Zinc Oxide nanoparticles were prepared using pulsed laser ablation process from a pure zinc metal placed inside a liquid environment. The latter is composed of acetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) of 10−3 molarity and distilled water. A Ti:Sapphire laser of 800 nm wavelength, 1 kHz pulse repetition rate, 130 fs pulse duration is used at three values of pulse energies of 0.05 mJ, 1.11 mJ and 1.15 mJ. The evaluation of the optical properties for the obtained suspension was applied through ultraviolet–visible absorption spectroscopy test (UV/VIS). The result showed peak wavelengths at 210 nm, 211 nm and 213 nm for the three used pulse energies 0.05 mJ, 1.11 mJ and 1.15 mJ respectively. This indicates a blue shift,

The temperature control process of electric heating furnace (EHF) systems is a quite difficult and changeable task owing to non-linearity, time delay, time-varying parameters, and the harsh environment of the furnace. In this paper, a robust temperature control scheme for an EHF system is developed using an adaptive active disturbance rejection control (AADRC) technique with a continuous sliding-mode based component. First, a comprehensive dynamic model is established by using convection laws, in which the EHF systems can be characterized as an uncertain second order system. Second, an adaptive extended state observer (AESO) is utilized to estimate the states of the EHF system and total disturbances, in which the observer gains are updated

In this study, the photodegradation of Congo red dye (CR) in aqueous solution was investigated using Au-Pd/TiO₂ as photocatalyst. The concentration of dye, dosage of photocatalyst, amount of H₂O₂, pH of the medium and temperature were examined to find the optimum values of these parameters. It has been found that 28 ppm was the best dye concentration. The optimum amount of photocatalyst was 0.09 g/75 mL of dye solution when the degradation percent was ~ 96 % after irradiation time of 12 hours, while the best amount of hydrogen peroxide was 7μl/75 mL of dye solution at degradation percent ~97 % after irradiation time of 10 hours, whereas pH 5 was the best value to carry out the reaction at the highest deg

In the present work, a density functional theory (DFT) calculation to simulate reduced graphene oxide (rGO) hybrid with zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticle's sensitivity to NO2 gas is performed. In comparison with the experiment, DFT calculations give acceptable results to available bond lengths, lattice parameters, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), energy gaps, Gibbs free energy, enthalpy, entropy, etc. to ZnO, rGO, and ZnO/rGO hybrid. ZnO and rGO show n-type and p-type semiconductor behavior, respectively. The formed p-n heterojunction between rGO and ZnO is of the staggering gap type. Results show that rGO increases the sensitivity of ZnO to NO2 gas as they form a hybrid. ZnO/rGO hybrid has a higher number of vacancies that can b

Ten isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae, seven isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and nine isolates of Staphylococcus aureus, were obtained from 100 urine samples collected from Baghdad hospitals. All isolates were identified biochemically and confirmed by using VITEK 2 and were then tested for their susceptibility towards 6 antibiotics and for phenolic extracts of Thymus vulgaris and Cinnamomum cassia. All bacteria were greatly affected by T. vulgaris, especially K. pneumoniae. Viable count was performed, it was noted that the number of bacterial cells reduced from 1×108 CFU to 1.2× 103, 2×105 and 1.8×106CFU of K. pneumoniae, P. aeruginosa and S. aureus respectively. While C. cassiahad a slight effect on them. K. pneumoniae isola

The present study aims to detect CTX-M-type ESBL from Escherichia coli clinical isolates and to analyze their antibotic susceptibility patterns. One hundred of E. coli isolates were collected from different clinical samples from a tertiary hospital. ESBL positivity was determined by the disk diffusion method. PCR used for amplification of CTX-M-type ESBL produced by E. coli. Out of 100 E. coli isolates, twenty-four isolates (24%) were ESBL-producers. E. coli isolated from pus was the most frequent clinical specimen that produced ESBL (41.66%) followed by urine (34.21%), respiratory (22.23%), and blood (19.05%).  After PCR amplification of these 24 isolates, 10 (41.66%) isolates were found to possess CTX-M genes. The CTX-M type ESBL

Background: Due to the complicated and time-consuming physiological procedure of bone healing, certain graft materials have been frequently used to enhance the reconstruction of the normal bone architecture. However, owing to the limitations of these graft materials, some pharmaceutical alternatives are considered instead.  Chitosan is a biopolymer with many distinguishing characteristics that make it one of the best materials to be used as a drug delivery system for simvastatin. Simvastatin is a cholesterol lowering drug, and an influencer in bone formation process, because it stimulates osteoblasts differentiation, bone morphogenic protein 2, and vascular endothelial growth factor. Objectives: histological, histochemical and histomorp