The main objective of this study was to evaluate the adsorption efficiency of two adsorbent materials, Iraqi chicken eggshells (ESh) and activated carbon (AC) derived from ESh powder for the removal of a cationic dye (Janus green B; JGD) from aqueous solution. Activated carbon was synthesised from ESh using a simple chemical activation method using phosphoric acid as the activating agent. The physicochemical properties of the adsorbents were characterised by the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) method, FT-IR spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES), and point of zero charge (pHpzc). The results of BET analysis confirmed th

The main objective of this study was to evaluate the adsorptionefficiency of two adsorbent materials, Iraqi chicken eggshells (ESh)and activated carbon (AC) derived from ESh powder for theremoval of a cationic dye (Janus green B; JGD) from aqueoussolution. Activated carbon was synthesised from ESh usinga simple chemical activation method using phosphoric acid asthe activating agent. The physicochemical properties of the adsor-bents were characterised by the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET)method, FT-IR spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy(SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), inductivelycoupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES), andpoint of zero charge (pHpzc). The results of BET analysis confirmedthat AC has

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic and systemic autoimmune disease that is characterized by severe synovial inflammation, cartilage erosion, bone loss, and generalized vasculopathy. Although the immunologic mechanism of RA is still unclear, it is now thought to be a primarily Th17-driven disease. Along with other factors, IL-23 stimulates the expansion of Th17 cells from naive CD4+ T cells.

Objective: The objective of this study is to assess the circulating levels of interleukin (IL)-23 in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and determine the correlation between plasma/serum IL-23 levels and disease activity. So, we performed a systematic review with meta-analysis comparing

BP algorithm is the most widely used supervised training algorithms for multi-layered feedforward neural net works. However, BP takes long time to converge and quite sensitive to the initial weights of a network. In this paper, a modified cuckoo search algorithm is used to get the optimal set of initial weights that will be used by BP algorithm. And changing the value of BP learning rate to improve the error convergence. The performance of the proposed hybrid algorithm is compared with the stan dard BP using simple data sets. The simulation result show that the proposed algorithm has improved the BP training in terms of quick convergence of the solution depending on the slope of the error graph.

Species of genus Chrotogonus (surface grasshoppers) are phytophagous and damaging to various economical important plants in their seedling stages. In order to know the biodiversity of surface grasshoppers, the detailed study has been conducted from four provinces of Pakistan. During this study, biodiversity, taxonomy, diagnosis, morphometric analysis, habitat, global distribution, and remarks of each species have been described. Total of 826 specimens were collected and sorted out into three species and three subspecies: C. (Chrotogonus) homalodemus homalodemus (Blanchard, 1836), C. (Chrotogonus) homalodemus (Blanchard, 1836), C. (Chrotogonus) trachypter

The study was conducted over the period of Oct 2018 to Apr 2019 and is aimed for the detection and estimation of four hazardous Volatile Organic Compounds VOC (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene) so-called (BTEX) in samples collected from the produced water in the Al-Ahdab oil field in Iraq also to track their availability in the important natural water sources around the field. These compounds pose a risk to human health as well as environment. To avoid the laborious and tiresome conventional extraction methods, water samples were collected and concentrated using solid-phase extraction technique (SPE) which is a robust and cost-effective method of sample extraction with minimal exposure and handling of solvents and then to be analy

This study aims to predict the organic pollution produced from the presence of some polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and determination it's concentrations (µg/L , ppb) in Tigris river water by a collection twenty-seven water samples from a selected three stations with nine sampling sites and three depths of water (5 cm , 2 m and 4 m) each site for 4.6 km distance of a geographic studied area which is located between the ( Al-Senak and AL-Sarrafiah bridges ) at Baghdad city – Iraq on May, 2012. The geographic location was determined with a Global Positioning System (GPS) and Geographic Information System (GIS) software program. The concentrations of fourteen components (PAHs) were performed using the reverse phase

Background This in vitro study compares a novel calcium-phosphate etchant paste to conventional 37% phosphoric acid gel for bonding metal and ceramic brackets by evaluating the shear bond strength, remnant adhesive and enamel damage following water storage, acid challenge and fatigue loading. Material and Methods Metal and ceramic brackets were bonded to 240 extracted human premolars using two enamel conditioning protocols: conventional 37% phosphoric acid (PA) gel (control), and an acidic calcium-phosphate (CaP) paste. The CaP paste was prepared from β-tricalcium phosphate and monocalcium phosphate monohydrate powders mixed with 37% phosphoric acid solution, and the resulting phase was confirmed using FTIR. The bonded premolars were expo

Background: Multidrug-resistant (MDR) enterococci have become a major problem in recent times and have been reported increasingly around the world. Lytic phages infect bacteria leading to rapid host death with limited risk of phage transduction, underlining the increasing interest in potential phage therapy in the future. Objective (s): The aim of this study is to use phage therapy as alternative approach for treatment of Enterococcus faecalis infections that recorded as MDR in Iraq to tackle this problem. Materials and Methods: Thirty E. faecalis isolates were collected from patients with different infectious diseases such as urinary tract infection (UTI), diabetic foot, septicemia, and wound infections. The isolation of specific l

This paper provides an identification key to the species of Orthetrum Newman, 1833 (Odonata, Libellulidae), including six species that were collected from different localities in Iraq.

    The species of O. anceps (Schneider, 1845) is registered as a new record in Iraq; the most important characters which are used in diagnostic key are included