Researchers used different methods such as image processing and machine learning techniques in addition to medical instruments such as Placido disc, Keratoscopy, Pentacam;to help diagnosing variety of diseases that affect the eye. Our paper aims to detect one of these diseases that affect the cornea, which is Keratoconus. This is done by using image processing techniques and pattern classification methods. Pentacam is the device that is used to detect the cornea’s health; it provides four maps that can distinguish the changes on the surface of the cornea which can be used for Keratoconus detection. In this study, sixteen features were extracted from the four refractive maps along with five readings from the Pentacam software. The

This research aims to study the target costing and value chain with their complimentary relationship in reducing product costs, meeting the needs of customer, and achieving strategic competitive advantage for manufacturing corporations in response to face international competition, technological development and continuous changing expectations of customers.    No doubt, the target costing and value chain both currently occupy a great deal of the attention of managers and accountants at the manufacturing corporations due to the significance to insure their continuity, growth and development. This significance has been the main motive to examine the role of target costing and value chain in a sample of public corporations of the

It is a well-known fact that publishing companies spend much money, time and energy in designing their book covers to attract potential customers. As the first thing people do when they buy or intend to buy a book is looking at its front cover. However, if there is a need to know more about the book, people usually look at the information on its back cover. This paper attempts to explore the persuasive function of blurbs beyond the constraints of the academic domain and consequently their connection with advertising discourse in two main sections: The first presents the concept of blurb and its structure while the second defines persuasion and shows the most prominent strategiesused in blurbs. Finally, this paper gives the conclusion tha

Basically, this study aims to identify the extent to which Iraqi secondary school students use writing strategies and how proficiency level and students gender could affect writing strategy use. The study also examines the relationship between writing achievement and writing strategy use among Iraqi secondary school students. For this purpose, 140 Iraqi secondary school students were selected randomly from six different schools. Petric and Czarl’s questionnaire (2003) was adopted in the study as an instrument to collect the needed data. A software of SPSS used to analyze the collected data. The findings revealed that secondary school students appeared as low users of writing strategies; low proficient students do not show a sta

This article discusses how women have significant abilities to cope with the difficulties of war times. They are not the weak and vulnerable victims who are thought to be. On the contrary, they have the power to control over many-sided fronts, like participating in the battlefield as nurses or activists for peace, or even fighters, as well as through the tasks and responsibilities assigned to them to protect and support their families during wartime. The researcher will examine the impact of war upon women. Like men, women suffer during wartime. They are being injured, tortured and killed. Yet, they are able to give examples of love and courage even in the difficult times of war. Hana is one of those women who lived during wartimes,

     Estimating multivariate location and scatter with both affine equivariance and positive break down has always been difficult. Awell-known estimator which satisfies both properties is the Minimum volume Ellipsoid Estimator (MVE) Computing the exact (MVE) is often not feasible, so one usually resorts to an approximate Algorithm. In the regression setup, algorithm for positive-break down estimators like Least Median of squares typically recomputed the intercept at each step, to improve the result. This approach is called intercept adjustment. In this paper we show that a similar technique, called location adjustment, Can be applied to the (MVE). For this purpose we use the Minimum Volume Ball (MVB). In order

Zubair Formation is one of the richest petroleum systems in Southern Iraq. This formation is composed mainly of sandstones interbedded with shale sequences, with minor streaks of limestone and siltstone. Borehole collapse is one of the most critical challenges that continuously appear in drilling and production operations. Problems associated with borehole collapse, such as tight hole while tripping, stuck pipe and logging tools, hole enlargement, poor log quality, and poor primary cement jobs, are the cause of the majority of the nonproductive time (NPT) in the Zubair reservoir developments. Several studies released models predicting the onset of borehole collapse and the amount of enlargement of the wellbore cross-section. However, assump