Water quality planning relies on Biochemical Oxygen Demand BOD. BOD testing takes five days. The Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is increasingly used for water resource forecasting. This work designed a PSO technique for estimating everyday BOD at Al-Rustumiya wastewater treatment facility inlet. Al-Rustumiya wastewater treatment plant provided 702 plant-scale data sets during 2012-2022. The PSO model uses the daily data of the water quality parameters, including chemical oxygen demand (COD), chloride (Cl-), suspended solid (SS), total dissolved solids (TDS), and pH, to determine how each variable affects the daily incoming BOD. PSO and multiple linear regression (MLR) findings are compared, and their perfor
... Show MoreA compact microstrip six-port reflectometer (SPR) with extended bandwidth is proposed in this paper. The design is based on using 16-dB multi-section coupled line directional couplers and a multi-section 3-dB Wilkinson power divider operating from 1 to 6 GHz. The proposed SPR employs only two calibration standards: a matched load and an open load. As compared to other dielectric substrates, fabricating the proposed SPR involves using a low-cost (FR4) substrate. A novel algorithm is also proposed to estimate the complex reflection coefficient over the frequency ranges at which the standard performance of the circuit components is not fully satisfied. The new algorithm is based on the circles’ intersection points, which have been de
... Show MoreScheduling considered being one of the most fundamental and essential bases of the project management. Several methods are used for project scheduling such as CPM, PERT and GERT. Since too many uncertainties are involved in methods for estimating the duration and cost of activities, these methods lack the capability of modeling practical projects. Although schedules can be developed for construction projects at early stage, there is always a possibility for unexpected material or technical shortages during construction stage. The objective of this research is to build a fuzzy mathematical model including time cost tradeoff and resource constraints analysis to be applied concurrently. The proposed model has been formulated using fuzzy the
... Show MoreIn order to reduce the environmental pollution associated with the conventional energy sources and to achieve the increased global energy demand, alterative and renewable sustainable energy sources need to be developed. Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) represent a bio-electrochemical innovative technology for pollution control and a simultaneous sustainable energy production from biodegradable, reduced compounds. This study mainly considers the performance of continuous up flow dual-chambers MFC
fueled with actual domestic wastewater and bio-catalyzed with anaerobic aged sludge obtained from an aged septic tank. The performance of MFCs was mainly evaluated in terms of COD reductions and electrical power output. Results revealed that the C
Diverting river flow during construction of a main dam involves the construction of cofferdams, and tunnels, channels or other temporary passages. Diversion channels are commonly used in wide valleys where the high flow makes tunnels or culverts uneconomic. The diversion works must form part of the overall project design since it will have a major impact on its cost, as well as on the design, construction program and overall cost of the permanent works. Construction costs contain of excavation, lining of the channel, and construction of upstream and downstream cofferdams. The optimization model was applied to obtain optimalchannel cross section, height of upstream cofferdam, and height of downstream cofferdamwith minimum construction cost
... Show MoreBackground: Oil refinery workers are continuously exposed to numerous hazardous materials. Petroleum contains the heavy metals as a natural constituent or as additives. These metals induce the production of ROS which associated with an oxidative damage to DNA, proteins, and lipids. This study was conducted to assess the salivary levels of heavy metals, salivary oxidative status, oral immunological activity (salivary sIgA) and assessment of the oral findings among the workers of Al-Daura oil refinery in Baghdad city. Subjects, Materials and Methods: This study was done in Al-Daura oil refinery; samples consist of 60 workers involved in refinery processes (study group) and 20 non-workers (control group). Oral examination and saliva collection
... Show MoreExperimental study on the effect of cylindrical hollow cathode, working pressure and magnetic field on spatial glow distribution and the characteristics of plasma produced by dc discharge in Argon gas, were investigated by image analyses for the plume within the plasma. It was found that the emission intensity appears as a periodic structure with many peaks appeared between the electrodes. Increasing the pressure leads to increase the number of intensity peaks finally converted to continuous form at high pressure, especially with applied of magnetic field, i.e. the plasma is more stable with the presence of magnetic field. The emission intensity study of plasma showed that the intensity has a maximum value at 1.07 mbar pressure and decre
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