Several toxigenic cyanobacteria produce the cyanotoxin (microcystin). Being a health and environmental hazard, screening of water sources for the presence of microcystin is increasingly becoming a recommended environmental procedure in many countries of the world. This study was conducted to assess the ability of freshwater cyanobacterial species Westiellopsis prolifica to produce microcystins in Iraqi freshwaters via using molecular and immunological tools. The toxigenicity of W. prolifica was compared via laboratory experiments with other dominant bloom-forming cyanobacteria isolated from the Tigris River: Microcystis aeruginosa, Chroococcus turigidus, Nostoc carneum, and Lyngbya sp. significant expression of mcyE gene and microcystin production was most evident in W. prolifica. Contrary to the prevailing concept that M. aeruginosa is a main microcystin producer in freshwaters around the world, no significant microcystin production was observed with this species throughout the time points studied in our laboratory methods. As for C. turigidus, N. carneum and Lyngbya sp., neither mcyE expression nor microcystin production was significant. Data from mcyE expression by RT-qPCR were generally in agreement with those obtained from microcystin quantification by ELISA. Interestingly, W. prolifica, which showed clear microcystin-producing ability in this study and which was not reported before in the literature to produce microcystin, can be added as a new microcystin producer to the list of toxigenic cyanobacteria.
The present work determines the particle size based only on the number of tracks detected in a cluster created by a hot particle on the CR-39 solid state nuclear track detector and depending on the exposure time. The mathematical model of the cross section developed here gives the relationship between alpha particle emitting from the (n, α) reaction and the number of tracks created and distribution of tracks created on the surface of the track detector. In an experiment performed during this work, disc of boron compound (boric acid or sodium tetraborate) of different weights were prepared and exposed to thermal neutron from the source. Chemical etching is processes of path formation in the detector, during which a suitable etching solut
... Show MoreThe modified Hummers method was applied to prepare graphene oxide (GO) from the graphite powder. Tin oxide nanoparticles with different loading (10-20 wt.%) supported on reduced graphene oxide were synthesized to evaluate the oxidative desulfurization efficiency. The catalyst was synthesized by the incipient wetness impregnation (IWI) technique. Different analysis methods like FT-IR, XRD, FESEM, AFM, and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) were utilized to characterize graphene oxide and catalysts. The XRD analysis showed that the average crystal size of graphene oxide was 6.05 nm. In addition, the FESEM results showed high metal oxide dispersions on the rGO. The EDX analysis shows the weight ratio of Sn is close to its theoretical weight.
... Show MoreWater quality planning relies on Biochemical Oxygen Demand BOD. BOD testing takes five days. The Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is increasingly used for water resource forecasting. This work designed a PSO technique for estimating everyday BOD at Al-Rustumiya wastewater treatment facility inlet. Al-Rustumiya wastewater treatment plant provided 702 plant-scale data sets during 2012-2022. The PSO model uses the daily data of the water quality parameters, including chemical oxygen demand (COD), chloride (Cl-), suspended solid (SS), total dissolved solids (TDS), and pH, to determine how each variable affects the daily incoming BOD. PSO and multiple linear regression (MLR) findings are compared, and their perfor
... Show MoreObjective: To determine the effectiveness of the Nursing Management Education Program upon the Nurse
Managers' Knowledge about planning in Nursing Management at Baghdad City Hospitals.
Methodology: A Quasi-experimental study in which a purposive "non-probability" sample of (50) Nurse
Managers was selected from Baghdad City Hospitals. These Managers were divided into two equal groups of
(25) Nurse Managers for each (study and control ones). A questionnaire was developed as a tool for data
collection. A pilot study was carried out to test the reliability of the questionnaire for the period from April 2nd to
June 20th 2007. The pre-post test approach was applied to the study and control groups as mean for the quasiexperime
The Neutron Fermi Age, t, and the neutron slowing down density, q (r, t) , have been measured for some materials such as Graphite and Iron by using gamma spectrometry system UCS-30 with NaI (Tl) detector. This technique was applied for Graphite and Iron materials by using Indium foils covered by Cadmium and the measurements done at the Indium resonance of 1.46 eV. These materials are exposed to a plane 241Am/Be neutron source with recent activity 38 mCi. The measurements of the Fermi Age were found to be t = 297 ± 21 cm2 for Graphite, t = 400 ± 28 cm2 for Iron. Neutron slowing down density was also calculated depending on the recent experimental t value and distance.
Influence of combined square nozzle with helical tape inserted in a constant heat flux tube on heat transfer enhancement for turbulent airflow for Reynolds number ranging from 7000 to 14500 were investigated experimentally. Three different pitch ratios for square nozzle (PR = 5.8, 7.7 and 11.6) according to three different numbers of square nozzle (N = 3, 4 and 5) and constant pitch ratios for helical tape were used. The results observed that the Nusselt number and friction factor for combination with winglets were found to be up to 33.8 % and 21.4 %, respectively higher than nozzle alone for pitch ratio PR=5.8. The maximum value of thermal performance for using combination with winglets was about 1.351 for pitch ratio= 5.8. Nusselt numb
... Show MoreA new class of higher derivatives for harmonic univalent functions defined by a generalized fractional integral operator inside an open unit disk E is the aim of this paper.
In subterranean coal seam gas (CSG) reservoirs, massive amounts of small-sized coal fines are released during the production and development stages, especially during hydraulic fracturing stimulation. These coal fines inevitably cause mechanical pump failure and permeability damage due to aggregation and subsequent pore-throat blockage. This aggregation behavior is thus of key importance in CSG production and needs to be minimized. Consequently, such coal fines dispersions need to be stabilized, which can be achieved by the formulation of improved fracturing fluids. Here, we thus systematically investigated the effectiveness of two additives (ethanol, 0.5 wt % and SDBS, 0.001 and 0.01 wt %) on dispersion stability for a wide range of condit
... Show MoreThe blade pitch angle (BPA) in wind turbine (WT) is controlled to maximize output power generation above the rated wind speed (WS). In this paper, four types of controllers are suggested and compared for BPA controller in WT: PID controller (PIDC), type-1 fuzzy logic controller (T1-FLC), type-2 fuzzy logic controller (T2-FLC), and hybrid fuzzy-PID controller (FPIDC). The Mamdani and Sugeno fuzzy inference systems (FIS) have been compared to find the best inference system used in FLC. Genetic algorithm (GA) and Particle swarm optimization algorithm (PSO) are used to find the optimal tuning of the PID parameter. The results of500-kw horizontal-axis wind turbine show that PIDC based on PSO can reduced 2.81% in summation error of power
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