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Several techniques are utilised for screening and prioritising various criteria or items, including the Delphi technique and the analytical hierarchy process (AHP). Such techniques' calculations are dependent on expert views, however, and consequently, any error or contradiction in experts' viewpoints influences the calculation results. Although the talents and abilities of experts are employed for comparisons in classical Delphi approaches, such quantification of expert opinion cannot fully capture human thinking styles, and decision-making in the actual world must thus be enhanced by the use of fuzzy sets that operate in a manner more in line with the ambiguity and uncertainty of human thought and language. Any Analytical Hierarchical Process requires specialists to perform pairwise comparisons to make choices, and due to the huge number of criteria and potential errors connected with criteria priority decisions, it is feasible that the overall consistency will suffer as a result. Fuzzy sets are used to decrease error levels, and this study thus aimed to screen and prioritise criteria for solving complex decision-making problems by using both fuzzy Delphi and fuzzy best-worst (FBWM) techniques. Solving the multiplicity of rounds of the Delphi technique and the inconsistency produced by the AHP approaches are among the traditional difficulties associated with the Delphi method and the fuzzy best-worst method, while this paper demonstrates that the fuzzy Delphi technique can be employed to screen criteria in a single round, thus addressing the Delphi technique rounds issue, while FBWM offers solution for reducing the number of criteria comparisons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first step in prioritising district road maintenance is to identify the key maintenance criteria based on each road's actual condition, as retaining unsuitable and insignificant criteria and deleting more significant ones leads to inaccurate and unreliable decisions. The objective of this study was to acquire an expert consensus on the key criteria for the prioritisation of district road maintenance in the Iraqi infrastructure sector. To achieve this objective, a group of 13 specialists was assembled to assess a list of 34 district road maintenance criteria using the Fuzzy Delphi approach. These criteria were thus organised into seven groups based on their relative importance. The first group included the seven criteria deemed to be the most important: "Potholes", "Cracking", "Transverse slope", "Shoving", "Depressions", "Bumps and Sags", and "Patching and Utility Cut Patching". This study's findings should thus aid decision-makers in this sector in terms of making appropriate decisions for the prioritisation of district road maintenance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, A new method to achieve the exact solution of a special type of linear partial differential equations (LPDEs) will be introduce which involving mixed partial derivatives. This method is called the Laplace substitution method (LSM), This method is used to solve Poisson equation and the results are compared with other methods. Three examples are presented to explain the simplicity and reliability of this method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, an efficient and rapid thermal vacuum deposition method was used to deposit a nanostructured thin film of cadmium oxide (CdO). Different thicknesses of niobium oxide (Nb2O5) and palladium oxide (PdO) were deposited separately on the surface of the cadmium oxide film using the same preparation technique to study their effect on the structural and morphological properties of the deposited cadmium oxide film. The presence of cadmium oxide, palladium oxide, and niobium oxide phases is verified by X-ray diffraction. The crystallite size improved as the thickness of PdO, and Nb2O5 increased from 30 nm to 50 nm. FE-SEM investigation verified the formation of nanofiber-like structures with clusters of spherical particles at the nanometer scale. The growth of a high porosity surface was caused by the deposition of Nb2O5 and PdO layers. The cross-sectional results showed that increasing the weight of the evaporated powder increased the thickness of the film. The present work could promote the fabrication of thin nano-oxid films with distinct structural and morphological properties for promising electronic applications, such as gas sensors and potential photodetectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this research is divided into two main parts, the first is to find new concepts to limit points based on the concept of focal set defined in i-TPS, where we called the first type strips point and the second type redirect point, and we have highlighted in this research the most important properties and the connection between them. The second goal is to define new types of dens sets through these points. Dense sets have importance in applied mathematics, to be a new pivot that solves some problems that can only be solved by using dense sets [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, energy levels and reduced electric quadruple transition probability B (E2) were calculated for 22,24Ne isotopes by applying the nuclear shell model, Using KUOSD active interaction within OXBASH code through sd-shell. In general, the results obtained are in agreement with the available experimental data and results indicates that the application of the nuclear shell model using the KUOSD interaction is successful within the sd-shell. Through our calculations, new energy levels and reduced electric quadruple transition probability have been obtained that have no practical values until now. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both boundary points and boundary sets are important topological concepts that have wide resonance and influence in applied mathematics, especially in metric spaces which have drawn researchers to them. Hence, we highlight the construction of new type of boundary points and boundary sets in i-topological proximity space and highlight the most important possible properties of them and their relationship of them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People all throughout the world have been concerned about oil spills not only does it harm the environment, but it also harms human health and aquatic animal life. Salt leaching method adopted to prepare polymeric sorbents from PMMA, PS, and their blend using Dimethylformamide (DMF) solvent according to Hildebrand solubility parameter approach. Three tests categories were carried out, which related to the polymeric sorbents, water and kerosene properties. Hildebrand solubility parameter utilized to select the suitable solvent, and results proved that DMF solvent can be used for both PMMA and PS polymers. FTIR results showed the characteristics bands for either PMMA or PS, as well as showed no chemical reaction between them when blending. Density results showed low blend density compared with densities of the initial polymers indicating to the phase separation within the blend network, which enhances the floatability and the sorption capacity. The sorption capacities of PMMA are 5g/g for water and 10.89 g/g for kerosene after eight days, whereas these capacities were 3 g/g and 4.266 g/g for PS respectively. Kerosene thickness results proved that, as kerosene thicknesses increased, the sorption capacity increased. Selectivity results showed that, the absorbance and the selectivity of PMMA is higher than those of PS. And the maximum selectivity occurs after 3-4 days. According to the changing of properties of both water and kerosene, the separation efficiency is not 100% and there is some overlapping between their molecules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrilla verticillata contain some secondary metabolites, such as steroids and triterpenoids. The purpose of this study was to determine antioxidant activity and the toxicity levels of steroids isolates from Hydrilla verticillata chloroform fraction. The biomass of Hydrilla verticillata was dried and then powdered. The powder of Hydrilla verticillata was extracted by maceration methods using ethanol as a solvent. The crude ethanol extracts were hydrolyzed with 2 N HCl before partitioned using chloroform. The steroid compounds were separated by Column Chromatography. Antioxidant activities of Column Chromatography steroid isolates were determined by the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazil (DPPH) method, and the toxicity levels were determined by the Brine Shrimp Lethality Test (BSLT) method. The result showed that extraction by maceration with ethanol produced 2.52 percent yield, whereas the percent yield of the partition with chloroform was 18.48 percent. Separation by column chromatography obtained four steroids isolates B1, B2, B2G1, and G1R1. The steroids isolates of chloroform fraction of Hydrilla verticillata have antioxidant activity and toxicity properties. The EC50 value of the isolates B1, B2, B2G1, and G1R1 were 5375, 179.40, 65.97, and 6.55 ppm, respectively. The LC50 value of B1, B2, B2G1, and G1R1 isolate were 5.99, 3.86, 6.86, and 4.37 ppm, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, modified surface delta interaction MSDI has been use to apply the nuclear shell model NSM to calculate values of excitation energies for nickel nucleus with mass number equal 62,which contain two neutrons outside the closed core 60Ni. So that the neutrons are in the model space (0 f5/ 2 1p1/ 2 0g9/ 2) and (0 f5/ 2 1p1/ 2 0g9/ 2 0d5/ 2), concluding the effect of the orbital 0d5/ 2 on the energy levels. The energy levels and angular momentum of all possible states were investigated. Thereby, theoretical process are used to find a link between the classical coupling angle and energy levels at different orbital within neutron - neutron interaction. We observe the energy levels appear to follow two overall functions which depend on the classical coupling angles θa,b but are unconstrained of angular momentum I. We find out that our results agree with the experimental data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Brazilian Amazon is affected by large forest fires resulting from the combination between stronger droughts and human activities. The monitoring of forest fire distribution and its mapping on a large regional scale, especially with remote sensing remains a challenge because the impacts of forest fires are less visible than lands changing and because its spectral signature changes rapidly because of the new growth, until if damages to the forest has outcomes for the structure of forests. We propose a new approach based on the use of the fractional forest cover maps from CLASlite with Landsat data for detected forest fire impacts. The method applied in Paragominas, is a county in the agricultural frontier of the Amazon in Brazil, covering an area of 19,395 km², was impacted by a large fire during the 2015 dryness. The degradation forester by fire had detected by using 2016 Landsat images. A method has been validated with observation points and aerial photo interpretation. The results showed the Non-Photosynthetic Vegetation band increased clearly in the burned area. This variable is useful to map the extent of the burned area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, the positive parity low-spin states for 122Xe and 123Xe have been investigated using the interacting boson mode-l and the interacting boson-fermion mode-l, respectively. The energy levels and reduced transition probabilities B(E2) have been calculated. The theoretical results are compared with the experimental data. It is in good agreement with the experimental data. The contour plot of the potential energy surface shows that the 122Xe nucleus is deformed and has γ-unstable-like characters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]