TRAMADOL ABUSE.

The study of tramadol has increased during the last decades, as tramadol has a potential risk to both an individual and the society he/she lives in. However the concept of using tramadol as a painkiller has become a revolution recently. Because of this, all the efforts have been applied in studying this therapeutic drug and the factors for its addiction and abuse. The abuse of the drug among physicians and patients required the study of the physiology and the chemical component of the drug and the regulation of the neurotransmitters through the central nerves system to limit the addiction of the drug. Therefore, knowledge about the chemical and central nervous system cascade will help putting a variety of strategies to tackle the abuse of the drug and its reward pathways for addictive, dependent, and tolerant patients. Moreover knowledge of the symptoms, side effects, and the clinical pharmacology of the drug, will limit the risk factors of the drug. Unintentional abuse or misuse is also a major problem for Tramadol users

Structural behavior of high-strength concrete corbels involving steel fibers or closed stirrups

A comprehensive experimental evaluation of the shear behavior of corbels made by high-strength concrete (HSC) with steel fiber or with stirrups was investigated. Thirteen samples were prepared and tested, the main variables in this research were steel fiber type, steel fiber content (Vf %), and amount of horizontal closed stirrups (Ah). The constants in this investigation were the area of the main steel reinforcement (As), ratio of shear span to depth (a/d) and cube concrete strength (fcu). The obtained results clearly showed that, the presence of fibers or closed stirrups enhanced the strength and decreased the deformation of the explored specimens. It was concluded that the horizontal shear reinforcement can be substituted by supplementation of steel fibers to RHSC corbels. A comparison was performed between the test results and estimated shear capacity by ACI code and other adopted equations. Very conservative shear strength values were obtained from ACI 318–19 for corbels prepared with high-strength concrete because the strut and tie method were influenced by concrete strength and did not take the contribution of closed stirrups into account. However, the shear friction method depends only on the quantity of the main steel reinforcement and closed stirrups. Russo [2] proposed a model that adequately predicted the ultimate force of high-strength RC corbels incorporating closed stirrups, but this model did not take the effect of steel fibers into account. Campione [3] added the effect of steel fibers by means of the residual tensile strength expression

Destructive and Nondestructive Tests for Concrete Containing a Various Types of Fibers

Fibers have been considered an effective material that was used to improve the concrete's weak properties, namely its tensile strength, ductility, and crack resistance. Thus, the current study highlights two major objective, the former is the fibers shapes and types on the mechanical properties of the fresh and hardened concrete while the latter explores the impact of the fiber contents on the concrete mechanical properties developments. To achieve these targets six types of fibers (five of them made of steel and the last was polyolefin fibers) with various shapes are utilized. The tests were carried out to investigate the fibers shape and material contribution in the concrete mix properties improvement. The samples were subjected to destructive and non-destructive tests such as workability, compression, bending, and splitting. The non-destructive tests include ultrasonic pulse velocities and the Schmidt Hammer test. Three kinds of fibers (two of steel and one of polyolefin fiber) are used with variable content ratios of 0.5, 0.75, 1.0, and 1.5% to study the fiber content effect. Generally, the workability of fresh concrete has a reverse relationship with fiber presence and fiber content ratios. The compressive capacity, splitting and flexural strength has a direct proportion with fibers contents. The hooked steel fibers appeared the best results in terms of shape comparison. Doi: 10.28991/CEJ-2022-08-11-07 Full Text: PD

Readiness for E-Tendering in the Construction Sector- Designing a Computer Programme

Development of a country is measured by the number and quality of modern and contemporary projects that have been and are being established. As the construction industry is the nucleus for the development of any country, the stages of each project are tracked and monitored. It was found that the procurement stage has the biggest and most important influence in the successful completion of the project with the desired results. This research aims to eliminate corruption in the procurement process, identify the  additional factors relating to a contractor’s qualification that contribute towards an increase in the quality of the project; designing a computer programme that conducts the tender process electronically to avoid any human contact. The researcher designed a questionnaire which contains a number of factors that would increase the efficiency and quality of the project. The researcher distributed 50 questionnaire forms and received back 46 completed forms. The questionnaire outputs were analyzed by using the SPSS software which can be defined as a software package used in statistical analysis for data. After analyzing the results a nominal group session was held. This consisted of eight employees with technical, financial, legal, and supervisory and IT expertise. The work was collective and many questions were asked. All relevant factors were discussed. It was agreed to cancel three factors only as being irrelevant to the contractor's qualification process. The most significant findings were that if the organizations adopt the E-T system in the tendering process, corruption cases will disappear, the tendering process will be achieved with high level of integrity and transparency, and in order to implement the E-T system, the organization must be ready to change, the employees should have enough courage to adopt the system, and there would be a need for at least one person to play the role of champion/leader

Readiness for E-Tendering in the Construction Sector- Designing a Computer Programme

Development of a country is measured by the number and quality of modern and contemporary projects that have been and are being established. As the construction industry is the nucleus for the development of any country, the stages of each project are tracked and monitored. It was found that the procurement stage has the biggest and most important influence in the successful completion of the project with the desired results. This research aims to eliminate corruption in the procurement process, identify the  additional factors relating to a contractor’s qualification that contribute towards an increase in the quality of the project; designing a computer programme that conducts the tender process electronically to avoid any human contact. The researcher designed a questionnaire which contains a number of factors that would increase the efficiency and quality of the project. The researcher distributed 50 questionnaire forms and received back 46 completed forms. The questionnaire outputs were analyzed by using the SPSS software which can be defined as a software package used in statistical analysis for data. After analyzing the results a nominal group session was held. This consisted of eight employees with technical, financial, legal, and supervisory and IT expertise. The work was collective and many questions were asked. All relevant factors were discussed. It was agreed to cancel three factors only as being irrelevant to the contractor's qualification process. The most significant findings were that if the organizations adopt the E-T system in the tendering process, corruption cases will disappear, the tendering process will be achieved with high level of integrity and transparency, and in order to implement the E-T system, the organization must be ready to change, the employees should have enough courage to adopt the system, and there would be a need for at least one person to play the role of champion/leader

An Efficient Inventory Model-Based GA For Food Deterioration Products In The Tourism Industry

Background: The inventory control practice of deteriorating food products that are subject to an expiration date is a challenging process. Inappropriate inventory control practice leads to substantial waste of products and significant holding and purchasing costs. Purpose: This paper aims to develop an inventory control model-based Genetic Algorithm (GA) to minimize the Total Annual Inventory Cost (TAIC) function developed explicitly for the proposed model. Methodology: GA is used and tailored to provide the best reorder level of deteriorating food products. A case study of one of the five-star hotels in Iraq is conducted, followed by a sensitivity analysis study to validate the proposed model for varying reorder levels. Results and Conclusion: A minimum inventory cost is obtained with an optimum reorder level achieved by running GA. It is concluded that the optimal reorder level provided by the proposed GA minimized the monthly inventory cost of products

The control of permanent magnet synchronous motor drive based on the space vector pulse width modulation and fractional order PID controller

This study explains a new way to speed control for PMSMs based on the FOC and SVPWM techniques employed in the building of the permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSMs). When it comes to current control, two inner and one outside feedback loops were used. Feedback control with FOPID controllers is used to optimize the performance of PMSM motor design. FOPID parameters were optimized using genetic algorithms in MATLAB/Simulink simulations. Good dynamic and static qualities are demonstrated through simulation results. There is also a comparison of PMSM PID and FOPID controllers included

New algorithms to Enhanced Fused Images from Auto-Focus Images

هذا البحث يقترح طريقة جديدة لدمج صورة ذات التركيز التلقائي بالاعتماد على خوارزميات جديدة. الخوارزمية الأولى تعتمد على حساب الانحراف المعياري لدمج صورتين. الخوارزمية الثانية تتركز على التباين عند نقاط الحافات وطريقة الترابط كعامل معيار لجودة الصورة الناتجة. هذه الخوارزمية تعتمد على ثلاثة مربعات بأحجام مختلفة عند المناطق المتجانسة وتتحرك 10 نقاط ضمن المنطقة المتجانسة.  الصورة الناتجة من الدمج تحتوي على نتائج جيدة في التباين بسبب إضافة نقاط حافات من الصورتين والتي تعتمد على الخوارزميات المقترحة. تم مقارنة النتائج مع طرق مختلفة.Enhancing quality image fusion was proposed using new algorithms in auto-focus image fusion. The first algorithm is based on determining the standard deviation to combine two images. The second algorithm concentrates on the contrast at edge points and correlation method as the criteria parameter for the resulted image quality. This algorithm considers three blocks with different sizes at the homogenous region and moves it 10 pixels within the same homogenous region. These blocks examine the statistical properties of the block and decide automatically the next step. The resulted combined image is better in the contrast value because of the added edge points from the two combined images that depend on the suggested algorithms. This enhancement in edge regions is measured and reaches to double in enhancing the contrast. Different methods are used to be compared with the suggested method

Prey suitability of Tuta absoluta larvae (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) for three predatory phytoseiid mites (Acari: Phytoseiidae) under laboratory conditions

Tomato crop in the Mediterranean Basin has been recently affected by the exotic pest Tuta absoluta (Meyrick), which is difficult to control due to its high reproduction rate and potential to develop resistance to insecticides. In this paper, the suitability and effectiveness of three predatory phytoseiid mites Cydnoseius negevi (Swirski and Amitai), Neoseiulus barkeri (Hughes) and Amblyseius largoensis (Muma), an indigenous species, were evaluated on larvae of T. absoluta under laboratory conditions. First instar larvae of T. absoluta proved to be possible food source for tested phytoseiid mites under laboratory conditions. Females of C. negevi, A. largoensis and N. barkeri were able to feed and sustain oviposition on unfed, first instar larvae of T. absoluta. A diet of insect larvae provided the shortest oviposition period and adult longevity of C. negevi and A. largoensis, while N. barkeri showed the longest corresponding periods. The total and daily number of insect larvae consumed was significantly higher in N. barkeri than in A. largoensis and C. negevi. Likewise, N. barkeri laid significantly higher number of eggs (23.6 eggs / female) than that deposited by C. negevi and A. largoensis (2.5 and 3.9 eggs / female). The sex ratio of the progeny was female biased and ranged: (females / total=0.62-0.68%) when insect larvae were provided for females of C. negevi, A. largoensis and N. barkeri