Unsaturated soil can raise many geotechnical problems upon wetting and drying resulting in swelling upon wetting and collapsing (shrinkage) in drying and changing in the soil shear strength. The classical principles of saturated soil are often not suitable in explaining these phenomena. In this study, expansive  soil (bentonite and sand) were tested in different water contents and dry unit weight chosen from the compaction curve to examine the effect of water content change on soil properties (swelling pressure, expansion index, shear strength (soil cohesion) and soil suction by the filter paper method). The physical properties of these soils were studied by conducting series of tests in laboratory. Fitting methods

Abstract: The aim of the present work is to measure radon concentration in wood. Solid state nuclear track detectors of type CR – 39 was used as measurement device. Eight different samples of imported and local wood were collected from markets. Samples were grinded, dried in order to measure radon concentrations in it. Cylindrical diffusion tube was used as detection technique. Results show that the higher concentration was in Iraqi sample 1 which recorded (14.02 ± 0.9) Bq / m3, while the less was in Emirates Sample which recorded (5.35 ± 1.2) Bq / m3. From the present work, all wood samples were with lowest concentrations of radon gas than other building materials.

The influence of sensing element length of no-core fiber strain sensor has been studied and experimentally demonstrated, four different lengths of 125 μm diameter no-core fiber is fused between two standard single-mode fibers and bi-directionally strained, the highest obtained sensitivity was around 16.37 pm με -1 which was exhibited in the shortest no-core fiber segment, to the best of our knowledge this is the first study of the influence of no-core fiber strain sensors length on sensor sensitivity. The proposed sensor can be used in many opto-mechanical applications such as, structural health monitoring, aerospace vehicles and airplane components monitoring.

BACKGROUND: Preterm labour is a major cause of perinatal morbidity and mortality, so it is important to predict preterm delivery using the clinical examination of the cervix and uterine contraction frequency. New markers for the prediction of preterm birth have been developed such as transvaginal ultrasound measurement of cervical length as this method is widely available. OBJECTIVE: To determine, whether transvaginal cervical length measurement predicts imminent preterm delivery better than digital cervical length measurement in women presented with preterm labour and intact membranes. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Two hundred women presented with preterm labour between 24 and 36+6 weeks of gestation were included in this study. All women subjecte

م. د. ولاء طارق حميد, Al. Qadisiya journal for the Sciences of Physical Education, 2017

This paper aimed to investigate the effect of the height-to-length ratio of unreinforced masonry (URM) walls when loaded by a vertical load. The finite element (FE) method was implemented for modeling and analysis of URM wall. In this paper, ABAQUS, FE software with implicit solver was used to model and analysis URM walls subjected to a vertical load. In order to ensure the validity of Detailed Micro Model (DMM) in predicting the behavior of URM walls under vertical load, the results of the proposed model are compared with experimental results. Load-displacement relationship of the proposed numerical model is found of a good agreement with that of the published experimental results. Evidence shows that load-displacement curve obtained fro

The principal forms of radiation dosage for humans from spontaneous radiation material are being recognized as radon and its progenitors in the interior environment. Radiation-related health risks are caused by radon in water supply, which can be inhaled or ingested. Materials and Methods: The solid-state CR-39 nuclear trace detectors method was using in this research for measuring accumulation of radioactivity in water supply in different locations of Iraq's southwest corner of Baghdad. In Baghdad district, 42 samples were selected from 14 regions (3 samples out of each region) and put in dosimeters for 50 days. Results: The mean radon concentration was 49.75 Bq/m3, that is lower than the internationally recognized limit of 1100 Bq /m3. Th

Background: Polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) has relatively unsatisfactory mechanical properties such as low flexural strength and impact strength also dimensional instability. Material and method: Zirconium silicate nanoparticles were coated with a layer of trimethoxysilylpropylmethacrylate (TMSPM) before sonication in monomer (MMA) with the percentages 1% and 1.5% by weight then mixed with powder using conventional procedure, (150) samples were prepared and divided into three groups, each group consisted of (50) samples, the first group prepared from PMMA without addition (control), another group with the addition of 1% wt Zrsio4 nanoparticles (experimental) and the third one with 1.5% wt Zrsio4 nanoparticles (experimental). Each group