Peak ground acceleration (PGA) is one of the critical factors that affect the determination of earthquake intensity. PGA is generally utilized to describe ground motion in a particular zone and is able to efficiently predict the parameters of site ground motion for the design of engineering structures. Therefore, novel models are developed to forecast PGA in the case of the Iraqi database, which utilizes the particle swarm optimization (PSO) approach. A data set of 187 historical ground-motion recordings in Iraq’s tectonic regions was used to build the explicit proposed models. The proposed PGA models relate to different seismic parameters, including the magnitude of the earthquake (Mw), average shear-wave velocity (VS30), focal depth (FD), and nearest epicenter distance (REPi) to a seismic station. The derived PGA models are remarkably simple and straightforward and can be used reliably for pre-design purposes. The proposed PGA models (i.e., models I and II) obtained via the explicit formula produced using the PSO method are highly correlated to the actual PGA records owing to low coefficients of variation (CoV) of approximately 2.12% and 2.06%, and mean values (i.e., close to 1.0) of approximately 1.005 and 1.004. Lastly, high-frequency, low absolute relative error (ARE), which is below 5%, is recorded for the proposed models, thereby showing an acceptable error distribution.
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.
Recommendation systems are now being used to address the problem of excess information in several sectors such as entertainment, social networking, and e-commerce. Although conventional methods to recommendation systems have achieved significant success in providing item suggestions, they still face many challenges, including the cold start problem and data sparsity. Numerous recommendation models have been created in order to address these difficulties. Nevertheless, including user or item-specific information has the potential to enhance the performance of recommendations. The ConvFM model is a novel convolutional neural network architecture that combines the capabilities of deep learning for feature extraction with the effectiveness o
... Show MoreIn this paper, a microcontroller-based electronic circuit have been designed and implemented for dental curing system using 8-bit MCS-51 microcontroller. Also a new control card is designed while considering advantages of microcontroller systems the time of curing was controlled automatically by preset values which were input from a push-button switch. An ignition based on PWM technique was used to reduce the high starting current needed for the halogen lamp. This paper and through the test result will show a good performance of the proposed system.
Motives: Baghdad is the capital city and an important political, administrative, social, cultural and economic centre of Iraq. Baghdad’s growth and development has been significantly influenced by efforts to accommodate various needs of its steadily growing population. Uncontrolled population and urban growth have exerted negative effects in numerous dimensions, including environmental sustainability because urban expansion occurred in green spaces within the city and the surrounding areas.Aim: The aim of this study was to examine the planning solutions in Baghdad’s green areas in the past and at present, and to identify the key changes in the city’s green areas, including changes in the ratio of green urban spaces to the tota
... Show MoreIn the present work, Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was utilized to optimize process variables and find the best circumstances for indirect electrochemical oxidation of mimicked wastewater to remove phenol contaminants using prepared ternary composite electrode. The electrodeposition process is used for the synthesis of a ternary composite electrode of Mn, Co, and Ni oxides. The selected concentrations of metal salts of these elements were 0.05, 0.1, and 1.5 M, with constant molar ratio, current density, and electrolysis time of 1:1:1, 25 mA/cm2, and 2 h. Interestedly, the gathered Mn-Co-Ni oxides were deposited at both the anode and cathode. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) facilitated the qualitative char
... Show MoreCadmium sulfide (CdS) nanocrystalline thin films have been prepared by chemical bath deposition (CBD) technique on commercial glass substrates at 70ºC temperature. Cadmium chloride (CdCl2) as a source of cadmium (Cd), thiourea (CS(NH2)2) as a source of sulfur and ammonia solution (NH4OH) were added to maintain the pH value of the solution at 10. The characterization of thin films was carried out through the structural and optical properties by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and UV-VIS spectroscopy. A UV-VIS optical spectroscopy study was carried out to determine the band gap of the nanocrystalline CdS thin film and it showed a blue shift with respect to the bulk value (from 3.9 - 2.4eV). In present w
... Show MoreThe problem of generated waste as a result of the implementation of construction projects, has been aggravated recently because of construction activity experienced by the world, especially Iraq, which is going through a period of reconstruction, where construction waste represents (20-40%) of the total generated waste and has a negative effect on the environment and economic side of the project. In addition, the rate of consumpted amounts of natural resources are estimated to be about 40% in the construction industry, so it became necessary to reduce waste and to be manage well. This study aims to identify the key factors affecting waste management through the various phases of the project, and this is accom
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