Reconstruction project management in the cities of Mosul, Anbar, and Tikrit, in Iraq still faces major obstacles that impede the comprehensive performance of these projects. It is thus necessary to improve the arising challenge estimation in the implementation of reconstruction projects and evaluate their components: time, cost, quality, and scope. This study used the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) to prioritize major and minor criteria in the influential causes of challenges and formulate a mathematical model to help decision-makers estimate them. Using the Super Decisions software, the final results indicated that changes in scope reached 40.8%, which is the greatest difficulty, followed by changes in cost at 27.6%, changes in time at 13.5%, and changes in quality at 18.11%. The results of the essential subcriteria also indicated that underlying issues still exist in the Iraqi construction industry and that quick solutions are vital. Five mathematical equations were formulated to develop a model to estimate changes that introduce challenges in time, cost, quality, and scope and so to help decision-makers assess the level of these changes and identify challenges. This study recommended addressing these variables through realistic administrative and methodological strategies to consider changes, challenges, and available opportunities.
Objectives. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of nonnutritive sucking habits on the presence of oral Escherichia coli. Methods. One hundred and twenty children aged 3–5 years old were enrolled in the present case-control study, as follows: 60 children with continuous pacifier and thumb sucking habits (study group) and 60 children without any sucking habits (control group). The children in the two groups were matched in terms of age and gender. Information was gathered from the parents concerning their children using a special sheet. Sterile swabs were taken from both groups and cultured on agar plates. Then, they were subjected to further biochemical tests to identify E. coli species. The mean of the E. coli count was determ
... Show MoreThe aim: to evaluate combined microscopy techniques for determining the morphological and optical properties of methadone hydrochloride (MDN) crystals. Materials and methods: MDN crystal formation was optimized using a closed container method and crystals were characterized using polarized light microscope (PLM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and confocal microscopy (CM). SEM and CM were used to determine MDN crystal thickness and study its relationship with crystal retardation colours using the Michel-Levy Birefringence approach. Results: Dimensions (mean±SD) of diamond shaped MDN crystals were confirmed using SEM and CM. Crystals were 46.4±15.2 Vs 32.0±8.3 µm long, 28.03±8.2 Vs 20.85±5.5 µm wide, and 6.62±
... Show MoreA hand lay-up method was used to prepare Epoxy/ metal composites. Epoxy resin (EP) was used as a matrix with metal particles (Al, Cu, and Fe) as fillers.
The preparation method includes preparing square panels of composites with different weight percentage of fillers (10, 20, 30, 40, and 50%). Standard specimens (88mm in diameter) for thermal conductivity tests were prepared to measure thermal conductivity kexp.The result of experimental thermal conductivity kexp, for EP/metal composites show that, kexp increase with increasing weight percentage, For EP/ Al and EP/Cu composites, and it have have maximum values of 0.33 and 0.35 W/m.K, respectively. While kexp for EP/ Fe composite show slight increase with maximum value of 0.186 W/m.K.
Recently, interest in the use of projectiles in research on recycling waste materials for construction applications has grown. Using recycled materials for the construction of asphalt concrete pavement, in the meantime, has become a topic of research due to its significant benefits, such as cost savings and reduced environmental impacts. This study reports on comprehensive experimental research conducted using a typical mechanical milling waste, iron filing waste (IFW), as an alternative fine aggregate for warm mix asphalt (WMA) for pavement wearing surface applications. A type of IFW from a local machine workshop was used to replace the conventional fine aggregate, fine natural sand (FNS), at percentages of 25%, 50% 75%, and 100% b
... Show MoreThe electron mirror phenomenon has been explored to describe the behavior of a probing electron trajectory inside the chamber of scanning electron microscope (SEM). This investigation has been carried out by means of the modulated mirror plot curve technique. This method is based on expanding sample potential to a multipolar form to detect the actual distribution of the trapped charges. Actually an experimental result is used to guiding results of this work toward the accurate side. Results have shown that the influence of each type of multipolar arrangement (monopole, dipole, quadruple, octopole … etc.) mainly depends on the driving potential.
Pore volume, pore diameter, and pore volume distribution of three of Iraqi natural clay deposites were measured using mercury intrusion porosimetry .The clays are white kaolin, colored kaolin, and bentonite .The results showed that the variation of the pore area of the clay deposites followed the following order :- Coloured Kaolin > White Kaolin > Bentonite While the pore volume may be arranged as in the following sequence:- White Kaolin > Coloured Kaolin >Bentonite Also , Bentonite exhibits the narrow range pore size distribution than the white and coloured kaolin.
The performance of a condenser in a domestic refrigerator system without wires and a condenser with a novel design consisted of number of loops as elliptical shape is investigated experimentally in this work. The experiment was conducted with a refrigerator designed to work with HFC134a, under no load and with loads of (1.5,3 and 12 liters of water). In particular, the effects of shape change of the condenser were very important in heat transfer enhancement and reduce of the frictional loss as a result of reducing the pressure drop in the condenser. The results shown that compressor work decreases with elliptical condenser about (8.6% to 11.3%), and then the power consumption decreases also. The performance of household refrigerator with
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