Government-sponsored projects in Iraq significantly improve the economic situation and provide services but face high rates of troubling blocks. This work aims to identify indicative factors of the Troubled Project using periodic health check reports based on a literature review and interviews with Iraqi experts. As a result, a questionnaire was prepared that included four sections. The first is personal information; the second section is information about knowing the level of institutions’ implementation of project management through prepared documents. The third section is about indicative factors for the project's trouble, including 25 workers; the fourth section is about the questions in the periodic reports to check the project's health. Findings show that the following factors affect the troubled projects: inaccurate initial budget and schedule estimates; poor project scope description; poor team communication; poor planning and definition of the project; lack of a risk management plan and disregarding risk indicators; high rate of rework, and ineffective documentation of project plans with a high relative importance index that ranges from 0.91 to 0.81. Thus, the institutions' activation of the project examination reports with the proposed questions with a relative importance index ranging from 0.88 to 0.77 helps identify the main factors for the troubled projects.
Bored piles settlement behavior under vertical loaded is the main factor that affects the design requirements of single or group of piles in soft soils. The estimation of bored pile settlement is a complicated problem because it depends upon many factors which may include ground conditions, validation of bored pile design method through testing and validation of theoretical or numerical prediction of the settlement value. In this study, a prototype single and bored pile group model of arrangement (1*1, 1*2 and 2*2) for total length to diameter ratios (L/D) is 13.33 and clear spacing three times of diameter, subjected to vertical axial loads. The bored piles model used for the test was 2000
... Show MoreThe Weibull distribution is considered one of the Type-I Generalized Extreme Value (GEV) distribution, and it plays a crucial role in modeling extreme events in various fields, such as hydrology, finance, and environmental sciences. Bayesian methods play a strong, decisive role in estimating the parameters of the GEV distribution due to their ability to incorporate prior knowledge and handle small sample sizes effectively. In this research, we compare several shrinkage Bayesian estimation methods based on the squared error and the linear exponential loss functions. They were adopted and compared by the Monte Carlo simulation method. The performance of these methods is assessed based on their accuracy and computational efficiency in estimati
... Show MoreWater pollution as a result of contamination with dye-contaminating effluents is a severe issue for water reservoirs, which instigated the study of biodegradation of Reactive Red 195 and Reactive Blue dyes by E. coli and Bacillus sp. The effects of occupation time, solution pH, initial dyes concentrations, biomass loading, and temperature were investigated via batch-system experiments by using the Design of Experiment (DOE) for 2 levels and 5 factors response surface methodology (RSM). The operational conditions used for these factors were optimized using quadratic techniques by reducing the number of experiments. The results revealed that the two types of bacteria had a powerful effect on biodegradable dyes. The regression analysis reveale
... Show MoreThe study of biopolymers and their derivative materials had received a considerable degree of attention from researchers in the preparation of novel material. Biopolymers and their derivatives have a wide range of applications as a result of their bio-compatibility, bio-degradability and non-toxicity. In this paper, chitosan reacted with different aldehydes(2,4 –dichloro- benzaldehyde or 2-methyl benzaldehyde), different ketones (4-bromoacetophenone or 3-aminoacetophenone) to produce chitosan schiff base (1-4) . Chitosan schiff base (1-4) reacted with glutaric acid or adipic acid in acidic media in distilled water according to the steps of Fischer and Speier to produce compounds (5-12)
... Show MoreThe plant occupied the largest area in the biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles, especially the medicinal plants, and it has shown great potential in biotechnology applications. In this study, green synthesis of silver nanoparticles from Moringa oleifera leaves extract and its antifungal and antitumor activities were investigated. The formation of silver nanoparticles was observed after 1 hour of preparation color changing. The ultraviolet and visible spectrum, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy techniques were used to characterize synthesis particles. Ultraviolet and visible spectroscopy showed a silver surface plasmon resonance band at 434
... Show MorePultruded materials made of Fiber-Reinforced Polymer (FRP) come in a broad range of shapes, such as bars, I-sections, C-sections, etc. FRP materials are starting to compete with steel as structural materials owing to their great resistance, low self-weight, and cheap maintenance costs, especially in corrosive conditions. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a novel concrete Composite Column (CC) using Encased I-Section (EIS) as a reinforcement in contrast to traditional steel bars by using Glass Fiber-Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) as I-section (CC-EIS) to evaluate the effectiveness of the hybrid columns which have been built by combining GFRP profiles with concrete columns. To achieve the aims of this study, nine circular co
... Show MoreUndoped and Co-doped zinc oxide (CZO) thin films have been prepared by spray pyrolysis technique using solution of zinc acetate and cobalt chloride. The effect of Co dopants on structural and optical properties has been investigated. The films were found to exhibit maximum transmittance (~90%) and low absorbance. The structural properties of the deposited films were examined by x-ray diffraction (XRD). These films, deposited on glass substrates at (400? C), have a polycrystalline texture with a wurtzite hexagonal structure, and the grain size was decreased with increasing Co concentration, and no change was observed in lattice constants while the optical band gap decreased from (3.18-3.02) eV for direct allowed transition. Other parameters
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