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Numbness of the Mind Paradigm in Haruki Murakami’s After the Quake and Iraq’s After the Quake
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Haruki Murakami (1949-present) is a contemporary Japanese writer whose works have been translated into fifty languages and won him plenty of Japanese and international awards. His short stories are well constructed in a weird realistic manner and are mixed with elements of surrealism. His novels and short stories fall under the genre of magical realism. One of the major revolving themes that Murakami wrote about was the haunting feeling of emptiness and disconnectedness in a world which seems to care much for materialism and self-interests.

    The paper explores two of Murakami’s short stories in his book After the Quake (2000) and the relevance of their themes and characters to Iraq after the quake. Literally, Iraq may never have witnessed a real earthquake, but one can say its metaphorical meaning has a great implication upon the lives of its people. The reference to Iraq after the quake in this paper would focus on the aftermath of the 2003 War such as: the feeling of disconnection among people, disinclination in life, feelings of deprivation and depreciation, and the corruption of leaders and politicians. Likewise, though Murakami’s short stories chosen in this paper do not deal with the actual earthquake, its implications can be felt as we read the stories. His characters witness a sense of disconnectedness and the feeling of being unappreciated even when they do the hardest and most dangerous jobs.

    Two of Murakami’s short stories “UFO in Kushiro” and “Super Frog Saves Tokyo” are tackled to show the paradigm and comparison between the lives of these characters (that are actually a reflection of Japanese lives in mid 1990s) and the restricted depressing life of the Iraqis in the postwar era of the 2003 War. Both have experienced fragmentation, despair and lack of self-worth due to the reasons that are explained in this paper. The Iraqis however, may have experienced a deeper suffering where one can say they have reached a state of the numbness or enslavement of the mind and feelings. The paper also highlights that animosity should be dissipated from the hearts of people specifically in politicians and top leaders. Though it is a complicated world, man should conceive that the prosperity of mankind rests in his own hands. Cherishing the diversity of cultures and understanding each other’s moral principles are the means to diminish evil in order to reach the desired bliss.

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Publication Date
Sat Jun 01 2013
Journal Name
Journal Of Baghdad College Of Dentistry
The Effect of SOLO and Sodium Hypochlorite Disinfectant on Some Properties of Different Types of Dental Stone
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Dental casts come into direct contact with impression materials and other items that are contaminated by saliva and blood from a patient's mouth, leaving the casts susceptible to cross-contamination. The disinfectant solutions of the impression materials cause various adverse reactions. Therefore, disinfection of dental casts may be effective in preventing cross infection. This study was carried out to evaluate the surface hardness, dimensional accuracy, reproduction of details and surface porosity of type III, type IV and type IV extra hard dental stone after immersion in and spray by using SOLO and Sodium hypochlorite disinfectant solutions. Materials and methods: 240 Stone samples were prepared in rubber rings, A total of 60 test block w

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Publication Date
Sun Feb 28 2021
Journal Name
Journal Of Economics And Administrative Sciences
The impact of complexity management on dynamic capabilities: a survey at some private colleges
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This research aims to understand complexity management and its impact on the use of the dynamic capabilities of a sample of private colleges.  Private colleges are currently facing many crises, changes, unrest and high competitive pressures.  Which is sometimes difficult or even impossible to predict.  The recruitment of dynamic capabilities is also one of the challenges facing senior management at private colleges to help them survive and survive.  Thus, the problem of research was (there is a clear insufficiency of interest in Complexity Management and trying to employ it in improving the dynamic capabilities of Colleges that have been discussed?). A group of private colleges was selected as a

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Publication Date
Sun May 24 2026
Journal Name
Journal Of Baghdad College Of Dentistry
The effect of the addition of silanated poly propylene fiber to polymethylmethacrylate denture base material on some of its mechanical properties
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Background: Poly propylene fibers with and without silane treatment have been used to reinforce heat cure denture base acrylic but, some mechanical properties like transverse strength, impact strength, tensile strength, hardness, wear resistance and wettability. Which are related to the clinical use of the prosthesis are not evaluated yet. The aim of the study is to identify the influence of incorporation of treated and untreated fibers on these properties Materials and methods: Eighty four heat cure acrylic specimens were constructed by conventional flasking technique. They were divided into six groups according to the tests and each group was subdivided into two subgroups control and experimental groups (seven samples for each subgroup

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Publication Date
Sun Dec 01 2019
Journal Name
Journal Of Economics And Administrative Sciences
The Determinants of Total Factor Productivity Growth: an Analytical Study of a Cross Section of Countries for the Period (2003-2016)
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            This study tests the effect of a large number of independent variables that control the growth of the total productivity, which amounted to 112 variables, gathered from what is mentioned in the specialized theoretical and applied literature. The data for these variables were taken from global reports of sound international organizations and reliable databases covering the period 1991-2016. The data of the dependent variable, the growth of the total factor productivity, were taken from the database of the world development indicators. The study covered 61 countries for which data were available. The study included three regression models to explain

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Publication Date
Wed Sep 01 2010
Journal Name
Al-khwarizmi Engineering Journal
A Study of the Effect of Kaolin as a Fuel Oil Additive on the Corrosion Inhibition of Fireside Superheater Boiler Tubes
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The objective of the present study is to determine the effect of Kaolin as a fuel oil additive to minimize the fireside corrosion of superheater boiler tubes of ASTM designation (A213-T22) by increasing the melting point of the formed slag on the outside tubes surface, through the formation of new compounds with protective properties to the metal surface. The study included measuring corrosion rates at different temperatures with and without additive use with various periods of time, through crucible test method and weight loss technique.

      A mathematical model represents the relation between corrosion rate and the studied variables, is obtained using statistical regression analysis. Using this model,

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Publication Date
Sun Jan 01 2023
Journal Name
Journal Of The Mechanical Behavior Of Materials
Investigation of the performance of integrated intelligent models to predict the roughness of Ti6Al4V end-milled surface with uncoated cutting tool
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Abstract<p>Titanium alloys are broadly used in the medical and aerospace sectors. However, they are categorized within the hard-to-machine alloys ascribed to their higher chemical reactivity and lower thermal conductivity. This aim of this research was to study the impact of the dry-end-milling process with an uncoated tool on the produced surface roughness of Ti6Al4V alloy. This research aims to study the impact of the dry-end milling process with an uncoated tool on the produced surface roughness of Ti6Al4V alloy. Also, it seeks to develop a new hybrid neural model based on the training back propagation neural network (BPNN) with swarm optimization-gravitation search hybrid algorithms (PSO-GS</p> ... Show More
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Publication Date
Fri Jan 01 2021
Journal Name
Journal Of Economics And Administrative Sciences
Suggested Procedures According To COSO Integrated Framework To Evaluate The Internal Control System In Iraqi Oil Companies
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The research amid to measure the extent of the Suggested procedures of the internal control in accordance with the updated COSO framework in improving the procedures for internal control work in Iraqi oil companies. As the research problem was represented in suggesting procedures for internal control according to the updated COSO framework and finding out the relationship of correlation and influence between the suggested procedures and the internal control procedures that are done in the Iraqi oil companies. The research followed the quantitative approach to handling and analysing data by designing a Questionnaire to represent the research tool for collecting data. The study population was represented in the Iraqi oil companies,

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Publication Date
Sun Dec 01 2019
Journal Name
Baghdad Science Journal
Studying the Crystal Structure, Topography, and Anti-bacterial of a Novel Titania (TiO2 NPs) Prepared by a Sol-gel Manner
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In this research, titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2 NPs) were prepared through the sol-gel process at an acidic medium (pH3).TiO2 nanoparticles were prepared from titanium trichloride (TiCl3) as a precursor with Ammonium hydroxide (NH4OH) with 1:3 ratio at 50 °C. The resulting gel was dried at 70 °C to obtain the Nanocrystalline powder. The powder from the drying process was treated thermally at temperatures 500 °C and 700 °C. The crystalline structure, surface morphology, and particle size were studied by using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). The results showed (anatase) phase of titanium dioxide with the average grain size

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Publication Date
Tue Oct 30 2018
Journal Name
Journal Of Engineering
Statistical Equations to Estimate the In-situ Concrete Compressive Strength from Non-destructive Tests
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The aim of this study is to propose reliable equations to estimate the in-situ concrete compressive strength from the non-destructive test. Three equations were proposed: the first equation considers the number of rebound hummer only, the second equation consider the ultrasonic pulse velocity only, and the third equation combines the number of rebound hummer and the ultrasonic pulse velocity. The proposed equations were derived from non-linear regression analysis and they were calibrated with the test results of 372 concrete specimens compiled from the literature. The performance of the proposed equations was tested by comparing their strength estimations with those of related existing equations from literature. Comparis

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Publication Date
Sat Dec 01 2018
Journal Name
Political Sciences Journal
Protecting woman during armed conflicts under the development of international humanitarian law
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The international humanitarian law found the special rules to protect women meanwhile the armed conflicts whether international or non-international. These rules are adopted for woman because of two reasons : that she is from civilians and on the other hand that her special constitution demands a special protection. The international community's attention of women is increased as a result of the tragic situation that faced women around the world especially in the Middle East and particularly in Iraq during the American-British war and ISIS period, these two periods sort many negative effects that reach women such as captivity, slavery, sexual enslavement and rape women especially Yazidis and Christians....

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