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 biconical antenna has been developed for ultra-wideband sensing. A wide impedance bandwidth of around 115% at bandwidth 3.73-14 GHz is achieved which shows that the proposed antenna exhibits a fairly sensitive sensor for microwave medical imaging applications. The sensor and instrumentation is used together with an improved version of delay and sum image reconstruction algorithm on both fatty and glandular breast phantoms. The relatively new imaging set-up provides robust reconstruction of complex permittivity profiles especially in glandular phantoms, producing results that are well matched to the geometries and composition of the tissues. Respectively, the signal-to-clutter and the signal-to-mean ratios of the improved method are consis

Document source identification in printer forensics involves determining the origin of a printed document based on characteristics such as the printer model, serial number, defects, or unique printing artifacts. This process is crucial in forensic investigations, particularly in cases involving counterfeit documents or unauthorized printing. However, consistent pattern identification across various printer types remains challenging, especially when efforts are made to alter printer-generated artifacts. Machine learning models are often used in these tasks, but selecting discriminative features while minimizing noise is essential. Traditional KNN classifiers require a careful selection of distance metrics to capture relevant printing

In the present work, radon gas concentrations in different surface soil samples in Baghdad governorate were measured using RAD-7 detector. The results have been shown that, the Radon gas concentrations ranged between (41.67±1.78Bq/m3), to (185.67±4.22Bq/m3), a map showing the distribution of the concentration of radon in selected areas was defined to identify areas with high pollution level. The reason for the high concentration of radon is that these surface soil samples are taken from agricultural areas. It is also known that fertilizers contain uranium levels as well as areas bombed in wars in the country. It is worth noting that all radon concentrations in Baghdad governorate are below the recommended minimum of 200-300Bq/m3) (Inte

This review focuses on conservation agriculture (CA) and its effects on increasing the soil’s resistance to erosion. CA involves minimum soil disturbance (minimum tillage/ no-till), diversified crop rotation, and maintenance of the soil cover to increase soil fertility and reduce erosion. CA reduces soil loss by up to 90% and water erosion by approximately 50 to 70% from runoff as it increases the health of the soil, yield of crops, and water-retention capacity of the soil by incorporating soil organic matter and promoting biodiversity. Crop rotation prevents the replenishment and depletion of soil nutrients by atmospheric fixation of nitrogen/biological nitrogen fixation. Controlled traffic farming (CTF) is a new strategy in which travel

In the case where a shallow foundation does not satisfy with design requirements alone, the addition of a pile may be suitable to improve the performance of the foundation design. The lack of in-situ data and the complexity of the issues caused by lagging in the research area of pile foundations are notable. In this study, different types of piles were used under the same geometric conditions to determine the load-settlement relationships with various sandy soil relative densities. The ultimate pile capacity for each selected pile is obtained from a modified California Bearing Ratio (CBR) machine to be suitable for axial pile loading. Based on the results, the values of Qu for close-ended square pile were increased by 15

There are many aims of this book: The first aim is to develop a model equation that describes the spread of contamination through soils which can be used to determine the rate of environmental contamination by estimate the concentration of heavy metals (HMs) in soil. The developed model equation can be considered as a good representation for a problem of environmental contamination. The second aim of this work is to design two feed forward neural networks (FFNN) as an alternative accurate technique to determine the rate of environmental contamination which can be used to solve the model equation. The first network is to simulate the soil parameters which can be used as input data in the second suggested network, while the second network sim

The aim of this research work is to study the effect of stabilizing gypseous soil, which covers vast areas in the middle, west and south parts of Iraq, using liquid asphalt on its strength properties to be used as a base course layer replacing the traditional materials of coarse aggregate and broken stones which are scarce at economical prices and hauling distances. Gypseous soil brought from Al-Ramadi City, west of Iraq, with gypsum content of 66.65%, medium curing cutback asphalt (MC-30), and hydrated lime are used in this study. The conducted tests on untreated and treated gypseous soil with different percentages of medium curing cutback asphalt (MC-30), water, and lime were: unconfined compression strength, and one dimensional confine