Journal of Engineering and Sustainable Development (JEASD)

Web services are one of the important innovations in the software field, and they are used on a large scale in modern software systems. Web services have evolved and significantly increased during the last two decades, resulting in large numbers of similar services in terms of function and can be used to perform the same tasks. As a result, choosing the most appropriate web service to meet users' needs has become an important research topic. This research presents a trusted mechanism for evaluating web services by relying on Quality of Service (QoS) metrics, where several metrics that are measurable on the user's side were chosen. Work has been done to make the mechanism general, scalable, and expandable to support additional quality metrics, in addition to focusing on the ease of using this mechanism and the evaluation calculation for the different web services. This research works on ensuring the reliability of the results when sending them by signing results digitally. To prove the possibility of implementing the proposed mechanism, it was tested on three groups of web services, with each group consisting of three functionally similar services. The experiment demonstrated the possibility of implementing the proposed mechanism on different web services.

Transforming the thin-wall structure from 2D to 3D to enhance the flexibility and strength of materials is an interesting research area regarding fabricating techniques and engineering properties. This study investigated the double corrugation surface structure for fiberglass-reinforced epoxy thermoset composite to improve the mechanical properties of designed composite materials. Three groups of corrugated samples (2, 4, and 6 layers) were fabricated for testing. The resulting corrugated thermoset composites were tested through tensile and compressive tests. The results illustrated that the tensile strength of a flat sample was 14.28% and 27.74% higher than the one of the double corrugated surface samples on the x-axis and y-axis directions, respectively. Then, the design showed a tremendous increase in the elongation of more than 13 times compared to the flat sample at a relatively slight expense of strength. Besides, the result also showed that the material's compressive strength improved drastically when the number of layers increased from two to six. It was presented that the increase in the number of double corrugated surface structure layers leads to a rise in energy absorption. Therefore, the highest energy absorption was 241.62 J of 6 layers-double corrugated surface sample.

White glutinous or sticky rice must be soaked in water before cooking to gelatinize its starch. There has been limited work into the dimensional changes of soaked glutinous rice, owing to differences in rice-to-water ratios and soaking times. The objective of this work is to investigate the kinetics of these dimensions' changes during a range of ratios and soaking times. Cultivar Siding glutinous rice was used for this work. The work varied the glutinous rice-water ratios A, B, and C and soaking times to determine changes in length, width, thickness, equivalent diameter, surface area, and projected area of glutinous rice. The results showed that the soaked glutinous rice in condition C had the highest increment in dimensional changes compared to conditions A and B. The kinetics of dimensional changes in glutinous rice during soaking at room temperature were also investigated. The Page model accurately predicted the dimensions changes of soaked glutinous rice in condition C, with the highest R² value of length (0.9527), width (0.9881), thickness (0.9945), equivalent diameter (0.9761), and projected area (0.9603) compared to other conditions. This suggests that the Page model is useful for predicting the dimensions of soaked glutinous rice at any time.

Buildings have become the primary energy consumer due to increased outdoor temperature rates due to global warming and climate change. Building Management Systems (BMS) are considered a key tool in improving energy management through automation, which relies on Information and Communications Technology (ICT) applications, leading to the emergence of smart buildings as an effective solution. However, a proper theoretical framework for integrating solutions at various levels remains lacking. This research aims to clarify the integrative relationship and its role in building automation to achieve optimal interaction between occupants and the building, focusing on using BMS to attain energy efficiency. Recent literature on integrating ICT with BMS has been reviewed to classify different variables and factors impacting the work topic. An overview of the current state of knowledge has been provided, and a comprehensive table of all potential factors, parameters, technologies, and tools at various levels (such as sensor level, device level, communication level, occupant comfort level, and communication with occupants) has been developed. This facilitates the development of a theoretical framework, which can serve as a basis for a practical decision-making tool to help designers make the best design decisions.

Breast cancer, a pervasive and life-threatening disease, necessitates the development of advanced classification techniques. This paper introduces a model that combines Convolutional Neural Networks with Recurrent Neural Networks to classify sub-images in breast cancer. By leveraging localized features from a pre-trained CNN and insights from the RNN, this innovative approach aims to enhance accuracy. A sub-image-based strategy is employed to capture localized characteristics more effectively. A hierarchical self-learning approach is implemented to gradually correct mislabeled images, utilizing an invariant rule informed by prior knowledge of potential labeling errors. The model incorporates VGG19, Google Net, and ResNet101 for classifying breast cancer sub-images at various magnifications (40X, 100X, 200X, and 400X) from the BreaKHis dataset. Among these, ResNet101 demonstrates a notable classification accuracy of 98.58% with CNN techniques. However, the hybrid model achieves an impressive accuracy of 99.76%. This approach is promising for advancing medical image classification, offering potential diagnosis and patient care improvements.

Ground Penetrating Radar is a non-destructive geophysical technique that utilizes radio waves to generate images of the Earth's subsurface to point out the location of buried evidence. In this paper, it is used to identify structures and types of seismic images of a real oil and gas field. This work employs GPR with 500MHz to permit the EMW to penetrate deep and to provide a good resolution for images generated. Gray-Level Co-Occurrence Matrix and Wavelet feature extractor approaches are mixed to extract 48 selected features. Subsequently, preprocessing techniques are utilized to improve GPR data analysis and interpretation, including refining data, imputing the missing values, normalizing all data, and splitting them into 70% for the training and 30% for the testing phases. Finally, various machine learning techniques are employed to classify the collected images using models like Decision Trees,agged trees, Naive Bayes, Artificial Neural Networks, Quadratic Discriminant Analysis, Support Vector Machines, and K-nearest neighbors. The performance metrics of all the machine learning approaches are worthy, and the proposed KNN can achieve an accuracy of 98.169%, 14 seconds of training time, and less than a few seconds of testing time.

Several recent scientific papers have been proposed on power consumption in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN). Still, the work focused on control topologies of WSN in the field of increasing and prolonging the whole network is limited. This results from their function as routers that send data from edge nodes to the sink. The nodes around the sink node quickly die while delivering much data through intermediate nodes from one node to the sink node. The network lifetime was reduced because the sensor nodes adjacent to the sink consume twice as much power as the others. This problem is not recognized and addressed in more visual detail by the authors. The nodes closest to the sink node will die first. Therefore, this paper proposed a mathematical model to represent packet energy consumption with control topology for WSN. Due to the simulation, more than 90% of sensors are still operational and optimally arranged. The overall battery power remaining in the sensors was greater than 70%.

The natural gas can readily serve as the replacement fuel for internal combustion engines. This work tested the SI engine when running on a hydrogen-enriched compressed natural gas (CNG) mixture. The modelling has been implemented at a range of engine speeds from 1000 to 5500 rpm with a full load, direct injection, and a spark-ignited engine with a compression ratio of 10. Engine performance influences were examined, especially regarding brake power, brake thermal efficiency (BTE), and brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC), in addition to the combustion characteristics like cylinder temperature and pressure. A Lotus Engine Simulation program was used for analyzing and modeling. The results demonstrated that the best performance and combustion characteristics were with mixtures that have increased in the H2 percentage. The results show that the brake power and BTE increased, and the BSFC decreased with the increase of hydrogen in the mixture. It was found that the brake power and BTE increased by 2% and 21% for HCNG 25, and the best reduction in BSFC was 6% for HCNG 20 compared to the CNG. It was also observed that maximum cylinder pressure (Pmax) and temperature (Tmax) increase with increasing percentage of H2 in the mixture.

The treatment of oily wastewater is a challenging and complex task. Their efficiency in removing oil was evaluated in efforts to reach two objectives: increasing permeate flux as well as maximizing oil removal. The surface features of the constructed membranes were examined with a FESEM device, and atomic force microscopy (AFM) was employed to investigate the topography of the substrate surfaces. The water contact angle and wettability were determined using the Contact Angle Measuring Instrument; Porosity was evaluated through a gravimetric method, while the average diameter of the nanofibers was measured with ImageJ software. It was observed that higher concentrations of PVDF/DMF precursor solutions led to an increased average diameter of the nanofibers within the membranes, which is between 0.175 and 0.4 µm. Furthermore, the membranes surfaced exhibited an increase in average surface roughness (Ra) from 0.171 µm to 0.279 µm, while the contact angle increased from 81° to 135°. This demonstrates that the 14% PVDF-based nanofiber membrane had hydrophobic properties. These variations positively affected the membrane's efficiency, as demonstrated by the increase in permeate flux and oil rejection rate, which rose from 58 to 136 LMH and from 85.5 to 96%, respectively, without applying any pressure.

In the modern world, composite construction is widely used due to its exceptional properties in reducing the structure's weight and carrying load. This paper reviews some researchers' earlier investigations in the past two decades. To understand the behavior of composite beams, the effect of various load applications, and the beam behavior’s response to changes of shear connector type and some types of concrete and materials such as Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) and display some methods for strengthening the beam. Monotonic and dynamic loads were considered based on experimental, numerical in addition to experimental and numerical studies together carried out by the researchers, as well as statistical data collected and analyzed. The results obtained based on the reviewed articles are that the use of an angle shear connector reduces the ultimate strength by 4.12% for single angle connectors compared to headed stud connectors, pultrude Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer GFRP composite beam has approximately 50% higher ultimate capacity and less weight compared to an equivalent RC beam, stiffeners are an effective method to strengthen the composite beam against different load circumstances. Statistics revealed that the interconnection ratio is an important factor for the composite beam behavior.

Designing a house requires developing initial perceptions of many elements’ spaces, which consume quite a bit of space and are often neglected, including the space of stairs, internal corridors, and walls. Through a survey of previous literature related to the subject, it became clear that there is no concept or study concerned with determining the approximate proportions of the wall area and the staircase area with the internal corridors inside the residential house and the extent of their impact on the remaining spaces The deductive method for analyzing a group of samples to reach an approximate unified result resulting in approximately 17% for the combined area of stairs and internal corridors, and 17% for walls. Accordingly, a preliminary conception of the area of the remaining spaces in the residential house can be developed. Considering such a percentage in the architectural designer will reduce the differences between the architect and the client and give an initial visualization of possible spaces.

Most mechanical properties are often required for the design and linear or nonlinear modeling of masonry structures, as well as performance-based design. This article presents an experimental evaluation of the mechanical properties of autoclaved aerated concrete AAC masonry blocks and common bonding and plastering materials. The tests covered the most important mechanical properties of the materials, including density, ‎compressive strength, tensile strength, flexural strength, modulus of elasticity, Poisson's ratio, and shear bond. Samples of AAC blocks were prepared and tested, in addition to three typical materials utilized with these blocks: cement-sand, gypsum, and adhesive mortars. The shear bond test as triplet prisms was conducted to estimate the AAC block and bond material shear strengths. The results showed that cement-sand mortar was superior to other bonding materials in compressive strength. In contrast, the adhesive mortar showed higher tensile and shear strength values due to its special composition, which gives greater adhesive forces between different materials

The management of sustainable prefabricated construction projects in Iraq suffers from outdated methods and a lack of focus on important management criteria. This research addresses this issue by developing a framework for managing sustainable prefabricated building systems and choosing the best types of systems. A review of the general literature identified 80 indicators within the 12 relevant categories. These indicators formed the basis of a closed questionnaire distributed to 90 experienced respondents. Three prefabricated building systems were identified based on the structural configuration (bearing wall, frame, and box system). The expert questionnaire for each system was conducted according to the Analytical Network Process (ANP) and using Super Decision Software (SDS). After implementation, a framework was built to manage sustainable prefabricated building systems, and the best system, which is the box system, was chosen. This framework helps improve the management of prefabricated construction projects, increase speed, quality, and pollution, and reduce the cost of housing in Iraq, which suffers from its high cost. There must be attention to prefabricated construction, as the consumption of raw materials in traditional construction is large and affects the country's resources and economy.

This study deals with the extensive development of multiband antennas, compact in size and high in performance, to meet the requirements of modern wireless communication systems, namely the Ultrawideband (UWB) applications. This research presents the design of a Dual-Band Patch Antenna (DBPA) that works at 4.1 GHz and 6.7 GHz frequency ranges. This design offers a proposed solution to efficiently overcome the challenges of designing single-band microstrip patch antennas and the obstacles associated with the operation of conventional ones by achieving a noticeable increase in gain. The proposed antenna achieves a noticeable gain of approximately 10.227 dB at the frequency of 4.1 GHz and 4.982 dB at 6.7 GHz while achieving compact dimensions (65.2 mm 7 76.6 mm 1 1.6 mm) using an FR-4 substrate. In addition, the simulations show a fairly well-matched input impedance, a reflection coefficient of less than -10 dB, and a Voltage Standing Wave Ratio (VSWR) of less than 2 in both operating frequency ranges. The antenna also develops a uniform radiation pattern that suits various UWB communication applications. This performance is attributed to the good positioning and the appropriate dimensions of the rectangular slots, which leads to modifying the current path and focusing the surface wave, which enhances the gain and radiation efficiency.

The twenty-first century is witnessing the phenomenon of the expansion of the urban fabric in large areas, accompanied by a lack of public transport services, dependence on cars, decrease in dependence on walking and cycling, and the loss of landscapes, which affected the quality of urban life, and the development has become a significant concern throughout the world. The objectives of the transport-related sustainability concept are to reduce emissions of gases and noise, reduce the consumption of natural resources, reduce levels of land exploitation, increase traffic safety, and enhance the ability to reach the required places. The research problem is represented in the knowledge gap related to explaining the role of transport in achieving urban sustainability, where the research assumes that achieving urban sustainability is through sustainable transport. Hence, the study aims to reach a theoretical framework that clarifies the indicators of sustainable transport that achieve urban sustainability. To test the hypothesis, the abstracted theoretical framework was applied to a model of an Arab city (Masdar City) and a model for a global city (Shanghai City) in China.