Many waste materials can be repurposed effectively within asphalt concrete to enhance the performance and sustainability of pavement. One of these waste materials is sawdust ash (SDA). This study explores the beneficial use of SDA as a substitute for limestone dust (LD) mineral filler in asphalt concrete. The replacement rate was 0%, 15%, 30%, 45%, and 60% by weight of total mineral filler. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was employed to assess the surface morphology of Sawdust (SD), SDA, and LD. In addition, a series of tests, including Marshall stability and flow, indirect tensile strength,moisture susceptibility, and repeated uniaxial loading tests, were conducted to examine the performance characteristics of asphalt mixtures of different SDA content. As per Marshall mix design, a slightly higher binder content was required for the preparation of SDA mixes. The results reveal that the asphalt mixtures prepared using SDA attain a tensile strength ratio (TSR) greater than the critical threshold, i.e., 80%, indicating the feasibility of SDA against moisture- induced damage. The highest TSR value of 87% was obtained using 45% SDA as a replacement for LD. Compared to 0% SDA, there is a reduction of 12.08% in permanent deformation for asphalt mixtures produced with 60% SDA. Also, as the SDA content increases, there is a slight improvement in the resilient modulus values, with a peak improvement of 3% at 60% SDA. In addition, the cost of producing SDA mixes was relatively lower than the control mixes, indicating the cost-effectiveness of using SDA. Overall, the study found that SDA is a promising material that can improve the performance and durability of asphalt concrete at lower production costs.
The inhibitory effect of acetone, ethanol, and aqueous extracts of ten medicinal plants on β-lactamase from Staphylococcus sciuri and Klebsiella pneumoniae was investigated in vitro by starch-iodine agar plate method. The results revealed the success of starch-iodine method for the detection of the inhibition of β-lactamase activity by the various extracts of each individual plant. The acetone extracts of Catharanthus roseus, Eucalyptus camaldulensis, and Schinus terebinthifolius induced an inhibitory effect on β-lactamase from Staphylococcus sciuri. On the other hand, acetone extracts from only Eucalyptus camaldulensis, and Schinus
... Show MoreThe study aims to build a proposed training program for school leaders in the Sultanate of Oman on the planning practices of the Kaufman model in light of the needs and challenges of reality. It also aims to identify the challenges facing school leaders in practicing the stages of strategic planning. To achieve these objectives, the study adopted the descriptive approach due to its suitability to the nature of the study. A questionnaire was used to collect the needed data. The study sample included (225) individuals from school principals, their assistants and senior teachers in post-basic education in the Sultanate of Oman. After processing the data statistically, the study concluded that the reality of planning practices for school lea
... Show MoreA crucial area of research in nanotechnology is the formation of environmentally benign nanoparticles. Both unicellular and multicellular play an important role in synthesis nanoparticles through the production of inorganic materials either intracellularly or extracellularly. The agents (pigments, siderophores, cell extracted metabolites and reducing compounds) were used to prepare silver nanparticles with different sizes and shapes. The color variations (dark yellow, slightly dark yellow and golden yellow) arising from changes in the composition, size, and shape of nanoparticles, surrounding medium can be monitored using UV-visible spectrophotometer. These effects are due to the phenomena called surface plasmon resonance. The silver nanopa
... Show MorePlantation of humic acid nanoparticles on the inert sand through simple impregnation to obtain the permeable reactive barrier (PRB) for treating of groundwater contaminated with copper and cadmium ions. The humic acid was extracted from sewage sludge which is byproduct of the wastewater treatment plant; so, this considers an application of sustainable development. Batch tests signified that the coated sand by humic acid (CSHA) had removal efficiencies exceeded 98 % at contact time, sorbent dosage, and initial pH of 1 h, 0.25 g/50 mL and 7, respectively for 10 mg/L initial concentration and 200 rpm agitation speed. Results proved that physicosorption was the predominant mechanism for metals-CSHA interaction because the sorption data followed
... Show MoreIn this paper, a compact genetic algorithm (CGA) is enhanced by integrating its selection strategy with a steepest descent algorithm (SDA) as a local search method to give I-CGA-SDA. This system is an attempt to avoid the large CPU time and computational complexity of the standard genetic algorithm. Here, CGA dramatically reduces the number of bits required to store the population and has a faster convergence. Consequently, this integrated system is used to optimize the maximum likelihood function lnL(φ1, θ1) of the mixed model. Simulation results based on MSE were compared with those obtained from the SDA and showed that the hybrid genetic algorithm (HGA) and I-CGA-SDA can give a good estimator of (φ1, θ1) for the ARMA(1,1) model. Anot
... Show MoreAbstract
The current research problem includes a variety of research motivations to serve the private health sector, which is witnessing a great competition from internal and external environments. In this regard, private medical clinics are increasingly seeking to attract and retain customers through the quality of their service offerings represented by health services. Innovative and effective marketing methods to improve performance and stay in competition, by relying on the physical evidence of the product as a component of the marketing mix of services and its role in particular in packaging and supporting the health service with concrete evidence that affects the customer an
... Show MoreIn this paper, the restricted least squares method is employed to estimate the parameters of the Cobb-Douglas production function and then analyze and interprete the results obtained. A practical application is performed on the state company for leather industries in Iraq for the period (1990-2010). The statistical program SPSS is used to perform the required calculations.
Presentation of urinary calculus ranges from painful urination to acute retention. Diagnosed by x-ray pelvis and non-contrast CT and removal of stone by various methods is the management. Variety in symptoms, sometimes make clinical diagnosis difficult until radiological investigations confirm it. In this case presentation, initial diagnosis was made of Urethrocutaneous fistula may be due to distal stricture, but on investigating, he was diagnosed as urethral calculus in urethral diverticulum , as the reason for his symptoms