A ‘locking-bolt’ demountable shear connector (LBDSC) is proposed to facilitate the deconstruction and reuse of steel-concrete composite structures, in line with achieving a more sustainable construction design paradigm. The LBDSC is comprised of a grout-filled steel tube and a geometrically compatible partially threaded bolt. The latter has a geometry that ‘locks’ the bolt in compatible holes predrilled on the steel flange and eliminates initial slip and construction tolerance issues. The structural behaviour of the LBDSC is evaluated through nine pushout tests using a horizontal test setup. The effects of the tube thickness, strength of concrete slab, and strength of infilled grout on the shear resistance, initial stiffness, and ductility of the LBDSC are assessed. The experimental results show that the LBDSC can achieve higher shear resistance and similar initial stiffness as compared to traditional welded studs. In addition, all tested LBDSCs exhibited slip capacities ranging from 14 to 32 mm and can be classified as ductile shear connectors according to Eurocode 4. A detailed finite element model was also created and found to be reliable to reproduce the experimental behaviour. Parametric studies were subsequently conducted using the validated model to study further parameters and generalise the experimental results. Due to the specific test setup, non-negligible uplift forces were generated in the connector and the potential implications are discussed.
Vascular patterns were seen to be a probable identification characteristic of the biometric system. Since then, many studies have investigated and proposed different techniques which exploited this feature and used it for the identification and verification purposes. The conventional biometric features like the iris, fingerprints and face recognition have been thoroughly investigated, however, during the past few years, finger vein patterns have been recognized as a reliable biometric feature. This study discusses the application of the vein biometric system. Though the vein pattern can be a very appealing topic of research, there are many challenges in this field and some improvements need to be carried out. Here, the researchers reviewed
... Show MoreGroundwater modelling is particularly challenging in arid regions where limited water recharge is available. A fault zone will add a significant challenge to the modelling process. The Western Desert in Iraq has been chosen to implement the modelling concept and calculate the model sensitivity to the changes in aquifer hydraulic properties and calibration by researching 102 observations and irrigation wells. MODFLOW-NWT, which is a Newtonian formulation for MODFLOW-2005 approaches, have been used in this study. Further, the simulation run has been implemented using the Upstream-Weighting package (UPW) to treat the dry cells. The results show sensitivity to the change of the Kx value for the major groundwater discharge flow. Only abo
... Show MoreIbn al-Haytham is the pioneer of optics, which is a science that had described optics circumstances. Optics or landscape science as it was known by the Arab and Muslim scientists at the time when is a science known as the conditions of sighters in their quantity and quality as the proximity and distance from the beholder , the different forms , conditions and what mediate between the beholder and the microscopes , to explain useful knowledge of what obscures the sight of the conditions of sighters and is used to measure the space Distant criminality and mirrors.
Ibn al-Haitham wrote his famous book The Book of Mirrors and studied mistakes adopted the m
... Show MoreBackground: Urolithiasis and hypertension are prevalent and clinically significant conditions in the Middle East, both influenced by shared metabolic and environmental risk factors. Understanding the potential association between them is important for guiding prevention strategies. Objective: To explore the relationship between urolithiasis and hypertension in a sample of Iraqi adult patients. Methods: A cross-sectional observational study was conducted at Alkindy Teaching Hospital, Baghdad, from September 2024 to March 2025. Participants included 237 patients with confirmed urinary tract stones and 244 controls confirmed to be stone-free, matched for age and sex. Exclusion criteria included secondary hypertension, chronic kidney di
... Show MoreThe power generation of solar photovoltaic (PV) technology is being implemented in every nation worldwide due to its environmentally clean characteristics. Therefore, PV technology is significantly growing in the present applications and usage of PV power systems. Despite the strength of the PV arrays in power systems, the arrays remain susceptible to certain faults. An effective supply requires economic returns, the security of the equipment and humans, precise fault identification, diagnosis, and interruption tools. Meanwhile, the faults in unidentified arc lead to serious fire hazards to commercial, residential, and utility-scale PV systems. To ensure secure and dependable distribution of electricity, the detection of such ha
... Show MoreNumeral recognition is considered an essential preliminary step for optical character recognition, document understanding, and others. Although several handwritten numeral recognition algorithms have been proposed so far, achieving adequate recognition accuracy and execution time remain challenging to date. In particular, recognition accuracy depends on the features extraction mechanism. As such, a fast and robust numeral recognition method is essential, which meets the desired accuracy by extracting the features efficiently while maintaining fast implementation time. Furthermore, to date most of the existing studies are focused on evaluating their methods based on clean environments, thus limiting understanding of their potential a
... Show MoreThe experiment was aimed to evaluate a locally manufactured a dual-action device used for measuring feed pellets durability. The device performs dropping process in conventional devices, then sifting process to separate the pellets from the crumbles simultaneously, with a control the motor speed by using the pulse width modulation (PWM) Technique. The device performance was compared with the durability measuring device of a moving drop box. Rotational speed, diameter of the die holes of the machine was used in this study. The results showed that increasing the rotational speed of the die from 280 to 300 and to 320 rpm, increasing the die holes diameter from 3 to 4 and to 5 mm, led to
The research problem is to determine the nature of the historical relationship between the profession of social work and volunteer work. Consequently, the research aims to investigate the nature of this relationship from a socio-historical perspective. Three axes have been used to analyze this relationship: the role of voluntary work in the development of the social work as a profession, the efforts made by social work to reach professionism and to distinguish it from voluntary work, and the relationship between social work and voluntary work. The research is qualitative analytical research and adopts the Mixed Methods Research (MMR). It identifies some literature for the analysis and implementation of a scoping process. It represents a
... Show MoreOne of the prominent goals of Metrical Phonology Theory is providing stress of poetry on the syllable-, the foot-, and the phonological word- levels. Analysing poetry is one of the most prominent and controversial issues for the involved number and types of syllables, feet, and meters are stable in poetry compared to other literary texts. The prosodic seeds of the theory have been planted by Firth (1948) in English, while in Arabic يديهارفلا in the second half of the eighth century (A.D.) has done so. Investigating the metrical structure of poetry has been conducted in various languages, whereas scrutinising the metrical structure of English and Arabic poetry has received little attention. This study aims at capturing the
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