Flexible pavement design and analysis were carried out in the past with semi-experimental methods, using elastic characteristics of pavement layers. Due to the complex interferences between various layers and their time consumption, the traditional pavement analysis, and design methods were replaced with fast and powerful methods including the Finite Element Method (FEM) and the Discrete Element Method (DEM). FEM requires less computational power and is more appropriate for continuous environments. In this study, flexible pavement consisting of 5 layers (surface, binder, base, subbase, and subgrade) had been analyzed using FEM. The ABAQUS (6.14-2) software had been utilized to investigate the influence of the base layer depth on vertical stresses and displacements. Three different thicknesses were adopted (10, 20, and 30cm) with constant other pavement layer thicknesses. The results of this study showed that the stress levels at the top of the base layer increased by about 37% when the thickness of this layer increased from 10cm to 30cm, while the stress levels at the top of the subbase layer decreased by about 64%. When the base layer increased from 10 to 20, from 20 to 30, and from 10 to 30cm the vertical displacement decreased by 18%, 24%, and 37% respectively.
Introduction: Syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease, that may be transferred from mothers to infants during pregnancy if it is left untreated. Method: This study was conducted among 65 women who suffered from recurrent abortions in Iraq. Syphilis screening recombinant (IgM + IgG) level by ELISA, RADIM (Italy) and rapid plasma reagin (RPR) (positive and negative results) tests were used to analyse the data. Results: A non-significant association was observed with age (p=0.989), and the number of healthy births (p=0.643). Non-significant differences were observed in comparisons between smoker and non-smoker percentages in the study group. The rapid test for syphilis confirmation was applied using Rapid Plasma Reagin (RPR) tests.
... Show MoreBackground: This in vitro study was carried out to evaluate the effects of various veneering dentin ceramic thicknesses and repeated firings on the color of lithium disilicate glass-ceramic (IPS e.max Press) and zirconium-oxide (IPS ZirCAD) all-ceramic systems, measured by clinical spectrophotometers (Easyshade Advance 4.0) . Materials and methods: The 72specimens cube-shaped have the dimension of about 11 mm in width, 14 mm in length, 1mm in thickness, these cores divided into 3 groups according to the type of material each group have (24)core specimens. Each group had been divided into three sub-groups (each having 8 specimens) according to veneering with dentin ceramic thicknesses: as 0.5, 1, or 2 mm (n=8). IPS e.max press and ZirCAD c
... Show MoreThe flexible joint robot manipulators provide various benefits, but also present many control challenges such as nonlinearities, strong coupling, vibration, etc. This paper proposes optimal second order integral sliding mode control (OSOISMC) for a single link flexible joint manipulator to achieve robust and smooth performance. Firstly, the integral sliding mode control is designed, which consists of a linear quadratic regulator (LQR) as a nominal control, and switching control. This control guarantees the system robustness for the entire process. Then, a nonsingularterminal sliding surface is added to give a second order integral sliding mode control (SOISMC), which reduces chartering effect and gives the finite time convergence as well. S
... Show MoreThis article presents a new cascaded extended state observer (CESO)-based sliding-mode control (SMC) for an underactuated flexible joint robot (FJR). The control of the FJR has many challenges, including coupling, underactuation, nonlinearity, uncertainties and external disturbances, and the noise amplification especially in the high-order systems. The proposed control integrates the CESO and SMC, in which the CESO estimates the states and disturbances, and the SMC provides the system robustness to the uncertainty and disturbance estimation errors. First, a dynamic model of the FJR is derived and converted from an underactuated form to a canonical form via the Olfati transformation and a flatness approach, which reduces the complexity of th
... Show MoreTrajectory tracking and vibration suppression are essential objectives in a flexible joint manipulator control. The flexible joint manipulator is an under-actuated system, in which the number of control actions is less than the degree of freedom to be controlled. It is very challenging to control the underactuated nonlinear system with two degree of freedom. This paper presents a hierarchical sliding mode control (HSMC) for a rotary flexible joint manipulator (RFJM). Firstly, the rotary flexible joint manipulator is modeled by two subsystems. Secondly, the sliding surfaces for both subsystems are constructed. Finally, the control action is designed based on the Lyapunov function. Computer simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of
... Show MoreBackground:Open reduction and internal fixation (ORIF) of using miniplates and screws is the treatment of choice of mandibular fractures. It is important to know both: the region where the bone providesafirm anchorage, andthe topography of the dental apices and inferior alveolar nerve to avoiddamaging them when inserting the screw. The aim of this study is to determine the thickness of buccal cortical plate and that of buccal bone at the parasymphysis and mandibular body, thereby determining the area that provide afirm anchorage and the maximum length of mono-cortical screws that can be safely placed in these regions without injuring the tooth roots or mandibular nerve. Materials and Methods:The sample of the present study was 110 Iraqi sub
... Show MoreOrganic Permeable Base Transistors (OPBTs) reach a very high transit frequency and large on-state currents. However, for a later commercial application of this technology, a high operational stability is essential as well. Here, the stability of OPBTs during continuous cycling and during base bias stress is discussed. It is observed that the threshold voltage of these transistors shifts toward more positive base voltages if stressed by applying a constant potential to the base electrode for prolonged times. With the help of a 2D device simulation, it is proposed that the observed instabilities are due to charges that are trapped on top of an oxide layer formed around the base electrode. These charges are thermally released after rem
... Show MoreCuAlTe2 thin films were evaporation on glass substrates using the technique of thermal evaporation at different range of thickness (200,300,400and500) ±2nm. The structures of these films were investigated by X-ray diffraction method; showing that films possess a good crystalline in tetragonal structure. AFM showed that the grain size increased from (70.55-99.40) nm and the roughness increased from (2.08-3.65) nm by increasing the thickness from (200-500) nm. The optical properties measurements, such as absorbance, transmtance, reflectance, and optical constant as a function of wavelength showed that the direct energy gap decreased from (2.4-2.34) eV by the gain of the thickness.