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

One of the most important problems in the oil production process and when its continuous flow, is emulsified oil (w/o emulsion), which in turn causes many problems, from the production line to the extended pipelines that are then transported to the oil refining process. It was observed that the nanomaterial (SiO₂) supported the separation process by adding it to the emulsion sample and showed a high separation rate with the demulsifiers (RB6000) and (sebamax) where the percentage of separation was greater than (90 and 80 )%  respectively, and less than that when dealing with (Sodium dodecyl sulfate and Diethylene glycol), the percentage of separation was (60% and 50%) respectively.

   The high proportion

One of the biomedical image problems is the appearance of the bubbles in the slide that could occur when air passes through the slide during the preparation process. These bubbles may complicate the process of analysing the histopathological images. The objective of this study is to remove the bubble noise from the histopathology images, and then predict the tissues that underlie it using the fuzzy controller in cases of remote pathological diagnosis. Fuzzy logic uses the linguistic definition to recognize the relationship between the input and the activity, rather than using difficult numerical equation. Mainly there are five parts, starting with accepting the image, passing through removing the bubbles, and ending with predict the tissues

The study deals with China's soft power and diplomacy in the Middle East, and it focuses specifically on the tools and foundations of China's soft diplomacy and how it achieves its goals in the region in addition to its challenges in the region. In this regard, the study also focuses on the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative and its soft foundations and how they serve China’s diplomacy and soft power in the region. The study ends with a set of conclusions, perhaps the most prominent of which is that diplomacy and soft power have become a fundamental pillar of China's foreign policy to achieve its foreign goals and to establish an international system compatible with China's principles. As for the Middle East, China has established a poli

The problem of this study lies in that NATO was formed in the first place to protect Europe from Warsaw Pact. The geographical and military strategy have been changed with the change of its mission and expanding its operation scope with the leadership of the USA in the international scens. The latter has made this organization as the military arm to tighten its control over strategic regions.

            The research supposes that NATO state members confront security concerns and political and military issues that push to expand the organization. The importance of this study lies in knowing the new roles of NATO imposed by the United States. Therefore, the continuity and affi

Road-side dust samples were collected during August in 2020 from selected areas of, Al-Rusafa, Baghdad, Iraq. A sedimentological and mineralogical analysis of street dust was conducted. Three areas were selected to study street dusts which are Al-Baladitat, Al-Obaidi and Ziona. The laboratory analyses were done in the Department of Geology, College of Science, University of Baghdad. The heavy metal contents were determined in the roadside dust using XRF Method. It was found that the dust is of muddy texture, and is believed to be transmitted with the various storms blowing on Baghdad or by the wheels of Cars. The results of mineralogical investigation revealed that the dust samples composed of quartz, feldspar, calcite, gypsum and s

To reduce solar radiation transmittance into buildings through windows facing east or west during summer, a window inclination from vertical position is suggested. The inclination of the window glazing and the rate of unwanted solar radiation during summer can be calculated knowing the dialy inclination of the sun rays. The inclination of window glazing depends on the latitude of the position required. For instance in Baghdad which is at about 33o north latitude a slope of 15o for window glazing is sufficient to prevent about 419 MJ/m2 of total solar radiation energy from penetration during summer for clear glazing of window facing east. This value drops to about 96 MJ/m2 during winter. Therefore the ratio between the energy saved for co

A political perusal of Initiations in Declaring Middle East a District vacant of mass Destruction weapons