In this study tungsten oxide and graphene oxide (GO-WO2.89) were successfully combined using the ultra-sonication method and embedded with polyphenylsulfone (PPSU) to prepare novel low-fouling membranes for ultrafiltration applications. The properties of the modified membranes and performance were investigated using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), contact angle (CA), water permeation flux, and bovine serum albumin (BSA) rejection. It was found that the modified PPSU membrane fabricated from 0.1 wt.% of GO-WO2.89 possessed the best characteristics, with a 40.82° contact angle and 92.94% porosity. The permeation flux of the best membrane was the highest. The pure water permeation flux of the best membrane showcased 636.01 L·m−2·h−1 with 82.86% BSA rejection. Moreover, the membranes (MR-2 and MR-P2) manifested a higher flux recovery ratio (FRR %) of 92.66 and 87.06%, respectively, and were less prone to BSA solution fouling. The antibacterial performance of the GO-WO2.89 composite was very positive with three different concentrations, observed via the bacteria count method. These results significantly overtake those observed by neat PPSU membranes and offer a promising potential of GO-WO2.89 on activity membrane performance.
Fire is one of the most critical risks devastating to human life and property. Therefore, humans make different efforts to deal with fire hazards. Many techniques have been developed to assess fire safety risks. One of these methods is to predict the outbreak of a fire in buildings, and although it is hard to predict when a fire will start, it is critical to do so to safeguard human life and property. This research deals with evaluating the safety risks of the existing building in the city of Samawah/Iraq and determining the appropriateness of these buildings in terms of safety from fire hazards. Twelve parameters are certified based on the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA20
The flexible joint robot (FJR) typically experiences parametric variations, nonlinearities, underactuation, noise propagation, and external disturbances which seriously degrade the FJR tracking. This article proposes an adaptive integral sliding mode controller (AISMC) based on a singular perturbation method and two state observers for the FJR to achieve high performance. First, the underactuated FJR is modeled into two simple second-order fast and slow subsystems by using Olfati transformation and singular perturbation method, which handles underactuation while reducing noise amplification. Then, the AISMC is proposed to effectively accomplish the desired tracking performance, in which the integral sliding surface is designed to reduce cha
... Show MoreThe purpose of this work is to concurrently estimate the UVvisible spectra of binary combinations of piroxicam and mefenamic acid using the chemometric approach. To create the model, spectral data from 73 samples (with wavelengths between 200 and 400 nm) were employed. A two-layer artificial neural network model was created, with two neurons in the output layer and fourteen neurons in the hidden layer. The model was trained to simulate the concentrations and spectra of piroxicam and mefenamic acid. For piroxicam and mefenamic acid, respectively, the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm with feed-forward back-propagation learning produced root mean square errors of prediction of 0.1679 μg/mL and 0.1154 μg/mL, with coefficients of determination of
... Show MoreThis paper proposed a new method to study functional non-parametric regression data analysis with conditional expectation in the case that the covariates are functional and the Principal Component Analysis was utilized to de-correlate the multivariate response variables. It utilized the formula of the Nadaraya Watson estimator (K-Nearest Neighbour (KNN)) for prediction with different types of the semi-metrics, (which are based on Second Derivative and Functional Principal Component Analysis (FPCA)) for measureing the closeness between curves. Root Mean Square Errors is used for the implementation of this model which is then compared to the independent response method. R program is used for analysing data. Then, when the cov
... Show MoreIn this study, the upgrading of Iraqi heavy crude oil was achieved utilizing the solvent deasphalting approach (SDA) and enhanced solvent deasphalting (e-SDA) by adding Nanosilica (NS). The NS was synthesized from local sand. The XRD result, referred to as the amorphous phase, has a wide peak at 2Θ= (22 - 23º) The inclusion of hydrogen-bonded silanol groups (Si–O–H) and siloxane groups (Si–O–Si) in the FTIR spectra. The SDA process was handled using n-pentane solvent at various solvent to oil ratios (SOR) (4-16/1ml/g), room and reflux temperature, and 0.5 h mixing time. In the e-SDA process, various fractions of the NS (1–7 wt.%) have been utilized with 61 nm particle size and 560.86 m²/g surface area in the presence of 12 m
... Show MoreA new pavement technology has been developed in Highway engineering: asphalt pavement production is less susceptible to oxidation and the consequent damages. The warm mix asphalt (WMA) is produced at a temperature of about (10-40) oC lower than the hot asphalt paving. This is done using one of the methods of producing a WMA. Although WMA's performance is rather good, according to previous studies, as it is less susceptible to oxidation, it is possible to modify some of its properties using different materials, including polymers. Waste tires of vehicles are one of the types of polymers because of their flexible properties. The production of HMA, WMA, and WMA modified with proportions of (1, 1.5, and 2%) of rub
... Show MoreThe rise of Industry 4.0 and smart manufacturing has highlighted the importance of utilizing intelligent manufacturing techniques, tools, and methods, including predictive maintenance. This feature allows for the early identification of potential issues with machinery, preventing them from reaching critical stages. This paper proposes an intelligent predictive maintenance system for industrial equipment monitoring. The system integrates Industrial IoT, MQTT messaging and machine learning algorithms. Vibration, current and temperature sensors collect real-time data from electrical motors which is analyzed using five ML models to detect anomalies and predict failures, enabling proactive maintenance. The MQTT protocol is used for efficient com
... Show More