Contamination of surface and groundwater with excessive concentrations of fluoride is of significant health hazard. Adsorption of fluoride onto waste materials of no economic value could be a potential approach for the treatment of fluoride-bearing water. This experimental and modeling study was devoted to investigate for the first the fluoride removal using unmodified waste granular brick (WGB) in a fixed bed running in continuous mode. Characterization of WGB was carried out by FT-IR, SEM, and EDX analysis. The batch mode experiments showed that they were affected by several parameters including contact time, initial pH, and sorbent dosage. The best values of these parameters that provided maximum removal percent (82%) with the initial concentration of F-1 ions (10 mg/L) and agitation speed (200 rpm) were 90 min, 8, and 3 g/100 mL, respectively. The experimental data were found to fit the Freundlich isotherm model. The maximum adsorption capacity of fluoride on WGB was 1.1 mg/g. The continuous mode experiments clearly confirmed the important role of WGB bed in hindering and confining the propagation of the fluoride-loaded plume as well as there was a very good matching (RMSE ≤ 0.0398) with the predicted results obtained by the simulated mathematical model using COMSOL Multiphysics 3.5a software.
In this work, the photocatalytic degradation of indigo carmine (IC) using zinc oxide suspension was studied. The effect of influential parameters such as initial indigo carmine concentration and catalyst loading were studied with the effect of Vis irradiation in the presence of reused ZnO was also investigated. The increased in initial dye concentration decreased the photodegradation and the increased catalyst loading increased the degradation percentage and the reused-ZnO exhibits lower photocatalytic activity than the ZnO catalyst. It has been found that the photocatalytic degradation of indigo carmine obeyed the pseudo-first-order kinetic reaction in presence of zinc oxide. This was found from plotting the relationship between ln
... Show MoreIn a survey of the crabronid fauna of Iraq during June to October 2022; 9species belonging to the genus
The utilization and incorporation of glass fiber-reinforced plastics (GFRP) in structural applications and architectural constructions are progressively gaining prominence. Therefore, this paper experimentally and numerically investigates the use of GFRP I-beams in conjunction with concrete slabs to form composite beams. The experimental design incorporated 2600 mm long GFRP I-beams which were connected compositely to concrete slabs with a 500 mm width and 80 mm thickness. The concrete slabs are categorized into two groups: concrete slabs cast using normal-strength concrete (NSC), and concrete slabs prepared using high-strength concrete (HSC). Various parameters like the type of concrete (normal and high-strength concrete), type of
... Show MoreFlying Ad hoc Networks (FANETs) has developed as an innovative technology for access places without permanent infrastructure. This emerging form of networking is construct of flying nodes known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that fly at a fast rate of speed, causing frequent changes in the network topology and connection failures. As a result, there is no dedicated FANET routing protocol that enables effective communication between these devices. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the performance of the category of topology-based routing protocols in the FANET. In a surveillance system involving video traffic, four routing protocols with varying routing mechanisms were examined. Additionally, simulation experiments conduct
... Show MoreBis-anthraquinones with a unique molecular backbone, (+)-2,2’-epicytoskyrin A (epi) and (+)-1,1′-bislunatin (bis), was produced by endophytic fungi Diaporthe sp GNBP-10 associated with Gambir plant (Uncaria gambier). Epi and bis possess robust antimicrobial activity toward various pathogens. This study focus on knowing the optimum condition of epi and bis production from Diaporthe sp GNBP-10. A series of culture media with various nutrient compositions was investigated in epi and bis production. The content of epi and bis was determined by measuring the area under the curve from TLC-densitometric (scanner) experiment. The linear regression analysis was then applied to obtain the results. The optimi
... Show MoreThis paper proposes and tests a computerized approach for constructing a 3D model of blood vessels from angiogram images. The approach is divided into two steps, image features extraction and solid model formation. In the first step, image morphological operations and post-processing techniques are used for extracting geometrical entities from the angiogram image. These entities are the middle curve and outer edges of the blood vessel, which are then passed to a computer-aided graphical system for the second phase of processing. The system has embedded programming capabilities and pre-programmed libraries for automating a sequence of events that are exploited to create a solid model of the blood vessel. The gradient of the middle c
... Show MoreIn this paper, a novel flow control strategy which is the inlet throttled pump was used to design an angular velocity control system for rotary actuator. Inlet throttled systems have good performance in addition to their high efficiency compared to traditional valve controlled systems. The flow in the proposed system is adjusted by a valve that is positioned at the pump inlet with the purpose of reducing the energy loses across the valve. This regulated flow is used then to control the actuator angular velocity. The system was modeled and the open loop stability and performance were studied. In order to improve the system performance, Robust-Proportional-Integral-Derivative (RPID) and structured singular value (M@#@) controllers have been d
... Show MoreFlexible joint robot (FJR) manipulators can offer many attractive features over rigid manipulators, including light weight, safe operation, and high power efficiency. However, the tracking control of the FJR is challenging due to its inherent problems, such as underactuation, coupling, nonlinearities, uncertainties, and unknown external disturbances. In this article, a terminal sliding mode control (TSMC) is proposed for the FJR system to guarantee the finite-time convergence of the systems output, and to achieve the total robustness against the lumped disturbance and estimation error. By using two coordinate transformations, the FJR dynamics is turned into a canonical form. A cascaded finite-time sliding mode observer (CFTSMO) is construct
... Show MoreObjective: To evaluate the clinical significance of open diagnostic testicular biopsy as prognostic predictor of
successful sperm retrieval among azoospermic infertile patients.
Design: Prospective study.
Setting: Infertility clinic and assisted reproduction unit at the institute of embryo research and infertility
treatment, Baghdad University.
Patients: Sixty infertile azoospermic patients.
Intervention: Pieces of testicular tissue taking during open diagnostic multiple bilateral testicular biopsies was
prepared for histological examination and grouped according to well-defined histopathological patterns.
Measurement of testicular size and serum reproductive hormones (FSH, LH, Testosterone, and PRL) were done
In this paper, a Sokol-Howell prey-predator model involving strong Allee effect is proposed and analyzed. The existence, uniqueness, and boundedness are studied. All the five possible equilibria have been are obtained and their local stability conditions are established. Using Sotomayor's theorem, the conditions of local saddle-node and transcritical and pitchfork bifurcation are derived and drawn. Numerical simulations are performed to clarify the analytical results