Superluminal light group velocity in tapered optical microfibers

Superluminal light group velocity was formerly reported in anomalous dispersion, nonlinear amplification of light pulse, high-gain lasers' cavities, and waveguides. Motivated by a recent observation of light acceleration in optical microfiber [1], the possibility of attaining the light group velocity exceeds its value in vacuum is investigated. The investigation of superluminal velocity is in tapered optical microfiber that has a radius decreases with propagation axis by a factor 10-3. Our results show the possibility of attaining superluminal group velocity in this microfiber at length of about 1080µm. At this length the instantaneous acceleration of light is found to be 13×1019 m/s2 which its corresponding Unruh temperature is 0.527K

Textile dye removal using experimental wetland ponds planted with common duckweed under semi-natural conditions

Abstract: The study assesses the performance of experimental wetland pond systems vegetated by Lemna minor L. (common duckweed or lesser duckweed) for textile azo dye removal. The objectives are to assess the influence of L. minor on water quality parameters, compare the dye and chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal of four dyes (Acid Blue 113, Reactive Blue 198, Direct Orange 46 and Basic Red 46) with each other, and monitor the effect of dye accumulation as a function of the relative growth rate (RGR) of L. minor. Findings indicate that the simulated shallow pond systems remove BR46 (low concentration) significantly (p < 0.05) higher than other dyes, and the ponds containing L. minor outperformed control ponds by around 51% in mean removal efficiency with a potential of L. minor for phytoremediation of approximately 13% efficiency

Design of a Simple Dust Removal System for a Solar Street Light System

يعد الغبار ومخلفات الطيور من المشاكل التي تعيق عمل منظومات الانارة للشوارع وخاصة في المناطق شبه الصحراوية  ومنها العراق. وفي هذه الورقة ، تم تصنيع المنظومة محليا من مكونات   بسيطة ورخيصة . يعمل النظام تلقائيا  , يربط مع الالواح الشمسية المستخدمة في انارة الشوارع، ويحصل على الكهرباء المطلوبة من نفس النظام الشمسي يعمل  النظام على غسل الالواح الشمسية بالمياه المقطرة ومسحها ، وبوقت قصير لا يتجاوز نصف دقيقة  كما يمكن  التحكم بفترة التنظيف , كما يمكن ايضا التحكم , والاستشعار بكمية الغبار التي يعمل عندها النظام. كما تمت دراسة تأثير انواع مختلفة للغبار الساقط على الالواح والذي تم جمعه من رياح مختلفة ودراسة تأثيرها على أداء الألواح الشمسية. كما درست النفاذية مع الطول الموجي لثلاث انواع من الاتربة. المنظومة استهلاكها للتيار والفولتية قليل نسبيا ,ممكن تعميمها لسهولة تصنيعها وتوفر مكوناته محليا وهي فعالة بشكل جيد.      Dust and bird residue are problems impeding the operation of solar street lighting systems, especially in semi-desert areas, such as Iraq. The system in this paper was designed and developed locally using simple and inexpensive materials. The system runs automatically. It Connects to solar panels used in solar street lighting, and gets the required electricity from the same solar system. Solar panels are washed with dripping water in less than half a minute by this system. The cleaning period can also be controlled. It can also control, sensing the amount of dust the system operates. The impact of different types of falling dust on panels has also been studied. This was collected from different winds and studied their impact on solar panel performance. Also it studied permeability with the wavelength of three types of soil. The system has relatively low current and voltage consumption; it can be generalized for easy manufacturing and locally available components and is well effective

Advanced Flowrate Control of Petroleum Products in Transportation: An Optimized Modified Model Reference PID Approach

Efficient flowrate control is paramount for the seamless operation and reliability of petroleum transportation systems, where precise control of fluid movement ensures not only operational efficiency but also safety and cost-effectiveness. The main aim of this paper is to develop a highly effective modified model reference PID controller, tailored to ensure optimal flowrate control of petroleum products throughout their transportation. Initially, the petrol transportation process is analyzed to establish a suitable mathematical model based on vital factors like pipeline diameter, length, and pump attributes. However, using a basic first-order time delay model for petrol transportation systems is limiting due to inaccuracies, variable delay issues, safety oversights, and real-time control complexities. To improve this, the delay portion is approximated as a third-order transfer function to better reflect complex physical conditions. Subsequently, the PID controller is synthesized by modifying its structure to address flowrate control issues. These modifications primarily focus on the controller’s derivative component, involving the addition of a first-order filter and alterations to its structure. To optimize the proposed controller, the genetic, black hole, and zebra optimization techniques are employed, aiming to minimize an integral time absolute error cost function and ensure that the outlet flow of the controlled system closely follows the response of an appropriate reference model. They are chosen for their proficiency in complex optimization to enhance the controller's effectiveness by optimizing parameters within constraints, adapting to system dynamics, and ensuring optimal conditions. Through simulations, it is demonstrated that the proposed controller significantly enhances the stability and efficiency of the control system, while maintaining practical control signals. Moreover, the proposed modifications and intelligent tuning of the PID controller yield remarkable improvements compared to previous related work, resulting in a 36% reduction in rise time, a 63% reduction in settling time, an 80% reduction in overshoot, and a 98% reduction in cost value

Clay Mineralogy of the Soils above Basalt from Azraq Area , Jordan

Twelve clay samples were taken from three pits below the basaltic loose veneer rubble down to the basaltic bedrock in order to discuss the origin of the clay minerals in relation to the origin of the soil. The non-clay minerals present are: quartz, calcite and feldspar which are abundant in all soil samples. The basaltic bedrock as well as the loose fragments are made up of fresh basalt. There is a sharp contact between both the basalt fragments and the soil. The clay minerals are: palygorskite, kaolinite and a mixed-layer of illite/smectite. These were observed in the distribution of the clay minerals, and no transitional phases were observed along the pits. The clay minerals were formed by the effect of wind-blowing /detrital and transported. Consequently, soil accumulation north of Azraq Al-Druze seems to be wind blown and not due to basalt alterations

Analysis of OFDM and WPOFDM Systems in Different Wireless Multipath Channels

In this paper, the performance analysis for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) and wavelet packet based OFDM (WPOFDM) systems over different wireless multipath channels has been investigated. The bit error rate (BER) performance for both systems is shown to be comparable and even at times better for OFDM especially in frequency selective fading channel at high values of S/N. Simulation results also show a significant enhancement for WPOFDM in terms of spectral efficiency and side-lobes suppression comparing to OFDM. Keywords: OFDM, WPOFDM, PSD, BER performance, wavelet filters, fading channels.

Protein binding affinity prediction using support vector regression and interfecial features

In understanding biology at the molecular level, analysis of protein interactions and protein binding affinity is a challenge. It is an important problem in computational and structural biology. Experimental measurement of binding affinity in the wet-lab is expensive and time consuming. Therefore, machine learning approaches are widely used to predict protein interactions and binding affinities by learning from specific properties of existing complexes. In this work, we propose an innovative computational model to predict binding affinities and interaction based on sequence, structural and interface features of the interacting proteins that are robust to binding associated conformational changes. We modeled the prediction of binding affinity as classification and regression problem with least-squared and support vector regression models using structure and sequence features of proteins. Specifically, we have used the number and composition of interacting residues at protein complexes interface as features and sequence features. We evaluated the performance of our prediction models using Affinity Benchmark Dataset version 2.0 which contains a diverse set of both bound and unbound protein complex structures with known binding affinities. We evaluated our regression performance results with root mean square error (RMSE) as well as Spearman and Pearson's correlation coefficients using a leave-one-out cross-validation protocol. We evaluate classification results with AUC-ROC and AUC-PR Our results show that Support Vector Regression performs significantly better than other models with a Spearman Correlation coefficient of 0.58, Pearson Correlation score of 0.55 and RMSE of 2.41 using 3-mer and sequence feature. It is interesting to note that simple features based on 3-mer features and the properties of the interface of a protein complex are predictive of its binding affinity. These features, together with support vector regression achieve higher accuracy than existing sequence based methods

Experimental Study of Multi Effect stages PV Panels Solar Still to Enhance the Productivity by Utilizing Water Heater and Cooling Fan.

دائما ما تعاني المناطق الصحراوية من نقص المياه النقية في أجزء كبير منها. وفي هذه المناطق، تكون المياه العذبة نادرة جدا حيث أن المياه التي يتم الحصول عليها من المستنقعات أو آبار المياه الجوفية هي مياه مالحة، ومن الضروري تنقيتها أو تقطيرها. وفي الدراسة التجريبية الحالية، تم إنشاء تصميم جديد لتحسين إنتاجية المياه العذبة لهرم التقطير الشمسي باستخدام السخان مغمور من نوع DC. إنه يبحث في تأثير المروحة الخارجية لتبريد سطح الزجاج. تم إجراء التجربة في فصل الصيف في ظروف العراق عند خط العرض (33.2 درجة شمالاً). يتم اختيار هرم التقطير الشمسي الزجاجي ذا زاوية ميل 32.5 درجة في هذا البيحث. نظرًا لأن التقطير الشمسي لا يزال يستخدم بصورة أكبر بالنسبة لأعماق المياه المنخفضة، لذلك فإن مستوى المياه في الحوض السفلي يبقى عند ارتفاع 3 سم. لوحظ من النتائج التجريبية أن انتاج المياه العذبة زادت بنسبة كبيرة قدرها 370 ٪ عندما تم استخدام سخان المياه DC لكل قدرة 350 واط. أثناء استخدام مروحة التبريد الخارجية، كانت إنتاجية المياه العذبة تتناقص بنسبة (7٪) و (15٪) لسرعات الرياح البالغة (7 م / ث) و (9 م / ث) على التوالي.A deserted reign always suffers from lack of pure water in a large part of its area. In this area, valuable fresh water from swamps or ground water wells is salt water, and it is necessary purified or distillated.&nbsp; In the current experimental study, a new design is made to improve the yield of fresh water of a pyramid solar still by using an immersion type DC- water heater. It investigates the effect of an external fan to cool the glass surface. The Experiment was take placed in the summer season in Iraq conditions at latitude (33.2 ° N). A solar still with 32.5°glass slope angle is chosen in our work. As the productivity of a solar still is more for low water depths, the water level in the bottom basin maintained at 3 cm. The experimental outcomes observed that the yield of fresh water increased by a significant 370% when DC water heater each having 350 W capacities was used. During used the external cooling fan the productivity of fresh water was existed to decrease by (7%) and (15%) for wind speeds of (7 m/s) and (9 m/s) respectively. A good comparison takes placed with other experimental study was taken