A field experiment was carried out in one of the orchards of Al-Qassim district in Babel Governorate to find out the ability of a locally manufactured platform to serve palm trees by working in flat and uneven orchard land, palm tree heights of 4, 8, and 12 meters, and it performs pollination, pruning and harvesting services. The time of ascent and descent, the palm service, and the palm/hour productivity were measured. A randomized complete block design with three replications used a split split-plot arrangement. The nature of the land (flat or uneven) represented the main plots, the height of the palm trees (4, 8, 12) meters, the sub-plots, and the palm service operations (pollination, pruning, harvesting) of the sub-sub plots. The data were analyzed and compared according to the L.S.D test at the probability level of 0.05. The results indicated that there is a significant effect of the palm height factor and the type of service factor on the studied characteristics. The highest time for ascent and descent was 101.22 and 50.86 seconds, respectively, at the height of 12 meters, and the highest time for serving the palm tree was 95.40 seconds/palm for the pruning process, and the least productivity was 7.33 palm trees/hour for the pruning process. There was a significant interaction between the palm tree’s height and the land’s nature regarding productivity characteristics. There was a significant difference between the height of the palm tree and the type of service with both times of ascent, descent, and service of a palm tree. Based on the previous, it is possible to use the locally manufactured platform in palm groves to reduce the suffering of palm farmers from the difficulty of performing the necessary operations to serve palm trees, especially those of high altitudes.
The research aims to apply a modified SERVQUAL model to evaluate the quality of the educational services via conducting exploratory research for students from the College of Administration and Economics- Department of Business Administration- Evening studies at the University of Baghdad. Questionnaire of two parts was distributed to a sample of (72) students out of (720) students of the 2nd.,3rd. and 4th. year in the beginning of the second semester of the year 2008-2009 to measure the expectations and perceptions to the quality of the educational services. Five major dimensions were analyzed to see the gaps for (22) variables. The study concluded that there were (13) variables confirmed that the
... Show MoreIn digital images, protecting sensitive visual information against unauthorized access is considered a critical issue; robust encryption methods are the best solution to preserve such information. This paper introduces a model designed to enhance the performance of the Tiny Encryption Algorithm (TEA) in encrypting images. Two approaches have been suggested for the image cipher process as a preprocessing step before applying the Tiny Encryption Algorithm (TEA). The step mentioned earlier aims to de-correlate and weaken adjacent pixel values as a preparation process before the encryption process. The first approach suggests an Affine transformation for image encryption at two layers, utilizing two different key sets for each layer. Th
... Show MorePhotocatalytic materials are being investigated as effective bactericides due to their superior ability to inactivate a broad range of dangerous microbes. In this study, the following two types of bacteria were employed for bactericidal purposes: Gram-negative Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus). The shape, crystal structure, element percentage, and optical properties of Ag9(SiO4)2NO3 were examined after it was successfully synthesized by a standard mixing and grinding processing route. Bactericidal efficiency was recorded at 100% by the following two types of light sources: solar and simulated light, with initial photocatalyst concentration of 2 µg/mL, and 97% and 95% of bactericidal acti
... Show Moreتعتبر شبكية العين جزءًا مهمًا من العين لأن الأطباء يستخدمون صورها لتشخيص العديد من أمراض العيون مثل الجلوكوما واعتلال الشبكية السكري وإعتام عدسة العين. في الواقع، يعد تصوير الشبكية المجزأ أداة قوية للكشف عن النمو غير العادي في منطقة العين بالإضافة إلى تحديد حجم وبنية القرص البصري. يمكن أن يؤدي الجلوكوما إلى إتلاف القرص البصري، مما يغير مظهر القرص البصري للعين. تعمل تقنيتنا على الكشف عن الجلوكوما وتصنيفه
... Show MoreIn modern hydraulic control systems, the trend in hydraulic power applications is to improve efficiency and performance. “Proportional valve” is generally applied to pressure, flow and directional-control valves which continuously convert a variable input signal into a smooth and proportional hydraulic output signal. It creates a variable resistance (orifice) upstream and downstream of a hydraulic actuator, and is meter in/meter out circuit and hence pressure drop, and power losses are inevitable. If velocity (position) feedback is used, flow pattern control is possible. Without aforementioned flow pattern, control is very “loose” and relies on “visual” feed back by the operator. At this point, we should examine how this valv
... Show MoreAbstract:
Objective: The study was done to evaluate nurses’ knowledge and practices toward physical restraint at critical care unit
Methodology: Fifty nurses, who were selected by a non-probability (convenient) sampling method, participated in this descriptive study. The instrument of the study was knowledge parts of the questionnaire were initially developed in the U.S.A for nursing homes; in 2006 they were adopted for all hospital units by the original developers. The knowledge section of the questionnaire consisted of 20 items, which were used to measure knowledge of nurses towards the definition, indications and contra
... Show MoreThis study assesses the short-term and long-term interactions between firm performance, financial education and political instability in the case of Malaysia Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The simultaneous insertion of financial education and political instability within the study is done intentionally to inspect the effect of these two elements in one equation for the Malaysian economy. Using the bound testing methodology for cointegration and error correction models, advanced within an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) framework, we examine whether a long-run equilibrium connection survives between firm performance and the above mentioned independent variables. Using this method, we uncover evidence of a positive long-term link b
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