This study aimed to evaluate the health effects of exposure to particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10) and gaseous pollutants, including carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and sulfur dioxide (SO2), on the hematological parameters of workers exposed to charcoal grilling emissions in restaurants. Air pollutant concentrations were measured in six barbecue restaurants located in Al-Rusafa District, Baghdad, during December 2024 and January 2025. Nine measurements were recorded monthly during morning and evening peak cooking periods. Blood samples were collected from two groups: grilling workers exposed directly to charcoal smoke (n = 30) and customers from dining areas as the control group (n = 30). Hematological analyses included white blood cells (WBC), red blood cells (RBC), hemoglobin (HGB), hematocrit (HCT), platelets (PLT), and other blood indices. Statistical analyses were performed using independent t-tests and stepwise multiple linear regression analysis. The results showed that pollutant concentrations were consistently higher in grilling areas than in dining areas, especially during evening hours, due to intensive cooking activity and insufficient ventilation. PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations frequently exceeded World Health Organization (WHO) permissible limits in grilling areas, while CO, NO2, and SO2 also reached elevated levels. Significant increases (p ≤ 0.05) were observed in WBC, RBC, HGB, HCT, mean corpuscular volume (MCV), and PLT among exposed workers compared with the control group. Stepwise regression analysis demonstrated that CO2 was positively associated with WBC, HGB, RBC, MCV, and PLT, whereas PM10 and PM2.5 showed negative associations with several hematological parameters after adjustment for co-pollutants. These findings suggest that chronic exposure to indoor air pollutants generated from charcoal grilling may induce systemic inflammation, oxidative stress, and physiological adaptation to hypoxic conditions among restaurant workers.
This study was design to investigate the dimensional stability of heat-activated acrylic resin with different methods of flask cooling (15 minutes rapid cooling, one hour bench cooling, four hours delayed deflasking, and 24 hours delayed deflasking) at different time intervals (immediately, two days, seven days, 30 days) after deflasking. Heat-activated acrylic resin was used to prepare acrylic samples. Then, measurement of the distances where achieved between the centers of selected marks in the acrylic samples. They were measured at different time intervals for different methods of flask cooling. The results showed that the group samples of the four hours and 24 hours of delayed deflasking was insignificantly different from the control an
... Show MoreTime-domain spectral matching commonly used to define seismic inputs to dynamic analysis in terms of acceleration time history compatible with a specific target response spectrum is used in this study to investigate the second-order geometric effect of P-delta on the seismic response of base-isolated high-rise buildings. A synthetic time series is generated by adjusting reference time series that consist of available readings from a past earthquake of the 1940 El Centro earthquake adopted as an initial time series. The superstructure of a 20-story base isolated building is represented by a 3-D finite element model using ETABS software. The results of the base isolated building show that base isolation technique significantly reduces inter-s
... Show MoreThis study investigated the bioethanol production from green algae Chlorella vulgaris depending on its carbohydrate-enriched biomass. Four different phosphorous concentrations were employed to stimulate bioethanol production from Chlorella vulgaris. The impact of various phosphorous values on Chlorella vulgaris growth rate as well as primary product (carbohydrate) were evaluated. High performance liquid chromatography was utilized in this work. The stationary phase was identified as day 14, 12, 10 and 6 in treatments 6, 4, 2 and g/L, respectively. The findings suggest that the treatment without phosphorous addition had the highest record of carbohydrate content (22.64% dry weight) as well as the highest bioethanol yield (20.66% dry weight).
... Show MoreIndustrial dyes are major pollutants in wastewater and river water with an initial visible concentration of 1 mg/L. Recent studies have shown the possibility of using polyphenol oxidase in catalytic biological treatment due to its ability to oxidize a large number of dyes and pollutants in wastewater and the flexibility to work in wide ranges of temperature, pH and salinity. It is easy availability as well as the low economic cost resulting from its use in biological treatments, this enzyme polyphenol oxidase was used. The findings in this study showed that the extraction of polyphenol oxidase (PPO) from potato peel was homogenized with potassium phosphate buffer (0.1 M, pH 7) at a ratio of 1:10 (weight: volume) for two min. The res
... Show MoreBackground: Adipose derived-mesenchymal stem cells have been used as an alternative to bone marrow cells in this study. Objective: We investigated the in vitro isolation, identification, and differentiation of stem cells into neuron cells, in order to produce neuron cells via cell culture, which would be useful in nerve injury treatment. Method: Mouse adipose mesenchymal stem cells were dissected from the abdominal subcutaneous region. Neural differentiation was induced using β-mercaptoethanol. This study included two different neural stage markers, i.e. nestin and neurofilament light-chain, to detect immature and mature neurons, respectively. Results: The immunocytochemistry results showed that the use of β-mercaptoethanol resulted in
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