Heavy metal (HM) pollution has long been a significant source of environmental deterioration and a problem for the safety of food. Iraqis prefer rice over any other food, and since heavy metals have a direct impact on health, their traces in rice have drawn particular attention. Before cooking rice, it is usual in Iraq to wash and soak it. Some 55 varieties of imported and local rice were sampled from Erbil city markets in 2022 with the aim of determining the concentration of As, Cd, Cr, Ni and Pb before and after soaking. Standard procedure of acid digestions was applied on the raw and soaked samples. The solutions were analyzed using ICPE-9820 Shimadzu. The mean concentrations of As, Cd, Cr, Ni and Pb (in mg/kg) in the rice samples before soaking was 0.655, 0.170, 0.160, 0.387, 0.489, respectively and after soaking 0.421, 0.109, 0.115, 0.124 and 0.336, respectively. The concentration of As and Pb was found to be beyond the optimum level of 0.2 mg/kg codex standards for rice; whereas Cd and Cr were within the proposed level of codex standards. Moreover, local rice showed higher concentration of (Cd and Cr), whereas (AS and Pb) concentration in imported rice was higher. Further, results validated that rice soaking can decrease levels of As, Cd, Cr, Ni and Pb (32.5%, 40.2%, 27.9%, 61.6% and 31.3%, respectively). These findings suggest that soaking as a kitchen practice has efficiency to evaporate metals and has a great influence on the reduction of toxic heavy metals and thus reduces exposure to toxic metals in rice
The present study aimed at examining the factors that affect the choice of A major among a sample of BA fe(male) students at the levels 3-8 in King Abdulaziz University (KAU), in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. To meet this objective, a descriptive survey method was used together with a questionnaire that consisted of 4 axes to answer the central question: What are the factors affecting the choice of a major at the university? Results have shown that the item that measured the students’ ability to choose the major ranked (First); it was concerned with the effect on the students' choice of his/her major in the university. On the last position and with respect to this effect came the professional tendencies and desires. Results have also shown tha
... Show MorePolyethersulfone (PES) ultrafiltration membrane blending NaX zeolite crystals as a hydrophilic additive was examined for zinc (II) and lead ions Pb (II) removal from aqueous solutions. The effect of NaX zeolite content on the permeation flux and removal efficiency was studied. The results showed that adding zeolite to the polymer matrix enhanced the permeation flux. The permeation flux of all the zeolite/PES matrix membranes was higher than the pristine membrane. No significant improvement was observed in the removal of Zn (II) ions using all prepared membranes as the removal percentage did not raise above 29.2%. However, the removal percentage of Pb (II) ions was enhanced to 97% using a membrane containing 0.9%wt. zeolite. Also, it was
... Show MoreThis study seeks to identify the possibility of achieving the property of faithful representation of accounting information and measure it by using the standard approach based on mathematical and statistical equations by comparing two financial periods before and after the application of (IFRS-15) Revenue from contracts with customers, during the period. (2014-2018), for the financial statements of the mixed joint stock companies listed on the Iraq Stock Exchange, which is one of the main pillars of the economic structure of the country, as a joint investment between the state and the private sector, and has importance in many aspects, including support for projects of public companies, S Absorption and employment of labor, as well as ra
... Show MoreTechnology is one of the important influences in the development of professions in general and the profession of tax auditing and examination in particular because of the importance of this section in the General Tax Authority because of the service it provides is auditing the financial accounts provided to the department by the taxpayers to ensure the correctness of revenue and the achievement of tax justice. Where the research aims at the importance of using electronic accounting information systems in developing the work of the Tax Audit and Examination Department, to reduce the difficulties that the department may be using using manual systems, which is the need for time and effort to accomplish it, and to develop methods and procedu
... Show MoreThe research aims to improve operational performance through the application of the Holonic Manufacturing System (HMS) in the rubber products factory in Najaf. The problem was diagnosed with the weakness of the manufacturing system in the factory to meet customers' demands on time within the available resources of machines and workers, which led to time delays of Processing and delivery, increased costs, and reduced flexibility in the factory, A case study methodology used to identify the reality of the manufacturing system and the actual operational performance in the factory. The simulation was used to represent the proposed (HMS) by using (Excel 2010) based on the actual data and calculate the operational performance measures
... Show MoreYohimbine is actually confirmed in the United States to be utilized for erectile dysfunction; and recently such drug has become commonly used in body-building communities for its presumed lipolytic and sympathomimetic effects. But ingestion of such drug can bring about epileptic neurotoxic effects.
Many antiepileptic drugs can be utilized to counteract myoclonic seizure; furthermore, diazepam can be used to oppose such type of seizure; in addition, surrogate therapeutic options such as omega 3 may also be utilized.
In this study, twenty-four (24) mice of both sexes weighing 20-25g were randomly-allocated into 4 groups (6 animals each group) as follows: Group I-
... Show MoreExperiments have been conducted to study the local and average heat transfer by mixed
convection for hydrodynamically fully developed, thermally developing and fully developed
laminar upward air flow in an inclined annulus with adiabatic inner cast iron tube and uniform
heated outer aluminum tube with an aspect ratio ( Ω = 0.72) and (L/Dh≈40) for both calming and
test sections). A wide range of Reynolds number from 859 to 2024 has been covered, and heat
flux has been varied from 159 W/m2 to 812 W/m2 (these values of heat flux and Reynolds
number gave Richardson number range from 0.03 to 0.٣٨), with angles of annulus inclination
φ =0o (horizontal position), φ =60o (inclined position), and φ =90o (vertical posi
Previous studies indicated that supplementation with antioxidants has a protective effects against oxidative stress–induced damage in type 2 diabetes. In this study we evaluated the antioxidant effects of melatonin on the oxidative stress parameters and microalbuminuria in type 2 DM patients. 30 patients with type 2 DM were treated with 3mg/day melatonin for 90 days. Erythrocytes and plasma MDA and glutathione, fasting plasma glucose, %HbAIC, microalbuminuria, total plasma protein and lipid profile were measured each 30 days and compared with those obtained from 20 healthy controls.
A decrease in MDA levels associated with the elevation in GSH levels were observed, compared with the pre–treatment levels.
... Show MoreIn the last few years, the literature conferred a great interest in studying the feasibility of using memristive devices for computing. Memristive devices are important in structure, dynamics, as well as functionalities of artificial neural networks (ANNs) because of their resemblance to biological learning in synapses and neurons regarding switching characteristics of their resistance. Memristive architecture consists of a number of metastable switches (MSSs). Although the literature covered a variety of memristive applications for general purpose computations, the effect of low or high conductance of each MSS was unclear. This paper focuses on finding a potential criterion to calculate the conductance of each MMS rather t
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