The aim of this paper was to investigate the removal efficiencies of Zn⁺² ions from wastewater by adsorption (using tobacco leaves) and forward osmosis (using cellulose triacetate (CTA) membrane). Various experimental parameters were investigated in adsorption experiment such as: effect of pH (3 - 7), contact time (0  - 220) min, solute concentration (10 - 100) mg/l, and adsorbent dose (0.2 - 5)g. Whereas for forward osmosis the operating parameters studied were: draw solution concentration (10 - 150) g/l, pH of feed solution (4 - 7), feed solution concentration (10 - 100) mg/l. The result showed that the removal efficiency by using adsorption was 70% and the removal efficiency by using forward osmosis was 96.2 %. 

Power-electronic converters are essential elements for the effective interconnection of renewable energy sources to the power grid, as well as to include energy storage units, vehicle charging stations, microgrids, etc. Converter models that provide an accurate representation of their wideband operation and interconnection with other active and passive grid components and systems are necessary for reliable steady state and transient analyses during normal or abnormal grid operating conditions. This paper introduces two Laplace domain-based approaches to model buck and boost DC-DC converters for electromagnetic transient studies. The first approach is an analytical one, where the converter is represented by a two-port admittance model via mo

Upper limb amputation is a condition that severely limits the amputee’s movement. Patients who have lost the use of one or more of their upper extremities have difficulty performing activities of daily living. To help improve the control of upper limb prosthesis with pattern recognition, non-invasive approaches (EEG and EMG signals) is proposed in this paper and are integrated with machine learning techniques to recognize the upper-limb motions of subjects. EMG and EEG signals are combined, and five features are utilized to classify seven hand movements such as (wrist flexion (WF), outward part of the wrist (WE), hand open (HO), hand close (HC), pronation (PRO), supination (SUP), and rest (RST)). Experiments demonstrate that usin

In this paper, Bayes estimators of the parameter of Maxwell distribution have been derived along with maximum likelihood estimator. The non-informative priors; Jeffreys and the extension of Jeffreys prior information has been considered under two different loss functions, the squared error loss function and the modified squared error loss function for comparison purpose. A simulation study has been developed in order to gain an insight into the performance on small, moderate and large samples. The performance of these estimators has been explored numerically under different conditions. The efficiency for the estimators was compared according to the mean square error MSE. The results of comparison by MSE show that the efficiency of B

 In this research, analytical study for simulating a Fabry-Perot bistable etalon (F-P cavity) filled with a dispersive optimized nonlinear optical material (Kerr type) such as semiconductors Indium Antimonide (InSb). An optimization procedure using reflective (~85%) InSb etalon (~50µm) thick is described. For this etalon with a (50 µm) spot diameter beam, the minimum switching power is (~0.078 mW) and switching time is (~150 ns), leading to a switching energy of (~11.77 pJ) for this device. Also, the main role played by the temperature to change the etalon characteristic from nonlinear to linear dynamics.

Three N-(hydroxylphenyl) dimethylmaleimides were directly prepared in good yields (81-86)% from the reaction of dimethylmaleic anhydride with amino phenols. The prepared imides were esterified to the corresponding benzoates, methacrylates and cinnamates via their reaction with different acid chlorides in the presence of triethylamine. The prepared esters were tested as plasticizers for PVC via preparing of thirty six samples of PVC with the prepared esters in certain weight ratio followed by recording their softening points. Comparison the results with the universal plasticizers for PVC (DOP) and (DBP) indicated that the prepared esters in general have high plasticizing efficiency.

The turning process has various factors, which affecting machinability and should be investigated. These are surface roughness, tool life, power consumption, cutting temperature, machining force components, tool wear, and chip thickness ratio. These factors made the process nonlinear and complicated. This work aims to build neural network models to correlate the cutting parameters, namely cutting speed, depth of cut and feed rate, to the machining force and chip thickness ratio. The turning process was performed on high strength aluminum alloy 7075-T6. Three radial basis neural networks are constructed for cutting force, passive force, and feed force. In addition, a radial basis network is constructed to model the chip thickness ratio. T