In order to study the dynamic response of historical masonry structures, a scaled down brick masonry model constructed in civil engineering department at Baghdad University to simulate a part of a real case study, which is Alkifil historic minaret. Most of the previous researches about masonry structures try to understand the behavior of the masonry under seismic loading by experimental and numerical methods. In this paper, the masonry units (bricks) simulated in scale (S= 1/6) with the exact shape of the prototype bricks. Cementitious tile adhesive was selected to be the mortar for the modeling. The height of the model designed to be 1.5 m with a 0.5 m diameter. Detailed construction steps were presented in this paper. Experts built the model with high accuracy. A shaking table and other dynamic testing facilities were used at the University of Baghdad. The model was tested using the time-compressed El Centro 1940 NS earthquake at different amplitudes. The first ground motion of (PGA= 0.05g) which considered as weak ground motion was used to check the adequacy of the conventional behavior of the masonry model and the limit of the elastic behavior of the model during weak earthquakes. Moderate ground motion (PGA=0.15g) was performed to investigate the response of the model with minor to moderate damages. The severe ground motions were not appropriate to use in such circumstances because of the possibility to overturn the model. The experimental results showed very adequacy of the model to withstand the weak and moderate earth motion with no observed cracks.
Mosquitoes like Culex quinquefasciatus are the primary vector that transmits many causes of diseases such as filariasis, Japanese encephalitis, and West Nile virus, in many countries around the world. The development in the scientific fields, such as nanotechnology, leads to use this technique in control programs of insects including mosquitoes through the use of green synthesis of nanoemulsions based on plant products such as castor oil. Castor oil nanoemulsion was formulated in various ratios comprising of castor oil, ethanol, tween 80, and deionized water by ultrasonication. Thermodynamic assay improved that the formula of (10 ml) of castor oil, ethanol (5ml), tween 80 (14 ml) and deionized water (71ml) was mor
... Show MoreThis study reports the fabrication of tin oxide (SnO2) thin films using pulsed laser deposition (PLD). The effect of 60Co (300, 900, and 1200 Gy) gamma radiation on the structural, morphological, and optical features is systematically demonstrated using X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and ultraviolet-visible light analysis (UV-Vis), respectively In XRD tests, the size of the crystallites decreased from 45.5 to 40.8 nm for the control samples and from 1200 Gy to 60Co for the irradiated samples. Using FESEM analysis, the particle diameter revealed a similar trend to that attained using XRD; in particular, the average diameters were 93.8 and
... Show MoreDespite extensive investigations, an effective treatment for sepsis remains elusive and a better understanding of the inflammatory response to infection is required to identify potential new targets for therapy. In this study we have used RNAi technology to show, for the first time, that the inducible lysophosphatidylcholine acyltransferase 2 (LPCAT2) plays a key role in macrophage inflammatory gene expression in response to stimulation with bacterial ligands. Using siRNA- or shRNA-mediated knockdown, we demonstrate that, in contrast to the constitutive LPCAT1, LPCAT2 is required for macrophage cytokine gene expression and release in response to TLR4 and TLR2 ligand stimulation but not for TLR-independent stimuli. In addition, cells transfe
... Show MoreAbstract The results showed that after treating <italic>C. albicans</italic> with Artemisinin (0.104 mg/ml) for 3 hours the number of <italic>C. albicans</italic> decreased and affected the morphology hyphae and growth of <italic>Candida</italic> compared with Fluconazole (150 mg/ml) and control (infected mice). The biomarker levels in the tongue showed high levels of MDA and TGFβ (623±1.5pg/ml, 586.1±0.13pg/ml respectively) in (infected mice with fungi). IL-37 was recorded high level (49.21±0.21pg/ml) in (Neoral +Fungi + artemisinin + fluconazole) compared with negative control. The finding biomarker levels in stomach showed high levels of MDA and IL-37 (533.8±1.9, 69.76±0.39pg/ml) in (Neor
... Show MoreThe dynamic thermomechanical properties, sealing ability, and voids formation of an experimental obturation hydroxyapatite-reinforced polyethylene (HA/PE) composite/carrier system were investigated and compared with those of a commercial system [GuttaCore (GC)]. The HA/PE system was specifically designed using a melt-extrusion process. The viscoelastic properties of HA/PE were determined using a dynamic thermomechanical analyser. Human single-rooted teeth were endodontically instrumented and obturated using HA/PE or GC systems, and then sealing ability was assessed using a fluid filtration system. In addition, micro-computed tomography (μCT) was used to quantify apparent voids within the root-canal space. The data were statistically analys
... Show MoreThis study evaluated the functional response of the larva of the predator Chrysoperla carnea by offering varying densities of cabbage aphid, Brevicoryne brassicae (L.) . Results showed conformity with type–II functional response, where the number of prey killed approaches asymptote hyperbolically as prey density increases (declining proportion of prey killed or the inverse density dependent) till it reached the stability stage determined by handling time and predator satiation. Also, the values of attack rate and handling time changed with age progress for both predator and prey. It has been observed an increase in the attack rate and reduction in handling time with the progress of the predator age when feeding on a particular nymphal in
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In this paper, fatigue damage accumulation were studied using many methods i.e.Corton-Dalon (CD),Corton-Dalon-Marsh(CDM), new non-linear model and experimental method. The prediction of fatigue lifetimes based on the two classical methods, Corton-Dalon (CD)andCorton-Dalon-Marsh (CDM), are uneconomic and non-conservative respectively. However satisfactory predictions were obtained by applying the proposed non-linear model (present model) for medium carbon steel compared with experimental work. Many shortcomings of the two classical methods are related to their inability to take into account the surface treatment effect as shot peening. It is clear that the new model shows that a much better and cons
... Show MoreThis paper presents a new algorithm in an important research field which is the semantic word similarity estimation. A new feature-based algorithm is proposed for measuring the word semantic similarity for the Arabic language. It is a highly systematic language where its words exhibit elegant and rigorous logic. The score of sematic similarity between two Arabic words is calculated as a function of their common and total taxonomical features. An Arabic knowledge source is employed for extracting the taxonomical features as a set of all concepts that subsumed the concepts containing the compared words. The previously developed Arabic word benchmark datasets are used for optimizing and evaluating the proposed algorithm. In this paper,
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