As they are the smallest functional parts of the muscle, motor units (MUs) are considered as the basic building blocks of the neuromuscular system. Monitoring MU recruitment, de-recruitment, and firing rate (by either invasive or surface techniques) leads to the understanding of motor control strategies and of their pathological alterations. EMG signal decomposition is the process of identification and classification of individual motor unit action potentials (MUAPs) in the interference pattern detected with either intramuscular or surface electrodes. Signal processing techniques were used in EMG signal decomposition to understand fundamental and physiological issues. Many techniques have been developed to decompose intramuscularly detected signals with various degrees of automation. This paper investigates the application of autocorrelation function (ACF) method to decompose EMG signals to their frequency components. It was found that using the proposed method gives a quite good frequency resolution as compared to that resulting from using short time fast Fourier transform (STFFT); thus more MU’s can be distinguished.
This paper presents a meta-heuristic swarm based optimization technique for solving robot path planning. The natural activities of actual ants inspire which named Ant Colony Optimization. (ACO) has been proposed in this work to find the shortest and safest path for a mobile robot in different static environments with different complexities. A nonzero size for the mobile robot has been considered in the project by taking a tolerance around the obstacle to account for the actual size of the mobile robot. A new concept was added to standard Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) for further modifications. Simulations results, which carried out using MATLAB 2015(a) environment, prove that the suggested algorithm outperforms the standard version of AC
... Show MoreThe growing use of tele
This paper presents a new secret diffusion scheme called Round Key Permutation (RKP) based on the nonlinear, dynamic and pseudorandom permutation for encrypting images by block, since images are considered particular data because of their size and their information, which are two-dimensional nature and characterized by high redundancy and strong correlation. Firstly, the permutation table is calculated according to the master key and sub-keys. Secondly, scrambling pixels for each block to be encrypted will be done according the permutation table. Thereafter the AES encryption algorithm is used in the proposed cryptosystem by replacing the linear permutation of ShiftRows step with the nonlinear and secret pe
... Show MoreThe COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly affected the healthcare sector and the productivity of medical staff and doctors. This study employs machine learning to analyze the post-COVID-19 impact on the productivity of medical staff and doctors across various specialties. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 960 participants from different specialties between June 1, 2022, and April 5, 2023. The study collected demographic data, including age, gender, and socioeconomic status, as well as information on participants' sleeping habits and any COVID-19 complications they experienced. The findings indicate a significant decline in the productivity of medical staff and doctors, with an average reduction of 23% during the post-COVID-19 period. T
... Show MoreThe objective of this study is to apply Artificial Neural Network for heat transfer analysis of shell-and-tube heat exchangers widely used in power plants and refineries. Practical data was obtained by using industrial heat exchanger operating in power generation department of Dura refinery. The commonly used Back Propagation (BP) algorithm was used to train and test networks by divided the data to three samples (training, validation and testing data) to give more approach data with actual case. Inputs of the neural network include inlet water temperature, inlet air temperature and mass flow rate of air. Two outputs (exit water temperature to cooling tower and exit air temperature to second stage of air compressor) were taken in ANN.
... Show MoreThe research aims to identify the tax policy strategy adopted in Iraq after the change of the tax system in 2003 and beyond, and then make a comparison of the two strategies on corporate data whether they are charged with progressive tax rates and after the change of the system as the tax rates became fixed, and then indicate the changes In the tax proceeds, and knowing the dimensions of the approved tax policy, is it a tax reform strategy or a strategy to attract investments.
The research started from the problem of exposure of the Iraqi tax system to several changes in the tax strategy from 2003 until now, as this led to a reflection on the technical organization of taxes, in terms of the tax exemption.And these many amendments
... Show MoreThis paper presents a newly developed method with new algorithms to find the numerical solution of nth-order state-space equations (SSE) of linear continuous-time control system by using block method. The algorithms have been written in Matlab language. The state-space equation is the modern representation to the analysis of continuous-time system. It was treated numerically to the single-input-single-output (SISO) systems as well as multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) systems by using fourth-order-six-steps block method. We show that it is possible to find the output values of the state-space method using block method. Comparison between the numerical and exact results has been given for some numerical examples for solving different type
... Show More<p><span>This research deals with the feasibility of a mobile robot to navigate and discover its location at unknown environments, and then constructing maps of these navigated environments for future usage. In this work, we proposed a modified Extended Kalman Filter- Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (EKF-SLAM) technique which was implemented for different unknown environments containing a different number of landmarks. Then, the detectable landmarks will play an important role in controlling the overall navigation process and EKF-SLAM technique’s performance. MATLAB simulation results of the EKF-SLAM technique come with better performance as compared with an odometry approach performance in terms of measuring the
... Show MoreHigh vehicular mobility causes frequent changes in the density of vehicles, discontinuity in inter-vehicle communication, and constraints for routing protocols in vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs). The routing must avoid forwarding packets through segments with low network density and high scale of network disconnections that may result in packet loss, delays, and increased communication overhead in route recovery. Therefore, both traffic and segment status must be considered. This paper presents real-time intersection-based segment aware routing (RTISAR), an intersection-based segment aware algorithm for geographic routing in VANETs. This routing algorithm provides an optimal route for forwarding the data packets toward their destination
... Show MoreConstruction contractors usually undertake multiple construction projects simultaneously. Such a situation involves sharing different types of resources, including monetary, equipment, and manpower, which may become a major challenge in many cases. In this study, the financial aspects of working on multiple projects at a time are addressed and investigated. The study considers dealing with financial shortages by proposing a multi-project scheduling optimization model for profit maximization, while minimizing the total project duration. Optimization genetic algorithm and finance-based scheduling are used to produce feasible schedules that balance the finance of activities at any time w
In this paper, a numerical model for fluid-structure interaction (FSI) analysis is developed for investigating the aeroelastic response of a single wind turbine blade. The Blade Element Momentum (BEM) theory was adopted to calculate the aerodynamic forces considering the effects of wind shear and tower shadow. The wind turbine blade was modeled as a rotating cantilever beam discretized using Finite Element Method (FEM) to analyze the deformation and vibration of the blade. The aeroelastic response of the blade was obtained by coupling these aerodynamic and structural models using a coupled BEM-FEM program written in MATLAB. The governing FSI equations of motion are iteratively calculated at each time step, through exchanging data between
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