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
Melatonin is a potent scavenger of reactive oxygen species or free radicals like superoxide and hydroxyl radicals. The oxidation of hemoglobin to methemoglobin (meth-Hb) by oxidizing compounds has been widely studied. The present work was designed to evaluate the ability of different concentrations of melatonin to inhibit nitrite–induced oxidation of hemoglobin. Blood samples were obtained from apparently healthy individuals from which erythrocyte hemolysate was prepared. Different concentrations of melatonin (10-9-1.0 mg/ml) were incubated for 10 min with the hemolysate, then to the resultant mixture 1 ml of sodium nitrite (final concentration 0.6 mM) was added, and the
... Show MoreIn this work we prepared some schiff bases by condensation urea and benzaldehyde or its derevative ( bromo benzaldehyde or hydroxy benzaldehyde ) as ( 1 : 1 ) mole ( urea : benzaldehyde or its substitution ) to prepare compounds ( A1 , B1 , C1 , D1 , E1 , F1 , G1 ) and ( 1 : 2 ) mole ( urea : benzaldehyde or its substitution ) to prepare compounds ( A2 , B2 , C2 , D2 , E1 , F2 , G2 ) . The prepared compounds identified spectroscopic by infrared spectroscopy FT-IR and Thin layer chromotography T.L.C . The force constant calculated from the wave number for the carbonyl stretching from FT-IR chart and by using the following equation K = 4?2C2?'2? The change in double bond order for carbonyl deteremined in according with some past re
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This paper analyses the relationship between selected macroeconomic variables and gross domestic product (GDP) in Saudi Arabia for the period 1993-2019. Specifically, it measures the effects of interest rate, oil price, inflation rate, budget deficit and money supply on the GDP of Saudi Arabia. The method employs in this paper is based on a descriptive analysis approach and ARDL model through the Bounds testing approach to cointegration. The results of the research reveal that the budget deficit, oil price and money supply have positive significant effects on GDP, while other variables have no effects on GDP and turned out to be insignificant. The findings suggest that both fiscal and monetary policies should be fo
... Show MoreThe anatomic characteristics of the leaves of 22 taxa of Stachys L. representing seven of the currently recognized sections distributed in northern Iraq, were examined. The study did not found any variations in the characteristics of the stomata system of the leaves.Therewere variations with a good taxonomic value in other anatomic characteristics.Thevariations in characters of the mesophyll tissue in S.kurdica var.brevidens Bom ex Bhattacharjeewas bifacial but in S.kurdica var.kurdica Boiss. & Hohen.was unifacial .The study also found that the taxa S.benthamiana Bioss., S.lanigera (Bornm.) Rech.f. andS.kotscyi Bioss. with 3 vascular bundles in the middle vein while the taxa S.ballotiformis Vatke., S.megalodonta Hausskn. &Bornm.exP.H.Davis
... Show MoreThe aim of the research is to measure the efficiency of the companies in the industrial sector listed in the Iraqi Stock Exchange , by directing these companies to their resources (inputs) towards achieving the greatest possible returns (outputs) or reduce those resources while maintaining the level of returns to achieve the efficiency of these companies, therefore, in order to achieve the objectives of the research, it was used (Demerjian.et.al) model to measure the efficiency of companies and the factors influencing them. The researchers had got a number of conclusions , in which the most important of them is that 66.6% of the companies in the research sample do no
... Show MoreThis research Sought to identify the correlation relationships and the impact of each of the job description and perceived organizational support, Excellent Job performance of the heads of academic departments in the faculties of the University of Sulaymaniyah Iraqi Kurdistan Region, totaling (89) as President, and to achieve this was Default plan includes research variables as well as the formulation of a number of preparation fundamental assumptions, and researchers used a questionnaire for this purpose as a tool head of the collection of data and information, as it was distributed (80) copies, and the number of retrieved them (76) a copy of a valid statistical analysis, as well as conducting personal i
... Show MoreThe current study aims to investigate the effect of strategic knowledge management practices on an excellent performance at the Institution of Industrial Development and Research- the Ministry of Iraqi Industry (IDRMII). The present research is designed according to the descriptive method. To achieve the mentioned research objective, the researchers used the questionnaire as the main data collection tool. The research sample was 150 managers who are working at the top and middle management levels. To analyses the data gathered and reaching the results, several statistical techniques were used within AMOS.V25, SPSS.V21Software, This study reached a set of results, the most important of which is the existence of a positive correlat
... Show MoreOral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the most common malignant neoplasm of the oral mucosa. Human papillomavirus (HPV) virus cause a broad scope of diseases from benign to invasive tumors, types 16 and 18 classified as carcinogenic to humans. This study aimed to provide the first molecular characterization of HPV types in Iraq. Thirty-five unstimulated whole saliva samples were collected from histopathologically confirmed patients with oral cancer were enrolled in this study. Genomic DNA was extracted from exfoliating cells to amplify HPV-DNA using HPV-L1 gene sequence primers by polymerase chain reaction method (PCR), the viral genotyping was performed using direct sequencing method. HPV genotypes identified were deposited in Gen
... Show MoreRheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease its etiology is unknown. The classical autoimmune diseases, have adaptive immune genetic associations with autoantibodies and major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), diabetes mellitus type two (DM II). Serum of99 males suffering from RA without DMII as group (G1), 45 males suffering from RA with DM II as group (G2) and 40 healthy males as group (G3) were enrolled in this study to estimation of alkaline phosphates (ALP), C-reactive protein (CRP) and Pentraxin-3(PTX). Results showed a highly significant increase in PTX3 levels in G1 and G2 compared to G3 and a significant decrease in G1comparing to G2. Results also revealed a significa
... Show MoreRadioactive elements were identified in samples of imported coffee consumed in the province of Basra using gamma spectrometry SAM940TM. It is a scintillation detector of NaI(Tl) crystal and the dimensions of 2×2 inch. We have identified specific concentration As(Bq/kg) and annual effective dose D(Sv/y) for radioactive elements (_^40)K, (_^131)I, (_^134)Cs and (_^137)Cs. The estimated average effective dose for adults from coffee samples were found to be 0.037mSv/y, 88.434nSv/y, 46.909nSv/y, 27.212nSv/y for ((_^40)K,(_^131)I,(_^134)Cs,(_^137)Cs) respectively. The present results of the study revealed that the radioactivity was relatively low in the coffee and within the permissiblelimit.