This article presents the results of an experimental investigation of using carbon fiber–reinforced polymer sheets to enhance the behavior of reinforced concrete deep beams with large web openings in shear spans. A set of 18 specimens were fabricated and tested up to a failure to evaluate the structural performance in terms of cracking, deformation, and load-carrying capacity. All tested specimens were with 1500-mm length, 500-mm cross-sectional deep, and 150-mm wide. Parameters that studied were opening size, opening location, and the strengthening factor. Two deep beams were implemented as control specimens without opening and without strengthening. Eight deep beams were fabricated with openings but without strengthening, while the other eight deep beams were with openings in shear spans and with carbon fiber–reinforced polymer sheet strengthening around opening zones. The opening size was adopted to be 200 × 200 mm dimensions in eight deep beams, while it was considered to be 230 × 230 mm dimensions in the other eight specimens. In eight specimens the opening was located at the center of the shear span, while in the other eight beams the opening was attached to the interior edge of the shear span. Carbon fiber–reinforced polymer sheets were installed around openings to compensate for the cutout area of concrete. Results gained from the experimental test showed that the creation of openings in shear spans affect the load-carrying capacity, where the reduction of the failure load for specimens with the opening but without strengthening may attain 66% compared to deep beams without openings. On the other hand, the strengthening by carbon fiber–reinforced polymer sheets for beams with openings increased the failure load by 20%–47% compared with the identical deep beam without strengthening. A significant contribution of carbon fiber–reinforced polymer sheets in restricting the deformability of deep beams was observed.
PPSU hollow fiber nanofiltration membranes are prepared by applying two concentrations and various extrusion pressures according to the phase inversion method. Cross-sectional area and outer structures were characterized by using scanning electron microscope (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). In additional to the pore size distribution, either the mean roughness or the mean pore size of the PPSU hollow fiber surfaces was evaluated by AFM. It was found that the morphology of the PPSU fibers had both sponge-like and finger-like structures through different extrusion pressures and PPSU concentrations. The mean pore size and mean roughness for inner and outer surfaces were seen to be decreased with the increase of extrusion pressure at
... Show MorePhotonic Crystal Fiber Interferometers (PCFIs) are greatly used
for sensing applications. This work presents the fabrication and
characterization of a relative humidity sensor based on Mach-
Zehnder Interferometer (MZI), which operates in reflection mode.
The humidity sensor operation based on the adsorption and
desorption of water vapour at the silica-air interface within the PCF.
The fabrication of this sensor is simple, it only includes splicing and
cleaving the PCF with SMF.PCF (LMA-10) with a certain length
spliced to SMF (Corning-28).
The spectrum of PCFI exhibits good sensitivity to humidity
variations. The PCFI response is observed for a range of humidity
values from (27% RH to 85% RH), the positi
Monaural source separation is a challenging issue due to the fact that there is only a single channel available; however, there is an unlimited range of possible solutions. In this paper, a monaural source separation model based hybrid deep learning model, which consists of convolution neural network (CNN), dense neural network (DNN) and recurrent neural network (RNN), will be presented. A trial and error method will be used to optimize the number of layers in the proposed model. Moreover, the effects of the learning rate, optimization algorithms, and the number of epochs on the separation performance will be explored. Our model was evaluated using the MIR-1K dataset for singing voice separation. Moreover, the proposed approach achi
... Show MoreThe rapid rise in the use of artificially generated faces has significantly increased the risk of identity theft in biometric authentication systems. Modern facial recognition technologies are now vulnerable to sophisticated attacks using printed images, replayed videos, and highly realistic 3D masks. This creates an urgent need for advanced, reliable, and mobile-compatible fake face detection systems. Research indicates that while deep learning models have demonstrated strong performance in detecting artificially generated faces, deploying these models on consumer mobile devices remains challenging due to limitations in computing power, memory, privacy, and processing speed. This paper highlights several key challenges: (1) optimiz
... Show MoreEstimating an individual's age from a photograph of their face is critical in many applications, including intelligence and defense, border security and human-machine interaction, as well as soft biometric recognition. There has been recent progress in this discipline that focuses on the idea of deep learning. These solutions need the creation and training of deep neural networks for the sole purpose of resolving this issue. In addition, pre-trained deep neural networks are utilized in the research process for the purpose of facial recognition and fine-tuning for accurate outcomes. The purpose of this study was to offer a method for estimating human ages from the frontal view of the face in a manner that is as accurate as possible and takes
... Show MoreErosion and deposition are natural phenomena in the river estuaries that could be presented as a dynamic process involving removing materials from one location and accumulating these materials at other locations. These two phenomena may cause changes in waterways and affect offshore structures. The Shatt Al-Arab River Estuary, Iraq was greatly affected by these two phenomena, and topography changes occurred. Velocity profiles and bed shear stress can be used as indicators to identify the erosion and deposition locations. Large-scale roughness elements proved to make beneficial changes in the hydraulic properties of open channels. They can create desirable effects to control erosion
Background/objectives: Inflammatory mediators such as prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and nitric oxide (NO) are key indicators of pulp response to mechanical trauma. However, the influence of cavity depth on their release dynamics remains unclear. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of different cavity depths—moderate (without pulp exposure) and deep (with pulp exposure)—on the release of PGE2 and NO in the pulp tissue of rat mandibular incisors at two time intervals (3 and 9 h).Methods: In total, 40 male Wistar rats were divided into two main groups (n = 20) based on cavity depth. A split-mouth design was used, with cavities of different depths prepared on the left mandibular incisors, leaving the right incisors without cavities as
... Show MoreOne of the diseases on a global scale that causes the main reasons of death is lung cancer. It is considered one of the most lethal diseases in life. Early detection and diagnosis are essential for lung cancer and will provide effective therapy and achieve better outcomes for patients; in recent years, algorithms of Deep Learning have demonstrated crucial promise for their use in medical imaging analysis, especially in lung cancer identification. This paper includes a comparison between a number of different Deep Learning techniques-based models using Computed Tomograph image datasets with traditional Convolution Neural Networks and SequeezeNet models using X-ray data for the automated diagnosis of lung cancer. Although the simple details p
... Show MoreA novel encapsulated deep eutectic solvent (DES) was introduced for biodiesel production via a two-step process. The DES was encapsulated in medical capsules and were used to reduce the free fatty acid (FFA) content of acidic crude palm oil (ACPO) to the minimum acceptable level (< 1%). The DES was synthesized from methyltriphenylphosphonium bromide (MTPB) and p-toluenesulfonic acid (PTSA). The effects pertaining to different operating conditions such as capsule dosage, reaction time, molar ratio, and reaction temperature were optimized. The FFA content of ACPO was reduced from existing 9.61% to less than 1% under optimum operating conditions. This indicated that encapsulated MTPB-DES performed high catalytic activity in FFA esterificatio
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