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Go to Editorial ManagerThe research aims to improve the quality of the product through improving the quality of production processes by relying on the principle of quality control, the aim of this research is to identify the reality of quality control in the industrial public sector companies in Syria, and explaining the advantages of using the principle of quality control producing information and data that contribute to improve the quality of production, where the research was based on theoretical side to provide an explanation on the quality and its objectives and the principle of quality control and production processes, but on the practical side, the workers were surveyed at the General Company for Wool and Carpets in Hama._x000D_ To achieve the objective of the research and to prove or deny the impact of quality control on the quality of production processes was based on the descriptive analytical method and using the appropriate statistical methods, where statistical analysis was carried out using SPSS 19 program._x000D_ The statistical results have shown that there is a strong correlation between the quality control and improving the quality of production processes._x000D_ The researcher recommended the need to form an administrative structure or forming a team work to improve the quality or using the consultants and researchers in order to supervise on the principle of quality control.
Quality control of riverbank roads is a vital part of the road construction and maintenance process and aims to ensure infrastructure quality, safety, and sustainability. This requires adherence to technical standards, constant auditing, and regular maintenance to maintain the condition of the roads and avoid potential problems. The first step in the quality control of roads is to test the efficiency of the subgrade soil. A geotechnical investigation of subgrade soil under river bank roads is carried out to evaluate the engineering properties of the soil and determine the soil’s ability to bear the loads resulting from vehicle movement and road traffic. This investigation includes analyzing soil samples and laboratory tests to determine soil properties and determine any improvements the soil needs to bear the loads. Soil samples were collected from Al-Kadhimiya Corniche Street. It was dried and subjected to laboratory tests, the soil in this study is classified as poorly graded sand (SP), GS 2.589, the shear strength parameters an internal friction angle of 33 degrees and cohesion of 0.5 kN/m2, and the results of the compaction test indicated that the optimal moisture content was 8.1%, with a maximum dry density was 18.24 kN/m3, CBR 26.04%, and chemical tests (SO3 0.222, pH 8.55, T.SS 0.891, CL 0.085). Software FAARFIELD was used to check pavement design, the thickness design was executed utilising a subgrade CBR value of 26.04%. The subgrade pavement thickness was determined to be 304mm in total. The results agree with the actual design of Al-Kadhimiya Corniche Street, which was recently maintained during the field investigation in 2023.
Additionally, it has been demonstrated that osseointegrated implantation offers superior proprioception and control over the prosthesis, enabling more natural movement and improved functional results. Additionally, it lowers the chance of falling and increases energy transfer efficiency, making it simpler for amputees to engage in physical activity. Furthermore, as compared to conventional socket prosthesis attachment, osseointegrated implantation has been linked to higher patient satisfaction and quality of life._x000D_ It is crucial to remember that osseointegration is a surgical operation with risks including infection and implant failure. Additionally, for effective implantation, it needs a specific amount and quality of bone, which may restrict its usage in some individuals. Furthermore, osseointegrated implantation could be more expensive than conventional socket prosthetics._x000D_ Understanding the efficacy and safety of this method requires research on complication rates and outcome metrics in patients having osseointegrated prosthesis implantation. You may acquire information on things like infection rates, implant failure, patient satisfaction, and functional results by studying original research papers. Clinical decision-making can then be improved with the use of this information._x000D_ In transfemoral amputees, osseointegration has showed promise as a powerful substitute for socket prostheses. A growing corpus of research has shown that osseointegrated implantation provides advantages in terms of increasing mobility, decreasing discomfort, and improving general quality of life. The efficiency of osseointegration for transtibial and upper extremity implants has received little attention._x000D_ Minor soft tissue infections are the most frequent consequences, although they are manageable with the right treatment and monitoring. To further reduce the risk of problems and improve the overall success of osseointegrated implantation, research and development are ongoingly focused on enhancing surgical methods and implant design._x000D_ Although osseointegration has a lot of potential, not all amputees may be good candidates for it. Considerations for osseointegrated implantation must take into consideration elements including the degree and nature of the amputation, the quality and density of the bone, and the desires of the patient.
Hydraulic structures, including cascade aerators, may be acknowledged as important components in improving aeration efficiency because of the intense turbulent mixing combined with large air bubble entrapment at these structures. The main objective of the present study is to achieve maximum aeration efficiency and enhance the concentration of dissolved oxygen in the water since this is an important factor in improving water quality. The present study aims to determine the most proper geometric and dynamic parameters of a typical square-shaped stepped cascade with a total height of 120 cm, and sex steps. A tread of each step is 10 cm and a rise of each step is 20 cm, where aeration efficiency is maximized. The results of the study revealed that the maximum value of water aeration efficiency, meaning an increase in dissolved oxygen in the water using a stepped cascade aerator happened when flow rates of 15 L/min, 25 L/min, and 35 L/min with aeration efficiencies of 22%, 37%, and 42% respectively. Finally, the optimization of flow rates in aeration systems can lead to improved water quality parameters. The most important feature of the present study is the innovation of a natural method of water treatment that relies on the principle of mixing, coagulation, and flocculation by hydraulic methods, which works to reduce the costs of operation.
Whispering Gallery Mode Micro-Resonators (WGMRs) have received significant interest due to their great sensitivity to environmental changes, compact size, and ability to operate over a wide spectral range because their low optical losses produce high-quality factors so that they can be used in various sensing applications. This work investigates the design and implementation of cylindrical WGMRs for Refractive Index (RI) sensing for different delivery fiber diameters. Single Mode Fiber with different waist diameters (80,67.1,18) µm were used as delivery fibers. At the same time, the sensor (resonator) fiber is SMF with a diameter (125 µm). Quality factors and Free Spectral Range (FSR) were calculated and analyzed for each diameter. The quality factor for all diameters was in power of 104, which is considered good. The FSR is inversely proportional to fiber diameter. FSR values were (0.678,1.75,2.03) nm for (80,67.1,18) µm delivery fiber diameters respectively. An analyte prepared by NaCl with different refractive indices is used to investigate the RI sensor performance. Higher sensitivity is obtained from the WGMR with a smaller waist diameter, which is (-)74 nm/RIU. While for the delivery fiber diameters (80,67.1) µm were (-0.28, -9.27) nm/RIU respectively. The submitted sensor will have a good contribution in the field of chemical, biological and medical applications.
Providing a clean and high quality drinking water to both rural as well as urban areas is a great challenge by itself, adding to it the large volume requirements of such water at high population areas means a very high cost for such industry because mainly of the cost of expensive commercially available adsorbent used in this process. This led inhabitants of the remote and/or rural areas to use less quality water with all its risks and health challenges. In this study, a locally collected rice husk is tested to be used as an alternative adsorbent to the expensive common commercial ones. Parameters like adsorbent dosage, initial concentration of turbidity, and pH level were tested to investigate their effects on the process. Treatment of synthetic turbid water was done after changing these parameters to measure the effect of each parameter alone and the results showed a set of parameters that can be used to achieve high efficiency of turbidity removal. The study concluded that rice husk can be used as a well cheap alternative adsorbent to reduce the river water turbidity due to its availability and low cost with a decent removal efficiency approaching 95%.
In Republic of Iraq, ready-mix concrete production plants have been adversely affected by the lack of modern and advanced technology to assess their performance in line with technological advancements. Current evaluation methods rely on traditional approaches and financial measures, yielding unrealistic performance results. To address this problem, there is a need to utilize modern models and methods for performance evaluation. The study's main objective This was achieved by employing a literature survey methodology and utilizing digital databases such as the Iraqi Scientific Journals website, virtual libraries, and scientific platforms like ScienceDirect, Springer, Google Scholar, and Gate Research between 2015 and 2023. The research study provided a comprehensive overview of performance evaluation, including its definitions, importance, and an introduction to modern models and evaluation methods. The study found that no previous studies have been conducted in Iraq to evaluate ready-mix concrete production plants. However, four studies were found in Egypt, Sudan, and India. The previous similar relevant studies discussed various topics and related studies. Firstly, they discussed the classification, advantages, and disadvantages of concrete mixing plants. Additionally, the previous studies analyzed the factors that most influence the performance of concrete production plants, including laboratory manager efficiency, work team efficiency, communication and relationships within work teams, plant operator, material transportation method, and time and courses. Furthermore, the previous research studies present a comprehensive analysis of all variable data simultaneously using the statistical package for Social Science (SPSS) input stage. The evaluation also extends to the evaluation of laboratories, encompassing plant arrangement, internal quality control systems, and final product quality. The overall evaluation results of previous studies. Indicate that 75% of the concrete production plants failed to meet the required criteria, while only 25% demonstrated satisfactory performance. The study proposed improvements to enhance the performance rate of ready-mix concrete production plants by leveraging the most influential variables, which will be considered in the study.
This work has studied the size of the mean time between failures (MTBF) because it has a vital role in assessing reliability in manufacturing systems. Previous studies have indicated that the reliability value depends on the size of MTBF, so they indicated only 11 types of time that reliability value depends on, and they used methods of DFR and RCM to enhance the reliability level. To assess and increase reliability value, this work referred to the four main times: mean time between failures (MTBF), mean time to diagnosis (MTTD), mean time to repair (MTTR), and mean time to failure (MTTF) in more detail. Also, it designed a new arrangement of failure notification time, failure diagnosis time, downtime, failure repair, testing time, and recovery periods for ongoing operations in manufacturing systems through a new redistribution of 19 times and time intervals in detail between the four main times, so it revealed and added 8 types of other times and time intervals more than previous studies because they have vital roles in increasing reliability value. Thus, the new arrangement contains two parallel pathways and 19 types of times and time intervals. The first pathway represents 5 positions and 11 types of start and end times; the second pathway represents 4 positions and 8 time intervals. Consequently, MTBF becomes longer because the new arrangement shortens the time distances between the start of failure and repair process end, between diagnosis end and test, and between inspection end and the system's return to normal operating conditions. The motivations are to raise the reliability value, quality level, and effective maintenance and save costs. This work used the data collection and analysis method. The results showed that there is a higher reliability for manufacturing systems when the time arrangement is better, MTBF is longer, MTTD is shorter, MTTR is smaller, MTTF is longer, and the error rate is lower.
Children of hyperactivity are like any other children, but they are unable to integrate with society and the environment, because hyperactivity is a developmental disorder that makes the child uncontrollable, difficult to understand, learn and socialize and is placed in the centres of disease control as a serious public health problem. Here, the role of architecture is in its active contribution to improving social interaction and addressing part of the problems of this group of children. This treatment has a significant impact on improving the quality of children's environment in general and children of hyperactivity in particular, thus facilitating interaction and learning with their peers by working to create a healthy environment that meets their needs inside and outside the building. Due to the lack of interest or thorough studies on children with hyper-active, distracted children and the impact of their surrounding environment, whether internal or external, especially within Iraq, despite their considerable and multiple creative potential (physical or mental). Therefore, the aim of the research was to determine the extent of the effect of green on the elite or hyperactivity symptoms of children suffering from hyperactivity syndrome, and to contribute to their positive, sensory and collective appearance.
In this work, a sensor for cooking oils was designed and fabricated for the first time using hollow-core photonic crystal fiber (HC-PCF). This sensor was studied practically, and the results showed a difference in sensitivity depending on the type of oil. The results showed that the wavelength shift occurred with very small changes in the refractive index of the edible oil. The confinement loss was computed. Seven oils with various refractive indices were utilized. Based on our results, the relative sensitivity to various kinds of Canola oil, Sunflower oil, Olive oil, Walnut oil, Sesame oil, Corn oil, and Wheat oil are 79.9321%, 80.1588%, 77.4523%, 77.4889%, and 77.5650%, 77.6652%, 80.5902% respectively. Moreover, the proposed sensor also has low confinement losses of 6.473×10-9dB/m, 1.158×10-9dB/m, 1.2×10-9dB/m, 1.20×10-9dB/m, 1.199×10-9 dB/m, 1.2×10-9dB/m, and 6.347×10-9dB/m respectively. This sensor can be used to measure the quality of oils and distinguish their types, and they can be a practical element in oil detection systems, which will bring about a change in the future in oil detection methods.
Laser annealing represents a powerful method for tailoring the properties of silver nanofilms on quartz substrates, offering advantages in terms of precision, scalability, and functionalization. Continued research efforts are expected to deepen our understanding and broaden the applications of this promising technology in diverse fields. In this work, laser annealing of silver nanofilms deposited on quartz substrates was performed and investigated. RF CO2 laser of variable power in the range 1–20 W with beam quality of 1.1 was used to anneal silver nanofilms. AFM analysis emphasized that nanocrystal sizes of 60 nm were obtained for silver nanofilms. Furthermore, the optimum absorbance peak occurred at about 449 nm for smaller film thickness. Thermal simulation and analysis of the annealing process were also conducted using COMSOL Multiphysics software. It was observed that optimal temperature of 729 K was achieved when 10 W laser power and 2 mm/s scanning speed were used to anneal 20 nm silver film thickness. Design of expert analysis was also used to better understand the laser annealing process of silver nanofilms since convolution of several process parameters affect the process output.
Fused deposition modeling (FDM) is a commonly used 3D printing technique that involves heating, extruding, and depositing thermoplastic polymer filaments. The quality of FDM components is greatly influenced by the chosen processing settings. In this study, the Taguchi technique and artificial neural network were employed to predict the ultimate tensile strength of FDM components and establish a mathematical model. The mechanical properties of ABS were analyzed by varying parameters such as layer thickness, printing speed, direction angle, number of parameters, and nozzle temperature at five different levels. FDM 3D printers were used to fabricate samples for testing, following the ASTM-D638 standards, using the Taguchi orthogonal array experimental design method to set the process parameters. The results indicated that the printing process factors had a significant impact on tensile strength, with test values ranging from 31 to 38 MPa. The neural network achieved a maximum error of 5.518% when predicting tensile strength values, while the analytical model exhibited an error of 19.376%.
Today, our cities are facing a host of challenges to accomplish the quality of life or their inhabitants. On the one hand, city planners and architects seek to preserve heritage, habits, and city peculiarities. On the other hand, it is necessary that the city is kept abreast of the rapid changes in Information and Communications Technology (ICT), Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and smart city concept. In Baghdad, it could be observed that there are several activities based on community initiatives, awareness campaigns, and initiatives which are self-funding from youth or funding from NGOs, and INGOs. How can we invest in such initiatives to achieve a smart city, emphasizing that the city is for the people, not a city of things? As we know that smart cities have six factors: smart (economy, governance, environment, people, mobility, and living)._x000D_ This paper assumes that smart communities are the seventh factor of smart cities factors which could play an essential role to apply the smartness in Baghdad. In this case, it will help to achieve making decisions and a feedback evaluation system will be subject to transparency, openness, vitality, and sustainability because it will stem from the community and ensure the sustainability in a smart city.
The paper focuses on the role of participatory design and its various methods—such as awareness methods, social interaction methods, as well as indirect and open methods— that involve all citizens in the process of design, implementation, and future development process. The architect's role in this process is to transform the desires and visions of the participants into a practical reality, ensuring that their needs are met to create vibrant spaces. This involves achieving specific indicators that generate vitality in these spaces, including diversity, communication opportunities, strong identity, concentrated density, accessibility, and safety, all of which enhance social interaction. The paper referred to a number of international examples in Norway and Denmark, and Arab examples in Jordan that proved the effectiveness of the participatory approach in achieving vital environments. Hence, the research problem is represented by the following questions: How does participatory design contribute to enhancing the vitality of the space? To what extent is the participatory design methodology applied to enhance vitality and help achieve a sense of belonging within the space? The paper findings emphasized the importance of participatory design in meeting the needs of the local community and in creating a vital, safe, and inclusive environment characterized by social cohesion, cooperation, ownership, belonging, and equality. This highlights the importance of encouraging the entire community to engage in the design process, which can lead to creative ideas and empower citizens. The paper recommends adopting the participatory design approach to improve the quality of life and enhance the vitality of urban spaces.
Mobility limitations in stroke survivors yield negative impacts on the quality of life for such individuals. Rehabilitation is needed to help them recover and regain mobility. Accordingly, this study aims to design and validate a “Robotic Exoskeleton” intended for stroke rehabilitation. The basic principles of this robotic exoskeleton device are its dependence on electromyography signal and electronic microcontroller to provide an efficient physiotherapy exercises system.The robotic exoskeleton is a one degree of freedom which performs the flexion and extension of the elbow joint. After the design was completed, 19 subjects participated in this study: 4 healthy subjects, and 15 post-stroke patients.The results showed the benefit of robotic exoskeleton in increasing the elbow range of motion, where angle of elbow flexion was raised from the first physiotherapy session to maximum elbow flexion in the last session.
The traditional finishing method cannot keep up with recent labor market requirements, solve the problem of increasing production, improve the surface roughness and accuracy of workpiece. While the unconventional magnetic abrasive finishing (MAF) method has shown as a promising technique that can be used to finish complicated surfaces. MAF finishes metals, alloy, ceramic, and other materials that are difficult to finish by other processes. In another word, MAF improves the quality of surfaces with low cost._x000D_ This paper focuses on optimize and study the effect of inductor and pole geometry (radius of hole, angle of core, angle of pole, radius of pole), on (surface roughness (Ra) and material removal weight (W)) and fined the optimum values that increase the efficiency of MAF method. Taguchi method employed to study the influence of geometry parameters and find the optimum values using orthogonal array L9. The results conclude that the most significant factor that effects change in surface roughness (?Ra) and material removal weight(?W) are radius of the hole (R) and angle of core (?), respectively.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly advancing as a valuable tool in oncology for enhancing detection and management of cancer. The integration of AI with PET/CT imaging presents significant scenarios for improving efficiency and accuracy of cancer diagnosis. This study examines the current applications of AI with PET/CT imaging, highlighting its role in diagnosing, differentiating, delineating, staging, assessing therapy response, determining prognosis, and enhancing image quality. A comprehensive literature search was conducted in six data-bases to get the most recent works, use Springer, Scopus, PubMed, Web of Science, IEEE, and Google Scholar in the last five years (2019-2024), identifying 80 studies that met the criteria for inclusion that focused on AI-driven models applied to PET/CT data in various cancers, with lung cancer being the most studied. Other cancers examined include head and neck, breast, lymph nodes, whole body, and others. All studies involved human subjects. The findings indicate that AI holds promise in improving cancer detection, identifying benign from malignant tumors, aiding in segmentation, response evaluation, staging, and determining the prognosis. However, the application of AI-powered models and PET/CT-derived radiomics in clinical practice is limited because of issues of data normalization, reproducibility, and the requirement of large multi-center data sets for improving model generalizability. All these limitations have to be solved to guarantee the dependable and ethical use of AI in day-to-day clinical activities.
The aim of this work is to optimize EPD variables (voltage, time, and focus) using alternating current through the Taguchi Design of Experiment (DOE). Coating Nano hydroxyapatite (Nano-HA) on a Ti6Al4V substrate depends on thickness and roughness, then characterization of a coating layer to determine the optimum state. Hydroxyapatite (HAp) powder was deposited on a Ti-6Al-4V alloy substrate by electro-deposition with ethanol as a solvent under AC current, to improve the alloy surface quality based on coating thickness and maximum coating mass meeting the requirements of a biological orthopedics application. Ethanol was used as a solvent to precipitate ketazone and HAp on the base alloy. Taguchi's approach was used in order to determine the optimal conditions for EPD and subsequently to apply various criteria for depositing the biochemical coating. The surface and cross-section composition of the paint is described by characterization. Numerous tests and inspections; Zeta, XRD and SEM stability test, water contact angle and optical microscopes were used to describe the surface morphology of the HAp layer. The value of the optimum conditions for deposition of the HAp layer which is a simultaneous thickness and maximum coating mass, was predicted at a sedimentation voltage of 40 V, 2 min sedimentation time and 1 g / L for the concentration of the suspended solution at room temperature. The validity of the model resulting from the response surface methodology was assessed by comparing the expected results with the experimental results. In addition, close agreement was observed between the experimental results and the expected results. For the solution at room temperature, the results obtained with the highest value of the coating thickness of 41at the surface roughness of 0.94 and the contact angle of the alloy before coating is 67.489º reduced to. 38.132º after plating, which indicates an increase in the harmony of the metal implant and biocompatibility.
Medical image segmentation plays a crucial role in the realm of medical imaging. The process involves the division of an image to obtain a comprehensive view and ensure precise diagnostics. There are various methods that are employed, ranging from traditional approaches to the more advanced deep learning techniques. Both play a significant role in enhancing healthcare. With the continuous advancement in technology, there is a growing need for accurate segmentation. While traditional methods such as thresholding and region growing are effective, they may require human intervention for complex cases. Deep learning techniques, particularly Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), have significantly improved the process by learning intricate details and accurately segmenting the image. When these methods are combined, healthcare professionals can achieve high-quality, precise results. Furthermore, with the advancements in hardware and technology, real-time segmentation is now possible. Generally, the process of dividing medical images into segments is extremely important for the progress of healthcare with the help of artificial intelligence and the most recent advancements in the industry, such as explainable AI and multimodal learning. However, this meticulously detailed and in-depth review provides an all-encompassing and extensive analysis of the current methods utilized, their multitude of applications across various fields, and the promising emerging advancements that have the potential to pave the way for remarkable future improvements and innovations.
Computed tomography (CT) imaging is an important diagnostic tool. CT imaging facilitates the internal rendering of a scanned object by measuring the attenuation of beams of X-ray radiation. CT employs a mathematical technique of image reconstruction; those techniques are classified as; analytical and iterative. The iterative reconstruction (IR) methods have been proven to be superior over the analytical methods, but due to their prolonged reconstruction time, those methods are excluded from routine use in clinical applications. In this paper the reconstruction time of an IR algorithm is minimized through the employment of an adaptive region growing segmentation method that focuses the image reconstruction process on a specified region, thus ignoring unwanted pixels that increase the computation time. This method is tested on the iterative algebraic reconstruction technique (ART) algorithm. Some phantom images are used in this paper to demonstrate the effects of the segmentation process. The simulation results are executed using MATLAB (version R2018b) programming language, and a computer system with the following specifications: CPU core i7 (2.40 GHz) for processing. Simulation results indicate that this method will reduce the reconstruction time of the iterative algorithms, and will enhance the quality of the reconstructed image.
Nowadays, robotic exoskeletons demonstrated great abilities to replace traditional rehabilitation processes for activating neural abilities performed by physiotherapists. The main aim of this review study is to determine a state-of-the-art robotic exoskeleton that can be used for the rehabilitation of the lower limb of people who have mobile disabilities as a result of stroke and musculoskeletal conditions. The study presented the anatomy of the lower limb and the biomechanics of human gait to explain the mechanism of the limb, which helps in constructing a robotic exoskeleton. A state-of-the-art review of more than 100 articles related to robotic exoskeletons and their constructions, functionality, and rehabilitation capabilities are accurately implemented. Moreover, the study included a review of upper limb rehabilitation that has been studied locally and successfully applied to patients who exhibited significant improvements. Results of recent studies herald an abundant future for robotic exoskeletons used in the rehabilitation of the lower extremity. Significant improvement in the mechanism and design, as well as the quality, were observed. Also, impressive results were obtained from the performance when used by patients. This study concludes that working and improving the robotic devices continuously in accordance with the cases are necessary to be treated with the best results and the lowest cost.