A study of FPGA-based System-on-Chip designs for real-time industrial application

This paper shows the benefits of the Field Programming Gate Array (FPGAs) in industrial control applications. The author starts by addressing the benefits of FPGA and where it is useful. As well as, the author has done some FPGA’s evaluation researches on the FPGA performing explaining the performance of the FPGA and the design tools. To show the benefits of the FPGA, an industrial application example has been used. The application is a real-time face detection and tracking using FPGA. Face tracking will depend on calculating the centroid of each detected region. A DE2-SoC Altera board has been used to implement this application. The application based on few algorithms that filter the captured images to detect them. These algorithms have been translated to a Verilog code to run it on the DE2-SoC boar

Comparison of Single and Group Jet Grouting Columns Capacity Based on Field Load Test and Theoretical Methods

The evaluation of axial capacity of jet grouted soil cement columns in soft soil is a complicated issue because it depends according to the number of factors such as, soil type, influence mixture between soil and grouting materials, nozzle jet energy, jet grouting and water flow rate, rotation and lifting speed. These parameters related to the type of jet grouting methods (single, double and triple system). Most methods of design the bearing capacity of the jet-grouting column based on experience. Therefore, some designer calculates the bearing capacity of the jet grouting column based on jet grout section capacity. In this paper, different theoretical methods have been used to estimate of the jet grouting soil-cement capacity, such as Poulos and Davis, 1980 methods and then their comparison with the pile load test calculations based on the quick pile load test as presented in ASTM-D1143-07.  Therefore, the study describes a prototype test single and group jet grout soil-cement models of arrangement (1*1, 1*2 and 2*2) for total length to diameter ratios (L/D) is 13.33 and clear spacing three times of diameter has been constructed in soft clayey soils in the right bank of the Euphrates River, at Al- Nasiriyah city. As a result, the theoretical method for estimation the bearing capacity gives unfaithful values for the single and group jet grout column compared to the load- settlement calculations obtained from field pile load test data. On the other hand, the Hansen’s 90% and Butler and Hoy’s given closer results to each other and may be considered faithful interpretation methods to compute the bearing capacity of single and group jet grouting columns

Patient satisfaction in outpatient medical care: the case of Iraq

  Background: Healthcare providers are increasingly interested in patient satisfaction as an indicator to assess the quality of health services. This study investigates the level of satisfaction among Iraqi patients attending the outpatient (OP) clinic. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted from October to December 2019 among outpatient attendees in two busiest centers in Iraq. A convenience sample of 235 (response rate of 88.0%) completed the self-administered short-form patient satisfaction questionnaire (PSQ-18). The independent variables included socio-demographic, economic, and self-perceived health status. Data were analyzed in SPSS, where descriptive analysis (mean ± standard deviation) and univariate (independent sample t-test, ANOVA test) and multivariate linear regression “Enter technique” was done at 0.05 level of significance and 95% confidence interval. Results:  The mean age of respondents was 39.3 (±14.8). The sample was mostly women (55.3%), and 37.4% in the age group of 30-49 years.  More than half of participants residing in the urban regions (54.5%) from families of monthly household income less than 500,000 Iraq Dinars (USD 400). However, the majority (70.6%) have the first visit to the OP clinic, and 53.6% self-perceived health as good or very good. Results of multiple linear regression showed that patients residents in rural regions (B= 5.4 , P <0.001), married (B= 4.8, P <0.001), unemployed (B= 4.7, P <0.001)  and low educated (B= 1.5, P <0.051)  exhibited higher service satisfaction score compared to urban residents, single, employed and high educated participants respectively. However, patients aged fifty years and more (B= -2.1, P <0.001) and those with poor health (B=-2.5, P <0.001) exhibited lower service satisfaction scores compared to young age patients and the healthy participants, respectively. Conclusion: The high demand for the use of health resources in metropolitan cities by the rural population indicates inequality in the distribution of health services and an increase in the rural-to-urban displacement

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DISABILITY AND RADIOGRAPHIC FINDINGS OF LUMBAR DISK DEGENERATION IN SAMPLE OF IRAQI PATIENTS WITH MECHANICAL LOW BACKACHE

Objectives: Disability related to chronic low back pain (LBP) is a complex and multidimensional phenomenon all over the world. The prevalence of backache in middle age and elderly is up to 84%. This study aims to evaluate the associations of X-ray features of lumbar disk degeneration with severity of disability among patients with mechanical LBP. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on a total of 300 patients with chronic mechanical LBP. Severity of disability was measured using Modified Oswestry Disability Index and intensity of backache was assessed using numeric rating scale (0–10). X-ray features of lumbar disc degeneration according to Lane classification and spondylolisthesis were assessed in lateral recumbent lumbar X-rays. Results: The mean age of our sample was 52.45±7.87 and 71.7% of involved patients were women. Most patients were recorded as overweight or obese. The findings of disk space narrowing were mild in 65.7%, moderate in 28.7%, and severe in 5.6%, where the presence of osteophytes were small in 76.9%, moderate in 20.5%, and large in 2.6%. Regarding disability, two-third of cases were focused on minimal disability, followed by moderate, severe, and crippled as (26%), (6%), and (2%), respectively. There was highly significant association between women and pain radiation to legs (p=0.004). Obesity and overweight had meaningless effects on all markers. Conclusions: The severity of disability was significantly more in women, high intensity of lower back pain, presence of pain radiating to legs, moderate/severe disk space narrowing on X-ray, and disk degenerative disease score on X-ray, while age, presence of osteophytes and spondylolisthesis, body mass index, and pain duration were not associated with severity of disability

Evaluation of health system in Iraq from people's point of view: a comparative study of two different eras

Background: Since the 2003 United States–British coalition military invasion, Iraq has been in a state of continuous deterioration at all levels, including the health sector. This study aimed to elicit the viewpoints of the Iraqi people on the current health system, focusing on many provided health services and assessing whether the public prefers the current health system or that was provided before the invasion. Methods: A cross-sectional survey designed to explore the Iraqi people’s opinions on their health system. A self-administered questionnaire using a multi-stage sampling technique was distributed in five geographical regions in Iraq to collect the data from the head of household between 1st October and 31st of December 2019. Multiple logistic regressions were recruited to determine the significant contributing variables in this study. Results: A total of 365 heads of households (response rate: 86.1%) with the mean age of 48.36 + 11.92 years (ranged 35-78) included in the study. Most of the respondents (61.4%) complained of healthcare inaccessibility, 59.7% believed that health resources were not available, 53.7% claimed a deterioration in the quality of care, and 62.2% believed that the political / media position did not contribute to positive changes during the past two decades. Indeed, most respondents (66.0%) believe that the current healthcare system is worse than before. In the multivariate analysis, there was a statistically significant relationship between the characteristics and opinions of the respondents. Old age group (p = 0.003), men (p = < 0.001), married (p = 0.001), low educated (p = < 0.001), rural resident (p = < 0.001), unemployed (p = 0.003), monthly income of less than USD 400 (p = < 0.001), consider themselves to be unhealthy (p = 0.001),  and those who think that people are unhappy now than two decades ago (p = 0.012) have a more negative opinion of the health system. Conclusion: Most Iraqis surveyed expressed disappointment from the health system after the 2003 United States–British Coalition military invasion. The current health system is faltering at all levels and does not meet the citizens' basic needs. Health Transformation Program (HTP) has become inevitable to develop an accessible, affordable, high-quality, efficient, and effective health system

Robust Backstepping Tracking Control of Mobile Robot Based on Nonlinear Disturbance Observer

This paper presents a robust backstepping control (BC) method based on nonlinear disturbance observer (NDOB) for trajectory tracking of the nonholonomic wheeled mobile robot (WMR) in the presence of external disturbances and parameters uncertainties. At first, a bounded Fuzzy logic based backstepping controller (BFLBC) is designed to control the WMR without considering the effects of the external disturbances and the parameters uncertainties. Typically, the conventional BC controller depends upon the state tracking errors analysis, where unbounded velocity signal is produced for the applications that have huge tracking errors. Therefore, a fuzzy logic controller (FLC) is introduced in this research in order to normalize the state tracking errors, so that the input errors to the BC are bounded to a finite interval. Finally, the designed BFLBC is integrated with the nonlinear disturbance observer in order to attenuate the external disturbances and model uncertainties. The simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed controller to generate a bounded velocity signal as well as to stabilize the tracking errors to zero. In addition, the results prove that the proposed controller provide an excellent disturbance attenuation as well as robustness against the parameters uncertainties

Knowledge, attitude, and practice of mothers about complementary feeding for infants aged 6-12 months in Anbar Province, Iraq

Background: The understanding of what mothers think about breastfeeding helps in developing successful breastfeeding promotion programs. This study aims to assess the maternal knowledge, attitude, and practice about the complementary feeding for infants aged 6-12 months. Methods: A cross-sectional study designed to interview 219 mothers with children between 6-12 months. Data was collected between 1st March and 30th April 2019 from ten maternal and child health clinics (MCHCs) in Anbar Province, Iraq. SPSS version 16.0 was recruited to analyze the data. Descriptive and inferential statistics such as Chi-square used to present data with the significance level set at less than 0.05. Results:  The mean age of respondents was 27.76 ± 6.3 years, and 31% were at the primary school level. Two third (66.82%) of the surveyed mothers exclusively used breastfeeding to feed their infants. Most women (84.09%) have the correct knowledge about the best time to start complementary food. The vast majority of women (93.64%) refused to give vitamins to children even with signs of malnutrition. Conclusion: Although exclusive breastfeeding is common among mothers of the western region in Iraq, there is still a considerable percentage depend on the mixture of breastfeeding and bottle feeding. The positive impact of the family and society on mothers was evident. However, more attention should be given to improve knowledge, attitude, and practice through qualified healthcare providers

Evaluating the performace of the distribution of international grants after 2003 in Iraq

Thesis(Master) --KDI School:Master of Public Policy,2010masterpublishedby Al-Nidawi, Ali Mahmood Salman

Investigating three aspects of corporate finance within the context of GCC markets

This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University LondonThis thesis investigates three aspects of corporate finance, namely the determinants of firm’s long term investment represented by the net capital expenditures, the determinants of firm’s short term investment represented by working capital requirements and the capital budgeting practices - all within the context of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) markets. Despite the importance of these interrelated topics to decision makers and despite the great emphasis given to teach them in universities, few researchers investigated the determinants of both long and short term investments and out of those, most focused on developed markets. Moreover, almost all the existing studies investigated these determinants at the firm level with little evidence about macroeconomic factors. Besides, none have provided a comprehensive investigation of capital budgeting practices from a single market whether developed or emerging. Hence, this thesis completed three independent investigations. The first and second investigation presented in chapters three and four respectively, explores three categories of factors that are found in the existing literature, or predicted by this thesis to be associated with firm’s long and short term investments. These first two investigations utilize a pooled OLS regression for a panel data set covering the period from 2000 to 2014. Furthermore, the third investigation presented in chapter five explores a wide set of capital budgeting practices from a single frontier market within the GCC. Precisely, the investigation covers the development, the selection and the post completion stage of capital budgeting. It also, explores factors that are found in the existing literature or predicted by this thesis to influence the use of such practices. This investigation utilizes a survey questionnaire containing 23 questions to gather the required data. Finally, this thesis makes various contributions to the corporate finance literature. Specifically, chapter three and four extend the existing literature on the determinants of firm’s long and short term investments by examining it in the context of new emerging markets namely the GCC markets. Beside, revealing the positive effect of macroeconomic factors on firm’s investments. Chapter five extends the existing literature on capital budgeting practices by investigating three stages of these practices from the Omani market. Additionally, it provides new evidence related to the significant relation between capital budgeting practices and new firms characteristics