To accommodate utilities in buildings, different sizes of openings are provided in the web of reinforced concrete deep beams, which cause reductions in the beam strength and stiffness. This paper aims to investigate experimentally and numerically the effectiveness of using carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) strips, as a strengthening technique, to externally strengthen reinforced concrete continuous deep beams (RCCDBs) with large openings. The experimental work included testing three RCCDBs under five-point bending. A reference specimen was prepared without openings to explore the reductions in strength and stiffness after providing large openings. Openings were created symmetrically at the center of spans of the other specimens to represent 40% of the overall beam depth. Moreover, finite elements (FE) analysis was validated using the experimental results to conduct a parametric study on RCCDBs strengthened with CFRP strips. The results confirmed reductions in the ultimate load by 21% and 7% for the un-strengthened and strengthened specimens, respectively, due to the large openings. Although the large openings caused reductions in capacities, the CFRP strips limited the deterioration by enhancing the specimen capacity by 17% relative to the un-strengthened one.
The application of ultrafiltration (UF) and nanofiltration (NF) processes in the handling of raw produced water have been investigated in the present study. Experiments of both ultrafiltration and nanofiltration processes are performed in a laboratory unit, which is operated in a cross-flow pattern. Various types of hollow fiber membranes were utilized in this study such as poly vinyl chloride (PVC) UF membrane, two different polyether sulfone (PES) NF membranes, and poly phenyl sulfone PPSU NF membrane. It was found that the turbidity of the treated water is higher than 95 % by using UF and NF membranes. The chemical oxygen demand COD (160 mg/l) and Oil content (26.8 mg/l) were found after treatment according to the allowable limits set
... Show MoreVoice Activity Detection (VAD) is considered as an important pre-processing step in speech processing systems such as speech enhancement, speech recognition, gender and age identification. VAD helps in reducing the time required to process speech data and to improve final system accuracy by focusing the work on the voiced part of the speech. An automatic technique for VAD using Fuzzy-Neuro technique (FN-AVAD) is presented in this paper. The aim of this work is to alleviate the problem of choosing the best threshold value in traditional VAD methods and achieves automaticity by combining fuzzy clustering and machine learning techniques. Four features are extracted from each speech segment, which are short term energy, zero-crossing rate, auto
... Show MoreNurse scheduling problem is one of combinatorial optimization problems and it is one of NP-Hard problems which is difficult to be solved as optimal solution. In this paper, we had created an proposed algorithm which it is hybrid simulated annealing algorithm to solve nurse scheduling problem, developed the simulated annealing algorithm and Genetic algorithm. We can note that the proposed algorithm (Hybrid simulated Annealing Algorithm(GS-h)) is the best method among other methods which it is used in this paper because it satisfied minimum average of the total cost and maximum number of Solved , Best and Optimal problems. So we can note that the ratios of the optimal solution are 77% for the proposed algorithm(GS-h), 28.75% for Si
... Show MoreThe computer vision branch of the artificial intelligence field is concerned with developing algorithms for analyzing video image content. Extracting edge information, which is the essential process in most pictorial pattern recognition problems. A new method of edge detection technique has been introduces in this research, for detecting boundaries.
Selection of typical lossy techniques for encoding edge video images are also discussed in this research. The concentration is devoted to discuss the Block-Truncation coding technique and Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) coding technique. In order to reduce the volume of pictorial data which one may need to store or transmit,
... Show MorePavement crack and pothole identification are important tasks in transportation maintenance and road safety. This study offers a novel technique for automatic asphalt pavement crack and pothole detection which is based on image processing. Different types of cracks (transverse, longitudinal, alligator-type, and potholes) can be identified with such techniques. The goal of this research is to evaluate road surface damage by extracting cracks and potholes, categorizing them from images and videos, and comparing the manual and the automated methods. The proposed method was tested on 50 images. The results obtained from image processing showed that the proposed method can detect cracks and potholes and identify their severity levels wit
... Show MoreWith the spread of global markets for modern technical education and the diversity of programs for the requirements of the local and global market for information and communication technology, the universities began to race among themselves to earn their academic reputation. In addition, they want to enhance their technological development by developing IMT systems with integrated technology as the security and fastest response with the speed of providing the required service and sure information and linking it The network and using social networking programs with wireless networks which in turn is a driver of the emerging economies of technical education. All of these facilities opened the way to expand the number of students and s
... Show MoreIt is found that hypersensitive teeth have a larger number and wider patent tubules than those of non-sensitive teeth. Objective: The aim of this study is to compare between the effects of diode laser at different power densities, with and without sodium fluoride on the sealing of exposed dentinal tubules and dentin permeability. Materials and methods: 118 teeth were used. Samples were divided into three major groups. The first consisted of 100 teeth used for permeability test. The second consisted of 16 teeth for measuring external surface temperature elevation while irradiation. The third, in turn, consisted of one pair of teeth observed under SEM for dentine surface morphology analysis. Results: For dentin permeability measurement, th
... Show MoreBackground: Rituximab is a chimeric IgG1 kappa immunoglobulin that has been genetically modified to incorporate human constant region sequences together with murine light- and heavy-chain variable region sequences. People use it to treat rheumatoid arthritis and certain malignancies. Objective: The study aimed to assess the potential association between the serum levels of Factor I, CD59, interleukins (IL)-6, and interferon-gamma (IFN)-γ and the response to Rituximab treatment in Iraqi rheumatoid arthritis patients. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at the rheumatology center at Baghdad Teaching Hospital. Ninety adult patients who have been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and are receiving Rituximab intravenous i
... Show MoreBackground: The liver is one of the most common organs
injured after blunt abdominal trauma. The control of severe
hemorrhage remains a problem.
Methods: One-hundred thirty-eight patients diagnosed as
liver injury between 09/2003 and 08/2006 had been evaluated
prospectively in Al- Kindy Teaching Hospital.
A distinction was made between hemodynamically stable and
unstable patients. Different modalities of surgical procedures
were done concentrating on perihepatic gauze packing.
Results: (60 out of 138) patients included in the study were
clinically evaluated as hemodynamically stable. The average
abbreviated injury severity score (ISS) was 25. Twenty
patients underwent abdominal surgery. In 12 of them
Objective: To find out the relationship between the bio-social aspect with cholelithiasis patients and
demographic characteristics in Baghdad city.
Methodology: A purposive (non-probability) sample of (100) patients, from (20-70) years old, who were
selected from patients who were admitted to hospital at preoperative stage, from Gastroenterology and
Hepatology Hospital, Baghdad Teaching Hospital, Al-Yarmook Teaching Hospital, Al-Karama Teaching
Hospital, Teaching Hospital. A descriptive study was carried out from 25th of June 2004 to the end of October
2004.
An assessment form was constructed for the purpose of the study. Test-retest reliability was employed through
computation of Pearson correlation coefficient.