Background and Aim: The use of food dyes can cause certain diseases, such as anemia and indigestion, along with other disorders, tumors, and even cancer. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the chemical nature and toxicity of some commercial dyes locally used in processed foods compared with standard food dyes. Materials and Methods: Three types of standard and commercial food color additives (Sunset Yellow, Tartrazine, and Carmoisine) were extensively examined. The chemical structures and functional groups of the dyes were evaluated by Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The melting temperatures of the dyes were also determined by chemical thermal analysis. The acute toxicity test to evaluate the standard and commercial food color safety was estimated by a range-finding study using 150 Wistar albino rats. Sub-groups were administered one of the three colors under study at doses of 2, 3, 4, and 5 g/kg body weight (BW) orally for 7 days. When no mortality was observed, an additional 15 g/kg BW was administered. Concerning the median lethal dose 50 (LD50), 38 rats were exploited using the up-and-down method. Results: Commercial dyes had lower melting points than standard colors. Regarding the range-finding study, rats receiving different doses of the dyes exhibited no signs of toxicity, no deaths, and no clinical or gross pathological signs throughout the 7 days of the experiment. However, the animals that were dosed with 15 g/kg BW of each dye showed signs of loss of appetite, tachycardia, drowsiness, and eventual death. The LD50 values of the commercial food dyes, particularly Sunset Yellow and Carmoisine, were lower than those of the standard dyes. Conclusion: Commercial food colors were more toxic to rats than standard food colors. Differences were observed between the purity of the standard and commercial dyes, and the latter ones contained different percentages of salt, indicating the occurrence of fraud in commercial markets. Keywords: acute toxicity, food colors, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, lethal dose 50, range-finding study.
This study was aimed to investigate the response surface methodology (RSM) to evaluate the effects of various experimental conditions on the removal of levofloxacin (LVX) from the aqueous solution by means of electrocoagulation (EC) technique with stainless steel electrodes. The EC process was achieved successfully with the efficiency of LVX removal of 90%. The results obtained from the regression analysis, showed that the data of experiential are better fitted to the polynomial model of second-order with the predicted correlation coefficient (pred. R2) of 0.723, adjusted correlation coefficient (Adj. R2) of 0.907 and correlation coefficient values (R2) of 0.952. This shows that the predicted models and experimental values are in go
... Show MoreThe consumption of dried bananas has increased because they contain essential nutrients. In order to preserve bananas for a longer period, a drying process is carried out, which makes them a light snack that does not spoil quickly. On the other hand, machine learning algorithms can be used to predict the sweetness of dried bananas. The article aimed to study the effect of different drying times (6, 8, and 10 hours) using an air dryer on some physical and chemical characteristics of bananas, including CIE-L*a*b, water content, carbohydrates, and sweetness. Also predicting the sweetness of dried bananas based on the CIE-L*a*b ratios using machine learn- ing algorithms RF, SVM, LDA, KNN, and CART. The results showed that increasing the drying
... Show MoreRapid worldwide urbanization and drastic population growth have increased the demand for new road construction, which will cause a substantial amount of natural resources such as aggregates to be consumed. The use of recycled concrete aggregate could be one of the possible ways to offset the aggregate shortage problem and reduce environmental pollution. This paper reports an experimental study of unbound granular material using recycled concrete aggregate for pavement subbase construction. Five percentages of recycled concrete aggregate obtained from two different sources with an originally designed compressive strength of 20–30 MPa as well as 31–40 MPa at three particle size levels, i.e., coarse, fine, and extra fine, were test
... Show MoreGlass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) beams have gained attention due to their promising mechanical properties and potential for structural applications. Combining GFRP core and encasing materials creates a composite beam with superior mechanical properties. This paper describes the testing encased GFRP beams as composite Reinforced Concrete (RC) beams under low-velocity impact load. Theoretical analysis was used with practical results to simulate the tested beams' behavior and predict the generated energies during the impact loading. The impact response was investigated using repeated drops of 42.5 kg falling mass from various heights. An analysis was performed using accelerometer readings to calculate the generalized inertial load
... Show More
In the current study, synthesis and characterization of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) before and after functionalization with ampicillin antibiotic and their application as anti-pathogenic agents towards bacteria were investigated. AgNPs were synthesized by a green method from AgNO3 solution with glucose subjected to microwave radiation. Characterization of the nanoparticles was conducted using UV-Vis spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), zeta potential determination and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. From SEM analysis, the typical silver nanoparticle particle size was found to be 30 nm and Zeta potential measurements gave information about particle stability. Analysis of FTIR patterns and UV-VIS spectroscopy con
... Show MoreThe ground state properties including the density distributions of the neutrons, protons and matter as well as the corresponding root mean square (rms) radii of proton-rich halo candidates 8B, 12N, 23Al and 27P have been studied by the single particle Bear– Hodgson (BH) wave functions with the two-body model of (core+p). It is found that the rms radii of these proton-rich nuclei are reproduced well by this model and the radial wave functions describe the long tail of the proton and matter density distributions. These results indicate that this model achieves a suitable description of the possible halo structure. The plane wave Born approximation (PWBA) has been used to compute the elastic charge form factors.
The issue of increasing the range covered by a wireless sensor network with restricted sensors is addressed utilizing improved CS employing the PSO algorithm and opposition-based learning (ICS-PSO-OBL). At first, the iteration is carried out by updating the old solution dimension by dimension to achieve independent updating across the dimensions in the high-dimensional optimization problem. The PSO operator is then incorporated to lessen the preference random walk stage's imbalance between exploration and exploitation ability. Exceptional individuals are selected from the population using OBL to boost the chance of finding the optimal solution based on the fitness value. The ICS-PSO-OBL is used to maximize coverage in WSN by converting r
... Show MoreThe dynamic behavior of laced reinforced concrete (LRC) T‐beams could give high‐energy absorption capabilities without significantly affecting the cost, which was offered through a combination of high strength and ductile response. In this paper, LRC T‐beams, composed of inclined continuous reinforcement on each side of the beam, were investigated to maintain high deformations as predicted in blast resistance. The beams were tested under four‐point loading to create pure bending zones and obtain the ultimate flexural capacities. Transverse reinforcement using lacing reinforcement and conventional vertical stirrups were compared in terms of deformation, strain, and toughness changes of the tes