The global rise in temperature and the desert climatic conditions prevalent in Middle Eastern countries have exacerbated rutting distress in heavily trafficked highways. Conventional asphalt binders with a high-temperature performance grade (PG 70) have proven inadequate under such extreme conditions, necessitating the development of modified binders with enhanced high-temperature performance. While polymer modification using styrene-butadiene-styrene (SBS), an elastomeric polymer, and ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA), a plastomeric polymer, has been widely studied, limited research provides a direct comparison of their effectiveness at both the binder and mixture levels under extremely high-temperature conditions. This study addresses this gap

The Back-Propagation (BP) is the best known and widely used learning algorithm in training multiple neural network. A vast variety of improvements to BP algorithm have been proposed since ninety’s. in this paper, the effects of changing the number of hidden neurons and activation equation are investigated. According to the simulation results, the convergence speed have been improved and become much faster by the previous two modifications on the BP algorithm.

High temperature superconductor with nominal composition Bi1.6Pb0.4Sr1.8Ba0.2Ca2 Cu3O10+? was prepared by solid state reaction method. Two sets of samples have been prepared .The first one was quenched in air; the second set was quenched in liquid nitrogen. X-ray diffraction analyses showed an orthorhombic structure with two phases, high –Tc phase (2223) and low-Tc phase (2212) in addition to that impure phase was found. It has been observed that quenched in air samples display a sharp superconducting transition and a higher-Tc phase than that of the quenched in liquid nitrogen samples.

This in vivo study was conducted to investigate the effect of different concentrations of ozonated water on experimentally skin infection with some of bacterial isolates (Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus ) which Showed dermal infection in experimental animals after 48 hours of exposure to these Microorganisms. Results revealed that ozone has the power to accelerated the healing process depending on the perfect concentration of ozonated water used and the severity of infection & nature of causative agent , in which the recovering period was 7 days for the infection caused by P. aeruginosa and 5 day for S.aureus by using the concentration 60 µg/ml . Results also indicated in this study the stimulated effect of O

to evaluate the effect of various Nd:YAG frequency doubled laser parameters on the acid
dissolution and the progression of in vitro caries like lesions in human enamel.
Materials and Methods: Human extracted caries free upper first premolar teeth were collected for
this study. The irradiated teeth were divided into two groups. The first group was irradiated with
continuous Nd:YAG laser radiation, and the second group was irradiated with chopped Nd:YAG laser
radiation. For the first group, power and exposure time were changed while for the second group
power and number of pulses were changed. The spot diameter was kept constant for all the samples.
Results: using 1.5 W and 3 seconds (exposure time), best results among

Background: Moral distress, as one of the most important issues in the nursing profession, can negatively affect the healthcare system Objectives: To examine the effect of moral distress on decision making. Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional study a non-probability sampling method was used and a total sample collected was (126) ICU nurses Result: Moral distress among ICUs nurses were moderate and decision making was good Conclusion: Although nurses in ICUs perceive good decision making but suffered from moderate MD which affected their decision making. MD is still an important issue that nurses may face in ICUs Conclusion: Although nurses in ICUs perceive good decision making but suffered from moderate MD which affected the

The purpose of this research was to investigate the beneficial effects of phosphatidylcholine in reducing changes in both lipid and protein profiles in addition to atherogenic index in adult rats with fructose-induced metabolic syndrome. Thirty-six mature Wistar Albino female rats (Rattus norvegicus) (aged 12-15 weeks and weighing 200±10 g) were divided randomly into four groups (G1, G2, G3, and G4); then variable treatments were orally administered for 62 days as follows: G1 (Control group), received distilled water; G2, treated with phosphatidylcholine (PC) orally (1 g/kg BW); G3 (Fr), orally dosed with 40% fructose and 25% fructose mixed with drinking water; G4 (Fr+PC), were also intubated with 40% fr

Shatt al-Arab is the only navigational artery in Iraq, extending from the city of Qurna to its mouth in the Arabian Gulf at the city of Al-Fao within the governorate of Basrah for a length of approximately 204 km. Its width ranges from 400 m to 2000 m, and its depth ranges from 8 m to 20 m. The southern part of it, 93 km long from Umm al-Rassas Island to Ras al-Bisha, represents the international border between Iraq and Iran, where the Thalweg line represents the border between the two countries, which is the deepest point in the riverbed (according to the 1975 Algiers Agreement). The western bank (the Iraqi side) within the common border of Shatt al-Arab is subject to continuous erosion, which leads to the shifting of t

Abstract Background Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) is a widely used test for glycemic control. It is done for chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients. Renal disease is accompanied by thyroid abnormalities, which affect HbA1c, especially in those taking erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs). We aimed to find the effect of thyroid dysfunction on HbA1c in hemodialysis patients taking ESAs and those who do not. Materials and Method Fifty six patients were included in this study, which was done between September 2017 and June 2018, in Baghdad Teaching Hospital. Thyroid stimulating hormone, free T3, free T4 and HbA1c measurements were done. The patients were divided into 2 groups; those who took ESAs and those who did not, then they were subdivided into

        In this work, analytical study for simulating a Fabry-Perot bistable etalon (F-P cavity) filled with a dispersive optimized nonlinear optical material (Kerr type) such as semiconductors Indium Antimonide (InSb). Because of a trade off between the etalon finesse values and driving terms, an optimization procedures have been done on the InSb etalon/CO laser parameters, using critical switching irradiance (I_c) via simulation systems of optimization procedures of optical cavity. in order to achieve the  minimum switching power and faster switching time, the optimization parameters of the finesse values and driving terms on optical bistability and switching dynamics must be studied.