One of the most important virulence factors in Pseudomonas aeruginosa is biofilm formation, as it works as a barrier for entering antibiotics into the bacterial cell. Different environmental and nutritional conditions were used to optimize biofilm formation using microtitre plate assay by P. aeruginosa. The low nutrient level of the medium represented by tryptic soy broth (TSB) was better in biofilm formation than the high nutrient level of the medium with Luria Broth (LB). The optimized condition for biofilm production at room temperature (25 °C) is better than at host temperature (37 °C). Moreover, the staining with 0.1% crystal violet and reading the biofilm with wavelength 360 are considered essential factors in

This paper is devoted to investigate the effect of internal curing technique on the properties of self-compacting concrete (SCC). In this study, SCC is produced by using silica fume (SF) as partial replacement by weight of cement with percentage of (5%), sand is partially replaced by volume with saturated fine lightweight aggregate (LWA) which is thermostone chips as internal curing material in three percentages of (5%, 10% and 15%) for SCC, two external curing conditions water and air. The experimental work was divided into three parts: in the first part, the workability tests of fresh SCC were conducted. The second part included conducting compressive strength test and modulus of rupture test at ages of (7, 28 and 90). The third part i

The main aim of this paper is studied the punching shear and behavior of reinforced concrete slabs exposed to fires, the possibility of punching shear failure occurred as a result of the fires and their inability to withstand the loads. Simulation by finite element analysis is made to predict the type of failure, distribution temperature through the thickness of the slabs, deformation and punching strength. Nonlinear finite element transient thermal-structural analysis at fire conditions are analyzed by ANSYS package. The validity of the modeling is performed for the mechanical and thermal properties of materials from earlier works from literature to decrea

This research was aimed to study the osmotic efficiency of the draw solutions and the factors affecting the performance of forward osmosis process : The draw solutions used were magnesium sulfate hydrate (MgSO₄.7H₂O) pojtassium chloride (KCL), calcium chloride (CaCl₂) and ammonium bicarbonate (NH₄HCO₃). It was found that water flux increases with increasing draw solution concentration, and feed solution flow rate and decreases with increasing draw solution flow rate and feed solution concentration. And also found that the efficiency of the draw solutions is in the following order:

CaCl₂> KCI > NH₄HCO₃> MgSO₄.7H

Purpose: clarify the integrative relationship of strategic leadership skills and effective management and the role of those skills combined or individually in achieving effective management.

Research design: The researchers used the quantitative method by surveying a class sample from the heads of the executive departments in a group of Iraqi private banks, consisting of (106) individuals according to the (VUCA Prime) methodology for effective management and the ten skills model for Johansen. The questionnaire was analyzed using a model of the structural equation.

Findings: The most prominent results of the research were the presence of a weak ro

Bootstrap is one of an important re-sampling technique which has given the attention of  researches recently. The presence of outliers in the original data set may cause serious problem to the classical bootstrap when the percentage of outliers are higher than the original one. Many methods are proposed to overcome this problem such  Dynamic Robust Bootstrap for LTS (DRBLTS) and Weighted Bootstrap with Probability (WBP). This paper try to show the accuracy of parameters estimation by comparison the results of both methods. The bias , MSE and RMSE are considered. The criterion of the accuracy is based on the RMSE value since the method that provide us RMSE value smaller than other is con