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.
The grasping stability of robotic manipulators is crucial to enable autonomous manipulation in an environment where robots are facing obstacles in their route, where abrupt changes in the robot’s speed are induced. These speed variations will produce forces affecting the robotic manipulator, hence its grasping stability. In this research, the grasping stability of a robotic manipulator that functions according to a frictional self-locking mechanism is investigated statically and dynamically. Both theoretical and experimental results showed that the grasped object size, weight, and its orientation inside the gripper have a great effect on grasping stability. Both the theoretical and experimental results indicated that the grasping object p
... Show MoreThe sensors based on Nickel oxide doped chromic oxide (NiO: Cr2O3) nanoparticals were fabricated using thick-film screen printing of sol-gel grown powders. The structural, morphological investigations were carried out using XRD, AFM, and FESEM. Furthermore, the gas responsivity were evaluated towards the NH3 and NO2 gas. The NiO0.10: Cr2O3 nanoparticles exhibited excellent response of 95 % at 100oC and better selectivity towards NH3 with low response and recovery time as compared to pure Cr2O3 and can stand as reliable sensor element for NH3 sensor related applications.
Solubility problem of many of effective pharmaceutical molecules are still one of the major obstacle in theformulation of such molecules. Candesartan cilexetil (CC) is angiotensin II receptor antagonist with very low water solubility and this result in low and variable bioavailability. Self- emulsifying drug delivery system (SEDDS) showed promising result in overcoming solubility problem of many drug molecules. CC was prepared as SEDDS by using novel combination of two surfactants (tween 80 and cremophore EL) and tetraglycol as cosurfactant, in addition to the use of triacetin as oil. Different tests were performed in order to confirm the stability of the final product which includes thermodynamic study, determination of self-emulsificat
... Show MoreThe interlaminar fracture toughness of polymer blends reinforced by glass fiber has
been investigated. Epoxy (EP), unsaturated polyester(UPE), polystyrene (PS),
polyurethane (PU) and their blends with different ratios (10%PS/90%EP),
(20%PS/80%EP), (20%PU/80%EP) and (20%PU/80%UPE) were chosen as a matrices A
sheet of composites were prepared using hand lay -up method, these sheet were cut as the
double cantilever beam (DCB) specimen to determine interlaminar fracture toughness of
these composites .Its found that, blending of EP,UPE with 20% of PU will improve the
interlaminar fracture toughness ,but the adding of 10% PS, 20%PS to EP will decrease
the interlaminar toughness of these composites.
The Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) has recently emerged as a human pathogen caused by SARS-CoV-2 virus was first reported from Wuhan, China, on 31 December 2019. Upon study, it has been used molecular docking to binding affinity between COVID-19 protease enzyme and flavonoids with evaluations based on docking scores calculated by AutoDock Vina. Results showed that naringin suppressed COVID-19 protease, as it has the highest binding value than other flavonoids including quercetin, hesperetin, garcina and naringenin. An important finding in this study is that naringin with neighboring poly hydroxyl groups can serve as inhibitors of COVID-19 protease bind to the S pocket of protein, it is shown that residues His163, Glu166, Asn142, His41and
... Show MoreThe influence of Cr3+ doping on the ground state properties of SrTiO3 perovskite was evaluated using GGA-PBE approximation. Computational modeling results infered an agreement with the previously published literature. The modification of electronic structure and optical properties due to Cr3+ introducing into SrTiO3 were investigated. Structural parameters assumed that Cr3+ doping alters the electronic structures of SrTiO3 by shifting the conduction band through lower energies for the Sr and Ti sites. Besides, results showed that the band gap was reduced by approximately 50% when presenting one Cr3+ atom into the SrTiO3 system and particularly positioned at Sr sites. Interestingly, substituting Ti site by Cr3+ led to eliminating the band ga
... Show MoreWaste materials might be utilized in various applications, such as sustainable roller compacted concrete pavements (RCCP), to lessen the negative environmental consequences of construction waste. The impacts of utilizing (brick, thermostone, granite, and ceramic) powders on the mechanical characteristics of RCCP are investigated in this study. To achieve this, the waste materials were crushed, grounded, and blended before being utilized as filler in the RCCP. After the mixes were prepared, compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, flexural strength, water absorption, density, and porosity were all determined. According to the research results, adding some of these powders, mainly brick and granite powder, enhances the mechanical
... Show MoreThe thermal degradation of cable ties of polyamide (PA6,6) neat and UV stabilized was investigated by thermogravimetry (TG) and its derivative (DTG) at several heating rates between 5 and 80 oC min-1 in helium atmosphere. High heating rates signal novel peaks in the DTG curves that indicate melting temperature of PA6,6. The kinetic parameters calculated via isoconversion and nonisothermal data using the Flynn-Wall-Ozawa, Kissinger and CoatsRedfern methods showed comparable activation energy values. Exposure of the ties to outdoor environment causes pre-mature stress cracking and brittle failure due to prevalence of crosslinking reaction occurring in the polymer chains
To fabricate an inexpensive surface coating with excellent mechanical properties with good water resistance and thermal diffusion, white eggshell fibers with particle size (~1micrometer) has been added by different weight percentages (1,2,3,4,5,6,7 and 8 %) to Unsaturated Polyester.
The weight ratio (4%) of eggshell powder is a good ratio to be added to polyester to improve its mechanical properties, such as hardness, impact strength, and wear resistance. The hardness was improved by (3.75%); impact strength has the same value as polyester, flexural strength by (8.43%) and high improvement in wear resistance (74.4%), as well as to get further improvements in mechanical properties of polyester, the eggshell powder was added
... Show More