Tensile strength is a critical property of Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) pavements and is closely related to distresses such as fatigue cracking. This study aims to evaluate methods for assessing fatigue cracking in Asphalt Concrete (AC) mixes. In order to achieve optimum density at different binder contents, the mixes were compressed using a gyratory compactor. Tensile strength was assessed using the Indirect Tensile (IDT) and Semi-Circular Bend (SCB) tests. The results showed that the tensile strength measured by the SCB test was consistently higher than that measured by the IDT test at 25 °C. In addition, the SCB test showed a stronger correlation between increasing binder content and tensile strength. For binder contents ranging from 4.2% to 5.2%, the IDT test results increased from 541% to 678.7%, while the SCB test results increased from 630.3% to 743.7%. These results suggest that the SCB test provides a more accurate representation of the tensile strength of AC mixes than the IDT test.
Owing to high antibacterial resistance of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, it could be considered as the main reason behind the nosocomial infections. P. aeruginosa has a well-known biofilm forming ability. The expression of polysaccharide encoding locus (pelA gene) by P. aeruginosa is essential for this ability. The purpose of the current research was to determine the biofilm formation in P. aeruginosa isolated from clinical samples and to evaluate the role of the selected PelA gene in biofilm formation using PCR method in Iraqi patients. Results revealed that 24 (96%) isolates were found to have the ability to form biofilm that was remarkably related to gentamicin resistance. Moreover, the pelA gene was found in all biofilm-producers. In c
... Show MoreThis study examines the transformation of political slogans, clichés, and stereotypes in Russia and Iraq during periods of political regime change in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The main objective of the work is to identify and comparatively analyze the linguistic and cultural changes that accompanied political transformations in both countries. The research is based on theoretical concepts of political myth, framing, and critical discourse analysis. The research methodology includes content analysis of political texts, comparative analysis of linguistic transformations, and analysis of statistical data on cultural consumption. The main hypothesis is that, despite the presence of common trends in linguistic and cultural
... Show MoreIn this study the isomerization of desulfuerized light Iraqi petroleum naphtha (Al-Dura Refinery) with boiling point range of 37 to 124 °C , 80.5 API specific gravity and 68.2 octane number has been investigated. Two types of catalysts were prepared (Pt/HX and Pt/SrX) by impregnation of 0.8 wt% Pt on l 3X-zeolite. The catalyst activity and selectivity toward isomerization, and catalyst deactivation were investigated.
The isomerization unit consisted of a vertical tubular stainless steel reactor of 2 cm internal diameter, 3 cm external diameter and 68 cm height. The operating pressure was atmospheric for all experimental runs. The liquid flow of lightnaphtha was 0.4 Uh, and the catalyst weight was 50 gm, H/
... Show MoreAbstract Background: This in-vitro study was to evaluated bitewing radiograph and tactile examination for detection secondary caries adjacent to amalgam restorations. Material and method: Sixty primary extracted molars with class I and class II amalgam restorations were selected from children, and examined by bitewing radiographs were taken by using film holders and interpreted on a backlit screen without magnification. Then, we used tactile examination with blunt probe. Result: The result of this study showed that the best cut-off points for the sample were found by a Receiver Operator Characteristic (ROC) analysis, and the area under the ROC curve and the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of the techniques were calculated for enamel (
... Show MoreThe purpose of this paper to discriminate between the poetic poems of each poet depending on the characteristics and attribute of the Arabic letters. Four categories used for the Arabic letters, letters frequency have been included in a multidimensional contingency table and each dimension has two or more levels, then contingency coefficient calculated.
The paper sample consists of six poets from different historical ages, and each poet has five poems. The method was programmed using the MATLAB program, the efficiency of the proposed method is 53% for the whole sample, and between 90% and 95% for each poet's poems.
This study aims to derive a general relation between line loads that acting on two-way slab system and the equivalent uniformly distributed loads. This relation will be so useful to structural designer that are used to working with a uniformly distributed load and enable them to use the traditional methods for analysis of two-way systems (e.g. Direct Design Method). Two types of slab systems, Slab System with Beams and Flat Slab Systems, have been considered in this study to include the effect of aspect ratio and type of slab on the proposed relation. Five aspect ratios, l2/l1 of 0.5, 0.75, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0, have been considered for both types of two-way systems.
All necessary finite element analyses have been executed with SAFE Soft
The purpose of this interview study was to explore teachers’ perceptions of Response to Intervention (RtI) implementation in their school. Particularly, the study explored teachers’ knowledge of RtI, teachers’ perceptions of RtI their intervention/instruction in school, and teachers’ suggestions of RtI implementation in their school. The study design was a qualitative interview in nature and data were collected from face-to-face interviews with four teachers in one school. The findings revealed that RtI means to identify students’ problems; the positive teachers’ perceptions of their implementation included: (a) students who demonstrate progress through RtI are those who receive private education services, (b) progress monito
... Show MoreThis paper examines the change in planning pattern In Lebanon, which relies on vehicles as a semi-single mode of transport, and directing it towards re-shaping the city and introducing concepts of "smooth or flexible" mobility in its schemes; the concept of a "compact city" with an infrastructure based on a flexible mobility culture. Taking into consideration environmental, economical and health risks of the existing model, the paper focuses on the four foundations of the concepts of "city based on culture flexible mobility, "and provides a SWOT analysis to encourage for a shift in the planning methodology.
Aggregate production planning (APP) is one of the most significant and complicated problems in production planning and aim to set overall production levels for each product category to meet fluctuating or uncertain demand in future. and to set decision concerning hiring, firing, overtime, subcontract, carrying inventory level. In this paper, we present a simulated annealing (SA) for multi-objective linear programming to solve APP. SA is considered to be a good tool for imprecise optimization problems. The proposed model minimizes total production and workforce costs. In this study, the proposed SA is compared with particle swarm optimization (PSO). The results show that the proposed SA is effective in reducing total production costs and req
... Show More