Flexible pavements are subjected to three main distress types: fatigue crack, thermal crack, and permanent deformation. Under severe climate conditions, thermal cracking particularly contributes largely to a considerable scale of premature deterioration of pavement infrastructure worldwide. This challenge is especially relevant for Europe, as weather conditions vary significantly throughout the year. Hydrated lime (HL) has been recognized as an effective additive to improve the mechanical properties of asphalt concrete for pavement applications. Previous research has found that a replacement of conventional limestone dust filler using hydrated lime at 2.5% of the total weight of aggregates generated an optimum improvement in the mec

Two groups of chronic hepatitis B and C virus patients were divided into Pre-treated patients (25 CHB patients with positive HBs Ag for more than 6 months and 40 CHC patients), and post-treated patients [12 CHB patients (4, 6, and 2 were treated with lamivudine, IFN-? and combination of LMV + IFN-? respectively), and 27 patients for CHC (3, 13 and 11 patients were treated with Ribavirin, IFN-? and combination therapy (RBV+ IFN-?) respectively].These patients were followed up for 6 months. By using ELISA technique, levels of IL-6, IL-10, IFN-? and TNF-? were measured in vivo and in vitro (supernatant of PBMCs stimulated with PHA) and compared with healthy control. The mean level of IL-6, IL-10 and TNF-? in CHB patients showed significant dif

     The study aims to find out the extent to which several Iraqi institutional accreditation standards (governance and administration, scientific research, curricula) are applied in two public universities (Baghdad and Middle Technical University) and two private universities (Uruk and Al-Mansour College) by diagnosing strengths and weaknesses and proposing a mechanism and procedures to help educational institution aims to reduce or eliminate the gap. The study stems from the extent of application of several Iraqi institutional accreditation standards represented as it was worked on through observation and field coexistence to reach scientific and practical facts. The method of case study and comparison betwe

One of the key challenges is reliable communication for Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs) since underwater environments are dynamic and challenging for signal transmission. The traditional acoustic communication systems allow long-distance communication but are limited by the low bandwidth, high latency, and doppler effect. Optical wireless, on the other hand, provides high data rates with water absorption and scattering occurring within the transmission distance, but has a short range of communication. To overcome these drawbacks, a smart hybrid optical-acoustic communication system is proposed that is a combination of Wavelength Division Multiplexing and On-Off Keying (WDM-OOK) to transmit a high-speed signal over optical and ac

Abstract: Thorough assessment of the Maxillary,Sinus is very important. Recently 3-dimensional imagewith Cone Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT) is very dependable in Maxillary Sinus diagnosis. The aim of this study is to: shade light on the role of (CBCT) diagnosis of the maxillary sinus anatomical variation and pathological finding among smokers and nonsmokers prior to maxillary sinus lift techniques. Materials and Method: In this study 60 males with age ranged between 20-50 years old, referred for (CBCT) assessment of maxillary sinus in the Specialist Health Center of AL-Sadder city. The scanning were performed using Kodak 9500 (CBCT), the KV was 90, mA10 and scanning time 10 s. Voxel size 0.3mm with( DICOM ) software on a multiplaner re

The aim of the study was to evaluate the efficacy of diode laser (λ=940 nm) in the management of gingival hyperpigmentation compared to the conventional bur method. Materials and methods: Eighteen patients with gingival hyperpigmentation were selected for the study with an age between 12-37 years old. The site of treatment was the upper gingiva using diode laser for the right half and the conventional method for the left half. All patients were re-evaluated after the following intervals: 3 days, 7 days, 1 month and 6 months post-operation. Pain and functions were re-evaluated in each visit for a period of 1 day, 3 days and 1 week post-operation. Laser parameters included 1.5 W in continuous mode with an initiated tip (400 μm) placed in

This paper investigates the performance evaluation of two state feedback controllers, Pole Placement (PP) and Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR). The two controllers are designed for a Mass-Spring-Damper (MSD) system found in numerous applications to stabilize the MSD system performance and minimize the position tracking error of the system output. The state space model of the MSD system is first developed. Then, two meta-heuristic optimizations, Simulated Annealing (SA) optimization and Ant Colony (AC) optimization are utilized to optimize feedback gains matrix K of the PP and the weighting matrices Q and R of the LQR to make the MSD system reach stabilization and reduce the oscillation of the response. The Matlab softwar

The Study aims at evaluating the efficiency of the regional transportation net in Al-mahmoodiya Qadaa center. The bus station of the Qadaa center is suffering from heavy traffic jam, which is due to the ongoing movement of the adjacent provinces, particularly the small cities. They vary in the degree of their link by the regional transportation net that links the province with the centers of big cities. That affects the traffic flow of the civilians of these cities and their daily activities in hierarchical way To achieve the purpose of the study, a questionnaire has been constructed to collect data through selecting a random sample including the passengers who are coming to the bus station in Al-Mahmoodiya center to know the flo