This paper aims to investigate the flexural behavior of reinforced concrete beams considering fire resistance by adding Lightweight Expanded Clay Aggregates (LECA) to the concrete mix as partial coarse aggregate replacement. LECA is a type of porous clay with a uniform pore structure with fine, closed cells and hard, tightly sintered skin. The experimental work comprised four reinforced self-compacted concrete beams. All the specimens were identical in their geometrical layout of 1600×240×200 mm, reinforcement details, and support condition (simply supported). For all the beams, the main reinforcement was provided by two bars, each having a diameter of 12 mm, while a bar of 6 mm diameter was employed for the top and shear reinforc

International news websites, including Russia Today, pay special attention to the media image of Afghan women, especially after the Taliban movement took control of Afghanistan. Therefore, it was necessary to know the image of the Afghan woman, the fate of the rights she acquired in recent years, and the transformations that affected her after the Taliban took control of the government, and studied them on international news sites, specifically Russia Today.

          The researcher summarized the problem of this study in the following question: What is the media image of the Afghan woman on the Russia Today news site?

Tin dioxide doped silver oxide thin films with different x content (0, 0.03, 0.05, 0.07) have been prepared by pulse laser deposition technique (PLD) at room temperatures (RT). The effect of doping concentration on the structural and electrical properties of the films were studied. Atomic Force Measurement (AFM) measurements found that the average value of grain size for all films at RT decrease with increasing of AgO content. While an average roughness values increase with increasing x content. The electrical properties of these films were studied with different x content. The D.C conductivity for all films increases with increasing x content. Also, it found that activation energies decrease with increasing of AgO content for all films.

This work intends to develop an effective heavy metal-free modifier having properties comparable to traditional stabilizers and flame retardants, simultaneously being environmentally friendly and may be superior in many aspects. The important requirement focused on is: how to increase thermal stability and flame retardancy of flexible poly(vinyl chloride). Due to the typical materials now used with poly(vinyl chloride), which increases health and environmental concerns, utilizing a novel heavy metal-free additive will make poly(vinyl chloride) substantially safer. We have used an artificial silicate for this aim, which proved to be an efficient flame retardant and surprisingly showed excellent heat stabilizing effect. Thermal stabi

This study deals with air pollution tolerance index (APTI) and anatomical variation in leaves of two species of terrestrial plants Ficus sp. and Conocarpus sp. that have bee commonly the separated along roadsides in many stations within Babylon province. APTI values of both species were less than 10 during study period which represented sensitivity of these plants to air pollution. There are Anatomical responses to pollution in the leaves of both studied species. Main adaptations included increased thickness of parenchyma cell walls with clear dark deposits in sections of Ficus sp. from sections of stations 2 and 4 which represent polluted stations. Conocarpus sp. main adaptation included stomata increased in density and decreased in size w

In this work; copper oxide films (CuO) were fabricated by PLD. The films were analyzed by UV-VIS absorption spectra and their thickness by using profilometer. Pulsed Nd:YAG laser was used for prepared CuO thin films under O₂ gas environment with varying both pulse energy and annealing temperature. The optical properties of   as-grown film such as optical transmittance spectrum, refractive index and energy gap has been measured experimentally and the effects of laser pulse energy  and annealing temperature on it were studied. An inverse relationship between energy gap and both annealing temperature and pulse energy was observed.

In this work, ZnS thin films have been deposited by developed laser deposition technique on glass substrates at room temperature. After deposition process, the films were annealed at different temperatures (200ºC , 300 ºC and 400ºC ) using thermal furnace.The developed technique was used to obtain homogeneous thin films of ZnS depending on vaporization of this semiconductor material by continuous CO2 laser with a simple fan to ensure obtaining homogeneous films. ZnS thin films were annealed at temperature 200ºC, 300 ºC and 400ºC for (20) minute in vacuum environment. Optical properties of ZnS thin film such as absorbance, transmittance, reflectance, optical band gap, refractive index extinction coefficient and absorption coefficien

Nutrient agar medium with various concentrations of cefotaxime was used for isolation spontaneous mutants from wild type strain of P.aeruginosa PHA-1. Eighty-two mutants were successfully isolated with the viable count 52×107 , these mutants were confirmed as spontaneous not physiological adaption mutants by reculture on the same medium. Then, wild type PHA-1 and mutants were examined for production pyocyanin; a blue greenish pigment was clearly noticed on King A medium. Remarkably the mutant strain named S300-8 was distinguished in productivity in comparison with wild type strain PHA-1; the amount of pigment was 56.0667mg/l and 74.53mg/l respectively. In addition, pyocyanin produced by mutant strain S300-8 revealed a potent efficacy again

A new tool geometry was used to achieve friction stir spot welding (FSSW) in which the shoulder was designed separately from the rotating pin, and in order to examine weldment strength through the modified tool, a lap joints of AA2024 aluminum alloy plate 1 mm thick were welded successfully by using 6 mm pin diameter and varying process parameters (rotational speeds, tool nose geometry, and depth of tool penetration in the lower welded plate). Experimental tests indicate that the maximum average tensile shear load was 3100 N at the best selected condition. Microstructure examination and micro hardness test along the spot zones were investigated as well as measuring pin penetration load. Visual inspection of the welded spot surface shows a g