ABSTRACT. The power losses issue in electrical power management contributes considerably to the entire power quality challenge in the power system. It is critical to improve the efficiency of the power system in order to reduce power losses in the distribution network. The power electronics transformer (PET) is principally being considered as a substitute to the conventional fundamental frequency transformer. This paper projected the application of the duplex-imaginary power of PET to minimize radial distribution network losses. Also, a particle swarm optimization (PSO) planning algorithm is deployed to optimize the location and size of the PET integration with a global objective of minimizing network losses. The M-file and SIMULINK environment of MATLAB was used for implementation and simulations. The validation of PET impact is executed on a typical 33-bus radial distribution system (RDS), and the outcomes of several scenarios are presented. It is observed that with the increment in the integration of PET in RDS, the losses are found to have reduced substantially.

ABSTRACT. It has become imperative to harmonize energy poverty alleviation and carbon footprint reduction. This is geared towards embracing independent power generation at local levels to reduce the popular ambiguity in the transmission of generated power. Also, it will contribute towards the total adoption of electric vehicles and direct current (DC) appliances that are currently flooding the global market. Solar power system is gaining momentum as it is now an affordable and less complex alternative to fossil fuel-based power generation. Although, there are many issues associated with solar power system, which resulted in deprivation of optimum working capacity. One of the major issues is inadequate monitoring of the energy pool from the solar irradiance, which in turn can be a basis for an informed decision on energy usage and necessary control of the solar system for optimal energy pooling. The proposed technique utilized Internet of Things (IoT) in developing a controlled solar photovoltaic (SPV) system and its’ monitoring platform for necessary control and deployment for optimal usage. The technique is potent with better solar irradiance exposure which results into 30% voltage pooling capacity than a system with static solar panels. The evaluation of the system show that the developed system possesses higher voltage pooling capacity than a system of static positioning of solar panel

ABSTRACT. The total number of plug-in electric vehicles (PEV) in South Africa is limited compared to conventional vehicles, but hopefully, it will increase the penetration in no distance time. Due to the greenhouse effect, and economic and social benefits of a decrease in fossil fuel application, PEVs markets are growing rapidly. The outcomes of higher power requirements to rejuvenate the PEV batteries have impacted the power and distribution networks in several ways. Integrating a huge number of charging stations with the grid under a steady state introduces negative power quality (PQ) challenges. In this work, the impact of the PEV charging station in South Africa on the electrical power system was investigated in reference to the power demand and total harmonics distortion (THD), under-voltage & over-voltage, and power loss in the transformer. Similarly, the approach for the mitigation of power disturbance was examined.

ABSTRACT. The complex activities in the construction of high-rise buildings show many potential subjects of hazard which comprises a major safety concern for workers, equipment, material, the public, and the environment. In correspondence to that, determining a standardized Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is required to manage the project construction. Previously, a standardized WBS has been performed without the identification and analysis of a risk factor at a design stage. The integrative approach to determine standardized WBS which involves the risk factors plays a primary role to prevent accidents because the risk is assessed early in the design stage and can be elaborate in the implementation steps. Based on that, this study is purposed to improve the construction safety performance by defining the risk factors in the standardized WBS on the design-build of the high-rise building. In this study, a descriptive qualitative methodology is carried out by giving questionnaires form to respondents and interviewing experts for validation. As many as 6 levels of WBS are generated and 419 risks are found to have an impact on the safety performance. Approximately 6% of the risk is categorized as high-level risk and the response has been determined. Thus, the development of risk factors in the standardized WBS for design and construction work with additional activities will minimize accidents and improve construction safety performance. Indeed, the risk of work accidents can be eliminated (zero accidents) in the project implementation.

ABSTRACT. The climate change crisis is a very serious global threat and the biggest to the Earth at this time. Transformation to Net Zero Emissions (NZE) in 2060 must be our shared obligation, and Green Buildings (BGH) are buildings that meet Building Technical Standards and have significant measurable performance in saving energy, water, and other resources through the application of Green Building principles according to their functions and classifications in each implementation stage is expected to reduce the amount of carbon or greenhouse gas emissions. Indonesian Government Regulations guided by the Minister of Public Works and Housing (PUPR) in 2022 have provided Technical Guidelines for Performance Assessment Standards. This regulation is the latest if compared with Green Building Council Indonesia (GBCI) as previous guidelines for green building. With this regulation, this study aims to analyze the factors that most influence the implementation of the Minister of PUPR's Green Buildings in Modern Shopping Centers in Indonesia to Improving Cost Performance with Blockchain-BIM, using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM)-Partial Least Square (PLS). The researcher chose Blockchain-BIM to be able to streamline green building costs in Modern Shopping Center Building. These influential factors, it is expected to support the Implementation of Blockchain-BIM to overcome cost constraint in the construction of Green Buildings

ABSTRACT. The building and construction industry greatly contributes to the increase in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which leads to global climate change. To achieve this target, efforts should not only be directed to constructing new green buildings as existing buildings represent a bigger proportion. In this study, the application of the green retrofitting concept was based on the guidelines of the Minister of PUPR No. 01 of 2022 the Republic of Indonesia. Initiatives have been steered towards retrofitting existing buildings to green buildings, and green retrofit had reduced operating costs by 14% over five years, with a payback time of approximately six years for green investment. The cost of implementing green retrofitting requires a fee of 10-20% of the Total Development Cost. The researcher chose Blockchain-BIM to be able to streamline green retrofitting costs in the industrial estate. The results of statistical analysis using SEM-PLS obtained 10 influential factors namely: the utilization of electricity consumption, the use of local materials, communal wastewater treatment plants, utilization of green space functions, 20% local materials, consumption plants, communal waste container facilities, preservation of cultural heritage buildings, periodic blackout-free electricity and there is at least I waste collection device. The results of the case study in the application of the Blockchain-BIM.

ABSTRACT. Sustainable construction development is currently a world concern to stimulate the growth of development practices with the Green Building concept, especially in Indonesia as a step to reduce the number of carbon emissions. With the existence of regulations related to Green Buildings issued by the Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing, it is easier to assess objects so that they get a performance assessment according to Permen PUPR 21 of 2021 the Republic of Indonesia with Pratama, Madya, and Utama standards. The purpose of this research is to provide an assessment of existing buildings to be upgraded to Green Buildings. From the results of Structural Equation Modeling - Partial Least Square (SEM-PLS) modeling, for High-Rise Residential, the 10 most influential factors were obtained. Getting the rating value of each criterion, it can be done with System Dynamics modeling so that the assessment results of existing buildings are obtained. Meanwhile, to improve accuracy related to implementation time, the Manual Program Evaluation and Review Technique (M-PERT) method is used.

ABSTRACT. This study aimed to evaluate the performance of two differently designed photosynthetic microbial desalination cells (PMDCs) in terms of their efficiency for energy recovery. PMDC1 was an up flow PMDC consisted of three-enclosed compartments, whereby, PMDC2 consisted of three sequential tubular compartments. Both PMDCs were fed with actual domestic wastewater (sewage) into the bioanode chambers and actual saline seawater into the desalination chambers. Chlorella vulgaris microalgae was used as the biocathodes for PMDC1 and PMDC2. The results revealed that maximum and average power densities were 918.5 mW/m3, and 716.7 mW/m3, respectively in PMDC1, whereby they were 458.9 mA/m3, and 334.1 mA/m3, respectively in PMCD-2. In spite of the differences in the values of power recovery, it is worth to mention that similar maximum removal efficiency of organic content up to 99% was observed in both PMDCs. Also, the observed values of desalination efficiency were comparable in both PMDCs. These results demonstrated that the design and geometric configuration of the PMDC clearly influenced the power recovery. In contrast, on effect was observed on the organic content removal and desalination efficiency. In general, the outcomes of this study indicated that regardless of the PMDC configuration, the proposed sustainable approach has the potential for simultaneous power recovery, wastewater treatment, and desalination of saline seawater water.

ABSTRACT. Toll road concessions with assignment scheme in Indonesia have several investment problems such as limited funding, inefficiencies in operations and lack of value capture implementation. This has an impact on the completion delays of projects development and decrease the financial performance of toll road developer companies. Therefore, the development of value capture-based business model innovations for the assigned toll road developers needs to be studied. The purpose of this research is to identify the conceptual framework for the development of toll road assignment projects in Indonesia through the establishment of a Road Plus Property Developer as a business model innovation that will improve the investment performance of toll road concessions. The method used in this research is qualitative descriptive analysis to formulate its development. The results of this study are targeted to provide a conceptual framework for the assignment scheme for the development and operation of toll roads based on value capture through the establishment of a Road Plus Property Developer business model to improve investment performance it is hoped that this can be used as a reference in the operation of similar assignment toll roads that will be carried out in the future.

ABSTRACT. A linear downstream bandwidth distribution model was designed and evaluated for the first time in an LTE network. In an LTE network constructed according to the first type of distribution, a mathematical model for allocating downlink bandwidth is provided (RAT 1, Resource Allocation Technology form 1). The proposed methodology minimized the approach to the bandwidth problem of downlink channel allocation in the LTE network before resolving the Boolean optimization problem. The model's linearity significantly decreased the software complexity of final resource block distribution selections amongst LTE user stations. The proposed model's analysis demonstrated its applicability and validated the correctness of various code samples.

ABSTRACT. Installation of dispersed generation units from renewable energy can result in a number of potential improvements to the consistency and quality of power in distribution grid. It is crucial to position optimally sized renewable energy generators (REG) at the proper places in power distribution network to fully enjoy inherent benefits. Otherwise, their installation might have a detrimental impact on the performance of the system and the quality of the power. For the best integration of dispersed generation, numerous potent optimization technologies have been developed over time. As a result, optimization strategies are constantly changing and have recently been the subject of numerous new studies. Based on a classification of some recent works, this study evaluates contemporary optimization techniques used to address the issue of placing and sizing REG. A list of popular heuristic optimization algorithms and their pros and cons is presented in order to identify unexplored possible directions for hybrid approaches.

ABSTRACT. This paper studies the development of geometry on rapid decompression for an airplane cabin and solving it experimentally with a punch of measuring and control device to find a more accurate way experimentally and theoretically to calculate the time of decompression in the airplane cabin and drooping to the convenient altitude and keep the passengers and crew in the safe zone until getting landing letter. The experimental work will be a prototype of CRJ-900 airplane cabin with 1:30 scale. The decompression test will be done at unchoked (Mach number < 1) and choked (Mach number =1) and circumstances of 26 ℃ and 0.765 bar. The evacuation process of the prototype will be through a nozzle same as an airplane irregular shape smashing. Control the room temperature to confront the altitude temperature of the airplane outside ambient by using a cooling system. A comparison was made between the theoretical calculations and experimental work, it was found that the isentropic procedure is same to the experimental readings because the procedure takes place in a shorter time and at a higher velocity with the change in temperature, and Since the mass flow rate depends directly on the stagnation pressure inside the pressurized reservoir, for choked mode, then it decreases with the increasing of discharging time as the stagnation pressure continuously decreases.

ABSTRACT. The present paper aims to investigate the hydrothermal performance in annular tubes constituted by the outer straight circular tube and the inner twisted elliptical tube, is numerically studied. the use of "twisted engineering" to improve heat exchange efficiency is a wide-use method where it is improved heat transfer by secondary flow in the annulus. used a counter-flow mode, with the hot water in the inner tube and the cold water in the outer tube. Several mass flow rates (0.1 to 0.2) and twist ratios (6, 9,12) were used in this study. ANSYS Fluent 19.2 was utilized for the numerical simulation. The results indicated, exhibited improved heat transfer higher in the twisted pipe than in the straight tube heat exchanger. It was found that the outlet temperature for cold fluid, pressure drop, and Nusselt number, thermal performance factor are increased. Nusselt number and friction factor increase of the inner twisted tube by 21%, and 14 %, respectively.

ABSTRACT. Many methods are used to improve the heat transfer process of fluid flow within channels with different cross sections such as (rectangular, square, triangular, circular, and trapezoidal) and heat exchangers to increase the temperature distribution of the fluid and thus increase the heat transfer coefficient and the Nusselt number which leads to improving its performance and efficiency. The current research presents a theoretical study (numerical simulation) of heat transfer by forced convection with laminar flow inside a horizontal channel with a square cross-section (0.12 * 0.12 m2). The test model was designed with a two-dimensional assumption. It is subjected to uniform heat flux from the top and bottom by (1500 W/ m2). The channel was partially filled with a layer of the porous medium (glass balls with a diameter of 0.003 m) with a height of (0.06 m). Water was used as a working fluid for this issue, and the governing equations (mass conservation, conservation of momentum, conservation of energy) were solved numerically using the COMSOL Multiphysics 6.0 program, the test model was designed by taking different angles (00, 150, 300, and 450) of the position to study the effect of changing angles on the temperature and velocity distribution of the fluid. The results of the study showed that the best temperature distribution appeared at an angle (150) to the position of the test model of the channel. In addition, the porous material distorts the shape of the temperature distribution, velocity, and pressure of the fluid flow within the test model, and the temperature distribution increases gradually with the increased fluid flow along the channel at all angles.

ABSTRACT. Molecular imprinting is a promising technique that has been used recently to detect trace contaminants in aqueous solutions. The technique is dependent on reaction between the target molecules (testosterone) with the functional monomer to form a complex in a suitable solvent, then the complex is polymerized in the presence of crosslinker. This technique is used to study the affinity of eleven Endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDC) to the testosterone sensor. The relation between the classification of chemicals depends on relative binding affinity (RBA) which was calculated from other sources to the classification that was got from the sensor was compared to investigate any relationship between them. Based on the results of the study, the chemicals were classified into 4 categories, according to their response at three different concentrations (1, 5, 10ppb): strong affinity to the sensor (T), moderate affinity (23 chemicals mix, DEP, CHL, VIN, EST, DDE, and DCP), weak affinity (BPA, FLU, and ALD), and inactive (DDT). Also, the percent activity showed that the selected chemicals had lower adsorption to the binding site of the sensor in comparison with testosterone. The results showed that 60% of our classification was identical with Fang classification which means that our sensor can be used as a pre-method to study the affinity of EDCs binding to the androgen receptor (AR).

ABSTRACT. The human ear is the ideal origin of information for identifying inactive individuals. Since the ear is visible, its photos are simple to capture, and its structure does not vary significantly over time, it appears to be a suitable candidate for a solution. The biometric properties of universality, distinctiveness, persistence, and collectability are met by the ear. The human ear begins to mature early in pregnancy and is fully developed by the time the baby is born. The ear has a distinctive anatomy that is (for the most part) shared by the majority of the population since it serves as the human hearing organ. This paper introduced a new method of ear recognition that remain the features whatever the resolution or camera will be changed using canny edge detection with suitable threshold,and using moments method to extract new features.

ABSTRACT. Biometric authentication security using finger vein recognition is aimed to be improved by using machine learning (ML) algorithms in this paper. Finger vein recognition is an innovative method for biometric authentication that relies on the pattern of the vein network inside the fingers. The advantage of this technique is that it is resistant to forgery and theft because it depends on internal rather than external features. However, some challenges related to image quality, contrast, and distortion are faced by this method. Therefore, three different ML algorithms, namely: Decision Tree (DT), K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN), and Naïve Bayes (NB), along with Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) technique, is proposed as a method in this paper for extracting features from a dataset containing 3816 images of finger veins of 106 participants. The best results among the three algorithms were achieved by the NB algorithm, with a 98% accuracy rate, while the DT attained an accuracy rate of 58%, and KNN achieved 87%.

ABSTRACT. Face recognition, which has several functional and commercial uses, including identity, forensics, access control, and interactions between people and computers, is one of the busiest studies for computer vision and pattern recognition research. However, picking out a person's face in a crowd presents ethical challenges and raises important questions regarding individual liberties. For the study of limited and unlimited facial recognition, significant methods, algorithms, databases, and procedures have been proposed recently. This paper introduced a new method of face recognition that remain the features whatever the resolution or camera will be changed using canny edge detection with suitable threshold, Dlib detector, mathematical equations and finally, the PCA algorithm.

ABSTRACT. Graphene-silver nanocomposites (Ag-G) were successfully synthesized using a facile spray pyrolysis approach. The characterization results confirmed that Ag nanoparticles were uniformly deposited on graphene sheets without impurities. The graphene (002) peak position remained unchanged after Ag nanoparticle loading, indicating that the graphene structure was preserved. FESEM and EDS revealed evenly distributed Ag nanoparticles attributed to wrinkles and defects on graphene acting as nucleation sites. UV-Vis spectroscopy showed a shifted graphene absorbance peak and surface plasmon resonance at 420 nm in Ag-G, indicating strong interfacial interactions and Ag nanoparticle incorporation. The optical band gap increased to 1.45 eV compared to graphene due to quantum confinement effects of Ag nanoparticles. The results demonstrate tunable optical properties in Ag-G nanocomposites synthesized by spray pyrolysis. Interactions between Ag nanoparticles and graphene lead to modified light absorption distinct from the individual components. This provides valuable insights into tailoring graphene-based nanocomposites for advanced optoelectronic applications.

ABSTRACT. The 2D layer structure of bismuth tungstate (Bi2WO6) has gained a lot of attention as a solar-light-driven photocatalyst used in environmental treatment techniques. In this work, the effects of different pH reactions on Bi2WO6 nanoplates by hydrothermal synthesis on morphologies and photocatalytic properties were studied. The products obtained at different pH values (2, 4, 6, and 8) were characterized by XRD, FESEM, EDS, and UV-vis techniques. The photocatalytic properties of samples were measured by decomposing both rhodamine (RhB) and methylene orange (MO). The results suggested that the variation in pH of precursor solutions has a significant impact on Bi2WO6 morphology and photocatalytic activity. The morphology has changed from nanopaltes to nanoparticles, while the crystal structure has not changed. Under simulated light irradiation at pH = 6, the samples display good photocatalytic activity for the degradation of RhB and MO compared with other pH synthesis. The highest photodegradation was observed in about 91.9% and 87.2% of RhB and MO, respectively, within 40 min and 210 min. Besides, the photocurrent was investigated to study charge separation, and the results showed higher photocurrent at pH = 6 compared with other pH synthesis.

ABSTRACT. Both radon gas consumption and inhalation pose serious health risks. One of the most well-known radon sources, along with soil, construction materials, and natural gas, is water of various forms and supplies. The dissolved radon levels in groundwater samples were determined using the sealed cup technique and were taken from 3 different locations in Anah City, Iraq. 35 water samples from groundwater were taken in 3 separate locations at 7 different wells. Site1 had three wells, Site2 had two, and Site3 had three wells (2 wells). Every subsequent two months for a year, samples were collected. In groundwater, the average radon activity level was 0.477 Bq/l. Additionally, the annual effective doses from ingesting and breathing groundwater were, on average, 4.684 uSv, lower than the allowed maximum of 0.1 mSv/y. As findings, radon ingestion and groundwater inhalation provide no major danger to the general public's health in the research area.