Soft clays are generally characterized by low shear strength, low permeability and high compressibility. An effective method to accelerate consolidation of such soils is to use vertical drains along with vacuum preloading to encourage radial flow of water.  In this research numerical modeling of prefabricated vertical drains with vacuum pressure was done to investigate the effect of using vertical drains together with vacuum pressure on the degree of saturation of fully and saturated-unsaturated soft soils.  Laboratory experiments were conducted by using a specially-designed large consolidometer cell where a central drain was installed and vacuum pressure was applied. All tests were conducted

The aim of this study to evaluate the effects of die holes diameter and speed of die on the performance of machine and feed pellet quality. Machine productivity (Kg.h-1), consumed power (kW), pellet durability (%) and pellet bulk density (g.cm-3) was studied. The study factors consisted of three diameter of die holes (3, 4, and 5 mm), and three speeds die (280, 300, and 320 rpm). Results showed with increasing of die holes diameter from 3 to 4 and to 5 mm give a significant increase in machine productivity, while consumed power, pellet durability and pellet bulk density a significant decreased. By increasing the die speed, from 280 to 300 then to 320 rpm, the machine productivity increased significantly, while consumed power, pellet durabil

Nanocomposites of polymer material based on CdS as filler
material and poly methyl methacrylate (PMMA) as host matrix have
been fabricated by chemical spray pyrolysis method on glass
substrate. CdS particles synthesized by co-precipitation route using
cadimium chloride and thioacetamide as starting materials and
ammonium hydroxide as precipitating agent. The structure is
examined by X-ray diffraction (XRD), the resultant film has
amorphous structure. The optical energy gap is found to be (4.5,
4.06) eV before and after CdS addition, respectively. Electrical
activation energy for CdS/PMMA has two regions with values of
0.079 and 0.433 eV.

The development of low profile gamma-ray detectors has encouraged the production of small field of view (SFOV) hand-held imaging devices for use at the patient bedside and in operating theatres. Early development of these SFOV cameras was focussed on a single modality—gamma ray imaging. Recently, a hybrid system—gamma plus optical imaging—has been developed. This combination of optical and gamma cameras enables high spatial resolution multi-modal imaging, giving a superimposed scintigraphic and optical image. Hybrid imaging offers new possibilities for assisting clinicians and surgeons in localising the site of uptake in procedures such as sentinel node detection. The hybrid camera concept can be extended to a multimodal detec

A new distribution, the Epsilon Skew Gamma (ESΓ ) distribution, which was first introduced by Abdulah [1], is used on a near Gamma data. We first redefine the ESΓ distribution, its properties, and characteristics, and then we estimate its parameters using the maximum likelihood and moment estimators. We finally use these estimators to fit the data with the ESΓ distribution

The solvent free oxidation of benzyl alcohol was conducted employing Au and Pd supported catalysts, while utilizing hydrogen peroxide 35% (H2O2) as the oxidant, H2O2 is  very cheap, mild, and an environment friendly reagent, which produced water as the only by-product. Various proportions of Au-Pd catalysts on carbon and titanium oxide activated as supports were synthesized through the use of sol immobilization catalyst synthesis technique. Characterization of the synthesized catalysts was performed using X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM), and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). It was found that the synthesized Au-Pd/ activated carbon catalyst was  benef

Anti-tumor necrosis factor treatments for inflammatory bowel disease face challenges like primary nonresponse and secondary loss of response, often due to antidrug antibodies that increase drug clearance. The Fc-gamma receptors type3A (FCGR3A) (rs396991) polymorphism affects infliximab pharmacokinetics and immunogenicity. This study investigates its influence on trough levels, anti-infliximab antibody development, and clinical outcomes in Iraqi ulcerative colitis (UC) patients. This single-center study involved patients on maintenance infliximab therapy who were enrolled. Serum infliximab trough levels and anti-infliximab antibodies (antibodies to infliximab) (free and total) were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Genotyping