Permanent deformation (Rutting) of asphalt  pavements which appears in many roads in Iraq, have caused a major impact on pavement performance by reducing the useful service life of pavement and creating services hazards for highway users. The main objective of this research is investigating the effect of some contributory factors related to permanent deformation of asphalt concrete mixture. To meet the objectives of this research, available local materials are used including asphalt binder, aggregates, mineral filler and modified asphalt binder. The Superpave mix design system was adopted with varying volumetric compositions. The Superpave Gyratory Compactor was used to compact 24 asphalt concrete cylindrical specimens. To collect t

Salinity of soil or irrigation water is one of the most important obstacle towards crop production and productivity, especially with the increasing scarcity of fresh water in Iraq and the Arab countries. The impact of salinity will be alleviated with the increasing temperature due to global warming. The objectives of this article was to shed some light on traits more related to salinity stress tolerance in oats, and to identify genetic variation of these traits. A split-plot arrangement experiment with RCBD was applied through 2011-2013 on the farm of Dept. of Field Crops/Coll. of Agric./Univ. of Baghdad. The oats cultivars; Hamel, Pimula and Genzania were set in sub-plots, whereas water quality was set in main-plots. Water quality had two

The rising prevalence of obesity-related glomerulopathy (ORG) occurs in accordance with the rising prevalence of obesity worldwide. Clinically ORG is manifested by slowly progressing microalbuminuria that may develop to clinically evident proteinuria. Pathological characteristics of ORG include glomerular hypertrophy in the presence or absence of focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS). ORG can develop into clinically overt chronic renal insufficiency or even end-stage kidney disease. This article reviews the most important mechanisms for the development of ORG; that are abnormal renal hemodynamics, stimulation of renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS), impairment of insulin sensetivity, ectopic lipid deposition, adipose tissue cy

Forecasting is one of the important topics in the analysis of time series, as the importance of forecasting in the economic field has emerged in order to achieve economic growth. Therefore, accurate forecasting of time series is one of the most important challenges that we seek to make the best decision, the aim of the research is to suggest employing hybrid models to predict daily crude oil prices. The hybrid model consists of integrating the linear component, which represents Box Jenkins models, and the non-linear component, which represents one of the methods of artificial intelligence, which is the artificial neural network (ANN), support vector regression (SVR) algorithm and it was shown that the proposed hybrid models in the predicti

The importance of forecasting has emerged in the economic field in order to achieve economic growth, as forecasting is one of the important topics in the analysis of time series, and accurate forecasting of time series is one of the most important challenges in which we seek to make the best decision. The aim of the research is to suggest the use of hybrid models for forecasting the daily crude oil prices as the hybrid model consists of integrating the linear component, which represents Box Jenkins models and the non-linear component, which represents one of the methods of artificial intelligence, which is long short term memory (LSTM) and the gated recurrent unit (GRU) which represents deep learning models. It was found that the proposed h

Tuberculosis status as the second leading causes of significant morbidity and mortality from an infectious disease worldwide, after human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Sample collection was conducted at the Institute of Chest and Respiratory Diseases/Baghdad Medical City in Baghdad. The collection interval was from August to October 2014, 629 suspected TB patients were examined during this period. The results revealed among total 629 specimens, 56 (8.9%) of the specimens were positive by direct examination and 573 (91.1%) negative specimens by smear microscopy. Fifty six DNA samples were extracted from positive ZN smears of sputum specimens and 40 samples from healthy persons (as control) were subjected to molecular diagnosis by real tim

Background: One common undesirable side effect of orthodontic treatment with fixed appliances is the development of incipient caries lesions around brackets, particularly in patients with poor oral hygiene. Different methods have been used to prevent demineralization; the recent effort to improve the resistance against the demineralization is by the application of lasers. Materials and method: Thirty human premolars extracted for orthodontic purposes were used to test the effect of two energy level of ER-YAG laser on enamel resistance to demineralization. The brackets were bonded on the teeth and all the labial surface excluding 2 mm area gingival to the brackets were painted with acid resistance varnish. Three groups were generated. The fi

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the third most common cause of cancer-related death. Therefore, it is critical for researchers to understand molecular biology in greater depth.  In several diseases including cancer, abnormal miRNA expression has been linked to apoptosis, proliferation, differentiation, and metastasis. Many miRNAs have been studied in relation to cancer, including miR-122, miR-223, and others. Hepatitis B and C viruses are the most important global risk factors for HCC. This study is intended to test whether serum miRNAs serve as a potential biomarker for both HCC and viral infections HBV and C. The expression of miRNA in 64 serum samples was analyzed by RT-qPCR. Compared to healthy volunteers, HCC patients' sera expre

Certain bacterial and viral infectious agents may play a role in the activation of inflammation in atherosclerosis lesions. Epidemiological studies indicate that infectious agents may predispose patients to atherosclerosis as Infections have been associated with an increased risk of this disease. Moreover, a positive antibody status has been detected against some infectious organisms associated with atherosclerotic rupture. Infectious agents found in human atheroma, which may directly cause or accelerate atherosclerosis , include many pathogens but the present study focused on Helicobacter pylori, hepatitis B virus surface antigen and C. In order to evaluate the possible association between H. pylori, HBV, and HCV infections and the risk of