Two novel demountable shear connectors for precast steel-concrete composite bridges are presented. The connectors use high-strength steel bolts, which are fastened to the steel beam with the aid of a special locking configuration that prevents slip of bolts within their holes. Moreover, the connectors promote accelerated construction and overcome typical construction tolerances issues of precast structures. Most importantly, the connectors allow bridge disassembly, and therefore, can address different bridge deterioration scenarios with minimum disturbance to traffic flow, i.e. (1) precast deck panels can be rapidly uplifted and replaced; (2) connectors can be rapidly removed and replaced; and (3) steel beams can be replaced, while precast

Contemporary art has been widely affected by technology, and ceramics production is no exception. As an ancient art that originates from clay and other humble materials found in the ground, ceramics is considered one of the most adaptable art forms. Once it is realised how flexible ceramics as a material is, it can be easily altered into endless forms and shapes. Therefore, it is vital for ceramics practitioners to find a relationship between this wonderful material and the media of contemporary art, culture and modelling software or technology in general so that they can take their deformable art pieces to a whole new level. Such a relationship is worth investigating. Thus, for the purposes of this research, several ceramic pieces were

Background: Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a major contributor to morbidity and mortality worldwide. Early-onset CAD, also known as PCAD, is a severe form of CAD associated with high mortality and a poor prognosis. Early diagnosis is crucial to reducing complications. While hsCRP is an established biomarker for CAD, kalirin is a potential novel biomarker due to its role in promoting smooth muscle proliferation and endothelial dysfunction. Objective: To evaluate the relationship between serum kalirin and hsCRP levels with the presence and severity of PCAD and to compare the diagnostic value of both biomarkers. Method: The study recruited 92 participants into two groups: the PCAD group (46) included patients with confirmed CAD by an

The importance of research is to be considered by highlighting the tax policy in Iraq which extended for successive measurement of the amount of tax receipts for respective periods, the research problem represents security, economic and political issues that Iraq suffered which were very difficult since Nineties of the last century until now that led to a lake of clarity in tax policy trends, volatility in it and finally reflected on the tax revenues increase or decrease. One of the main recommendations of the research is: (The necessity to develop a deliberate strategy for tax policy in Iraq which should take into account financial, economic, and social goals in appropriate way).

Pushover analysis is an efficient method for the seismic evaluation of buildings under severe earthquakes. This paper aims to develop and verify the pushover analysis methodology for reinforced concrete frames. This technique depends on a nonlinear representation of the structure by using SAP2000 software. The properties of plastic hinges will be defined by generating the moment-curvature analysis for all the frame sections (beams and columns). The verification of the technique above was compared with the previous study for two-dimensional frames (4-and 7-story frames). The former study leaned on automatic identification of positive and negative moments, where the concrete sections and steel reinforcement quantities the

Derivatives of Schiff-bases possess a great importance in pharmaceutical chemistry. They can be used for synthesizing different types of bioactive compounds. In this paper, derivatives of new Schiff bases have been synthesized from several serial steps. The acid (I) was synthesized from the reaction of dichloroethanoic acid with 2 moles of p-aminoacetanilide. New acid (I) converted to its ester (II) via the reaction of (I) with dimethyl sulphate in the present of anhydrous of sodium carbonate and dry acetone. Acid hydrazide (III) has been synthesized by adding 80% of hydrazine hydrate  to the new ester using ethanol as a solvent. The last step included the preparation of new Schiff-bases (IV-VIII) by the reaction of acid hydrazide with

An innovative two-step noncatalytic esterifcation technique was proposed to synthesize alkyl esters from free fatty acids simulated in waste cooking oil, as a pretreatment process for biodiesel production, without adding any catalyst under normal conditions of pressure and temperature. The efect of methanol:oil molar ratio, reaction time, mixing rate, and reaction temperature were investigated. The results confrmed that the conversion of the reaction was increased when increasing the methanol molar ratio and decreased in prolonged reaction temperature. High conversion (94.545%) was successfully achieved at optimized conditions of 115:1, 65:1 methanol:oil molar ratio in the frst step and second step, respectively, other conditions i

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The research deals with the statement of the importance of unanimous in Islamic Sharia in terms of being the third source of Islamic legislation after the Holy Qur’an and the Sunnah of the Prophet, and the extent of interest of the scholars of interpretation in it, and those who took great interest in mentioning what was agreed upon in every site that necessitated mentioning its issues within, or mentioning an event that has encountered an unanimous, and in various sciences, to extract and extrapolate Sharia rules when these rules are lost in the texts, because it is based on them and derived from them. Among these distinguished scholars is Muhammad bin Jarir al-Tabari. Besides, the research discusses in