Academic chemical laboratories (ACL) are considered public places  the employees come in contact with a variety of pollutants. The aim of the current study was to detect heavy metals levels in the indoor air of ACL in two universities in Baghdad city and assess their levels in the academic employees’ scalp hair as biomarkers. Air samples inside ACL were collected to detect Fe, Cd, Zn, Pb and Cu. Scalp hair samples were collected from 40 adult chemical laboratory employees aged 30-60 years, who worked 5 days/week for 6 hours a day. Personal information relating to employees such as age, duration of exposure, smoking habit and sex, was collected as a questionnaire. The results of this study concluded that academic laboratory employ

The technology of subsurface soil water retention (SWRT) uses a polyethylene ‎trough that is fixed under the root zone of the plant. It is a modern technology to increase the values of water ‎use efficiency, plant productivity and saving irrigation water by applying as little irrigation water ‎as possible. This study work aims at improving the crop yield and water use efficiency of a cucumber plant with less applied irrigation water by installing membrane trough below the soil surface. The field experiment was conducted in the Hawr Rajab District of ‎Baghdad Governorate in Winter 2018 for testing various trickle irrigation ‎systems. Two agricultural ‎treatment plots were utilized in a greenhouse for the compa

The technology of subsurface soil water retention (SWRT) uses a polyethylene trough that is fixed under the root zone of the plant. It is a modern technology to increase the values of water use efficiency, plant productivity and saving irrigation water by applying as little irrigation water as possible. This study work aims at improving the crop yield and water use efficiency of a cucumber plant with less applied irrigation water by installing membrane trough below the soil surface. The field experiment was conducted in the Hawr Rajab District of Baghdad Governorate in Winter 2018 for testing various trickle irrigation systems. Two agricultural treatment plots were utilized in a greenhouse for the comparison. Plot T1 has used a subsurface t

In this study, a three-dimensional finite element analysis using ANSYS 12.1 program had been employed to simulate simply supported reinforced concrete (RC) T-beams with multiple web circular openings subjected to an impact loading. Three design parameters were considered, including size, location and number of the web openings. Twelve models of simply supported RC T-beams were subjected to one point of transient (impact) loading at mid span. Beams were simulated and analysis results were obtained in terms of mid span deflection-time histories and compared with the results of the solid reference one. The maximum mid span deflection is an important index for evaluating damage levels of the RC beams subjected to impact loading. Three experi

In this research a theoretical study has been carried out on the behavior and strength of simply supported composite beams strengthened by steel cover plate taking into consideration partial interaction of shear connectors and nonlinear behavior of the materials and shear connectors. Following the procedure that already has been adopted by Johnson (1975), the basic differential equations of equilibrium and compatibility were reduced to single differential equation in terms of interface slip between concrete slab and steel beam. Furthermore, in order to consider the nonlinear behavior of steel, concrete and shear connectors, the basic equation was rearranged so that all terms related to materials are isol

In this study, the effect of fire flame on the punching shear strength of steel fiber reinforced concrete flat plates was experimentally investigated using nine half-scale specimens with dimensions of 1500×1500 mm and a total thickness of 100 mm. The main investigated variables comprised the steel fiber volume fraction 0, 1, and 1.5% and the burning steady state temperature 500 and 600 °C. The specimens were divided into three groups, each group consists of three specimens. The specimens in the first group were tested with no fire effect to be the reference specimens, while the others of the second and third groups were tested after being exposed to fire-flame effect. The adopted characteristics of the fire test were; (one hour) b