Controlling cost in construction projects is an essential issue. This study investigates the most critical problems that cause weakness in cost control in Iraqi construction projects. The quantitative technique was used by conducting a survey directed to professionals who work on construction projects. One hundred and sixty-four questionnaire forms were distributed to private sector companies, government companies, and government institutions, and the responses were subjected to the required statistical analysis. The results indicate that the most influential factors are the weakness in keeping up with the use of modern concepts, methods, and technologies, the delay in receiving the amounts due for work done from the owner, fluctuations in market prices, the lack of knowledge and the inefficient use of currently available tools and technology, and the security situation in the country. The results indicate that the Iraqi construction projects suffer from weakness in cost control, which causes them to stop or delay their delivery, and this needs serious and quick solutions. One of the most important solutions is the adoption of modern technologies and their inclusion in the construction sector and the development of special systems for managing costs that are appropriate to the Iraqi construction environment.
Sweet pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) is an economically important vegetable crop. Wilt disease caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. capsici is a specific pathogen that affects the pepper. Four isolates of F. oxysporum f. sp. capsici Fo3, Fo6, Fo7 and Fo8 were obtained from diseased pepper plants that were collected from different pepper fields in Baghdad. Fo6 isolate that has high pathogenicity to pepper seeds, Trichoderma harzianum (Th) was tested in vitro against F. oxysporum f. sp. capsici showed a high inhibition rate for the isolate Fo6, the concentration of chelated iron Fe-EDDHA 0.5% reduced the radial growth of Fo6 whi
... Show Morethis paper presents a novel method for solving nonlinear optimal conrol problems of regular type via its equivalent two points boundary value problems using the non-classical
In this paper, an adaptive active disturbance rejection control is newly designed for precise angular steering position tracking of the uncertain and nonlinear SBW system with time delay communications. The proposed adaptive active disturbance rejection control comprises the following two elements: (1) An adaptive extended state observer and (2) an adaptive state error feedback controller. The adaptive extended state observer with adaptive gains is employed for estimating the unmeasured velocity, acceleration, and compound disturbance which consists of system parameter uncertainties, nonlinearities, exterior disturbances, and time delay in which the observer gains are dynamically adjusted based on the estimation error to enhance est
... Show MoreThe control of an aerial flexible joint robot (FJR) manipulator system with underactuation is a difficult task due to unavoidable factors, including, coupling, underactuation, nonlinearities, unmodeled uncertainties, and unpredictable external disturbances. To mitigate those issues, a new robust fixed-time sliding mode control (FxTSMC) is proposed by using a fixed-time sliding mode observer (FxTSMO) for the trajectory tracking problem of the FJR attached to the drones system. First, the underactuated FJR is comprehensively modeled and converted to a canonical model by employing two state transformations for ease of the control design. Then, based on the availability of the measured states, a cascaded FxTSMO (CFxTSMO) is constructed to estim
... Show MoreBackground: Anti-vascular endothelial growth factors commonly used intravitreally for treatment of variable retinal disease worldwide, which help to regulate the upregulation of vascular endothelial growth factors due to ischemia or/and other retinal insult.
Objective: To review all cases of intravitreal bevacizumab given in the retinal unit of the Eye Specialty Private Hospital in Iraq from December 2015 to June 2016, pointing out the common indications.
Methods: A retrospective study including all cases of intravitreal injections of bevacizumab recorded at the Eye Specialty Private Hospital from December 2015 to June 2016 were retrieved. Age, sex, laterality, diagnosis
... Show MoreSeveral adipokines are produced and secreted from adipose tissue, such as retinol binding protein-4, which triggers metabolic syndromes and insulin resistance. Retinol binding protein-4 transfers vitamin A or retinol in the blood. Higher levels of retinol binding protein-4 are interrelated with progress of metabolic disease, comprising obesity, metabolic syndrome, and type 2 diabetes mellitus. The present study investigates the role of retinol-binding protein-4 levels in type 2 diabetic Iraqi patients with metabolic syndrome. Sixty type 2 diabetic patients aged 40–53 years were examined. Of these 30 patients has metabolic syndrome and 30 without metabolic syndrome. The patients sampled were from the National Diabetes Center/ Mustansiriyah
... Show MoreBackground: Several studies linked the development of steroid-resistant nephrotic syndrome (SRNS) to genetic variations in the multidrug resistance 1 (MDR1) gene, though a disparity in findings was underlined among children with different ethnic origins. Objective: This study examined the relationship between MDR1 variants (rs2032582 and rs2032583) and the risk of developing SRNS in Iraqi patients with idiopathic nephrotic syndrome (INS). Methods: This case-control study included children with steroid-sensitive INS (SSNS; n=30) and SRNS (n=30) from the Babylon Hospital for Maternity and Pediatrics. Sanger sequencing was used to determine the participants’ genotypes. Results: The rs2032582 genotypes and alleles were not associated
... Show MoreInflammatory 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 MoreAbstract
Performance evaluation is of great importance in all countries of the world, because it has a prominent and effective role in determining the efficiency and effectiveness of the optimal use of available resources, which are rare and important in achieving the desired objectives. With the continued growth of public spending and the limited resources, the State seeks to achieve its objectives through its units with minimal expenditure or deficit, rationality and wastefulness in the spending. In many countries, particularly developing countries, reforms are made in the public sector to achieve that goal through the adoption of IPSAS, which is reflected in the developmen
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