Globally, Sustainability is very quickly becoming a fundamental requirement of the construction industry as it delivers its projects; whether buildings or infrastructures. Throughout more than two decades, many modeling schemes, evaluation tools, and rating systems have been introduced en route to realizing sustainable construction. Many of these, however, lack consensus on evaluation criteria, a robust scientific model that captures the logic behind their sustainability performance evaluation, and therefore experience discrepancies between rated results and actual performance. Moreover, very few of the evaluation tools available satisfactorily address infrastructure projects. The research introduces a system engineering model that abstracts the environment, the construction product, and its production system as three interacting systems that exchange materials, energy, and information. The model utilizes this setup to capture and quantify essential flows exchanged between such three systems, to evaluate sustainability. The research walks through the development of a generic case of the model, and then demonstrates its utility in evaluating the sustainability performance of civil infrastructure projects. The developed model will address an identified gap within the current body of knowledge by considering infrastructure projects. Through the ability to simulate different scenarios, the model will enable identifying which activities, products, and processes impact the environment more, and hence potential areas for optimization and improvement.
The analytic solution for the unsteady flow of generalized Oldroyd- B fluid on oscillating rectangular duct is studied. In the absence of the frequency of oscillations, we obtain the problem for the flow of generalized Oldroyd- B fluid in a duct of rectangular cross- section moving parallel to its length. The problem is solved by applying the double finite Fourier sine and discrete Laplace transforms. The solutions for the generalized Maxwell fluids and the ordinary Maxwell fluid appear as limiting cases of the solutions obtained here. Finally, the effect of material parameters on the velocity profile spotlighted by means of the graphical illustrations
Background: Plantar heel pain is a clinical syndrome characterized by pain and tenderness beneath the heel which is typically worse in the morning and improves after the first few steps in the day. It is a common and frequently disabling clinical complaint that may be caused by a broad spectrum of osseous or soft tissue disorders. Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of an operation of multiple drilling of calcaneum for resistant plantar heel pain syndrome. Methods: During the period from November 2012 to August 2016, 17 patients (17heels) were enrolled in a cohort clinical study at the orthopedic unit in AL-Sheikh Zayed and AlWassity Hospitals. Result: Drilling of the calcaneum is a simple procedure achieving 70.6% cure in resistant as
... Show MoreThis paper presents a hybrid energy resources (HER) system consisting of solar PV, storage, and utility grid. It is a challenge in real time to extract maximum power point (MPP) from the PV solar under variations of the irradiance strength. This work addresses challenges in identifying global MPP, dynamic algorithm behavior, tracking speed, adaptability to changing conditions, and accuracy. Shallow Neural Networks using the deep learning NARMA-L2 controller have been proposed. It is modeled to predict the reference voltage under different irradiance. The dynamic PV solar and nonlinearity have been trained to track the maximum power drawn from the PV solar systems in real time.
Moreover, the proposed controller i
... Show MoreObjective: To evaluate the functional outcomes after extended curettage and reconstruction using a combination of bone graft and bone cement (sandwich). Methodology: In this prospective case series 16 skeletally mature patients with primary giant cell tumor around the knee were included. Patients with previous surgically treated, malignant transformation, degenerative knee changes and those presenting with pathological fracture were excluded. The tumor was excised with bone graft filling space beneath the articular cartilage and a block of gel foam was placed over the cortical surface of picked bone graft. Remaining cavity was filled with polymethylmethacrylate cement (sandwich) with or without internal fixation. The func tional evaluation
... Show MoreThe gravity method is a measurement of relatively noticeable variations in the Earth’s gravitational field caused by lateral variations in rock's density. In the current research, a new technique is applied on the previous Bouguer map of gravity surveys (conducted from 1940–1950) of the last century, by selecting certain areas in the South-Western desert of Iraqi-territory within the provinces' administrative boundary of Najaf and Anbar. Depending on the theory of gravity inversion where gravity values could be reflected to density-contrast variations with the depths; so, gravity data inversion can be utilized to calculate the models of density and velocity from four selected depth-slices 9.63 Km, 1.1 Km, 0.682 Km and 0.407 Km.
... Show MoreIn the 1980s, the French Administration Roads LCPC developed high modulus mixtures (EME) by using hard binder. This type of mixture presented good resistance to moisture damage and improved . mechanical properties for asphalt mixtures including high modulus, good fatigue behaviour and excellent resistance to rutting. In Iraq, this type of mixture has not been used yet. The main objective of this research is to evaluate the performance of high modulus mixtures and comparing them with the conventional mixture, to achieve this objective, asphalt concrete mixes were prepared and then tested to evaluate their engineering properties which include moisture damage, resilient modulus, permanent deformation and fatigue characteristics. These prope
... Show MorePortland Cement is manufactured by adding 3% gypsum to clinker which is produced by grinding, pulverizing, mixing, and then burning a raw mix of silica, and calcium carbonate. Limestone is the main source of carbonates, while clay collected from arable land is the main source of silica. The marl in the Euphrates Formation was studied as an alternative to arable lands. Nine boreholes drilled and penetrated the marl layer in selected locations at the Kufa cement quarry. Forty-one samples of marl from boreholes and four samples of limestone from the closed area were collected. The chemical content of the major oxides and the hardness of the marl layer was very encouraging as a raw material for Portland Cement as they are SiO2 (17.60),
... Show MoreTwo different polyvinyl alcohol/polyvinyl chloride (PVA/PVC) hollow fiber composite nanofiltration membranes were prepared after PVC hollow fiber membranes were coated using dip-coating method with PVA aqueous solution, which was composed of PVA, fatty alcohol polyoxyethylene ether (AEO9), and water [PVA/AEO9/water (4:0.5:95.5) wt%]. Effect of two different PVC hollow fiber immersion times in coating solution were studied. Cross-section, internal and external surfaces of the PVC hollow fibers and PVA/PVC composite nanofiltration membranes structures were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), pure water permeation flux and solutes rejection. It was found that, the coating layer thickness on the outer surface of the 19 wt% P
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