Variation orders are an on-going phenomenon in construction and industry projects worldwide, particularly in the province of Sulaimani, where the project's damage from cost and schedule overrun because of variation orders. However, the effect on project costs and time overrun of variation order has yet to be identified. This study evaluates the impact of variation orders on the cost and time off in the Sulaimani governorate. Two hundred twenty-eight projects from various construction sectors built between 2007-2012 were adopted to calculate the contract cost and schedule overruns due to variation orders. Data analysis was applied in the study were descriptive statistics. One-way ANOVA was also applied to determine whether the overrun of project cost and schedule significantly varied depending on project type, size, duration, location, and awarded years. The findings indicated that cost overruns are very common due to variation orders. 95.6% of the projects were studied being impacted, and overrun in project cost are also huge, with 16%. Time also overruns more common than cost overruns due to the variation orders. 98.7% of the projects were studied in Sulaimani were affected by time overrun with an average of 46.3% of initial duration observed. Findings also indicated that two out of five parameters measured in the analysis had a significant correlation with project cost overruns. Three out of five considered variables correlated with construction time overruns.
Titanium alloy surface properties have an essential role in the interaction of dental implants with bone, and alteration of the surface of the implant could improve osseointegration. This study was designed to investigate the effect of different heat treatment temperatures on titanium alloy surface properties for dental implants. The effect of different temperatures of heat treatment (750°C, 850°C, 950°C and 1050°C) were investigated on the surface topography, surface chemistry, titanium oxide layer thickness, blood contact angle, & blood drop diameter of titanium alloy. The disks were prepared from titanium alloy (Ti-6Al-4V) and the samples were divided into five groups depending on the different temperatures of heat treatment. The hea
... Show MoreThis paper aims to study the damage generated due to creep-fatigue interaction behaviors in solid polyamide 6,6 and its composites that include 1%wt of carbon nanotubes or 30% wt short carbon fiber prepared by an injection technique. The investigation also includes studying the influence of applied temperatures higher than the glass transition temperatures on mechanical properties. The obtained results showed that the addition of reinforcement materials increased all the mechanical properties, while the increase in test temperature reduced all mechanical properties, especially for polyamide 6,6. The creep-fatigue interaction resistance also improved due to the addition of reinforcement materials by inc
... Show MoreThe efficiency of internal combustion engines (ICE) is usually about thirty percent of the total energy of the fuel. The residual energy is lost in the exhaust gas, the lubrication, and the cooling water in the radiators. Recently much of the researcher’s efforts have focused on taking advantage of wasted energy of the exhaust gas. Using a thermoelectric generator (TEG) is one of the promising ways. However, TEG depends entirely on the temperature difference, which may be offered by the exhaust muffler. An experimental test has been conducted to study the thermal performance of a different muffler internal design. The researchers resort to the use of lost energy in an ICE using TEG, which is one of the ways to take adv
... Show MoreThis study investigates the digestion of cow dung (CD) for biogas production at laboratory scales. The study was carried out through anaerobic fermentation using cow dung as substrate. The digester was operated at ambient temperatures of 39.5 °C for a period of 10 days. The effect of iron powder in controlling the production of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) has been tested. The optimum concentration of iron powder was 4g/L with the highest biogas production. A Q – swatch Nd:YAG laser has been used to mix and homogenize the components of one of the six digesters and accelerate digestion. At the end of digestion, all digestions effluent was subjected to 5 laser pulses with 250mJ/pules to dispose waste biomass.
The synchronization of a complex network with optoelectronic feedback has been introduced theoretically, with use of 2×2 oscillators network; each oscillator considered is an optocoupler (LED coupled with photo-detector). Fixing the bias current (δ) and increasing the feedback strength (Ԑ) of each oscillator, the dynamical sequence like chaotic and periodic mixed mode oscillations has been observed. Synchronization of unidirectionally coupled of light emitting diodes network has been featured when coupling strength equal to 1.7×10-4. The transition between non-synchronization and synchronization states by means of the spatio-temporal distribution has been investigated.
A new two-way nesting technique is presented for a multiple nested-grid ocean modelling system. The new technique uses explicit center finite difference and leapfrog schemes to exchange information between the different subcomponents of the nested-grid system. The performance of the different nesting techniques is compared, using two independent nested-grid modelling systems. In this paper, a new nesting algorithm is described and some preliminary results are demonstrated. The validity of the nesting method is shown in some problems for the depth averaged of 2D linear shallow water equation.
Background: The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the efficacy of a new orthodontic bonding system (Beauty Ortho Bond) involving the shear bond strength in dry and wet environments, and adhesion remnant index (ARI) scores evaluation in regard to other bonding systems (Heliosit and Resilience Orthodontic Adhesives). Materials and methods: Sixty defect free extracted premolars were randomly divided into six groups of 10 teeth each, mounted in acrylic resin, three groups for a dry environment and three for a wet one. Shear bond strength test was performed with a cross head speed of 0.5 mm/min, while surfaces of enamel and bracket-adhesive-enamel surfaces were examined with stereomicroscope For ARI scores evaluation. Data were analyz
... Show MoreA total of 37 Staphylococcus epidermidis isolates, isolated from corneal scraping of patients with bacterial keratitis and 20 isolates from healthy eyes (as control) (all isolates, isolated from, Ibn Al- Haietham eye hospital / Baghdad), were tested for slime production, 52.63% of all isolates were positive-slime production (23 isolates from patients and 7 isolates from controls). It was found that positive-slime producing S. epidermidis were exhibited a high resistance to antibiotics as compared to negative-slime producing isolates.