This paper reports a research work on assessing clay content effect on the water retention capacity of clayey sandy soils. At first, experimental tests were conducted to measure the soil water retention curves (SWRCs) of clayey sandy soils. A total of four different soil samples, which have clay content of 0, 15, 30 and 50%, respectively, by total soil sample weight, were measured. Secondly, a revision of a physical–chemical (PC) analytical model previously proposed has been reviewed and adopted to represent the SWRC measurements and compared for its predictive performance against the classic van Genuchten model and the original PC model. The experimental results demonstrated that clay content has a significant influence on soil w

This study investigates the feasibility of a mobile robot navigating and discovering its location in unknown environments, followed by the creation of maps of these navigated environments for future use. First, a real mobile robot named TurtleBot3 Burger was used to achieve the simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) technique for a complex environment with 12 obstacles of different sizes based on the Rviz library, which is built on the robot operating system (ROS) booted in Linux. It is possible to control the robot and perform this process remotely by using an Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instance service. Then, the map to the Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) cloud was uploaded. This provides a database

ZnIn2(Se1-xTex)4 (ZIST) chalcopyrite semiconductor thin films at various contents (x = 0.0, 0.2, and 0.4) are deposited on glass and p type silicon (111) substrate to produce heterojunction solar cell by using the thermal evaporation technique at RT where the thickness of 500 nm with a vacuum of 1×10-5 mbar and a deposited rates of 5.1 nm/s. This study focuses on how differing x content effect on the factors affecting the solar cell characteristics of ZIST thin film and n-ZIST/p-Si heterojunction. X-ray diffraction XRD investigation shows that this structure of ZIST film is polycrystalline and tetragonal, with (112) preferred orientation at 2θ ≈ 27.01. Moreover, atomic force microscopy AFM is studying the external morphology of

In this study, the upgrading of Iraqi heavy crude oil was achieved utilizing the solvent deasphalting approach (SDA) and enhanced solvent deasphalting (e-SDA) by adding Nanosilica (NS). The NS was synthesized from local sand. The XRD result, referred to as the amorphous phase, has a wide peak at 2Θ= (22 - 23º) The inclusion of hydrogen-bonded silanol groups (Si–O–H) and siloxane groups (Si–O–Si) in the FTIR spectra. The SDA process was handled using n-pentane solvent at various solvent to oil ratios (SOR) (4-16/1ml/g), room and reflux temperature, and 0.5 h mixing time. In the e-SDA process, various fractions of the NS (1–7 wt.%) have been utilized with 61 nm particle size and 560.86 m²/g surface area in the presence of

both strongly associated with vascular and metabolic complications. Endothelin-1 is a potent vasoconstrictor that plays a key role in vascular tone regulation and endothelial function. Objective: To evaluate serum Endothelin-1 levels, lipid profile parameters (total cholesterol, LDL-C, VLDL-C, HDL-C, triglycerides), and HbA1c in patients with type 2 diabetes and essential hypertension compared with healthy controls, in order to assess their association with vascular injury and metabolic risk. Methods: A case-control study was conducted in the Department of Biochemistry, College of Medicine, University of Baghdad. Between November 2024 and February 2025, a sample of patients were recruited from Baghdad Teaching Hospital and Ibn Al-Bi

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

Kombucha(Khubdat Humza) is composed of yeast and acetic acid bacteria especially, Acetobacter xylinum which forms a cellulose pellicle on tea broth. Kombucha(Khubdat Humza) produces bacterial cellulose pellicles, with unique purity and fine structure. It can be used in many forms, such as an emulsifier, stabilizer, dispersing agent, thickener and gelling agent but these are generally subsidiary to its most important use of holding on to water. Recently, bacterial cellulose is used in many special applications such as a scaffold for tissue engineering of cartilages and blood vessels, also for artificial skin for temporary covering of wounds, as well as its used in the clothing industry. The yield of cellulose produced were investiga

CdO films were deposited on substrates from glass, Silicon and Porous silicon by thermal chemical spray pyrolysis technique with different thicknesses (130 and 438.46) nm. Measurements of X-ray diffraction of CdO thin film proved that the structure of the Polycrystalline is cubic lattice, and its crystallite size is located within nano scale range where the perfect orientation is (200). The results show that the surface’s roughness and the root mean square increased with increasing the thickness of prepared films. The UV-Visible measurements show that the CdO films with different thicknesses possess an allowed direct transition with band gap (4) eV. AFM measurement revealed that the silicon porosity located in nano range. Cadmium oxide f

Recently, wireless communication environments with high speeds and low complexity have become increasingly essential. Free-space optics (FSO) has emerged as a promising solution for providing direct connections between devices in such high-spectrum wireless setups. However, FSO communications are susceptible to weather-induced signal fluctuations, leading to fading and signal weakness at the receiver. To mitigate the effects of these challenges, several mathematical models have been proposed to describe the transition from weak to strong atmospheric turbulence, including Rayleigh, lognormal, Málaga, Nakagami-m, K-distribution, Weibull, Negative-Exponential, Inverse-Gaussian, G-G, and Fisher-Snedecor F distributions. This paper extensive

Selenium is naturally present in the human body, animals, and plants, and is one of the important elements in their growth and maintenance. Recently, the nanoform of selenium has attracted attention due to its low toxicity and a high degree of adsorption compared to its organic and inorganic forms. The current study aimed to examine the effect of Cress leaves (Lepidium sativum L.) extract in combination with selenium nanoparticles in alleviating polycystic ovary syndrome in letrozole-induced PCOS in adult female rats. Nonthermal or cold plasma was used in the synthesis of selenium nanoparticles. Subsequently, the produced nanoparticles were identified, the 30 rats were divided into 6 equal groups, the first group was healthy (negative contr