Accurate description of thermodynamic, structural, and electronic properties for bulk and surfaces of ceria (CeO2) necessitates the inclusion of the Hubbard parameter (U) in the density functional theory (DFT) calculations to precisely account for the strongly correlated 4f electrons. Such treatment is a daunting task when attempting to draw a potential energy surface for CeO2-catalyzed reaction. This is due to the inconsistent change in thermo-kinetics parameters of the reaction in reference to the variation in the U values. As an illustrative example, we investigate herein the discrepancy in activation and reaction energies for steps underlying the partial and full hydrogenation of acetylene over the CeO2(111) surface. Overall, we find th

Three new polyphosphates were synthesized in good yields by reacting diethylenetriamine with the appropriate phosphate ester in ethanol under acidic conditions. The polyphosphate structures were determined using FT-IR and 1H-NMR spectroscopies, and their elemental compositions were confirmed by EDX spectroscopy. Polyphosphates were added to poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) at low concentrations to fabricate thin films. The PVC films were irradiated with ultraviolet light for long periods, and the effect of polyphosphates as the photostabilizer was investigated by determining changes in the infrared spectra (intensity of specific functional group peaks), reduction in molecular weight, weight loss, and surface morphology. Minimal changes we

These days, the world is facing a global environmental and sustainability problem due to the increasing generation of large amounts of waste through construction and demolition work, which causes a serious problem for the environment. Therefore, this research was conducted to get rid of the waste disposal problems, including old glass and concrete, which were used as recycled fine aggregates. Seven different mixtures were prepared. The first mixture was with the used sand, which is glass sand, and it was adopted as a reference mixture (ORPC), and three mixtures were prepared for each of the recycled materials (waste concrete and glass) and partially replaced by glass sand in different proportions (25, 50, and 75) %. Some

The construction of highly safe and durable buildings that can bear accident damage risks including fire, earthquake, impact, and more, can be considered to be the most important goal in civil engineering technology. An experimental investigation was prepared to study the influence of adding various percentages 0%, 1.0%, and 1.5% of micro steel fiber volume fraction (Vf) to reactive powder concrete (RPC)—whose properties are compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, flexural strength, and absorbed energy—after the exposure to fire flame of various burning temperatures 300, 400, and 500 °C using gradual-, foam-, and sudden-cooling methods. The outcomes of this research proved that the maximum reduction in mechanical prop

The influence of fear on the dynamics of harvested prey-predator model with intra-specific competition is suggested and studied, where the fear effect from the predation causes decreases of growth rate of prey.  We suppose that the predator attacks the prey under the Holling type IV functional response. he existence of the solution is investigated and the bounded-ness of the solution is studied too. In addition, the dynamical behavior of the system is established locally and globally. Furthermore, the persistence conditions are investigated. Finally, numerical analysis of the system is carried out.

Giardia lamblia is the worldwide most common intestinal protozoan parasite. It was indicated that Giardia is the most important agent that causes acute and chronic diarrhea in infants, young children and travelers. The aim was to detect the influence of host HLA alleles on the susceptibility to infection with G. lamblia in a sample of Iraqi patients. A total of (40) patients with giardiasis aged (14-39) years were registered. All of them were symptomatic and (40) healthy individuals matched age and sexes were included as controls. All patients were prepared to stool examination to detect G. lamblia and eliminated other pathogens, as well as human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class II alleles (DRB1) typing. The most common detected alleles in pat