Wireless sensor applications are susceptible to energy constraints. Most of the energy is consumed in communication between wireless nodes. Clustering and data aggregation are the two widely used strategies for reducing energy usage and increasing the lifetime of wireless sensor networks. In target tracking applications, large amount of redundant data is produced regularly. Hence, deployment of effective data aggregation schemes is vital to eliminate data redundancy. This work aims to conduct a comparative study of various research approaches that employ clustering techniques for efficiently aggregating data in target tracking applications as selection of an appropriate clustering algorithm may reflect positive results in the data aggregati

Background: The evaluation of the chronological age is a practical method in crime investigation field that assists in identifying individuals to treat them as underage or adult. This study aimed to assess the stages of third molars mineralization in relation to chronological age of Iraqi individuals, determine the gender differences and arches (maxillary/mandibular) differences.

Materials and Methods: A total of 300 orthopantomograms of orthodontic patients were collected according to specific criteria and evaluated visually. The developmental stages of maxillary and mandibular third molars were determined according to Demirjian method. T

Background: Obesity is considered an important risk factor for periodontal disease. It has been reported that reactive oxygen species linking both diseases, systemic melatonin supplementation as antioxidant therapy, was addressed as an adjuvant to scaling and root surface debridement (SRP) to enhance the treatment of periodontitis. Objective: To investigate the efficacy of systemic melatonin administration in periodontitis-obese patients as an adjuvant to scaling and root surface debridement (SRP). Methods: A randomized clinical trial was conducted at a dental-specialized center. Eighty subjects were included and allocated into group-I: twenty periodontium-healthy, normal-weight people; group-II: 30 obese patients with stage-III tre

This study investigates the performance of granular dead anaerobic sludge (GDAS) bio-sorbent as permeable reactive barrier in removing phenol from a simulated contaminated shallow groundwater. Batch tests have been performed to characterize the equilibrium sorption properties of the GDAS and sandy soil in phenol-containing aqueous solutions. The results of GDAS tests proved that the best values of operating parameters, which achieve the maximum removal efficiency of phenol (=85%), at equilibrium contact time (=3 hr), initial pH of the solution (=5), initial phenol concentration (=50 mg/l), GDAS dosage (=0.5 g/100 ml), and agitation speed (=250 rpm). Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analysis proved that the carboxylic acid, aromatic, alk

This paper reports a numerical study of flow behaviors and natural convection heat transfer characteristics in an inclined open-ended square cavity filled with air. The cavity is formed by adiabatic top and bottom walls and partially heated vertical wall facing the opening. Governing equations in vorticity-stream function form are discretized via finite-difference method and are solved numerically by iterative successive under relaxation (SUR) technique. A computer program to solve mathematical model has been developed and written as a code for MATLAB software. Results in the form of streamlines, isotherms, and average Nusselt number, are obtained for a wide range of Rayleigh numbers 10³-10⁶ with Prandtl number 0.71

Flexible job-shop scheduling problem (FJSP) is one of the instances in flexible manufacturing systems. It is considered as a very complex to control. Hence generating a control system for this problem domain is difficult. FJSP inherits the job-shop scheduling problem characteristics. It has an additional decision level to the sequencing one which allows the operations to be processed on any machine among a set of available machines at a facility. In this article, we present Artificial Fish Swarm Algorithm with Harmony Search for solving the flexible job shop scheduling problem. It is based on the new harmony improvised from results obtained by artificial fish swarm algorithm. This improvised solution is sent to comparison to an overall best

Mixed convection heat transfer in a vertical concentric annulus packed with a metallic porous media and heated at a constant heat flux is experimentally investigated with water as the working fluid. A series of experiments have been carried out with a Rayleigh number range from Ra=122418.92 to 372579.31 and Reynolds number that based on the particles diameter of Re_d=14.62, 19.48 and 24.36. Under steady state condition, the measured data were collected and analyzed. Results show that the wall surface temperatures are affected by the imposed heat flux variation and Reynolds number variation. The variation of the local heat transfer coefficient and the mean Nusselt number are presented and analyzed. An empirical