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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 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]