Inherent fluctuations in the availability of energy from renewables, particularly solar, remain a substantial impediment to their widespread deployment worldwide. Employing phase-change materials (PCMs) as media, saving energy for later consumption, offers a promising solution for overcoming the problem. However, the heat conductivities of most PCMs are limited, which severely limits the energy storage potential of these materials. This study suggests employing circular fins with staggered distribution to achieve improved thermal response rates of PCM in a vertical triple-tube heat exchanger involving two opposite flow streams of the heat-transfer fluid (HTF). Since heat diffusion is not the same at various portions of the PCM unit,

Steel-concrete-steel (SCS) structural element solutions are rising due to their advantages over conventional reinforced concrete in terms of cost and strength. The impact of SCS sections with various core materials on the structural performance of composites has not yet been fully explored experimentally, and in this work, both slag and polypropylene fibers were incorporated in producing eco-friendly steel-concrete-steel composite sections. This study examined the ductility, ultimate strength, failure modes, and energy absorption capacities of steel-concrete-steel filled with eco-friendly concrete, enhanced by polypropylene fiber (PPF) to understand its impact on modern structural projects. Eco-friendly concrete was produced by the partial

Background: Speckle tracking echocardiography (STE)-derived mitral annular displacement (MAD) utilizes the speckle tracking technique to measure strain vectors, which provides accurate estimates of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF).Objectives: To validate the accuracy of mitral annular displacement (MAD), assessed by Speckle Tracking Echocardiography (STE), as a surrogate for determination of left ventricular systolic function in comparison to 2-Dimensions Simpson method in patients with different heart diseases.Methods : This cross-sectional study included patients who referred to outpatient department of Ibn Albitar Center for Cardiac Surgery, Baghdad, Iraq, between October 2012 and April 2013. STE continuously tracked annular

Augmented reality to qualify a new form of interaction between the user and the machine based on the association of real objects, from the user's environment, and virtual. In Morocco the use of this technology in the learning context remains in the embryonic phase that tries to overcome several issues (Profile of the designers, Users, and the learning scenario). Scripting is primarily a work of content design, resource organization, activity planning and mediations to induce and accompany learning. The integration of augmented reality (AR) requires the contribution of the different specialists who work on the design and realization of the scenario. While the CRMEF AR project. CRMEF is at the end of a first phase of development, this cont

Aromaticity, antiaromaticity and chemical bonding in the ground (S0), first singlet excited (S1) and lowest triplet (T1) electronic states of disulfur dinitride, S2N2, were investigated by analysing the isotropic magnetic shielding, σiso(r), in the space surrounding the molecule for each electronic state. The σiso(r) values were calculated by state-optimized CASSCF/cc-pVTZ wave functions with 22 electrons in 16 orbitals constructed from gauge-including atomic orbitals (GIAOs). The S1 and T1 electronic states were confirmed as 11Au and 13B3u, respectively, through linear response CC3/aug-cc-pVTZ calculations of the vertical excitation energies for eight singlet (S1–S8) and eight triplet (T1–T8) electronic states. The aromaticities of S

The use of medicinal plants in the treatment of harmful impacts of xenobiotics in animals is attracting an increasing attention in recent times. The aim of the current study is to assess the preventive potential of Costus afer aqueous leaves extract (CAAE) in treating metabolic aberrations imposed by crude oil contaminated diet in
Wistar albino rats. Six groups of rats were treated as follows: A = Normal diet; B=Normal diet + 100 mg/kg body weight of CAAE; C =Normal diet + 200 mg/kg body weight of CAAE; D= Crude oil contaminated diet; E= crude oil contaminated diet + 100 mg/kg body weight of CAAE, F = crude oil contaminated diet + 200 mg/kg body weight of CAAE. After thirty days of exposure to the diet and administration of the corres

This research aims to study the target costing and value chain with their complimentary relationship in reducing product costs, meeting the needs of customer, and achieving strategic competitive advantage for manufacturing corporations in response to face international competition, technological development and continuous changing expectations of customers.    No doubt, the target costing and value chain both currently occupy a great deal of the attention of managers and accountants at the manufacturing corporations due to the significance to insure their continuity, growth and development. This significance has been the main motive to examine the role of target costing and value chain in a sample of public corporations of the

    The ion-pair formation method has been applied for the spectrophotometric determination of Cimetidine and Erythromycin ethylsuccinate, in bulk samples and in dosage form. The methods are accurate, simple, rapid, inexpensive and sensitive depending on the extraction of the formed ion-pair with brompthymol blue (BTB) as a chromogenic reagent in chloroform, use phthalate buffer of pH 5.5 and 4.0 for Cimetidine and Erythromycin ethylsuccinate respectively.  The formed complexes show absorbance maxima at 427.5 nm and 414.5 nm for Cimetidine and Erythromycin ethylsuccinate respectively against reagent blank. The calibration graphs are linear in the ranges of 0.5-15 µg.mL-1 with detection limit of 0.222 µg.mL-1 for

The ability of four local fungal isolates for extracellular laccase production has been tested with five grams 1:1(w/v) humidified sawdust as substrate in mineral salt medium. After 21 day of incubation at 25±1 ? C and using one mycelial plug (5mm), higher level of laccase activity (0.15U/ml) and specific activity (15U/mg) were observed by Pleurotus ostreatus in comparison with other fungal isolates. The results of optimum conditions for laccase production from selected isolate showed that, the maximum laccase activity (0.55U/ml) and specific activity (55U/mg) were obtained at moisture ratio 1:3 (w/v), using 3 mycelial plugs (5 mm), after 15 days incubation period at 25±1 ? C. The results of phenol degradation by crud laccase revealed th