Expansive soils are recognized by their swelling potential upon wetting due to the existence of some clay minerals such as  montmorillonite. An effective solution was found to avoid the danger of such soils by using piles. A single pile embedded in an elasto-plastic expansive soil has been analyzed by using one of the available software which is ABAQUS to investigate the effect of applied loads on pile’s top and investigate the effect of swelling soils on load carrying capacity of the pile. The result shows that as the pile is axially loaded at its top, the axial force along the pile gradually changes from (tension) to (compression) and the pile tends to move downward. The applied load needed to initiate pile’s settlement depend

Background: This study was conducted to assess the effect of sonic activation and bulk placement of resin composite in comparison to horizontal incremental placement on the fracture resistance of weakened premolar teeth. Materials and method: Sixty sound human single-rooted maxillary premolars extracted for orthodontic purposes were used in this study. Teeth were divided into six groups of ten teeth each: Group 1 (sound unprepared teeth as a control group), Group 2 (teeth prepared with MOD cavity and left unrestored), Group 3 (restored with SonicFill™ composite), Group 4 (restored with Quixfil™ composite), Group 5 (restored with Tertic EvoCeram® Bulk Fill composite) and Group 6 (restored with Universal Tetric EvoCeram® co

The current study was designed to evaluate the anti-inflammatory effect of GKB in the rat model of granulomatous inflammation. Thirty rats were distributed into five groups:  The first group served as negative control group that received distilled water (DW) only without inducting inflammation, positive control group; treated with DW with the induction of inflammation and they were assigned to cotton pellet-induced granuloma, ginkgo biloba (GKB) treated group (200mg/kg/day), dexamethasone-treated group (1mg/kg), and Prednisolone treated group (5mg/kg). All the treatments were given orally for seven consecutive days.  On day eight, the rats were anesthetized and the pellets together with granulation tissue were carefully removed

This paper presents a comparative study of two learning algorithms for the nonlinear PID neural trajectory tracking controller for mobile robot in order to follow a pre-defined path. As simple and fast tuning technique, genetic and particle swarm optimization algorithms are used to tune the nonlinear PID neural controller's parameters to find the best velocities control actions of the right wheel and left wheel for the real mobile robot. Polywog wavelet activation function is used in the structure of the nonlinear PID neural controller. Simulation results (Matlab) and experimental work (LabVIEW) show that the proposed nonlinear PID controller with PSO
learning algorithm is more effective and robust than genetic learning algorithm; thi

Abstract

Business organizations are using the technological innovations like cloud computing (CC) as a developmental platform in order to improve the performance of their information systems. In that context, our paper discusses know-how in employing the public and private CC to serve as platforms to develop the evaluation system of annual employees' performance (ESAEP) at Iraqi universities. Therefore, we ask the paper question which is “Is it possible to adopt the innovative solutions of ICTs (Like: public and private CC) for finding the developmental vision about management information systems at business organizations?”. In addition, the paper aim

Objective: The descriptive study was used to evaluate nursing staff performance in cardiac care units at teaching
and non teaching hospitals in kirkuk city: A comparative study.
Methodology: A descriptive study was used to evaluate nursing staff performance in cardiac care units. The study
was conducted from December 29th
, 2013 up to the 27th of Apr. 2014. A non-probability (purposive) sample of
(44) nurses who work in cardiac care unit at Azady teaching Hospital and Kirkuk general Hospital was evaluated by
a questionnaire which consisted of two parts; the first part is concerned with the demographic characteristics of
the nurses and the second part concerned Observation check list for evaluation nursing staff Perfo

In this study, the preparation and characterization of hyacinth plant /chitosan composite, as a heavy metal removal, were done. Water hyacinth plant (Eichhorniacrasspes) was collected from Tigris river in Baghdad. The root and shoot parts of plant were ground to powder. Composite materials were prepared at different ratios of plant part (from 2.9% to 30.3%, wt /wt) which corresponds to (30-500mg) of hyacinth plant (root and shoot) and chitosan. The results showed that all examined ratios of plant parts have an excellent absorption to copper (Cu (II)). Moreover, it was observed that 2.9% corresponds (30mg) of plant root revealed highest removal (82.7%) of Pb (II), while 20.23% of shoot removed 61% of Cd (II) within 24 hr

Polyacrylonitrile nanofiber (PANFS), a well-known polymers, has been extensively employed in the manufacturing of carbon nanofibers (CNFS), which have recently gained substantial attention due to their excellent features, such as spinnability, environmental friendliness, and commercial feasibility. Because of their high carbon yield and versatility in tailoring the final CNFS structure, In addition to the simple formation of ladder structures through nitrile polymerization to yield stable products, CNFS and PAN have been the focus of extensive research as potential production precursors. For instance, the development of biomedical and high-performance composites has now become achievable. PAN homopolymer or PAN-based precursor copolymer can

In this research, the removal of cadmium (Cd) from simulated wastewater was investigated by using a fixed bed bio-electrochemical reactor. The effects of the main controlling factors on the performance of the removal process such as applied cell voltage, initial Cd concentration, pH of the catholyte, and the mesh number of the cathode were investigated. The results showed that the applied cell voltage had the main impact on the removal efficiency of cadmium where increasing the applied voltage led to higher removal efficiency. Meanwhile increasing the applied voltage was found to be given lower current efficiency and higher energy consumption.  No significant effect of initial Cd concentration on the removal efficiency of cadmium b