Storage of rainwater within the root depth zone is one of the modern ways to increase plant production. Subsurface water retention technology was applied to assess improving values of crop yield and crop water use efficiency, applying a membrane made of low-density polyethylene trough installed below the crop root zone. The goal of this paper is to assess that the retention of rainwater above the membrane can improve the crop yield and crop water use efficiency values for winter wheat. The experiment was conducted in open field, within Joeybeh Township, located in east of the Ramadi City, in Anbar Province, in winter growing season 2018-2019. Two plots T1 (with membrane trough) and T2 (without membrane) were used for the comparison and cultivated with winter wheat, where the rainwater was only the source of irrigation. At the end of the harvest stage the obtained results of crop yield and crop water use efficiency for plots T1 and T2 were; 0.35 kg/m2 and 1.66 kg/m3, and 0.28 kg/m2 and 1.28 kg/m3, respectively. The increasing value of crop yield and crop water use efficiency in plot T1 was about 25 % and 30 %, respectively more than plot T2. Benefits of the installation of membrane trough are to keep soil moisture for longer times, prevent the cracks of the soil surface and reduce the deep percolation losses.
To promote sustainable steel-concrete composite structures, it is essential to develop special shear connectors that facilitate accelerated construction and deconstruction. A lockbolt demountable shear connector (LBDSC) was recently proposed. While the LBDSC has been evaluated using horizontal and vertical (standard) push-out tests, it is essential to further assess the disassembly mechanism and the positive flexural performance of prefabricated demountable composite beams (PDCBs) under both serviceability and ultimate limit states. Two full-scale test specimens of PDCBs with LBDSC were designed with partial shear connections and assessed using a three or four-point load beam setup under both cyclic and static monotonic loading conditions.
... Show MoreRapid worldwide urbanization and drastic population growth have increased the demand for new road construction, which will cause a substantial amount of natural resources such as aggregates to be consumed. The use of recycled concrete aggregate could be one of the possible ways to offset the aggregate shortage problem and reduce environmental pollution. This paper reports an experimental study of unbound granular material using recycled concrete aggregate for pavement subbase construction. Five percentages of recycled concrete aggregate obtained from two different sources with an originally designed compressive strength of 20–30 MPa as well as 31–40 MPa at three particle size levels, i.e., coarse, fine, and extra fine, were test
... Show MoreThis work evaluates the economic feasibility of various production scenarios for the Zubair reservoir in the Kifl oil field using cash flow and net present value (NPV) calculations. The Kifl field is an exploratory field that has not yet been developed or assessed economically. The first well was drilled in 1960, and three other wells were later drilled to assess the oil accumulation, so in this research, Different production scenarios were evaluated economically. These scenarios were proposed based on the reservoir model of the Zubair formation in the field. The research methodology used QUE$TOR software to estimate capital expenditures (CapEx) and operating expenditures (OpEx) based on field-level data, production prof
... Show MoreThe dynamic behavior of laced reinforced concrete (LRC) T‐beams could give high‐energy absorption capabilities without significantly affecting the cost, which was offered through a combination of high strength and ductile response. In this paper, LRC T‐beams, composed of inclined continuous reinforcement on each side of the beam, were investigated to maintain high deformations as predicted in blast resistance. The beams were tested under four‐point loading to create pure bending zones and obtain the ultimate flexural capacities. Transverse reinforcement using lacing reinforcement and conventional vertical stirrups were compared in terms of deformation, strain, and toughness changes of the tes
Cancer disease has a complicated pathophysiology and is one of the major causes of death and morbidity. Classical cancer therapies include chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and immunotherapy. A typical treatment is chemotherapy, which delivers cytotoxic medications to patients to suppress the uncontrolled growth of cancerous cells. Conventional oral medication has a number of drawbacks, including a lack of selectivity, cytotoxicity, and multi-drug resistance, all of which offer significant obstacles to effective cancer treatment. Multidrug resistance (MDR) remains a major challenge for effective cancer chemotherapeutic interventions. The advent of nanotechnology approach has developed the field of tumor diagnosis and treatment. Cancer nanote
... Show MoreThis paper proposes a neuro-fuzzy system to model β-glucosidase activity based on the reaction’s pH level and temperature. The developed fuzzy inference system includes two input variables (pH level and temperature) and one output (enzyme activity). The multi-input fuzzy inference system was developed in two stages: first, developing a single input-single output fuzzy inference system for each input variable (pH, temperature) separately, using the robust adaptive network-based fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) approach. The neural network learning techniques were used to tune the membership functions based on previously published experimental data for β-glucosidase. Second, each input’s optimized membership functions from the ANF
... Show More