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
This research is focusing on finding more effective polymers that leads to enhance the rheological properties of Water Base Muds. The experiments are done for different types of mud for all substances which are Polyacrylamide, Xanthan gum, CMC (Carboxyl Methyl Cellulose). This study shows the effect of add polymer to red bentonite mud, effect of add polymer to Iraqi bentonite mud, the effect of add bentonite to polymer mud. The mud properties of Iraqi bentonite blank are enhanced after adding the polymers to the blank mix, CMC gives the highest value of plastic viscosity and Gel strength than others; X-anthan gives the highest value of yield point and gel strength than others. For the red bentonite mud, Polyacrylamide ha
... 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 MoreBackground: Mineral Trioxide Aggregate (MTA) and BiodentineTM cements are new materials with numerous exciting clinical applications. Both have appreciable properties which include good physical properties and the ability to stimulate tissue regeneration as well as good antibacterial effects. The aim of this study was to investigate and compare the antibacterial effects of MTA and BiodentineTM, when they were mixed with different concentrations of aqueous solutions of Black Seed extract, against Enterococcus faecalis. Materials and methods: MTA and BiodentineTMwere prepared according to the manufacturer’s instructions. The method of Mawlood was followed to prepare the Black Seed aqueous solution. Agar diffusion method on Brain Heart
... Show MoreIn this research ,Undoped Nio and 1%Li doped Nio thin films were deposited utilizing chemical spray pyrolysis on the glass substrates heated (450C). The effects of non-thermal plasma on the structural and optical properties were studied. XRD measurement shows that Nio and Nio:1%Li films were found to be polycrystalline and have cubic structure with a preferred orientation (111). Decreased crystal size after exposure especially at (7) sec. AFM data indicate that the surface roughness average and (RMS) values of the prepared doped films are increasing after exposure to plasma, the transmittance increases after doped samples exposure to plasma, it was found that the energy gap value decreased when doped samples exposure to plasma, also, thickn
... Show MoreThe present study develops the sorption model for simulating the effects of pH and temperature on the uptake of cadmium from contaminated water using waste foundry sand (WFS) by allowing the variation of the maximum adsorption capacity and affinity constant. The presence of two acidic functional groups with the same or different affinity is the basis in the derivation of the two models; Model 1 and Model 2 respectively. The developed Bi-Langmuir model with different affinity (Model 2) has a remarkable ability in the description of process under consideration with coefficient of determination > 0.9838 and sum of squared error < 0.08514. This result is proved by FTIR test where the weak acids responsible of cadmium ions removal
... Show MoreThe beet armyworm (BAW), Spodoptera exigua (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) is a highly destructive pest of vegetables and field crops. Management of beet armyworm primarily relies on synthetic pesticides, which is threatening the beneficial community and environment. Most importantly, the BAW developed resistance to synthetic pesticides with making it difficult to manage. Therefore, alternative and environment-friendly pest management tactics are urgently required. The use of pesticidal plant extracts provides an effective way for a sustainable pest management program. To evaluate the use of pesticidal plant extracts against BAW, we selected six plant species (Lantana camara, Aloe vera, Azadirachta indica, Cymbopogon citratus, Nicotiana tabacum ,
... Show MoreKamil, S.H. 2024. Effects of Aqueous and Alcoholic Extracts of Lemongrass, Cymbopogon citratus on Some Biological Aspects of the Fig Moth, Ephestia cautella. Arab Journal of Plant Protection, 42(3): 377-381. https://doi.org/10.22268/AJPP-001245 This study evaluated the effects of aqueous and ethanolic extracts of lemongrass on the third instar larvae of the date moth Ephestia cautella Walker (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae). The results obtained showed that there were toxic effects of aqueous extract, which produced the highest mortality rate of 43.35% at 5% concentration72 hours after treatment, whereas the lowest mortality rate of 17% was obtained at 0.5% concentration, 72 hours after treatment. The LC50 was 0.082%. The results indicated
... Show MoreThe tetradentate N2O2 Schiff base ligand, which is produced via the condensation reaction of 2-hydroxynaphthaldehyde with phthalohydrazide, is prepared in this work with a fair yield. The prepared ligand was characterized using a microanalysis technique (C.H.N), UV-vis, FTIR, 1H-,13C-NMR, mass spectrometry, and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). New complexes were synthesized by a reaction between ligand (N'1E,N'2Z)-N'1,N'2-bis((1-hydroxynaphthalen-2yl)methylene)phthalohydrazide and metal chloride of Co+2, Ni+2, and Zn+2 ions in absolute ethanol. The present complexes are also characterized by techniques such as C.H.N, UV-vis, FTIR, TGA, molar conductivity, atomic absorption, and magnetic moment measurements. The in vitro antimicro
... Show MoreThe current study aimed to use some bacterial isolates from the local soil of Baghdad city by study the effects of temperature, pH and incubation period on the growth rates of isolated bacteria and choose the optimal conditions for their diversity and for understanding bacterial growth and their requirements for survival and proliferation. This information can be applied to obtain their high growth rate for use in various fields such as agriculture, medicine and environmental sciences in the future. And it used to assess the degree of variation in across bacteria species in pH, temperature and incubation period. A number of local bacterial isolates as
This study involved the treatment of textile wastewater contaminated with direct blue 15 dye (DB15) using a heterogeneous photo-Fenton-like process. Bimetallic iron/copper nanoparticles loaded on bentonite clay were used as heterogeneous catalysts and prepared via liquid-phase reduction method using eucalyptus leaves extract (E-Fe/Cu@BNPs). Characterization methods were applied to resultant particles (NPs), including SEM, BET, and FTIR techniques. The prepared NPs were found with porous and spherical shapes with a specific surface area of particles was 28.589 m2/g. The effect of main parameters on the photo-Fenton-like degradation of DB15 was investigated through batch and continuous fixed-bed systems. In batch mode, pH, H2O2 dosage, DB15 c
... Show More