PPSU hollow fiber nanofiltration membranes are prepared by applying two concentrations and various extrusion pressures according to the phase inversion method. Cross-sectional area and outer structures were characterized by using scanning electron microscope (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). In additional to the pore size distribution, either the mean roughness or the mean pore size of the PPSU hollow fiber surfaces was evaluated by AFM. It was found that the morphology of the PPSU fibers had both sponge-like and finger-like structures through different extrusion pressures and PPSU concentrations. The mean pore size and mean roughness for inner and outer surfaces were seen to be decreased with the increase of extrusion pressure at two different PPSU concentrations. Moreover, the lead ion rejection was significantly improved from 19 to 78 % with increasing the extrusion pressure from 2.5 to 3 bar at 25 wt.% PPSU concentration.
In this paper, we characterize the percolation condition for a continuum secondary cognitive radio network under the SINR model. We show that the well-established condition for continuum percolation does not hold true in the SINR regime. Thus, we find the condition under which a cognitive radio network percolates. We argue that due to the SINR requirements of the secondaries along with the interference tolerance of the primaries, not all the deployed secondary nodes necessarily contribute towards the percolation process- even though they might participate in the communication process. We model the invisibility of such nodes using the concept of Poisson thinning, both in the presence and absence of primaries. Invisibility occurs due to nodes
... Show MoreMachine learning models have recently provided great promise in diagnosis of several ophthalmic disorders, including keratoconus (KCN). Keratoconus, a noninflammatory ectatic corneal disorder characterized by progressive cornea thinning, is challenging to detect as signs may be subtle. Several machine learning models have been proposed to detect KCN, however most of the models are supervised and thus require large well-annotated data. This paper proposes a new unsupervised model to detect KCN, based on adapted flower pollination algorithm (FPA) and the k-means algorithm. We will evaluate the proposed models using corneal data collected from 5430 eyes at different stages of KCN severity (1520 healthy, 331 KCN1, 1319 KCN2, 1699 KCN3 a
... Show MoreOne of the significant stages in computer vision is image segmentation which is fundamental for different applications, for example, robot control and military target recognition, as well as image analysis of remote sensing applications. Studies have dealt with the process of improving the classification of all types of data, whether text or audio or images, one of the latest studies in which researchers have worked to build a simple, effective, and high-accuracy model capable of classifying emotions from speech data, while several studies dealt with improving textual grouping. In this study, we seek to improve the classification of image division using a novel approach depending on two methods used to segment the images. The first
... Show MoreThe conception and experimental assessment of a removable friction-based shear connector (FBSC) for precast steel-concrete composite bridges is presented. The FBSC uses pre-tensioned high-strength steel bolts that pass through countersunk holes drilled on the top flange of the steel beam. Pre-tensioning of the bolts provides the FBSC with significant frictional resistance that essentially prevents relative slip displacement of the concrete slab with respect to the steel beam under service loading. The countersunk holes are grouted to prevent sudden slip of the FBSC when friction resistance is exceeded. Moreover, the FBSC promotes accelerated bridge construction by fully exploiting prefabrication, does not raise issues relevant to precast co
... Show MoreThe current study aims to investigate the second cycle students’ motives for using electronic games in Oman. The sample consisted of (570) students, (346 males and 224 females). The participants completed an open-ended question which was analyzed based on ground theory. The results showed that (46.820%) of the males and (77.678) of the females played electronic games for pleasure, entertainment, and fun. This first category of motivation got the highest percentage of frequency (58.947%). The motive to become a hacker, a popular YouTuber got the lowest percentage (2.280%). Other students’ motives toward playing electronic games included: filling the leisure time, overcoming boredom, feeling adventures, getting science fiction and chal
... Show MoreIn this study, the feasibility of Forward–Reverse osmosis processes was investigated for treating the oily wastewater. The first stage was applied forward osmosis process to recover pure water from oily wastewater. Sodium chloride (NaCl) and magnesium chloride (MgCl2) salts were used as draw solutions and the membrane that was used in forward osmosis (FO) process was cellulose triacetate (CTA) membrane. The operating parameters studied were: draw solution concentrations (0.25 – 0.75 M), oil concentration in feed solution (FS) (100-1000 ppm), the temperature of FS and draw solution (DS) (30 - 45 °C), pH of FS (4-10) and the flow rate of both DS and FS (20 - 60 l/h). It was found that the water flux and oil concentration in FS increas
... Show MoreThe usage of remote sensing techniques in managing and monitoring the environmental areas is increasing due to the improvement of the sensors used in the observation satellites around the earth. Resolution merge process is used to combine high resolution one band image with another one that have low resolution multi bands image to produce one image that is high in both spatial and spectral resolution. In this work different merging methods were tested to evaluate their enhancement capabilities to extract different environmental areas; Principle component analysis (PCA), Brovey, modified (Intensity, Hue ,Saturation) method and High Pass Filter methods were tested and subjected to visual and statistical comparison for evaluation. Both visu
... Show MoreIn this paper, new approach based on coupled Laplace transformation with decomposition method is proposed to solve type of partial differential equation. Then it’s used to find the accurate solution for heat equation with initial conditions. Four examples introduced to illustrate the accuracy, efficiency of suggested method. The practical results show the importance of suggested method for solve differential equations with high accuracy and easy implemented.
This paper presents a robust control method for the trajectory control of the robotic manipulator. The standard Computed Torque Control (CTC) is an important method in the robotic control systems but its not robust to system uncertainty and external disturbance. The proposed method overcome the system uncertainty and external disturbance problems. In this paper, a robustification term has been added to the standard CTC. The stability of the proposed control method is approved by the Lyapunov stability theorem. The performance of the presented controller is tested by MATLAB-Simulink environment and is compared with different control methods to illustrate its robustness and performance.
Alongside the development of high-speed rail, rail flaw detection is of great importance to ensure railway safety, especially for improving the speed and load of the train. Several conventional inspection methods such as visual, acoustic, and electromagnetic inspection have been introduced in the past. However, these methods have several challenges in terms of detection speed and accuracy. Combined inspection methods have emerged as a promising approach to overcome these limitations. Nondestructive testing (NDT) techniques in conjunction with artificial intelligence approaches have tremendous potential and viability because it is highly possible to improve the detection accuracy which has been proven in various conventional nondestr
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