Flexible pavements are subjected to three main distress types: fatigue crack, thermal crack, and permanent deformation. Under severe climate conditions, thermal cracking particularly contributes largely to a considerable scale of premature deterioration of pavement infrastructure worldwide. This challenge is especially relevant for Europe, as weather conditions vary significantly throughout the year. Hydrated lime (HL) has been recognized as an effective additive to improve the mechanical properties of asphalt concrete for pavement applications. Previous research has found that a replacement of conventional limestone dust filler using hydrated lime at 2.5% of the total weight of aggregates generated an optimum improvement in the mechanical properties of the asphalt concrete mixes used for all three purposed layers (i.e., wearing, levelling, and base) at atmospheric temperatures from mild to relatively high. This paper reports on a continuous experimental test for the thermal properties of the optimized hydrated lime-modified mixes. The experiment together with that conducted before provides the required data to characterize the thermomechanical constitutive relations of the optimized hydrated lime-modified mixes. The obtained thermal and mechanical properties thereafter were implemented in a numerical modelling study for a scenario involving pavement exposed to coupled thermal and traffic service conditions. The study has demonstrated that using HL in mineral filler enhances the thermal properties of asphalt concrete, which, however, showed little influence on the local temperature profiles within the pavement structure. The thermal effect is pronounced under the coupled thermomechanical conditions for a pavement exposed to both traffic and climatic impacts. The HL pavement has about 1.5% less deformation, and 39% less stress level under traffic loading only, but the thermal effect increases the maximum total internal tensile stress level by 26% in the HL pavement in winter season. The modelling analysis has shown that the local maximum tensile stress dominates in the surface region of the HL pavement. It will help to reduce the workload of crack repairing and in long term help on saving costs and efforts of maintenance.
Background: Although underdeveloped in Iraq, telehealth was one tool used to continue health service provision during the COVID-19 pandemic. Aim: To assess women’s experiences and satisfaction with gynaecological and obstetric telehealth services in Iraq during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Free telehealth services were provided by 4 obstetrician-gynaecologists associated with private clinics in 2020–2021. All patients who accessed the services between June 2020 and February 2021 were invited to complete a postconsultation survey on their experience and satisfaction with services. Results were analysed using descriptive statistics and logistic regression conducted using SPSS version 25. Results: A total of 151 (30.2%) women re
... Show MoreThe ground state charge, neutron, proton and matter densities, the associated nuclear radii and the binding energy per nucleon of 8B, 17Ne, 23Al and 27P halo nuclei have been investigated using the Skyrme–Hartree–Fock (SHF) model with the new SKxs25 parameters. According to the calculated results, it is found that the SHF model with these Skyrme parameters provides a good description on the nuclear structure of above proton-rich halo nuclei. The elastic charge form factors of 8B and 17Ne halo nuclei and those of their stable isotopes 10B and 20Ne are calculated using plane-wave Born approximation with the charge density distributions obtained by SHF model to investigate the effect of the extended charge distributions of proton-rich nucl
... Show MoreThis research deals with the most important heritage in Iraq, which are the Iraqi marshes, especially Abu Zarag marsh in Al-Nasiriyah city south of Iraq. The research is divided into two parts. The first part deals with evaluating the water quality parameters of Abu Zarag marsh for the period from December 2018 to April 2019 which is the flooding season. The parameters are Temperature, pH, Electrical Conductivity, Total Dissolved Solids, Alkalinity, Total Hardness, Turbidity, Dissolved Oxygen, Sulfate, Nitrate. The second part is a comparison between the water quality parameters during the recent period with the same period during the previous years from 2014 to 2019. The results are
Polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a group of aromatic compounds that contain at least two rings. These compounds are found naturally in petroleum products and are considered the most prevalent pollutants in the environment. The lack of microorganism capable of degrading some PAHs led to their accumulation in the environment which usually causes major health problems as many of these compounds are known carcinogens. Xanthene is one of the small PAHs which has three rings. Many xanthene derivatives are useful dyes that are used for dyeing wood and cosmetic articles. However, several studies have illustrated that these compounds have toxic and carcinogenic effects. The first step of the bacterial degradation of xanthene is conducted by d
... Show MoreABSTRACT
This research aim to measure the critical success factors for total quality management applications, in order to know the key and important role played by these factors at applying the total quality management through a comparative study conducted in a number of a private colleges.
The research problem posed a set of questions, the most important ones are: Are the colleges (sample of research) aware of the critical success factors at applying the total quality management? What is the availability of the critical success factors at the work of the colleges (sample of research)?
What are the critical success factors in the work of the researc
... Show MoreThe consumption of fossil fuels has caused many challenges, including environmental and climate damage, global warming, and rising energy costs, which has prompted seeking to substitute other alternative sources. The current study explored the microwave pyrolysis of Albizia branches to assess its potential to produce all forms of fuel (solid, liquid, gas), time savings, and effective thermal heat transfer. The impact of the critical parameters on the quantity and quality of the biofuel generation, including time, power levels, biomass weight, and particle size, were investigated. The results revealed that the best bio-oil production was 76% at a power level of 450 W and 20 g of biomass. Additionally, low power levels led to enhanced
... Show MoreA system was used to detect injuries in plant leaves by combining machine learning and the principles of image processing. A small agricultural robot was implemented for fine spraying by identifying infected leaves using image processing technology with four different forward speeds (35, 46, 63 and 80 cm/s). The results revealed that increasing the speed of the agricultural robot led to a decrease in the mount of supplements spraying and a detection percentage of infected plants. They also revealed a decrease in the percentage of supplements spraying by 46.89, 52.94, 63.07 and 76% with different forward speeds compared to the traditional method.
The optimum conditions for the production of neutral protease from local strain Aspergillus niger var carbonarius by solid – state fermentation system (Wheat bran) moisted with 0.2 M phosphate buffer (PH7.0) . the hydration ratio was 1:5 (V:W) . the concentration of inoculum was 1×106 spores per 10 gram of solid materials , initial P H 6.5 and 96 hours of incubation period at 30? C .the enzyme activity was 1300 unit / ml and specific activity was 1550 unit / mg protein .
KA Hadi, AH Asma’a, IJONS, 2018 - Cited by 1