Urban Landscape Fragmentation as an Indicator of Urban Expansion Using Sentinel-2 Imageries

Rapid urbanization in some cities has led to the emergence of numerous subsidiary settlements around their primary cities. Due to this rapid urbanization and growth, there is a great demand for urban land, mostly for commercial, industrial, and residential uses. Urban green spaces and vegetation are at risk due to a large amount of urban land, as seen by a decline in connectivity and increased fragmentation, especially due to land conversion. However, the identification of the spatial and momentary variability in the clustering and fragmentation of vegetation patterns in urban settings has not made full use of local indicators of spatial distribution measurements, such as Baqubah, a city in Iraq. Since it is essential to measure the degree of fragmentation and evaluate urban expansion trajectories consistently, this study proposes a new approach to assessing the anticipated direction of urban extension, using the fragmentation indicator of built-up patterns in urban areas. Sentinel-2 data was used to map the fragmented urban centres and their future extent in the city at a single time point. The proposed method employs indices to capture the initial distribution of spatial patterns of vegetation cover and built-up areas. The main extracted land cover classes, landscape fragmentation performance, and surface density analysis were accomplished in ArcGIS. The results indicate that the entire built-up area in Baqubah has a high degree of fragmentation at 75%, and about 23% of the open space within the urban extent of the city. Two predicted trajectories of urban expansion were also revealed: one may follow the external road direction, while the other is multi-directional, commencing from the edges of the built-up area. The study concludes that the new method is useful for comprehending and assessing urban landscape fragmentation, as well as anticipating its path. This integrated approach to remote sensing and GIS can sufficiently and effectively determine priority urban regions for successful planning and management. In addition, our study's findings highlight the potential of the suggested strategy as a useful spatially explicit method for determining the spatial clustering and fragmentation of urban landscape patterns. Doi: 10.28991/CEJ-2022-08-09-04 Full Text: PD

The relationship between Hypertension and weight status in Iraqi population

Most medical books and researches documented that increased body weight is a predisposing factor to hypertension , and there is recent work in this field as well. In this research , the relationships between hypertension and body weight with age were studied in Iraqi population . It is concluded that diastolic hypertension is separated from systolic and combined hypertension and increased body weight has little effect on increased blood pressure

Management of the Omani Abalone Haliotis mariae: An Integrated Policy

The Sultanate of Oman is a small coastal nation with a maritime history, regional trade and fisheries exploitation. Among those fishery industries is Oman\u27s coastal abalone fishery, which command the highest prices per unit of weight among the other marine living resources. This study analyzes the fishery\u27s biological aspects, structure, socioeconomic, policies, and management practices in an attempt to provide an understanding of the prime parameters, that in turn could be utilized for sound management purposes. it also provides a description of an integrated development and management policy for the abalone fishery. Finally, it is hoped that this research will provide valuable information for the Sultanate and guidelines for other researchers

Study the Effect of Hydroxyl Radical on the Monogermacyclobutane Molecule by using Density Functional Theory

This work reports a theoretical study to investigate the electronic structure and optimized geometry for a saturated molecules group by using density functional theory (DFT) at B3LYP level with bases set 6-31G. Cyclobutane molecule is an original molecule before substitute one-carbon atom by one-germanium atom. The effect of substitute on cyclobutane molecule is discussed on the basis of the calculated electronic properties. The electronic properties included total energy, energy gap, ionization potential, electronic affinity, hardness and softness, which have been found with varying differences for each molecule, with comprehensive analysis of the calculated highest-occupied and lowest-unoccupied orbital (HOMO and LUMO respectively) energies. These properties also studied with substituting the one hydrogen atom by one hydroxyl (OH) radical in same molecular. The results in this study show that the calculated total energy, energy gap and ionization potential for cyclobutane have been found a good agreement with the previous studies. For other molecules, we have not found a reference data, so this study supplies a new data in this aspect. These calculations have been performed using Gaussian 03 package. Keywords: Cyclobutane, DFT, energy gap, ionization potential

Study the Effect of Hydroxyl radical on the Monogermacyclobutane Molecule by using density functional theory

This work reports a theoretical study to investigate the electronic structure and optimized geometry for a saturated molecules group by using density functional theory (DFT) at B3LYP level with bases set 6-31G. Cyclobutane molecule is an original molecule before substitute one-carbon atom by one-germanium atom. The effect of substitute on cyclobutane molecule is discussed on the basis of the calculated electronic properties. The electronic properties included total energy, energy gap, ionization potential, electronic affinity, hardness and softness, which have been found with varying differences for each molecule, with comprehensive analysis of the calculated highest-occupied and lowest-unoccupied orbital (HOMO and LUMO respectively) energies. These properties also studied with substituting the one hydrogen atom by one hydroxyl (OH) radical in same molecular. The results in this study show that the calculated total energy, energy gap and ionization potential for cyclobutane have been found a good agreement with the previous studies. For other molecules, we have not found a reference data, so this study supplies a new data in this aspect. These calculations have been performed using Gaussian 03 package. Keywords: Cyclobutane, DFT, energy gap, ionization potential

Use of Infrared Light to Improve Breast Sonographic images

It is well known that sonography is not the first choice in detecting early breast tumors. Improving the resolution of breast sonographic image is the goal of many workers to make sonography a first choice examination as it is safe and easy procedure as well as cost effective. In this study, infrared light exposure of breast prior to ultrasound examination was implemented to see its effect on resolution of sonographic image. Results showed that significant improvement was obtained in 60% of cases

Retrieving Encrypted Images Using Convolution Neural Network and Fully Homomorphic Encryption

استرجاع الصور المستند إلى المحتوى (CBIR) هو تقنية تستخدم لاسترداد الصور من قاعدة بيانات الصور. ومع ذلك، فإن عملية CBIR تعاني من دقة أقل في استرداد الصور من قاعدة بيانات صور واسعة النطاق وضمان خصوصية الصور. تهدف هذه الورقة إلى معالجة قضايا الدقة باستخدام تقنيات التعلم العميق كطريقة CNN. أيضًا، توفير الخصوصية اللازمة للصور باستخدام طرق تشفير متماثلة تمامًا بواسطة Cheon و Kim و Kim و Song (CKKS). ولتحقيق هذه الأهداف تم اقتراح نظام RCNN_CKKS يتضمن جزأين. يستخرج الجزء الأول (المعالجة دون اتصال بالإنترنت–) لاستخراج الخصائص العالية المستوى استنادًا إلى طبقة التسطيح في شبكة عصبية تلافيفية (CNN) ثم يخزن هذه الميزات في مجموعة بيانات جديدة. في الجزء الثاني (المعالجة عبر الإنترنت) ، يرسل العميل الصورة المشفرة إلى الخادم ، والتي تعتمد على نموذج CNN المدرب لاستخراج ميزات الصورة المرسلة. بعد ذلك، تتم مقارنة الميزات المستخرجة مع الميزات المخزنة باستخدام طريقة Hamming Distance لاسترداد جميع الصور المتشابهة. أخيرًا، يقوم الخادم بتشفير جميع الصور المسترجعة وإرسالها إلى العميل. كانت نتائج التعلم العميق على الصور العادية 97.94٪ للتصنيف و98.94٪ للصور المسترجعة. في الوقت نفسه، تم استخدام اختبار NIST للتحقق من أمان CKKS عند تطبيقه على مجموعة بيانات المعهد الكندي للأبحاث المتقدمة (CIFAR-10). من خلال هذه النتائج، استنتج الباحثون أن التعلم العميق هو وسيلة فعالة لاستعادة الصور وأن طريقة CKKS مناسبة لحماية خصوصية الصورة.A content-based image retrieval (CBIR) is a technique used to retrieve images from an image database. However, the CBIR process suffers from less accuracy to retrieve images from an extensive image database and ensure the privacy of images. This paper aims to address the issues of accuracy utilizing deep learning techniques as the CNN method. Also, it provides the necessary privacy for images using fully homomorphic encryption methods by Cheon, Kim, Kim, and Song (CKKS). To achieve these aims, a system has been proposed, namely RCNN_CKKS, that includes two parts. The first part (offline processing) extracts automated high-level features based on a flatting layer in a convolutional neural network (CNN) and then stores these features in a new dataset. In the second part (online processing), the client sends the encrypted image to the server, which depends on the CNN model trained to extract features of the sent image. Next, the extracted features are compared with the stored features using a Hamming distance method to retrieve all similar images. Finally, the server encrypts all retrieved images and sends them to the client. Deep-learning results on plain images were 97.94% for classification and 98.94% for retriever images. At the same time, the NIST test was used to check the security of CKKS when applied to Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR-10) dataset. Through these results, researchers conclude that deep learning is an effective method for image retrieval and that a CKKS method is appropriate for image privacy protection

Optimization of delamination resistance of vacuum infused glass laminate aluminum reinforced epoxy (GLARE) using various surface preparation techniques

GLARE (glass-reinforced fibre–metal laminate ) is aluminum based material of fiber metal laminate (henceforth FML) that is often fabricated by expensive autoclave procedure. In this study, the process of Injected Molding or (also known as VARTM was employed as a cost-effective alternative to produce GLARE. Several aluminum surface preparation procedures are applied to improve the interlaminar shear strength. A T3 temper 2024 aluminum alloy with 1*1 plain fabricated glass fabrics were used to make GLARE composites. GLARE consists of two aluminum sheet as external layer and glass fabric as internal layers. Four sets of aluminum sheets were prepared, one unanodized and three other anodized. Three different anodizing procedures (constant voltage mode, increasing voltage mode and decreasing voltage mode) have been adopted in this research. Two types of curing treatments were applied on VARTM fabricated specimens. According to ASTM D1876 T-peel test standard, the sets of prepared specimens have been tested to examine the adhesive bonding strength and fracture toughness of mode-I. The obtained results which include force-displacement curves, peak loads and fracture toughness were showed that a significant improvement for anodized specimens with all voltage modes. The first curing treatment offered better results than second curing treatment. The best improvement was obtained from anodized specimen with decreasing voltage mode cured by the first treatment which reaches to six times the results obtained from unanodized specimen. The delamination behavior for this specimen was verified numerically

Reactivity of O-Drug Bond in some Suggested Voltarine Carriers: Semiempirical and ab Initio Methods

 تمت مناقشة إمكانية استخدام مادة حاملة مقترحة جديدة (D) لعقار ديكلوفيناك (فولتارين) باستخدام حسابات ميكانيكا الكم. تم استخدام طرق الحساب (PM3) و (DFT) لتحديد مسار التفاعل لطاقات كسر الرابطة (O-Drug). تم استخدام مجموعات مختلفة الأدوية كحاملات لعقاقير أولية من ديكلوفيناك (في الفراغ كوسط تفاعل) عند الشكل الهندسي التوازني. تضمنت الحسابات التركيب الهندسي وبعض الخواص الفيزيائية، بالإضافة إلى السمية والنشاط البيولوجي وخصائص NLO للدواء مع حوامله، والتي درست باستخدام طريقة HF. تم إجراء العمليات الحسابية بواسطة برنامج .Gaussian 09 تم إجراء المقارنة بين الطاقات الكلية للمواد المتفاعلة وطاقات التنشيط والحالات الانتقالية إلى الحالة النهائية. تهدف العقاقير الأولية المقترحة إلى تحسين خصائص حوامل الديكلوفيناك والحصول على بدائل جديدة للناقلات المعتمدة نظريا.In this work, the possibility to use new suggested carriers (D= Aspirin, Ibuprofen, Paracetamol, Tramal) is discussed for diclofenac drug (voltarine) by using quantum mechanics calculations. The calculation methods (PM3) and (DFT) have been used for determination the reaction path of (O-D) bond rupture energies. Different groups of drugs as a carrier for diclofenac prodrugs (in a vacuum) have been used; at their optimized geometries. The calculations included the geometrical structure and some of the physical properties, in addition to the toxicity, biological activity, and NLO properties of the prodrugs, investigated using HF method. The calculations were done by Gaussian 09 program. The comparison was made for total energies of reactants, activation energies, and transition states to final products. The suggested prodrugs aim to improve the diclofenac carrier's properties and obtain new alternatives for the approved carriers theoretically

Nano composites of PAM Reinforced with Al2O3

الهدف من هذا البحث هو تحديد مدى تأثير نسب الوزن المختلفة لجسيمات الألومينا النانوية بنسب وزنية مختلفة تشمل   0.02 ، 0.04، و 0.06  في المائة نسبة وزنية  على الخصائص الفيزيائية لبولي أكريلاميد (PAAM) . تم استخدام جهاز الخلاط المغناطيسي  الحراري للحصول على المحاليل  من  إذابة 10 غم من مسحوق بولي أكريلاميد في 90 غم من الماء المقطر المؤين لمدة 4 ساعات لإنتاج محلول   PAAM بتركيز 0.11 غم / مل . تم تقسيم المحلول الناتج الى  أربعة أقسام متساوية من المحلول ، كل منها بحجم 20 مل. تمت إضافة دقائق الالومينا النانوية  لكل محلول بشكل مستقل بنسب مختلفة  0.0 ، 0.02 ، 0.04 ، 0.06  لتكوين أربعة محاليل نانوية سائلة بمحتويات مختلفة من جسيمات الألومينا النانوية بناءً على كل نسبة وزن. تم استخدام عملية الصب اليدوي لعينات المركبات النانوية ، والتي تضمنت صب المحلول المحضر في قالب من البلاستيك  بحجم مناسب وتركت المحاليل  لمدة 24 ساعة لاتمام عملية التصلب  لإنشاء أغشية النانو المركبة ،  ثم قطع الغشاء الرقيق الناتج وفقًا لكل اختبار ،. تم استخدام اختبار الشد لدراسة قوة الشد ، ومعامل يونك ، والاستطالة ، والمتانة. بالإضافة إلى ذلك ، تم إجراء اختبار الأشعة تحت الحمراء (FTIR) لفحص الروابط الكيميائية والفيزيائية بين بولي أكريلاميد وجسيمات الألومينا النانوية. تم فحص مورفولوجيا السطح  باستخدام جهاز المجهر الالكتروني الماسح. تم اختبار زوايا الترطيب  للعينات لتحديد السلوك اتجاه الماء لهذه العينات.. أظهرت النتائج أن اضافة جسيمات الألومينا النانوية الى البولي اكريل امايد  يحسن الخصائص الميكانيكية للمركبات النانوية الناتجة. تزداد قوة الشد من 1 كيكا باسكال إلى 2.5 كيكا باسكال مع زيادة محتوى الألومينا النانوية من 0 إلى 0.06٪ نسبة وزنية .و بالنسبة لنفس النسب السابقة ، زاد معامل يونك كذلك ، حيث ارتفع من 1.3 إلى 2 كيكا باسكال للنسبة الوزنية  لجسيمات الألومينا النانوية  0.04 بالمائة بالوزن ، ترتفع المتانة إلى 240 جول / سم 2. من ناحية أخرى ، أدت إضافة دقائق الألومينا النانوية إلى زيادة زاوية التبلل لسطح PAAM من 55 درجة إلى 67 درجة ، وأظهرت سلوكًا محبًا للماء .         The aim of this investigation is to determine how different weight percentages of alumina nanoparticles, including 0.02, 0.04, and 0.06 percent wt, affect the physical characteristics of Poly Acrylamide (PAAM). Using a hot plate magnetic stirrer, 10 g of poly acrylamide powder was dissolved in 90 g of di-ionized distillate water for 4 hours to produce PAAM with a concentration of 0.11 g/ml. Four sections of the resulting solution, each with a volume of 20 ml, were created. Each solution was added independently with alumina nanoparticles in different ratios 0.0, 0.02, 0.04, and 0.06 to create four nano fluid solutions with different alumina nanoparticle contents based on each weight percent. The hand casting process for nanocomposites samples, which entailed pouring the prepared solution into an appropriate plastic mold, allowing it to cure for 24 hours, and then cutting the resulting thin film according to each test, was used to create the nano composited membranes. The tensile test was used to study tensile strength, Young's modulus, elongation, and toughness. Additionally, a test using Fourier transition infrared radiation (FTIR) was conducted to examine the chemical and physical connections between polyacrylamide and alumina nanoparticles. The morphology of the materials was examined using scan electron microscopy. The contact angles of samples were tested to limit the hydrophilicity behavior of these samples. To control the hydrophilicity behavior of these samples, the contact angles of the samples were evaluated. The results showed that including alumina nanoparticles into the PAAM matrix improves the mechanical characteristics of the resulting nanocomposites. Tensile strength increases from 1 GPa to 2.5 GPa with an increase in alumina nanoparticle content from 0 to 0.06 percent wt. For the same prior ratios, Young's modulus likewise increased, rising from 1.3 to 2 GPa. For the higher weight ratio of alumina nanoparticles (0.04 percent wt), toughness rises to 240 J/cm2. On the other hand, the addition of alumina nanoparticles increased the PAAM surface's contact angle from 55 degrees to 67 degrees, and it exhibited hydrophilic behavio