Urban morphological approach (concepts and practices) plays a significant role in forming our cities not only in terms of theoretical perspective but also in how to practice and experience the urban form structures over time. Urban morphology has been focused on studying the processes of formation and transformation of urban form based on its historical development. The main purpose of this study is to explore and describe the existing literature of this approach and thus aiming to summarize the most important studies that put into understanding the city form. In this regard, there were three schools of urban morphological studies, namely: the British, the Italian, and the French School. A reflective comparison between t
... Show MoreAs one type of heating furnaces, the electric heating furnace (EHF) typically suffers from time delay, non-linearity, time-varying parameters, system uncertainties, and harsh en-vironment of the furnace, which significantly deteriorate the temperature control process of the EHF system. In order to achieve accurate and robust temperature tracking performance, an integration of robust state feedback control (RSFC) and a novel sliding mode-based disturbance observer (SMDO) is proposed in this paper, where modeling errors and external disturbances are lumped as a lumped disturbance. To describe the characteristics of the EHF, by using convection laws, an integrated dynamic model is established and identified as an uncertain nonlinear second ord
... Show MoreIn recent years, there has been a significant increase in research demonstrating the new and diverse uses of non-thermal food processing technologies, including more efficient mixing and blending processes, faster energy and mass transfer, lower temperature and selective extraction, reduced thermal and concentration gradients, reduced equipment size, faster response to extraction control, faster start-up, increased production, and a reduction in the number of steps in preparation and processing. Applications of ultrasound technology have indicated that this technology has a promising and significant future in the food industry and preservation, and there is a wide scope for its use due to the higher purity of final products and the
... Show MoreOne of the most serious health disasters in recent memory is the COVID-19 epidemic. Several restriction rules have been forced to reduce the virus spreading. Masks that are properly fitted can help prevent the virus from spreading from the person wearing the mask to others. Masks alone will not protect against COVID-19; they must be used in conjunction with physical separation and avoidance of direct contact. The fast spread of this disease, as well as the growing usage of prevention methods, underscore the critical need for a shift in biometrics-based authentication schemes. Biometrics systems are affected differently depending on whether are used as one of the preventive techniques based on COVID-19 pandemic rules. This study provides an
... Show MoreThe style of Free-form Geometry (FFG) has emerged in contemporary architecture within the last three decades around the world through the progress of digital design tools and the development of constructive materials. FFG is considered as the hard efforts of several contemporary architects to release their products from familiar restrictions to discover new and unfamiliar styles under the perspective of innovation. Many contemporary architects seek to recognize their forms and facilitate dealing with according to specific dimensional rules. The main research problem is the lack of knowledge, in the field of architecture, in previous literature about the formation processes in achievin
An integrated GIS-VBA (Geographical Information System – Visual Basic for Application), model is developed for selecting an optimum water harvesting dam location among an available locations in a watershed. The proposed model allows quick and precise estimation of an adopted weighted objective function for each selected location. In addition to that for each location, a different dam height is used as a nominee for optimum selection. The VBA model includes an optimization model with a weighted objective function that includes beneficiary items (positive) , such as the available storage , the dam height allowed by the site as an indicator for the potential of hydroelectric power generation , the rainfall rate as a source of water . In a
... Show MoreDiesel engine oil was subjected to thermal oxidization (TO) for six periods of time (0 h, 24 h, 48 h, 72 h, 96 h, and 120 h) and was subsequently characterized by terahertz time domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS). The THz refractive index generally increased with oxidation time. The measurement method illustrated the potential of THz-TDS when a fixed setup with a single cuvette is used. A future miniaturized setup installed in an engine would be an example of a fixed setup. For the refractive index, there were highly significant differences among the oxidation times across most of the 0.3–1.7 THz range.
AI in teaching English is reshaping language learning. While interest in AI-supported education is growing worldwide, research in this area is still emerging in Iraq. This review synthesizes empirical AI-based intervention studies to enhance English language learning in Iraqi higher education, and the perceptions of stakeholders regarding AI tools in language instruction. The reviewed intervention studies, comprising studies employed different AI platforms to support grammar instruction, speaking fluency, writing feedback, and pragmatic competence. These interventions yielded improvements in learners’ performance, motivation, and communicative confidence. In parallel, perception-focused studies revealed positive attitudes toward A
... Show MoreA cumulative review with a systematic approach aimed to provide a comparison of studies’ investigating the possible impact of the active form of vitamin D3, calcitriol (CTL), on the tooth movement caused by orthodontic forces (OTM) by evaluating the quality of evidence, based on collating current data from animal model studies, in vivo cell culture studies, and human clinical trials. Methods: A strict systematic review protocol was applied following the application of the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO). A structured search strategy, including main keywords, was defined during detailed search with the application of electronic database systems: Medline/Pubmed, EMBASE, Scopus, Web of Science, and
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