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The Compressed Baryonic Matter (CBM) experiment at FAIR will play a unique role in the exploration of the QCD phase diagram in the region of high net-baryon densities, because it is designed to run at unprecedented interaction rates. High-rate operation is the key prerequisite for high-precision measurements of multi-differential observables and of rare diagnostic probes which are sensitive to the dense phase of the nuclear fireball. The goal of the CBM experiment at SIS100 (√sNN = 2-4.9 GeV) is to discover fundamental properties of QCD matter, namely, the equation-of-state at high density as it is expected to occur in the core of neutron stars, effects of chiral symmetry, and the phase structure at large baryon-chemical potentials (μB ≥ 500 MeV). We are focusing here on the contribution of JINR to the CBM experiment: design of the superconducting dipole magnet; manufacture of the straw and micro-strip silicon detectors, participation in the data taking and analysis algorithms and physics program.

Traditional cooking techniques prevalent contribute to deforestation, indoor air pollution, and associated health issues. This study explores the transformative potential limitations for improved biomass cookstoves (ICS) uptake among the rural households in Kilimanjaro. ICS offer a faster, more efficient cooking process, reducing cooking time, minimizing heat loss, preserving nutrients, fostering healthier eating habits, and enhancing the flavor of meals. Data were gathered from 300 families in two districts through a crosssectional study, employing both quantitative and qualitative analysis, a binary regression analysis model was used to analyze data collected. The findings indicate that firewood is the major cooking fuel source in the region, where preferred by 83.0% of all respondents and 91.70% of population utilize traditional cookstoves while only 13.0% utilize ICS. The results show that income, education level, occupation and awareness of the household head have greater effect on the uptake of ICS, result indicates that the probability of utilize ICS would increase by 63.173 for every unit increase in monthly household income. Furthermore, households with higher education are more likely to utilize ICS technology by 4.579 times higher compared to those with lower education level. Therefore, the study suggests initiating on public campaign to raise the public awareness and encourage the uptake and utilization of improved cookstoves in rural households. The study's insights can guide policymakers, businesses, and stakeholders in promoting realistic cooking solutions, addressing and overcoming financial barriers of energy challenges, and tackling environmental issues in rapidly growth population in Tanzania.

Wastewater sludge from municipal wastewater treatment plants in Nizhny Novgorod and soils based on them, prepared with different ratios of sludge, sawdust and peat, have been investigated. Sewage sludge-based soils contain plant nutrients and are suitable for use as fertilizing materials in green building. Under the conditions of a three-year lysimetric experiment on cereal lawn grasses, a significant efficiency of organic soils was noted in comparison with traditional soils. The lawn maintenance regime revealed differences in the mixtures of fertilizing materials in terms of the effect on the productivity of the phytocenosis. Use of sewage sludge containing large amounts of heavy metals as one of the soil components undoubtedly leads to increase in the amount of these toxic elements in the soil as a whole.

Soil water retention curves (SWRCs) form an essential component of frameworks coupling the hydromechanical behaviour of unsaturated soils. The curves describe how suction changes with variables such as degree of saturation, void ratio and volumetric/gravimetric water content. SWRCs can be determined from incrementally drying initially saturated reconstituted samples to a final residual state, thus developing the primary drying curve (PDC). The primary wetting curve (PWC) is established from subsequent incremental wetting from residual state and is hysteretic compared with the PDC. SWRCs for reconstituted, high-plasticity, tropical clays from Africa (Sudan, Tanzania and South Africa) will be produced using suction measuring instruments, a tensiometer, filter paper and a dew point potentiometer. The development of SWRCs under various subsequent cycles of drying will be presented and discussed along with details concerning volumetric changes and cracking during drying. In order to investigate the uniqueness of the PDC and PWC and the effect of initial void ratio, SWRCs will be determined for samples formed by reconstituted from slurry under different applied energy levels.

Miscible gas injection is one of the most important enhanced oil recovery (EOR) approaches for increasing oil recovery. Due to the massive cost associated with this approach a high degree of accuracy is required for predicting the outcome of the process. Such accuracy includes, the preliminary screening parameters for gas miscible displacement; the “Minimum Miscibility Pressure” (MMP) and the availability of the gas. All conventional and stat-of-art MMP measurement methods are either time consuming or decidedly cost demanding processes. Therefore, in order to address the immediate industry demands a nonparametric approach, Alternating Conditional Expectation (ACE), is used in this study to estimate MMP. This algorithm Breiman and Friedman [Brieman L., Friedman J.H. (1985) J. Am. Stat. Assoc. 80, 391, 580-619]estimates the transformations of a set of predictors (here C1, C2, C3, C4, C5, C6, C7+, CO2, H2S, N2, Mw5+, Mw7+ and T) and a response (here MMP) that produce the maximum linear effect between these transformed variables. One hundred thirteen MMP data points are considered both from the relevant published literature and the experimental work. Five MMP measurements for Kuwaiti Oil are included as part of the testing data. The proposed model is validated using detailed statistical analysis; a reasonably good value of correlation coefficient 0.956 is obtained as compare to the existing correlations. Similarly, standard deviation and average absolute error values are at the lowest as 139 psia (8.55 bar) and 4.68% respectively. Hence, it reveals that the results are more reliable than the existing correlations for pure CO2 injection to enhance oil recovery. In addition to its accuracy, the ACE approach is more powerful, quick and can handle a huge data.

Organic solid wastes are produced with large amount wherever there are human activities. However, improper treated organic wastes made them as sources of diseases. On the other hand, these fractions contain nutrients and energy, so they have also valuable resources. As a result, exploring their potential as an energy source can be accomplish via anaerobic digestion process, in which, organics converted into hydrogen, methane and/or ethanol. Therefore, this manuscript introduces an overview of the common applied types of reactor that can handle these types of wastes in their solid state and recover them in term of biogas, as well as, stabilize the produced digestate to bio-fertilizers by compositing approach. A comparison also listed to demonstrate the optimum operational conditions and expected amount of biogas from each type.

Several techniques for improving performance of reinforced concrete (RC) beam-column (BC) connections have been developed in last two decades, but these techniques have been criticized for being labourintensive and susceptible to premature de-bonding. To overcome these shortcomings, a novel technique utilising embedded steel bars has been developed in this study for strengthening seismically deficient RC BC connections. This technique involves drilling holes within the joint core. After the drilled holes are cleaned, they are partially filled with epoxy. Finally, steel bars are inserted in the epoxy-filled holes. Two exterior BC connections were constructed and loaded under displacement-controlled cyclic loading. The first specimen was a control specimen designed in accordance with the pre-1970s building codes to represent BC connections requiring strengthening. The second specimen was strengthened with eight 8 mm steel bars embedded within the concrete core in the joint area and epoxied to maintain the bond between the concrete and the steel bars. The strengthened specimen had superior performance compared to that of the control specimen in terms of joint shear stress, normalised principal tensile stress demand and stiffness degradation. The results show that shear stress of the joint was enhanced by about 8% whereas the enhancement in the principal tensile stress demand was 24% compared to that of the control specimen. The results showed that the proposed technique is capable in upgrading the seismic performance of seismically deficient RC BC connections.

Recent technological advancements in wireless communications are fundamentally changing the manner by which devices communicates with one another. Modern wireless devices build networks on their own and aid each other in passing information to any device in the network. The aim of this research is to design and develop a robust routing protocol using network coding technique for Vehicular ad hoc networks (VANET). The purpose of the protocol is to disseminate vehicular traffic to the vehicles approaching the problem area, rather than those leaving the problem area. The designed protocol during the research will be more robust, reliable, and efficient with topology change. In this research, network coding and geographical routing models will be used to develop network coding based VANET routing protocol for alerting vehicles approaching the accident area and emergency message dissemination. The network coding model assumed will serve to increase throughput, in this sense reducing packet loss which will provide a robust broadcast routing protocol.

This paper investigates the development of swelling with time for a highly plastic and potentially expansive clay from Sudan. Soil samples were prepared in the laboratory at different moisture content values. The prepared samples were placed in the oedometer ring at three density levels and then placed in an oedometer cell which allows one dimensional swelling. Swelling was observed at different time intervals to 48 hours. The data was analyzed to determine the development of swelling with time. The data analysis clearly demonstrated three stages of swelling, initial, preliminary and secondary for all tested samples except the quasi-saturated ones. The swell percent and primary swelling were very sensitive to the initial moisture content and dry density of the tested samples. Most of the swelling took place during the first 24 hours for all the tested specimens. The hyperbolic model was assessed for prediction of the percent swell. The 12 hours data was found to be very successful in predicting the percentage swell.

Prestress losses in precast concrete beams include the short-term effects of elastic shortening and the long-term effects of concrete shrinkage, concrete creep and steel relaxation. Temperature effects are, however, excluded. The aim of this research was to monitor the behaviour of a prestressed precast concrete bridge beam, focussing on temperature effects and destressing. Successful monitoring assists in comparing the real performance of a structure to the expected design performance, and in managing the durability of the monitored structure. The effect of temperature variation on strains in prestressed beams was investigated by instrumenting a precast beam. Temperature and strains were monitored from the day of casting up to and including the cutting of the pretensioning strands. Daily temperature variations causing vertical non-linear temperature profiles resulted in internal strains of up to 28 % of the strains caused by destressing. It was therefore concluded that thermal effects before destressing resulting from elevated curing temperatures and daily temperature changes should be considered in the calculation of prestress losses. The monitoring techniques used were successful in determining the stresses and strains within the beam, which can be used to compare real prestress losses with the losses assumed in design.

Metalworking fluids, the class of lubricants most susceptible to microbial attack, metalworking fluid must also be safe for human use and exposure, The failure of the fluid to perform any of its functions has the potential to result in operational problems, process shutdowns, decreased tool life, and product-quality issues, all of which will result in increased costs. Perhaps one of the most common and controllable complications is microbial degradation specially standing from the fact that metalworking fluids contain the nutrients that can permit unchecked microbial growth. In this work we prepared Antimicrobial metal working fluid additive which fulfills the criteria of successful local production in Egypt, as the commercial availability of starting components, effectiveness of the prepared additive, easiness of addition and homogenization with other MWF additives, good environmental profile and biodegradability. The effectiveness of the prepared additive was evaluated by standard method ASTM E645-97 test. It was revealed that; the formic acid which condensate with the polyethylene glycol 400 and ethylene glycol had excellent antibacterial action, it could also greatly reduce growth of bacteria.

This study investigates the self-curing concrete using baby polymer diapers as substitute method of curing process in order to improve mechanical and physical properties of concrete. Three different proportion of baby polymer diapers which are 1%, 3% and 5% were mix with concrete. Slump, compressive strength and drying shrinkage test were performed in order to study the workability, strength and durability of the concrete. All concrete were tested for 1, 3, 7, 14, and 28 days for drying shrinkage test. Meanwhile, all concrete were test at 3, 7 and 28 days for compressive strength test. Compressive strength of concrete containing 5% baby polymer diapers show the highest strength at 28 days compared to others percentage. Thus, it indicates that application of baby polymer diaper as self-cure agent can improve the concrete performances.

This paper describes formulations of plastic bonded explosives (PBXs) based on three highly brisant explosives, namely 1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazinane (RDX), 1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazocane (HMX) and pentaerythritoltetranitrate (PETN) with polyurethane (PU) based on Glycidyl azide polymer (GAP) as an energetic binder in comparison with composition-B, which used in the fragmentation warheads. The sensitivity and performance properties of different types of PBXs were evaluated by experimental results of prepared selected PBX compositions. Casting technique was used to prepare the selected compositions containing 14% PU based on GAP. It has been observed that the brisance of the PBX based on HMX was higher than that of comp-B by 21.3 %, the detonation velocity showed a remarkable increase of the order of 8480 (m/s) while that of comp-B was 7638 (m/s). A controlled fragmentation warhead with an outer grooving warhead case of dimensions 100x35x4 mm was used and arena test was carried out to determine the lethal zone of the fragmentation warhead. The lethal zone obtained from arena test for PBX composition based on HMX named PBXHG4 was higher than that based on RDX or PETN, and than that of comp-B by 40%.

In the present investigation, we used two types of thermoset resins (epoxy resin and phenol formaldehyde resin) with carbon fiber (CF) to produce composite materials. CF/epoxy resin composite and CF/phenolformaldhyde resin composite were fabricated and compared between their mechanical properties as compression, tension and flexural. it was found that mechanical properties of CF/epoxy composite higher than mechanical properties of CF/phenolformaldhyde resin composite such as flexural strength of CF/epoxy resin composite increased by 30 % than flexural strength of CF/phenolformaldhyde resin composite, tensile strength of CF/epoxy resin composite increased by 11.4 % than flexural strength of CF/phenolformaldhyde resin and axial compression strength of CF/epoxy resin composite increased by 14.5 % than flexural strength of CF/phenolformaldhyde resin.

Egypt is ranked among the countries with the highest rates of road accidents. According to the American Chamber of Commerce more than 96% of Egypt's goods are transported by trucks and due to their large volume and excessive weight, the severity and number of truck accident fatalities are much higher than other vehicles in Egypt. The present study aims at identifying truck driver's behavior and its influence on crash involvement. Due to the shortage in recording accident data and the inaccurate road accident audit, data was collected from several governorates in Egypt through questionnaire. Questionnaire forms were filled out through personal interviews with truck drivers. The total number of respondents was 643. The final analysis was made on the 615 questionnaires with complete answers. The data was analyzed and logistic regression was applied to accident related data to examine the contributing factors affecting accident occurrence of truck drivers. Results showed that fatigue in terms of driving hours (continuous and total) and lack of sleep, drug use during driving, and driver obesity are the most influencing factors on the occurrence of truck accidents in Egypt. The findings of this research highlight the important role human factors have on the risk of crash involvement amongst Egypt's truck drivers and the need to improve their work conditions.

Deterioration of reinforcing concrete structures is a common problem among all the Mediterranean countries. To protect steel from corrosion, cobalt oxide with zinc oxide were successfully deposited on silica and alumina layer according to Core–shell theory. This theory based on depositing a surface layer of expensive efficient anticorrosive coating on a cheap extender expressing the bulk. The combination of both core and shell compounds led to the production of new coating with improved properties different from each of its individual components. These improved properties lead to change in the efficiency of protection properties of coating films containing these new coating. The objective of the present work is to prepare a new ecologically friendly natural and inorganic coating of Egyptian mix (kaolin and ceramic waste) and zinc phosphate as corrosion inhibitors based on the solid–solid interaction to protect steel from corrosion in buildings construction. The results revealed that these new coating gives the best results in protecting steel substrates from corrosion especial in aggressive environment.