Polymethylmethacrylate film (PMMA) of thickness 75 μm was evaluated Spectrophotometrically for using it as a low-doses gamma radiation dosimeter. The doses were examined in the range 0.1 mrad-10 krad. Within an absorption band of 200-400 nm, the irradiated films showed an increase in the absorption intensity with increasing the absorbed doses. Calibration curves for the changes in the absorption differences were obtained at 218, 301, and 343 nm. At 218 nm the response for the absorbed doses is a linear in the range 10 mrad- 10 krad. Hence it is recommended to be adopted as an environmental low doses dosimeter

The relationship between government revenues and the fiscal balance represents a central pillar in the analysis of fiscal sustainability. However, its modeling faces a fundamental challenge in the form of structural uncertainty, which is not captured by point estimates in traditional models such as ARDL, as these models assume structural stability that is inconsistent with the nature of rentier economies. The current study aims to develop a fuzzy framework by constructing a Fuzzy Autoregressive Distributed Lag (FARDL) model. This is achieved through integrating the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach with fuzzy logic theory, thereby enabling the incorporation of uncertainty into the inherent structure of the economic rela

Deception is an inseparable facet of political discourse in attaining strategic political gains though compromising public opinion. However, the employment of discursive deception strategies by the policy-making institutions of think tanks has not received due attention in the literature. The current study aims at exploring how the ideologizing deception strategies are utilized by the conservative American think tank of the Washington Institute to reproduce socio-political realities and re-shape public opinion. To fulfill this task, van Dijk’s (2000) notion of ideological polarization which shows positive self-representation and negative other representation is adopted to conduct a critical discourse analysis of four Arabic texts relea

BACKGROUND: Many genetic factors are known to be related to osteoporosis, and currently the role of the glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor (GLP-1R) gene in bone health has been studied intensively. Some variation of this gene, such as rs1042044 and rs6458093, are known to be linked to metabolic diseases and lower bone mineral density, however their specific contribution to osteoporosis remains largely unexplored. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate the combined genotypic effect of rs1042044 and rs6458093 as a genetic risk factor for osteoporosis in postmenopausal Iraqi women.METHODS: Blood samples from 75 osteoporosis patients and 75 healthy controls, aged 45-85, were collected. DNA was extracted, and a region of GLP-1R

In the geotechnical engineering applications, precise understandings are yet to be established on the effects of a foundation stiffness on its bearing capacity and settlement. The modern foundation construction uses the new available construction materials that totally change the relative stiffness of the footing structures-soil interactions such as waste material and landfill area of more residential purposes. Conventional bearing capacity equations were dealt with common rigid footing and thus cannot be used for reduced foundation rigidity. Therefore, this study investigates the effects of foundation relative stiffness on its load-displacement behaviour and the soil deformation field using compression test of a strip smooth footings on su

When the depth of stressed soil is rather small, Plate Load Test (PLT) becomes the most efficient test to estimate the soil properties for design purposes. Among these properties, modulus of subgrade reaction is the most important one that usually employed in roads and concrete pavement design. Two methods are available to perform PLT: static and dynamic methods. Static PLT is usually adopted due to its simplicity and time saving to be performs in comparison with cyclic (dynamic) method. The two methods are described in ASTM standard.

In this paper the effect of the test method used in PLT in estimation of some mechanical soil properties was distinguished via a series of both test methods applied in a same site. The comparison of