bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Geodiversity of the Togean Islands National Park, Central Sulawesi Province for Geopark Assessment
Authors: Sendjaja Purnama , Suparka Emmy , Botjing M U
Published: November 2020

The Togean Islands National Park is located at the Gulf of Tomini, Central Sulawesi Province, Indonesia. The islands officially become National Park in 2007, initiated by the government of the Tojo Una-Una district in 2004. There is a variety of geodiversity within the Togean Islands National Park, such as active volcano, ophiolitic pillow lava, beautiful beaches and islands formed by lithology of volcanic deposits, igneous intrusions and quaternary limestone formation. Four geodiversity areas are provided within the national park, according to lithological and geomorphological aspects. Those are the Una-Una Island active volcano, karst topography of limestone around the Batudaka Island, the lava dome at the Togean Island and the ophiolite complex of Walea Islands. The Una-Una volcano island is unique based on the location and anomaly in magma affinities. The Soliter volcano separated from the volcanic belt along the North Sulawesi Arm and has the adakite signature compared to tholeiitic - calk-alkaline as dominant affinities from the North Sulawesi island arc province. The Batudaka Island - karst topography offers sailing and cruiser to the beautiful shape and scenery of karst topography of limestone formation, cave, sandy beaches and blue ocean. The lava dome of the Togean Island: provides a geomorphological landscape that represents the dome of trachytic igneous rock above sea level. The Walea ophiolite: of a geoheritage showing rock formation, consists of ophiolitic pillow lava and the tectonic fossil of subduction between tectonic plates around Sulawesi Islands. Overall, the Togean Islands National Park proposes many adventure sites for diving, snorkelling, surfing, fishing, sea birds and dolphin watching and also conservation of reef, fish and geoheritage sites. Several facilities are already available inside of the National Park, such as resorts and cottages for accommodation, sailing and diving rental for leisure activities.
Analysis on quality improvement of used cooking oil with young pineapple (Ananas comosus) using Taguchi Method
Authors: Arfan Muhammad , Supartono Wahyu , Yuliando Henry
Published: November 2020

Cristal small industry is one of the industries which focuses on processing the snake fruit chips in Sleman, Yogyakarta. To purify used cooking oil in this industry is using young pineapple as adsorbent. However, the industry did not know optimal condition of its adsorbent during the purification process. This research is aimed to determine the combination of optimum factor level of control factors that affect the quality of used cooking oil. Four control factors are as follow; processing time, temperature, atmospheric pressure and thickness of pineapple slice. The number of levels of each factor is three level. Based on the number and factor level used, the experimental design was prepared based on the orthogonal matrix L9 (34) as a tool in Taguchi method. Data analysis are conducted by using signal to noise ratio (SNR), factor effect, variance analysis, multiple performance characteristic and confirmation test. The results showed that the optimal condition for using young pineapple as adsorbent in used oil purification were temperature of cooking at 88°C, processing time for 70 minutes, atmospheric pressure of 72 mmHg and pineapple thickness of 4 mm.
Preliminary Study of Clinical Antidiabetic Activity of Salam Leaves (Eugenia Polyantha) and Sambiloto Leaves (Andrographis Paniculata) In Type 2 Diabetic Patients
Authors: Ischak N I , Botutihe D N
Published: November 2020

Diabetes mellitus is one of disease with high prevalence in the world. Salam (Eugenia polyantha) and Sambiloto (Andrographis paniculata) are plant that widely used traditionally for medicine including to treat diabetes mellitus. Many studies have revealed that these herbs have bioactive compounds that contribute to antidiabetic properties. The objective of the present study is to analyze the clinical antidiabetic properties of Eugenia polyantha and Andrographis paniculata leaves in type 2 diabetic patients. Clinical test with before and after design was used as method. Sample was designed by consecutive sampling with inclusion and exclusion consideration. Total subject of this study are 40 peoples and were divided into two group. One group consumed Eugenia polyantha leaf and the other one consumed Andrographis paniculata leaf. 300 mg of these medicinal plants was given as capsule. The prescription was 1-2 capsule per day for one week. During this study we observed several parameters include: patients characteristic, blood glucose level, uric acid, total cholesterol, blood pressure and other subjective complaints. The result showed that among 20 respondents of each group, there are 70% and 80% respondents decreased fasting blood glucose level (<140 mg/dL) compared to before treatment with these herbs. It can be concluded that Andrographis paniculata and Eugenia polyantha leaf may have positive role in type 2 diabetic patients.
Experimental study of Wear Rate Behavior for Composite Materials under Hygrothermal Effect
Authors: Abdulla Fadhel Abbas , Hamid Katea L. , Ogaili Ahmed Ali Farhan , Abdulrazzaq Mohammed Abdulraoof
Published: November 2020

The behavior of wear for composite materials with effect of hygrothermal was investigated experimentally. The pin-on-disc wear rig was manufacturing. The wear parameters, distance, humidity, applied load, temperature, and speed on the wear behavior was investigated. These composite materials consist of (fiberglass and polyester resin), with (40%) volume fraction. The results give the increasing of humidity and, or temperature causes increasing in glass-fiber/polyester composite’s wear. Also, increasing the load, distance and sliding speed, will be led to an increase in the wear of glass fiber/polyester.
Assessment of heavy metals and ecological risk in the sediments of Thi Qar and Basrah governorates - Southern Iraq
Authors: Al-Jaberi Mohanad H. , Sedkhan Muqdad T. , Hussain Ghazi A. , Jasim Ammar A.
Published: November 2020

The distribution of heavy metals in surface sediment in the four sites of Thi Qar governorate and one site in the eastern part of Basrah governorate were investigated in order to detect the environmental characteristics in these areas. The texture of sandysilt, silt and sandymud are dominant in the study area. The distribution of heavy metals follows the pattern Fe> Ti> Mn > V >Cr > Zn> Pb >Ni >Cu > Co> As. The heavy metals content was reduced in the sandy sediments and low TOC. The heavy metals had a positive correlation with the silt fraction in the sediments of the study area. Sediments alkalinity found with a positive relationship with TOC content. The values of Fe, Zn, Pb, V, and Co were lower than their content in the world wild sedimentary rocks, while Ti, Mn, Ni, Cr, Cu, and As were higher than their content in the world wide sedimentary rocks. The spatial distribution of heavy metals is higher in the Majnoon oil field compared with the other areas. An approach utilizes various contamination indices (Enrichment Factor EF, Geoaccumulation index Igeo, Contamination Factor CF, and Ecological risks Er) were used to evaluate a contamination degree. The values of the contamination indices showed no/low sediment contamination with Co, Zn, Pb, Cu, V, Fe, and Mn in the Chibayish, Nasiriyah city center, and Tal Abu Dahab. Moderate contamination with Ti and Cr in the Suq Al-Shuyukh, Majnoon oil field and Chibayish, while considerable contamination with Ni and As in the Majnoon oil field. The results of Er showed low heavy metals ecological risks.
Improve and reduce the economic cost and pollutants of a swirl burner
Authors: Al-Naffakh Jameel , Hasan Karrar S. , Al-fahham Mohammed , Al-Qasab Mohammed R.
Published: November 2020

The Arab Gulf region is rich in oil products, as Iraq is the second largest country in the Gulf with oil reserves, as Iraq exports to the world 3,500,000 million barrels per day, thus oil is the main source of energy production. However, the main challenges facing energy developers are efficiency, pollution and the economy. Therefore, this paper focused on pollution problems associated with combustion operations as well as economic costs by changing the type of fuel from diesel to liquefied petroleum gas and modifying the system to raise its efficiency and reduce emissions and cost, by setting a vane guide to make swirl fluid with a strong and coherent structure and thus a near perfect ideal few Emission of greenhouse gases at an acceptable cost compared to diesel fuel, where the economic side of the system was highlighted in terms of excessive fuel consumption, as diesel fuel consumption for the system during the whole working hour reached 24,000 Iraqi dinars, while fuel consumption with LPG reached 15,600 Iraqi dinars, thus saving 8,400 Iraqi dinars Thus, fuel consumption was reduced by 0.35%. Consequently, the improved fuel economy and environmental considerations of the external combustion system make it a sustainable choice in the energy field such as industries, power stations and all other fields.
Removal of TOC from oily wastewater by electrocoagulation technology
Authors: AlJaberi Forat Yasir
Published: November 2020

The present study aims to employ an electrocoagulation reactor containing concentric-aluminum-tubes as electrodes for total organic carbon (TOC) removal from real oily wastewater released from drilling sites located in West Qurna-Iraq. Applied current ranges from 0.5 to 2.0 Amps and contact time ranges from 10 to 40 min had selected as the operational variables. Response surface methodology (RSM) type central composite design (CCD) and MINITAB-statistical soft program had performed to design experiments and analysis of the obtained results. The results showed significant removal of TOC (83.91%) at the optimal values of the operational parameters (1.606 Amps and 40 min). Moreover, the present design of the electrocoagulation reactor was more reliable and cost-effective that could be used in practice efficiently.
The Use of Spreadsheets in Teaching the Economic Load Dispatch Problem
Authors: Mezhr Salahaldain Abduljabbar
Published: November 2020

Economic Load Dispatch problems in electrical power networks have been investigated over the years and several calculation methods were introduced. In order to determine the work state of power network, it is often necessary to solve a large system of non-linear transcendent equations. Therefore, the program routines are complex to develop, while specialized commercial software packages are expensive and not easily available. On the other hand, Microsoft Excel as a part of Microsoft office software package is widely spread in the world and relatively easily available. This paper presents the design and development of Microsoft Excel based economic load dispatch analysis tool and its application for system planning and operation. Three different economic load dispatch methods, namely, Merit Order, Lambda-Iteration and Dynamic Programming methods have been implemented to provide wider choice for the users. The emphasis of this paper is on the educational value of spreadsheets in the analysis of power system.
Methods of Improving the Performance of Adsorption Thermophysical battery based on the Operating Conditions and Structure: A Review
Authors: Tarish Ali Lateef , Khalifa Abdul Hadi N , Hamad Ahmed J.
Published: November 2020

Methods of improving the performance parameters of the adsorption thermophysical battery (ATB) including, coefficient of performance (COP), specific cooling power (SCP) have been reviewed in this study. Adsorption thermophysical battery has received much attention in the last few decades due to its advantages in utilizing waste heat or solar energy and using environment-friendly refrigerants. This survey reviews 158 papers that propose method and technologies to improve ATB. Structures and operating conditions such as heat exchanger, solar collector, fins, heat and mass transfer, adsorbent-adsorbate working pairs are discussed in this review. It was collected from the review literature: (i) cooling capacity and COP are increased with hot water temperature increasing and with reduction of inlet cooling water temperature, (ii) the condensation temperature is inversely proportional with COP and SCP for single and double stages ATB, (iii) both SCP and COP are increased when the heat source is a relatively high temperature; (iv) operating cycle time is important to achieve the optimal system performance, where the COP increases with cycle time increasing for particular limits. (iv) novel adsorbent materials such as MOF can significantly improve the ATB performance, (v) enhancement in cooling capacity of the ATB can be achieved under high flow rates of hot and cold water, (vi) improving the adsorbent thermal conductivity can enhance the performance. This review can assist in selecting the ATB for future research works with improved COP and reduced cost when this system is driven by waste heat or solar energy.
Continuous flow adsorption for phenol removal using environmentally friendly naturally derived bed
Authors: Kamal Ibtisam , Albadran Firas , Jaafar Hammen , Ali Diyar , Alfaize Mustafa
Published: November 2020

Phenol is one of the common contaminants observed in many wastewater industries. It is toxic, hazardous, carcinogenic and listed as a priority pollutant by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This research aimed to establish the efficacy of activated carbon derived from walnut shell in extracting phenol from aqueous solutions using a fixed-green bed column adsorption system. The effect of parameters affecting the adsorption process including the initial concentration of phenol, bed ratio, and flow rate, was studied. The results showed that the highest percentage of phenol removal by the activated carbon is 86.2% at pH 7, initial concentration of phenol 0.001M, bed ratio 1:3 sand/activated carbon, and flow rate 10 ml/min. The breakthrough behavior of the fixed-bed adsorption process was studied. It was observed that the adsorption process equilibrium is practically reached after 105 minutes. The adsorption column dynamic behavior was investigated using three numerical models. The results confirmed that Thomas and Yoon-Nelson models are found more fitted to the adsorption experimental results. Moreover, modeling and interpretation of the column adsorption isotherms predicted that the Freundlich isotherm model is better than Langmuir isotherm model to describe the column adsorption data indicating that the phenol adsorbed molecules are not restricted to monolayer formation and the mechanism of adsorption is chemo-sorption. Briefly, the results of this study pointed out that the activated carbon derived from the walnut shell is not only a low-cost green adsorbent but also has high performance in the removal of phenol from aqueous solutions.
COMPARISON BETWEEN WEIGHT AND VOLUME PERCENTAGES FOR CEMENT MORTAR
Authors: Abd Lubna Mohammed , AbdAlqadir Narmeen AbdAlwahhab , Majeed Muhannd Waleed
Published: November 2020

The concrete in a simple case is a mixing of cement mortar and aggregates. Cement mortar consist of mixing cement and water which is cover the surface of aggregates. Through hydration of cement, the mortar becomes hardened and forming such like rock mass which is called concrete. The key of gaining hardened and strong concrete produced in a well mixing percentages and by mixing method which it is either weight or volume mixing. Concrete which has no equivalent cement mortar enough to fill spaces between aggregate particles lead to difficult molding process and produced concrete with weak strength. There are two ways of measuring materials in cement mortar: by weight and by volume percent, the first one is more accurate than the other specifically in determination compressive strength of cement mortar cubes, because it is having more cement content as compared with the second one. In this research, three percent (1:1, 1:2, 1:3) is taking with constant water to cement ratio of (0.35), the dimensions of cube are (7*7*7) cm to calculate compressive strength for (3, 7, 14, 28) days. The weight percentages have compressive strength more than volume percentages by changing factor of (1.2).
Recyclable Wastes as Internal Curing Materials to Improve High-Performance Concrete’s Sustainability, and Durability: An Overview
Authors: Rasheed Laith Sh. , Abdulrasool Abdulrasool Th.
Published: November 2020

This study discusses the researchers’ experiences with regard to the use of sustainable materials (waste materials and recycling materials) as internal curing materials during the development process for high-performance concrete (HPC). Generally, the use of waste materials as internal curing materials to enhance interior curing reduces the self-desiccation that occurs in cement paste concrete and can thus reduce the risks of the cracks that may develop as a result of modern concrete hardening. This research also examines high-performance concrete behaviours, including characteristics such as density, compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, and flexural strength to examine internal curing efficiency. This appears to be more effective with age progression in terms of compressive strength and splitting tensile strength. The results of the research show that the use of waste materials as internal curing agents not only enhances the properties of concrete but also offers a renewable method for reducing the amount of waste globally.
Evaluating the effects of the flow direction on the performance of the rapid sand filter
Authors: Hasan Hayder N. , Al-Baidhani Jabbar H. , Al-Saadi Riyadh Jasim Mohammed
Published: November 2020

The rapid sand downflow filter is widely used in water treatment plants. On the other hand, this filter has some drawbacks included the significant development of the head loss via the filter media because most of the rejected particles are removed by the upper layers. As well, the filter particles are redistributed during the backwash process causing the settling of fine particles on the upper part of the filter media, and this needs to increase the number of backwash processes. For these reasons, the cost of the produced water increases. The aim of the present study is to explore the possibility of using the upflow sand filter (UF-Filter) as a good alternative to the downflow sand filter (DF-Filter). To achieve the aims of the present study, a comparison was made between the performance of both filters through simultaneous experiments under different operating conditions. These conditions included changing of the filtering velocity from 5 m/h to 10 m/h and the initial water turbidity with a range of (10 – 200) NTU. The sand media with sizes of (0.6 - 1mm) and with 63 cm of depth was used. Experimental results show that the turbidity removal efficiency of the DF-Filter is of about 1.1 times that of the UF-Filter. On the other hand, the UF-Filter has higher turbidity removal efficiency than the DF-Filter by about 1.1 times when the initial turbidity of the influent water is greater than 150 NTU and the filtration velocity is equal to 10 m/hr. These differences in the removal efficiency between both filters can be considered as few values. The average filtration efficiency of the UF-Filter operated with the filtration velocity of 5 and 7.5 m/h is higher than that of the DF-Filter operated with the filtration velocity of 7.5 and 10 m/h, respectively under the same operating conditions. The filtration efficiency of both filters increases when the backwash was carried out before each experimental process instead of replacing the filter media. Also, the head loss of the DF-Filter is significantly increased due to redistribution of the sand media taking place during the backwash cycle, while the head loss of the UF-Filter is not affected. The head loss of the UF-filter at the end of each experimental run is less than that of the DF-Filter by about (18.18 % - 45.31 %) when the filter medium is replaced and this range is increased to about (53.31 % - 62.34 %) when the backwash is performed prior to the start of the experimental work. Thus, the decrease in head loss leads to an increase in the filter running time and decrease the number of backwash process.
Photovoltaic panel type influence on the performance degradation due dust accumulation
Authors: Chaichan Miqdam T , Kazem Hussein A , Ibrahim Sulafa I , Radhi Amera A , Mahmoud Bashar K , Ali Ali J
Published: November 2020

This study investigates the effect of the type of solar cell technology used on its outcomes degradation when dust accumulates on it. Therefore, in this study, practical tests were performed on the physical properties of accumulated dust in the University of Technology Campus-Iraq for a period of three months. After that, a practical study examined the effect of the type of photovoltaic unit used on the decrease in current, voltage, and energy resulting from the accumulation of this dust with specific mass fractions. The comparison was made between the Amorphous, Monocrystalline, Polycrystalline, and Organic PV modules. The accumulation of dust causes significant decreases in current and has a limited effect on the voltages of all modules studied, as a result, the electric power generated decrease from all the studied photovoltaic modules due to the accumulation of dust. The accumulation of dust had the greatest effect on the Amorphous PV cell, followed by polycrystalline, monocrystalline and finally organic at 42%, 36.3%, 32.9% and 25.7%, respectively. The study demonstrated that the best option is to use monocrystalline cells for the university site. The study also concluded that the choice of any PV technology for a station at any site should be preceded by a study of the effect of dust in that location in order to favor any technique that must be applied. Keywords: Dust accumulation; Amorphous, polycrystalline, monocrystalline; organic; PV module
Economic, Social, and Environmental Sustainable Operation of Roadways within the Central Business District (CBD) sector at Hilla City Incorporated with Public Transport
Authors: Medlol Sadiq Ghazi , Alwash Ali Abdul Ameer
Published: November 2020

The maintaining of sustainability is a constant challenge. Sustainability can be achieved by maintaining road traffic safety or preventing collisions and using pollution-free vehicles and safe transporting of goods. This research addresses the assessment of measuring transport sustainability based on economic, social, and environmental indicators for public transport routes. The methodology of this research can be described by collecting data (air pollution, noise, number of incidents, and volumes of traffic) from 15 public transport links within the central business district (sector 2) in the city of Hilla through collaboration with the departments concerned. To avoid the problem of utilizing several evaluation indicators, this research is developing a procedure to obtain a sustainable composite index to available data collection. The indicators of sustainability for urban transportation addressing the economic (delay), social (safety), and environmental (noise, air pollution) aspects depend on existing data. Indicators are combined in the economic, social, and environmental indicators into a composite sustainability index, in a way that overcomes the restrictions of normalization, weight, and aggregation. It is an attempt to estimate the sustainability of transport within the CBD sector No.2 in Hilla, which is integrated with public transport. According to the ICST (Composite Sustainability Transportation Index) value for roads associated with public transportation in Sector No.2 of the CBD Hilla City, the overall assessment for sustainability operation is from moderate level (9 links) to low (5 links) and a high level (1 link).
Simulation and optimization of Camelina oil fatty acids reaction to produce fatty acid methyl esters in a reactive distillation reactor
Authors: Kamal Ibtisam M. , Albadran Firas H. , Bamerni Fanar M. , Aziz Danar H. , Alfaize Mustafa
Published: November 2020

Reactive distillation (RD) is a chemical unit operation in which chemical reaction and product separation occurs simultaneously in one unit resulted in reduce the number of downstream steps, energy savings, and greenhouse gases. In the current work, process flow sheets for industrial routes for conversion of camelina oil fatty acids to fatty acid methyl esters (biodiesel) in presence of acid catalyst is modelled in Aspen HYSYS for the purpose to scale up the esters production. The effect of the operating and design parameters is optimized in addition to design the production plant. The simulation results showed that optimum ester yield is obtained for linoleic acid and palmatic components using 6:1 alcohol to oil ratio, reaction temperature 60°C and feeding the oil and the alcohol at stage number 3 and 5 respectively.
Compressive Strength Development of Slag-Based Geopolymer Paste Reinforced with Fibers Cured at Ambient Condition
Authors: Sachet Wrood H. , Salman Wissam D.
Published: November 2020

Geopolymer mixtures (such as concrete, mortar, and paste) were used as sustainable alternatives to Portland cement, and enhancement the mechanical properties by addition fibers, due to their great potential in reducing environmental pollution and reducing consumption of raw materials. In this paper, verified the effect of different fibers added to slag based geopolymer paste, on compressive strength development. Ten mixes were preparing and curing at ambient condition. The variables included; type of fibers added (i.e. micro steel fiber, carbon fiber,orpolypropylene fiber), and volumetric ratio of fibers included, (1%, 2%, or 3%) of micro steel fiber, and (0.2%, 0.4%, or 0.6%) of carbon fiber and polypropylene fiber. The alkaline solution was combination of sodium silicate (Na2SiO3), and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) with concentrically 10 molar. The results were found that the addition of fibers led to improving significant of the compressive strength. Generally, the development of compression was estimate by about (30% and 23%) at ages (7 and 28) days, respectively. Finally, the slag based geopolymer paste is more suitable to use in construction sites as alternative sustainable of Portland cement.
The influence of dust physical specifications photovoltaic modules performance
Authors: Mahdy Aedah M J , Ibrahim S I , Al-Zubidi Dina S M , Ali A J , Chaichan Miqdam T , Kazem Hussein A
Published: November 2020

In this article, an experimental analysis was performed to assess the effect of dust accumulation on PV modules resulting energy losses. The dust used in the experiments was collected from three specific sites in the Republic of Iraq. Samples of pollen and common dust were collected from three sites for a period of three months in order to assess their physical properties.

The results showed that 64% of all dust particles are 2 to 62 μm in diameter. The effect of dust deposition on the PV modules has mixed results from one location to another. The surface mass of the precipitated dust is concentrated on the PV unit only (up to 5 g/m2/day), and the decrease in the energy results was evident. The daily maximum decrease in efficacy was 0.05% for the samples examined, and when compared to neighboring countries its value is clear and effective. The results showed that the exposure of the photovoltaic cells to external conditions for a period longer than two months caused a decrease in the productivity of the photovoltaic unit by 35-40%. Therefore, it is recommended that there be periods of cleaning the cells up to two months. The study concluded that the use of PV systems in the studied sites is a practical and economical option.
Study the effect of cold working on the mechanical properties of aluminum alloy 2024 T4
Authors: Saud Haneen M. , Abdulrazzaq Mohammed A.
Published: November 2020

This paper studied the effect of cold working process on (AA2024-T4). shot peening and burnishing processes were utilized in this work. different times of peening (2, 4, 6,8,16 and 24 min) and two parameter of burnishing process (feed rate, spindle speed) were used to analysis the effect of these processes on the mechanical characteristic of aluminum alloy 2024 T4. Fatigue strength, surface hardness and surface roughness were studied. It was observed the shot peening and burnishing process leads to improve fatigue strength of AA2020 T4. The best value of fatigue strength (219 MPa) was obtained in burnishing process at spindle speed (720rpm) and constant feed rate (0.1). This improvement in fatigue life due to compressive residual stresses introducing on alloy’s surface. The highest vales of surface hardness and roughness were(394HVN)) and (8.1 μm) that obtained at (24min) times of shot peening process.
Numerical study of nanofluid natural convection in a partially heated tall enclosure
Authors: Al-Farhany Khaled , Al-Dawody Mohamed F. , Hamzah Dhafer A. , Hamza Naseer H.
Published: November 2020

Numerical study of natural convective heat transfer of partially heated tall rectangular cavity filled with (Al2O3-water) nanofluid. Two opposing horizontal walls are adiabatic, while the right vertical wall is kept at fixed cold temperature, and the left wall of the cavity heated partially. The effect of Rayleigh number (Ra), Aspect ratio (A), and the volume fractions of nanoparticles (ϕ) on the isotherms, streamline, and the average Nusselt number (Nu) have been investigated. The dimensionless governing equations with the Boussinesq approximation have been solved numerically, by using the finite element approach. The results presented for a wide range of parameters including; (103≤Ra≤105, 5≤A≤10, and 0.02≤ϕ≤0.06). The result shows that; the Nu increase when the effect of Rayleigh number (Ra), and the volume fractions of nanoparticles (ϕ) increasing, and also it increase when the Aspect ratio (A) increasing.
Optimization of glass powder content in self-compacting concrete as partial replacement of cement
Authors: Khudair Athraa younis , Mohammed Mahmoud Khashaa , Hama Sheelan Mahmoud.
Published: November 2020

The main aim of the present work is to investigate the fresh and hardened properties of self-compacting concrete by utilization recycled glass powder as partial replacement material for cement and to specify the optimum percent from performance and sustainability point of views. In this study, five mixes were designed with different percentage of grinded glass powder used as cement replacement at 0%, 10%, 20%, 30%, and 40% by weight. Slump flow diameter, time needed to achieve a flow diameter of 500 mm, sieve segregation resistance and L-box height ratio were utilized to examine the rheological properties of the produced self-compacting concrete. For the main mechanical properties, compressive strength at 7, 28, 56 days, splitting tensile, and flexural strengths test at 28 day were conducted. The test results illustrate that the increase in the partial replacement of cement by glass powder led to keep flow ability and caused small decrease in T500 mmtime. However, there was slight decrease in the passing ability and better performance in segregation resistance compared to the mix without glass powder. The mechanical properties of the produced mixes increased up to the replacement level of 30%. However, the optimization results using Minitab 18 statistical software deduced that the optimum percent is 24% to achieve optimum performance in terms tested properties and evaluated sustainability aspects.
Magnetic–type Climbing Wheeled Mobile Robot for Engineering Education
Authors: Mahmood Saif K. , Bakhy Sadeq H. , Tawfik Mouwafak A.
Published: November 2020

The tendency of developing wheeled mobile robots in different applications is growing every day. During the past decades, the need for robots capable for climbing vertical wall has been increased. As a result of that, this paper presents a light and low cost wall climbing robot WCR of wheeled locomotion and adopted neodymium magnets to provide adhesion force. This climbing system is intended to be used for educational and research purposes. The mechanical and electrical constructions are presented. The proposed design has the ability to achieve ground-wall transitioning. In order to provide sufficient information about robot mass properties, novel mechanisms to determine the coordinates of the center of mass COM and moment of inertia MOI of the proposed climbing robot have been introduced. In addition, the vision system was suggested to provide feedback signal of robot pose (position and orienting). Finally, to evaluate the performance of the robot design, a prototype was built and tested in the laboratory environment.
EFFECT OF THE ELECTRODEPOSITION CONDITIONS ON THE EROSION CORROSION OF AUSTENITIC STAINLESS STEEL 316L USING RESPONSE SURFACE METHODOLOGY (RSM)
Authors: Naje Bashar Saed , Al–juboori Haydar A.H. , Al-Saffar Nabil L.
Published: November 2020

This study represents an attempt to improve the erosion corrosion resistance for industrial pumping station used to produce sulfuric acid through electrodeposition coating samples of Austenitic stainless steel 316L. Minitab 19 program was used to precipitate a composite coating layer (Cr-WC) because it is used in many industrial applications that require corrosion resistance, As well as high hardness. The samples were coated using different variables as inputs: temperature(T), WC concentration(WC wt% ), stirring velocity (r.p.m) and deposition time (t) for four levels using central composite design for design laboratory experiments. The factors of coating thickness (C.T), surface roughness (Ra) and micro- hardness (HV) were adopted as outputs response and a complete analysis of variances (ANOVA) at constants significances levels of %5, was done to fully identify the most significant parameters.

The surface response methodology (RSM) was used to provide an optimized model with the best optimum properties such as micro-hardness, surface roughness, coating corrosion rate and oxidation corrosion rate to improve the corrosion resistance of Austenitic 316L stainless steel samples.

The results showed respectively that the wc wt.% was the most effective on all the outputs response then deposition time (min), temperature(T) and stirring velocity (r.p.m).
Structural Response of Post-Fire Exposed Reinforced Concrete Column with Pre-Load
Authors: Jawad Samah Adnan , Ali Ammar Yasir
Published: November 2020

This paper presents the results of experimental and numerical studies of the fundamental response of normal concrete (NSC) columns under fire exposure with pre concentric load. The present study aims to investigate experimentally the behavior of reinforced concrete columns exposed to fire flame with concentric axial load, post-fire behavior under the effect of axial eccentric load. Also, it aims to give a comprehensive account of the fire effects on the ductility and stiffness of these columns. The test results indicated that columns lost about (47.60-51.4) % of bearing capacity after exposure to fire at 500 °C with one hour. Moreover, increased decrease in residual bearing capacity significantly with increasing load level applied during fire exposure. Also, Non-linear finite element (FE) analyses of postfire exposed RC columns with axially load using the ABAQUS computer program is discussed in this paper.
Design and Optimization of Coupled and Self-Adaptive of An Underactuated Robotic Hand Using Particle Swarm Optimization
Authors: Salman Hasan Dawood , Bakhy Sadeq Hussein , Hamzah Mohsin Noori
Published: November 2020

A large work has been devoted to create and design the novel underactuated robotic hand that mimic human hand in terms of motion and grasps. The objective of this paper is to design and development of four-finger underactuated robotic hand mechanisms with 2-DOF for each finger that is highly underactuated which controlled by single actuator that can be used with wide applications. The principle of this hand mechanism is to use the linkage seesaw differentials and the design of robotic finger integrates segments by pin joints and a tendon, that allowing it easily of grasping and adaptable different objects. Furthermore, the robotic finger was designed with combines advantages of the concept of rigid coupled and selfadaptive into one unit to achieve better performance with simple design. To plan the trajectory of the robotic finger and force-isotropic that resembled the human finger in motion and grasping operation, Underactuated finger mechanism was preliminary analysis to predict the relationship between the joint angles of robotic finger related to mechanical parameters as well as contact forces then, modified by optimized set of parameters using particle swarm optimization (PSO). Where, the parameter design constraints were formulated for a multi objective optimization problem using the evaluation criteria for human finger in motion and grasping. Experiments were conducted in order to validate the theoretical analysis by addition of angles sensors on each segment of fingers and the results show that the proposed hand is able to mimic human hand in terms of motion and adaptive grasps.
PRICE PREDICTION OF DIFFERENT CRYPTOCURRENCIES USING TECHNICAL TRADE INDICATORS AND MACHINE LEARNING
Authors: khalid salman Mohammed , Abdu Ibrahim Abdullahi
Published: November 2020

From the past two years with increasing geopolitical and economic issues, global currency values have been falling and stock markets have been having a poor run & investors losing wealth. This has led to a renewal of interest in digital currencies. Cryptocurrency one of the most prominent digital currency has found itself in spotlight with investors wanting a piece of it and business establishments accepting it as a source of payment due to its stable performance in the last few years. This research has been done on predicting cryptocurrency prices using machine learning based neural network which has a lowest the model loss over 100 epochs during training and Technical Trade Indicators (TTI) graphs depicts a real BTC value 5 to 10 times in 300-days of current fiscal year has further supported this increasing trader confidence and a shift in global cryptocurrency graph by predicted BTC values. On the same lines, we are analyzing bitcoin prices using Machine Learning and Sentiment Analysis. We also study stock market trends in order to better predict bitcoin prices quantitively. In this work we analyze the impact of global currencies like US Dollar, foreign exchanges on Bitcoin prices and whether Bitcoin has the stability to dethrone global currencies and become the single medium of transaction. This work is adequate enough to aid in predicting price and with results obtained from predicting Bitcoin prices using machine learning based neural network achieving an accuracy of 94.89% under all circumstances of technical trade indication thereby bringing down its price prediction by over 13.7% in April 2020 itself during evaluation.
Face Recognition Using The Basic Components Analysis Algorithm
Authors: Kamil Hussein Marwah , J.Jalil Alyaa , Alhijaj Asaad
Published: November 2020

Since all the things surrounding us have characteristics, therefore, of course, there are several characteristics and features of the human face that distinguish it and know it from others, making it a distinct organism with certain features that can be classified and identified on its basis. Since the detection and cutting of faces from the image is a critical problem that has gained importance in recent times, they play a major role in facial recognition systems. In this research, we present a new method for identifying faces using the Principal Component Analysis PCA algorithm, through the passage of the image in several stages, starting with the stage of obtaining the image (taking it); then, the face detection phase of the original image, and aligning the image (i.e. adjusting the face angle to the camera angle). After that, we enter the image with the stage of extracting the important basic features of the image; then, we match the required image with the available image store. The proposed algorithm was tested with several images and faces and faces without faces were successfully recognized. The proposed algorithm is characterized by a high efficiency in the detected faces. The accuracy of this algorithm is more than 95% in the detection faces. The proposed algorithm is a prerequisite for any system that uses the face as the main feature.
The review of NAO robotics in Educational 2014-2020 in COVID-19 Virus (Pandemic Era): technologies, type of application, advantage, disadvantage and motivation
Authors: A.Younis Hussain , Jamaludin R. , Wahab M.N.A. , Mohamed A.S.A
Published: November 2020

The use of robotics in education is a very important issue for disposal and galaxies in this era of the pandemic (COVID-19). Where this study examines the topic of robotics in education (RIE) by using modern and specific query methods extracted from different research sites and based on judicious scholar’s standards. These sites are Web of Science, Taylor and Francis and Science Direct. After careful investigation and deep research, the following titles should be taken which are (a)Educational robots, (b)education in robots, (c) human-robot interaction, (d) Higher Education, (e) academic, (f) smart pedagogy, (j)student, and (h) tutors. The retrieved articles were filtered according to the Use of robotics in Education. A total of 98 articles were selected and examined. Finally, we examined the taxonomy of these articles of robotics in Education base on faith and guidance, according to specific criteria, into six groups, which include Faith and Guidance, Concepts, Device, Application, Manufacturing, Studies Analysis and educational. Therefore, this work will be the platform and the guide for student, researcher, educators, anyone how interest in this field. The current focus in this area is on employing papers containing NAO robots and that 17 articles.
A New Medical Images Encryption algorithm Based on Gold Code: Futures Trends Towards Telemedicine
Authors: Ellewe Mohammad H. , Sagheer Ali M. , Shawkat Abdulbaqi Azmi
Published: November 2020

The rising necessity for telemedicine has made the healthcare sector an urgent and unlimited necessity to secure important data sent between medical centers for treatment purposes. The medical image encryption is a significant technique to attain a medical images security (MIS). There are numerous researchers utilized advanced encryption standard (AES) to guarantee of MIS. The direct application of AES encryption technology on medical images led to a long-time of processing; also it leads to a clear background regions, which are considered defects. This article includes the application of information theory (IT) to detect regions of the medical image that include, ROI (regions of interest) and ROB (regions of background). To reduce processing time and protect the medical image by utilizing AES with a higher degree of protection, a hybrid encryption is applied to ROI, and a method of coding such as gold code (GC) is applied to ROB after creation. The proposed method involves less time processing for the entire medical image of the AES application and has the best possible security as described in the entropy and link calculations.
PAM Clustering Aided Android Malicious Apps Detection
Authors: Talib Mohammed Nibras , Hasan Hussein Mohsin , Jabber Rashid Abbas
Published: November 2020

The exponential growth of android contrivances has attracted cybercriminals strongly and dramatically. The applications existed in the android market represented an attack surface owing to the lack of security mechanisms applied by the Google play store. Additionally, downloading apps from unofficial sources lead to a further security threat. Any mobile application requests several permissions to access users’ data to run the app. Thus, attackers exploited this feature in compromising users’ sensitive data. This motivated several researchers to investigate security mechanisms to detect Android malware based on this feature utilizing machine learning techniques, particularly classification techniques. However, This research proposes a permission-based android malware detection framework using a clustering algorithm. Further motivation for this research is that large datasets labeling is a tough mission. Therefore, Our work will contribute to android malware detection as well as android apps datasets labeling. PAM (Partitioning Around Medoid) clustering has been exploited for this purpose since its less affected by outliers or other extreme values. The most significant features have been selected as an input to the clustering algorithm to enhance its results. The results depicted that our clustering algorithm was able from grouping our dataset into two categories malevolent and genuine apps. Moreover, our result has been validated by evaluation standard F-Measure, which is counting for 0.86 for 40 attributes subset, while it is 0.88 for 30 features subset. This reveals a good performance level of permission-based android malware detection and android applications datasets labeling into malware and good ware.
Deep Learning with network of Wearable sensors for preventing the Risk of Falls for Older People
Authors: Mishkhal Israa , AL_ Kareem Sarah Abd , Hadi Saleh Hassan , Alqayyar Ammar
Published: November 2020

Activity recognition (AR) systems for older adults are common in residential health care including hospitals or nursing homes; therefore, numerous solutions and studies presented to improve the performance of the AR systems. Yet, delivering sufficiently robust AR systems from sensor data recorded is a challenging task. AR in a smart environment utilizes large amounts of sensor data to derive effective features from the data to track the activity daily living. This paper maximizes the performance of AR system from using the convolutional neural network (CNN). Here, it analyzes signals from the network sensors distributed in different places in two clinical rooms at the Elizabeth hospital, such as W2ISP and RFID sensors. The proposed approach recognized the daily activities that consider a key to falling cases for older adults at a hospital or a nursing health house. A deep activity CNNets is used to train the effective features of daily activities sensors data then used for recognizing the highest falling risk activities in testing data. This approach used existing data of fourteen healthy older volunteers (ten females and four males) and then compared to other proposed approaches that used the same dataset. The experimental results show that this approach is superior to others. It achieved (96.37±3.63%) in the first clinic room and (98.37±1.63%) in the second clinic room. As the result, this experiment concludes that deep learning methodology is effectively assessing fall risk based on wearable sensors.
Hybrid Algorithm to Solve Timetabling Problem
Authors: Algasm Wesam Ali
Published: November 2020

The university course timetabling problem is a well-known highly-constrained difficult optimization problem. The problem seeks the best allocation of courses to time slots and rooms while ensuring all related constraints are satisfied. Due to the limited resources (rooms and time slots), finding an optimal, or even a high quality, timetable is a challenging task that every university encounters every semester. Many metaheuristic algorithms have been proposed for university course timetabling problem. Genetic algorithm is a class of metaheuristic and has shown very good results for many real-world problems. However, for university course timetabling problems, a traditional genetic algorithm is not usually considered as an efficient solver because it is very hard to maintain the solution feasibility. In this research, we propose a new hybrid algorithm that combines genetic algorithm with simulated annealing to find good solutions for university course timetabling problems. The proposed hybrid algorithm uses simulated annealing in adaptive manner to rectify solutions and to improve the quality of the generated solution by genetic algorithm. The proposed algorithm is tested over Socha dataset from the scientific literature and compared with the state of the art methods.