This paper presents a study to investigate the behavior of post-tensioned segmental concrete beams that exposed to high-temperature. The experimental program included fabricating and testing twelve simply supported beams that divided into three groups depending on the number of precasting concrete segments. All specimens were prepared with an identical length of 3150 mm and differed in the number of the incorporated segments of the beam (9, 7, or 5 segments). To simulate the genuine fire disasters, nine out of twelve beams were exposed to a high-temperature flame for one hour. Based on the standard fire curve (ASTM – E119), the temperatures of 300◦C (572◦F), 500◦C (932◦F), and 700◦C (1292◦F) were adopted. Consequently,

This paper proposes a new structure for a Fractional Order Sliding Mode Controller (FOSMC) to control a Twin Rotor Aerodynamic System (TRAS). The new structure is composed by defining two 3-dimensional sliding mode surfaces for the TRAS model and introducing fractional order derivative integral in the state variables as well as in the control action. The parameters of the controller are determined so as to minimize the Integral of Time multiplied by Absolute Error (ITAE) performance index. Through comparison, this controller outperforms its integer counterpart in many specifications, such as reducing the delay time, rise time, percentage overshoot, settling time, time to reach the sliding surface, and amplitude of chattering in control inpu

Background: Periodontal diseases (PD) are inflammatory conditions of the tissues supporting the teeth, most often gingivitis and periodontitis. Maxillary chronic rhinosinusitis (MCRS) is the inflammation of the maxillary sinuses which is last for at least 12 consecutive weeks duration. Aims of study: Distribution of periodontal diseases among patients with Maxillary chronic rhinosinusitis according to gender and age. Materials and methods: Males and females subjects (25-45 years), divided into two groups; 150 patients suffer from MCRS and 130 subjects without MCRS. Clinical periodontal parameters; Plaque Index (PL.I), Gingival Index (G.I), Probing Pocket Depth (PPD), Clinical Attachment Level (CAL) and Bleeding On Probing (BOP) recorded f

The pumping station became widely used in many fields. Free surface vortices at intakes of pumps are not favorable. It may cause noise, excessive vibration, damage to the pumping structure, reduction in efficiency and flow for hydro-turbines, etc. One of the important problems encountered during the pump intake design is the depth of submergence and other design parameters to avoid strong free-surface vortices formation. This study aims to compute the critical submergence depth with some geometrical and hydraulic limitations by using Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) package. The mathematical model was validated with a laboratory model that had been conducted. The model of three intake pipes was investigated under five d

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the most common gastrointestinal malignancy and one of the top ten common cancers worldwide with approximately 2 million cases. There are multiple risk factors that could lead to CRC emergence; of which are genetic polymorphisms. Excision repair cross-complementing group 2 (ERCC2) gene encodes for ERCC2 enzyme which plays a crucial role in maintaining genomic integrity by removing DNA adducts. Several studies suggested that there could be a link between genetic polymorphisms of ERCC2 gene and the risk of CRC development. Hence the present study aims to validate the relationship between the following ERCC2 single nucleotide polymorphisms (rs13181, rs149943175, rs530662943, and rs1799790) and CRC susceptibility. A t

In this work, strains and dynamic crack growth were studied and analyzed in thin flat plate with a surface crack at the center, subjected to cycling low velocity impact loading for two types of aluminum plates (2024, 6061). Experimental and numerical methods were implemented to achieve this research. Numerical analysis using program (ANSYS11-APDL) based on finite element method used to analysis the strains with respect to time at crack tip and then find the velocity of the crack growth under cycling impact loading. In the experimental work, a rig was designed and manufactured to applying the cycling impact loading on the cracked specimens. The grid points was screened in front of the crack tip to measure the elastic-plas

         The issue of penalized regression model has received considerable critical attention to variable selection. It plays an essential role in dealing with high dimensional data. Arctangent denoted by the Atan penalty has been used in both estimation and variable selection as an efficient method recently. However, the Atan penalty is very sensitive to outliers in response to variables or heavy-tailed error distribution. While the least absolute deviation is a good method to get robustness in regression estimation. The specific objective of this research is to propose a robust Atan estimator from combining these two ideas at once. Simulation experiments and real data applications show that the p

The present study focused mainly on the buckling behavior of composite laminated plates subjected to mechanical loads. Mechanical loads are analyzed by experimental analysis, analytical analysis (for laminates without cutouts) and numerical analysis by finite element method (for laminates with and without cutouts) for different type of loads which could be uniform or non-uniform, uniaxial or biaxial. In addition to many design parameters of the laminates such as aspect ratio, thickness ratio, and lamination angle or the parameters of the cutout such as shape, size, position, direction, and radii rounding) which are changed to studytheir effects on the buckling characteristics with various boundary conditions. Levy method of classical lam

One hundred forty three of Klebsiellapneumoniae isolates had been collected from some hospitals in Baghdad city. The isolates were taken from different clinical specimens.Antimicrobial susceptibility test was carried out towards fifteen antimicrobial agents by using Vitek2 system with Antimicrobial susceptibility test cards. The results of antibiogram showed that the local isolates were possess highly resistance towards most antimicrobial agents under study. The high resistance wastoAmpicillin while the low resistance was to Imipenem.Two methods were used for detection of Extended Spectrum Beta Lactamases (ESBLs) production; first methods by using of Vitek2 system,thesecondmethods by using of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique to dis