Magnetic levitation (Maglev) systems are employed in a wide range of applications and are therefore of significant practical importance, which has led to growing research interest. This paper presents the design of a terminal synergetic control (TSC) and feedback linearization-based proportional-integral-derivative plus second-order derivative (FL-PIDD2) controller for the Maglev system. For developing the control law of both controllers, the mathematical model of the Maglev system is converted into a canonical system where the expression of the nonlinearity is displayed in the last differential dynamic equation of the system. The determination of the TSC and FL-PIDD2 gains for achieving the desired dynamic response is carried out using the

The heat exchanger is a device used to transfer heat energy between two fluids, hot and cold. In this work, an output feedback adaptive sliding mode controller is designed to control the temperature of the outlet cold water for plate heat exchanger. The measurement of the outlet cold temperature is the only information required. Hence, a sliding mode differentiator was designed to estimate the time derivative of outlet hot water temperature, which it is needed for constructing a sliding variable. The discontinuous gain value of the sliding mode controller is adapted according to a certain adaptation law. Two constraints which imposed on the volumetric flow rate of outlet cold (control input) were considered within the rules of the proposed

Traditional healthcare for chronic wounds and Cold Atmospheric Plasma (CAP) treatments relies on passive dressings and large-volume stationary equipment operating with open-loop systems, which severely limits their use and confines it to specialized clinical environments. To address the lack of active thermal safety mechanisms in mobile devices, this research proposes a wearable smart plasma patch equipped with a closed-loop adaptive electronic control system to ensure safe patient care and treatment at home. The smart patch integrates real-time analog biosensors to continuously monitor skin temperature and relative humidity. An algorithm running on a microcontroller dynamically adjusts the high-voltage plasma parameters using Pulse

The heat exchanger is a device used to transfer heat energy between two fluids, hot and cold. In this work, an output feedback adaptive sliding mode controller is designed to control the temperature of the outlet cold water for plate heat exchanger. The measurement of the outlet cold temperature is the only information required. Hence, a sliding mode differentiator was designed to estimate the time derivative of outlet hot water temperature, which it is needed for constructing a sliding variable. The discontinuous gain value of the sliding mode controller is adapted according to a certain adaptation law. Two constraints which imposed on the volumetric flow rate of outlet cold (control input) were considered within the rules of the proposed

The flexible joint robot (FJR) typically experiences parametric variations, nonlinearities, underactuation, noise propagation, and external disturbances which seriously degrade the FJR tracking. This article proposes an adaptive integral sliding mode controller (AISMC) based on a singular perturbation method and two state observers for the FJR to achieve high performance. First, the underactuated FJR is modeled into two simple second-order fast and slow subsystems by using Olfati transformation and singular perturbation method, which handles underactuation while reducing noise amplification. Then, the AISMC is proposed to effectively accomplish the desired tracking performance, in which the integral sliding surface is designed to reduce cha

The presence of different noise sources and continuous increase in crosstalk in the deep submicrometer technology raised concerns for on-chip communication reliability, leading to the incorporation of crosstalk avoidance techniques in error control coding schemes. This brief proposes joint crosstalk avoidance with adaptive error control scheme to reduce the power consumption by providing appropriate communication resiliency based on runtime noise level. By switching between shielding and duplication as the crosstalk avoidance technique and between hybrid automatic repeat request and forward error correction as the error control policies, three modes of error resiliencies are provided. The results show that, in reduced mode, the scheme achie

Background: Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has enormously affected various healthcare services including the one of community pharmacy. The ramifications of these effects on Iraqi community pharmacies and the measures they have taken to tackle the spread of COVID-19  is yet to be explored. In this cross sectional survey, infection control measures by community pharmacies in Sulaimani city/Iraq has been investigated.        

Methods: Community pharmacists were randomly allocated  to participate in a cross-sectional survey via visiting their pharmacies and filling up the questionnaire form.

Results and discussion: