The control of prostheses and their complexities is one of the greatest challenges limiting wide amputees’ use of upper limb prostheses. The main challenges include the difficulty of extracting signals for controlling the prostheses, limited number of degrees of freedom (DoF), and cost-prohibitive for complex controlling systems. In this study, a real-time hybrid control system, based on electromyography (EMG) and voice commands (VC) is designed to render the prosthesis more dexterous with the ability to accomplish amputee’s daily activities proficiently. The voice and EMG systems were combined in three proposed hybrid strategies, each strategy had different number of movements depending on the combination protocol between voic

Four new copolymers were synthesized from reaction of bis acid monomer 3-((4-carboxyphenyl) diazenyl)-5-chloro-2-hydroxybenzoic acid with five diacidhydrazide in presence of poly phosphoric acid. The resulted monomers and copolymers have been characterized by FT-IR, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR spectroscopy as well as EIMs technique. The number averages of molecular weights of the copolymers are between 4822 and 9144, and their polydispersity indexes are between 1.02 and 2.15. All the copolymers show good thermal stability with the temperatures higher than 305.86 C when losing 10% weight under nitrogen. The cyclic voltammetry (CV) measurement and the electrochemical band gaps (Eg) of these copolymers are found below 2.00 ev.

  A thermal evaporation technique was used to prepare ZnO thin films. The samples were prepared with good quality onto a glass substrate and using Zn metal. The thickness varied from (100 to 300) ±10 nm. The structure and optical properties of the ZnO thin films were studied. The results of XRD spectra confirm that the thin films grown by this technique have hexagonal wurtzite, and also aproved that ZnO films have a polycrystalline structure. UV-Vis measurement, optical transmittance spectra, showed high transmission about 90% within visible and infrared range. The energy gap is found to be between 3.26 and 3.14e.V for 100 to 300 nm thickness respectivly. Atomic Force Microscope AFM (topographic image ) shows the grain size incre

Zinc Oxide transparent thin films (ZnO) with different thickness from (220 to 420)nm
±15nm were prepared by thermal evaporation technique onto glass substrates at 200 with
the deposition rate of (10 2) nm sec
-1
, X-ray diffraction patterns confirm the proper phase
formation of the material. The investigation of (XRD) indicates that the (ZnO) film is
polycrystalline type of Hexagonal and the preferred orientation along (002) plane. The Optical
properties of ZnO were determined through the optical transmission method using ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometer with wavelength (300 – 1100) nm. The optical band gap values of
ZnO thin films were slightly increased from (2.9 - 3.1) eV as the film thickn

Poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA)/poly(caprolactone) (PCL) and two types of organoclay (OMMT) including a fatty amide and ocatdecylamine montmorillonite (FA-MMT and ODA-MMT) were employed to produce polymer nanocomposites by melt blending. Materials were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), elemental analysis, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Mechanical properties were also investigated for these nanocomposites. The nanocomposites showed increasing mechanical properties and thermal stability. XRD results indicated that the materials formed nanocomposites. SEM morphology showed that increasing content of OMMT reduc

Circular thin walled structures have wide range of applications. This type of structure is generally exposed to different types of loads, but one of the most important types is a buckling. In this work, the phenomena of buckling was studied by using finite element analysis. The circular thin walled structure in this study is constructed from; cylindrical thin shell strengthen by longitudinal stringers, subjected to pure bending in one plane. In addition, Taguchi method was used to identify the optimum combination set of parameters for enhancement of the critical buckling load value, as well as to investigate the most effective parameter. The parameters that have been analyzed were; cylinder shell thickness, shape of stiffeners section an

In this study, the effects of blending the un-branched acrylate polymer known as Poly (n-decyl acrylate), and the branched acrylate polymer known as Poly (iso-octyl acrylate), on the viscosity index (VI), and the pour point of the Iraqi base stocks 40, and 60 respectively, were investigated. Toluene was used as a carrier solvent for both polymer types. The improvement level of oils (VI, & pour point) gained by blending the oil with the acrylate derived polymers was compared with the values of (VI, and pour point) gained by blending the oil with a commercial viscosity index, and pour point improver. The commercial lubricant additive was purchased and used by Al-Daura Refineries. It consisted of an un-known olefin copolymer dissolved i

The research is concerned with studying the characteristics of Sustainable Architecture and Green Architecture, as a general research methodology related to the specific field of architecture, based on the differentiation between two generic concepts, Sustainability and Greening, to form the framework of the research specific methodology, where both concepts seem to be extremely overlapping for research centers, individuals, and relevant organizations. In this regard, the research tend towards searching their characteristics and to clearly differentiates between the two terms, particularly in architecture, where the research seeks understanding sustainable and green architectures, how they are so close or so far, and the

This work intends to develop an effective heavy metal-free modifier having properties comparable to traditional stabilizers and flame retardants, simultaneously being environmentally friendly and may be superior in many aspects. The important requirement focused on is: how to increase thermal stability and flame retardancy of flexible poly(vinyl chloride). Due to the typical materials now used with poly(vinyl chloride), which increases health and environmental concerns, utilizing a novel heavy metal-free additive will make poly(vinyl chloride) substantially safer. We have used an artificial silicate for this aim, which proved to be an efficient flame retardant and surprisingly showed excellent heat stabilizing effect. Thermal stabi

The physicochemical behaviour of dodecyltrimethylammonium bromide (DTAB) in water and ethanol-water mixture in the presence and absence of ZnSO₄ were studied by measuring the conductivity at 298.15 K. The pre-micellar (S₁) and post-micellar slopes (S₂) were obtained and calculated the degree of dissociation (α) and the critical micelle concentration (cmc). With an increase in ethanol content, the cmc and α of DTAB increased whereas, in the presence of ZnSO₄, the cmc and α decreased. By using cmc and α, thermodynamic properties as the standard free energy of micellization ( ) were evaluated. With an increase in ethanol content, the negative values of  are decreased indicating less spont