When the depth of stressed soil is rather small, Plate Load Test (PLT) becomes the most efficient test to estimate the soil properties for design purposes. Among these properties, modulus of subgrade reaction is the most important one that usually employed in roads and concrete pavement design. Two methods are available to perform PLT: static and dynamic methods. Static PLT is usually adopted due to its simplicity and time saving to be performs in comparison with cyclic (dynamic) method. The two methods are described in ASTM standard.

In this paper the effect of the test method used in PLT in estimation of some mechanical soil properties was distinguished via a series of both test methods applied in a same site. The comparison of

This paper proposes a new structure of the hybrid neural controller based on the identification model for nonlinear systems. The goal of this work is to employ the structure of the Modified Elman Neural Network (MENN) model into the NARMA-L2 structure instead of Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) model in order to construct a new hybrid neural structure that can be used as an identifier model and a nonlinear controller for the SISO linear or nonlinear systems. Weight parameters of the hybrid neural structure with its serial-parallel configuration are adapted by using the Back propagation learning algorithm. The ability of the proposed hybrid neural structure for nonlinear system has achieved a fast learning with minimum number

In this study, titanium dioxide (TiO₂) nanoparticles incorporated with cement were synthesis by a simple casting method as a function concentration of TiO₂ (0.2, 0.4, 0.8, 1, and 2 wt%). The prepared samples were characterized using the technique of Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM) and UV-Visible spectrophotometer, which was used to measure the adsorption spectra. The observed photocatalytic efficiency of TiO₂ nanoparticles (NP) incorporated with cement was investigated by decomposing the dye methyl blue (MB) solution under sunlight irradiation. According to the slope, the value of the k constant at the best sample is 0.8wt%, k=0.8265 min^-1. FESEM image of the TiO₂

The survey was carried out From January to April of 2018 on macrofungi samples collected from different places in Halabja province located in north eastern parts of Iraq-Kurdistan region. This region is rich in forest trees and pasture lands with diversity of shrubs and herbs and is expected to support the growth of several macro fungal species. However, this part of Kurdistan in Iraq is still unexplored from macrofungal point of view. In this paper three species from Pezizaceae and Pyronemataceae families that belonging to (Pezizales, Ascomycota), were reported from Iraqi Kurdistan. These macrofungal species are recorded for the first time from Iraq. Also the species were identified and showing their locations distributed on a map prepared

The CIGS/CdS p-n junction thin films were fabricated and deposited at room temperature with rate of deposition 5, and 6 nm secG1 , on ITO glass substrates with 1mm thickness by thermal evaporation technique at high vacuum pressure 2×10G5 mbar, with area of 1 cm2 and Aluminum electrode as back contact. The thickness of absorber layer (CIGS) was 1 µm while the thickness of the window layer CdS film was 300 nm. The X-ray Diffraction results have shown that all thin films were polycrystalline with orientation of 112 and 211 for CIGS thin films and 111 for CdS films. The direct energy gaps for CIGS and CdS thin films were 1.85 and 2.4 eV, respectively. Atomic Force Microscopy measurement proves that both films CIGS and CdS films have nanostru

 The objective of this study is to evaluate plasma levels of total Sialic acid TSA and Lipid –associated Sialic acid LSA as a marker of Rheumatoid Arthritis AR. Plasma Sialic acid is known as a parameter of inflammation. In the present study, in order to explore the potential role of sialic acid in arthritis rheumatoid, plasma sialic acid levels, plasma LSA and total protein in patients with arthritis rheumatoid were measured. A total 40 patients were compared with 40 healthy control subjects. Plasma TSA, LSA and TP level were determined spectrophotometrically in plasma samples. Plasma Sialic acid levels were significantly increased in RA (88.48±14.15 mg/dl, P<0.05) and LSA level were significantly increased in RA (26.3

Sansevieriatrifasciata was studied as a potential biosorbent for chromium, copper and nickel removal in batch process from electroplating and tannery effluents. Different parameters influencing the biosorption process such as pH, contact time, and amount of biosorbent were optimized while using the 80 mm sized particles of the biosorbent. As high as 91.3 % Ni and 92.7 % Cu were removed at pH of 6 and 4.5 respectively, while optimum Cr removal of 91.34 % from electroplating and 94.6 % from tannery effluents was found at pH 6.0 and 4.0 respectively. Pseudo second order model was found to best fit the kinetic data for all the metals as evidenced by their greater R2 values. FTIR characterization of biosorbent revealed the presence of carboxyl a

The efficiency evaluation of the railway lines performance is done through a set of indicators and criteria, the most important are transport density, the productivity of enrollee, passenger vehicle production, the productivity of freight wagon, and the productivity of locomotives. This study includes an attempt to calculate the most important of these indicators which transport density index from productivity during the four indicators, using artificial neural network technology. Two neural networks software are used in this study, (Simulnet) and (Neuframe), the results of second program has been adopted. Training results and test to the neural network data used in the study, which are obtained from the international in