MODIFICATION OF THE INGENHOUSZ TRIAL TOOL TO IMPROVE THE EFFECTIVENESS AND EFFICIENCY OF PHOTOSYNTHESIS LEARNING IN CLASS VIII-3 STUDENTS SMP NEGERI 4 PALANGKA RAYA

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness and efficiency of photosynthesis learning by using the modified Ingenhousz Experiment Tool that was made by researchers. The subjects in this study were students of SMP Negeri 4 Palangka Raya, grade VIII-3 Academic Year 2019/2020, with the total number of 23 students, consisting of 14 men and 9 women. Data collection for learning effectiveness was by using knowledge test sheets, performance and activities tests, while for learning efficiency by calculating the use of time in learning, product tests and questionnaires. Data on the effectiveness and efficiency of learning in the meeting-I and meeting-II were compared to determine the improvement. Based on the results of research, obtained that the use of the Ingenhousz Experiment Tool in photosynthesis learning resulted in an increase in learning outcomes, namely the average grade for knowledge rose from 56.69 to 80.86. Grade completeness increased from 34% to 90%. For the skills to carry out the experiment, the average grade increased from 63.00 to 78.52 and grade completeness skills rose from 22% to 95.65%. While for the average value of student activity increased from 2.57 to 2.85 in the good category. The ability of students to make Ingenhousz experimental equipment was 76.21 which was included in a good category, while the students' response to the learning process reached of 89%, which meant that the response of students was very good. The time spent could also be saved from 60 minutes to 45 minutes with the above results. It could be concluded that the modified Ingenhousz Experiment Tool increased the effectiveness and efficiency of the implementation of photosynthesis learning in grade VIII-3 of SMP Negeri 4 Palangka Ray

Electro-Kinetic Removal of Heavy Metals from Contaminated Soil Using Palm Date Vinegar and Fibers

Soil pollution by heavy metals is a worldwide problem and in Iraq in particular. Electro-kinetic remediation (EKR) is one of the modern technologies that can give a great promise for the cleaning of heavy metals contaminated soils. Iraq is the first country in palm trees numbers, date production, dates processing and thousands of tons of wastes are disposed each year. This work includes: First, conducting of an ex-situ EKR pilot study to evaluate the effect of different pH-Adjusted tap water. Diluted HNO3 and NaOH reagents were selected to adjust the tap water samples, to reach the required pH values, pH of 4, 6 and 8, and then used as electrode purging solutions to find out the optimum conditions for better lead removal efficiency. Second, studying the use of Iraqi dates vinegar (IDV) as a new, inexpensive, eco-friendly and effective alternative purging solution. Third, testing the ability of date palm fibers (DPV) as a low cost, available and eco-friendly reverse osmosis preventer. Among tap water samples, the results showed that tap water of pH 4 has given the highest lead removal efficiency. In this pH (pH 4), Vinegar was more efficient in lead removal than tap water of same pH; 79.5 and 76.0 %, respectively. However, it could be concluded that the use of  both dates Vinegar and date palm Fibers, as two available low cost and eco-friendly materials in Iraq, have successfully improved the lead removal process in the Electro-Kinetic Remediation Reactor; by increasing the lead removal efficiency (%R) to about 80%. Keywords: Electro-Kinetic, Lead Removal, Soil Remediation, Date Vinegar, Palm Fibers.

Utilization of Water Turbidity Meter Devices in Estimating the Aggregate Stability of Many Artificially Stabilized Soils

This study is designed to utilize portable turbidity meters, usually available in most water analysis laboratories, in developing of a quick Dispersion Ratio test (DR, %) as an index of soil stability. The work includes: first, the use of many stabilizers (Bitumen, Lime and Cement) in the preparation of many artificially stabilized lead contaminated soil; second, the measurements of the scouring depth (SD, in mm), by a “Mini†Jet Erosion Test and then both the critical shear stress (τc, pa) and the erodibility coefficient (kd, cm3/kN.s); and finally, the comparisons between dispersion ratio (DR, %) values of soils, as estimated by a portable turbidity meter first and then by the gravimetric method. The results showed that all stabilizers can markedly improve the stability of soil; either as (SD, τc, and kd) or as (DR, %) and cement was the best. In general, good correlations were found between the turbidity (NTU) and suspended solids (mg/l) of the stabilized soils (R= 0.99, 0.96 and 0.97) for bitumen, lime and cement, respectively. However, the turbidity DR (%) appears to have a higher correlation with both lime (R= -0.98) and bitumen (R= -0.96) and in a lesser extent with cement (R= -0.87); because only 3% cement could sharply reduce DR of the untreated soil from 7.03 to 2.54%, compared with 4.9 and 4.25% for lime and bitumen respectively. Moreover, the turbidity DR (%) seems to be highly correlated with the kd of soils (R= 0.99, 0.96 and 0.90) for cement, bitumen and lime, respectively and cement was a superior in the reduction of both kd and DR (%) even at 3%. The salient conclusion of this work is that the turbidity DR (%) can be easily utilized to be as a successful index of soil stability. Because this method is quick and of results that are highly correlated with the erodibility coefficient (kd), this may suggest and recommend the use of the turbidity meter devices in estimating the stability of artificially stabilized soils and other similar soils

Exploiting Spectral Leakage for Spectrogram Frequency Super-resolution

The spectrogram is a classical DSP tool used to view signals in both time and frequency. Unfortunately, the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principal limits our ability to use them for detecting and measuring narrowband signal modulation in wideband environments. On a spectrogram, instantaneous frequency can only be measured to the nearest bin without additional interpolation. This work presents a novel technique for extracting higher accuracy frequency estimates. Whereas most practitioners seek to suppress spectral leakage, we use mismatched windows to exploit such artifacts in order to produce super-resolved spectral displays. We present a derivation of our methodology and exhibit several interesting examples.Comment: Presented at the 2013 Asilomar Conference on Signals, Systems & Computer

Studying, Testing and simulating floor heating solar system

AbstractIn this research a floor heating solar system had been studied and installed in renewable energy lab in the Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Faculty-Damascus University. The ssystem was simulated by using Trnsys program, and experimental results were compared with theoretical results given by Trnsys. Results were so close considering thermal losses and measuring faults. Finally project's feasibility was calculated in order to get saving rate and payback period were calculated

Test design to measure the cognitive processing speed of table tennis players

Table tennis is considered one of the fast base sports that the player needs to have the speed of performance and awareness, especially in straight forward and back strikes, which is an important offensive skills, and the player success depends on his perception speed to the point of the fall of the ball in the arena of his competitor. But there is no way to measure cognitive processing speed. Therefore, the researchers sought to design a test that measures this ability to ensure its scientific evaluation, and then establish standard scores for this test for the players of the specialized school of table tennis, to help evaluate them objectively and move away from subjective estimates when evaluating and developing measuring instruments in the field of table tennis. The descriptive curriculum was adopted on the 46 players of the table tennis school. After the exploratory experiment was conducted and confirmed the test validity and the availability of scientific specifications, it was applied to the sample taking into account all legal procedures during the implementation of the final test and then collected the results and was discharged and processed statistically, and the researchers concluded: The test designed proved to be valid for measuring cognitive processing speed. The research sample achieved a higher percentage at an acceptable and average level, respectively. So, the researchers recommend using the test designed to measure cognitive processing speed

Comparison of voice activity detection algorithms for wireless personal communications systems

V oice activity detection (VAD) algorithms have become an in tegral part of many of the recently standardized wireless cellular and P ersonal Communications Systems (PCS). In this paper, we present acomparative study of the performance of three recently proposed VAD algorithms under various acoustical background noise conditions. We also propose new ideas to enhance the performance of a VAD algorithm in wireless PCS speech applications. 1