There are many aims of this book: The first aim is to develop a model equation that describes the spread of contamination through soils which can be used to determine the rate of environmental contamination by estimate the concentration of heavy metals (HMs) in soil. The developed model equation can be considered as a good representation for a problem of environmental contamination. The second aim of this work is to design two feed forward neural networks (FFNN) as an alternative accurate technique to determine the rate of environmental contamination which can be used to solve the model equation. The first network is to simulate the soil parameters which can be used as input data in the second suggested network, while the second network simulates to estimate the concentration of heavy metals. The third aim is to develop a conceptual theory of training stage of neural networks from the perspective of functional analysis and optimization methods. Within this formulation, learning means to solve a variational problem by minimizing a performance function associated to the neural network. The choice of the objective functional depends on the particular application. On the other side, we suggest modification of the performance function to improve the generalization of the suggested networks and to treat the early stopping and local minima problems. The fourth aim is to compare the performance of aforementioned algorithms with regard to predicting ability. Then applied the suggested technique to estimate the concentration of heavy metals such as: Copper(Cu), Lead(Pb), Cadmium(Cd), Cobalt(Co), Zinc(Zn) and Nickel(Ni) in Baghdad soils. First, sixty four soil samples were selected from a phytoremediated contaminated site located in some zones in Baghdad city (residential, industrial, commercial, agricultural and main roads). Second, a series of measurements were performed on the soil samples and analyzed measuring of concentrations for heavy metals using devices such as : Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS), X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) and Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (ICP- MS) to get initial concentrations for those heavy metals. Third, simulate and train the suggested networks to get the concentration of heavy metals. The performance of the suggested networks was compared with the traditional laboratory inspecting using the training and test data sets. The results of this book show that the suggested networks trained on experimental measurements can be successfully applied to the rapid and accuracy estimation of concentration of heavy metals. Finally, we suggest some methods for the treatment of contaminated soil by using some herbal plants
Laboratory studies were conducted at the biological control unit, college of Agriculture, University of Baghdad to evaluate some biological aspects of the predator Chilocorus bipustulatus (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae), which is considered one of the most important predators on many insect pests, especially the scale insect, Parlatoria blanchardi, (Homoptera: Diaspididae) on date palms. The results showed that biological parameters of the predator were varied according to different degree of temperature. Egg incubation period was significantly different and reached to 7.5 and 5.44 day at 25 and 30°C respectively, Fertility was the same 100% at both temperature degrees. Larval growth periods were 17.41 and 16.12 day as well as the mortality du
... Show MoreHerein, date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) bunch (DPB) waste was transformed into activated carbon (DPAC) adsorbent by using microwaveinduced ZnCl2 activation for 15 min at a power of 600 W. Several analytical methods were used to explain the physicochemical parameters of DPBAC including XRD, pHpzc, BET, SEM–EDX, and FTIR. Afterwards, the adsorptive performance of DPBAC was thoroughly investigated for the removal of two structurally different organic dyes namely methyl violet (MV) and fuchsin basic (FB). The key adsorption parameters, including the dose of DPBAC (A: 0.02–0.06 g), the solution pH (B: 4–10), and the contact time (C: 2–20 min) were statistically optimized using the Box-Behnken design with response surface methodology (RSM
... Show MoreInfrared photoconductive detectors working in the far-infrared region and room temperature were fabricated. The detectors were fabricated using three types of carbon nanotubes (CNTs); MWCNTs, COOH-MWCNTs, and short-MWCNTs. The carbon nontubes suspension is deposited by dip coating and drop–casting techniques to prepare thin films of CNTs. These films were deposited on porous silicon (PSi) substrates of n-type Si. The I-V characteristics and the figures of merit of the fabricated detectors were measured at a forward bias voltage of 3 and 5 volts as well as at dark and under illumination by IR radiation from a CO2 laser of 10.6 μm wavelengths and power of 2.2 W. The responsivity and figures of merit of the photoconductive detector
... Show MoreThe aim of the study was to evaluate the efficacy of diode laser (λ=940 nm) in the management of gingival hyperpigmentation compared to the conventional bur method. Materials and methods: Eighteen patients with gingival hyperpigmentation were selected for the study with an age between 12-37 years old. The site of treatment was the upper gingiva using diode laser for the right half and the conventional method for the left half. All patients were re-evaluated after the following intervals: 3 days, 7 days, 1 month and 6 months post-operation. Pain and functions were re-evaluated in each visit for a period of 1 day, 3 days and 1 week post-operation. Laser parameters included 1.5 W in continuous mode with an initiated tip (400 μm) placed in
... Show MoreTwo Schiff bases, namely, 3-(benzylidene amino) -2-thioxo-6-methyl 2,5-dihydropyrimidine-4(3H)-one (LS])and 3-(benzylidene amino)-6-methyl pyrimidine 4(3H, 5H)-dione(LA)as chelating ligands), were used to prepare some complexes of Cr(III), La(III), and Ce(III)] ions. Standard physico-chemical procedures including metal analysis M%, element microanalysis (C.H.N.S) , magnetic susceptibility, conductometric measurements, FT-IR and UV-visible Spectra were used to identify Metal (III) complexes and Schiff bases (LS) and (LA). According to findings, a [Cr(III) complex] showed six coordinated octahedral geometry, while [La(III), and Ce(III) complexes]were structured with coordination number seven. Schiff's bases a
... Show MoreThis paper investigates the performance evaluation of two state feedback controllers, Pole Placement (PP) and Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR). The two controllers are designed for a Mass-Spring-Damper (MSD) system found in numerous applications to stabilize the MSD system performance and minimize the position tracking error of the system output. The state space model of the MSD system is first developed. Then, two meta-heuristic optimizations, Simulated Annealing (SA) optimization and Ant Colony (AC) optimization are utilized to optimize feedback gains matrix K of the PP and the weighting matrices Q and R of the LQR to make the MSD system reach stabilization and reduce the oscillation of the response. The Matlab softwar
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