Micro-perforated panel (MPP) absorber is increasingly gaining popularity as an alternative sound absorber in buildings compared to the well-known synthetic porous materials. A single MPP has a typical feature of a Helmholtz resonator with a high amplitude of absorption but a narrow absorption frequency bandwidth. To improve the bandwidth, a single MPP can be cascaded with another single MPP to form a double-layer MPP. This paper proposes the introduction of inhomogeneous perforation in the double-layer MPP system (DL-iMPP) to enhance the absorption bandwidth of a double-layer MPP. Mathematical models are proposed using the equivalent electrical circuit model and are validated with experiments with good agreement. It is revealed that the DL-iMPP produces a wider half-absorption bandwidth compared to the conventional homogeneous double-layer MPP. The absorption bandwidth to higher frequencies can be effectively controlled by reducing the air cavity between the iMPPs and to the lower frequencies by increasing the back cavity depth at the second layer.
Background: Despite the importance of vaccines in preventing COVID-19, the willingness to receive COVID-19 vaccines is lower among RA patients than in the general population. Objective: To determine the extent of COVID-19 knowledge among RA patients and their attitudes and perceptions of COVID-19 vaccines. Methods: A qualitative study with a phenomenology approach was performed through face-to-face, individual-based, semi-structured interviews in the Baghdad Teaching Hospital, Baghdad, Iraq, rheumatology unit. A convenient sample of RA patients using disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs was included until the point of saturation. A thematic content analysis approach was used to analyze the obtained data. Results: Twenty-five RA pa
... Show MoreThis is the first record of a new species of cyanobacteria Westiellopsis akinetica in the Iraqi environment, Samples were collected on June 2013 and the existence of it was not documented before. We isolated and purified this species ten years ago in Iraq, but we couldn't identify accurately based on all taxonomic handbooks. This is due to the species features being different from the other documented species in the available taxonomic lectures. It resembled many species by morphological characteristics such as Fischerella muscicola, Fischerella thermalis, Westiellopsis biateralis SA16. Westiellopsis interrupta, Westiellopsis persica SA33, Westiellopsis prolifica and Symphyonema bifilamentata. Describing a new species of the Westiellops
... Show MoreThis study was aimed to evaluate the effect of spraying nano chitosan loaded with NPK fertilizer and nettle leaf and green tea extracts on the growth and productivity of potato for the spring and fall seasons of 2021.It was conducted at private farm in Wasit Governorate, Iraq, as a factorial experiment (5 × 5) within randomized complete block design using three replicates. The first factor included spraying with four concentrations of chitosan nanoparticles loaded with NPK fertilizer 0, 10. 15 and 20% in addition to chemical fertilization treatment, the second factor was spraying nettle leaf extract 25 and 35 gL-1 and green tea extract with 2 and 4 g.L-1, in addition to the control treatment, spraying with distilled water only. The
... Show MoreA three-stage learning algorithm for deep multilayer perceptron (DMLP) with effective weight initialisation based on sparse auto-encoder is proposed in this paper, which aims to overcome difficulties in training deep neural networks with limited training data in high-dimensional feature space. At the first stage, unsupervised learning is adopted using sparse auto-encoder to obtain the initial weights of the feature extraction layers of the DMLP. At the second stage, error back-propagation is used to train the DMLP by fixing the weights obtained at the first stage for its feature extraction layers. At the third stage, all the weights of the DMLP obtained at the second stage are refined by error back-propagation. Network structures an
... Show MoreBreast cancer is the most common cancer among women over the world. To reducing reoccurrence and mortality rates, adjuvant hormonal therapy (AHT) is used for a long period. The major barrier to the effectiveness of the treatment is adherence. Adherence to medicines among patients is challenging. Patient beliefs in medications can be positively or negatively correlated to adherence. Objectives: To investigate the extent of adherence and factors affecting adherence, as well as to investigate the association between beliefs and adherence in women with breast cancer taking AHT. Method: A cross-sectional study included 124 Iraqi women with breast cancer recruited from Middle Euphrates
... Show MoreMaximum power point tracking (MPPT) is used in photovoltaic (PV) systems to enhance efficiency and maximize the output power of PV module, regardless the variation of temperature, irradiation, and the electrical characteristics of the load. A new MPPT system has been presented in this research, consisting of a synchronous DC-DC step-down Buck converter controlled by an Arduino microcontroller based unit. The MPPT process with Perturb and Observe method is performed with a DC-DC converter circuit to overcome the problem of voltage mismatch between the PV modules and the loads. The proposing system has high efficiency, lower cost and can be easily modified to handle more energy sources. The test results indicate that the u
... Show MoreThe aim of this research is to use robust technique by trimming, as the analysis of maximum likelihood (ML) often fails in the case of outliers in the studied phenomenon. Where the (MLE) will lose its advantages because of the bad influence caused by the Outliers. In order to address this problem, new statistical methods have been developed so as not to be affected by the outliers. These methods have robustness or resistance. Therefore, maximum trimmed likelihood: (MTL) is a good alternative to achieve more results. Acceptability and analogies, but weights can be used to increase the efficiency of the resulting capacities and to increase the strength of the estimate using the maximum weighted trimmed likelihood (MWTL). In order to perform t
... Show MoreBackground: The purpose of this study was to evaluate and compare centering ability and canal transportation of simulated S-shaped canals instrumented with four different types of rotary nickel-titanium systems. Materials and Methods: Forty simulated S-shaped canals in resin blocks were divided into four groups of ten each and were instrumented to an apical size 25 by different instrumentation technique using ProTaper Universal files (group A), ProTaperNext (group B), Reciproc (group C) and WaveOne (group D).Centering ability and canal transportation was measured at (11) measuring points from D0 to D10 bysuperimposion of the pre- and post-operative images obtained by using digital camera in standardized manner. An assessment of the canals
... Show MoreThe aim of this study is to identify the effectiveness of a rational, emotional, behavioral program in developing self-efficacy to reduce the level of Burnout in 20 teachers of students with autism disorder in Jazan, Saudi Arabia. The proposed program included 12 training sessions. The researcher found that the proposed program has contributed significantly to the development of self-efficacy and reduce the level of Burnout for the targeted subject in this study.