The present work aims to study the possibility of utilization a forward osmosis desalination process as an alternative method to extract water from brine solution rejected from reverse osmosis process.
Experiments conducted in a laboratory–scale forward osmosis (FO) unit in cross flow flat sheet membrane cell yielded water flux ranging from (0.0315 to 0.56 L/m2 .min) when using CTA membrane,and ranging from (0.419 to 2.785 L/m2 .min) for PA membrane under 0.4 bar. Two possible membrane orientations were tested. Sodium chloride with high concentrations was used as draw solution solute. The effect of membrane orientation on internal concentration polarization (ICP) was studied. Two regimes of ICP; dilutive and concentrative were described and characterized and their governing equations were applied. Also the effect of draw and feed solution concentrations and flow rate were studied. It was found that the experimental water flux were lower than the theoretical water flux. Using of PA membrane under pressure was resulted in a higher flux of desalinated water than when CTA used alone without pressure
under the same operating conditions.
Levan is an exopolysaccharide produced by various microorganisms and has a variety of applications. In this research, the aim was to demonstrate the biological activity of levan which produced from B. phenoliresistens KX139300. These were done via study the antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anticancer and antileishmanial activities in vitro. The antioxidant levan was shown 80.9% activity at 1250 µg/mL concentration. The efficient anti-inflammatory activity of 88% protein inhibition was noticed with levan concentration at 35 µg/mL. The cytotoxic activity of levan at 2500 µg/mL concentration showed a maximum cytotoxic effect on L20B cell line and promastigotes of Leishmani tropica. Levan has dose-dependent anticancer and antileishman
... Show MoreTwenty purified isolates were obtained by using different soil sources, only twelve isolates belonging to Aspergillus genera depending on cultural and morphological characterization. The isolates were used as alkaline protease producer. The highest proteolytic, enzymatic activity (95.83U/ml) was obtained from
The Catharanthus roseus plant was extracted and converted to nanoparticles in this work. The Soxhlet method was used to extract alkaloid compounds from the Catharanthus roseus plant and converted them to the nanoscale. Chitosan polymer was used as a linking material and converted to Chitosan nanoparticles (CSNPs). The extracted alkaloids were linked with Chitosan nanoparticles by maleic anhydride to get the final product (CSNPs-Linker-alkaloids). The pure Chitosan, Chitosan nanoparticles, and CSNPs-Linker-alkaloids were characterized by X-ray diffractometer, and Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy. X-ray results show that all samples have an orthorhombic structure with crystallite size in nanodimensions. FTIR spectra prove that
... Show MoreModified algae with nano copper oxide (CuO) were used as adsorption media to remove tetracycline (TEC) from aqueous solutions. Functional groups, morphology, structure, and percentages of surfactants before and after adsorption were characterised through Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). Several variables, including pH, connection time, dosage, initial concentrations, and temperature, were controlled to obtain the optimum condition. Thermodynamic studies, adsorption isotherm, and kinetics models were examined to describe and recognise the type of interactions involved. Resultantly, the best operation conditions were at pH 7, contact time
... Show MoreThe current study was designed to explore the association between the pigments production and biofilm construction in local Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates. Out of 143 patients suffering from burns, urinary tract infections (UTI), respiratory tract infections and cystic fibrosis obtained from previous study by Mahmood (2015), twenty two isolates (15.38%) were identified from (11) hospitals in Iraq, splitted into three provinces, Baghdad, Al-Anbar and Karbala for the duration of June 2017 to April 2018. Characterization was carried out by using microscopical, morphological and biochemical methods which showed that all these isolates belong to P. aeruginosa. Screening of biofilm production isolates was carried out by usi
... Show MoreIntroduction and Aim: The pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-39, a member of the IL-12 family plays a key role in the inflammatory response by modulating immune cell activity and inflammation. A literature search shows no study undertaken for the effect of IL-39's on arthritis so far. Hence, the purpose of this study was to investigate the role of IL-39 in rheumatoid arthritis. Materials and Methods: This study involved 80 patients with rheumatoid arthritis registered at the Rheumatology Clinic at Baghdad teaching hospital. The patients were divided into three groups based on treatments received. Group 1 included patients who were not on any treatment for arthritis, Group 2 with patients on hydroxychloroquine and or prednisone treatment,
... Show MoreThe electrospun nanofibers membranes have gained considerable interest in water filtration applications. In this work, the fabrication and characterization of the electrospun polyacrylonitrile-based nonwoven nanofibers membrane are reported. Then, the membrane's performance and antifouling properties were evaluated in removing emulsified oil using a cross flow filtration system. The membranes were fabricated with different polyacrylonitrile (PAN) concentrations (8, 11, and 14 wt. %) in N, N-Dimethylformamide (DMF) solvent resulted in various average fiber sizes, porosity, contact angle, permeability, oil rejection, and antifouling properties. Analyses of surface morphology of the fabricated membranes before and after oil removal revealed
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