The sintering behavior of Alumina was investigated by adding TiO2. The addition of TiO2 lowered the sintering temperature of the Alumina compared with those of pure Alumina. The result suggests that TiO2 acts as an activator for sintering of Alumina. Water absorption, apparent porosity and density were examined for both pure and TiO2 added to Alumina samples. The variations of sintering behavior were discussed in terms of shrinkage, porosity, water absorption and density. Thermal shock resistance was also examined. In term of this work, the way of improving the thermal shock resistance in oxide- based materials by adding reactive Titania powder to the Alumina samples. The laboratory results showed an improvement in thermal shock resistance

    Soft clays are generally characterized by low shear strength, low permeability and high compressibility. An effective method to accelerate consolidation of such soils is to use vertical drains along with vacuum preloading to encourage radial flow of water.  In this research numerical modeling of prefabricated vertical drains with vacuum pressure was done to investigate the effect of using vertical drains together with vacuum pressure on the degree of saturation of fully and saturated-unsaturated soft soils.  Laboratory experiments were conducted by using a specially-designed large consolidometer cell where a central drain was installed and vacuum pressure was applied. All tests were conducted

The pure ZnS and ZnS-Gr nanocomposite have been prepared
successfully by a novel method using chemical co-precipitation. Also
conductive polymer PPy nanotubes and ZnS-PPy nanocomposite
have been synthesized successfully by chemical route. The effect of
graphene on the characterization of ZnS has been investigated. X-ray
diffraction (XRD) study confirmed the formation of cubic and
hexagonal structure of ZnS-Gr. Dc-conductivity proves that ZnS and
ZnS-Gr have semiconductor behavior. The SEM proved that
formation of PPy nanotubes and the Gr nanosheet. The sensing
properties of ZnS-PPy/ZnS-Gr for NO2 gas was investigated as a
function of operating temperature and time under optimal condition.
The sensitivity,

 In this work a Nd:YVO4 thin disc laser setup is designed and fabricated. The disk laser system
is designed to be compact. The laser crystal was pumped by a 808 nm diode laser. The effect of input
current and pulse frequency on the output energy at pulse operation mode, and the effect of the input
current on the output power at CW mode operation are tested. At the pulsed mode, the output energy
increased linearly with the input current and decreased with pulse frequency. The threshold current
increased with increasing pulse frequency increasing. The maximum output energy from the thin disc
laser was 0.98 μJ at 1.3 kHz frequency, with 0.49A. A minimum threshold current for CW mode of
operation. The maximum outpu

The objective of this study was to investigate and compare among five different methods of contraception including combined oral contraceptive pills (COC), Depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA), copper Intrauterine contraceptive device (IUCD), vaginal spermicides and male condom used in Hawler City through estimate of their effect, relative failure rate, percentage of use, adherence and compliance and adverse effects of each contraceptive method. In order to reach to these aims, a retrospective study was conducted in Hawler City in Azadi Health Care Center over a period of 6 months from 22^th November, 2010 to 15^th May, 2011 during which data collection and subjects follow up for 3 months had been achieved. A conv

In this work, a joint quadrature for numerical solution of the double integral is presented. This method is based on combining two rules of the same precision level to form a higher level of precision. Numerical results of the present method with a lower level of precision are presented and compared with those performed by the existing high-precision Gauss-Legendre five-point rule in two variables, which has the same functional evaluation. The efficiency of the proposed method is justified with numerical examples. From an application point of view, the determination of the center of gravity is a special consideration for the present scheme. Convergence analysis is demonstrated to validate the current method.

Pushover analysis is an efficient method for the seismic evaluation of buildings under severe earthquakes. This paper aims to develop and verify the pushover analysis methodology for reinforced concrete frames. This technique depends on a nonlinear representation of the structure by using SAP2000 software. The properties of plastic hinges will be defined by generating the moment-curvature analysis for all the frame sections (beams and columns). The verification of the technique above was compared with the previous study for two-dimensional frames (4-and 7-story frames). The former study leaned on automatic identification of positive and negative moments, where the concrete sections and steel reinforcement quantities the