Hard-grade asphalt binders like AC20-30 typically exhibit excessive stiffness, reduced penetration, and compromised workability, necessitating modification before use in paving applications. This study evaluates the efficacy of regular polyalphaolefin (PAO), a synthetic olefin-based lubricant, as a performance-enhancing modifying agent for such binders. AC20-30 was blended with PAO at dosages ranging from 2 wt.% to 10 wt.%, and the modified binders were characterized via penetration, ductility, softening point, and rotational viscosity measurements, alongside advanced rheological and chemical-morphological analyses. Incorporating PAO in AC20-30 asphalt progressively reduced the binder stiffness and enhanced its flexibility, with all modifie

Several million tons of solid waste are produced each year as a result of construction and demolition activities around the world, and brick waste is one of the most widely wastes. Recently, there has been growing number in studies that conducted on using of recycling brick waste (RBW) to produce environmentally friendly concrete. The use of brick waste (BW) as potential partial cement or aggregate replacement materials is summarized in this review where the performance is discussed in the form of the mechanical strength and properties that related to durability of  concrete. It was found that, because the pozzolanic activity of clay brick powder, it can be utilized as substitute for cement in replacement level up t

In this paper the experimentally obtained conditions for the fusion splicing with photonic crystal fibers (PCF) having large mode areas were reported. The physical mechanism of the splice loss and the microhole collapse property of photonic crystal fiber (PCF) were studied. By controlling the arc-power and the arc-time of a conventional electric arc fusion splicer (FSM-60S), the minimum loss of splicing for fusion two conventional single mode fibers (SMF-28) was (0.00dB), which has similar mode field diameter. For splicing PCF (LMA-10) with a conventional single mode fiber (SMF-28), the loss was increased due to the mode field mismatch.

This study deals with the subject of art criticism by using Erwin Panofsky's theory to analyze a few Saudi artists' works. The study aims to identify Panofsky's theory and provide criticism of some Saudi artworks using it. The importance of the study is that it enriches the field of art criticism in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and helps critics and artists in using Panofsky’s theory to analyze artworks.
The study sample consists of six artworks produced in 2021 by six contemporary Saudi artists. In the theoretical section, the study dealt with several topics; first, is art criticism, the second part presents Panofsky’s theory with its three stages, the final part deals with the beginning of Saudi art until present time and its

—This paper studies the control motion of a single link flexible joint robot by using a hierarchical non-singular terminal sliding mode controller (HNTSMC). In comparison to the conventional sliding mode controller (CSMC), the proposed algorithm (NTSMC) not only can conserve characteristics of the convention CSMC, such as easy implementation, guaranteed stability and good robustness against system uncertainties and external disturbances, but also can ensure a faster convergence rate of the systems states to zero in a finite time and singularity free. The flexible joint robot (FJR) is a two degree of freedom (2DOF) nonlinear and underactuated system. The system here is modeled as a fourth order system by using Lagrangian method. Based on t

An investigation of the quadrupole deformation of Kr, Sr, Zr, and Mo isotopes has been conducted using the HFB method and SLy4 Skyrme parameterization. The primary role of occupancy of single particle state 2d5/2 in the existence of the weakly bound structure around N=50 is probed. Shell gaps are performed using a few other calculations for the doubly magic number 100Sn using different Skyrme parameterizations. We explore the interplays among neutron pairing strength and neutron density profile in two dimensions, along with the deformations of 100Sn.

It is widely accepted that early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) makes it possible for patients to gain access to appropriate health care services and would facilitate the development of new therapies. AD starts many years before its clinical manifestations and a biomarker that provides a measure of changes in the brain in this period would be useful for early diagnosis of AD. Given the rapid increase in the number of older people suffering from AD, there is a need for an accurate, low-cost and easy to use biomarkers that could be used to detect AD in its early stages. Potentially, the electroencephalogram (EEG) can play a vital role in this but at present, no reliable EEG biomarker exists for early diagnosis of AD. The gradual s

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