In this research, the nonparametric technique has been presented to estimate the time-varying coefficients functions for the longitudinal balanced data that characterized by observations obtained through (n) from the independent subjects, each one of them is measured repeatedly by group of  specific time points (m). Although the measurements are independent among the different subjects; they are mostly connected within each subject and the applied techniques is the Local Linear kernel LLPK technique. To avoid the problems of dimensionality, and thick computation, the two-steps method has been used to estimate the coefficients functions by using the two former technique. Since, the two-

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

Salinity of soil or irrigation water is one of the most important obstacle towards crop production and productivity, especially with the increasing scarcity of fresh water in Iraq and the Arab countries. The impact of salinity will be alleviated with the increasing temperature due to global warming. The objectives of this article was to shed some light on traits more related to salinity stress tolerance in oats, and to identify genetic variation of these traits. A split-plot arrangement experiment with RCBD was applied through 2011-2013 on the farm of Dept. of Field Crops/Coll. of Agric./Univ. of Baghdad. The oats cultivars; Hamel, Pimula and Genzania were set in sub-plots, whereas water quality was set in main-plots. Water quality had two

Permanent deformation (Rutting) of asphalt  pavements which appears in many roads in Iraq, have caused a major impact on pavement performance by reducing the useful service life of pavement and creating services hazards for highway users. The main objective of this research is investigating the effect of some contributory factors related to permanent deformation of asphalt concrete mixture. To meet the objectives of this research, available local materials are used including asphalt binder, aggregates, mineral filler and modified asphalt binder. The Superpave mix design system was adopted with varying volumetric compositions. The Superpave Gyratory Compactor was used to compact 24 asphalt concrete cylindrical specimens. To collect t

Single-photon detection concept is the most crucial factor that determines the performance of quantum key distribution (QKD) systems. In this paper, a simulator with time domain visualizers and configurable parameters using continuous time simulation approach is presented for modeling and investigating the performance of single-photon detectors operating in Gieger mode at the wavelength of 830 nm. The widely used C30921S silicon avalanche photodiode was modeled in terms of avalanche pulse, the effect of experiment conditions such as excess voltage, temperature and average photon number on the photon detection efficiency, dark count rate and afterpulse probability. This work shows a general repeatable modeling process for significant perform

This paper deals with, Bayesian estimation of the parameters of Gamma distribution under Generalized Weighted loss function, based on Gamma and Exponential priors for the shape and scale parameters, respectively. Moment, Maximum likelihood estimators and Lindley’s approximation have been used effectively in Bayesian estimation. Based on Monte Carlo simulation method, those estimators are compared in terms of the mean squared errors (MSE’s).

A new application of a combined solvent extraction and two-phase biodegradation processes using two-liquid phase partitioning bioreactor (TLPPB) technique was proposed and developed to enhance the cleanup of high concentration of crude oil from aqueous phase using acclimated mixed culture in an anaerobic environment. Silicone oil was used as the organic extractive phase for being a water-immiscible, biocompatible and non-biodegradable. Acclimation, cell growth of mixed cultures, and biodegradation of crude oil in aqueous samples were experimentally studied at 30±2ºC. Anaerobic biodegradation of crude oil was examined at four different initial concentrations of crude oil including 500, 1000, 2000, and 5000 mg/L. Complete removal of crud

This paper presents the effect of relativistic and ponderomotive nonlinearity on cross-focusing of two intense laser beams in a collisionless and unmagnetized plasma. It should be noted here that while considering the self-focusing due to relativistic electron mass variation, the electron ponderomotive density depression in the channel may also be important. Therefore/these two nonlinearties may simultaneously affect the self-focusing process. These nonlinearities depend not only on the intensity of one laser but also on the second laser. Therefore, one laser beam affects the dynamics of the second beam and hence the process of cross-focusing takes place. The electric field amplitude of the excited electron plasma wave (EPW) has been cal

Spent hydrodesulfurization (Co-Mo/γ-Al2O3) catalyst generally contains valuable metals like molybdenum (Mo), cobalt (Co), aluminium (Al) on a supporting material, such as γ-Al2O3. In the present study, a two stages alkali/acid leaching process was conducted to study leaching of cobalt, molybdenum and aluminium from Co-Mo/γ-Al2O3 catalyst. The acid leaching of spent catalyst, previously treated by alkali solution to remove molybdenum, yielded a solution rich in cobalt and aluminium.

The Skyrme–Hartree–Fock (SHF) method with MSK7 Skyrme parameter has been used to investigate the ground-state properties for two-neutron halo nuclei 6He, 11Li, 12Be and 14Be. These ground-state properties include the proton, neutron and matter density distributions, the corresponding rms radii, the binding energy per nucleon and the charge form factors. These calculations clearly reveal the long tail characterizing the halo nuclei as a distinctive feature.