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

Concrete structures are exposed to aggressive environmental conditions that lead to corrosion of the embedded reinforcement and pre-stressing steel. Consequently, the safety of concrete structures may be compromised, and this requires a significant budgets to repair and maintain critical infrastructure. Prediction of structural safety can lead to significant reductions in maintenance costs by maximizing the impact of investments. The aim of this paper is to establish a framework to assess the reliability of existing post-tensioned concrete bridges. A time-dependent reliability analysis of an existing post-tensioned involving the assessment of Ynys-y-Gwas bridge has been presented in this study. The main cause of failure of this bridge was c

Maintaining the quality of apricot fruits during storage is not an easy task due to the changes in their physical and chemical properties, so it is necessary to use less expensive, easy to apply, environmentally friendly, and safer preservatives to maintain the nutritional value of apricot. The damage to some fruits during storage can be a source of infection, which leads to the damage of healthy fruits more quickly, which requires building an intelligent model to detect damaged fruits. The aim of the research is to study the effect of immersing apricots in lemon juice once and sugar-water solution again on the quality properties of apricots, including sweetness, color, hardness, and water content. On the other hand, the YOLOv7 algorithm wa

In this study lattice parameters, band structure, and optical characteristics of pure and V-doped ZnO are examined by employing (USP) and (GGA) with the assistance of First-principles calculation (FPC) derived from (DFT). The measurements are performed in the supercell geometry that were optimized. GGA+U, the geometrical structures of all models, are utilized to compute the amount of energy after optimizing all parameters in the models. The volume of the doped system grows as the content of the dopant V is increased. Pure and V-doped ZnO are investigated for band structure and energy bandgaps using the Monkhorst–Pack scheme's k-point sampling techniques in the Brillouin zone (G-A-H-K-G-M-L-H). In the presence of high V content, the ban

Objective. This study aimed to evaluate and compare the force degradation of two types of elastomeric chains following different periods of immersion in zinc-containing mouthwashes. Materials and Methods. Four hundred and forty pieces of Elasto-Force and Super Elasto-Force elastomeric chains were divided into two control and eight experimental groups. The pieces were stretched to 25 mm on pins mounted on an acrylic block and stored in distilled water at 37°C. The experimental groups were immersed in four different types of mouthwash for one minute twice a day throughout the test period. Ten continuous thermocycles per day between cold and hot water baths (5–55°C) were carried out. Forces were measured at six-time intervals (in

Ammi species belong to the family Umbellifereae that provide a host of bioactive compounds (mainly coumarins and flavonoids) of important biological activities, like prevention and treatment of heart and vascular disease and some types of cancer. Literature survey revealed that there was no study concerning Ammi flavonoids in Iraq. Ammi majus and Ammi visnaga, which are wildly grown in Iraq, were chosen for this study. This study concerned with extraction, identification, isolation, and purification of some biologically important flavonols quercetin and kaempferol from the fruits of Ammi majus and Ammi visnaga. Extraction of these flavonols was carried out using 85% methanol and 90% e

this study aimed to study the effect of Cordia myxa extract on the growth and activities of the following types of bacteria : Escherichia coli , Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Proteus Spp., Klebsiella pneumoniae , Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pyogenes , Bacillus subtilus, and the yeast Candida albicans .the results showed an inhibitory effect of the methanol extract on both the growth and activity of the tested microbes .this was reflected by the minimum inhibitory concentration ( MIC ) of different type of bacteria and the yeast.

In the present study, multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) with outside diameters of< 8 nm and 20−30 nm were covalently functionalized with β-Alanine using a novel synthesis procedure. The functionalization process was proved successful using Raman spectroscopy, FTIR, and TEM. Utilizing the two-step method with ultrasonication, the MWCNTs treated with β-Alanine (Ala-MWCNTs) with weight concentrations of 0.025%, 0.05%, 0.075%, and 0.1% were dispersed in distilled water to prepare water-based nanofluids. The aqueous colloidal dispersions of pristine MWCNTs were unstable. While for Ala-MWCNTs and after> 50 days from preparation, higher colloidal stability was obtained up to relative concentration of 0.955 and 0.939 for the 0.075-wt% samp

Objective Advantageous properties of silicone elastomer made it one of the favorable materials in maxillofacial prosthesis construction, but these properties may change after months of usage or after pigments addition. This study aimed to define the optimum concentration for a mixture of two types of intrinsic pigments that added to VST-50 maxillofacial silicone material and study their effects on mechanical properties before and after artificial aging. Methods After the pilot study was conducted, 0.1% by weight of rayon flocking and 0. 2% by weight of burnt sienna intrinsic pigment concentration was selected because of improvement in tested mechanical properties of VST-50 maxillofacial silicone. A total of one hundred and eighty samples we