The duration of sunshine is one of the important indicators and one of the variables for measuring the amount of solar radiation collected in a particular area. Duration of solar brightness has been used to study atmospheric energy balance, sustainable development, ecosystem evolution and climate change. Predicting the average values of sunshine duration (SD) for Duhok city, Iraq on a daily basis using the approach of artificial neural network (ANN) is the focus of this paper. Many different ANN models with different input variables were used in the prediction processes. The daily average of the month, average temperature, maximum temperature, minimum temperature, relative humidity, wind direction, cloud level and atmospheric pressure were used as input parameters in order to obtain the daily average of sunshine duration (SD) as the output. The eight-year data were divided into two categories. The first category covers whole years (annually) and the second category is seasonal. To recognize and assess the influence of different input parameters on sunshine duration, six models of ANN have been evolved. The findings showed that in the annual models, the outcomes of RMSE, MAE and R for the model with input parameters (Month, Cloud Level and Average Temperature) were the best results 1.82, 1.175 and 0.89, respectively. As for the season models, the outcomes of RMSE, MAE and R for the autumn season were the best results 1.450, 1.009 and 0.94, respectively. Accordingly, the performance of the artificial neural network is considerably effective in predicting the sunshine duration.
Background: Ejection fraction have been used frequently
for assessment of the left ventricular function, but can be
associated with errors in which myocardial performance
index have been used as another parameter to measure the
left ventricular function.
Objective: selecting another echocardiography parameter
for the assessment of myocardial in function instead of the
ejection fraction.
Methods: 160 patients referred to the echocardiogram unit
from the period december 2007 to august 2008 requesting
assessment of left ventricular function. After clinical
examination, routine blood tests; chest x-ray and
electrocardiographic recording have been completed. All
patients informed to come for this unit af
Aim: This study aimed to investigate the impact of rabbit serum on skin wound healing with the help of histological examination. Materials and Methods: A total of ten indigenous rabbits were used in this study. The animals were divided into two groups: control and serum- treated. The histological assessment was done with a paraffin embedding technique and the histological sections were stained with H&E stain. Results: Severe infiltration of polymorphonuclear leukocytes with severe fibrin deposits were seen in serum treated group at 2 days post-injury; at 7 days post-injury the changes revealed moderate fibroplasia, fibrin deposit and severe infiltration of both mononuclear and polymorphonuclear leukocytes; at 14 days post-inju
... Show MoreAbstract Objective: To assess nurses' beliefs toward reporting suspected child abuse. To achieve the objectives of the study a questionnaire of child abuse was used. Methodology:- The sample of the study consist of (224) registered nurses who were employed in general hospitals, pediatric hospitals, National psychiatry and mental illness center, nursing colleges, nursing schools. Data were collected from 20 April 2004 to 20 June 2004.Data were analyzed through the application of descriptive statistical analysis. Percentage frequency and mean and inferential data analysis ANOVA. Results: - The result of t
Background: Psoriasis is an immune-mediated inflammatory disease with unknown aetiology that may be associated with the defect in proliferation and differentiation of the keratinocytes related to inflammatory cell infiltration. According to published reports, it is universal in occurrence; its prevalence in different populations varies from 0.1% to 11.8%. Receiving Apremilast resulted in a strong reduction in interleukin 17 and interleukin 23, as well as reduced expression of other inflammatory cytokines and improvement of psoriatic lesions. Objectives: This study aimed to assess the impact of Apremilast on levels of IL-17, IL-23, and lipids in obese psoriatic patients. Methods: Thirty obese patients with psoriasis were included in
... Show MoreA descriptive study was conducted at two Epidemic Hospitals in Baghdad from 1st of August( 2003) to 1st of October (2004) in order to identify the nursing staff working in AIDS word to implementation of universal precautions for patients with AIDS and relation to some variable. The sample is consisted of (50) nurses who are working in AIDS ward in Ibn- Zuheir and Ibn- Al- Kahteeb Hospitals. Instruments consist of (20) items related with demographic characteristics of nurses and universal precautions items . Validity of the instrument was established through a panel of( 4) experts in specific fields . Descrip
A particle swarm optimization algorithm and neural network like self-tuning PID controller for CSTR system is presented. The scheme of the discrete-time PID control structure is based on neural network and tuned the parameters of the PID controller by using a particle swarm optimization PSO technique as a simple and fast training algorithm. The proposed method has advantage that it is not necessary to use a combined structure of identification and decision because it used PSO. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed adaptive PID neural control algorithm in terms of minimum tracking error and smoothness control signal obtained for non-linear dynamical CSTR system.
The relationship of hyperuricemia to kidney disease, diabetes, hypertension and the risk of cardiovascular diseases remain controversial. The aim of this study is to evaluate the use of uric acid (UA) levels to find the higher risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in patients with end stage renal disease that have diabetic nephropathy (DN), nephropathy with hypertension (NH) and patients with both diabetic nephropathy with hypertension (DNH). This study deals with 115 patients with end-stage renal disease under hemodialysis sub-grouped into 35 patients with (DN), 40 patients with (NH), and 40 patients with (DNH). Some biochemical parameters were determined in the serum of all participants such as HbA1c, fasting blood glucose (FBG), UA, urea,
... Show MoreBackground: Recurrent Aphthous Stomatitis (RAS) is the most common painful oral mucosal disease, affecting approximately 20% of the population. RAS presents with a wide spectrum of severity ranging from a minor nuisance to complete debility. Many of factors thought to have been involved in its etiology; that might have at the same time a direct or indirect impact upon oxidant/antioxidant system and trigger free radicals production. The aim of this study was to determine the possible association of oxidant/total antioxidant status and recurrent aphthous stomatitis (RAS). Subjects, materials and methods: The study consisted of thirty patients with recurrent aphthous stomatitis and thirty healthy controls from which saliva and blood samples we
... Show MoreThis paper delves into some significant performance measures (PMs) of a bulk arrival queueing system with constant batch size b, according to arrival rates and service rates being fuzzy parameters. The bulk arrival queuing system deals with observation arrival into the queuing system as a constant group size before allowing individual customers entering to the service. This leads to obtaining a new tool with the aid of generating function methods. The corresponding traditional bulk queueing system model is more convenient under an uncertain environment. The α-cut approach is applied with the conventional Zadeh's extension principle (ZEP) to transform the triangular membership functions (Mem. Fs) fuzzy queues into a family of conventional b
... Show MoreThe fuzzy assignment models (FAMs) have been explored by various literature to access classical values, which are more precise in our real-life accomplishment. The novelty of this paper contributed positively to a unique application of pentagonal fuzzy numbers for the evaluation of FAMs. The new method namely Pascal’s triangle graded mean (PT-GM) has presented a new algorithm in accessing the critical path to solve the assignment problems (AP) based on the fuzzy objective function of minimising total cost. The results obtained have been compared to the existing methods such as, the centroid formula (CF) and centroid formula integration (CFI). It has been demonstrated that operational efficiency of this conducted method is exquisitely deve
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