Warm Mix Asphalt (WMA) is a modern energy-saving process that uses environmentally friendly materials, has lower mixing and compaction temperatures, and uses less energy and releases less contaminants than conventional hot mix asphalt. Moisture damage poses one of the main challenges of the material design in asphalt pavements. During its design life, the asphalt pavement is exposed to the effect of moisture from the surrounding environment. This research intends to investigate the role of the polypropylene fibres for modifying the moisture susceptibility for the WMA by using different percentages of polypropylene (namely 2, 4, and 6%) by weight of the binder of the control mixture (WMA). In this paper, the physical characteristics of the asphalt cement, Marshall properties, Tensile Strength Ratio (TSR) and Index of Retained Strength (IRS) were determined to establish the effect of the polypropylene on the moisture susceptibility of the WMA. The results displayed that the modification of the AC with polypropylene caused an increase in the optimum asphalt content by 1.03, 3.09, and 11.3%, with the addition of 2, 4 and 6% of the P.P., respectively. The moisture resistance of the asphalt mixture was enhanced by adding the P.P., according to the rise in the Tensile Strength Ratio (TSR) and Index of Retained Strength (IRS) values. The TSR value showed 9.4, 18.2 and 19.5% increase when the P.P. increased from 0.00 to 0.02, 0.04, and 0.06, respectively; besides, the IRS showed improvement with the addition of the P.P. to the WMA. Doi: 10.28991/cej-2021-03091704 Full Text: PDF
Inflammatory control is essential to diminish injury and make renal injury treatment simpler. Proposed therapeutics have primarily targeted pro-inflammatory variables. Juniperus oxycedrus was frequently used to treat a variety of infectious disorders, hyperglycemia, obesity, TB, bronchitis, inflammation, and pneumonia. Juniperus oxycedrus twigs and leaves were defatted with n-hexane using Soxhlet apparatus then the residue of plant material dried and re-extracted sequentially by two different solvents Ethylacetate and methanol. The pro-inflammatory markers IL-1 and iNOS, as well as the potential kidney biomarker KIM-1, TNF-α, and transcription factor NF-KB were measured using the RealTime Quantitative qPCR method. The results showed that J
... Show MoreDental caries (tooth decay) is one of the most prevalent infectious disease and although of multifactorial origin, Streptococcus mutans is considered the principal pathogen in its development (i.e. bacterial processes damage hard tooth structure (enamel, dentine and cementum), producing dental cavities (holes in the teeth). The bactericidal properties of the Nd:YAG laser has been researched analyzing its use in caries prevention and bacterial reduction. One hundred twenty five samples were collected from carious teeth and isolated bacteria were diagnosed using microscopic examination, culture, biochemical tests, and Api 20 strep system. The results of this study showed that a noticeable decrease in the viability of Streptococcus mutans w
... Show MoreWhen optimizing the performance of neural network-based chatbots, determining the optimizer is one of the most important aspects. Optimizers primarily control the adjustment of model parameters such as weight and bias to minimize a loss function during training. Adaptive optimizers such as ADAM have become a standard choice and are widely used for their invariant parameter updates' magnitudes concerning gradient scale variations, but often pose generalization problems. Alternatively, Stochastic Gradient Descent (SGD) with Momentum and the extension of ADAM, the ADAMW, offers several advantages. This study aims to compare and examine the effects of these optimizers on the chatbot CST dataset. The effectiveness of each optimizer is evaluat
... Show MoreThis research was conduct to evaluate the cytotoxic effect of exotoxin A (ETA) produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa on mice in comparison with (phosphate buffer saline (PBS) as a negative control. The effect of the toxin was measured by employing the cytogenetic analysis which included (the mitotic index (MI), chromosomal aberrations (CAs), micronucleus (MN) and sperm abnormalities) parameters. In order to specify the cytotoxic effect of the toxin, three doses of ETA (125, 250 and 500 ng/ml) were used. Results showed that ETA was found to cause a significant decrease in mitotic index (MI) percentage, while significant increase in micronucleus (MN), chromosomal aberrations (CAs) and sperm abnormalities parameters in compression with control wa
... Show MoreThe role of the green areas lies in being one of the systems that plays the vital role in achieving the environmental dimension besides the socio-cultural body and the economic dimension in the hidden value of ecosystem services. However, many developing countries are characterized by a state of low community environmental awareness, which coincides with the basic need for land for housing and other uses, to take precedence over nature protection strategies. In the absence of clear planning and long-term planning strategies, all this led to abuses and violations of urban land use. In Iraq, the situation became more apparent due to the political, security and social conditions that followed the year 2003. Hence, the resea
... Show MoreThe purpose of this study is to examine the moderating role of business environment on the relationship between Entrepreneurial Skills (ES) and business performance of Small Business (SB) in Iraq, Baghdad. This study aims to resolve the inconsistencies found in the contemporary literature regarding the relationship between ES and business performance. Questionnaire using a 5-point Likert scale was adopted from previous work to ascertain the responses of the respondents. Survey research design was adopted, and self-administered questionnaires were used to collect the data from small business owners in 9 districts in Baghdad the capital of Iraq. The analysis was conducted using SPSS version 23.0. The direct relationship and hierarchical regre
... Show MoreField experiment was conducted to test the effect of saline water and fertilizers rate on Pisum sativum L. plants . Treatments of the experiment included two levels of water salinity (2, 7 dSm-1) as a main plot and three levels of potash fertilization K2SO4 (44%K) namely 150 control, 300 and 450 kg/Donum as a sub plot. Results indicated that irrigation of plant with saline water 7 dSm-¹ caused a significant decrease in K and P contents specially in the upper parts of the plants , the percentage of the K increased (2.80%) under 2 dSm-¹of irrigation water and 300 kg/ donum fertilizer rate in the upper leaves, However K decreased(1.10%) in lower leaves under 7 dSm-¹ and 300 kg/donum fertilizer. while P increased in pods und
... Show MoreThe influence of process speed (PS) and tillage depth (TD) , on growth of corn (Zea mays L) yield, for Maha cultivar, were tested at two ranges of PS of 2.483 and 4.011 km.hr-1, and three ranges of TD of 15,20 and 25cm. The experiments were conducted in a factorial experiment under complete randomized design with three replications. The results showed that the PS of 2.483 km.hr-1 was significantly better than the PS of 4.011km.hr-1 in all studied conditions. The , slippage ratio (SR) and the machine efficiency (ME), the physical soil characteristics represented by the soil density and porosity (SBD and TSP), and the plant characteristics represented the roots dry weight, PVI and the crop productivity (CP), except adjective of the fu
... Show MoreThe main objective of the audit process is to enable the auditor to express his neutral technical opinion as to whether the financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the financial reporting framework and fairly express the financial position, the result of the activity and the cash flows. A wrong opinion works to burden the beneficiary parties with great damages, and then the presence of any error or bias from the auditor when applying the rules of professional ethics (such as violating professional confidentiality and conflict of interest and moving away from impartiality and objectivity) negatively affects the performance of his
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