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With the continuous maturity of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology, its application is more and more extensive. At the same time, the problem of UAV target tracking has also been widely concerned. Aiming at the problem of low recognition accuracy of small target, a target tracking model of UAV based on siamese neural network (SNN) is studied. Firstly, based on the YOLOv5 recognition model, convolutional attention module and multi-scale feature fusion network are introduced. On the basis of the intersection over union loss, the effective intersection over union loss is proposed to improve the loss function, and an improved YOLOv5 target recognition model is established. Then, a fine-grained classification regression network is proposed, which uses per-pixel classification regression to train the tracker. A target tracking model based on SNN is established by adjusting the results with a fine-tuning module. The results showed that the improved YOLOv5 model combined with the optimized loss function had the highest average accuracy of 47.84% and a frame rate of 28.34fps, which was better than the traditional YOLOv5 model. The recognition accuracy in the fused dataset is 93.12%, with a loss value of less than 0.01, which is superior to YOLOv3, YOLOv4, and traditional YOLOv5 models. The method has strong anti-jamming ability in the acceptable range. The target tracking model based on SNN has the highest tracking accuracy and still has good tracking performance in color image environment, which shows certain feasibility and superiority. To sum up, the model built in this study has good application effects and plays a certain role in promoting the development of the UAV industry.

ABSTRACT Intensity‐duration‐frequency (IDF) models are considered one of the most important tools used in water resources projects, as well as the design and planning of hydraulic structures such as sewerage channels, bridges, culverts, and road networks. This study aims to generate IDF curves for the Iraqi city of Babylon based on the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) empirical reduction formula and to choose the optimal distribution that gives the greatest rainfall intensity among the three distributions used in this research (generalized extreme value, Log‐Pearson type III, and Gumbel). This study examined daily rainfall data collected from the Iraqi Authority of Meteorology and Seismic Monitoring for a period of 32 years, from 1991 to 2022. The IMD reduction formula was used to calculate rainfall intensity for shorter durations (5, 10, 20, 30, 60, 120, 360, 720, and 1440 min) and custom return periods (2, 5, 10, 25, 50, and 100 years). To determine the goodness of fit for the data distributions, the Easy Fit 5.6 program was applied with three tests (the χ2 test, the Anderson–Darling test, and the Kolmogorov–Smirnov test). The results showed that all distributions were acceptable for both tests and all storm durations and that the rainfall intensity decreased with increasing duration of the rainstorm. It also showed that rainfall increases rainfall intensity during large return periods. Based on the criteria of AIC and BIC, the LP‐3 distribution was chosen as the best distribution to simulate rainfall in Babylon City using the IDM reduction formula.

In this study, daily rainfall data spanning 32 years, from 1991 to 2022, were collected from the Babylon City Meteorological Station (BCMS). The modified Bartlett-Lewis Rectangular Pulses (BLRP) model with seven parameters was used to generate the intensity-duration-frequency (IDF) curve for durations of 2, 5, 10, 25, 50, and 100 years. The estimated extreme values obtained from BCMS were fitted with EasyFit software using three statistical continuous distributions: the Gumbel (EV-1), Generalized Extreme Value (GEV), and Log-Pearson type III (LP-3) to determine the optimal distribution model for the IDF curve. The AIC and BIC criteria were employed to rank the generated IDF curves for each duration to select the optimal distribution model. The results of the AIC criteria ranked the PDFs as LP-3 first model, EV-1 second model, and GEV third model with sums of weighted rank values as 16, 17, and 27, respectively. In contrast, the BIC criteria ranked the PDFs as EV-1 first model, LP-3 second model, and GEV third model with sums of weighted rank values as 16, 17, and 27, respectively. The EV-1 and LP-3 models were selected as the most suitable results for simulating the maximum rainfall in Babylon City for various return periods. This decision was based on the total score of the special rankings of the two tests, with EV-1 and LP-3 having the lowest values of AIC and BIC.

Background: This study aimed to compare the number of voids of primary anterior teeth obturated with Endoflas by using three different obturation techniques, namely, endodontic pressure syringe, modified disposable syringe, and reamer using cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT). Materials and Methods: Thirty-six single-rooted primary incisors and canines with lengths ranging within 15–22 mm were randomly divided into three groups (12 teeth/group) according to the obturation techniques used. Group A, endodontic pressure syringe; group B, modified disposable syringe; and group C, reamer. A single operator instrumented and obturated all teeth by using Endoflas. An independent evaluator analysed the quality of the obturation techniques by using CBCT imaging to determine the number of voids in the root canals. Fisher's exact test and multiple pairwise comparisons adjusted by the Dunn–Bonferroni method were used to statistically assess the results. Results: All study groups showed no statistically significant difference in the number of voids (P > 0.05). Comparing the thirds of each group, the coronal and middle thirds of group A contained the maximum number of voids, followed by groups B and C, with no statistically significant difference. For the apical third, voids were highly presented in group C followed by group B. Meanwhile, group A was found to have no voids. Conclusion: Within the limitations of the current research, we concluded that voids existed in all techniques used; however, they were the least when using endodontic pressure syringes. Thus, an endodontic pressure syringe used with an Endoflas obturation material may be preferred as an obturation technique.

Improving corrosion resistance in alloys made of stainless steel is an important innovation on the petroleum trade. The effect of heat treatments (HT) and cold working on the corrosion behaviour, surface hardness, and microstructure of 316 stainless steel was investigated experimentally. The corrosion environment is seawater and crude oil. The corrosion rates (CRs) were obtained using the mean loss of weight approach, which was then optimised using the Taguchi method. The specimens used in this study are made of 316 stainless steel rod, which is first annealed to obtain the qualities of the raw material before being put through a tensile test to assess the mechanical characteristics of the metal. After cold working, the hardness test, the corrosion test utilising the lost weight method, and the microstructure test are all carried out. By performing these tests, the metal show excellent mechanical properties such as yield stress, tensile stress, and hardness; in the corrosion test, the raw metal show higher resistance in both seawater and crude oil, while in cold working and HT with cold working, samples show higher corrosion The HT samples had the lowest corrosion resistance as the cold working percentage increased. In this work, the input parameters such as ultimate corrosion media, HT and cold work (CW) are optimised utilising a multiple objective optimisation approach that uses weighted grey relational analysis. Two objectives, that are CR and Hardness (H), are simultaneously optimised. We suggested a quantitative approach to establish the weight factors of various responses for grey relational analysis called weighted grey relational analysis. The optimum input parameters were determined using weighted grey relational analysis, and the outcomes showed that HT is the most relevant parameter. Cold working has been observed in association with stress-related twinning and austenite phase deformation, resulting in fast grain splitting and the production of a microstructure that resembles a ribbon composed of austenite and ferrite.

The risk of P. equorum infection in horses remains critical. Little studies were conducted to investigate prevalence and molecular analysis of P. equorum in Baghdad city, Iraq. In this study traditional detection followed by molecular technique depending on ITS-2 region were used as an attempt to evaluate this nuclear region as a genetic marker to diagnose the parasitic infection. One hundred and thirty-eight fecal samples of horses were collected and examined by direct wet mount smears, floatation method by NaCl. Extraction of genomic material, nested PCR was done followed by phylogenic analysis depending on ITS-2 region performed for the first time in Iraq and genetic substitutions to analyze Iraqi horses. Nested PCR were done after determining the total infection rate 6.52% by conventional technique, including 3.84% in males and 10% in females with significant difference. Highly infection rate 11.42% was recorded in the age group under 2 years and the lower infection rate 4% was found in the age group between 2-4 years with significant difference. The Iraqi isolates were recorded in the Gen Bank under the accession numbers MZ400507.1, MZ400508.1, MZ400509.1, and MZ4005010.1; while, phylogenetic analysis recorded an identity range between 97-100% with China, Australia and USA isolates. P. equorum is more distributed in younger horses than elderly in Baghdad city and ITS-2 region is a certain molecular marker for detection P. equorum isolates in Iraqi horses.

Lightweight concrete (LWC) is a long-standing development in the area of construction materials. LWC has become increasingly important for sustainable construction due to its reduced susceptibility to cracking. However, when exposed to extreme temperatures during fires, LWC can lose its compressive strength and ductility. This study investigates the performance of lightweight expanded clay aggregate (LECA) concrete T-beams exposed to elevated temperatures. The research also focuses on the use of an engineered cementitious composite with a basalt fiber-reinforced polymer grid (ECCBFG) as a rehabilitation method for fire-damaged T-beams. Key variables considered include the concrete cover thickness (20 and 30 mm), fire exposure duration (30 and 60 min), and thickness of the ECCBFG layer. Thermocouples were installed at various points within the beams to monitor the heat gradient across the cross-section. Fourteen concrete beam specimens were tested, including control beams, fire-damaged beams, and beams strengthened with the ECCBFG layer. Key performance parameters, such as the energy absorption, cracking load, ductility index, maximum load capacity, and corresponding displacement, were analyzed. The experimental results showed that the strengthened beams outperformed the fire-damaged beams, closely matching the performance of undamaged reference beams in most aspects, except energy absorption. The findings suggest that further research is needed to optimize certain performance indicators and address challenges in strengthening fire-damaged beams.

Background: Plantago major, historically renowned for its medicinal attributes across diverse cultures, has recently been under the research spotlight for its antihypertrophic scar effects. Aim: To investigate the efficacy of Plantago major extracts in the treatment of hypertrophic scars, particularly comparing the effects of methanol and ethyl acetate extracts. Methodology: Samples of the plant, procured from Baghdad's Al-Salihiya Neighbourhood in November 2021, underwent authentication at the Iraqi local Herbarium in the Al-Razi centre for alternative medicine. Using the Soxhlet apparatus, the dried plant material was extracted with methanol and subsequently partitioned with ethyl acetate. Both the ethyl acetate and methanol extracts were later formulated into ointments. Results: The ointments were tested on hypertrophic scars induced in rats. Three groups of 12 rats each were used—ethyl acetate, methanol, and a control group using only Vaseline. Both extracts demonstrated efficacy in reducing scars, with the methanol extract showing more pronounced results. Conclusion: The methanol extract displayed superior outcomes, potentially attributable to its richer phytochemical content compared to the ethyl acetate extract.

The water separated by sludge treatment processes is known as the sidestreams, such as the centrate, underflow belt thickener, and supernatant gravity thickener. The sidestreams have significant amounts of contaminants, particularly nutrients, and are returned to the wastewater treatment plant head. Returning the sidestreams to the head of the plant causes both technical and financial problems. This paper models the effect of sidestreams on the treatment of mainstream in full-scale conventional activated sludge systems operated with anaerobic/anoxic/oxic (A2/O). The effects of sidestreams nutrients and inert materials, the pollutants fate in the A2/O system, oxygen consumed, and energy required by sidestreams are modeled using GPS-X8 simulation. The results showed that the discharge ratio of the sidestreams to the mainstream is 4 %. The proportion of the pollutants present in the sidestream to the mainstream were 4.3 %, 4.7 %, 8.8 %, 21 %, 40 %, and 11 % for BOD, COD, TSS, NH4, PO4, and H2S, respectively. The GPS-X model showed that high orthophosphate and hydrogen sulfide concentrations were seen in the anaerobic zone. While all other pollutants begin to decay, phosphates and hydrogen sulfide gas also begin to decrease gradually in anoxic and oxic zones, noting the high concentrations of nitrates and sulfates in the oxic zone. An added 10 % of oxygen is needed for the sidestreams ammonia oxidation, which is more than the amount needed for the oxidation of BOD. The percentage of alkali used to improve the nitrification process due to the ammonia in the sidestreams was 30 % of the specified amount of ammonia in the mainstream. This study proved that the plant's sidestreams adversely increased oxygen, energy, and alkali consumption.

Cement has shaped the modern built environment, but its production generates substantial carbon dioxide emissions. Consequently, there is an urgent need to identify alternative cementitious building materials for sustainable construction. In this study, cement mortars (CMs) were produced by partially replacing cement with nanoclay (NC) and granite dust (GD). The replacement proportions (% by weight of cement) of these materials were 1.5, 3, and 4.5% for NC and 10, 20, and 30% for GD. For mortars containing NC but not GD, the strength was maximized when the NC replacement proportion was 3%. To evaluate the combined effect of partially replacing cement with both NC and GD on the fresh and hardening properties of cement-blended mortars, ternary binder mixtures containing 3% NC together with 10, 20, or 30% GD were prepared, and their workability, bulk density, compressive strength (at 7, 28, and 90 days), and flexural strength were measured. Increasing the content of NC and/or GD reduced the flowability of these mortars relative to that of the reference mortar mix because it increased the content of fine materials. CM containing 3% NC and 10% GD had the highest compressive strength at 7, 28, and 90 days while also having the greatest flexural strength when compared to the control mix. This is most likely due to the high silica and alumina content of NC and GD, as well as their high specific surface area, which would improve the maturity and density of the matrix when compared to cement alone.

For projects such as airports and road paving, an appropriate foundation must be developed in Sabkha soil, which requires a trustworthy assessment of soil-bearing capacity. When heavy traffic is expected to result in substantial wheel loads throughout pavement construction and maintenance, the plate load test helps solve these issues with subgrade and sub-base layer design. This work aims to investigate and assess the geotechnical behavior regarding soil strata from one area in southern Iraq: Sabkha. Conversely, a comparison is made between subgrade response modulus and soil-bearing capacity determined by field plate load tests and traditional laboratory investigations. The data demonstrated that the values related to Ks in the consolidation test rose as a ratio of pre-consolidation pressure of 45% and dramatically dropped with an increase in applied stress that is vertically applied below pre-consolidation stress. Furthermore, PLT data demonstrated that when pressure was applied, the modulus of the subgrade reaction did not follow a regular pattern. At the beginning of the loaded stage, after the pre-consolidation stress, Ks values at testing points 2 and 3 were high. After that, Ks abruptly decreased, particularly when the applied pressure surpassed the pre-consolidation stress before being constant again. A detailed discussion is given on the effects of stress distribution and test conditions on the elasticity stress curve's shape and the subgrade reaction modulus.

Relevance. Batteries are playing an increasingly vital role in power systems due to their utilization in various applications including microgrids, electric vehicles, sustaining geographically isolated communities, and energization of automated devices. Since they are considered as the enabling technology for renewable energy integration, the absence of battery systems from islanded microgrids can result in decreased system reliability and compromised performance due to the intermittency of local sources. Nevertheless, the hazardousness associated with their charging mechanism has led to the urgent continuous development of charging technologies and battery management systems. Aim. To develop a safe testbed to examine the functionality of newly produced battery charging stations and battery managers without employing actual physical batteries to avoid the hazardous manipulation of batteries and increase flexibility during the design and validation stage. This is accomplished by modeling the electrochemical dynamics of the battery system and integrating the device-under-test to a DC converter, which reacts based on these modeled dynamics. Novelty. This work adapts one of the most successful Li-ion battery models available in the literature and utilizes it to interact with power electronic devices that exchange power signals. Unlike other work in this field, the design is based on power hardware-in-loop principles and has minimized power consumption characteristics due to its unique configuration. The constructed computer model can be easily reparametrized to describe the dynamics of various battery capacities. Methods. MATLAB-based simulations of the proposed testbed were conducted for high and low power capacity. A LabView-based program was interfaced with the testbed hardware using a NI-DAQ board to validate the proposed design practically. The testbed hardware components were entirely developed from scratch for experimentation purposes. Results. The proposed testbed successfully imitated the dynamics of the battery, while the practical results concurred the simulated ones.

Earth dams are built for various reasons these including storage of water, regulation of water flow, prevention of flooding, and the generation of hydroelectric power. The drain pipes within an earth dam, are considered one of the more important control devices used to reduce the effects of problems caused by seepage. As such, the role of drain pipes against seepage problems in an earth dam, has been studied numerically in this investigation. The effects of drain pipe location and their diameters (50, 75, 100, and 150 mm), were examined using different hydraulic heads. The analysis focuses on the characteristics of relative seepage flow, exit gradient, and factor of safety regarding sliding. A range of models of typical earth dams, with and without drain pipes, have been simulated using Geo-Studio software in SEEP/W and SLOPE/W applications, examining more than 200 different cases. By using the data computed from numerical models, new formulas for predicting the seepage parameters and factors of safety were developed in this study by using the multiple non-linear regression (NLR) approaches. The findings show that the presence of a drain pipe reduces seepage flow and the exit gradient, at the same time increasing the factor of safety. Regarding pipe diameter, the rate of seepage and exit gradient decreased while the factor of safety increased as the diameter of the pipe increased. The factor of safety increased by between 11 and 25% when the drain pipe was placed in an optimal position, allowing for a reduction in seepage flow and exit gradient.

The bond strength at the interface zone between two concrete sections plays a critical role in enhancing long-term durability, ensuring that both materials perform homogenously. Ensuring compatibility at the interfaces between repair and concrete materials is one of the most challenging aspects of constructing composite systems. Despite various studies, a comprehensive understanding of the engineered cementitious composite (ECC) bonding mechanism at the repair interface is still limited. The objective of this research is to identify the interfacial properties between lightweight concrete (LWC) and engineered cementitious composite (ECC) with varying fiber dosages of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and glass fibers under different surface roughness conditions. The study tested LWC-ECC specimens in direct shear using slant shear and bi-surface shear tests, recording the maximum shear stress at failure. Two grades of LWC—normal-strength lightweight concrete (NSLW) and high-strength lightweight concrete (HSLW)—were used as substrates, while the ECC overlays contained varying fiber dosages: 2% PVA, 1.5% PVA with 0.5% glass, 1.0% PVA with 1.0% glass, and 0.5% PVA with 1.5% glass. The surface conditions considered included grooved and as-cast substrates. The results indicated that the highest bond strength was achieved by specimens with 1.5% PVA and 0.5% glass fiber, with a maximum shear strength of 24.05 MPa for grooved HSLW substrates. Interface roughness had minimal impact on shear strength for NSLW substrates but significantly affected HSLW substrates, with bond strengths varying from 13.81 MPa to 24.05 MPa for grooved surfaces. This study demonstrates the critical role of fiber dosage and surface roughness in enhancing the bond performance of composite materials.

Pigment production plants are among the most polluting industries due to their high-water consumption and complex releases. The current work investigates the removal efficiency of sodium chloride (NaCl), sodium acetate (C2H3NaO2), and acetic acid (CH3COOH), and also the permeate flux of a small-batch OPM-K membrane using reverse osmosis (RO) pilot plant at various concentrations and pressures. At 0.034 M and applied pressure of 30 bar, the results showed that the maximum sodium chloride removal and permeate flow were 93.4% and 8.3 × 10−6 m/s, respectively. When the feed concentration was increased to 0.17 M, the maximum removal efficiency and permeate flow were 88.5% and 4.7 × 10−6 m/s, respectively. In addition, acetic acid has a minimum removal efficiency of 76.2% at 0.062 M and 20 bar applied pressure, while sodium acetate has a minimum permeate flow of 2.8 × 10−6 at 0.061 M and 20 bar. To conclude, the results proved RO membrane's high removal efficiency and permeate flux at low salt concentrations. It should also be noted that RO would be more suitable for the retention of NaCl, C2H3NaO2, and CH3COOH, the three components with the highest concentration in wastewater discharged from pigment production plants.