This study aimed to determine the radioactivity and radiation hazard indicators of rice samples potentially for human consumption. Gamma spectroscopy was used to calculate the specific activity of natural and artificial radionuclides (238U, 232Th, 40K, and 137Cs) in local and imported rice samples collected from local markets in Baghdad Governorate, Iraq, in addition to various radiological hazard indices. The radionuclide concentrations in the samples varied from 2.123 ± 1.457 Bq/kg to 13.032 ± 3.610 Bq/kg for 238U, 2.906 ± 1.705 Bq/kg to 17.290 ± 4.158 Bq/kg for 232Th, 55.161 ± 7.427 Bq/kg to 155.897 ± 12.486 Bq/kg for 40K, and 0.840 ± 0.916 Bq/kg to 5.473 ± 2.339 Bq/kg for 137Cs. The average results for the radiological hazard indices were 24.292 ± 4.855 Bq/kg, 11.579 nGy/h, 0.378 nGy/h, 0.057 mSv/y, 0.014 mSv/y, 0.181, 0.082, and 0.066 for Raeq, Dγ, Dγ for 137Cs, AEDEin, AEDEout, Iγ, Hin, and Hex, respectively. The values obtained from the current study indicate that the concentrations of radionuclides and the hazard indices in the rice samples studied are less than globally permissible limits. Therefore, rice consumption is safe from a radiological perspective and does not threaten human health.
Phenol is one of the worst-damaging organic pollutants, and it produces a variety of very poisonous organic intermediates, thus it is important to find efficient ways to eliminate it. One of the promising techniques is sonoelectrochemical processing. However, the type of electrodes, removal efficiency, and process cost are the biggest challenges. The main goal of the present study is to investigate the removal of phenol by a sonoelectrochemical process with different anodes, such as graphite, stainless steel, and titanium. The best anode performance was optimized by using the Taguchi approach with an L16 orthogonal array. the degradation of phenol sonoelectrochemically was investigated with three process parameters: current de
... Show MoreError control schemes became a necessity in network-on-chip (NoC) to improve reliability as the on-chip interconnect errors increase with the continuous shrinking of geometry. Accordingly, many researchers are trying to present multi-bit error correction coding schemes that perform a high error correction capability with the simplest design possible to minimize area and power consumption. A recent work, Multi-bit Error Correcting Coding with Reduced Link Bandwidth (MECCRLB), showed a huge reduction in area and power consumption compared to a well-known scheme, namely, Hamming product code (HPC) with Type-II HARQ. Moreover, the authors showed that the proposed scheme can correct 11 random errors which is considered a high
... Show MoreAbstract: Background: High percentage of diabetes patients complain from post extraction hemorrhage. Many types of hemostatic materials are used to stop bleeding after teeth extraction: diode lasers are good hemostatic agents owing to their highly absorption by hemoglobin therefore they are used in soft tissue procedures with relatively no effects on dental hard tissues due to their poorly absorption by water and hydroxyapatite. Objectives: The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficiency of diode laser to assist the clot formation after tooth extraction for type II diabetes patients with minimum temperature elevation to prevent periodontal destruction. Materials and methods: From 12 type II diabetes patients (7 males and 5 females wi
... Show MoreIntroduction: Cutaneous leishmaniasis is considered a parasitic contagion resulting from the flagellated parasite belonging to the genus of Leishmania. Also, cutaneous leishmaniasis is a zoonotic ailment transmitted through the bloodsucking sand-flies bite (belonging to the Phlebotomus genus). The disease's reservoirs included wild or semi-domesticated animals, in general rodents and dogs. Tissue inhibitor metalloproteinase-1 (TIMP-1) is one of the extracellular matrix proteins that have a role in vessel wall degeneration and aneurysm development. In addition, it belongs to the zinc-dependent endopeptidases family that are involved in the degradation of connective tissues proteins which are included in vascular integrity maintenance. The Ge
... Show MoreA particle swarm optimization algorithm and neural network like self-tuning PID controller for CSTR system is presented. The scheme of the discrete-time PID control structure is based on neural network and tuned the parameters of the PID controller by using a particle swarm optimization PSO technique as a simple and fast training algorithm. The proposed method has advantage that it is not necessary to use a combined structure of identification and decision because it used PSO. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed adaptive PID neural control algorithm in terms of minimum tracking error and smoothness control signal obtained for non-linear dynamical CSTR system.
Metal complexes chrome(III), manganese(II), iron(III), cobalt(II), nickel(II), cupper(II) and zinc(II) with diazonium of 3-amino-2-chloropyridine of general formula [2-Cl-C5H3N≡N]n[MXm], where n=2 or 3 for divalent and trivalent metal, m= 4 or 6 were synthesized. The complexes have been characterized by flame atomic absorption, (C.H.N), molar conductance, magnetic susceptibility UV-vis spectra, infrared spectra,1H-NMR spectroscopy and thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA and DTA). The measurements showed that the divalent metal ion complexes (M2+) have (1:2) M:L ratio with tetrahedral geometry around metal ions while the trivalent metal ions (M3+) formed (1:3) m
... Show MoreStudies on the flexural behavior of post-tensioned beams subjected to strand damage and strengthened with near-surface mounted (NSM) technique using carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) are limited and fail to examine the effect of CFRP laminates on strand strain and strengthening efficiency systematically. Furthermore, a design approach for UPC structures in existing design guidelines for FRP strengthening techniques is lacking. Hence, the behavior of post-tensioned beams strengthened with NSM-CFRP laminates after partial strand damage is investigated in this study. The testing program consists of seven post-tensioned beams strengthened by NSM-CFRP laminates with three partial strand damage ratios (14.3% symmetrical damage, 14.3%
... Show MoreEncasing glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) beam with reinforced concrete (RC) improves stability, prevents buckling of the web, and enhances the fire resistance efficiency. This paper provides experimental and numerical investigations on the flexural performance of RC specimens composite with encased pultruded GFRP I-sections. The effect of using shear studs to improve the composite interaction between the GFRP beam and concrete was explored. Three specimens were tested under three-point loading. The deformations, strains in the GFRP beams, and slippages between the GFRP beams and concrete were recorded. The embedded GFRP beam enhanced the peak loads by 65% and 51% for the composite specimens with and without shear connectors,
... Show MoreA significant increase in the incidence of non-O157 verotoxigenic Escherichia coli (VTEC) infections have become a serious health issues, and this situation is worsening due to the dissemination of plasmid mediated multidrug-resistant microorganisms worldwide. This study aims to investigate the presence of plasmid-mediated verotoxin gene in non-O157 E. coli. Standard microbiological techniques identified a total of 137 E. coli isolates. The plasmid was detected by Perfectprep Plasmid Mini preparation kit. These isolates were subjected to disk diffusion assay, and plasmid curing with ethidium bromide treatment. The plasmid containing isolates were subjected to a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for investigating
... Show MoreThe novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) caused a pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) which represents a global public health crisis. Based on recent published studies, this review discusses current evidence related to the transmission, clinical characteristics, diagnosis, management and prevention of COVID-19. It is hoped that this review article will provide a benefit for the public to well understand and deal with this new virus, and give a reference for future researches.