The paper aims to propose Teaching Learning based Optimization (TLBO) algorithm to solve 3-D packing problem in containers. The objective which can be presented in a mathematical model is optimizing the space usage in a container. Besides the interaction effect between students and teacher, this algorithm also observes the learning process between students in the classroom which does not need any control parameters. Thus, TLBO provides the teachers phase and students phase as its main updating process to find the best solution. More precisely, to validate the algorithm effectiveness, it was implemented in three sample cases. There was small data which had 5 size-types of items with 12 units, medium data which had 10 size-types of items w

The impact of undergraduate research experiences on students' academic development and retention in STEM fields is significant. Students' success in STEM fields is based on developing strong research and critical thinking skills that make it essential for students to engage in research activities throughout their academic programs. This work evaluates the effectiveness of undergraduate research experiences with respect to its influence on student retention and academic development. The cases presented are based on years of experience implementing undergraduate research programs in various STEM fields at Colorado State University Pueblo (CSU Pueblo) funded by HSI STEM Grants. The study seeks to establish a correlation between students' reten

New ligands, N1, N4-bis (benzo[d]thiazol-2- ylcarbamothioyl) succinamide (L1) and N1, N4- bis (benzylcarbamothioyl)succinamide (L2), derived from succinyl chloride and 2-amino benzothiazole or benzylamine, respectively, have been used to prepare a set of transition metal complexes with the general formula [M2(L)Cl4], where L=L1 or L2, M = Mn(II), Ni(II), Cu(II), Cd(II), Co(II), Zn(II) or Hg(II). The synthesized compounds were characterized using various analytical techniques including TGA, 13C NMR, mass spectroscopy, 1H and Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, magnetic measurement, molar conductivity, electronic spectrum, (%M, %C, %H, %N) and atomic absorption flame (AAF) analysis. The results showed that (L1, L2) bin

The multi-focus image fusion method can fuse more than one focused image to generate a single image with more accurate description. The purpose of image fusion is to generate one image by combining information from many source images of the same scene. In this paper, a multi-focus image fusion method is proposed with a hybrid pixel level obtained in the spatial and transform domains. The proposed method is implemented on multi-focus source images in YCbCr color space. As the first step two-level stationary wavelet transform was applied on the Y channel of two source images. The fused Y channel is implemented by using many fusion rule techniques. The Cb and Cr channels of the source images are fused using principal component analysis (PCA).

Experimental measurements of viscosity and thermal conductivity of single layer of graphene . based DI-water nanofluid are performed as a function of  concentrations (0.1-1wt%) and temperatures between (5 to 35ºC). The result reveals that the thermal conductivity of GNPs nanofluids was increased with increasing the nanoparticle weight fraction concentration and temperature, while the maximum enhancement was about 22% for concentration of 1 wt.% at
35ºC. These experimental results were compared with some theoretical models and a good agreement between Nan’s model and the experimental results was observed. The viscosity of the graphene nanofluid displays Newtonian and Non-Newtonian behaviors with respect to nanoparticles concen

Baghdad city has been faced numerous issues related to freshwater environment deteriorations due to many reasons, mainly was the discharge of wastewater without adequate treatment. Al-Rustamiya Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) have been constructed among many plants in Baghdad city to reduce the amount of wastewater discharged into natural environment and its subsequent adverse effects. This study was conducted to evaluate the performance of the plant which consist of a conventional activated sludge (CAS) and sequencing batch reactors (SBR) systems as secondary treatment units and its ability to meet Iraqi specifications. A reliability level determination and analysis also were conducted to find the plant's stability an

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.

Breast cancer is one of the most common malignant diseases among women;
Mammography is at present one of the available method for early detection of
abnormalities which is related to breast cancer. There are different lesions that are
breast cancer characteristic such as masses and calcifications which can be detected
trough this technique. This paper proposes a computer aided diagnostic system for
the extraction of features like masses and calcifications lesions in mammograms for
early detection of breast cancer. The proposed technique is based on a two-step
procedure: (a) unsupervised segmentation method includes two stages performed
using the minimum distance (MD) criterion, (b) feature extraction based on Gray