Five rice (Oryza sativa L.) cultivars (N22, Amber, Moroberekan, Kinandang Patong, and Azucena) underwent path coefficient analysis across three plant spacings (15 cm × 15 cm, 20 cm × 20 cm, and 25 cm× 25 cm) in the summer of 2017 at the College of Agricultural Engineering Sciences, University of Baghdad, Al-Jadriya, Iraq. The experiment proceeded in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with a split-plot arrangement and three replications. The main plots included three planting distances, and the subplot comprised five varieties. The traits studied were plant height, flag leaf area, number of tillers, panicle number, length and branches, grains per panicle, 1000-grain weight, and the percentage of unfilled grains. The results

In this work, laboratory experiments were carried out to verify direct contact membrane distillation system’s performance in highly saline water desalination. The study included the investigation of various operating conditions, like feed flow rate, temperature and concentration of NaCl solution and their impact on the permeation flux were discussed. 16 cm² of a flat sheet membrane module with commercial poly-tetra-fluoroethylene (PTFE) membrane, which has 0.22 μm pore size, 96 µm thickness and 78% average porosity, was used. A high salt rejection factor was obtained greater than 99.9%, and the permeation flux up to 17.27 kg/m².h was achieved at 65°C for hot feed side and 20°C for cold side stream.

One of the most severe problems with flexible asphalt pavements is permanent deformation in the form of rutting. Accordingly, the practice of adding fiber elements to asphalt mix to improve performance under dynamic loading has grown significantly in order to prevent rutting distress and ensure a safe and long-lasting road surface. This paper explores the effects of a combination of ceramic fiber (CF), a low-cost, easily available mineral fiber, and thermal insulator fiber reinforced to enhance the Marshall properties and increase the rutting resistance of asphalt mixes at high temperatures. Asphalt mixtures with 0%, 0.75%, 1.5%, and 2.25% CF content were prepared, and Marshall stability and wheel tracking tests were employed to stu

The removal of COD from wastewater generated by petroleum refinery has been investigated by adopting electrocoagulation (EC) combined with adsorption using activated carbon (AC) derived from avocado seeds. The process variables influencing COD removal were studied: current density (2–10 mA/cm2), pH (4–9), and AC dosage (0.2–1 g/L). Response surface methodology (RSM) based on Box–Behnken design (BBD) was used to construct a mathematical model of the EC/AC process. Results showed that current density has the major effect on the COD removal with a percent of contribution 32.78% followed by pH while AC dosage has not a remarkable effect due to the good characteristics of AC derived from avocado seeds. Increasing current density gives be

The Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) has recently emerged as a human pathogen caused by SARS-CoV-2 virus was first reported from Wuhan, China, on 31 December 2019. Upon study, it has been used molecular docking to binding affinity between COVID-19 protease enzyme and flavonoids with evaluations based on docking scores calculated by AutoDock Vina. Results showed that naringin suppressed COVID-19 protease, as it has the highest binding value than other flavonoids including quercetin, hesperetin, garcina and naringenin. An important finding in this study is that naringin with neighboring poly hydroxyl groups can serve as inhibitors of COVID-19 protease bind to the S pocket of protein, it is shown that residues His163, Glu166, Asn142, His41and

Increasing world demand for renewable energy resources as wind energy was one of the goals behind research optimization of energy production from wind farms. Wake is one of the important phenomena in this field. This paper focuses on understanding the effect of angle of attack (α) on wake characteristics behind single horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWT). This was done by design three rotors different from each other in value of α used in the rotor design process. Values of α were (4.8˚,9.5˚,19˚). The numerical simulations were conducted using Ansys Workbench 19- Fluent code; the used turbulence model was (k-ω SST). The results showed that best value for extracted wind energy was at α=19˚, spread distance of wak

III-V zinc-blende AlP, AlAs semiconductors and their alloy Aluminum Arsenide phosphide Al AsxP1-x ternary nanocrystals have been investigated using Ab- initio density functional theory (Ab-initio-DFT) at the generalized-gradient approximation (GGA) level with STO-3G basis set coupled with large unit cell method (LUC). The dimension of crystal is found around (1.56 – 2.24) nm at a function of increasing the sizes (8, 16, 54, 64) with different concentration of arsenide (x=0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75 and 1) respectively. Gaussian 03 code program has been used throughout this study to calculate some of the physical properties such as the electronic properties energy gap, lattice constant, valence and conduction band as well as density of state. Re

The sensors based on Nickel oxide doped chromic oxide (NiO: Cr2O3) nanoparticals were fabricated using thick-film screen printing of sol-gel grown powders. The structural, morphological investigations were carried out using XRD, AFM, and FESEM. Furthermore, the gas responsivity were evaluated towards the NH3 and NO2 gas. The NiO0.10: Cr2O3 nanoparticles exhibited excellent response of 95 % at 100oC and better selectivity towards NH3 with low response and recovery time as compared to pure Cr2O3 and can stand as reliable sensor element for NH3 sensor related applications.