The red palm weevil Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Olivier, 1790), which belongs to the family Curculionidae, order Coleoptera, is one of the most important palm pests, which leads to heavy losses in date palms. In the last few years, it has been recorded in Iraq, from Safwan city south of Iraq, where it was detected on date palm trees (Phoenix dactylifera L, Arecales: Arecaceae). In the current study, specimens of adult weevils were collected from infested date palms (Phoenix dactylifera), that showed signs of infection in Safwan district, south of Basra province. The results of the investigation showed the presence of phoretic mites associated with the red palm weevil Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Olivier,

In this study, a 3 mm thickness 7075-T6 aluminium alloy sheet was used in the friction stir welding process. Using the design of experiment to reduce the number of experiments and to obtain the optimum friction stir welding parameters by utilizing Taguchi technique based on the ultimate tensile test results. Orthogonal array of L9 (3³) was used based on three numbers of the parameters and three levels for each parameter, where shoulder-workpiece interference depth (0.20, 0.25, and 0.3) mm, pin geometry (cylindrical thread flat end, cylindrical thread with 3 flat round end, cylindrical thread round end), and thread pitch (0.8, 1, and 1.2) mm) this technique executed by Minitab 17 software. The results showed th

A fixed callus weight of 150 mg was induced from immature embryos of three bread wheat Triticum aestivum L. genotypes (Tamos 2, El-izz and Mutant 1) cultured on nutrient medium {MS) containing Polyethylene glycol (PEG-6000) supplemented with concentrations (0.0, 3.0, 6.0, 9.0 or 12.0%) to evaluate their tolerance to water stress. Cultures were incubated in darkness at temperature of 25?1 ?C. Callus fresh and dry weights were recorded and soluble Carbohydrate and the amino acid Proline concentrations were determined. Results showed that there were significant differences in studied parameters among bread wheat genotypes of which Tamos 2 was higher in callus average fresh and dry weights which gave 353.33 and 38.46 mg/cultured tube respecti

The objective of this paper is to improve the general quality of infrared images by proposes an algorithm relying upon strategy for infrared images (IR) enhancement. This algorithm was based on two methods: adaptive histogram equalization (AHE) and Contrast Limited Adaptive Histogram Equalization (CLAHE). The contribution of this paper is on how well contrast enhancement improvement procedures proposed for infrared images, and to propose a strategy that may be most appropriate for consolidation into commercial infrared imaging applications.
The database for this paper consists of night vision infrared images were taken by Zenmuse camera (FLIR Systems, Inc) attached on MATRIC100 drone in Karbala city. The experimental tests showed sign

A Geographic Information System (GIS) is a computerized database management system for accumulating, storage, retrieval, analysis, and display spatial data. In general, GIS contains two broad categories of information, geo-referenced spatial data and attribute data. Geo-referenced spatial data define objects that have an orientation and relationship in two or three-dimensional space, while attribute data is qualitative data that can be counted for recording and analysis. The main aim of this research is to reveal the role of GIS technology in the enhancement of bridge maintenance management system components such as the output results, and make it more interpretable through dynamic colour coding and more sophisticated visualization

The effective insulation design of the stress grading (SG) system in form-wound stator coils is essential for preventing partial discharges and excessive heat generation under pulse-width modulation excitation. This paper proposes a method to find the optimal insulation design of the SG system aimed at reducing the dielectric and thermal stresses in the machine coil. The non-uniform transmission line model is used to predict the voltage propagation along the overhang, SG, and slot regions considering the variation in the physical properties of the insulation layers. The machine coil parameters for different insulation materials are calculated by using the finite element method. Two optimization algorithms, fmincon and particle swarm optimiz

Massive multiple-input multiple-output (massive-MIMO) is considered as the key technology to meet the huge demands of data rates in the future wireless communications networks. However, for massive-MIMO systems to realize their maximum potential gain, sufficiently accurate downlink (DL) channel state information (CSI) with low overhead to meet the short coherence time (CT) is required. Therefore, this article aims to overcome the technical challenge of DL CSI estimation in a frequency-division-duplex (FDD) massive-MIMO with short CT considering five different physical correlation models. To this end, the statistical structure of the massive-MIMO channel, which is captured by the physical correlation is exploited to find sufficiently

Bearing capacity of soil is an important factor in designing shallow foundations. It is directly related to foundation dimensions and consequently its performance. The calculations for obtaining the bearing capacity of a soil needs many varying parameters, for example soil type, depth of foundation, unit weight of soil, etc. which makes these calculation very variable–parameter dependent. This paper presents the results of comparison between the theoretical equation stated by Terzaghi and the Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) technique to estimate the ultimate bearing capacity of the strip shallow footing on sandy soils. The results show a very good agreement between the theoretical solution and the ANN technique. Results revealed that us

 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 complexity and partially defined nature of jet grouting make it hard to predict the performance of grouted piles. So the trials of cement injection at a location with similar soil properties as the erecting site are necessary to assess the performance of the grouted piles. Nevertheless, instead of executing trial-injected piles at the pilot site, which wastes money, time, and effort, the laboratory cement injection devices are essential alternatives for evaluating soil injection ability. This study assesses the performance of a low-pressure laboratory grouting device by improving loose sandy soil injected using binders formed of Silica Fume (SF) as a chemical admixture (10% of Ordinary Portland Cement OPC mass) to di