Malaysia will be an ageing population by 2030 as the number of those aged 60 years and above has increased drastically from 6.2 percent in 2000 and is expected to reach 13.6 percent by 2030. There are many challenges that will be faced due to the ageing population, one of which is the increasing cost of pensions in the future. In view of that, it is necessary to investigate the effect of actuarial assumptions on pension liabilities under the perspective of ageing. To estimate the pension liabilities, the Projected Unit Credit method is used in the study and commutation functions are employed in the process. Demographic risk and salary risk have been identified as major risks in analyzing pension liabilities in this study. The sensitivity analyses will be conducted in the study to investigate how the pension liabilities will be affected when these major risks changes. This study analyzes nine scenarios under assumptions in the actuarial model, namely age of retirement, rate of mortality and rate of salary growth. The result of this study indicates that the implied mortality experience and salary growth rate assumptions have a significant impact on pension liabilities.
The duration of sunshine is one of the important indicators and one of the variables for measuring the amount of solar radiation collected in a particular area. Duration of solar brightness has been used to study atmospheric energy balance, sustainable development, ecosystem evolution and climate change. Predicting the average values of sunshine duration (SD) for Duhok city, Iraq on a daily basis using the approach of artificial neural network (ANN) is the focus of this paper. Many different ANN models with different input variables were used in the prediction processes. The daily average of the month, average temperature, maximum temperature, minimum temperature, relative humidity, wind direction, cloud level and atmosp
... Show MoreFive derivatives of thiadiazole were prepared with aldehydes and alkyl halides, compoundA: 2-amino-5-thiol-1,3,4- thiadiazole, compound B :2-(o-hydroxybenzylidine)amino-5-thiol-1,3,4-thiadiazole, compoundC: 2(2-butan-lidine)amino-5-thiol-1,3,4-thiadiazole, compound E: 2- amino-5-(2-Propanylthio)-1,3,4-thiadiazol) and compound F:2(o-chlorobenzylamino)-5-(2-propanyl thio)-1,3,4 thiadiazol. All prepared compounds were diagnosed by (IR) and (UV) Spectroscopy. All of those compounds were screened for their anti-microbial activity in vitro. The results show that most of the compounds A, B, C exhibited moderate to good activity against Gram-positive bacteria and the same compound exhibit low to moderate activity on most gram-negative bacte
... Show MoreThermomechanical analysis (TMA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) are used to investigate the effect of molding and annealing of polyester on the behavior of thermal expansion and crystallization since these factors play role in the reprocessing or recycling of the polymer. The dynamic mode of the TMA provides enhanced characterization information about the polyester since it separates the transitions into reversible and irreversible signals, and also reveals the progress of the amorphous regions as the polyester loses strength with the increasing temperature approaching melting. Slow cooling after annealing brings crystallization that may be attributed to molecular chain straightening due to orientation.
In this study, the effect of fire flame on the punching shear strength of steel fiber reinforced concrete flat plates was experimentally investigated using nine half-scale specimens with dimensions of 1500×1500 mm and a total thickness of 100 mm. The main investigated variables comprised the steel fiber volume fraction 0, 1, and 1.5% and the burning steady state temperature 500 and 600 °C. The specimens were divided into three groups, each group consists of three specimens. The specimens in the first group were tested with no fire effect to be the reference specimens, while the others of the second and third groups were tested after being exposed to fire-flame effect. The adopted characteristics of the fire test were; (one hour) b
... Show MoreThe extraction of Eucalyptus oil from Iraqi Eucalyptus Camadulensis leaves was studded using water distillation methods. The amount of Eucalyptus oil has been determined in a variety of extraction temperature and agitation speed. The effect of water to Eucalyptus leaves (solvent to solid) ratio and particle size of Eucalyptus leaves has been studied in order to evaluate the amount of Eucalyptus oil. The optimum experimental condition for the Eucalyptus oil extraction was established as follows: 100˚C extraction temperature, 200 rpm agitation speed; 0.5 cm leave particle size and 6:1 ml: g amount of water to eucalyptus leaves Ratio.
Newly acid hydrazide was synthesized from ethyl 2-(2,3-dimethoxyphenoxy) acetate (2), which is cyclized to the corresponding 4-amino-1,2,4-triazole (3). Five newly azo derivatives (4a-e) were synthesized from this 1,2,4-triazole by converting the amine group to diazonium salt then reacted with various substituent phenol,as well three newly imine derivatives (5a-c) were synthesized from reacting the amine group of compound (3) with three aryl aldehyde. The thermal electro conductivity of these compounds was tested at 30, 50, 75 and 100 áµ’C. compound 4a showed interesting electro conductivity at 75áµ’C as well 5a at 75áµ’C while 5b showed significant conductivity at 100 áµ’C
Methylotrophs bacteria are ubiquitous, and they have the ability to consume single carbon (C1) which makes them biological conversion machines. It is the first study to find facultative methylotrophic bacteria in contaminated soils in Iraq. Conventional PCR was employed to amplify MxaF that encodes methanol dehydrogenase enzyme. DNA templates were extracted from bacteria isolated from five contaminated sites in Basra. The gene specific PCR detected Methylorubrum extorquens as the most dominant species in these environments. The ability of M. extorquens to degrade aliphatic hydrocarbons compound was tested at the laboratory. Within 7 days, gas chromatographic (GC) studies of remaining utilize
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