Activation of farnesoid X receptor (FXR) markedly attenuates development of atherosclerosis in animal models. However, the underlying mechanism is not well elucidated. Here, we show that the FXR agonist, obeticholic acid (OCA), increases fecal cholesterol excretion and macrophage reverse cholesterol transport (RCT) dependent on activation of hepatic FXR. OCA does not increase biliary cholesterol secretion, but inhibits intestinal cholesterol absorption. OCA markedly inhibits hepatic cholesterol 7α‐hydroxylase (
This paper reports the effect of Mg doping on structural and optical properties of ZnO prepared by pulse laser deposition (PLD). The films deposited on glass substrate using Nd:YAG laser (1064 nm) as the light source. The structure and optical properties were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmittance measurements. The films grown have a polycrystalline wurtzite structure and high transmission in the UV-Vis (300-900) nm. The optical energy gap of ZnO:Mg thin films could be controlled between (3.2eV and 3.9eV). The refractive index of ZnO:Mg thin films decreases with Mg doping. The extinction coefficient and the complex dielectric constant were also investigate.
Titanium oxide nanoparticles-modified smectite (SMC-nTiO2) as a low-cost adsorbent was investigated for the removal of Rhodamine B (RhB) from aqueous solutions. The adsorbents (SMC and SMC-nTiO2) were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy, and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The effects of various parameters like contact time, adsorbent weight, pH, and temperatures were examined. Three kinetic equations (pseudo-first-order (PFO), pseudo-second-order (PSO), and intra-particle diffusion) were used to evaluate the experimental kinetic of the data and the results showed that the adsorption process is in line with the PSO kinetic model. Adsorption equilibrium isotherms were modeled using La
... Show MoreThis article reviews the technical applicability of nanofiltration membrane process for the removal of nickel, lead, and copper ions from industrial wastewater.
Synthetic industrial wastewater samples containing Ni(II), Pb(II), and Cu(II) ions at various concentrations (50, 100, 150 and 200 ppm), under different pressures (1, 2, 3 and 4 bar), temperatures (10, 20, 30 and 40 oC), pH (2, 3, 4, 5 and 5.5), and flow rates (1, 2, 3 and 4 L/hr), were prepared and subjected treated by NF systems in the laboratory. Suitable NF membrane was chosen after testing a number of NF membranes (University of Technology-Baghdad), in terms of production and removal. NF system was capable of removing more than (85%, 78%, and 66% for Ni(II
... Show MoreSustainable crop production in a coarse soil texture is challenging due to high water permeability and low soil water holding capacity. In this paper, subsurface water retention technology (SWRT) through impermeable polyethylene membranes was placed at depth 35 cm below ground surface and within the root zone to evaluate and compare the impact of these membranes and control treatment (without using the membranes) on yield and water use efficiency of eggplant inside the greenhouse. The study was conducted in Al-Fahamah Township, Baghdad, Iraq during spring growing season 2017. Results demonstrated the yield and water use efficiencies were 3.483 kg/m2 and 5.653 kg/m3, respectively for SWRT treatment p
... Show MoreOptical properties of chromium oxide (Cr2O3) thin films which were prepared by pulse laser deposition method, onto glass substrates. Different laser energy (500-900) mJ were used to obtain Cr2O3 thin films with thickness ranging from 177.3 to 372.4 nm were measured using Tolansky method. Then films were annealed at temperature equal to 300 °C. Absorption spectra were used to determine the absorption coefficient of the films, and the effects of the annealing temperature on the absorption coefficient were investigated. The absorption edge shifted to red range of wavelength, and the optical constants of Cr2O3 films increases as the annealing temperature increased to 300 °C. X-ray diffraction (XRD) study reveals that Cr2O3 thin films are a
... Show MoreBeryllium Zinc Oxide (BexZn1-xO) ternary nano thin films were deposited using the pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique under a vacuum condition of 10-3 torr at room temperature on glass substrates with different films thicknesses, (300, 600 and 900 nm). UV-Vis spectra study found the optical band gap for Be0.2Zn0.8O to be (3.42, 3.51 and 3.65 eV) for the (300, 600 and 900nm) film thicknesses, respectively which is larger than the value of zinc oxide ZnO (3.36eV) and smaller than that of beryllium oxide BeO (10.6eV). While the X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern analysis of ZnO, BeO and Be 0.2 Zn 0.8 O powder and nano-thin films indicated a hexa
... Show MoreIn this research, Mn-doped TiO2 thin films were grown on glass, Si and OIT/glass substrates by R.F magnetron sputtering technique with thicknesses (250 nm) using TiO2:Mn target under Ar gas pressure and power of 100 Watt. Through the results of X-ray diffraction, the prepared thin films are of the polycrystallization type after the process of annealing at 600°C for two hour The average crystalline size were 145.32, 280.97 and 261.23 nm for (TiO2:Mn) thin film on glass, Si and OIT/glass substrates respectively, while the measured surface roughness is between 0.981nm and 1.14 nm. The fabricated (TiO2:Mn) thin film on glass sensors have high sensitivity for hydrogen( H2 reducing gas) compared to the sensitivity for hydrogen gas on Si and OIT/
... Show MoreIn this research, a group of gray texture images of the Brodatz database was studied by building the features database of the images using the gray level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM), where the distance between the pixels was one unit and for four angles (0, 45, 90, 135). The k-means classifier was used to classify the images into a group of classes, starting from two to eight classes, and for all angles used in the co-occurrence matrix. The distribution of the images on the classes was compared by comparing every two methods (projection of one class onto another where the distribution of images was uneven, with one category being the dominant one. The classification results were studied for all cases using the confusion matrix between every
... Show MoreBasically, this study aims to identify the extent to which Iraqi secondary school students use writing strategies and how proficiency level and students gender could affect writing strategy use. The study also examines the relationship between writing achievement and writing strategy use among Iraqi secondary school students. For this purpose, 140 Iraqi secondary school students were selected randomly from six different schools. Petric and Czarl’s questionnaire (2003) was adopted in the study as an instrument to collect the needed data. A software of SPSS used to analyze the collected data. The findings revealed that secondary school students appeared as low users of writing strategies; low proficient students do not show a sta
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