Climate change, together with terrorism, economic depressions, and mass-destructive weaponry, is a source of international phobia for many people. The advancement in technology increases the competition among world powers and economic systems to develop their industrial enterprises. The smoke that emits from the factories, the pollution caused by the industrial projects, the excessive use of green gas result in the increase of global warming and have catastrophic effects on the ecosphere of the planet. Besides, man’s wrong practices even in agricultural matters are exhausting the natural resources of the lands, and they badly affect the ecological diversity and the wellbeing of the humans and non-humans alike. Contemporary feminist writers treat this international crisis as a priority and start to devote their writings to address ecological issues. These eco-feminists believe that their suffering from patriarchal oppression is not different from man’s exploitation of nature. Through their ecological activism, they endeavor to protect the environment and the planet from the selfish practices of the industrial companies. Barbra Kingsolver is one of the early pioneers of this emerging fictional subgenre. As previous studies of her works focus on individual novels, this study is an evaluation of her contribution to eco-feminist fiction in three major works: Animals Dream, Prodigal Summer, and Flight Behavior.
The unstable and uncertain nature of natural rubber prices makes them highly volatile and prone to outliers, which can have a significant impact on both modeling and forecasting. To tackle this issue, the author recommends a hybrid model that combines the autoregressive (AR) and Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity (GARCH) models. The model utilizes the Huber weighting function to ensure the forecast value of rubber prices remains sustainable even in the presence of outliers. The study aims to develop a sustainable model and forecast daily prices for a 12-day period by analyzing 2683 daily price data from Standard Malaysian Rubber Grade 20 (SMR 20) in Malaysia. The analysis incorporates two dispersion measurements (I
... Show MoreThe numerical analysis was conducted to studying the influence of length to diameter ratio (L/D) on the behavior of the soil treated with sand columns treated with 8% sodium silicate for both floating and end bearing type by using finite element method (Plaxis 3D Foundation ) for isolated foundation of real dimensions. The analysis’s study indicate that in the floating type the best improvement ratio was achieved at (L/D=8) when using columns with a diameter of (0.5, 0.7), but when using columns with a diameter of 0.3 m, it was noticed that the bearing improvement ratio increases with increasing (L/d). While the results of the analysis for end bearing type show that the higher improvement ratio was achieved at (L/D=4) when using columns w
... Show MoreStudies from our laboratory have shown that Δ9-Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), an ingredient found in marijuana plant Cannabis sativa, can attenuate acute lung injury induced by Staphylococcus enterotoxin B (SEB). In the current study, we investigated the role of THC on the metabolism of SEB-activated lymphocytes. To this end, we determined metabolic potential of SEB-activated lymphocytes treated with vehicle or THC by performing the Cell Mito Stress Test. The oxygen consumption rate (OCR) in THC-treated cells was decreased when compared to vehicle-treated group whereas the extracellular acidification rate (ECAR) was similar in both the groups. Specifically, electron transport chain inhi
Gas lift is one of the artificial lift techniques which it is frequently implemented to raise oil production. Conventionally, the oil wells produce depending on the energy of reservoir pressure and solution gas which declines due to continuous production. Therefore, many oil wells after a certain production time become unable to lift oil to the surface. Thus, the continuity of production requires implementation of gas lift which works to decrease the average fluid density in the tubing by injection gas through the annulus into the tubing. This paper aims to get maximum oil production of an Iraqi giant oil field at optimum injected gas rate. The field is located in south of Iraq and in
This paper discusses a comparative study to relate parametric and non-parametric mode decomposition algorithms for response-only data. Three popular mode decomposition algorithms are included in this study: the Eigensystem Realization Algorithm with the Natural Excitation Technique (NExT-ERA) for the parametric algorithm, as well as the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and the Independent Component Analysis (ICA) for the non-parametric algorithms. A comprehensive parametric study is provided for (i) different response types, (ii) excitation types, (iii) system damping, and (iv) sensor spatial resolution to compare the mode shapes and modal coordinates of using a 10-DOF building model. The mode decomposition results are also compared using
... Show MoreThe immune infertility caused by anti-sperm antibodies (ASAs) represented about 10–20% of infertility among the couples. The ASAs interfere with sperm parameters such as sperm motility and sperm ability to penetrate cervical mucus, sperm-oocyte binding, and fertilization and embryo development. Objectives: The present study designed to assess semen analysis, presence of ASAs and DNA fragmentation index as well as correlation within these parameters in normzoospermic Iraqi subjects Patients, Materials, and Methods: A total number of Iraqi subjects (116) with range of age (20-51) years and their mean duration of infertility (4.70 ± 2.77). Seminal fluid for macroscopic and microscopic assessments done according to WHO 2010 criteria. The
... Show MoreAn experimental program was conducted to determine the residual of composite Steel Beams-Reinforced Concrete (SB-RC) deck floors fabricated from a rolled steel beam topped with a reinforced concrete slab, exposed to high temperatures (fire flame) of 300, 500, and 700ºC for 1 hour, and then allowed to cool down by leaving them in the lab condition to return to the ambient temperature. The burning results showed that, by exposing them to a fire flame of up to 300ºC, no serious permanent deflection occurred. It was also noticed that the specimen recovered 93% of 19.2 mm of the deflection caused by burning. The recovered deflection of burned composite SB-RC deck floor at 500ºC was 40% of 77.9 mm of the deflection caused by burning with a res
... Show MoreAbiotic stress-induced genes may lead to understand the response of plants and adaptability to salinity and drought stresses. Differential display reverse transcriptase – polymerase chain reaction (DDRT-PCR) was used to investigate the differences in gene expression between drought- and salinity-stressed plantlets of Ruta graveolens. Direct and stepwise exposures to drought- or salt-responsive genes were screened in R. graveolens plantlets using the DDRT technique. Gene expression was investigated both in the control and in the salt or drought-stressed plantlets and differential banding patterns with different molecular sizes were observed using the primers OPA-01 (646,770 and 983 pb), OPA-08 (593 and 988 pb), OPA-11 (674 and 831 pb
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