parabolic trough

A piezoelectric cantilever beam with a tip mass at its free end is a common energy harvester configuration. This article introduces a new principle of designing such a harvester that increases the generated power without changing the resonance frequency of the harvester: the attraction force between two permanent magnets is used to add stiffness to the system. This magnetic stiffening counters the effect of the tip mass on the efficient operation frequency. Five set-ups incorporating piezoelectric bimorph cantilevers of the same type in different mechanical configurations are compared theoretically and experimentally to investigate the feasibility of this principle: theoretical and experimental results show that magnetically stiffened harve

Epoxy resin has many chemical features and mechanical properties, but it has a small elongation at break, low impact strength and crack propagation resistance, i.e. it exhibits a brittle behavior. In the current study, the influence of adding kaolin with variable particle size on the mechanical properties (flexural modulus E, toughness Gc, fracture toughness Kc, hardness HB, and Wear rate WR) of epoxy resin was evaluated. Composites of epoxy with varying concentrations (0, 10, 20, 30, 40 weights %) of kaolin were prepared by hand-out method. The composites showed improved (E, Gc, Kc, HB, and WR) properties with the addition of filler. Also, similar results were observed with the decrease in particle size. In addition, in this study, mult

Adaptive responses in larval behavior may be of two kinds: Taxis: This involves a change in direction relative to source of a stimulus. Kinesis: Kinesis has no directional component, but involves change in the rate of performance in response to a stimulus. Drosophila larvae exhibited flexible behavioral responses associated with food acquisition and selection for different environmental conditions. In this investigation, we are concerned explosively with kinetic responses to food viability. Third instar larvae were subjected to test for thirty minutes in each of the following conditions i) in distilled water, ii) in Ringer's solution, iii) in glucose solution and on live yeast suspension. In each case the larva was in a thin layer of solu

Abstract Background Infections with helminths are associated with deficient sanitary facilities, unsafe human waste disposal, inadequate and lack of safe drinking water, and low socioeconomic status. Objective To determine the prevalence of some gastrointestinal helminths among Iraqi people, and association of infections with age, sex, and region in Iraq. Method This study is retrospective, including reported cases of infections using an available surveillance database from January 2013 to December 2013 of all provinces of Iraq by the Ministry of Health. Result The overall prevalence of gastrointestinal helminthiasis was 1.39%. Enterobius vermicularis found to be the predominant helminth parasite. No significant (P < 0.05) rel

Abstract

               Documentary credits are considered successful means to reduce imports, especially unnecessary imports that lead to the outflow of foreign currency from the country. However, due to the backwardness of the banking methods, the reintroduction of documentary credits after 2003 did not effectively contribute to reducing import rates. This has had a negative impact on the Iraqi economy and made it vulnerable to external markets. Documentary credits are also considered the best way to ensure payment in international trade, providing independent credit support and sufficient security for exporters and importers against commerci

Thin films whose compositions can be expressed by (GeS₂)_100-xGa_x (x=0, 6,12,18) formula were obtained by thermal evaporation technique  of bulk material at a base pressure of ~10^-5 torr. Optical transmission spectra of the films were taken in the range of 300-1100 nm then the optical band gap, tail width of localized states,  refractive index, extinction coefficient were calculated. The optical constants were found to increase at low concentration of Ga (0 to12%) while they decreases with further addition of Ga. The optical band gap was found to change in opposite manner to that of optical constants. The variation in the optical parameters are explained in terms of average bond energy

<span lang="EN-US">Diabetes is one of the deadliest diseases in the world that can lead to stroke, blindness, organ failure, and amputation of lower limbs. Researches state that diabetes can be controlled if it is detected at an early stage. Scientists are becoming more interested in classification algorithms in diagnosing diseases. In this study, we have analyzed the performance of five classification algorithms namely naïve Bayes, support vector machine, multi layer perceptron artificial neural network, decision tree, and random forest using diabetes dataset that contains the information of 2000 female patients. Various metrics were applied in evaluating the performance of the classifiers such as precision, area under the c