One of the most essential components of asphalt pavements is the filler. It serves two purposes. First, this fine-grained material (diameter less than 0.075 mm) improves the cohesiveness of aggregate with bitumen. Second, produce a dense mixture by filling the voids between the particles. Aluminum dross (AD), which is a by-product of aluminum re-melting, is formed all over the world. This material causes damage to humans and the environment; stockpiling AD in landfills is not the best solution. This research studies the possibility of replacing part of the conventional filler with aluminum dross. Three percent of dross was used, 10, 20, and 30% by filler weight. The MarshallMix design method was adopted to obtain the op

The woman represents an existential dualism with the man along history. This existence has been manifested through the history of Art starting from the arts of the old civilizations until modernism. It must be said that the history of Art refers to her presence as an extension for this history in the oriental arts, and the Arab countries including Iraq.  The woman has varying outputs in terms of the content of her presence and the style of presentation. In her characterizations: maternity, fertility, femininity and others. The Iraqi artists adopted these fields among them the artist Jaber Alwan who formulated his style of presentation and its units depending on the feminine presence and his experience in her formal and stylistic fie

This paper proposes a novel finite-time generalized proportional integral observer (FTGPIO) based a sliding mode control (SMC) scheme for the tracking control problem of high order uncertain systems subject to fast time-varying disturbances. For this purpose, the construction of the controller consists of two consecutive steps. First, the novel FTGPIO is designed to observe unmeasurable plant dynamics states and disturbance with its higher time derivatives in finite time rather than infinite time as in the standard GPIO. In the FTGPO estimator, the finite time convergence rate of estimations is well achieved, whereas the convergence rate of estimations by classical GPIO is asymptotic and slow. Secondly, on the basis of the finite and fast e

To accommodate utilities in buildings, different sizes of openings are provided in the web of reinforced concrete deep beams, which cause reductions in the beam strength and stiffness. This paper aims to investigate experimentally and numerically the effectiveness of using carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) strips, as a strengthening technique, to externally strengthen reinforced concrete continuous deep beams (RCCDBs) with large openings. The experimental work included testing three RCCDBs under five-point bending. A reference specimen was prepared without openings to explore the reductions in strength and stiffness after providing large openings. Openings were created symmetrically at the center of spans of the other specimens

In this study, (50–110 nm) magnetic iron oxide (α-Fe2O3) nanoparticles were synthesized by pulsed laser ablation of iron target in dimethylformamide (DMF) and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) solutions. The structural properties of the synthesized nanoparticles were investigated by using Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, UV–VIS absorption, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The effect of laser fluence on the characteristics of these nanoparticles was studied. Antibacterial activities of iron oxide nanoparticles were tested against Gram-positive; Staphylococcus aureus and Gram-negative; Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Serratia marcescens. The results sh

Medication safety and effectiveness can be improved through interprofessional collaboration. The goals of this study were to measure the degree of physician–pharmacist collaboration within Iraqi governmental healthcare settings and to investigate factors influencing this collaboration.

Peripheral artery disease (PAD) is associated with increased oxidative stress and impaired endothelial function. Ticagrelor treatment improves antioxidant properties in addition to its antiplatelet effects. This study investigated the impact of Ticagrelor treatment on serum superoxide dismutase (SOD) levels and other biochemical parameters in PAD patients. It also evaluated the potential diagnostic accuracy and clinical utility of specific biomarkers based on receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. Seventy individuals were categorized into healthy control (n=40), baseline PAD patients not on Ticagrelor (B-PAD, n=30), and same PAD patients after treated with Ticagrelor (A-PAD, n=30). Parameters measured included SOD concent