Many undergraduate learners at English departments who study English as a foreign language are unable to speak and use language correctly in their post -graduate careers. This problem can be attributed to certain difficulties, which they faced throughout their education years that hinder their endeavors to learn. Therefore, this study aims to discover the main difficulties faced by EFL students in language learning and test the difficulty variable according to gender and college variables then find suitable solutions for enhancing learning. A questionnaire with 15 items and 5 scales were used to help in discovering the difficulties. The questionnaire was distributed to the selected sample of study which consists of 90 (male and female) students selected randomly from the 3rd and 4th year class levels at English departments from colleges of Languages and Education (Ibn-Rushd) at the University of Baghdad. The results of the study showed that EFL students face difficulties in language learning such as the role of society in discouraging English language learning, the learners’ shyness, which prevents them from speaking English in fear of making mistakes, lack of motivation, and the influence of class size and crowdedness. After analyzing the results, some recommendations and suggestions were presented to solve the problem and eliminate difficulties.
Indium oxide In2O3 thin films fabricated using thermal evaporation of indium metal in vacuum on a glass substrate at 25oC using array mask, after deposition the indium films have been subjected to thermal oxidation at temperature 400 °C for 1h. The results of prepared Indium oxide reveal the oxidation method as a strong effect on the morphology and optical properties of the samples as fabricated. The band gap (Eg) of In2O3 films at 400 °C is 2.7 eV. Then, SEM and XRD measurements are also used to investigate the morphology and structure of the indium oxide In2O3 thin films. The antimicrobial activity of indium oxide In2O3 thin films was assessed against gram-negative bacterium using inhibition zone of bacteria which improved higher ina
... Show MoreIn this work, the copper metal was treated using Nd:YAG laser with energy 1Joul to enhance corrosion resistance and improve surface properties. The copper metal has many applications in industry as well as water, oil and gas pipes. The same conditions, (laser power density, scan speed, distance between paths, medium gas-air) were applied in the laser surface treatment, After laser treatment, the samples microstructures were investigated using optical microscope (OM) to examine micro structural changes due to laser irradiation. Specimen surfaces were investigated using atomic force microscopy (AFM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), macro hardness, and corrosion test before and after laser treatment to
... Show MoreThe most universal and basic damages caused by an earthquakes are buildings damage and human casualties. A simplified method, the RADIUS 99 Tool is used to calculate seismic intensity (shaking) distribution, buildings damage, number of casualties and lifelines damage, due to assumed earthquake scenario. In this study, Al - Kadhmiya sector in Baghdad city was chosen for assessing seismic risk, for this purpose, this area was divided into mesh of 1*1 km2 cell size, and a scenario of (Manjil) earthquake (that struck Iran in 1990) was utilized with following earthquake magnitudes (5 and 7), with epicenter distance (3, 10 and 100 km), and depths (2 and 5 km). It was found that, the best soil types for constructions are those with medium and h
... Show MoreUltrasound has been used as a diagnostic modality for many intraocular diseases, due its safety, low cost, real time and wide availability. Unfortunately, ultrasound images suffer from speckle artifact that are tissue dependent. In this work, we will offer a method to reduce speckle noise and improve ultrasound image to raise the human diagnostic performance. This method combined undecimated wavelet transform with a wavelet coefficient mapping function: where UDWT used to eliminate the noise and a wavelet coefficient mapping function used to enhance the contrast of denoised images obtained from the first component. This methods can be used not only as a means for improving visual quality of medical images but also as a preprocessing
... Show MoreBackground: Polyetheretherketone (PEEK) is a promising implant material due to its superior biomechanical strength. However, due to its hydrophobic nature and lack of cellular adhesion properties, it has poor integration with bone tissue. Methods: A fractional CO2 laser was used with various parameters for surface texturing of PEEK substrate to enhance its surface properties. An optical microscope and field-emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) were used to examine the surface morphology of untextured and laser-textured samples. Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) was performed to determine the effect of the laser on the microstructure of PEEK. Surface microroughness, atomic force microscopy (AFM), and wettability were invest
... Show MoreAlumina thin films have significant applications in the areas of optoelectronics, optics, electrical insulators, sensors and tribology. The novel aspect of this work is that the homogeneous alumina thin films were prepared in several stages to generate a plasma jet. In this paper, aluminium nanoparticles suspended in vinyl alcohol were prepared using exploding wire plasma. TEM analysis was used to determine the size and shape of particles in aluminium and vinyl alcohol suspensions; the TEM images showed that the particle size is 17.2 nm. Aluminium/poly vinyl alcohol (Al/PVA) thin films were prepared using this suspension on quartz substrate by plasma jet technique at room temperature with an argon gas flow rate of 1 L/min. The Al/PV
... Show MorePseudomonas aeruginosa, a ubiquitous environmental organism, is a difficult-to-treat opportunistic pathogen due to its broad-spectrum antibiotic resistance and its ability to form biofilms. In this study, we investigate the link between resistance to a clinically important antibiotic, imipenem, and biofilm formation. First, we observed that the laboratory strain P. aeruginosa PAO1 carrying a mutation in the oprD gene, which confers resistance to imipenem, showed a modest reduction in biofilm formation.We also observed an inverse relationship between imipenem resistance and biofilm formation for imipenem-resistant strains selected in vitro, as well as for clinical isolates.We identified two clinical isolates of P. aeruginosa from the sputum
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