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.
Cultivation of the green seaweed Enteromorpha compressa was performed under natural laboratory spring environmental conditions of temperature, light intensity and photoperiod to study the salinity tolerance of this intertidal green macroalga. Cultivation was carried out under artificial seawater (ASW) of different concentrations (18, 35, 53 and 106 g/l sea salt) compared to the control using natural seawater (NSW). Growth rate and pigment content of the cultivated alga were recorded at regular intervals during the experimental duration. Antioxidant activity of the crude ethanolic extract and its fractions (petroleum ether, chloroform, ethyl acetate and acetone) was performed against DPPH radical scavenging assay and compared to
... Show MoreUnmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can provide valuable spatial information products for many projects across a wide range of applications. One of the major challenges in this discipline is the quality of positioning accuracy of the resulting mapping products in professional photogrammetric projects. This is especially true when using low-cost UAV systems equipped with GNSS receivers for navigation. In this study, the influence of UAV flight direction and camera orientation on positioning accuracy in an urban area on the west bank of the Euphrates river in Iraq was investigated. Positioning accuracy was tested in this study with different flight directions and camera orientation settings using a UAV autopilot app (Pix4Dcapture software
... Show MoreGas sensors are essential for detecting noxious gases that have a detrimental effect on people's health and welfare. Carbon quantum dots (CQDs) are the fundamental component of gas detectors. CQDs and graphene (Gr) were prepared using the electrochemical method. The gas sensitivity of these materials was evaluated at different temperatures (150, 200, 250 °C) to assess their effectiveness. Subsequently, experiments were conducted at different temperatures to ascertain that the combination of CQDs and Gr, with various percentages of Gr and CQDs, exhibited superior gas sensitization properties compared to CQDs alone. This was evaluated based on criteria such as sensitivity, recovery time, and reaction time. Interestingly, the combination was
... Show MoreThe current study performs an explicit nonlinear finite element simulation to predict temperature distribution and consequent stresses during the friction stir welding (FSW) of AA 7075-T651 alloy. The ABAQUS® finite element software was used to model and analyze the process steps that involve plunging, dwelling, and traverse stages. Techniques such as Arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian (ALE) formulation, adaptive meshing, and computational feature of mass scaling were utilized to simulate sequence events during the friction stir welding process. The contact between the welding tool and workpiece was modelled through applying Coulomb’s friction model with a nonlinear friction coefficient value. Also, the model considered the effect of nonlin
... Show MoreM. domestica is the most important insect that transmit pathogens for diseases in the world. The use of nanotechnology is eco-friendly method in control pests. The study aims to investigate the feasibility of bio-manufacturing nanocapsules of fungal secondary metabolites in order to improve the efficiency of metabolite and assess their inhibitory effect on the acetylcholine esterase enzyme in housefly larvae. An equal mixture of organic solvents, ethyl acetate and dichloromethane, was used to extract the metabolic products of the fungus M. anisopliae, (PEG4000) and chitosan was used in the preparation of nanocapsules. The results of the DLS granular size assay showed that the size of the extract particles and the size of the chitosa
... Show MoreMolecular dynamics (MD) simulations were carried out in order to investigate the binding mode of axillaridine-A at the active site of human acetylcholinesterase (AChE) enzyme. 2.0 nanosecond of MD simulations was made for the protein and the complex to dynamically explore the active site and the behavior of the ligand at the peripheral AChE binding site. These calculations for the enzyme alone showed that the active site of AChE is located at the bottom of a deep and narrow cavity whose surface is lined with rings of aromatic residues and Tyr72 is almost perpendicular to the Trp286 ring and forms a stable - interaction. The size of the active site of the complex decreases with time due to increase the interaction. Axillaridine-A forms
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This study aims to find the relationships between social capital (social network, social trust, shared goals) and knowledge sharing (knowledge Donating, knowledge collecting) as independent variables and their impact on improving the quality of educational services (academic staffs quality, Quality of teaching methods and study curriculums). This research is an important, because it attempts to identify the relationship between social capital and the knowledge sharing and their effect on improving the quality of educational service for universities. The study problem was determined in several questions related to the nature of the correlation relationship - the impact between the different independent variables (
... Show MoreThe experiment was conducted in Baghdad for study effect using mold board and disc plows as main factor , and second factor was three speeds 1.85 , 3.75 and 5.62 km / hr , and sub-second factor was three levels of soil moisture 21,18 and 14 % to determined data fuel consumption and economy costs machine unit in silt clay loam with depth 22cm. The experiment was a split – split plot arrangement in a randomized complete block design with three replications and statistical analysis using Least Significant Design 0.05 was used to compare the means of treatments. Mold board recorded least fuel consumption and cast fixed and variable and management and total costs of tractor and plow costs and total cost. Increasing forward speeds of the t
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