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

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

In this work, a series of new Nucleoside analogues (D-galactopyranose linked to oxepanebenzimidazole moiety) was synthesized via multisteps synthesis. The first step involved preparation of two benzimidazoles 2-styrylbenzimidazole and 2-(phenyl ethynyl) benzimidazole via reaction of phenylenediamine with cinnamic acid or ?-phenyl propiolic acid. Electrophilic addition of the prepared benzimidazoles by three anhydrides in the second step afforded (4-6) and (14-16) which in turn were treated with 1,2,3,4-di-O-isopropylidene galactopyranose in the third step to afford a series of the desirable protected nucleoside analogues (7-9) ,(17-19)which after hydrolysis in methanolic sodium methoxidein the fourth step afforded the free nucleoside analog

Cu X Zn1-XO films with different x content have been prepared by
pulse laser deposition technique at room temperatures (RT) and
different annealing temperatures (373 and 473) K. The effect of x
content of Cu (0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8) wt.% on morphology and
electrical properties of CuXZn1-XO thin films have been studied.
AFM measurements showed that the average grain size values for
CuXZn1-xO thin films at RT and different annealing temperatures
(373, 473) K decreases, while the average Roughness values increase
with increasing x content. The D.C conductivity for all films
increases as the x content increase and decreases with increasing the
annealing temperatures. Hall measurements showed that there are
two

Dam break is series phenomenon that can result in fatal consequences and loss of properties. Unfortunately, the observed consequences can only be available after the dam breaks. Therefore, it is important to anticipate what will happen prior to dam break to issue suitable warning and locate the possible risk areas. This study attempts to simulate the case of dam break in Blue Nile at Roseires dam and see its consequences downstream. Roseires dam lies at a distance of 630 km south of Khartoum, Sennar dam lies at about 260 km downstream of Roseires dam. In this study hydraulic model is developed based of Hydraulic Engineering Centre (HEC), River Analysis System (RAS), and HEC- RAS. The HEC-RAS based model is calibrated and validated usi

Background: Because of wide use of Functional Endoscopic Sinus Surgery (FESS) technique in the recent years and basic role of coronal computed tomography (CT) scan in demonstrating the normal drainage route of para-nasal sinuses, identifying the major patterns of inflammatory sinonasal disease and accompanied anatomical variations is essential for appropriate preoperative surgical planning. In review of publisthed literature, there is no data on CT patterns of chronic inflammatory sinonasal disease and their accompained anatomical variations of nose and PNS in our local population.Objectives: was to determine the frequency of CT patterns and variations in patients with sinonasal symptoms.Methods: This was a cross sectional descriptive st

In this work, multilayer nanostructures were prepared from two metal oxide thin films by dc reactive magnetron sputtering technique. These metal oxide were nickel oxide (NiO) and titanium dioxide (TiO2). The prepared nanostructures showed high structural purity as confirmed by the spectroscopic and structural characterization tests, mainly FTIR, XRD and EDX. This feature may be attributed to the fine control of operation parameters of dc reactive magnetron sputtering system as well as the preparation conditions using the same system. The nanostructures prepared in this work can be successfully used for the fabrication of nanodevices for photonics and optoelectronics requiring highly-pure nanomaterials.

4-methylaniline and its Schiff base derivative were intercalated into the Bentonite clay interlayers in a solid state reaction followed by a condensation reaction to produce two organo-clay composites. X-ray diffraction was used to identify the changes in basal spacing of montmorillonite layers which exhibited noticeable alteration before and after the formation of the composites. FT-IR spectra, on the other hand, were utilized for identifying the structural compositions of the prepared materials as well as the formation of the intercalated Schiff base derivative. The surface morphology of the composites was examined by Scanning Electron Microscopy SEM and Atomic Force Microscope AFM, which reflected some differences in the surface of prepa