A high sensitivity, low power and low cost sensor has been developed for photoplethysmography (PPG) measurement. The PPG principle was applied to follow the dilatation and contraction of skin blood vessels during the cardiac cycle. A standard light emitting diodes (LEDs) has been used as a light emitter and detector, and in order to reduce the space, cost and power, the classical analogue-to-digital converters (ADCs) replaced by the pulse-based signal conversion techniques. A general purpose microcontroller has been used for the implementation of measurement protocol. The proposed approach leads to better spectral sensitivity, increased resolution, reduction in cost, dimensions and power consumption. The basic sensing configuration prese

Forward osmosis (FO) process was applied to concentrate the orange juice. FO relies on the driving force generating from osmotic pressure difference that result from concentration difference between the draw solution (DS) and orange juice as feed solution (FS). This driving force makes the water to transport from orange juice across a semi-permeable membrane to the DS without any energy applied. Thermal and pressure-driven dewatering methods are widely used, but they are prohibitively energy intensive and hence, expensive. Effects of various operating conditions on flux have been investigated. Four types of salts were used in the DS, (NaCl, CaCl2, KCl, and MgSO4) as osmotic agent and the experiments were performed at the concentration of

Soil stabilization with stone powder is a good solution for the construction of subgrade for road way and railway lines, especially under the platforms and mostly in transition zones between embankments and rigid structures, where the mechanical properties of supporting soils are very influential. Stone powder often has a unique composition which justifies the need for research to study the feasibility of using this stone powder type for ground improvement applications. This paper presents results from a comprehensive laboratory study carried out to investigate the feasibility of using stone powder for improvement of engineering properties of clays.

The stone powder contains bassanite (CaSO₄. ½ H

Cadmium is one of the heavy metal found in the wastewater of many industries. The electrocoagulation offers many advantages for the removal of cadmium over other methods. So the removal of cadmium from wastewater by using electrocoagulation was studied to investigate the effect of operating parameters on the removal efficiency. The studied parameters were the initial pH, initial concentration, and applied voltage. The study experiments were conducted in a batch reactor with  with two pairs of aluminum electrodes with dimension  and 2mm in thick with 1.5 cm space between them. The optimum removal was obtained at pH =7, initial concentration = 50 mg/L, and applied voltage = 20 V and it was 90%.

 This project introduces a prospective material for photonic laser applications. The material is olive oil which is classified as organic compound, having a good nonlinear optical properties candidate to be used in photonic applications. A high purity sample of olive oil has been used. The theoretical calculation to generate third harmonic wave using olive oil has been determine using MATLAB program. THG (λ=355nm) intensity has been determined at two cases of sample thicknesses 1mm and 10mm. The minimum threshold incident intensity to obtain THG intensity are equal I_ω=7530 mW/cm² at L=1mm and I_ω= 6220 mW/cm² at L=10mm. The possibility of generation of third harmonic in olive oil inside

The integration of decision-making will lead to the robust of its decisions, and then determination optimum inventory level to the required materials to produce and reduce the total cost by the cooperation of purchasing department with inventory department and also with other company^,s departments. Two models are suggested to determine Optimum Inventory Level (OIL), the first model (OIL-model 1) assumed that the inventory level for materials quantities equal to the required materials, while the second model (OIL-model 2) assumed that the inventory level for materials quantities more than the required materials for the next period.             &nb

This study was focused on biotreatment of soil which polluted by petroleum compounds (Diesel) which caused serious environmental problems. One of the most effective and promising ways to treat diesel-contaminated soil is bioremediation. It is a choice that offers the potential to destroy harmful pollutants using biological activity. The capability of mixed bacterial culture was examined to remediate the diesel-contaminated soil in bio piling system. For fast ex-situ treatment of diesel-contaminated soils, the bio pile system was selected. Two pilot scale bio piles (25 kg soil each) were constructed containing soils contaminated with approximately 2140 mg/kg total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs). The amended soil:

In the field of construction project management, time and cost are the most important factors to be considered in planning every project, and their relationship is complex. The total cost for each project is the sum of the direct and indirect cost. Direct cost commonly represents labor, materials, equipment, etc.
Indirect cost generally represents overhead cost such as supervision, administration, consultants, and interests. Direct cost grows at an increasing rate as the project time is reduced from its original planned time. However, indirect cost continues for the life of the project and any reduction in project time means a reduction in indirect cost. Therefore, there is a trade-off between the time and cost for completing construc

Recently, the development and application of the hydrological models based on Geographical Information System (GIS) has increased around the world. One of the most important applications of GIS is mapping the Curve Number (CN) of a catchment. In this research, three softwares, such as an ArcView GIS 9.3 with ArcInfo, Arc Hydro Tool and Geospatial Hydrologic Modeling Extension (Hec-GeoHMS) model for ArcView GIS 9.3, were used to calculate CN of (19210 ha) Salt Creek watershed (SC) which is located in Osage County, Oklahoma, USA. Multi layers were combined and examined using the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) ArcMap 2009. These layers are soil layer (Soil Survey Geographic SSURGO), 30 m x 30 m resolution of Digital Elevati

Among the different passive techniques heat pipe heat exchanger (HPHE) seems to be the most effective one for energy saving in heating ventilation and air conditioning system (HVAC). The applications for nanofluids with high conductivity are favorable to increase the thermal performance in HPHE. Even though the nanofluid has the higher heat conduction coefficient that dispels more heat theoretically but the higher concentration will make clustering .Clustering is a problem that must be solved before nanofluids can be considered for long-term practical uses. Results showed that the maximum value of relative power is 0.13 mW at nanofluid compared with other concentrations due to the low density of nanofluid at this concentration. For highe