Contemporary life is racing against time in its temptations and variables, and it has become shaped and changed in an amazing way in its various aspects and fields. This was facilitated by intellectual and scientific communication between civilizations, and the rapid progression in successive inventions and discoveries in the fields of science and arts of knowledge. This contributed to a great economic and commercial renaissance. Then, these economic developments entered the world into a very strong competition, which forced producers to calculate all production costs, to reach the highest profits by reducing the price of the produced commodity on the one hand, and achieving quality in appearance (especially) on the other hand. Since the machine represents an important part in the production and manufacturing process, its survival and serviceability are essential to the course of production and avoiding loss. Therefore, it was imperative for project owners to provide specialists from experts and technicians to provide the required service according to the technical rules, for the operation of those tools and devices. Thus, the maintenance contract appears as one of the necessary contemporary contracts accompanying technical and economic development. The importance of this contract and the need for its presence have increased due to a number of factors, the most prominent of which are: 1. The employer's maintenance of the machines may cost him a lot, while it would not cost him much if he entrusted its maintenance to a maintenance company. This is due to the following: A- The employer's maintenance requires him to provide an integrated work team for maintenance only. These may only be needed a few times, which is not commensurate with the amount he will pay them, especially since some of them may receive a high salary because they are rare engineers, for example. B- Maintenance may sometimes require precise machines and devices, the purchase of which may cost the employer more than if he contracted with a company that appointed itself for this purpose. 2. The increased use of machines and devices to accomplish work in this era, as they have entered most fields. Means of transportation, such as cars, planes, ships and trains, require maintenance, machines in factories require maintenance, electrical devices of all kinds require maintenance, in addition to buildings and what they in turn require in terms of maintenance. 3. Maintaining production machines preserves them and keeps them away from breakdowns as much as possible. This is because the breakdown of these machines, even for a short period, may cause large and severe losses.
Water stress has a negative impact on the yield and growth of crops worldwide and consequently has a global impact on food security. Many biochemical changes occur in plants as a response to water stress, such as activation of antioxidant systems. Molybdenum (Mo) plays an important part in activating the expression of many enzymes, such as CAT, POD, and SOD, as well as increasing the proline content. Mo therefore supports the defence system in plants and plays an important role in the defence system of mung bean plants growing under water stress conditions. Four concentrations of Mo (0, 15, 30, and 45 mg·L−1) were applied to plants, using two approaches: (a) seed soaking and (b) foliar application. Mung bean plants were subject
... Show MoreBackground: Osteoporosis is denoted by low bone mass and microarchitectural breakdown of bone tissue, directing to increased fracture risk and bone fragility. Fractures may lead to a decreased quality of life and increased medical costs. Thus, osteoporosis is widely considered a significant health concern.
Objective. This study aimed to compare quantitative computed tomography (QCT) and dual-energy X-Ray absorptiometry (DXA) to detect osteoporosis in postmenopausal women.
Subjects and Methods. We measured spinal volumetric bone mineral density (BMD) with QCT and areal spinal and hip BMD with DXA in 164 postmenopausal women. We calculated the osteo
... Show MoreIn this research, a detailed finite-element (FE) analysis of the combined influence of the drilled-hole position, the shape of the hole, and the fillet design on the structural and dynamic performance of spur gears is investigated. ANSYS R16.2 was used to create a three-dimensional numerical model that can be used to assess the bending stress distribution and vibration response under realistic loading conditions. A trochoidal fillet and four circular fillet radii (0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 mm) were studied to determine their effect on the stress concentration behavior. FE-guided hole-suggestion process was introduced which is an automated process in which low-stress zones to be cut away are identified so as to allo
... Show MoreOne of the common geotechnical problems is the construction on soft soil and the improvement of its geotechnical properties to meet the design requirements. A stone column is one of the well-known techniques used to improve the geotechnical properties of soft soils. Sometimes thick layers of soft soil imposed the designer to use floating stone columns for improvement of such soil; in this case, the designer will be lost the end bearing of the stone column. In this study, the effects of several patterns of floating stone columns distribution under footing on the bearing capacity of soil and the distribution of excess porewater pressure are investigated. The soft soil used in this study has a very low undrained shear strength (cu) of
... Show MoreIn the last few years, the literature conferred a great interest in studying the feasibility of using memristive devices for computing. Memristive devices are important in structure, dynamics, as well as functionalities of artificial neural networks (ANNs) because of their resemblance to biological learning in synapses and neurons regarding switching characteristics of their resistance. Memristive architecture consists of a number of metastable switches (MSSs). Although the literature covered a variety of memristive applications for general purpose computations, the effect of low or high conductance of each MSS was unclear. This paper focuses on finding a potential criterion to calculate the conductance of each MMS rather t
... Show MoreHedera helix L. plant belongs to the family Araliaceae that provide a host of bioactive compounds (mainly saponins) of important biological activities, like spasmolytic, secretolytic, anti-inflammatory, and antibacterial activities. Literature survey revealed that there was no previously study concerning H. helix L. which is cultivated in Iraq, so we decided to carry out this study which include extraction, isolation, purification and identification of biologically important triterpenoid saponin hederacoside C from leaves of H. helix L. Extraction of hederacoside C was carried out using two methods; in the first method maceration was done with methanol 99.8% and in the second method soxhlet extraction wit
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