ARO-THE SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL OF KOYA UNIVERSITY
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Suitability of the Carbonate Rocks of the Bekhme Formation Exposed in Shakrook Anticline, Iraqi Kurdistan region, for Cement Industry
Full text linkThe Bekhme Formation forms almost the bulk of the Shakrook anticline, especially the limbs. The current research deals with studying the exposed beds within the Bekhme Formation at the Shakrook anticline to check the suitability of the exposed rocks at the northeastern limb of the anticline for the cement industry. Twenty rock samples from a section which lies along a deeply cut valley that crosses the northeastern limb of the Shakrook anticline within the Bekhme Formation were collected. The channel sampling method was applied; therefore, each sample represents the concerned sampling interval and to be representative for the thickness of the sampled interval. The total thickness of the sampled section is 110 m with a covered interval of 15 m, totaling to 125 m. The collected 20 samples were prepared at the laboratory of the Koya University and were subjected to XRF test at the Tarbiat Modares University, Iran, to indicate the concentration of the main oxides (CaO, MgO, Al2O3, Fe2O3, Na2O, K2O, and SO3), and Cl and L.O.I. The indicated concentrations at each sample, from both universities, were compared and were found to be almost coinciding. The average concentrations at each sample were changed to weighted averages and the results were compared with the Iraqi standards for cement industry. The results revealed that the sampled rocks are excellent for cement production
Detection of SARS-CoV-2 Reinfections by Rapid Inexpensive Methods
Full text linkNew SARS-CoV-2 infections are difficult to beverified, whether they are reinfections or persistent infections. The most prominent factors used for differentiating reinfections from persistent infections are whole-genome sequencing and phylogenetic analyses that require time and funds, which may not be feasible in most developing countries. This study explores reinfections with COVID-19 that harbors D614G and N501Y mutations by rapid inexpensive methods. It exploits the previously developed rapid economic methods that identified both D614G and N501Y mutations in clinical samples using real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) probes and conventional PCR specific primers. In the present study, an immunocompetent patient has been found with a SARS-CoV-2 N501Y reinfection without comorbidities. According to the obtained results, this study suggests that the initial infection was due to a variant that contained only D614G mutation whereas the reinfection was potentially a result of alpha variant contained three mutations confirmed by DNA sequencing, including D614G, N501Y, and A570D mutations. These techniques will support rapid detection of SARS-CoV-2 reinfections through the identification of common spike mutations in the developing countries where sequencing tools are unavailable. Furthermore, seven cases of reinfections were also confirmed by these methods. These rapid methods can also be applied to large samples of reinfections that may increase our understanding epidemiology of the pandemic
Landfill Site Selection for Solid Waste Using GIS-based Multi-Criteria Spatial Modeling: TaqTaq Sub-district in Iraqi Kurdistan Region as a Case
Full text linkThis study gains insight into landfill sites with the observance of all the political, economic and environmental difficulties for the implementing appropriate site measures by adopting a collection of geospatial technique and weighted linear combination (WLC) in TqaTaq sub-district. In the current study, there are several areas determined as appropriate sites for landfill location. In this study, the criteria of distance from the roads, the city center, rivers, surface water, and land use map were used. According to this analysis, only 25.21% of the TaqTaq sub district is suitable for a landfill. Thus, basing on the findings, 20.93% of the concerned sub-district is regarded as least adequate site for this mission, whereas only 3.25% of the area is regarded as moderate suitable. Thus, this study has found out that 1.03% area is the most suitable. The majority of suitable area was located in the North of the Town, where waste production is more than other locations. It should be noted that based on the outcome of this study, the amount of waste produced in the TaqTaq Town for the next 10 years, from 2022 to 2032, is predicted to be about 4080 tons. According to the density calculated for the waste of this area and considering the height of 4 m for the landfill center, in the next 10 years, about 3000 m2 of land is required for the landfill location. Since the suitable area found in this research is about 15 hectares
Cement Percent Effect on the Shear and Interface Strength of Remolded Cement Treated Sand
Full text linkThis research aims to simulate the behavior of remolded cement treated poorly graded sand in term of shear and interface strength using the direct shear test. Different percentages of cement up to 15% by weight are added to the soil samples. Compacted cement treated soil samples are prepared at the optimum moisture content and left for 28 days in the humidity room then distributed to use them for the remolding samples preparation. The shear strength parameters for both cases soil to soil interface and concrete to soil interface are predicted, where the results show that the interface strength parameters are higher than the shear strength parameters of the remolded soil samples. The increase in cement percent increases the cohesion (C) of the treated soil, whereas the interface cohesion (Cint.) has a maximum value at 10% of added cement, and the maximum percent between cohesion (Cint.) and soil cohesion (C) is of 76.2% at 0% added cement. Moreover, the results show an increase in the interface angle of friction (δ) and a decrease in the angle of friction (φ) as the percent of cement increases. The maximum percent between interface angle (δ) and angle of friction (φ) is 63.5% at 15% of the added cement. The hardened cement in the remolded case adheres to sand grains and works as soil grains with different sizes that lead to changes in the shear properties of the soil
Measuring the Voice Resemblance Extent of Identical (Monozygotic) Twins Using Voiceprints Neutrosophic Domain
Full text linkThe identical twins (Monozygotic) are siblings created from the division of one fertilized egg (zygote), so they will be identical in their genetic characteristics and therefore in their phenotypic traits to a very large extent. Among these traits is the voice or the voiceprint of these twins. This research aims to suggest a method to determine the extent of the similarity and the difference between the voiceprints between the brothers of the identical twins and thus, it is possible to distinguish between their voices. This study relied on using a number of audio clips collected from 35 identical twins. The proposed method is based on the use of the spectrogram that represents the voiceprint of the twins. The spectrogram is a two-dimensional function that can be used in the Neutrosophic Transformation to convert the voiceprints to the Neutrosophic domain represented by three membership functions (True, False, and Indeterminate). The results showed that the average extent of the similarity ratio between twins’ voices (True membership) is 67.6%, the difference ratio (False membership) is 32.3%, and the indeterminacy membership function ratio is 18.2%
Identification DNA Methylation Change of ABCC8 Gene in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus as Predictive Biomarkers
Full text linkType 2 diabetes mellitus is the most common chronic endocrine disorder that affecting 5%–10% of adults globally. Recently, the disease has rapidly spread throughout the Kurdistan Region. This study investigates DNA methylation status in the ABCC8 gene among the study population, and it possibly used as a biomarker. One hundred and thirteen individuals were included in this study, and they were divided into three categories (47 diabetes, 36 prediabetic, and 30 controls). Blood samples were collected to investigate DNA methylation status in patients who attended private clinical sectors in Koya city, Kurdistan Region of Iraq, between August and December 2021. Methylation-specific PCR (MSP) uses paired primers for each methylated and unmethylated region. In addition, the X2 Kruskal–Wallis statistical and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were run with a significance level of p 0.05. In comparison to the healthy group, hypermethylation of DNA is detected in the promoter region of diabetes and prediabetes. In addition, age, gender, BMI, alcohol use, family history, and physical activity all influence the degree of DNA methylation in people who have had coronavirus illness. The abovementioned findings suggest that DNA methylation alterations in the ABCC8 promoter region might be exploited as a possible predictive biomarker for type 2 diabetes mellitus diagnosis
Effect of Substrate Temperature on the Electrical Properties of Al-doped Zinc Oxide Films Deposited on Polyethylene Terephthalate
Full text linkTo prepare homogeneous thin films of zinc oxide (ZnO) doped with aluminum (Al) on a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate at different temperatures (200-250 °C), the process is carried out by utilizing the chemical spraying pyrolysis approach. A study of the effects of substrate temperature on the Al-doped Zinc Oxide (AZO) films' electrical characteristics and roughness is performed. The measurements of atomic force microscopy (AFM) shows that the root mean square (RMS) roughness of the AZO films is increased with the increase of PET substrate temperature. Hall measurements show that the electrical resistivity decreases as the substrate temperature increases. Upon the increment of substrate temperature, there is an increase in the carrier concentration value from 9.98 × 1019 to 5.4 × 1020 cm−3 and an increase in the carrier mobility value from 5.5 to 9.76 cm2.(V. S)−1
Network Transmission Flags Data Affinity-based Classification by K-Nearest Neighbor
Full text linkAbstract—This research is concerned with the data generated during a network transmission session to understand how to extract value from the data generated and be able to conduct tasks. Instead of comparing all of the transmission flags for a transmission session at the same time to conduct any analysis, this paper conceptualized the influence of each transmission flag on network-aware applications by comparing the flags one by one on their impact to the application during the transmission session, rather than comparing all of the transmission flags at the same time. The K-nearest neighbor (KNN) type classification was used becauseit is a simple distance-based learning algorithm that remembers earlier training samples and is suitable for taking various flags withtheir effect on application protocols by comparing each new sample with the K-nearest points to make a decision. We used transmission session datasets received from Kaggle for IP flow with 87 features and 3.577.296 instances. We picked 13 features from the datasets and ran them through KNN. RapidMiner was used for the study, and the results of the experiments revealed that the KNN-based model was not only significantly more accurate in categorizing data, but it was also significantly more efficient due to the decreased processing costs
Bioremediation Ability of the Local Isolate Enterobacter cloacae from Disposal Site
Full text linkIllegal dumping is a serious problem that needs to be addressed immediately to preserve human health and the environment as if the pollution that arises from it reaches the groundwater, complications of the remediation processes will increase. To decontaminate the organic and inorganic components, bioremediation seems to be the most environmentally friendly and economically viable technique without further treatment as reported by many studies. In this investigation, samples were taken from the soil of the main dumping area in Koysinjaq in Kurdistan Region of Iraq to determine the most potent bacteria to remediate the existed pollutants. The existence of non-essential minerals and organic compounds in the soil sample was detected using X-ray fluorescence device, and ethane and 1,2-dichloroethane solvents separating technique, respectively. Then, from the same samples, three different naturally occurring bacteria were isolated and cultured under optimized conditions then stimulated for a good result. Finally, spectrophotometer was set at wavelength of 600 nm and used to detect the heaviest growth of bacteria after incubating the cultured bacteria on a mineral salt broth medium with the extracted pollutants at pH 7.0 overnight at 32°C. Based on the highest absorbance, the most effective type of bacteria (Enterobacter cloacae) was chosen among others to remediate the organic components in which approximately 90% of them are plastics, medical waste, municipal waste, electrical items, and hydrocarbons, and some heavy metals, for instance aluminum and lead, which were found in the soil
Modern and Lightweight Component-based Symmetric Cipher Algorithms: A Review
Full text linkInformation security, being one of the corner stones of network and communication technology, has been evolving tremendously to cope with the parallel evolution of network security threats. Hence, cipher algorithms in the core of the information security process have more crucial role to play here, with continuous need for new and unorthodox designs to meet the increasing complexity of the applications environment that keep offering challenges to the current existing cipher algorithms. The aim of this review is to present symmetric cipher main components, the modern and lightweight symmetric cipher algorithms design based on the components that utilized in cipher design, highlighting the effect of each component and the essential component among them, how the modern cipher has modified to lightweight cipher by reducing the number and size of these components, clarify how these components give the strength for symmetric cipher versus asymmetric of cipher. Moreover, a new classification of cryptography algorithms to four categories based on four factors is presented. Finally, some modern and lightweight symmetric cipher algorithms are selected, presented with a comparison between them according to their components by taking into considerations the components impact on security, performance, and resource requirements