Background: Plasma-activated water (PAW) is considered one of the emerging strategies that has been highlighted recently in the food industry for microbial decontamination and mycotoxin detoxification, due to its unique provisional characteristics. Aim: The effectiveness of PAW for aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), ochratoxin A (OTA), and fumonisin B1 (FB1) detoxification in naturally contaminated poultry feeds with its impacts on the feed quality were inspected. Methods: PAW-30 and PAW-60 were utilized for feed treatment for six time durations (5, 10, 15, 20, 40 and 60 min) each. The alterations in the physicochemical properties of PAW after different time durations of plasma inducement and treatment with and without feed samples were monitored. Competitive Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) was employed for estimation of mycotoxin levels and High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) was utilized for results confirmation. Feed composition analyses with peroxide values (PVs) estimation were implemented according to standard analytical methods. Results: The physicochemical properties of PAW showed a significant decrease (P<0.05) in pH value from 6.72 to 2.68 and a significant increase (P<0.05) in oxidation-reduction potential (ORP), electrical conductivity (EC) and temperature from 235 mV, 5.1 μS/cm and 20.5 °C to 499.2 mV, 727.6 μS/cm and 26.8 °C, respectively after 60 min of plasma inducement in a time-dependent manner. The mycotoxins decay kinetics after PAW application were illustrated. Mycotoxins degradation efficiency significantly increased (P<0.05) with increasing water activation time. A significant increase (P<0.05) in AFB1, OTA and FB1 degradation levels was reported mainly during the first 10 min of treatment for AFB1 and the first 15 min for OTA and FB1 to record values of 28.33, 32.14 and 34.62% and 33.80, 40.70 and 43.38% after 60 min of feed exposure to PAW-30 and PAW-60, respectively. Significant differences (P<0.05) between examined mycotoxins in their degradation levels were recorded, where FB1 exhibited the highest degradation levels. Generally, feed compositions were slightly affected by PAW and fats were still having good quality. Conclusion: The possibility of PAW for degrading more than a quarter to a third of the original quantity of targeted mycotoxins in poultry feeds after 10 min of treatment with a slight effect on feed quality.
Ovako Working Postures Analyzing System (OWAS) is a widely used method for studying awkward working postures in workplaces. This study with OWAS, analyzed working postures for manual material handling of laminations at stacking workstation for water pump assembly line in Electrical Industrial Company (EICO) / Baghdad. A computer program, WinOWAS, was used for the study. In real life workstation was found that more than 26% of the working postures observed were classified as either AC2 (slightly harmful), AC3 (distinctly harmful). Postures that needed to be corrected soon (AC3) and corresponding tasks, were identified. The most stressful tasks observed were grasping, handling, and positioning of the laminations from workers. The construct
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to study the discribrion and the pollution in the environment in the south of baghdad samples of waste water from industrail units using the mercury in its process also
A study was performed to evaluate heavy metals removal from sewage sludge using lime. The processes of stabilization using alkaline chemicals operating on a simple principle of raising pH to 12 or higher, with sufficient mixing and suitable contact time to ensure that immobilization can reduce heavy metals. A 0.157 m3 tank was designed to treat Al-Rustemeyia wastewater treatment plant sludge. Characteristics of raw sludge were examined through two parameters: pH and heavy metal analysis. Different lime doses of (0- 25) g CaO/100 g sludge were mixed manually with raw sludge in a rotating drum. The samples were analyzed two hours after mixing. pH and heavy metals results were compared with EPA and National Iraqi Stand
... Show MoreThe estimation of recharge to ground water is the important basics to improve the use of ground water with other available resources, and to save ground water resource from depletion, especially when using large quantity of ground water during a long time such as for agricultural purposes. Al-Wand River Basin in Iraq suffers from water shortage of its requirement of Blajo–Al-Wand Project, and to cover this shortage, the ground water plays a good role to overcome this problem. In this study, three methods were used to estimate the recharge and ground water storage for Al-Wand Basin, these methods are: Water Table Fluctuation (WTF), Water Balance of Climatic for Basin, and Water Table Balance for Basin. The results showe
... Show MoreThis research aimed to examine the effect of concentration of dyes stuff, contact time, temperature and ratio of adsorbent weight in (gm) to volume of solution in (ml) on the percentage removal. Two dyes were used; direct blue 6 and direct yellow and the adsorbent was the maize cob. Batch experiments were performed by contacting different weights of adsorbent with 50 ml of solution of desired concentration with continuous stirring at various temperatures. The percentage of removal was calculated and the maximum percentage of removal was 80%. And as the concentration of solution, contact time, temperature and the ratio of adsorbent to volume of solution increase the percentage of removal increase.
The removal of boron from aqueous solution was carried out by electrocoagulation (EC) using magnesium electrodes as anode and stainless steel electrodes as cathode. Several operating parameters on the removal efficiency of boron were investigated, such as initial pH, current density, initial boron ion concentration, NaCl concentration, spacing between electrodes, electrode material, and presence of carbonate concentration. The optimum removal efficiency of 91. 5 % was achieved at a current density of 3 mA/cm² and pH = 7 using (Mg/St. St. ) electrodes, within 45 min of operating time. The concentration of NaCl was o. 1 g/l with a 0.5cm spacing between the electrodes. First and second order rate equation were applied to study adsorp
... Show MoreIn this work, laboratory experiments were carried out to verify direct contact membrane distillation system’s performance in highly saline water desalination. The study included the investigation of various operating conditions, like feed flow rate, temperature and concentration of NaCl solution and their impact on the permeation flux were discussed. 16 cm2 of a flat sheet membrane module with commercial poly-tetra-fluoroethylene (PTFE) membrane, which has 0.22 μm pore size, 96 µm thickness and 78% average porosity, was used. A high salt rejection factor was obtained greater than 99.9%, and the permeation flux up to 17.27 kg/m2.h was achieved at 65°C for hot feed side and 20°C for cold side stream.