The increasing population growth resulting in the tremendous increase in consumption of fuels, energy, and petrochemical products and coupled with the depletion in conventional crude oil reserves and production make it imperative for Nigeria to explore her bitumen reserves so as to meet her energy and petrochemicals needs. Samples of Agbabu bitumen were subjected to thermal cracking in a tubular steel reactor operated at 10 bar pressure to investigate the effect of temperature on the cracking reaction. The gas produced was analyzed in a Gas Chromatograph while the liquid products were subjected to Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis. Heptane was the dominant gas produced in bitumen cracking at all temperatures and the r

Thin films of Nb2O5 have been successfully deposited using the DC reactive magnetron sputtering technique to manufacture NH3 gas sensors. These films have been annealed at a high temperature of 800°C for one hour. The assessment of the Nb2O5 thin films structural, morphological, and electrical characteristics was carried out using several methods such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), Hall effect measurements, and sensitivity assessments. The XRD analysis confirms the polycrystalline composition of the Nb2O5 thin films with a hexagonal crystal structure. Furthermore, the sensitivity, response time, and recovery time of the gas sensor were evaluated for the Nb2O5 thin film

The recent studies suggested the possible toxicities or genetic alterations associated with biological and medical applications of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). The current research is directed to see if AgNPs administration can lead to some changes in expression of BRAF gene in selected body organs tissues. Fifty-six male of musmusculs (Balb/C) mice from the animal house of Al-Nahrain Centre of Biotechnology were used. These animals were divided randomly to seven groups (eight mouse in each group), one of these groups represented the control group, three groups were subjected to different doses of AgNPs (0.25, 0.5and 1 mg/kg of body weight) for one week, and the remaining three groups were subjected to three different doses of AgNP

   Ni-Co-Mn-Mg ferrite nanoparticles with the formula (Ni,Co)xMn0.25-xMg0.75Fe2O4 were synthesized in this work by employing the sol-gel auto-combustion process, with nitrates used as the cations source and citric acid (C6H8O7) as the combustion agent. X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), and a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) were used to characterize the structural, morphological, and magnetic properties of ferrite powders. The XRD measurements showed crystallite sizes ranging between 24 - 28 nm. The FE-SEM images show the presence of agglomeration as well as a non-homogeneous distribution of the samples. On the other hand, the stoichiometry of the react

Acinetobacter baumannii is highly adapted to hospital environments, causing persistent chronic infections due to its ability to form biofilms. In this work, the antibiofilm activity of AuNPs with a subMIC concentration of 9.34 μg/ml was investigated by the microtiter plate method against 80 clinical isolates of A. baumannii. The results revealed that the biofilm was significantly (P< 0.05) reduced by 48.2 – 82.1%.

Gold nanoparticles AuNPs have proven to be powerful tools in various nanomedicine applications, because of their photo-optical distinctiveness and biocompatibility. Noble metal gold nanoparticles was prepared by pulsed laser ablation method (1064-Nd: YAG with various Laser power from 200 to 800 mJ and 1 Hz frequency) in distil water. The process was characterized using UV-VIS absorption spectroscopy. Morphology and average size of nanoparticles were estimated using AFM and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis which show the nature of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). Antibacterial activity of gold nanoparticles as a function of particles concentration against gram negative bacterium Escherichia coli and gram positive bacterial Staphylococcus aureu

This study was carried out to prepare and characterize domperidone nanoparticles to enhance solubility and the release rate. Domperidone is practically insoluble in water and has low and an erratic bioavailability range from 13%-17%. The domperidone nanoparticles were prepared by solvent/antisolvent precipitation method at different polymer:drug ratios of 1:1 and 2:1 using different polymers and grades of poly vinyl pyrolidone, hydroxy propyl methyl cellulose and sodium carboxymethyl cellulose as stabilizers. The effect of polymer type, ratio of polymer:drug, solvent:antisolvent ratio, stirring rate and stirring time on the particle size, were investigated and found to have a significant (p? 0.05) effect on particle size. The best formul

Microbial antibiotics resistance is considered a serious health issue in the Middle East and developing countries. In this study, the Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles was prepared chemically, and the particles size and shape were analyzed by using Scan electron microscope (SEM) and X-Ray diffraction (XRD). Different concentration of Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles were used and examined on E.coli and S. aureus. Using liquid dilution and in vitro cytotoxicity assay by microplate toxicity test (MTT). The microbial cell metabolic activity was measured on gram-negative, gram-positive bacteria and fungi after treating with different concentrations of Fe₂O₃ nanoparticl

This study aimed to develop a stable nanosuspension of repaglinide and improve its dissolution, using the Nano-precipitation method, involving a different concentration of a stabilizer, different co-stabilizers and different solvents. Employment of a systemic approach to optimize the formulation parameters, including stabilizer concentration, solvent choice and co-stabilizer election. Soluplus® (SOL) was used as the primary stabilizer for this research, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), poloxamer 188 (PXM 188), tween 80 (TW80), and polyvinyl pyrrolidine (PVP k30) were investigated as co-stabilizers to prevent particle agglomeration and ensure long-term stability. In addition to ethanol as a primary solvent, acetone and chloroform were used