The existing study aimed to assess four soil moisture sensors’ capacitive (WH51 and SKU: S EN0193) and resistive (Yl69 and IC Station) abilities, which are affordable and medium-priced for their accuracy in six common soil types in the central region of Iraq. The readings’ calibration for the soil moisture sensor devices continued through two gravimetric methods. The first depended on the protocols’ database, while the second was the traditional calibration method. The second method recorded the lowest analysis error compared with the first. The moderate-cost sensor WH51 showed the lowest standard error (SE), MAD , and RMSE and the highest R² in both methods. The performance accuracy of WH51 was close to readings shown by the manufac

A field experiment was conducted to grow the wheat crop during the fall season 2020 in Karbala province, north of Ain Al-Tamr District in two locations of different textures and parent materials. The first site (calcareous soil) with a sandy loam texture, is located at (44° 40′ 37′) east longitude and (32° 41′ 34′) north latitude, at an altitude of 32 m above sea level, and an area of 20 hectares. As for the second location (gypsum soil) with a loam texture, it is located at a longitude (45° 41′ 39′) east and a latitude (33° 43′ 34′ north) and at an altitude of 33 m above sea level and an area of 20 hectares. To find out the effect of different tillage systems on water productivity and wheat yield under center pivot irri

High performance self-consolidating concrete HP-SCC is one of the most complex types of concrete which have the capacity to consolidated under its own weight, have excellent homogeneity and high durability. This study aims to focus on the possibility of using industrial by-products like Silica fumes SF in the preparation of HP-SCC enhanced with discrete steel fibers (DSF) and monofilament polypropylene fibers (PPF). From experimental results, it was found that using DSF with volume fraction of 0.50 %; a highly improvements were gained in the mechanical properties of HP-SCC. The compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, flexural strength and elastic modulus improved about 65.7 %, 70.5 %, 41.7 % and 80.3 % at 28 days age, respectively

The present work aims to validate the experimental results of a new test rig built from scratch to evaluate the thermal behavior of the brake system with the numerical results of the transient thermal problem. The work was divided into two parts; in the first part, a three-dimensional finite-element solution of the transient thermal problem using a new developed 3D model of the brake system for the selected vehicle is SAIPA 131, while in the second part, the experimental test rig was built to achieve the necessary tests to find the temperature distribution during the braking process of the brake system. We obtained high agreement between the results of the new test rig with the numerical results based on the developed model of the brake

Cowpea is a very important legume in Nigeria that is being utilized to Substitute high-cost animal protein for low-income people. The knowledge of some physical properties of various moisture contents is of utmost importance in the design of its handling and processing equipment and machinery, which is the aim of this work, which studied the physical properties of IT99K-573-1-1 (SAMPEA14) variety of Cowpea within 8.77 to 21.58 % db moisture content. The properties studied include Major, Intermediate, and Minor diameters, Sphericity, Surface area, Specific gravity, Volume, Bulk density, 50-tap density, 100-tap density, 1250-tap density, seed mass, Angle of repose, Geometric mean diameter, and Arithmetic mean diameter. The

The primary objective of this study is to manage price market items in the construction of walls for affordable structures with load-bearing hollow masonry units using the ACI 211.1 blend design with a slump range of 25-50 mm that follows the specification limits of IQS 1077. It was difficult to reach a suitable cement weight to minimum content (economic and environmental goal), so many trail mixtures were cast. A portion (10-20%) of the coarse aggregates was replaced with concrete, tile, and clay-brick waste. Finally, two curing methods were used: immersion under water as normal curing, and water spraying as it is closer to the field conditions. The recommendation in IQS 1077 to increase the curing period from 14 to 28 days was tak

         The antidiabetic thiozolidinediones (TZDs) a class of peroxisome proliferators-activated receptor (PPAR) ligands has recently been the focus of much interest for their possible role in regulation of inflammatory response. The present study was designed to evaluate the anti-inflammatory activity of pioglitazone in experimental models of inflammation in rats. The present study was conducted to evaluate the anti inflammatory effect of TZDs (pioglitazone 3mg/Kg) on acute, sub acute and chronic model of inflammation by using egg-albumin and formalin–induced paw edema in 72 rats, relative to reference drugs Dexamethasone 5mg/Kg and Piroxicam 5mg/Kg. In each inflammation model, 24 rats wer

The parameters of resistance spot welding (RSW) performed on low strength commercial aluminum sheets are investigated experimentally, the performance requirements and weldability issues were driven the choice of a specific aluminum alloy that was AA1050. RSW aluminum alloys has a major problem of inconsistent quality from weld to weld comparing with welding steel
alloys sheet, due to the higher thermal conductivity, higher thermal expansion, narrow plastic temperature range, and lower electrical resistivity. Much effort has been devoted to the study of describing the relation between the parameters of the process (welding current, welding time, and electrode force) and weld strength. Shear-tensile strength tests were performed to ind

In the current study, haemoglobin analytes dissolved in a special buffer (KH₂PO₄(1M), K₂HPO₄(1M)) with pH of 7.4 were used to record absorption spectra measurements with a range of concentrations from (10^-8 to 10^-9) M and an absorption peak of 440nm using Broadband Cavity Enhanced Absorption Spectroscopy (BBCEAS) which is considered a simple, low cost, and robust setup. The principle work of this technique depends on the multiple reflections between the light source, which is represented by the Light Emitting Diode 3 W, and the detector, which is represented by the Avantes spectrophotomer. The optical cavity includes two high reflectivity  ≥99%  dielectric mirrors (dia