Water supply projects (WSP) requires high plan information, specialized capabilities, capable human resources, and high administrative capacity. However, in the developing countries, particularly in Iraq, these projects experience a lack of a large number of these necessities, which shows the need to identify the critical success factors (CSFs). Accordingly, the objectives of this research are to investigate the CSFs for WSP and their significance among the construction (public and private) and education sectors. To achieve this, first we have carried out a comprehensive literature review of the CSFs for WSP. Second, we administrated a questionnaire survey to 260 construction experts working in the construction and education sectors. It was found that the top five important success factors for water supply projects in Iraq were a stable political environment; sustainable construction legislation and regulation; effective risk management practices; well-organized and committed project teams; and government decisions through the project life cycle. The survey results did not indicate major differences in the perception of the experts. The findings are focused to assist construction practitioners’ gain better understanding on the important areas to achieve project set objectives.
Heuristic approaches are traditionally applied to find the optimal size and optimal location of Flexible AC Transmission Systems (FACTS) devices in power systems. Genetic Algorithm (GA) technique has been applied to solve power engineering optimization problems giving better results than classical methods. This paper shows the application of GA for optimal sizing and allocation of a Static Compensator (STATCOM) in a power system. STATCOM devices used to increase transmission systems capacity and enhance voltage stability by regulate the voltages at its terminal by controlling the amount of reactive power injected into or absorbed from the power system. IEEE 5-bus standard system is used as an example to illustrate the te
... Show MoreThere are many diseases that affect the arteries, especially those related to their elasticity and stiffness, and they can be guessed by estimating and calculating the modulus of elasticity. Hence, the accurate calculation of the elastic modulus leads to an accurate assessment of these diseases, especially in their early stages, which can contribute to the treatment of these diseases early. Most of the calculations used the one-dimensional (1D) modulus of elasticity. From a mechanical point of view, the stresses to which the artery is subjected are not one-dimensional, but three-dimensional. Therefore, estimating at least a two-dimensional (2D) modulus of elasticity will necessarily be more accurate. To the knowledge of researchers, there i
... Show MoreBackground: Bone defect healing is a multidimensional procedure with an overlapping timeline that involves the regeneration of bone tissue. Due to bone's ability to regenerate, the vast majority of bone abnormalities can be restored intuitively under the right physiological conditions. The goal of this study is to examine the immunohistochemistry of bone sialoprotein in order to determine the effect of local application of bone sialoprotein on the healing of a rat tibia generated bone defect. Materials and Methods: In this experiment, 48 albino male rats weighing 300-400 grams and aged 6-8 months will be employed under controlled temperature, drinking, and food consumption settings. The animals will be subjected to a surgical procedure o
... Show MoreIn this paper, an intelligent tracking control system of both single- and double-axis Piezoelectric Micropositioner stage is designed using Genetic Algorithms (GAs) method for the optimal Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controller tuning parameters. The (GA)-based PID control design approach is a methodology to tune a (PID) controller in an optimal control sense with respect to specified objective function. By using the (GA)-based PID control approach, the high-performance trajectory tracking responses of the Piezoelectric Micropositioner stage can be obtained. The (GA) code was built and the simulation results were obtained using MATLAB environment. The Piezoelectric Micropositioner simulation model with th
... Show MoreThe aim of this work is to detect the best operating conditions that effect on the removal of Cu2+, Zn2+, and Ni2+ ions from aqueous solution using date pits in the batch adsorption experiments. The results have shown that the Al-zahdi Iraqi date pits demonstrated more efficient at certain values of operating conditions of adsorbent doses of 0.12 g/ml of aqueous solution, adsorption time 72 h, pH solution 5.5 ±0.2, shaking speed 300 rpm, and smallest adsorbent particle size needed for removal of metals. At the same time the particle size of date pits has a little effect on the adsorption at low initial concentration of heavy metals. The adsorption of metals increases with increas
... Show More