Silicon (Si)-based materials are sought in different engineering applications including Civil, Mechanical, Chemical, Materials, Energy and Minerals engineering. Silicon and Silicon dioxide are processed extensively in the industries in granular form, for example to develop durable concrete, shock and fracture resistant materials, biological, optical, mechanical and electronic devices which offer significant advantages over existing technologies. Here we focus on the constitutive behaviour of Si-based granular materials under mechanical shearing. In the recent times, it is widely recognised in the literature that the microscopic origin of shear strength in granular assemblies are associated with their ability to establish anisotropic networks (fabrics) comprising strong-force transmitting inter-particle contacts under shear loading. Strong contacts pertain to the relatively small number of contacts carrying greater than the average normal contact force. However, information on how such fabrics evolve in Si-based assemblies under mechanical loading, and their link to bulk shear strength of such assemblies are scarce in the literature. Using discrete element method (DEM), here we present results on how Si-based granular assemblies develop shear strength and their internal fabric structures under bi-axial quasi-static compression loading. Based on the analysis, a simple constitutive relation is presented for the bulk shear strength of the Si-based assemblies relating with their internal fabric anisotropy of the heavily loaded contacts. These findings could help to develop structure-processing property relations of Si-based materials in future, which originate at the microscale.
Olmesartan medoxomil (OM) has low bioavailability and limited solubility. To enhance bioavailability, fast dissolving films (FDF) with mixed micelles of soluplus (SPL) and solutol HS15 (STL H15) were developed using solvent casting. The optimised formula, FM2, used polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and showed high entrapment efficiency, rapid disintegration, and significant improvement in OM bioavailability compared to the market tablet (Olmetec®). FM2 also demonstrated stability and potential for enhanced drug delivery.
Background: Ankylosing spondylitis is a chronic inflammatory disease that mostly involves the spine and sacroiliac joints. It is associated with a decreased quality of life. Biological medicines such as infliximab and its biosimilar are the mainstay treatments for active ankylosing spondylitis.
Objective: The study objective was to conduct a pharmacoeconomic study comparing the cost-effectiveness of the reference infliximab with its biosimilar in ankylosing spondylitis patients visiting public hospitals.
Subjects and Method: This is a two-center pharmacoeconomic study performed at two large teaching governmental hospitals in Baghdad, Iraq, which s
... Show MoreCarbonate reservoirs are an essential source of hydrocarbons worldwide, and their petrophysical properties play a crucial role in hydrocarbon production. Carbonate reservoirs' most critical petrophysical properties are porosity, permeability, and water saturation. A tight reservoir refers to a reservoir with low porosity and permeability, which means it is difficult for fluids to move from one side to another. This study's primary goal is to evaluate reservoir properties and lithological identification of the SADI Formation in the Halfaya oil field. It is considered one of Iraq's most significant oilfields, 35 km south of Amarah. The Sadi formation consists of four units: A, B1, B2, and B3. Sadi A was excluded as it was not filled with h
... Show MoreBreast cancer has got much attention in the recent years as it is a one of the complex diseases that can threaten people lives. It can be determined from the levels of secreted proteins in the blood. In this project, we developed a method of finding a threshold to classify the probability of being affected by it in a population based on the levels of the related proteins in relatively small case-control samples. We applied our method to simulated and real data. The results showed that the method we used was accurate in estimating the probability of being diseased in both simulation and real data. Moreover, we were able to calculate the sensitivity and specificity under the null hypothesis of our research question of being diseased o
... Show MoreThe study aims to investigate the degree of student teachers at Sultan Qaboos University acquired skills in teaching Arabic via a virtual micro-teaching lab, as well as to reveal the difficulties they faced and their development proposals. To do this, the researchers developed a questionnaire divided into four dimensions: planning, implementation, evaluation, and
ethical values for the teaching profession, in addition to two open-ended questions to identify difficulties and suggestions. It was administered to (30) student teachers. The results revealed that the average degree of student-teacher acquisition of skills was high in its four dimensions. It ranged between (39.2) to (82.2), while the overall average was (56.2).
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This research aims to apply the Performance Focused Activity Based Costing System in the offices of scientific and advisory services at the University of Technology for the purpose of measuring the cost of services provided by these offices in order to reduce costs. To test the hypothesis of the research, the research was applied in the consulting offices of the University of Technology through the financial statements for the year ending 12/31/2017 of the Scientific and Consulting Services Office of the University of Technology, because the data of these years were issued and audited by the Federal Office of Financial Supervision.
A number of
... Show MoreThis study investigates the impact of spatial resolution enhancement on supervised classification accuracy using Landsat 9 satellite imagery, achieved through pan-sharpening techniques leveraging Sentinel-2 data. Various methods were employed to synthesize a panchromatic (PAN) band from Sentinel-2 data, including dimension reduction algorithms and weighted averages based on correlation coefficients and standard deviation. Three pan-sharpening algorithms (Gram-Schmidt, Principal Components Analysis, Nearest Neighbour Diffusion) were employed, and their efficacy was assessed using seven fidelity criteria. Classification tasks were performed utilizing Support Vector Machine and Maximum Likelihood algorithms. Results reveal that specifi
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