Mosquitoes like Culex quinquefasciatus are the primary vector that transmits many causes of diseases such as filariasis, Japanese encephalitis, and West Nile virus, in many countries around the world. The development in the scientific fields, such as nanotechnology, leads to use this technique in control programs of insects including mosquitoes through the use of green synthesis of nanoemulsions based on plant products such as castor oil. Castor oil nanoemulsion was formulated in various ratios comprising of castor oil, ethanol, tween 80, and deionized water by ultrasonication. Thermodynamic assay improved that the formula of (10 ml) of castor oil, ethanol (5ml), tween 80 (14 ml) and deionized water (71ml) was more stable than other formulas. The formulated castor oil nanoemulsion was characterized by transmitting electron microscopy and dynamic light scattering. Nanoemulsion droplets were spherical in shape and found to have a Z-average diameter of 93 nm. A concentration of castor oil nanoemulsion (250, 350, 450, and 550 ppm) was tested as larvicidal agents and bulk emulsion (1000, 1500, 2000, and 2500 ppm) was tested also and compared against the fourth instar larvae. Our nanoemulsion showed higher activity when compared to bulk emulsion. LC50 for castor oil nanoemulsion and castor bulk emulsion were found to be 268.21 and 409.37ppm after 72 h, respectively. The biochemical assays were carried out to examine the effect of castor oil nanoemulsion on biochemical characteristics of larvae. The treated larval homogenate showed inhibition in the activity of acetylcholinesterase.
For more than a decade, externally bonded carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites successfully utilized in retrofitting reinforced concrete structural elements. The function of CFRP reinforcement in increasing the ductility of reinforced concrete (RC) beam is essential in such members. Flexural and shear behaviors, ductility, and confinement were the main studied properties that used the CFRP as a strengthening material. However, limited attention has been paid to investigate the energy absorption of torsion strengthening of concrete members, especially two-span concrete beams. Hence, the target of this work is to investigate the effectiveness of CFRP-strengthening technique with regard to energy absorption of two-span RC
... Show MoreStatic loads exposing to mechanical components can cause cracks, which are lead to form stress concentration regions causing the failure of structure. Generally, from 80% to 90% of structure failure is due to initiation of the cracks. Therefore, it is necessary to repair the crack and reduce its effect on the structure where the effect of the crack is modelled as an additional flexibility to the structure. In the last few years, piezoelectric materials have been considered as one of the most favourable repairing techniques. The piezoelectric material converts the applied voltage on it to a bending moment to counter the bending moment caused by the external load on the beam at the crack location. In this study, the design of the piez
... Show MoreThe idea of using slender Reinforced Concrete (RC) columns with cross-shaped (+-shaped) instead of columns with square-shaped was discussed in this paper. The use of +-shaped columns provides many architectural and structural advantages, such as avoiding prominent columns edges and improved the structural response of member. Therefore, this study explores the structural response of slender +-shaped columns experimentally and numerically by nonlinear finite element analysis using Abaqus simulation tools. The results showed an excellent convergence in strength between numerical and test results with an average standard deviation of 0.05 and 0.07. Besides that, the use of +-shaped column
This paper studies the behavior of reinforced Reactive Powder Concrete (RPC) two-way slabs under static and repeated load. The experimental program included testing six simply supported RPC two-way slabs of 1000 mm length, 1000 mm width, and 70 mm thickness. All the tested specimens were identical in their material properties, and reinforcement details except their steel fibers content. They were cast in three pairs, each one had a different steel fibers ratio (0.5 %, 1 %, and 1.5 %) respectively. In each pair, one specimen was tested under static load and the other under five cycles of repeated load (loading-unloading). Static test results revealed that increasing steel fibres volume fraction from 0.5 % to 1 % and from 1% to 1.5%,
... Show MoreThe current study was conducted in the environment of the Martyr Monument Lake in the city center of Baghdad during 2019 to monitor the impact of climatic conditions such as drought, water shortage, high temperatures in the environment of the city and the lack of water flow during the years 2015 to 2018 and their effects on some of the physical and chemical factors of water and the dynamics of the phytoplankton community in the lake environment. Heterogeneity of some studied environmental factors, including air and water temperature, permeability, water depth, pH, DO, BOD5, nutrients, nitrate, NO3, and phosphates were found. The results showed the effect of climate change and the pres
In earthquake engineering problems, uncertainty exists not only in the seismic excitations but also in the structure's parameters. This study investigates the influence of structural geometry, elastic modulus, mass density, and section dimension uncertainty on the stochastic earthquake response of a multi-story moment resisting frame subjected to random ground motion. The North-south component of the Ali Gharbi earthquake in 2012, Iraq, is selected as ground excitation. Using the power spectral density function (PSD), the two-dimensional finite element model of the moment resisting frame's base motion is modified to account for random ground motion. The probabilistic study of the moment resisting frame structure using stochastic fin
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