Controlling cost in construction projects is an essential issue. This study investigates the most critical problems that cause weakness in cost control in Iraqi construction projects. The quantitative technique was used by conducting a survey directed to professionals who work on construction projects. One hundred and sixty-four questionnaire forms were distributed to private sector companies, government companies, and government institutions, and the responses were subjected to the required statistical analysis. The results indicate that the most influential factors are the weakness in keeping up with the use of modern concepts, methods, and technologies, the delay in receiving the amounts due for work done from the owner, fluctuations in market prices, the lack of knowledge and the inefficient use of currently available tools and technology, and the security situation in the country. The results indicate that the Iraqi construction projects suffer from weakness in cost control, which causes them to stop or delay their delivery, and this needs serious and quick solutions. One of the most important solutions is the adoption of modern technologies and their inclusion in the construction sector and the development of special systems for managing costs that are appropriate to the Iraqi construction environment.
This study presents an adaptive control scheme based on synergetic control theory for suppressing the vibration of building structures due to earthquake. The control key for the proposed controller is based on a magneto-rheological (MR) damper, which supports the building. According to Lyapunov-based stability analysis, an adaptive synergetic control (ASC) strategy was established under variation of the stiffness and viscosity coefficients in the vibrated building. The control and adaptive laws of the ASC were developed to ensure the stability of the controlled structure. The proposed controller addresses the suppression problem of a single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) building model, and an earthquake control scenario was conducted and simulat
... Show MoreThe heat exchanger is a device used to transfer heat energy between two fluids, hot and cold. In this work, an output feedback adaptive sliding mode controller is designed to control the temperature of the outlet cold water for plate heat exchanger. The measurement of the outlet cold temperature is the only information required. Hence, a sliding mode differentiator was designed to estimate the time derivative of outlet hot water temperature, which it is needed for constructing a sliding variable. The discontinuous gain value of the sliding mode controller is adapted according to a certain adaptation law. Two constraints which imposed on the volumetric flow rate of outlet cold (control input) were considered within the rules of the proposed
... Show MoreThe evolution in the field of Artificial Intelligent (AI) with its training algorithms make AI very important in different aspect of the life. The prediction problem of behavior of dynamical control system is one of the most important issue that the AI can be employed to solve it. In this paper, a Convolutional Multi-Spike Neural Network (CMSNN) is proposed as smart system to predict the response of nonlinear dynamical systems. The proposed structure mixed the advantages of Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) with Multi -Spike Neural Network (MSNN) to generate the smart structure. The CMSNN has the capability of training weights based on a proposed training algorithm. The simulation results demonstrated that the proposed
... Show Moreoday deep ocean life has not been discovered by humans including many secret world things to be explored. The researcher has focused on underwater optical wireless communications using various kinds of complex digital Signal processing most of them used in air and starting applied in underwater communication. The Internet of Things (IoT) uses underwater called Internet of Underwater Things (IoUT) applications to explore the underwater world with other devices. However, the difference in concentration between air and water surfaces is not easy making wireless communication more complicated. Visible light passes the water's surface with scattering and distortion inside the water and each color of light has different attenuation the blue laser
... Show MoreDates are considered one of the most important foods consumed in Arab countries. Dates are commonly infested with the sawtoothed grain beetle, Oryzaephilus surinamensis. Consequently, the date yield, quantity, and quality (economic value and seed viability) are negatively affected. This study was designed to investigate the effectiveness of air evacuation as eco-friendly and safe control method against adult O. surinamensis. Insects were obtained from the infested date purchased from a private store in sakaka city, Aljouf region, Saudi Arabia. Air evacuation (using a vacuum pump) and food deprivation were applied to O. surinamensis, and insect mortality was observed daily in comparison with the control group (a
... Show MoreThe heat exchanger is a device used to transfer heat energy between two fluids, hot and cold. In this work, an output feedback adaptive sliding mode controller is designed to control the temperature of the outlet cold water for plate heat exchanger. The measurement of the outlet cold temperature is the only information required. Hence, a sliding mode differentiator was designed to estimate the time derivative of outlet hot water temperature, which it is needed for constructing a sliding variable. The discontinuous gain value of the sliding mode controller is adapted according to a certain adaptation law. Two constraints which imposed on the volumetric flow rate of outlet cold (control input) were considered within the rules of the proposed
... Show MoreElectronic Health Record (EHR) systems are used as an efficient and effective method of exchanging patients’ health information with doctors and other key stakeholders in the health sector to obtain improved patient treatment decisions and diagnoses. As a result, questions regarding the security of sensitive user data are highlighted. To encourage people to move their sensitive health records to cloud networks, a secure authentication and access control mechanism that protects users’ data should be established. Furthermore, authentication and access control schemes are essential in the protection of health data, as numerous responsibilities exist to ensure security and privacy in a network. So, the main goal of our s
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