The concrete industry consumes millions of tons of aggregate comprising of natural sands and gravels, each year. In recent years there has been an increasing trend towards using recycled aggregate to save natural resources and to produce lightweight concrete. This study investigates the possibility of using waste plastic as one of the components of lead-acid batteries to replace the fine aggregate by 50 and 70% by volume of concrete masonry units. Compared to the reference concrete mix, results demonstrated that a reduction of approximately 32.5% to 39.6% in the density for replacement of 50% to 70% respectively. At 28 days curing age, the compressive strength was decreased while the water absorption increased by increas

Hypertrophic scars are fibroproliferative illnesses caused by improper wound healing, during that, excessive inflammation, angiogenesis, and differentiated human dermal fibroblast (HDF ) function contribute to scarring, whereas hyperpigmentation negatively affects scar quality. Over 100 million patients heal with a scar every year. To investigate the role of the beta 2 adrenergic receptor (β2AR); Ritodrine, in wound scarring, the ability of beta 2 adrenergic receptor agonist (β2ARag) to alter HDF differentiation and function, wound inflammation, angiogenesis, and wound scarring was explored in HDFs, zebrafish, chick chorioallantoic membrane assay (CAM), and a porcine skin wound model, respectively. A study identify a β2AR-mediated m

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 12 m

Due to the great evolution in digital commercial cameras, several studies have addressed the using of such cameras in different civil and close-range applications such as 3D models generation. However, previous studies have not discussed a precise relationship between a camera resolution and the accuracy of the models generated based on images of this camera. Therefore the current study aims to evaluate the accuracy of the derived 3D buildings models captured by different resolution cameras. The digital photogrammetric methods were devoted to derive 3D models using the data of various resolution cameras and analyze their accuracies. This investigation involves selecting three different resolution cameras (low, medium and

Iraq is located near the northern tip of the Arabian plate, which is advancing northwards relative to the Eurasian plate, and is predictably, a tectonically active country. Seismic activity in Iraq increased significantly during the last decade. So structural and geotechnical engineers have been giving increasing attention to the design of buildings for earthquake resistance. Dynamic properties play a vital role in the design of structures subjected to seismic load. The main objective of this study is to prepare a data base for the dynamic properties of different soils in seismic active zones in Iraq using the results of cross hole and down hole tests. From the data base collected it has been observed that the average ve

The problem of water scarcity is becoming common in many parts of the world, to overcome part of this problem proper management of water and an efficient irrigation system are needed.  Irrigation with a buried vertical ceramic pipe is known as a very effective in the management of irrigation water.  The two- dimensional transient flow of water from a buried vertical ceramic pipe through homogenous porous media is simulated numerically using the HYDRUS/2D software.  Different values of pipe lengths and hydraulic conductivity were selected.  In addition, different values of initial volumetric soil water content were assumed in this simulation as initial conditions.  Different value

Flexible joint robot (FJR) manipulators can offer many attractive features over rigid manipulators, including light weight, safe operation, and high power efficiency. However, the tracking control of the FJR is challenging due to its inherent problems, such as underactuation, coupling, nonlinearities, uncertainties, and unknown external disturbances. In this article, a terminal sliding mode control (TSMC) is proposed for the FJR system to guarantee the finite-time convergence of the systems output, and to achieve the total robustness against the lumped disturbance and estimation error. By using two coordinate transformations, the FJR dynamics is turned into a canonical form. A cascaded finite-time sliding mode observer (CFTSMO) is construct