This research utilized natural asphalt (NA) deposits from sulfur springs in western Iraq. Laboratory tests were conducted to evaluate the performance of an asphalt mixture incorporating NA and verify its suitability for local pavement applications. To achieve this, a combination of two types of NA, namely soft SNA and hard HNA, was blended to create a binder known as Type HSNA. The resulting HSNA exhibited a penetration grade that adhered to Iraqi specifications. Various percentages of NA (20%, 40%, 60%, and 80%) were added to petroleum asphalt. The findings revealed enhanced physical properties of HSNA, which also satisfied the requirements outlined in the Iraqi specifications for asphalt cement. Consequently, HSNA can serve as an asphalt binder to produce asphalt mixtures for flexible paving construction. Notably, HSNA mixtures exhibited greater Marshall stability and stiffness index when compared to traditional mixtures. The results from indirect tensile strength (ITS) and tensile strength ratio (TSR) tests indicated that the 80NA mixture displayed the highest ITS values and a TSR of 81.36%, surpassing the TSR of the mixture incorporating petroleum asphalt by 0.57%.
This paper presents studying the performance of three types of polyethersulfone (PES) membrane for the simultaneous removal of Co2+ ions, Cd2+ ions, and Pb2+ ions from binary and ternary aqueous solutions. Co2+ ions, Cd2+ ions, and Pb2+ ions with two different initial concentrations (e.g., 10 and 50 ppm) were selected as examples of heavy metals that contaminate the groundwater as a result of geological and human activities. This study investigated the effect of types of PES membrane and metal ions concentration on the separation process. For the binary aqueous solutions, the permeation flux of the PES2 membranes was higher for the separation process of solutions containing 50 ppm of Cd2+ ions and 10 ppm of Co2+ ions (24.7 L
... Show MoreMultilocus haplotype analysis of candidate variants with genome wide association studies (GWAS) data may provide evidence of association with disease, even when the individual loci themselves do not. Unfortunately, when a large number of candidate variants are investigated, identifying risk haplotypes can be very difficult. To meet the challenge, a number of approaches have been put forward in recent years. However, most of them are not directly linked to the disease-penetrances of haplotypes and thus may not be efficient. To fill this gap, we propose a mixture model-based approach for detecting risk haplotypes. Under the mixture model, haplotypes are clustered directly according to their estimated d
One of the functions of Al-Shanasheel was to cool the air, but they could not compete with the Evaporative coolers, As Al-Shanasheel were a sign of luxury and wealth in Arab societies and were only built in homes of wealthy families, they are more expensive than the evaporative coolers, depending on the level of the decoration and the sculpting used to create them aesthetically, where People replaced them with evaporative coolers for their low cost, and higher cooling efficiency. One of the reasons for the disappearance of Al-Shanasheel is the absence of the functional need for them, in exchange for the high cost of construction. The diminished role of Al-Shanasheel in the contemporary urban scene, although they are one of the most
... Show MoreThe physicochemical behaviour of dodecyltrimethylammonium bromide (DTAB) in water and ethanol-water mixture in the presence and absence of ZnSO4 were studied by measuring the conductivity at 298.15 K. The pre-micellar (S1) and post-micellar slopes (S2) were obtained and calculated the degree of dissociation (α) and the critical micelle concentration (cmc). With an increase in ethanol content, the cmc and α of DTAB increased whereas, in the presence of ZnSO4, the cmc and α decreased. By using cmc and α, thermodynamic properties as the standard free energy of micellization ( ) were evaluated. With an increase in ethanol content, the negative values of are decreased indicating less spont
... Show MoreIn this study, the turbulent buoyancy driven fluid flow and heat transfer in a differentially heated rectangular enclosure filled with water is quantified numerically. The two dimensional governing differential equations are discretized using the finite volume method. SIMPLE algorithm is employed to obtain stabilized solution for high Rayleigh numbers by a computational code written in FORTRAN language. A parametric study is undertaken and the effect of Rayleigh numbers (1010 to 1014), the aspect ratio (30, 40 and 50), and the tilt angle (10o to 170o ) on fluid flow and heat transfer are investigated. The results of the adopted model in the present work is compared with previously published results and a qualitative agreement and a good
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