the control subjects finding out whether we can use it as an indicator for DR early diagnosis and to find out which one of the widely used two groups of antidiabetic treatments had the greater effect on this biomarker and hence on the progression of DR. Methods: The study participants were divided into two subgroups: First, 70 patients (36 male, 34 female) with type 2 diabetes mellitus, among them 35 patients diagnosed with DR and 35 with no evidence of DR, and s

Background: The posterior slope of the articular eminence of completely edentulous patients compared to patients with maintained occlusion shows significant flattening. This study aimed to correlate between the flattening of the posterior slope of the articular eminence, with dental status, age, genders, on both sides using computed tomography. Materials and Methods: The sample of the present study was a total of 117 Iraqi subjects, who admitted to the maxillofacial department at Al-Sadr Teaching Hospital in Al-Najaf city. The examination was performed on CT scanner; the eminence inclination was measured in two methods using sagittal section. Results: Clinically, the inclination of articular eminence was higher in edentulous subjects than i

This valve is intended for use in valves for steering movement, using the qualities of the Magneto-rheological (MR) fluid to regulate the fluid, direct contact without the utilization of moving parts like a spool, a connection between electric flux, and fluid power was made, The simulation was done to employ the" finite element method of magnetism (FEMM)" to arrive at the best design. This software is used for magnetic resonance valve finite element analysis. The valve's best performance was obtained by using a closed directional control valve in the normal state normally closed (NC) MR valve, with simulation results revealing the optimum magnetic flux density in the absence of a current and the shedding condition, as well as the optimum pr

This paper deals with the design and implementation of an ECG system. The proposed system gives a new concept of ECG signal manipulation, storing, and editing. It consists mainly of hardware circuits and the related software. The hardware includes the circuits of ECG signals capturing, and system interfaces. The software is written using Visual Basic languages, to perform the task of identification of the ECG signal. The main advantage of the system is to provide a reported ECG recording on a personal computer, so that it can be stored and processed at any time as required. This system was tested for different ECG signals, some of them are abnormal and the other is normal, and the results show that the system has a good quality of diagno

When embankment is constructed on very soft soil, special construction methods are adopted. One of the techniques is a piled embankment. Piled (stone columns) embankments provide an economic and effective solution to the problem of constructing embankments over soft soils. This method can reduce settlements, construction time and cost. Stone columns provide an effective improvement method for soft soils under light structures such as rail or road embankments. The present work investigates the behavior of the embankment models resting on soft soil reinforced with stone columns. Model tests were performed with different spacing distances between stone columns and two lengths to diameter ratios of the stone columns, in addition to different

The expansion in water projects implementations in Turkey and Syria becomes of great concern to the workers in the field of water resources management in Iraq. Such expansion with the absence of bi-lateral agreement between the three riparian countries of Tigris and Euphrates Rivers; Turkey, Syria and Iraq, is expected to lead to a substantially reduction of water inflow to the territories of Iraq. Accordingly, this study consists of two parts: first part is aiming to study the changes of the water inflow to the territory of Iraq, at Turkey and Syria borders, from 1953 to 2009; the results indicated that the annual mean inflow in Tigris River was decreased from 677 m³/sec to 526 m³/sec, after operating Turkey reserv