Composite steel-concrete sections have a broad benefit through increasing structural strength as well as minimizing the self-loads. All past researches were concerned with pre-installed shear connectors (PRSC) in the manufacturing of composite sections. A new fabrication technique for steel-concrete-steel composite sections were presented in the current study by the post-installation shear connectors (POSC) passed-through an embedded polymerizing vinyl chloride (PVC) pipes. The performance of normal strength concrete prisms with a specified strength of 32 MPa connected to square steel tubes (SST) was investigated. Six specimens were fabricated in both methodologies, PRSC and POSC were experimentally tested by Push-out test. The spac

Delays and disruption are a common issue in both community and personal building programs The problem exists all throughout the world, but it is particularly prevalent in Iraq, where millions of dollars are squandered each time as a outcome. Delays and interruptions may have serious consequences not just for Iraq's construction plans, but also for the country's economic and social status. While numerous studies have been conducted to investigate the factors driving delays and disruption in Iraqi construction projects, slight consideration has been given to by what means project management implements and approaches have affected the occurrence of project delays and disruption. After analyzing the crucial reasons for delays and instability in

The inhibitory action of four lactobacilli isolates Lactobacillus bulgaricus, L. acidophilus, L. plantarum and L. fermentum, isolated from four different samples; yoghurt, vinegar, saliva and vagina respectively, on Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus adhesion to uroepithelial cells were investigated. Results showed that all Lactobacillus isolates or their supernatant were able to reduce the number of the uropathogens attached to uroepithelial cells. However, inhibition level of lactobacilli cells was higher than their supernatant. Nevertheless, the human indigenous lactobacilli (L. fermentum and L. plantarum) were more competitive than food lactobacilli (L. acidophilus and L. bulgaricus).

Background: Prosthodontic services have changed markedly due to an introduction of new materials, techniques and treatment options. The aim of this study were to identify the type of materials and the methods used by dental practitioners in their clinics to construct conventional complete dentures and to specify the type and design for removable partial dentures (RPDs); and to then compare them with those taught in dental schools. Materials and methods: A total of 153 dental practitioners in Sulaimani city completed a written questionnaire. The questionnaire included 19 questions regarding complete and RPDs fabrication. Results: Most of the practitioners provide complete dentures (81.6%) and RPDs (95.3%) in their clinics. Polyvinyl silox

This paper presents a meta-heuristic swarm based optimization technique for solving robot path planning. The natural activities of actual ants inspire which named Ant Colony Optimization. (ACO) has been proposed in this work to find the shortest and safest path for a mobile robot in different static environments with different complexities. A nonzero size for the mobile robot has been considered in the project by taking a tolerance around the obstacle to account for the actual size of the mobile robot. A new concept was added to standard Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) for further modifications. Simulations results, which carried out using MATLAB 2015(a) environment, prove that the suggested algorithm outperforms the standard version of AC

Ultrasound has been used as a diagnostic modality for many intraocular diseases, due its safety, low cost, real time and wide availability. Unfortunately, ultrasound images suffer from speckle artifact that are tissue dependent. In this work, we will offer a method to reduce speckle noise and improve ultrasound image to raise the human diagnostic performance. This method combined undecimated wavelet transform with a wavelet coefficient mapping function: where UDWT used to eliminate the noise and a wavelet coefficient mapping function used to enhance the contrast of denoised images obtained from the first component. This methods can be used not only as a means for improving visual quality of medical images but also as a preprocessing

Current numerical research was devoted to investigating the effect of castellated steel beams without and with strengthening. The composite concrete asymmetrical double hot rolled steel channels bolted back to back to obtain a built-up I-shape form are used in this study. The top half part of the steel is smaller than the bottom half part, and the two parts were connected by bolting and welding. The ABAQUS/2019 program employed the same length and conditions of loading for four models: The first model is the reference without castellated and strengthening; the second model was castellated without strengthened; the third model was castellated and strengthened with reactive powder concrete encased in the