Concrete is the main construction material of many structures. Exposing to loads creates cracks in concrete, which reduce the performance and durability. The decrease of concrete cracks becomes a necessity demand to ensure more durability and structural integrity of the concrete structure. Autogenous healing concrete is a kind of new smart concretes, which has the ability to reclose its cracks by means of itself. Concrete self-healing is a type of free repairs processes, which is reduce direct and indirect cost of maintenance and repairing. This work targets to inspect the mechanical properties of concrete after using two combinations of two materials (20 kg/m3 calcium hydroxide Ca(OH)2 and 2 kg/m3 sodium carbonate Na2CO3 and 30 kg/m3 calcium hydroxide and 3 kg/m3 sodium carbonate) as a partial replacement of cement to work as self-healing agents. The paper reports and study the compressive, flexural and splitting tensile strengths and ultrasonic pulse velocity tests’ results at 7, 28 and 90 days of concrete age. Use of two combinations of calcium hydroxide and sodium carbonate, as healing agents, enhanced the mechanical properties of concrete and reduced the width of concrete cracks with time. The concrete compressive strength was increased after curing for 90 days by 9.3 and 11.1 %, respectively. The flexural strength was improved by 14.3 and 15.9 %, respectively. Also, the splitting tensile strength was enhanced by 6.9 and 9.3 %, respectively.
Objective(s): The aim of this study is to assess the impact of social phobia upon self-esteem of nursing
collegians.
Methodology: A Cross-sectional study is carried out at University of Baghdad, Karkuk, Thi-Qar, and Kufa,
colleges of nursing from Feb 8
th
, 2011 to Sep. 25th, 2011. A sample of all first class nursing collegians (N=330)
were selected from a probability sample of nursing colleges by dividing Iraq to three geographical areas (South,
North, and Middle Euphrates) in addition to Baghdad. The data were collected through the use of selfadministered
technique as a mean for data collection, by using a questionnaire that consists of three parts:
First part was the socio-demographic data form; the second o
This study aims to enhance the RC5 algorithm to improve encryption and decryption speeds in devices with limited power and memory resources. These resource-constrained applications, which range in size from wearables and smart cards to microscopic sensors, frequently function in settings where traditional cryptographic techniques because of their high computational overhead and memory requirements are impracticable. The Enhanced RC5 (ERC5) algorithm integrates the PKCS#7 padding method to effectively adapt to various data sizes. Empirical investigation reveals significant improvements in encryption speed with ERC5, ranging from 50.90% to 64.18% for audio files and 46.97% to 56.84% for image files, depending on file size. A substanti
... Show MoreThis paper presents a combination of enhancement techniques for fingerprint images affected by different type of noise. These techniques were applied to improve image quality and come up with an acceptable image contrast. The proposed method included five different enhancement techniques: Normalization, Histogram Equalization, Binarization, Skeletonization and Fusion. The Normalization process standardized the pixel intensity which facilitated the processing of subsequent image enhancement stages. Subsequently, the Histogram Equalization technique increased the contrast of the images. Furthermore, the Binarization and Skeletonization techniques were implemented to differentiate between the ridge and valley structures and to obtain one
... Show More: Sound forecasts are essential elements of planning, especially for dealing with seasonality, sudden changes in demand levels, strikes, large fluctuations in the economy, and price-cutting manoeuvres for competition. Forecasting can help decision maker to manage these problems by identifying which technologies are appropriate for their needs. The proposal forecasting model is utilized to extract the trend and cyclical component individually through developing the Hodrick–Prescott filter technique. Then, the fit models of these two real components are estimated to predict the future behaviour of electricity peak load. Accordingly, the optimal model obtained to fit the periodic component is estimated using spectrum analysis and Fourier mod
... Show MorePreserving and saving energy have never been more important, thus the requirement for more effective and efficient heat exchangers has never been more important. However, in order to pave the way for the proposal of a truly efficient technique, there is a need to understand the shortcomings and strengths of various aspects of heat transfer techniques. This review aims to systematically identify these characteristics two of the most popular passive heat transfer techniques: nanofluids and helically coiled tubes. The review indicated that nanoparticles improve thermal conductivity of base fluid and that the nanoparticle size, as well as the concentrations of the nanoparticles plays a major role in the effectiveness of the nanofluids.
... Show MoreA growing and pressing need for Speech Enhancement Algorithms (SEAs) has emerged with the proliferation of hearing devices and mobile devices that aim to improve speech intelligibility without sacrificing speech quality. Recently, a tremendous number of studies have been conducted in the field of speech enhancement. This study aims to map the field of speech enhancement by conducting a systematic literature review to provide comprehensive details of recently proposed SEAs. This systematic review aims to highlight research trends in SEAs and direct researchers to the most important topics published between 2015 and 2024. It attempts to address seven key research questions related to this topic. Moreover, it covers articles available
... Show MoreRock mechanical properties are critical parameters for many development techniques related to tight reservoirs, such as hydraulic fracturing design and detecting failure criteria in wellbore instability assessment. When direct measurements of mechanical properties are not available, it is helpful to find sufficient correlations to estimate these parameters. This study summarized experimentally derived correlations for estimating the shear velocity, Young's modulus, Poisson's ratio, and compressive strength. Also, a useful correlation is introduced to convert dynamic elastic properties from log data to static elastic properties. Most of the derived equations in this paper show good fitting to measured data, while some equations show scatters
... Show MoreThis paper has investigated experimentally the dynamic buckling behavior of AISI 303 stainless steel Aluminized and as received long columns. These columns, hot-dip aluminized and as received, are tested under dynamic buckling, 22 specimens, without aluminizing (type 1), and 50 specimens, with hot-dip aluminizing at different aluminizing conditions of dipping temperature and dipping time (type 2), are tested under dynamic compression loading and under dynamic combined loading (compression and bending) by using a rotating buckling test machine. The experimental results are compared with Perry Robertson interaction formula that used for long columns. Greenhill formula is used to get a mathematical model that descripts the buckling behavior
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