This paper reports an evaluation of the properties of medium-quality concrete incorporating recycled coarse aggregate (RCA). Concrete specimens were prepared with various percentages of the RCA (25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%). The workability, mechanical properties, and durability in terms of abrasion of cured concrete were examined at different ages. The results reveal insignificant differences between the recycled concrete (RC) and reference concrete in terms of the mechanical and durability-related measurements. Meanwhile, the workability of the RC reduced vastly since the replacement of the RCA reached 75% and 100%. The ultrasound pulse velocity (UPV) results greatly depend on the porosity of concrete and the RC exhibited higher poros

The conception and experimental assessment of a removable friction-based shear connector (FBSC) for precast steel-concrete composite bridges is presented. The FBSC uses pre-tensioned high-strength steel bolts that pass through countersunk holes drilled on the top flange of the steel beam. Pre-tensioning of the bolts provides the FBSC with significant frictional resistance that essentially prevents relative slip displacement of the concrete slab with respect to the steel beam under service loading. The countersunk holes are grouted to prevent sudden slip of the FBSC when friction resistance is exceeded. Moreover, the FBSC promotes accelerated bridge construction by fully exploiting prefabrication, does not raise issues relevant to precast co

Simulated annealing (SA) has been an effective means that can address difficulties related to optimization problems. is now a common discipline for research with several productive applications such as production planning. Due to the fact that aggregate production planning (APP) is one of the most considerable problems in production planning, in this paper, we present multi-objective linear programming model for APP and optimized by . During the course of optimizing for the APP problem, it uncovered that the capability of was inadequate and its performance was substandard, particularly for a sizable controlled problem with many decision variables and plenty of constraints. Since this algorithm works sequentially then the current state wi

Machine learning models have recently provided great promise in diagnosis of several ophthalmic disorders, including keratoconus (KCN). Keratoconus, a noninflammatory ectatic corneal disorder characterized by progressive cornea thinning, is challenging to detect as signs may be subtle. Several machine learning models have been proposed to detect KCN, however most of the models are supervised and thus require large well-annotated data. This paper proposes a new unsupervised model to detect KCN, based on adapted flower pollination algorithm (FPA) and the k-means algorithm. We will evaluate the proposed models using corneal data collected from 5430 eyes at different stages of KCN severity (1520 healthy, 331 KCN1, 1319 KCN2, 1699 KCN3 a

Abstraction showed a case of distinction between art schools, in which reality was reduced using overlapping artistic elements and techniques to reach the artist's self-realization when abstracting the reality, and searching for implicit implications for the content of the artistic painting.

Building a system of relations and formulations between abstracting the reality of the physical forms and employing the symbols and codes to convey a message to the recipient who interacts with what he watches through the processes of explanation, interpretation, and linking the particles and reveal the pure aesthetics for the artwork.

Thus the current research deals with the following chapters and sections: the methodological framewo

The research aims to study the effect of knowledge upgrade on business continuity in private colleges and universities in Baghdad. The research problem is summarized in the main question (were the academic leaders able to employ knowledge upgrading to enhance business continuity). The most important of this sector were the universities and the private college in the city of Baghdad as a field for this research, the researchers conducted a field visit to (10) universities or private colleges, the research sample consisted of (177) individuals from the deans of colleges and their assistants, as well as heads of scientific and administrative departments. The data was analyzed and the hypotheses were tested using the appropriate statistical