In this paper, a robust adaptive sliding mode controller is designed for a mobile platform trajectory tracking.  The mobile platform is an example of a nonholonomic mechanical system. The presence of holonomic constraints reduces the number of degree of freedom that represents the system model, while the nonholonomic constraints reduce the differentiable degree of freedom. The mathematical model was derived here for the mobile platform, considering the existence of one holonomic and two nonholonomic constraints imposed on system dynamics. The partial feedback linearization method was used to get the input-output relation, where the output is the error functions between the position of a certain point on the platform

Cloud computing represents the most important shift in computing and information technology (IT). However, security and privacy remain the main obstacles to its widespread adoption. In this research we will review the security and privacy challenges that affect critical data in cloud computing and identify solutions that are used to address these challenges. Some questions that need answers are: (a) User access management, (b) Protect privacy of sensitive data, (c) Identity anonymity to protect the Identity of user and data file. To answer these questions, a systematic literature review was conducted and structured interview with several security experts working on cloud computing security to investigate the main objectives of propo

Solar energy is the most abundant renewable energy source. This energy can be converted directly into electricity using solar panels. The fixed tilt solar panels are the most practical and the most widely installed throughout the world. Optimum tilt angle calculation has the advantage that it does not use expensive solar trackers. This research calculates the seasonal optimum tilt angle of solar panels for 17 cities in Iraq and 83 cities in 83 countries distributed around the world. Solar Panel Angle Calculator program was used in calculating the optimum tilt angles from vertical. The optimum tilt angle varies between 6° and 112° throughout the year. This angle for winter, spring/ autumn and summer seasons are found to be between

In this paper, a novel flow control strategy which is the inlet throttled pump was used to design an angular velocity control system for rotary actuator. Inlet throttled systems have good performance in addition to their high efficiency compared to traditional valve controlled systems. The flow in the proposed system is adjusted by a valve that is positioned at the pump inlet with the purpose of reducing the energy loses across the valve. This regulated flow is used then to control the actuator angular velocity. The system was modeled and the open loop stability and performance were studied. In order to improve the system performance, Robust-Proportional-Integral-Derivative (RPID) and structured singular value (M@#@) controllers have been d

PID (proportional-integral-derivative) and Mu controllers are widely used in electro-hydraulic servo systems due to their effectiveness and ease of implementation. This paper explores using particle swarm optimization (PSO) for tuning traditional and robust PID controllers, along with D-K iteration for Mu controller tuning. Three controller types: conventional PID (CPID), robust PID (RPID), and structured singular value controllers are developed, while analyzing multiplicative uncertainty with six uncertain coefficients. Their findings indicated that both PID (CPID and RPID) and Mu controllers maintained system stability. Notably, the Mu controller can handle coefficient uncertainty without a pure integral term, while the RPID controller de

Flexible joint robot (FJR) manipulators can offer many attractive features over rigid manipulators, including light weight, safe operation, and high power efficiency. However, the tracking control of the FJR is challenging due to its inherent problems, such as underactuation, coupling, nonlinearities, uncertainties, and unknown external disturbances. In this article, a terminal sliding mode control (TSMC) is proposed for the FJR system to guarantee the finite-time convergence of the systems output, and to achieve the total robustness against the lumped disturbance and estimation error. By using two coordinate transformations, the FJR dynamics is turned into a canonical form. A cascaded finite-time sliding mode observer (CFTSMO) is construct

Cluster analysis (clustering) is mainly concerned with dividing a number of data elements into clusters. The paper applies this method to create a gathering of symmetrical government agencies with the aim to classify them and understand how far they are close to each other in terms of administrative and financial corruption by means of five variables representing the prevalent administrative and financial corruption in the state institutions. Cluster analysis has been applied to each of these variables to understand the extent to which these agencies are close to other in each of the cases related to the administrative and financial corruption.           

As one type of resistance furnace, the electrical tube furnace (ETF) typically experiences input noise, measurement noise, system uncertainties, unmodeled dynamics and external disturbances, which significantly degrade its temperature control performance. To provide precise, and robust temperature tracking performance for the ETF, a robust composite control (RCC) method is proposed in this paper. The overall RCC method consists of four elements: First, the mathematical model of the ETF system is deduced, then a state feedback control (SFC) is constructed. Third, a novel disturbance observer (DO) is designed to estimate the lumped disturbance with one observer parameter. Moreover, the stability of the closed loop system including controller

            Toxoplasma gondii is an opportunistic parasite in immune-compromised persons. The prevalence of toxoplasmosis in psoriasis patients is investigated. In addition, the treatment effect on psoriasis patients infected with toxoplasmosis through evaluating Tumor Necrosis Factor-α (TNF-α) cytokine levels is studied. Blood samples were collected from 130 individuals who involved 60 control samples and 70 samples with psoriasis. They attended Medical City Hospital in Baghdad province from October 2017 - February 2018. Then, the anti- T. gondii antibodies (IgM and IgG) and TNF- α in the sera were determined via the enzyme linked immune-sorbent assay. The highe

This systematic review aimed to investigate the relation between orthodontic treatment (OT) and the incidence of the gingival black triangle (GBT) after completing treatment with a fixed orthodontic appliance, as well as the associated risk factors and the level of alveolar bone. Electronic and hand searches were conducted in three electronic databases for relevant articles published up to March 2022. Retrieved articles went through a two-step screening procedure, and the risk of bias (RoB) was assessed by the Joanna Briggs Institute checklists. The incidence of GBT after OT was set as the primary outcome, while the secondary outcomes were the risk factors associated with GBT and alveolar bone loss following OT. Out of 421 papers, 5