The study focused on examining the behavior of six concrete beams that were reinforced with glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) bars to evaluate their performance in terms of their load-carrying capacity, deflection, and other mechanical properties. The experimental investigation would provide insights into the feasibility and effectiveness of GFRP bars as an alternative to traditional reinforcement materials like steel bars in concrete structures. The GFRP bars were used in both the longitudinal and transverse directions. Each beam in the study shared the following specifications: an overall length of 2,400 mm, a clear span of 2,100 mm, and a rectangular cross-section measuring 300 mm in width and 250 mm in depth. To apply loads for testing, two-point static loads were placed at the middle third of the beam’s span, creating a shear span of 700 mm in length. The beams were categorized into three groups depending on the GFRP longitudinal reinforcement ratio in the tension and compression zones of the section. GFRP bars with a diameter of 15 mm were employed as longitudinal reinforcement, while closed GFRP stirrups with a diameter of 8 mm at 100 mm were utilized as transverse reinforcement throughout the structural element. Test results have indicated that the ultimate load capacity of doubly GFRP-reinforced concrete beams varies compared to singly GFRP-reinforced beams. The range of variation observed is between an increase of 8% and a decrease of 4%. Accordingly, the contribution of the GFRP bars in the compression zone is insignificant and could be ignored in design calculations. It was observed that the loading level at which crack spacing stabilized ranged between 31.3 and 87% of the experimental failure load. It seems that the crack spacing decreased with the increase in the reinforcement ratio.
Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is one of the autoimmune disorders, generated by a production of specific autoantibodies against self-antigens before the occurrence of clinical symptoms. The etiology of disease is still unknown, although there have been several infectious agents that have been associated with SLE development, especially in genetically predisposed individuals. Herpes simplex virus-I and -II (HSV-I and -II) and Toxoplasma gondiiare two infectious agents that have been suggested to be involved in SLE etiology. Accordingly, the present study assessed anti- HSV-I and -II and anti-T. gondii IgG and IgM antibodies by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay in sera of 64 SLE female patients and 32 healthy control women. The patients w
... Show MoreDrug hypersensitivity involves the activation of T cells in an HLA allele–restricted manner. Because the majority of individuals who carry HLA risk alleles do not develop hypersensitivity, other parameters must control development of the drug-specific T cell response. Thus, we have used a T cell–priming assay and nitroso sulfamethoxazole (SMX-NO) as a model Ag to investigate the activation of specific TCR Vβ subtypes, the impact of programmed death -1 (PD-1), CTL-associated protein 4 (CTLA4), and T cell Ig and mucin domain protein-3 (TIM-3) coinhibitory signaling on activation of naive and memory T cells, and the ability of regulatory T cells (Tregs) to prevent responses. An expa
The aim of this study was to determine the influence of feeding diets containing different levels of sesame seeds and oil on the egg quality of laying quail. A total of 120, 10 weeks old, were randomly assigned to 1 of 5 dietary groups and fed for 12 weeks diets containing 0% sesame seeds + 0% sesame oil (control group; C) or 0.5% sesame oil (T1), 1% sesame oil (T2), 1% sesame seeds (T3), and 2% sesame seeds (T4).The study was terminated when the birds were 22 weeks of age. Egg quality characteristics involved in the present study were egg weight, yolk diameter, yolk height, yolk weight, albumen height, albumen weight,Haugh unit, shell weight, shell thickness, shell percentage, yolk percentage, and albumen percentage. The addition of sesame
... Show MoreThere is no doubt that Agricultural Policy is the main responsible for the degrading in Agricultural sector in Iraq during the period 2003-2013, and that was very clear from magnitude of indicators because of little sharing of each of agricultural product in GDP because it was (9.38%) in average during the study period and the annual changing of it was negative (-5.82%), and there is increasing in deficit of trade balance in Agriculture during the study period about (4185.73) million US$, and the percentage of agricultural exports from total exports was (0.14%) in average only. The foreign trade policy in Agricultural products also cannot determine map of Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) of Agricultural products and crops. The study sh
... Show MoreTwo years field experiment was carried out at Agricultural Fields, College of Agriculture, Baghdad University, Al-Jadriya during 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 to determine the effect of salinity of irrigation water on growth and grain yield of three oat cultivars. The experiments were laid out according to randomized complete blocks design having split plot arrangements with two factors; first factor included three oat cultivars (Shifaa, Hamel and Pimula) while the second factor included three levels of salinity of irrigation water (3, 6 and 9 dS.m-1 ) in addition to the control (river water with salinity level of 1.164 dS.m-1 ) with three replicates. Results revealed a significant effect of salinity of irrigation water on all studied traits. Mea
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