Microplastics (MPs), including polymers such as polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and polystyrene (PS), are widespread environmental contaminants detected in air, water, soil, and food. These particles originate from the breakdown of larger plastics and from direct industrial and consumer sources, including packaging, textiles, and personal care products. MPs enter the human body primarily through ingestion, inhalation, and dermal contact, with food, water, and air serving as major exposure pathways. Once internalized, MPs have been found in various human tissues and biological fluids, indicating their capacity for bioaccumulation. Toxicological studies in experimental models and occupational settings link MP exposure to oxidative stress, inflammation, cellular dysfunction, and potential organ toxicity, including effects on the gastrointestinal, respiratory, immune, reproductive, and nervous systems. PVC microplastics, in particular, are associated with liver toxicity and increased cancer risk in occupationally exposed populations. MPs can also act as vectors for environmental pollutants and plastic-associated chemicals, further amplifying health risks. This review summarizes the classification, major sources, exposure routes, and toxicological activity of MPs. A comprehensive understanding of MP properties is essential for developing effective strategies to mitigate their persistent harmful effects on public health and the environment. Copyright © 2025. Published by Elsevier Inc.
Two unsupervised classifiers for optimum multithreshold are presented; fast Otsu and k-means. The unparametric methods produce an efficient procedure to separate the regions (classes) by select optimum levels, either on the gray levels of image histogram (as Otsu classifier), or on the gray levels of image intensities(as k-mean classifier), which are represent threshold values of the classes. In order to compare between the experimental results of these classifiers, the computation time is recorded and the needed iterations for k-means classifier to converge with optimum classes centers. The variation in the recorded computation time for k-means classifier is discussed.
This work implements an Electroencephalogram (EEG) signal classifier. The implemented method uses Orthogonal Polynomials (OP) to convert the EEG signal samples to moments. A Sparse Filter (SF) reduces the number of converted moments to increase the classification accuracy. A Support Vector Machine (SVM) is used to classify the reduced moments between two classes. The proposed method’s performance is tested and compared with two methods by using two datasets. The datasets are divided into 80% for training and 20% for testing, with 5 -fold used for cross-validation. The results show that this method overcomes the accuracy of other methods. The proposed method’s best accuracy is 95.6% and 99.5%, respectively. Finally, from the results, it
... Show MoreChange detection is a technology ascertaining the changes of
specific features within a certain time Interval. The use of remotely
sensed image to detect changes in land use and land cover is widely
preferred over other conventional survey techniques because this
method is very efficient for assessing the change or degrading trends
of a region. In this research two remotely sensed image of Baghdad
city gathered by landsat -7and landsat -8 ETM+ for two time period
2000 and 2014 have been used to detect the most important changes.
Registration and rectification the two original images are the first
preprocessing steps was applied in this paper. Change detection using
NDVI subtractive has been computed, subtrac
Diabetes imposes a substantial public health burden; according to the International Diabetes Federation, there were about 3.4 million diabetes related deaths worldwide in 2024, and in Iraq, the Federation reports that one in nine adults lives with diabetes in 2024, with 14,683 adult deaths attributable to diabetes and a total diabetes related health expenditure of 2,078 million United States dollars. The dataset analyzed in this study contains 1,000 records collected in 2020 from two Iraqi teaching hospitals and includes multiple clinical and laboratory measurements with three outcome classes, namely Non diabetic, Pre diabetic, and Diabetic, with a low prevalence of the Pre diabetic class and an imbalanced overall class distribution; the da
... Show MoreData generated from modern applications and the internet in healthcare is extensive and rapidly expanding. Therefore, one of the significant success factors for any application is understanding and extracting meaningful information using digital analytics tools. These tools will positively impact the application's performance and handle the challenges that can be faced to create highly consistent, logical, and information-rich summaries. This paper contains three main objectives: First, it provides several analytics methodologies that help to analyze datasets and extract useful information from them as preprocessing steps in any classification model to determine the dataset characteristics. Also, this paper provides a comparative st
... Show MoreDeep learning convolution neural network has been widely used to recognize or classify voice. Various techniques have been used together with convolution neural network to prepare voice data before the training process in developing the classification model. However, not all model can produce good classification accuracy as there are many types of voice or speech. Classification of Arabic alphabet pronunciation is a one of the types of voice and accurate pronunciation is required in the learning of the Qur’an reading. Thus, the technique to process the pronunciation and training of the processed data requires specific approach. To overcome this issue, a method based on padding and deep learning convolution neural network is proposed to
... Show Morehe effect of different cultural conditions on production of bioemulsifier from Serratia marcescens S10 was determined; different carbon and nitrogen sources were used such as: different oils include: edible (vegetable) oils (olive oil, sesame oil, sun flower oil and corn oil) and heavy oils (oil 150, oil 60, oil 40) as carbon sources and (NH4Cl, casein, (NH4)2SO4, peptone, tryptone, gelatin and yeast extract) as nitrogen sources were added to production media. Bioemulsifier was estimated by measuring the surface tension (S.T), emulsification activity (E.A) and emulsification index (E24%). The best results of bioemulsifier production from Serratia marcescens S10 were obtained at pH8 and incubated at 37ºC for 5days, using sesame oil
... Show MoreResearching performance audits according to the dimensions of financial sustainability in light of the scarcity of resources and economic and social transformations in the business environment is of utmost importance in the non-profit non-governmental organizations in achieving the goals and correct the path and address deviations, and help them in improving the outputs of processes and associated procedures and capacity The research was based on the hypothesis that the existence of a performance audit program in accordance with the dimensions of financial sustainability leads to the measurement of the commitment of the Olympic Committee. National Iraqi indicators of financial sustainability of the dimension of revenue in order to improv
... Show MoreThis study assessed the quality of hand-dug drinking water sources in Eku and its environs at Eku I, Samagidi, Eku 2, and Okuechi, using the weighted arithmetic water quality index method. Water samples collected from hand-dug wells at these locations returned values for analyzed parameters. Temperature 26 – 30(⁰C), dissolved Oxygen (D.O) 5.2-8mg/l, biological oxygen demand (BOD) 5.2-8(mg/l), Electrical Conductivity (EC) 77-119(µS/cm), Total suspended solids were (TSS) 20000-120000(mg/l), pH 5.31-7.09, Phosphates 2-9.2(mg/l), Alkalinity 28-160(mg/l), Turbidity, 0.02 -0.19(NTU) Total coliform 2 -48 (cfu/ml) and fungal count 1-502. Variations in the values of these parameters were only significant for phosphate, alkalinity, and turb
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