Laboratory experience in Iraq with cold asphalt concrete mixtures is very limited. The design and use of cold mixed asphalt concrete had no technical requirements. In this study, two asphalt concrete mixtures used for the base course were prepared in the laboratory using conventional cold-mixing techniques to test cold asphalt mixture (CAM) against aging and moisture susceptibility. Cold asphalt mixtures specimens have been prepared in the lab with cutback and emulsion binders, different fillers, and curing times. Based on the Marshal test result, the cutback proportion was selected with the filler, also based on the Marshal test emulsion. The first mixture was medium setting cationic emulsion (MSCE) as a binder, hydrated lime, and ordinary portland cement as a filler (7.95% MSCE + 2%HL + 3% OPC). The second mixture used was medium curing cutback (MC-250) as a binder and ordinary portland cement as a filler (5.18% MC 250 + 5% OPC). The indirect tensile strength (ITS) of the samples was measured at 25 ° C. It was found that the cold mix with the MSCE binder had a high ITS value relative to the cold mix with the cutback asphalt binder (MC-250). The dry mixture of MSCE ITS was approximately 3.77 times the dry mixture of MC-250. The MSCE wet mix was about 4.2 times the wet MC-250 mix. Tensile strength ratio result (TSR %) for the MSCE binder mix and the cutback MC-250 binder mix showed that the MSCE mix has a reasonable moisture resistance (77% ) compared to the MC-250 mix (69.2 %). The aging test and aging ratio result showed that asphalt binder oxidation has a significant effect on age-related pavement degradation as it changes the time-temperature relationship depending on the viscoelastic properties of the asphalt binder. The result clearly showed that the MSCE binder mix had a high resistance to aging (440 Kpa) compared to the cutback (MC-250) binder mix (110 Kpa). In contrast, the MSCE aging ratio (90 %) was higher than the MC-250 ratio (85 %).
The effect of considering the third dimension in mass concrete members on its cracking behavior is investigated in this study. The investigation includes thermal and structural analyses of mass concrete structures. From thermal analysis, the actual temperature distribution throughout the mass concrete body was obtained due to the generation of heat as a result of cement hydration in
addition to the ambient circumstances. This was performed via solving the differential equations of heat conduction and convection using the finite element method. The finite element method was also implemented in the structural analysis adopting the concept of initial strain problem. Drying shrinkage volume changes were calculated using the procedure sug
A case–control study (80 patients with chronic hepatitis B virus [HBV] infection and 96 controls) was performed to evaluate the association of an IL12A gene variant (rs582537 A/C/G) with HBV infection. Allele G showed a signifcantly lower frequency in patients compared to controls (31.2 vs. 46.9%; probability [p]=0.009; corrected p [pc]=0.027) and was associated with a lower risk of HBV infection (odds ratio [OR]=0.49; 95% confdence interval [CI]=0.29–0.83). A similar lower risk was associated with genotypes CG (17.5 vs. 29.2; OR=0.25; 95% CI=0.08–0.81; p=0.02) and GG (10.0 vs. 16.7; OR=0.25; 95% CI=0.07–0.91; p=0.036), but the pc value was not signifcant (0.12 and 0.126, respec‑ tively). Serum IL35 levels showed signifcant difere
... Show MoreCorrect grading of apple slices can help ensure quality and improve the marketability of the final product, which can impact the overall development of the apple slice industry post-harvest. The study intends to employ the convolutional neural network (CNN) architectures of ResNet-18 and DenseNet-201 and classical machine learning (ML) classifiers such as Wide Neural Networks (WNN), Naïve Bayes (NB), and two kernels of support vector machines (SVM) to classify apple slices into different hardness classes based on their RGB values. Our research data showed that the DenseNet-201 features classified by the SVM-Cubic kernel had the highest accuracy and lowest standard deviation (SD) among all the methods we tested, at 89.51 % 1.66 %. This
... Show MoreThis paper presents a robust algorithm for the assessment of risk priority for medical equipment based on the calculation of static and dynamic risk factors and Kohnen Self Organization Maps (SOM). Four risk parameters have been calculated for 345 medical devices in two general hospitals in Baghdad. Static risk factor components (equipment function and physical risk) and dynamics risk components (maintenance requirements and risk points) have been calculated. These risk components are used as an input to the unsupervised Kohonen self organization maps. The accuracy of the network was found to be equal to 98% for the proposed system. We conclude that the proposed model gives fast and accurate assessment for risk priority and it works as p
... Show MoreThe current research aims to evaluate liquidity (as an independent variable) to improve the bank’s profitability (as a dependent variable ), by the bank’s ability to maximize its profits from its business results without excessive bank’s liquidity, so that may affect negatively affects the bank’s reputation and it’s dealers confidence in facing their financial obligations. and this may lead trying to come out among other recommendations including contributing to obtain, the bank’s ability to achieve liquidity balance to maximize its profits. This research has been applied to the sample induced intentionally by choosing three Iraqi private banks. The researcher used financial indicators to assess the bank’s liq
... Show MoreAbstract Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is a prevalent chronic microvascular diabetic complication. As inflammation plays a vital role in the development and progress of DN the macrophages migration inhibitory factor (MIF), a proinflammatory multifunctional cytokine approved to play a critical function in inflammatory responses in various pathologic situations like DN. This study aimed To assess serum levels of MIF in a sample of Iraqi diabetic patients with nephropathy supporting its validity as a marker for predicting nephropathy in T2DM patients. In addition, to evaluate the nephroprotective effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors in terms of their influence on MIF levels. This is a case-control study involving ninety
... Show MorePortland cement is considered the most involved product in environmental pollution. It is responsible for about 10% of global CO2 emissions [1]. Limestone dust is a by-product of limestone plants and it is produced in thousands of tons annually as waste material. To fulfill sustainability requirements, concrete production is recommended to reduce Portland cement usage with the use of alternative or waste materials. The production of sustainable high strength concrete by using nanomaterials is one of the aims of this study. Limestone dust in 12, 16, and 20% by weight of cement replaced cement in this study. The study was divided into two parts: the first was devoted to the investigation of the best percentage of replacement of waste
... Show MoreExperience the Islamic financial industry faces many challenges, most notably the lack of proper risk management tools that meet the requirements of legality and economic efficiency advantage from another side, so it requires the search for innovative ways to manage the risk of Islamic banking, Islamic finance industry is manufacture up-to-date, if compared with the financial industry (traditional), which increases the problematic of risk management in the Islamic financial industry nature of treatment which should be compatible with Islamic law, as well as economic efficiency, thereby Progress came the importance of research to highlight the entrance to Islamic financial engineering and the goals sought to be achieved through the use of
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