Haruki Murakami (1949-present) is a contemporary Japanese writer whose works have been translated into fifty languages and won him plenty of Japanese and international awards. His short stories are well constructed in a weird realistic manner and are mixed with elements of surrealism. His novels and short stories fall under the genre of magical realism. One of the major revolving themes that Murakami wrote about was the haunting feeling of emptiness and disconnectedness in a world which seems to care much for materialism and self-interests.

    The paper explores two of Murakami’s short stories in his book After the Quake (2000) and the relevance of their themes and characters to Iraq after the q

Purpose: To identify the size of the food gap for the main agricultural products and crops in Iraq, which reflects to us the extent to which agricultural production in particular and the agricultural sector in general have declined.Theoretical framework: The theoretical side of the research dealt with the definition of self-sufficiency and the food gap, as well as identifying the reality of agricultural production in Iraq during the study period, as well as the reality of the food gap for the most important agricultural, plant and animal products.Design/methodology/approach: In reviewing the research problem, the researcher adopted the method of deductive and descriptive analysis based on the presentation and detail of official data

Saudi Arabia’s banking sector plays an important role in the country’s development as it is among the leading sectors in the financial sector. Considering, two main Saudi banks (The National Commercial Bank and Saudi American bank), the present study aims to observe the impact of emotional intelligence on employee performance. The components of emotional intelligence affecting employee performance include self-management, relationship management, self-awareness, and social awareness. A quantitative methodology was applied to analyse the survey results of 300 respondents over the period from 2018 to 2019. The results show that there was a significant positive impact of self-management, self-awareness, and relationship manageme

Ziegler and Nichols proposed the well-known Ziegler-Nichols method to tune the coefficients of PID controller. This tuning method is simple and gives fixed values for the coefficients which make PID controller have weak adaptabilities for the model parameters variation and changing in operating conditions. In order to achieve adaptive controller, the Neural Network (NN) self-tuning PID control is proposed in this paper which combines conventional PID controller and Neural Network learning capabilities. The proportional, integral and derivative (K_P, K_I, K_D) gains are self tuned on-line by the NN output which is obtained due to the error value on the desired output of the system under control. The conventio

In this paper, a theoretical study to the effect of journal misalignment on the static characteristics of oil filled porous journal bearing when lubricated with couple stress fluid has been carried out.

The analytical model used through this work is for a bearing with isotropic permeability. Considering isotropic permeability the Reynolds' equation for the oil film is modified to include a so – called filter term and the effect of fluid coupled stress. The pressure equation for the porous medium is obtained from Darcy's law and continuity equation. The equation which was used to evaluate the oil film thickness was modified to include the effect of possible misalignment in longitudinal and transverse directions. The governing eq

This study aims to investigate the degree of practicing the motivated classroom evaluation environment for learning and its relationship to different feedback patterns. To achieve the objectives of the study, the correlational descriptive research design was employed. A questionnaire was constructed consisting of two parts: the classroom evaluation environment (13) items, and feedback patterns (24) items on a five-point scale. The psychometric properties of the questionnaire were verified in terms of validity and reliability. The questionnaire was applied to a sample of (265) male and female teachers who work in the second cycle schools for grades (5-10) of basic education in all academic majors in the Governorate of Muscat in the Sultan

This study explores the role of nanomaterials in the performance of asphalt binders and mixtures. Two commonly available nanomaterials, i.e., nanosilica (NS) and nanoalumina (NA), were used at contents of 0%, 2%, 4%, 6%, and 8% by weight of asphalt binder. A set of experiments was carried out at the binder level to investigate properties such as penetration, softening point, aging-related mass loss, nanomaterial dispersion (storage stability), and workability (rotational viscosity). In addition, the suitability of NS and NS was also assessed through the testing of nanomodified asphalt mixtures, which focused on Marshall properties, the resilient modulus, moisture susceptibility, permanent deformation, and fatigue resistance. The findings in

This study focused on benthic algae (epipelic and attached algae on concrete lining stream) in Bani-Hassan stream in Holly Karbala, Iraq. The qualitative and quantitative studies of benthic algae were done by collecting 240 samples from five sites in the study area for the period from December 2012 to November 2013. Also, the environmental variables of the stream were examined in term of temporary and spatial. The results showed that the stream was alkaline, hard, oligohaline and a well aerated. The total nitrogen to the total phosphorus (TN: TP) ratio indicates nitrogen limitation. 129 species of benthic algae belonging to 57 genera were identified. Bacillariophyceae (diatoms) was the predominant taxon (95 species) followed by Chlorophyce

   Finite element method is the most widely numerical technique used in engineering field. Through the study of behavior of concrete material properties, various concrete constitutive laws  and failure criteria have been developed to model the behavior of concrete. A feature of the Finite Element program (ATENA) is used in this study to model the behavior of UHPC corbel under concentrated load only. The Finite Element (FE) model is followed by verification against experimental results. Some variable effects on the shear capacity of the UHPC corbels are also demonstrated in a parametric study. A proposed design equation of shear strength of UHPC corbel was presented and checked with numerical results.
 

The research aims to show the role or extent of the impact of financing in its various forms on the municipal performance before and after the financial deficit through relying on the analytical research methodology of the research community represented by the Directorate General of Municipalities and the Directorate of Maysan municipalities as a sample of research (13) municipal institutions for a period of (8) years, Considering the completion of the final accounts of these years, which provides the necessary data for the study, in addition to the variation in the quality and amounts of grants allocated to municipal institutions during these years, which gives a clearer and more comprehensive picture of the reality of allocatio