Beta-lactamase was purified from local isolate Klebsiella pneumonia by several steps included precipitation with ammonium sulphate at 20-40% saturation, DEAE- ion exchange chromatography and gel filtration on Sephacryl S-200 column. The obtained purification fold and recovery were 32.66; 47.04% respectively. The characterization of the purified beta-lactamase showed that the molecular weight was about 4000 daltons as determined by gel filtration.Purified enzyme had an optimal pH of 7 for activity and an optimal stability between pH 6.5-7.5, results shows that the optimal temperature appear to be 35 ? C .During storage the enzyme retained 72% at -20 ? C and retained 25% of the activity at the same period at 4 ? C.

An experimental investigation based on thirty three simple pullout cylinder specimens was conducted to study the bond-slip trend between concrete and steel reinforcement. Plain and deformed steel reinforcement bars were used in this investigation. The effect of bar diameter, concrete compressive strength and development length on bond-slip relation was detected. The results showed that the bond strength increases with increasing of compressive strength and with decreasing of bar diameter and development length. A nonlinear regression analysis for the experimental results yields in a mathematical correlation to predict the bond strength as a function of concrete compressive strength, reinforcing bar diameter and its yield stress. The minimum

Durability of hot mix asphalt (HMA) against moisture damage is mostly related to asphalt-aggregate adhesion. The objective of this work is to find the effect of nanoclay with montmorillonite (MMT) on Marshall properties and moisture susceptibility of asphalt mixture. Two types of asphalt cement, AC(40-50) and AC(60-70) were modified with 2%, 4% and 6% of Iraqi nanoclay with montmorillonite. The Marshall properties, Tensile strength ratio(TSR) and Index of retained strength(ISR) were determined in this work. The total number of specimens was 216 and the optimum asphalt content was 4.91% and 5% for asphalt cement (40-50) and (60-70) respectively. The results showed that the modification of asphalt cement with MMT led to increase Marsh

Water absorbent polymers (WAP) are new component in producing building materials. They provide internal curing which reduces autogenous cracking, eliminates autogenous shrinkage, mortar strength increased, enhance early age strength to withstand strain, improve the durability, introduce higher early age compressive strength, have higher performance and reduce the effect of insufficient external curing. This research used different percent of polymer balls to choose the percent that provides good development in compressive strength with time for both water and air curing. The water absorption polymer balls in this research have the ability to absorb water and after usage in concrete they spill out the water (internal curing) and shri

Prediction of the structural response of reinforced concrete to the time-dependent, creep and shrinkage, volume changes is complex. Creep is usually determined by measuring the change, with time, in the strain of specimens subjected to a constant stress and stored under appropriate conditions. This paper brings into view the development of creep strain for four self-compacting concrete mixes: A40, AL40, B60 and BL60 (where 40 and 60 represent the compressive strength level at 28 days and L indicates to Portlandlimestone cement). Specimens were put under sustained load and exposed to controlled conditions in a creep chamber (ASTM C512). The test results showed that normal strength Portland-limestone mixes have yielded lower ultimate c

This study aimed to investigate the influence of longitudinal steel embedded tubes located at the center of the column cross-section on the behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) columns. The experimental program consisted of 8 testing pin-ended square sectional columns of 150×150 mm, having a total height of 1400 mm, subjected to eccentric load. The considered variables were the steel square tube sizes of 25, 51 and 68 mm side dimensions and the load eccentricity (50 and 150) mm. RC columns were concealed steel tubes with hollow ratios of 3%, 12% and 20% depending on tube sizes used. The experimental results indicated an improvement in the overall behavior of eccentric columns when steel embedded tubes are used. The maximum gain in

In this paper, the time-history responses of a square plan two-story reinforced concrete prototype building, considering the elastic and inelastic behavior of the materials, were studied numerically. ABAQUS software was used in three-dimensional (3D) nonlinear dynamic analysis to predict the inelastic response of the buildings. Concrete Damage Plasticity Model (CDPM) has been used to model the inelastic behavior of the reinforced concrete building under seismic excitation. The input data included geometric information, material properties, and the ground motion. The building structure was designed only for gravity load according to ACI 318 with

There are many different methods for analysis of two-way reinforced concrete slabs. The most efficient methods depend on using certain factors given in different codes of reinforced concrete design. The other ways of analysis of two-way slabs are the direct design method and the equivalent frame method. But these methods usually need a long time for analysis of the slabs.

In this paper, a new simple method has been developed to analyze the two-way slabs by using simple empirical formulae, and the results of final analysis of some examples have been compared with other different methods given in different codes of practice.

The comparison proof that this simple proposed method gives good results and it can be used in analy