Water scarcity is one of the most important problems facing humanity in various fields such as economics, industry, agriculture, and tourism. This may push people to use low-quality water like industrial-wastewater. The application of some chemical compounds to get rid of heavy metals such as cadmium is an environmentally harmful approach. It is well-known that heavy metals as cadmium may induce harmful problems when present in water and invade to soil, plants and food chain of a human being. In this case, man will be forced to use the low quality water in irrigation. Application of natural materials instead of chemicals to remove cadmium from polluted water is an environmental friendly approach. Attention was drawn in this research work to use some natural minerals as zeolite, bentonite and montmorillonite to adsorb cadmium element from polluted water. Various concentrations of cadmium in solutions 10, 30 and 50 ppm were treated with three different ratios of each mineral; 1, 3 and 5% (W/V). The obtained results proved that increasing the ratio of amendments to 5% increased Cd adsorption from solution particularly at 50ppm Cd. Zeolite obtained the highest ratio of adsorption (47.90 ppm), followed by montmorillonite (44.99 ppm) and the lowest was bentonite (38.97 ppm). Therefore, it can be recommended that addition of zeolite is the most favorable material to remove Cd element from polluted water.
Background: Isoxazoles are an important class of five-membered unsaturated heterocyclic compounds. They show several applications in diverse areas such as pharmaceuticals, agrochemistry and industry. Isoxazoles are also found in natural sources showing insecticidal, plant growth regulation and pigment functions. Current study was conducted for synthesis of twenty five new Isoxazole derivatives and to evaluate the in vitro antibacterial activities of these derivatives. Methods: Benzaldoxime and their substituted [I] ae were prepared via addition-elimination reactions between aromatic aldehyde and hydroxylamine hydrochloride. In a second step, para-or meta-substituted benzaldoximes [I] ae were reacted with N-chlorosucceinimide in DMF to yield
... Show MoreFlexible pavements are considered an essential element of transportation infrastructure. So, evaluations of flexible pavement performance are necessary for the proper management of transportation infrastructure. Pavement condition index (PCI) and international roughness index (IRI) are common indices applied to evaluate pavement surface conditions. However, the pavement condition surveys to calculate PCI are costly and time-consuming as compared to IRI. This article focuses on developing regression models that predict PCI from IRI. Eighty-three flexible pavement sections, with section length equal to 250 m, were selected in Al-Diwaniyah, Iraq, to develop PCI-IRI relationships. In terms of the quantity and severity of eac
... Show MoreCopper oxide (CuO) nanoparticles were synthesized through the thermal decomposition of a copper(II) Schiff-base complex. The complex was formed by reacting cupric acetate with a Schiff base in a 2:1 metal-to-ligand ratio. The Schiff base itself was synthesized via the condensation of benzidine and 2-hydroxybenzaldehyde in the presence of glacial acetic acid. This newly synthesized symmetric Schiff base served as the ligand for the Cu(II) metal ion complex. The ligand and its complex were characterized using several spectroscopic methods, including FTIR, UV-vis, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, CHNS, and AAS, along with TGA, molar conductivity and magnetic susceptibility measurements. The CuO nanoparticles were produced by thermally decomposing the
... Show MoreThis paper proposes a neuro-fuzzy system to model β-glucosidase activity based on the reaction’s pH level and temperature. The developed fuzzy inference system includes two input variables (pH level and temperature) and one output (enzyme activity). The multi-input fuzzy inference system was developed in two stages: first, developing a single input-single output fuzzy inference system for each input variable (pH, temperature) separately, using the robust adaptive network-based fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) approach. The neural network learning techniques were used to tune the membership functions based on previously published experimental data for β-glucosidase. Second, each input’s optimized membership functions from the ANF
... Show MoreDespite the global economic downturn, online e-commerce, especially the sale of counterfeit goods, continues to witness a rise in sales, and one of the important players in e-commerce is the owners of e-commerce auction sites. Although they do not have a direct role in trademark infringement, they still consider them indirectly responsible (secondary liability) for infringing on their trademarks. Thus, many cases have been filed by the owners of the original trademarks (which have been infringed by persons who have sold some of the goods and products that are imitating their marks through some electronic auctions) against the owners of those auctions. In view of the international character of the Internet, in different countries, and despit
... Show MoreMetal and metal oxide NPs have shown to be perfectly synthesized by using plant extracts with high efficiency, low cost and low toxicity. Our goal was to synthesize ZnO NPs by using an extract of pomegranate seeds and investigate the anticorrosion, antimicrobial and antioxidant properties of the synthesized ZnO NPs. The results have shown that the use of pomegranate in the green synthesis of ZnO NPs gave a good yield, with a low cost and non-toxic approach. The electrophoretic deposition (EPD) was used to coat stainless steel (S.S) by synthesized ZnO NPs in an alcoholic solution at room temperature producing a good coating against corrosion. The corrosion properties were investigated in a saline solution and a temperature range of (293–32
... Show MoreSpecific microorganisms can produce bacterial nanocellulose (BNC), with acetic acid bacteria (AAB) being the most active producer. The family Acetobacteraceae includes the obligate aerobic, motile acetic acid bacteria. The BNC has attracted a lot of interest across a wide range of industries, including pharmaceuticals, due to its flexible characteristics, properties, and advantages. The present study was conducted to purify and characterize BNC produced from AAB isolated from apple vinegar. Bacterial nanocellulose was synthesized using a natural date palm liquid medium at pH 6 at 30°C for 8–10 days. The bacterial cellulose produced was then purified using a technique involving 0.1 M sodium hydroxide. To ascertain the surface mor
... Show MoreSix isolates of Bacillus thuringiensis were isolated from Iraqi soil characterized as non- insecticidal and non- hemolytic parasporal inclusion proteins. Bacterial isolates were propagated on nutrient broth. Then, the parasporal inclusion proteins were extracted and processed with proteinase K and trypsin. The major protein segments produced of 64KDa were characterized and tested for cytocidal activity against human leukemic T- cells (CLL) (Chronic lymphoid leukemia). Results indicated that the treated parasporal proteins of four isolates (Bt2, Bt3, Bt4 and Bt6) showed strong cytotoxicity with no significant differences between normal lymphocytes and leukemic lymphocytes. Two isolates BtA1 and BtA5 show discriminative cytotoxicity between n
... Show More