Test results of six half-scale reinforced concrete flat plates connections with an opening in the vicinity of the column are reported. The test specimens represent a portion of a slab bounded by the lines of contraflexure around the column. The tests were designed to study the effect of openings on the punching shear behavior of the slab-column connections. The test parameters were the location and the size of the openings. One specimen had no opening and the remaining five had various arrangements of openings around the column. All specimens were cast with normal density concrete of approximately 30 MPa compressive strength. The openings in the specimens were square, with the sides parallel to the sides of the column. Three sizes of ope

There are two main categories of force control schemes: hybrid position-force control and impedance control. However, the former does not take into account the dynamic interaction between the robot’s end effector and the environment. In contrast, impedance control includes regulation and stabilization of robot motion by creating a mathematical relationship between the interaction forces and the reference trajectories. It involves an energetic pair of a flow and an effort, instead of controlling a single position or a force. A mass-spring-damper impedance filter is generally used for safe interaction purposes. Tuning the parameters of the impedance filter is important and, if an unsuitable strategy is used, this can lead to unstabl

The thermal distribution in the diseased tissue treated by different methods faces the problem of an uncontrollable defused heat. In the present article, we use a plasmonic bowtie nanoantenna working in the near infrared region to enhance the temperature confinement in the tissue. The Computer Simulation Technology Studio Suite package version 2019 was used to execute the design of both plasmonic nanoantenna and the tissue. Gold nanostructure and silicon carbide dioxide are the components the plasmonic nanoantenna in the bowtie shape. The results showed that the distance between the tumor tissue and the antenna is important to determine the intensity field where the maximum field is 5.9*107 V/m at a distance of 100 nm. The maximum

Copper with different concentrations doped with zinc oxide nanoparticles were prepared from a mixture of zinc acetate and copper acetate with sodium hydroxide in aqueous solution. The structure of the prepared samples was done by X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy (AFM) and UV-VIS absorption spectrophotometer. Debye-Scherer formula was used to calculate the size of the prepared samples. The band gap of the nanoparticle ZnO was determined by using UV-VIS optical spectroscopy.

Epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a process comprising cellular and molecular events which result in cells shifting from an epithelial to a mesenchymal phenotype. Periodontitis is a destructive chronic disease of the periodontium initiated in response to a dysbiotic microbiome, and dominated by Gram-negative bacteria in the subgingival niches accompanied by an aberrant immune response in susceptible subjects. Both EMT and periodontitis share common risk factors and drivers, including Gram-negative bacteria, excess inflammatory cytokine production, smoking, oxidative stress and diabetes mellitus. In addition, periodontitis is characterized by down-regulation of key epithelial markers such as E-cadherin together with up-regulation of

Durability of hot mix asphalt (HMA) against moisture damage is mostly related to asphalt-aggregate adhesion. The objective of this work is to find the effect of nanoclay with montmorillonite (MMT) on Marshall properties and moisture susceptibility of asphalt mixture. Two types of asphalt cement, AC(40-50) and AC(60-70) were modified with 2%, 4% and 6% of Iraqi nanoclay with montmorillonite. The Marshall properties, Tensile strength ratio(TSR) and Index of retained strength(ISR) were determined in this work. The total number of specimens was 216 and the optimum asphalt content was 4.91% and 5% for asphalt cement (40-50) and (60-70) respectively. The results showed that the modification of asphalt cement with MMT led to increase Marsh

Deep Learning Techniques For Skull Stripping of Brain MR Images

A large amount of thermal energy is generated from burning hazardous chemical wastes, and the temperature of the flue gases in hazardous waste incinerators reaches up to (1200 °C). The flue gases are cooled to (40°C) and are treated before emission. This thermal energy can be utilized to produce electrical power by designing a system suitable for dangerous flue gases in the future depending on the results of much research about using a proto-type small steam power plant that uses safe fuel to study and develop the electricity generation process with water tube boiler which is manufactured experimentally with theoretical development for some of its parts which are inefficient in experimental work. The studied system gen

Recently, microalgae have become a promising source in the production of biofuel. However, the cost of production is still the main obstacle to develop of this type of source. Although there are many extensive studies on the requirements provided for the cultivation of the microalgae, the study of the process, via the variables that affect the cultivation of microalgae, being still one of the important tasks to improve the production of biofuel. The present article is a serious attempt to investigate of use commercial fertilizer NPK (20:20:20+TE N: P: K) as considered a cheap nutrient medium in growth Chlorella vulgaris by comparison with traditional nutrient (Chu.10 medium). In addition, the current study addresses effect of di