Socio-scientific issues provide a great platform to both engage students in scientific topics and assess their understanding of scientific concepts. Nancy R. Singer, Amy Lannin, Maha Kareem, William Romine, and Katie Kline report on the STEM Literacy Project, a three-year National Science Foundation grant that aimed to improve STEM teachers’ knowledge and integration of literacy in their classrooms. They describe teachers’ professional learning, scenario-based assessments and other strategies they incorporated in their STEM classrooms, and how writing enables students to understand real-world issues.
Social media and networks rely heavily on images. Those images should be distributed in a private manner. Image encryption is therefore one of the most crucial components of cyber security. In the present study, an effective image encryption technique is developed that combines the Rabbit Algorithm, a simple algorithm, with the Attractor of Aizawa, a chaotic map. The lightweight encryption algorithm (Rabbit Algorithm), which is a 3D dynamic system, is made more secure by the Attractor of Aizawa. The process separates color images into blocks by first dividing them into bands of red, green, and blue (RGB). The presented approach generates multiple keys, or sequences, based on the initial parameters and conditions, which are
... Show MoreIn this work, a Photonic Crystal Fiber (PCF) sensor based on the Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) technology was proposed. A thin layer of gold (Au) was deposited on a D-shaped Photonic Crystal Fiber (PCF), which was coated with plasmonic chemically stable gold material with a thickness of 40nm. The performance parameters like sensitivity including wavelength sensitivity and amplitude sensitivity and resolution were evaluated by simulation using COMSOL software. The proposed sensor was created by using the finite element approach, it is numerically examined. The results show that the surface of D-shaped Photonic Crystal Fiber coated with Au behaves as a sensor to detect the refractive index (IR) of toxic metal ions. The impacts of the str
... Show MoreWith the increasing integration of computers and smartphones into our daily lives, in addition to the numerous benefits it offers over traditional paper-based methods of conducting affairs, it has become necessary to incorporate one of the most essential facilities into this integration; namely: colleges. The traditional approach for conducting affairs in colleges is mostly paper-based, which only increases time and workload and is relatively decentralized. This project provides educational and management services for the university environment, targeting the staff, the student body, and the lecturers, on two of the most used platforms: smartphones and reliable web applications by clo
Cloth simulation and animation has been the topic of research since the mid-80's in the field of computer graphics. Enforcing incompressible is very important in real time simulation. Although, there are great achievements in this regard, it still suffers from unnecessary time consumption in certain steps that is common in real time applications. This research develops a real-time cloth simulator for a virtual human character (VHC) with wearable clothing. This research achieves success in cloth simulation on the VHC through enhancing the position-based dynamics (PBD) framework by computing a series of positional constraints which implement constant densities. Also, the self-collision and collision wit
... Show MoreIn this study, we present different methods of estimating fuzzy reliability of a two-parameter Rayleigh distribution via the maximum likelihood estimator, median first-order statistics estimator, quartile estimator, L-moment estimator, and mixed Thompson-type estimator. The mean-square error MSE as a measurement for comparing the considered methods using simulation through different values for the parameters and unalike sample sizes is used. The results of simulation show that the fuzziness values are better than the real values for all sample sizes, as well as the fuzzy reliability at the estimation of the Maximum likelihood Method, and Mixed Thompson Method perform better than the other methods in the sense of MSE, so that
... Show MoreIn drilling fluid program, selecting the drilling fluid that will reduce the lost time is the first objective, and will be economical regardless of its cost. The amount and type of solids in drilling fluid is the primary control of the rheological and filtration properties. Palygorskite clay (attapulgite) is an active solid that has the ability to reactive with its environment and form a gel structure within a fluid and due to its stability in the presence of brines and electrolytes this type of clay is preferred for use. The aim of this study is to improve properties of Iraqi palygorskite (PAL) by adding different chemical additives such as caustic soda NaOH and soda ash Na2CO3 with a different con
... Show MoreThis study designed to prepare ultrafine apixaban (APX) o/w nanoemulsion (NE) based gel with droplet size below 50 nm as a good method for transdermal APX delivery without using permeation enhancer, alternatively, the formulation components itself act as permeation enhancer. APX, a potent oral anticoagulant drug that selectively and directly inhibit coagulation factor Xa, was selected as a good candidate for transdermal delivery as it displays poor water solubility (0.028 mg/mL) and low bioavailability (50%). APX-NE gel was prepared using triacetin, triton-x-100 and carbitol as oil phase, surfactant and cosurfactant respectively, while Carbopol 940 used as a gelling agent. Ex vivo permeation of APX-NE gel through human stratum c
... Show MoreThe Internet of Things (IoT) technology and smart systems are playing a major role in the advanced developments in the world that take place nowadays, especially in multiple privilege systems. There are many smart systems used in daily human life to serve them and facilitate their tasks, such as alarm systems that work to prevent unwanted events or face detection and recognition systems. The main idea of this work is to capture live video using a connected Pi camera, save it, and unlock the electric strike door in several ways; either automatically by displaying a live video connected via USB webcam using a deep learning algorithm of facial recognition and OpenCV or by RFID technology, as well as by detecting abnormal entrance wit
... Show MoreSolving problems via artificial intelligence techniques has widely prevailed in different aspects. Implementing artificial intelligence optimization algorithms for NP-hard problems is still challenging. In this manuscript, we work on implementing the Naked Mole-Rat Algorithm (NMRA) to solve the n-queens problems and overcome the challenge of applying NMRA to a discrete space set. An improvement of NMRA is applied using the aspect of local search in the Variable Neighborhood Search algorithm (VNS) with 2-opt and 3-opt. Introducing the Naked Mole Rat algorithm based on variable neighborhood search (NMRAVNS) to solve N-queens problems with different sizes. Finding the best solution or set of solutions within a plausible amount of t
... Show MoreNanoparticles (NPs) have unique capabilities that make them an eye-opener opportunity for the upstream oil industry. Their nano-size allows them to flow within reservoir rocks without the fear of retention between micro-sized pores. Incorporating NPs with drilling and completion fluids has proved to be an effective additive that improves various properties such as mud rheology, filtration, thermal conductivity, and wellbore stability. However, the biodegradability of drilling fluid chemicals is becoming a global issue as the discharged wetted cuttings raise toxicity concerns and environmental hazards. Therefore, it is urged to utilize chemicals that tend to break down and susceptible to biodegradation. This research presents the pra
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