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

High 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

Computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) has proved to be an effective and accurate method for diagnostic prediction over the years. This article focuses on the development of an automated CAD system with the intent to perform diagnosis as accurately as possible. Deep learning methods have been able to produce impressive results on medical image datasets. This study employs deep learning methods in conjunction with meta-heuristic algorithms and supervised machine-learning algorithms to perform an accurate diagnosis. Pre-trained convolutional neural networks (CNNs) or auto-encoder are used for feature extraction, whereas feature selection is performed using an ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithm. Ant colony optimization helps to search for the bes

In the absence of environmental regulation, food stays to be contaminated with heavy metals, which is becoming a big worry for human health. The present research focusses on the environmental and health effects of irrigating a number of crops grown in the soils surrounding the Al-Rustamia old plant using treated wastewater generated by the plant. The physicochemical properties, alkalinity, and electrical conductivity of the samples were evaluated, and vegetable samples were tested for Cd, Pb, Ni, and Zn, levels, and even the transfer factor (TF) from soils to crops and crop and multi-targeted risk, daily intake (DIM) of metals, and health risk index (HRI) was calculated. The findings found that the average contents of Zn, Pb, Ni, an

Cladosporium sp. plays an important role in human health, it is one of the pathogenic fungi which cause allergy and asthma and most frequently isolated from airborne spores.  In this study, a couple of universal PCR primers were designed to identify the pathogenic fungi Cladosporium sp. according to conserved region 5.8S, 18S and 28S subunit ribosomal RNA gene in Cladosporium species. In silico RFLP-PCR were used to identify twenty-four Cladosporium strains. The results showed that the universal primer has the specificity to amplify the conserved region in 24 species as a band in virtual agarose gel. They also showed that the RFLP method is able to identify three Cladosporium spe

The solar photocatalytic degradation of diuron, which is one of the herbicides, has been studied by a solar pilot plant in heterogeneous solar photocatalysis with titanium dioxide. The pilot plant was made up of compound parabolic collectors specially designed for solar photocatalytic applications. The influence of different variables such as, H2O2 initial concentration, TiO2 initial concentration, and diuron initial concentration with their relationship to the degradation efficiency were studied. Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) found to increase the rate of diuron degradation. The best removal efficiency of heterogeneous solar photocatalytic TiO2 system was found to be 46.65 % and for heterogeneous solar photocatalytic TiO2/ H2O2 system was fo

 Removal of direct blue dye by electrocoagulation method has been investigated using aluminum   electrode in a bench-scale electrochemical system. Current density, NaCl concentration,   electrocoagulation time, and dye concentration has been studied as effecting parameters in color   removal efficiency. Increasing of current density will increase the color removal efficiency and   energy consumption as well. While increasing NaCl concentration increase the color removal   efficiency but it decrease energy consumption. High dye concentration is needed for extra   electrocaogolation time to reach the same efficiency that obtained with low dye concentration .With   current applied 0.35 amps. and NaCl concentration of 2 g/l more