Traditional tree management is laborious and costly, thus this work aimed to study the performance of two different types of frond cutting saws (reciprocating saw and vibrating saw) and examine the two saws on five date palm varieties. Four parameters were examined, including cutting time for a single frond, the power needed for cutting a single frond, frond cutting productivity expressed as tree/h, and vibration conveyed to the worker’s hand. A field experiment was designed according to the nested randomized complete block design, including five date palm varieties as the main plot and the type of saw as a sub-plot. Means were compared using the least significant differences (LSD 0.05). Results indicated that Bream variety required the least time for frond cutting. The reciprocating saw exhibited efficiency in saving the time required for frond cutting, while the vibrating saw took significantly longer time needed for cutting a single frond. The highest number of fronds cut in one hour was recorded in Bream variety, again significantly higher than the number of other studied varieties. Moreover, the reciprocating saw achieved significantly higher productivity than the vibrating one, indicating that the productivity of the reciprocating saw is almost three times more than the vibrating saw. Maximum productivity was recorded in Bream variety, while the least was recorded in Tebarzal using the vibrating saw. Moreover, results indicate that the variety and the type of saw have a vital role in productivity since as the thickness of a frond increases, the cutting takes more time and ultimately reduces the number of date palms to be pruned per hour. Results also exhibited that vibrating saw reduced the consumed energy during frond cutting. Additionally, results revealed that the minimum power consumed by a vibrating saw was in Bream variety, while Tebarzal consumed the upmost energy when a reciprocating saw was used. Maximum vibration on X-axis was reported in Bream variety when a vibrating saw was used. Additionally, the reciprocating saw exhibited the highest vibration compared with the vibrating saw. Moreover, the reciprocating saw caused the lowest vibration in Tebarzal variety. Results indicated that the vibration imposed by both saws reached the maximum value in Bream variety. The vibrating saw resulted in the higher vibration toward Z axis, while the Reciprocating saw resulted in higher vibration toward X axis, which was more than eight times that recorded by the vibrating saw. Results indicate that vibration toward the Y axis increased significantly in Bream variety compared with others. Again, as in the situation with X and Z axis, the reciprocating saw exhibited the highest vibration compared to that resulted from using a vibrating saw which was more than three times the vibration caused by the vibrating saw.
Population growth and economic and industrial development coupled have significantly accelerated the rate of Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) changes, particularly in developing countries, so finding optimum ways to observe these change has become a pressing issue. Quantification evaluation of these changes is crucial to comprehend and oversee land management conversion, therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the accuracy of various algorithms for LULC classification to determine the most effective classifier for Earth observation applications. The performance of Maximum Likelihood (ML), Support Vector Machines (SVM), Random Forest (RF), and K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN) was examined in this study, based on Sentinel 2A satellite images. T
... Show MoreMethotrexate is a folate antimetabolite chemical used to treat many forms of cancer and cleared mainly by kidney which result in a nephrotoxicity as a major complication of methotrexate. Trivalent chromium complex, chromium picolinate (CrPic), is mostly utilized to regulate glucose and raise insulin sensitivity—particularly in diabetes. The objective of this study was to assess the renoprotective effects of Chromium in mitigating nephrotoxicity induced by Methotrexate in rats. Study conducted on 32 male rats divided into 4 groups; Group I (Control group) in which rats received distilled water orally for 8 days, Group II (Induction group) which received a single intraperitoneal injection of Methotrexate (20 mg/kg) on
... 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
... Show MoreThe utilization of sugarcane molasses (SCM), a byproduct of sugar refining, offers a promising bio-based alternative to conventional chemical admixtures in cementitious systems. This study investigates the effects of SCM at five dosage levels, 0.25%, 0.50%, 0.75%, 1.00%, and 1.25% by weight of cement, on cement mortar performance across fresh, mechanical, thermal, durability, and density criteria. A comprehensive experimental methodology was employed, including flow table testing, compressive strength (7, 14, and 28 days) and flexural strength measurements, embedded thermal sensors for real-time hydration monitoring, water absorption and chloride ion penetration tests, as well as 28-day density determination. Results revealed clear
... 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 MoreCollaborative learning is a way that prepares students practically for real-world applications. Working together as teamwork to execute various writing skills is essential in most professions since it increases the level of experience. Thus, the current study aims to identify the role collaborative writing in developing students' level of performance in writing. It is qualitative in nature since the researcher depended on the extant literature in achieving the objective of the study. The researcher touched upon related theories that addressed Collaborative learning, categories, and problems .It concluded that collaborative writing increases the students’ self-confidence, self-esteem, creativity, and motivation through the interact
... Show MoreAbstract:
The Iraqi economy faces complex economic challenges that threaten the prospects for growth and stability in the short and medium term, The decrease in oil revenues on which Iraq is based in financing its total expenditure, both operational and investment, led to the emergence of a deficit in the government budget, As the global oil price crisis affected the revenues of the Iraqi government negatively, especially as this negative impact coincided with the increase in military spending resulting from Iraq's war against terrorism, Which led to the Iraqi government to implement austerity measures were to reduce public spending on several projects, which are less important compared to projects that a
... Show Moremajor goal of the next-generation wireless communication systems is the development of a reliable high-speed wireless communication system that supports high user mobility. They must focus on increasing the link throughput and the network capacity. In this paper a novel, spectral efficient system is proposed for generating and transmitting twodimensional (2-D) orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols through 2- D inter-symbol interference (ISI) channel. Instead of conventional data mapping techniques, discrete finite Radon transform (FRAT) is used as a data mapping technique due to the increased orthogonality offered. As a result, the proposed structure gives a significant improvement in bit error rate (BER) performance. Th
... Show MoreTchebichef polynomials (TPs) play a crucial role in various fields of mathematics and applied sciences, including numerical analysis, image and signal processing, and computer vision. This is due to the unique properties of the TPs and their remarkable performance. Nowadays, the demand for high-quality images (2D signals) is increasing and is expected to continue growing. The processing of these signals requires the generation of accurate and fast polynomials. The existing algorithms generate the TPs sequentially, and this is considered as computationally costly for high-order and larger-sized polynomials. To this end, we present a new efficient solution to overcome the limitation of sequential algorithms. The presented algorithm us
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