Fine aggregates used for concrete works in Sulaymaniyah city frequently fail to meet the standard requirements for gradation and fineness modulus in cement concrete. This paper aims to critically evaluate gradation, fineness modulus, and clay contents of various natural sands produced and used for concrete work in the region.  Sixteen field sand samples were collected from various sites in Darbandikhan (5 samples), Qalat Dizah (5 samples), Koysinjaq (5 samples), and Piramagroon (1 sample) confirming to ASTM D75. The field samples were parted into test specimens based on ASTM C702. Then, sieve analysis was carried out on the oven-dry test specimens in compliance with ASTM C136. The test results of fine aggregates wer

The Electric Discharge (EDM) method is a novel thermoelectric manufacturing technique in which materials are removed by a controlled spark erosion process between two electrodes immersed in a dielectric medium. Because of the difficulties of EDM, determining the optimum cutting parameters to improve cutting performance is extremely tough. As a result, optimizing operating parameters is a critical processing step, particularly for non-traditional machining process like EDM. Adequate selection of processing parameters for the EDM process does not provide ideal conditions, due to the unpredictable processing time required for a given function. Models of Multiple Regression and Genetic Algorithm are considered as effective methods for determ

Partial shading is one of the problems that affects the power production and the efficiency of photovoltaic module. A series of experimental work have been done of partial shading of   monocrystalline PV module; 50W, I_sc: 3.1A, V_oc: 22V with 36 cells in series is achieved. Non-linear power output responses of the module are observed by applying various cases of partial shading (vertical and horizontal shading of solar cells in the module). Shading a single cell (corner cell) has the greatest impact on output energy. Horizontal shading or vertical shading reduced the power from 41W to 18W at constant solar radiation 1000W/m² and steady state condition. Vertical blocking a column

The educational service industry is one of the most negatively affected industries by the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Government agencies have taken many measures to slow its spread, and then restrict movement and gatherings and stop recreational activities. Furthermore, the repercussions of the curfew had a significant impact due to the interruption in actual attendance for students and employees, and the severity of the Covid-19 crisis and its (economic, social, security, humanitarian and behavioral) effects on all societies and work sectors is no secret to anyone. Iraq, like other countries, was also affected by the negative impact of Covid-19 pandemic in all fields of institutional work, especially public fields, and specifically t

In this work, the effect of ceramic coating on performance, exhaust gas temperature and gases emissions of diesel engine operated on diesel fuel and biodiesel blends was investigated. A conventional four stroke, direct injected, single cylinder, diesel engine was tested at constant speed and at different load conditions using diesel fuel and biodiesel blends. The inlet and exhaust valves, the head of piston and cylinder head of the engine were coated by ceramic materials. Ceramic layers were made of (210-240) μm of Al2O3 and (30-60) μm of 4NiCr5Al as a bond coat for inlet and exhaust valves and (350-400) μm of YSZ and (50-100) μm of 4NiCr5Al as a bond coat for head of piston and (280-320) μm of Sic and (40-80) μm of 4NiCr5Al as a b

While traditional energy sources such as oil, coal, and natural gas drive economic growth, they also seriously affect people’s health and the environment. Renewable energies (RE) are presently seen as an efficient choice for attaining long-term sustainability in development. They provide an adequate response to climate change and supply sufficient electricity. The current situation in Iraq results from a decades-long scarcity of reliable electricity, which has impacted various industries, including agriculture. There are diverse prospects for using renewable energy sources to address the present power crisis. The economic and environmental impacts of renewable energy systems were investigated in this study by using the solar pumpi

The sustainable development according to the United Nation, listed firms throughout globally now routinely provide sustainability data. However, there is not enough information on Sustainability Performance Quality (SPQ) in the majority of emerging economies, including Malaysia. This study looks at how the SPQ of the top 100 Malaysian-listed businesses is affected by factors as connected with corporate governance (e.g., board meeting, board size, and board ethnic diversity). Utilizing 500 firm-year data, a longitudinal sample of 500 nonfinancial firms on the Bursa Malaysia for 2015-2019 is employed in this study. The findings from the analysis using the panel regression demonstrated that: ethnic diversity and board siz

The objective of this study was tointroduce a recursive least squares (RLS) parameter estimatorenhanced by using a neural network (NN) to facilitate the computing of a bit error rate (BER) (error reduction) during channels estimation of a multiple input-multiple output orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MIMO-OFDM) system over a Rayleigh multipath fading channel.Recursive least square is an efficient approach to neural network training:first, the neural network estimator learns to adapt to the channel variations then it estimates the channel frequency response. Simulation results show that the proposed method has better performance compared to the conventional methods least square (LS) and the original RLS and it is more robust a

The primary objective of current study was to evaluate the effects of different anastrozole dosages on the physiological performance, hematological profile, and serum biochemical parameters of broiler roosters. A total of Twenty-six Lohmann Brown roosters were randomly assigned to four treatment groups. The first group (T1) served as the control and received no anastrozole, while the other groups (T2, T3, and T4) were administered 0.2 mg, 0.4 mg, and 0.6 mg of anastrozole per day, respectively. The first and second groups consisted of six birds each, while the third and fourth groups had seven. The results demonstrated a significant improvement (P ≤ 0.05) in several physiological and biochemical parameters in the group receiving 0.6 mg of