Portland Cement is manufactured by adding 3% gypsum to clinker which is produced by grinding, pulverizing, mixing, and then burning a raw mix of silica, and calcium carbonate. Limestone is the main source of carbonates, while clay collected from arable land is the main source of silica. The marl in the Euphrates Formation was studied as an alternative to arable lands. Nine boreholes drilled and penetrated the marl layer in selected locations at the Kufa cement quarry. Forty-one samples of marl from boreholes and four samples of limestone from the closed area were collected. The chemical content of the major oxides and the hardness of the marl layer was very encouraging as a raw material for Portland Cement as they are SiO2 (17.60), CaO (37.89), MgO (1.94), Fe2O3 (2.47), Al2O3 (4.21), K2O (0.731), SO3 (0.35), and Na2O (0.062). The marl was used in designing a raw material mix suitable for rotary kiln feed and produced a clinker conforming to the approved specifications. The designing a raw mix consisting of 80.30% of marl with 19.70% of limestone. The investment of the marl layer can be used as an ideal alternative to the arable clay giving fit quality to the international specifications, reducing production costs during quarry operations, reducing the energy consumption and equipment wearing.
Background: The COVID-19 virus outbreak had a massive effect on many parts of people's lives, as they were advised to quarantine and lockdown to prevent the virus from spreading, which had a big impact on people's mental health, anxiety, and stress. Many internal and external factors lead to stress. This negatively influences the body's homeostasis. As a result, stress may affect the body's capacity to use energy to defend against pathogens. Many recent investigations have found substantial links between human mental stress and the production of hormones, prohormones, and/or immunological chemicals. some of these researches have verified the link between stress and salivary cortisol levels. The aim of this study is to measure salivary corti
... Show MoreReliability analysis methods are used to evaluate the safety of reinforced concrete structures by evaluating the limit state function 𝑔(𝑋𝑖). For implicit limit state function and nonlinear analysis , an advanced reliability analysis methods are needed. Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) can be used in this case however, as the number of input variables increases, the time required for MCS also increases, making it a time consuming method especially for complex problems with implicit performance functions. In such cases, MCS-based FORM (First Order Reliability Method) and Artificial Neural Network-based FORM (ANN FORM) have been proposed as alternatives. However, it is important to note that both MCS-FORM and ANN-FORM can also be time-con
... Show MoreIn this work, an important sugar alkynyl ether has been synthesized in two subsequent steps starting from commercially available D-galactose (3). This kind of compounds is highly significant in the synthesis of biologically active molecules such as 1,2,3-triazole and isoxazoles. In the first step, galactose (3) was reacted with acetone in the presence of anhydrous copper (II) sulfate to produce 1,2:3,4-di-O-isopropylidene-α-D-galactose (4) in good yield. The latter was reacted with excess of 3-bromoprop-1-yne in DMF in the presence of NaOH pellets to afford the target molecule 5 in a very good yield. The temperature of this step is crucial in determining the reaction yi
... Show MoreIn this study, the stable isotop 18O and 2H has been used to investigate the interaction of surface water (SW), and groundwater (GW) in Al-Taji district/ Northern Baghdad for two seasons (March and August 2022). 16 Samples were collected from water resources in the Al-Taji district (Tigris channel, Tigris River, and groundwater), in each season water samples from 8 Tigris channel, 5 drilled wells, and 3 Tigris River were taken for the analysis of the isotopes 18O and 2H. The average analysis results of 18O and 2H in the Tigris channel, Tigris River, and groundwater were found to be -3.435‰ and -18.6094‰, -2.07167‰ and -17.81‰, -4.125‰ and -34.707‰ respectively. The results, generally, show a comparable range of isotope c
... Show MoreThe solidification process in a multi-tube latent heat energy system is affected by the natural convection and the arrangement of heat exchanger tubes, which changes the buoyancy effect as well. In the current work, the effect of the arrangement of the tubes in a multi-tube heat exchanger was examined during the solidification process with the focus on the natural convection effects inside the phase change material (PCM). The behavior of the system was numerically analyzed using liquid fraction and energy released, as well as temperature, velocity and streamline profiles for different studied cases. The arrangement of the tubes, considering seven pipes in the symmetrical condition, are assumed at different positions in the system, i
... Show MoreAbstract
A series of new 4(3H)-quinazolinone derivatives (S1-S4) were synthesized and characterized by FTIR,1HNMR and 13CNMR .Their cytotoxic activity against a set of human cancer cell lines MCF-7 (breast) and A549 (lung) was evaluated using MTT assay. To detect their selectivity toward cancer cells, the compounds were also tested against epithelial cells derived from normal human fibroblast (NHF). Methotrexate (MTX) was used as a reference for comparison . All the tested compounds exhibited toxicity against the normal cells lower than cancer cells. All the tested compounds displayed higher cytotoxicity against lung cancer cell line (A549) than MTX with the most
... Show MoreWe report herein an innovative approach to prostate tumor therapy using tumor specific radioactive gold nanoparticles (198Au) functionalized with Mangiferin (MGF). Production and full characterization of MGF-198AuNPs are described. In vivo therapeutic efficacy of MGF-198AuNPs, through intratumoral delivery, in SCID mice bearing prostate tumor xenografts are described. Singular doses of the nano-radiopharmaceutical (MGF-198AuNPs) resulted in over 85% reduction of tumor volume as compared to untreated control groups. The excellent anti-tumor efficacy of MGF-198AuNPs are attributed to the retention of over 90% of the injected dose within tumors for long periods of time. The retention of MGF-198AuNPs is also rationalized in terms of the higher
... Show MoreObjective The aim of this study was to assess whether serum cytokine levels correlate with clinical periodontal parameters in health or disease.
Materials and Methods Male subjects (40–60 years) with CP (n = 30), CP + CHD (n = 30), and healthy controls (n = 20) had plaque index (PLI), gingival index (GI), bleeding on probing, probing pocket depth (PPD), and clinical attachment level (CAL) evaluated. Serum IL-1β and IL-6 levels were quantified using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.
Results PLI, GI, PPD, and CAL were significantly higher in patients with CP + CHD compared to those with CP. Serum levels of IL-1β and IL-6 were also si