In recent years, various methods have been developed to enhance the characteristics of asphalt pavement in order to face the continuous challenges of increasing traffic loads and changing climate conditions. One of the most popular and successful methods is modifying the asphalt mixtures or asphalt binder with the addition of polymers. Therefore, two types of Polyethylene (PE) polymer, High-Density PE (HDPE) and Low-Density PE (LDPE), are used in this research. Two methods were applied to prepare PE-modified asphalt mixtures: Semi-Wet Method (S-WM) and Dry Method (DM). The findings of the investigation indicated that the addition of PE polymer can reduce the wear loss of aggregate. In general, the experimental results revealed that asphalt

Double hydrothermal method was used to prepare nano gamma alumina   using aluminum nitrate nano hydrate and sodium aluminate as an aluminum source, CTAB (cetyltrimethylammonium bromide) as surfactant, and variable acids: weak acids like; citric, and acitic acids, and strong acids like; hydrochloric and nitric acids as a bridge between aluminum salts and surfactant. Different crystallization times  12, 24, 48, and 72 hrs were applied. All the batches were prepared at pH equals to 9. XRD diffraction technique was used to investigate the crystalline nano gamma alumina pure from surfactant. N₂ adsorption-desorption (BET) was used to measure the surface area and pore volume of the prepared nano alumina, the average p

Healthcare professionals routinely use audio signals, generated by the human body, to help diagnose disease or assess its progression. With new technologies, it is now possible to collect human-generated sounds, such as coughing. Audio-based machine learning technologies can be adopted for automatic analysis of collected data. Valuable and rich information can be obtained from the cough signal and extracting effective characteristics from a finite duration time interval that changes as a function of time. This article presents a proposed approach to the detection and diagnosis of COVID-19 through the processing of cough collected from patients suffering from the most common symptoms of this pandemic. The proposed method is based on adopt

This paper examines the impact of flexural strengthening on the percentage of damaged strands in internally unbonded tendons in partially prestressed concrete beams (0, 14.28%, and 28.57%) and the recovering conditions using CFRP composite longitudinal laminates at the soffit, and end anchorage U-wrap sheets to restore the original flexural capacity and mitigate the delamination of the soffit of longitudinal Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) laminates. The composition of the laminates and anchors affected the stress of the CFRP, the failure mode, and thus the behavior of the beam. The experimental results revealed that the usage of CFRP laminates has a considerable impact on strand strain, particularly when anchors are employed

This paper investigates a new approach to the rapid control of an upper limb exoskeleton actuator. We used a mathematical model and motion measurements of a human arm to estimate joint torque as a means to control the exoskeleton’s actuator. The proposed arm model is based on a two-pendulum configuration and is used to obtain instantaneous joint torques which are then passed into control law to regulate the actuator torque. Nine subjects volunteered to take part in the experimental protocol, in which inertial measurement units (IMUs) and a digital goniometer were used to measure and estimate the torque profiles. To validate the control law, a Simscape model was developed to simulate the arm model and control law in which measurem

In this study, SnO2 nanoparticles were prepared from cost-low tin chloride (SnCl2.2H2O) and ethanol by adding ammonia solution by the sol-gel method, which is one of the lowest-cost and simplest techniques. The SnO2 nanoparticles were dried in a drying oven at a temperature of 70°C for 7 hours. After that, it burned in an oven at a temperature of 200°C for 24 hours. The structure, material, morphological, and optical properties of the synthesized SnO2 in nanoparticle sizes are studied utilizing X-ray diffraction. The Scherrer expression was used to compute nanoparticle sizes according to X-ray diffraction, and the results needed to be scrutinized more closely. The micro-strain indicates the broadening of diffraction peaks for nano

The international financial accounting and reporting standards IFRS/IAS represent the set of rules and foundations that the economic entity must follow in the measurement, presentation, and disclosure of the elements of the financial statements, the implementation of adopting the international financial reporting standards contributes to improving the qualitative characteristics of accounting information, so the current research aims to explain the role of adopting the International Accounting Standard (IAS) in improving the qualitative characteristics as well as analyzing the impact of the adoption of IAS.1 in improving the qualitative characteristics of accounting information within the financi

This study focuses on improving the safety of embankment dams by considering the effects of vibration due to powerhouse operation on the dam body. The study contains two main parts. In the first part, ANSYS-CFX is used to create the three-dimensional (3D) Finite Volume (FV) model of one vertical Francis turbine unit. The 3D model is run by considering various reservoir conditions and the dimensions of units. The Re-Normalization Group (RNG) k-ε turbulence model is employed, and the physical properties of water and the flow characteristics are defined in the turbine model. In the second phases, a 3D finite element (FE) numerical model for a rock-fill dam is created by using ANSYS®, considering the dam connection with its powerhouse