In Australia, most of the existing buildings were designed before the release of the Australian standard for earthquake actions in 2007. Therefore, many existing buildings in Australia lack adequate seismic design, and their seismic performance must be assessed. The recent earthquake that struck Mansfield, Victoria near Melbourne elevated the need to produce fragility curves for existing reinforced concrete (RC) buildings in Australia. Fragility curves are frequently utilized to assess buildings’ seismic performance and it is defined as the demand probability surpassing capacity at a given intensity level. Numerous factors can influence the results of the fragility assessment of RC buildings. Among the most important factors that can affe

Roller-Compacted Concrete is a no-slump concrete, with no reinforcing steel, no forms, no finishing and wet enough to support compaction by vibratory rollers. Due to the effect of curing on properties and durability of concrete, the main purpose of this research is to study the effect of various curing methods (air curing, 7 days water curing, and permanent water curing) and porcelanite (local material used as an Internal Curing agent) with different replacement percentages of fine aggregate (volumetric replacement) on some properties of Roller-Compacted Concrete and to explore the possibility of introducing practical Roller-Compacted Concrete for road pavement with minimum requirement of curing. Specimens were sawed fro

The utilization of recycled brick tile powder as a replacement for conventional filler in the asphalt concrete mix has been studied in this research. This research evaluates the effectiveness of recycled brick tile powder and determines its optimum replacement level. Using recycled brick tile powder is significant from an environmental standpoint as it is a waste product from construction activities. Sixteen asphalt concrete samples were produced, and eight were soaked for a day. Samples contained 5% Bitumen, 2% to 5% brick tile powder, and conventional stone dust filler. The properties of samples were evaluated using the Marshall test. It was observed that the resistance to stiffness and deformation of asphalt concrete

Breastfeeding (BF) serves as a complete nutritional source for the first six months of infant’s life. Breast milk contains all essential nutrients that necessary for the physiological growth and development of infants. The aim of this study was to compare the physiological growth of infants including weight, height and head circumference who were exclusively breastfed for 6 months and those who were given bottle-fed or mixed fed and to find a percentage of exclusive breastfeeding among mothers who contributed in this study in Sulaimani city. This study was carried out in Sulaimani city/ Kurdistan region of Iraq and the cases were enrolled between the first of October 2018 and first of October 2019. The infants’ weight, height and hea

Biodiesel is becoming one of the most attractive alternative biofuels for petroleum-based diesel fuels. The castor plant is one of the abundant non-edible oils found in many countries. This paper aims to study Libyan castor oil and its potential for diesel conversion. Experiments were carried out in the laboratories of the Specific Center for Training in the Oil Industries in Al-Zawiya. The oil was extracted using a Soxhlet extractor and n-hexane solvent at 60 °C. Transesterification reactions were conducted in a batch reactor (a three-neck flask was used, where the middle opening carries a reflux condensation unit) at 65 °C. The methanol-to-castor oil molar ratio was 6:1, with a catalyst concentration of 1 wt.% relative to the ca

Process capability provides a quantitative measure for gasoline production conformance to specifications.It was measured throughout four consecutive months of the last quarter of 2011. Results revealed high percentages (up to 44%) of non conforming gasoline blends to Iraqi marketing specifications for petroleum products (2000) by inspecting 122 different samples of Iraqi regular gasoline (RON 85).
Quality cost analysis as an important financial control tool was carried out to evaluate Cost of Quality (COQ) which was large due to non conforming gasoline reached up to (722.8 M.ID) in October. In this research COQ was investigated in order to identify the opportunities of gasoline quality improvements through production process. Also cus

      Protease enzyme production was studied and optimized as  a first step to collect information about solid state fermenter) to produce protease enzyme. A local isolated Aspergillus niger was used for this study with constant spores feeding in every experiment at (10⁵/g). Experiments carried out in conical flasks with (250 ml) containing (10 g) of wheat straw as a substrate with different conditions included temperature, pH, hydration ratio, and fermentation time, the results comprised by measuring protease activity (u). The results showed that the best activity can be obtained at (T = 32°C, t= 100 hrs, pH= 2.5 and hydration ratio is 1:3). On the other hand the results is courage to p

act : A soluble cytoplasmic antigen (Brucellin) was prepared from Brucella melitensis Rev1 and used to diagnose brucellosis in experimentally infected mice with virulent strains of Brucella melitensis and Brucella abortus two weeks after infection. The best result was obtained with the third peak of the four peaks. All four peaks were used as antigen for skin test in a group of mice two weeks after vaccinated with S19 vaccine and the best result was obtained with third peak. All four peaks were also used as antigen for skin test in a group of mice previously vaccinated with Listeria monocytogenes live attenuated vaccine. All four fractions of the extracted brucellin antigens exhibited a negative skin test result in Listeria monocytogenes ex