The aim of this paper is to design artificial neural network as an alternative accurate tool to estimate concentration of Cadmium in contaminated soils for any depth and time. First, fifty soil samples were harvested from a phytoremediated contaminated site located in Qanat Aljaeesh in Baghdad city in Iraq. Second, a series of measurements were performed on the soil samples. The inputs are the soil depth, the time, and the soil parameters but the output is the concentration of Cu in the soil for depth x and time t. Third, design an ANN and its performance was evaluated using a test data set and then applied to estimate the concentration of Cadmium. The performance of the ANN technique was compared with the traditional laboratory inspecting

The paired sample t-test for testing the difference between two means in paired data is not robust against the violation of the normality assumption. In this paper, some alternative robust tests have been suggested by using the bootstrap method in addition to combining the bootstrap method with the W.M test. Monte Carlo simulation experiments were employed to study the performance of the test statistics of each of these three tests depending on type one error rates and the power rates of the test statistics. The three tests have been applied on different sample sizes generated from three distributions represented by Bivariate normal distribution, Bivariate contaminated normal distribution, and the Bivariate Exponential distribution.

Background: Chronic cigarette smoking is one of the major risk factors for coronary artery disease. However, it has additional cardiac adverse effects independent of coronary atherosclerosis. Patient and Methods: After informed consent and perm- ission from the review board of the hospital, 80 healthy subjects who were classified as smokers or non-smokers were included in the study. They were examined by standard echocardiography protocol which was followed by two-dimensional speckle tracking to assess the functions of the right ventricle. Results: The tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE) was significantly reduced in smokers as compared to non-smokers (P < 0.05). The tricuspid flow peak late diastolic velocity (A wave) was sig

This study suggests using the recycled plastic waste to prepare the polymer matrix composite (PMCs) to use in different applications. Composite materials were prepared by mixing the polyester resin (UP) with plastic waste, two types of plastic waste were used in this work included polyethylene-terephthalate (PET) and Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) with varies weight fractions (0, 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 %) added as a filler in flakes form. Charpy impact test was performed on the prepared samples to calculate the values of impact strength (I.S). Flexural and hardness tests were carried out to calculate the values of flexural strength and hardness. Acoustic insulation and optical microscope tests were carried out. In general, it is found that UP/PV

Lasers, with their unique characteristics in terms of excellent beam quality, especially directionality and coherency, make them the solution that is key for many processes that require high precision. Lasers have good susceptibility to integrate with automated systems, which provides high flexibility to reach difficult zones. In addition, as a processing tool, a laser can be considered as a contact-free tool of precise tip that became attractive for high precision machining at the micro and nanoscales for different materials. All of the above advantages may be not enough unless the laser technician/engineer has enough knowledge about the mechanism of interaction between the laser light with the processed material. Several sequential phenom

The objective of this study is to demonstrate the corrosion behavior of dental alloys Co-Cr-Mo, Ni-Cr-Mo and Ti-Al-V in artificial saliva at pH=4 and 37oC enriched with ethyl alcohol at 8% percentage. The linear and cyclic polarizations were investigated by electrochemical measurements. Laser surface modification was achieved for the three dental alloys to improve corrosion resistance. The results show that corrosion resistance of Co-Cr-Mo and Ni-Cr-Mo alloys only were increased after laser treatment due to the fact that laser radiation has caused a smoother surface, in addition to the decrement in corrosion current densities (icorr) for Co-Cr-Mo and Ni-Cr-Mo alloys and the reverse scan in cyclic polarization became in the wider range of

Delays occur commonly in construction projects. Assessing the impact of delay is sometimes a contentious
issue. Several delay analysis methods are available but no one method can be universally used over another in
all situations. The selection of the proper analysis method depends upon a variety of factors including
information available, time of analysis, capabilities of the methodology, and time, funds and effort allocated to the analysis. This paper presents computerized schedule analysis programmed that use daily windows analysis method as it recognized one of the most credible methods, and it is one of the few techniques much more likely to be accepted by courts than any other method. A simple case study has been implement

Preserving and saving energy have never been more important, thus the requirement for more effective and efficient heat exchangers has never been more important. However, in order to pave the way for the proposal of a truly efficient technique, there is a need to understand the shortcomings and strengths of various aspects of heat transfer techniques. This review aims to systematically identify these characteristics two of the most popular passive heat transfer techniques: nanofluids and helically coiled tubes. The review indicated that nanoparticles improve thermal conductivity of base fluid and that the nanoparticle size, as well as the concentrations of the nanoparticles plays a major role in the effectiveness of the nanofluids.