Production of fatty acid esters (biodiesel) from oleic acid and 2-ethylhexanol using sulfated zirconia as solid catalyst for the production of biodiesel was investigated in this work.

       The parameters studied were temperature of reaction (100 to 130°C), molar ratio of alcohol to free fatty acid (1:1 to 3:1), concentration of catalyst (0.5 to 3%wt), mixing speed (500 to 900 rpm) and types of sulfated zirconia (i.e modified, commercial, prepared  catalyst according to literature and reused catalyst). The results show the best conversion to biodiesel was 97.74% at conditions of 130°C, 3:1, 2wt% and 650 rpm using modified catalyst respectively. Also, modified c

The clayey soils have the capability to swell and shrink with the variation in moisture content. Soil stabilization is a well-known technique, which is implemented to improve the geotechnical properties of soils. The massive quantities of waste materials are resulting from modern industry methods create disposal hazards in addition to environmental problems. The steel industry has a waste that can be used with low strength and weak engineering properties soils. This study is carried out to evaluate the effect of steel slag (SS) as a by-product of the geotechnical properties of clayey soil. A series of laboratory tests were conducted on natural and stabilized soils. SS was added by 0, 2.5, 5, 10, 15, and 20% to the soil.

Offline handwritten signature is a type of behavioral biometric-based on an image. Its problem is the accuracy of the verification because once an individual signs, he/she seldom signs the same signature. This is referred to as intra-user variability. This research aims to improve the recognition accuracy of the offline signature. The proposed method is presented by using both signature length normalization and histogram orientation gradient (HOG) for the reason of accuracy improving. In terms of verification, a deep-learning technique using a convolution neural network (CNN) is exploited for building the reference model for a future prediction. Experiments are conducted by utilizing 4,000 genuine as well as 2,000 skilled forged signatu

A study was performed to evaluate heavy metals removal from sewage sludge using lime. The processes of stabilization using alkaline chemicals operating on a simple principle of raising pH to 12 or higher, with sufficient mixing and suitable contact time to ensure that immobilization can reduce heavy metals. A 0.157 m3 tank was designed to treat Al-Rustemeyia wastewater treatment plant sludge. Characteristics of raw sludge were examined through two parameters: pH and heavy metal analysis. Different lime doses of (0- 25) g CaO/100 g sludge were mixed manually with raw sludge in a rotating drum. The samples were analyzed two hours after mixing. pH and heavy metals results were compared with EPA and National Iraqi Stand

Software testing is a vital part of the software development life cycle. In many cases, the system under test has more than one input making the testing efforts for every exhaustive combination impossible (i.e. the time of execution of the test case can be outrageously long). Combinatorial testing offers an alternative to exhaustive testing via considering the interaction of input values for every t-way combination between parameters. Combinatorial testing can be divided into three types which are uniform strength interaction, variable strength interaction and input-output based relation (IOR). IOR combinatorial testing only tests for the important combinations selected by the tester. Most of the researches in combinatorial testing appli

     In this work, the surface of the telescope’s mirror is cleaned using an atmospheric-pressure radio frequency plasma jet (APRFPJ), which is generated by Argon gas between two coaxial metal electrodes. The RF power supply is set to 2 MHz frequencies with three different power levels: 20, 50, and 80 W. Carbon, that has adhered to the surface, can be effectively removed using the plasma cleaning technique, which also modifies any residual bonds. The cleaned surface was clearly distinguished using an optical emission spectroscopy (OES) technique and a water contact angle (WCA) analyzer for the activation property on their surfaces. The sample showed a super hydrophilic surface at an angle of 1° after 2.5 minutes of plasma tre