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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
Tue Sep 24 2019
Journal Name
Journal Of Engineering
Effect of Use Recycled Coarse Aggregate on the Behavior of Axially Loaded Reinforced Concrete Columns
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Nowadays, the use of recycled waste construction materials instead of aggregates is becoming popular in construction owing to its environmental benefits. This paper presents an experimental and analytical campaign to study the behavior of axially loaded columns constructed from recycled aggregates. The latter was used instead of natural aggregates, and they were collected from the waste of previous concrete constructions. Different concrete mixtures made from varying amounts of recycled aggregates ranged from 0 to 50% of the total coarse aggregate were conducted to achieve 28 MPa. The effect of steel fibers is another investigated variable with volumes ranged from 0 to 2% concerning concrete’s mixture. The experimental

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Publication Date
Fri Jan 01 2016
Journal Name
Iraqi Journal Of Agricultural Sciences
Aneconomic analasis on demand of Iraqi imports of chicken meat for the period (1985-2013)
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Publication Date
Wed Jan 01 2020
Journal Name
Biochemistry And Cell Biology
EFFECT OF ADDED ALGAE POWDER (ASCOMAX) TO THE DIET ON SOME PRODUCTION TRAITS OF BROILERS
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The study was conducted in the poultry field, College of Agriculture, Al-Muthanna University from 1/3/2018 to 6/4/2018 to determine the effect of commercial Ascomax powder produced from seaweed (Ascophyllum nodocum) on some productive performance of broilers. A total of 400, one day, Ross 308 broiler chicks were used for 35 days. The chicks were randomly distributed to 4 treatments, four replicates per treatment (25 chick / replicate). The treatments were as follows: T1: (control treatment), while T2, T3 and T4 added diet by Ascomax powder by 1, 1.5 and 2 g per 1 kg of the basal diet, respectively. The results of the study showed a significant superiority (P <0.05) for the added Ascomax powder treatments compared to the treatment of control

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Publication Date
Wed Apr 05 2023
Journal Name
Journal Of Engineering
Influence of Some Additives on the Efficiency of Viscosity Index Improver for Base Lubricating Oils
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The effects of three different additives formulations namely Lubrizol 21001, HiTEC 8722B and HiTEC 340 on the efficiency of VII namely OCP of three base lubricating oils namely 40 stock and 60 stock and 150 stock at four temperatures 40, 60, 80 and 100oC were investigated. The efficiency of OCP is decreased when blended with 4 and 8 wt% of Lubrizol 21001 for all the three base oil types. But it is increased when adding 4 wt% and 8 wt% of H-8722B in 40 stock. While for 60 stock and 150 stock the OCP efficiency decreased by adding 4 and 8 wt% of H-8722B. In the other hand, it is decreased with a high percentage by adding 4 and 8 wt% of H-340 for 60 stock and 150 stock and for 40 stock it is increased by adding 4 wt% of H-340 and decreased

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Publication Date
Sat Apr 09 2022
Journal Name
Engineering, Technology &amp; Applied Science Research
Effect of Sustainable Glass Powder on the Properties of Reactive Powder Concrete with Polypropylene Fibers
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Global warming and environmental damage have become major problems. The production of Portland cement releases large quantities of gas, which cause pollution to the atmosphere. This problem can be solved via the use of sustainable materials, such as glass powder. This study investigates the effect of partial replacement of cement with sustainable glass powder at various percentages (0, 15, 20, and 25%) by weight of cement on some mechanical properties (compressive strength, flexural strength, absorption, and dry density) of Reactive Powder Concrete (RPC) containing a percentage of Polypropylene fibers (PRPC) of 1% by weight. Furthermore, steam curing was performed for 5 hours at 90oC after hardening the sample directly. The RPC was

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Publication Date
Sun May 01 2022
Journal Name
Civil Engineering Journal
Phases of Urban Development Impact on the Assessment of Thermal Comfort: A Comparative Environmental Study
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Millions of pilgrims and visitors from numerous parts of the world flock to Karbala (one of the most prominent ideological and religious places in central Iraq) each year to visit the holy shrines in Karbala due to their sanctity. Many improvements have been made to the Two Holy Shrines (THS), the Shrines of Imam Husayn and Imam Abbas, and the area between them (ATHS), due to the high temperatures in this region and to improve pedestrian thermal comfort. Studies on improving outdoor thermal comfort in Karbala are scarce. Hence, this research aims to look into historical and current architectural changes and how they affect thermal comfort. On the hottest summer day, the ENVI-met software program was used to simulate the building des

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Publication Date
Fri Apr 01 2022
Journal Name
Baghdad Science Journal
Spectral Behaviour of the low concentrations of Coumarin 334 with Broadband Cavity Enhanced Absorption Spectroscopy
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The current research is a spectroscopic study of Coumarin 334 dissolved in methanol. The range of concentrations of the prepared stock solution was (3.39x10-9 to 2.03x10-8) M. Some optical characteristics of this dye were investigated such as absorbance and transmission spectra, absorption coefficient, refractive and extinction coefficients, oscillation and dispersion energies, and energy band gap. The absorbance spectra were recorded at 452 nm using Broad Band Cavity Enhanced Absorption Spectroscopy (BBCEAS) which depends on increasing the path length of the traveling light from the source to the detector. The minimum absorbance amount was 0.07 with a low concentration of 3.39x10-9 M. As a result, the ot

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Publication Date
Tue Mar 01 2022
Journal Name
Journal Of Engineering
Numerical Investigation of the Flexure Behavior of Reinforced Concrete Spandrel Beams with Distributed Tension Reinforcement
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When the flange of a reinforced concrete spandrel beam is in tension, current design codes and specifications enable a portion of the bonded flexure tension reinforcement to be distributed over an effective flange width. The flexural behavior of the RC L-shaped spandrel beam when reinforcement is laterally displaced in the tension flange is investigated experimentally and numerically in this work. Numerical analysis utilizing the finite element method is performed on discretized flanged beam models validated using experimentally verified L-shaped beam specimens to achieve study objectives. A parametric study was carried out to evaluate the influence of various factors on the beam’s flexure behavior. Results showed that

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Publication Date
Fri Jan 31 2020
Journal Name
Indian Journal Of Forensic Medicine & Toxicology
A comparative study to evaluate the effect of ultrasonic agitation on push-out bond strength of three root-end filling materials: An in vitro study
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Aim: To evaluate the effect of ultrasonic agitation for retrograde biodceramic root repair, MTA and biodentine filling materials on push-out bond strength to dentine walls. Materials and Methods: Ninety extracted human teeth with single straight roots were selected randomly. After disinfection and cleaning, the coronal portions were sectioned to standardize the root canal length at 15mm. following root canal shaping, obturation and apical roots resection, retrograde cavities were prepared. Teeth were categorized depending on the filling material used into three groups, 30 teeth each. Group A filled with bioceramic root repair material, B with MTA and C with Biodentine material. These groups were divided in to three subgroup (n= 10). Subgrou

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Publication Date
Sat Jul 01 2023
Journal Name
Heliyon
Effect of plasma surface treatment of three different CAD/CAM materials on the micro shear bond strength with resin cement (A comparative in vitro study)
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Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate and compare the effect of plasma treatment versus conventional treatment on the micro shear bond strength (μSBS), surface roughness, and wettability of three different CAD/CAM materials. Materials and methods: Sixty cylindrical specimens (5 mm diameter ×3 mm height) were prepared from three different CAD/CAM materials: Group A: Zirconia, Group B: Lithium disilicate, and Group C: Resin nano-ceramic. Each group was subdivided into two subgroups according to surface treatment used: Subgroup I: Conventional treatment, zirconia was sandblasted with Al2O3, while lithium disilicate and resin nano-ceramic were etched with hydrofluoric acid. Subgroup II: Plasma treatment, the surface of each material was tr

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