Zainab M. Al-Bahrani Department of Oral Diagnosis, College of Dentistry, University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq.Corresponding author: Zainab M. Al-Bahra...

Drought is a natural phenomenon in many arid, semi-arid, or wet regions. This showed that no region worldwide is excluded from the occurrence of drought. Extreme droughts were caused by global weather warming and climate change. Therefore, it is essential to review the studies conducted on drought to use the recommendations made by the researchers on drought.  The drought was classified into meteorological, agricultural, hydrological, and economic-social. In addition, researchers described the severity of the drought by using various indices which required different input data.  The indices used by various researchers were the Joint Deficit Index (JDI), Effective Drought Index (EDI), Streamflow Drought Index (SDI), Sta

Worldwide, enormous amounts of waste cause major environmental issues, including scrap tires and plastic, and large waste, a consequence of the demolition of buildings, including crushed concrete, crushed clay bricks, and crushed thermo-stone. From that point, it’s possible to consider that the recycling processes for these materials and using them in the manufacturing field will reduce the adverse effects on the environment of these wastes and the consumption of natural resources. Sustainable concrete blocks can be considered as one of the products produced by using these materials as partial volume replacement of the coarse, fine aggregate, or cement content, considering their dry density, workability, absorption, compressive st

The main aim of this research is to introduce financing cost optimization and different financing alternatives. There are many studies about financing cost optimization. All previous studies considering the cost of financing have many shortcomings, some considered only one source of financing as a credit line without taking into account different financing alternatives. Having only one funding alternative powers, restricts contractors and leads to a very specific financing model. Although it is beneficial for the contractor to use a long-term loan to minimize interest charges and prevent a substantial withdrawal from his credit line, none of the existing financial-based planning models have considered long-term loans in

Morphological theories shape the leading platform to theoretically and practically consider the assets connected with the emergence of the city, and its growth and development over time. In this paper, five elements of the urban form are typified: structure/tissue, plot, building, block, and the street pattern will be addressed. Understanding the urban form at the different levels within its ingredients could lead to shape a base launch of how to consider the potentiality of the development and sustainability of a particular area.   

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory disease of the central nervous system, in which the myelin sheaths got injured. The prevalence of MS is on grow, as well as, it affects the young ages. Females are most common to have MS compared to males. Oxidative stress is the situation of imbalance between oxidants (free radicals and reactive oxygen species (ROS)) and antioxidants in a living system, in which either the oxidants are elevated or antioxidants are reduced, or sometimes both. ROS and oxidative stress have been implicated in the progression of many degenerative diseases, which is important in cracking the unrevealed mysteries of MS. In this review article, some of the proposed mechanisms that link oxidative stres

Alongside the development of high-speed rail, rail flaw detection is of great importance to ensure railway safety, especially for improving the speed and load of the train. Several conventional inspection methods such as visual, acoustic, and electromagnetic inspection have been introduced in the past. However, these methods have several challenges in terms of detection speed and accuracy. Combined inspection methods have emerged as a promising approach to overcome these limitations. Nondestructive testing (NDT) techniques in conjunction with artificial intelligence approaches have tremendous potential and viability because it is highly possible to improve the detection accuracy which has been proven in various conventional nondestr