Palladium nanoparticles are produced by Polyol method. The characterization of the Pd nanoparticle has been conducted by various techniques such as SEM and AFM. The results of Pd powder showed that the particle size is directly proportional to the temperature and the reaction time. The optimum conditions for obtaining minimum nanoparticles size are 45 oC reaction temperature and 60 min reaction time and the smaller particle size achieved is equal to 25 nm. The optical limiting of smaller size nanoparticles has been studied. The palladium nanoparticles appear to be attractive candidates for optical limiting applications.

Single mode-no core-single mode fiber structure with a section of tuned no-core fiber diameter to sense changes in relative humidity has been experimentally demonstrated. The sensor performance with tuned NCF diameter was investigated to maximize the evanescent fields. Different tuned diameters of of (100, 80, and 60)μm were obtained by chemical etching process based on hydrofluoric acid immersion. The highest wavelength sensitivity was obtained 184.57 pm/RH% in the RH range of 30% –100% when the no-core fiber diameter diameter was 60 μm and the sensor response was in real-time measurements

Photonic crystal fiber interferometers (PCFIs) are widely used for sensing applications. This work presented solid core-PCFs based on Mach-Zehnder modal interferometer for sensing refractive index. The general structure of sensor was applied by splicing short lengths of PCF in both sides with conventional single mode fiber (SMF-28).To apply modal interferometer theory collapsing technique based on fusion splicing used to excite higher order modes (LP01 and LP11). A high sensitive optical spectrum analyzer (OSA) was used to monitor and record the transmitted wavelength. This work studied a Mach-Zahnder interferometer refractive index sensor based on splicing point tapered SMF-PCF-SMF. Relation between refractive index sensitivity and tape

A novel fractal design scheme has been introduced in this paper to generate microstrip bandpass filter designs with miniaturized sizes for wireless applications. The presented fractal scheme is based on Minkowski-like prefractal geometry. The space-filling property and self-similarity of this fractal geometry has found to produce reduced size symmetrical structures corresponding to the successive iteration levels. The resulting filter designs are with sizes suitable for use in modern wireless communication systems. The performance of each of the generated bandpass filter structures up to the 2^nd iteration has been analyzed using a method of moments (MoM) based software IE3D, which is widely adopted in microwave research and in

This study is an investigation of the drugs effect on some pathogenic Acanthamoeba isolated from Iraqi waters, where the problem of environmental adaptation that characterizes this organism in addition to being a reservoir for many pathogenic microorganisms that take shelter in it to escape disinfectants and medicines is sometimes difficult to treat it with traditional treatments.  Twenty water samples were collected from different water regions in Iraq, namely the Dokan Lake, Tigris River, Euphrates River and Najaf Sea, 5 samples from each source.  Acanthamoeba was isolated from water samples on NNA and PYG media, using an inverted microscope with an electron microscope to determine their phenotypic features. PCR and

In this paper, tunable optical band-pass filters based on Polarization Maintaining Fiber –Mach Zehnder Interferometer presented. Tunability of the band-pass filter implemented by applying different mechanical forces N on the micro-cavities splicing regions (MCSRs). The micro-cavity formed by using three variable-lengths of single-mode polarization-maintaining fiber with (8, 16, 24) cm lengths, splice between two segments of (SMF-28) with (26, 13) cm lengths, using the fusion splicing technique.  Ellipsoidal shape micro-cavities experimentally achieved parallel to the propagation axis having dimensions between (12-24) μm of width and   (4-12) μm of length. A micro-cavity with width and length as high as 24 μm and 12 μ

      In this work, the performance of single-mode optical fibers (SMFs) for ultraviolet (UV) radiation monitoring and dosimetry applications is presented. In particular, this work will focus on the Radiation-Induced Absorption (RIA) phenomena in the Near-Infrared domain (NIR). Such phenomena play a very important role in the sensing mechanism for SMF. Single mode fibers with a diameter of 50 µm were used for this purpose. These fibers were dipped into germanium (Ge) solution with different concentrations (1, 3, and 5 wt%) to produce the sensing part of the sensor. For all optical fiber sensors under investigation, the results indicated the dependence of the RIA on the applied UV radiation energy. Also, a redshi

In this research, a sensor for chemical solutions was designed and formed using optical fiber-based on a surface Plasmon resonance technology. A single-mode optical fiber with three different diameters (25, 45 and 65) µm was used, respectively.  The second layer of the low refractive fiber was replaced by gold, which was electrically deposited at 40 µm thickness. For each of the three types of optical fiber, different saline concentrations (different index of refraction) were used to evaluate the performance of the refractive index sensor (chemical sensor) by measuring its sensitivity and resolutions. The highest values we could get for these two parameters were 240mm/RIU, and 6*10^-5 RIU respectively, when the diameter of a

Generally fossil based fuels are used in internal combustion engines as an energy source.
Excessive use of fossil based fuels diminishes present reserves and increases the air pollution in
urban areas. This enhances the importance of the effective use of present reserves and/or to develop
new alternative fuels, which are environment friendly. Use of alternative fuel is a way of emission
control. The term “Alternative Gaseous Fuels” relates to a wide range of fuels that are in the
gaseous state at ambient conditions, whether when used on their own or as components of mixtures
with other fuels.
In this study, a single cylinder diesel engine was modified to use LPG in dual fuel mode to study
the performance, emis

The paper is concerned with, the behavior of the hydrostatic thrust bearings lubricated with liquid-solid lubricants using Einstein viscosity formula, and taking into account the centrifugal force resulting from high speed.  Also studied is the effect of the bearing dimensions on the pressure, flow rate, load capacity, shear stress, power consumption and stiffness.

The theoretical results show an increase in load capacity by (8.3%) in the presence of solid graphite particles with concentration of (16%) by weight as compared with pure oil, with increasing shear stress.  .

In general the performance of hydrostatic thrust bearings improve for load carrying capacity, volume flow rate,