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

Evidences indicate that human beings were preoccupied with extreme forms of mental and psychic experiences long before they were recorded in literature. Greek myths and legends appear to include symbolizations of delusions, mania, and other bizarre forms of thought and behaviuor. The figure of the mad man or woman is analogous to the wild man, or the imaginary being who appears in various forms throughout western literature and art. Various studies refer to the notion of the wild man as a response to a persistent psychological urge. This urge gives an external expression and a valid form to the impulses of reckless physical self-assertion which is believed to be hidden in all of us, but is normally kept under control. Such impulses were exp

Football has progressed from being a ritual and a celebration to become an amateur sport, a professional sport, and now, increasingly, a commercial sport. In the analysis of football business model, the systemic approach should be adopted. If sport is regarded as one of the business sectors, then the application of business system methodology can be fully justified. The interest to create strong football business system calls for the search of the ways of popularizing football business model and boosting the economic potential of its participants. In the research literature tend to ignore the business processes within the sports business. Besides, the systemic approach in football business is usually limited to p

Background: Polymorphisms in the TNF-α gene affect the development and progression of rheumatoid arthritis. Objective: To investigate the associations between (-806 T/C) and (-857 T/C) SNPs with rheumatoid arthritis severity and susceptibility in a sample of Iraqi patients. Methods: A case-control study was conducted in Baghdad, Iraq. Twenty healthy controls and 63 patients confirmed to be newly diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis were included. Those are divided into two groups (patients and controls), and the patients were further subdivided into severe and mild-moderate groups. Samples from those participants were analyzed for clinical and inflammatory parameter measurements. Genotyping by the Sanger method was performed to stu

يمثل الفهم الصحيح لادوار وأشكال الادارات العامة في سعيها لإنجاز الأهداف تلبية للاحتياجات المجتمعية عبر مؤسساتها العامة ، بعداً إستراتيجياً في الأداء الفعال والكفء لهذه الادارات ، وقد كان للتطورات الحاصلة في البيئة الخارجية دوراً مؤثرا أسهم في دفع العديد من الدول لإعادة النظر في أجهزتها الإدارية العامة لتحسين مقدرتها على مواجهة التغيرات المتسارعة والتوجه نحو اعتماد مداخل واستراتيجيات إبداعية حديثة في الع

Systemic lupus Erythematosus is an autoimmune disease of unknown aetiology affecting multiple organ system. Reactive nitrogen and oxygen species are claimed to play a role in this disease. However, the potential of Nitrosative/Oxidative Stress to elicit an autoimmune, response remain till now largely unexplored in humans. This study was done to investigate the status and contribution of nitrosative/oxidative stress in Iraqi patients for systemic lupus erythematosus. Blood samples from 19 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and 19 age-and sex- matched apparently healthy controls were evaluated for serum levels of nitrosative/oxidative stress markers including nitric oxide, peroxynitrite and malondialdehyde. Nitric oxide levels were