Effective decision-making process is the basis for successfully solving any engineering problem. Many decisions taken in the construction projects differ in their nature due to the complex nature of the construction projects. One of the most crucial decisions that might result in numerous issues over the course of a construction project is the selection of the contractor. This study aims to use the ordinal priority approach (OPA) for the contractor selection process in the construction industry. The proposed model involves two computer programs; the first of these will be used to evaluate the decision-makers/experts in the construction projects, while the second will be used to formulate the OPA mathematical model. The experts’ interview was used to identify the criteria of evaluation process of the decision-makers/experts, while Delphi survey with principal component analysis (PCA) was conducted to identify the required selection criteria of the construction projects contractors. The results illustrate that there are 20 criteria for selecting the construction contractor, and 7 criteria for evaluating the decision-makers/experts in the construction projects. Finally, the proposed model has been applied in a real construction project, and showed good results.
A joke is something that is said, written, or done to cause amusement or laughter. It could be a short piece or a long narrative joke, but either way it ends in a punchline, where the joke contains a second conflicting meaning. Sometimes when we read a joke, we understand it directly and fully, but this is not always the case. When a writer writes a joke, he intends to manipulate the reader in a way that the reader doesn’t get the joke at once. He does that by using pun on words or any other word play. We, as listeners to the joke, try to get the message depending mostly on the tone of the voice, in addition to other factors concerning vocabulary and grammar. But as readers of the joke, we need more other factors in order to get
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The Phenomenon of Extremism of Values (Maximum or Rare Value) an important phenomenon is the use of two techniques of sampling techniques to deal with this Extremism: the technique of the peak sample and the maximum annual sampling technique (AM) (Extreme values, Gumbel) for sample (AM) and (general Pareto, exponential) distribution of the POT sample. The cross-entropy algorithm was applied in two of its methods to the first estimate using the statistical order and the second using the statistical order and likelihood ratio. The third method is proposed by the researcher. The MSE comparison coefficient of the estimated parameters and the probability density function for each of the distributions were
... Show MoreIn this paper, we describe the cases of marriage and divorce in the city of Baghdad on both sides of Rusafa and Karkh, we collected the data in this research from the Supreme Judicial Council and used the cubic spline interpolation method to estimate the function that passing through given points as well as the extrapolation method which was applied for estimating the cases of marriage and divorce for the next year and comparison between Rusafa and Karkh by using the MATLAB program.
Fingerprints are commonly utilized as a key technique and for personal recognition and in identification systems for personal security affairs. The most widely used fingerprint systems utilizing the distribution of minutiae points for fingerprint matching and representation. These techniques become unsuccessful when partial fingerprint images are capture, or the finger ridges suffer from lot of cuts or injuries or skin sickness. This paper suggests a fingerprint recognition technique which utilizes the local features for fingerprint representation and matching. The adopted local features have determined using Haar wavelet subbands. The system was tested experimentally using FVC2004 databases, which consists of four datasets, each set holds
... Show MoreSimulation of direct current (DC) discharge plasma using
COMSOL Multiphysics software were used to study the uniformity
of deposition on anode from DC discharge sputtering using ring and
disc cathodes, then applied it experimentally to make comparison
between film thickness distribution with simulation results. Both
simulation and experimental results shows that the deposition using
copper ring cathode is more uniformity than disc cathode
Information from 54 Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) brain tumor images (27 benign and 27 malignant) were collected and subjected to multilayer perceptron artificial neural network available on the well know software of IBM SPSS 17 (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences). After many attempts, automatic architecture was decided to be adopted in this research work. Thirteen shape and statistical characteristics of images were considered. The neural network revealed an 89.1 % of correct classification for the training sample and 100 % of correct classification for the test sample. The normalized importance of the considered characteristics showed that kurtosis accounted for 100 % which means that this variable has a substantial effect
... Show MoreIn this paper, the topic of forecasting the changes in the value of Iraqi crude oil exports for the period from 2019 to 2025, using the Markov transitional series based on the data of the time series for the period from January 2011 to November 2018, is real data obtained from the published data of the Central Agency Of the Iraqi statistics and the Iraqi Ministry of Oil that the results reached indicate stability in the value of crude oil exports according to the data analyzed and listed in the annex to the research.
Keywords: Using Markov chains
Coal fines are highly prone to be generated in all stages of Coal Seam Gas (CSG) production and development. These detached fines tend to aggregate, contributing to pore throat blockage and permeability reduction. Thus, this work explores the dispersion stability of coal fines in CSG reservoirs and proposes a new additive to be used in the formulation of the hydraulic fracturing fluid to keep the fines dispersed in the fluid. In this work, bituminous coal fines were tested in various suspensions in order to study their dispersion stability. The aggregation behavior of coal fines (dispersed phase) was analyzed in different dispersion mediums, including deionized-water, low and high sodium chloride solutions. Furthermore, the effect of Sodium
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