The arrival of Russian President Vladimir Putin to power in the Russian Federation is an important factor in delineating a new approach to Russian policy towards regions that have great strategic importance affecting its national security. Therefore, NATO's progress eastward towards these regions prompts Russia to delineate a new strategy to confront this progress as well as preserving its control in the near neighboring regions represented by the countries of Eastern Europe, especially after the changes that occurred in those regions following the color revolutions that swept the region, such as the first application of this Russian policy in 2014, through the annexation of Crimea, and the latest military operations in Ukraine in 2022, which provoke reactions of Western countries, creating conditions for the return of the Cold War, and affecting the stability of the international system
We conducted an experiment in a greenhouse at the research station belonging to the Department of Plant Protection / Ministry of Agriculture, in Abu Ghraib area during the spring and autumn season 2022-2023, to study the population density of the whitefly on two varieties of sweet pepper plant (Charisma and Sierra Nevada). The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design “RCBD” with three replicates for each variety. The results showed that in spring season the population density of
Current design codes and specifications allow for part of the bonded flexure tension reinforcement to be distributed over an effective flange width when the T-beams' flanges are in tension. This study presents an experimental and numerical investigation on the reinforced concrete flanged section's flexural behavior when reinforcement in the tension flange is laterally distributed. To achieve the goals of the study, numerical analysis using the finite element method was conducted on discretized flanged beam models validated via experimentally tested T-beam specimen. Parametric study was performed to investigate the effect of different parameters on the T-beams flexural behavior. The study revealed that a significant reduction in the
... Show MoreThe present research has investigated the effect of microwave energy on improving the flow properties of heavy crude oil. The fragmentation of crude oil molecules was carried out with and without using 1 and 10 wt. % concentration of various types of H-donors like tetralin, cyclohexane, and naphtha. Microwave power of 320, 385, and 540 W and radiation time 1-9 min, and temperature were studied. The kinematic viscosity and asphaltene content were measured for evaluation the improving of heavy crude oil.
Results show that viscosity of crude oil decreased with increase H-donor concentration, a maximum percentage of viscosity reduction was10.63 % for tetralin at 6 min radiation time, while 8.67%, and 7.34% for cycl
... Show MoreIn the 1980s, the French Administration Roads LCPC developed high modulus mixtures (EME) by using hard binder. This type of mixture presented good resistance to moisture damage and improved mechanical properties for asphalt mixtures including high modulus, good fatigue behaviour and excellent resistance to rutting. In Iraq, this type of mixture has not been used yet. The main objective of this research is to evaluate the performance of high modulus mixtures and comparing them with the conventional mixture, to achieve this objective, asphalt concrete mixes were prepared and then tested to evaluate their engineering properties which include moisture damage, resilient modulus, permanent deformation and fatigue characteristics. These pro
... Show MoreThe aim of this paper is to design artificial neural network as an alternative accurate tool to estimate concentration of Cadmium in contaminated soils for any depth and time. First, fifty soil samples were harvested from a phytoremediated contaminated site located in Qanat Aljaeesh in Baghdad city in Iraq. Second, a series of measurements were performed on the soil samples. The inputs are the soil depth, the time, and the soil parameters but the output is the concentration of Cu in the soil for depth x and time t. Third, design an ANN and its performance was evaluated using a test data set and then applied to estimate the concentration of Cadmium. The performance of the ANN technique was compared with the traditional laboratory inspecting
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