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.
A d.c. magnetron sputtering system was designed and fabricated. The chamber of this system is consisted from two copper coaxial cylinders. The inner one used as the cathode and the outer one used as anode with magnetic coil located on the outer cylinder (anode). The axial behavior of the magnetic field strength along the cathode surface for various coil current (from 2A to 14A) are shown. The results of this work are investigated by three cylindrical Langmuir probes that have different diameters that are 2.2mm, 1mm, and 0.45mm. The results of these probes show that, there are two Maxwellian electron groups appear in the central region. As well as, the density of electron and ion decreases with increases of magnetic field strengths.
The aim of the research is to investigate the effect of cold plasma on the bacteria grown on texture of sesame paste in its normal particle and nano particle size. Starting by using the image segmentation process depending on the threshold method, it is used to get rid of the reflection of the glass slides on which the sesame samples are placed. The classification process implemented to separate the sesame paste texture from normal and abnormal texture. The abnormal texture appears when the bacteria has been grown on the sesame paste after being left for two days in the air, unsupervised k-mean classification process used to classify the infected region, the normal region and the treated region. The bacteria treated with cold plasma, t
... Show MoreAfter Zadeh introduced the concept of z-number scientists in various fields have shown keen interest in applying this concept in various applications. In applications of z-numbers, to compare two z-numbers, a ranking procedure is essential. While a few ranking functions have been already proposed in the literature there is a need to evolve some more good ranking functions. In this paper, a novel ranking function for z-numbers is proposed- "the Momentum Ranking Function"(MRF). Also, game theoretic problems where the payoff matrix elements are z-numbers are considered and the application of the momentum ranking function in such problems is demonstrated.
This study focuses on CFD analysis in the field of the shell and double concentric tube heat exchanger. A commercial CFD package was used to resolve the flow and temperature fields inside the shell and tubes of the heat exchanger used. Simulations by CFD are performed for the single shell and double concentric tube.
This heat exchanger included 16 tubes and 20 baffles. The shell had a length of 1.18 m and its diameter was 220 mm. Solid Works 2014, ANSYS 15.0 software was used to analyze the fields of flow and temperature inside the shell and the tubes. The RNG k-ε model was used and it provided good results. Coarse and fine meshes were investigated, showing that aspect ratio has no significant effect. 14 million
... Show MoreA design for a photovoltaic-thermal (PVT) assembly with a water-cooled heat sink was planned, constructed, and experimentally evaluated in the climatic conditions of the southern region of Iraq during the summertime. The water-cooled heat sink was applied to thermally manage the PV cells, in order to boost the electrical output of the PVT system. A set of temperature sensors was installed to monitor the water intake, exit, and cell temperatures. The climatic parameters including the wind velocity, atmospheric pressure, and solar irradiation were also monitored on a daily basis. The effects of solar irradiation on the average PV temperature, electrical power, and overall electrical-thermal efficiency were investigated. The findings i
... Show MoreThis paper examines the gaps in Lebanese building law as well as the exploitation of contractors, stakeholders, and residents in order to make illegal profits at the expense of The Shape of urban agglomerations and their expansion in cities and rural areas, which is contrary to the principles of sustainable land development. It also emphasizes the amplification of the factors of vertical and horizontal building investments in the implementation of buildings contrary to the license, as well as the burden that this places on the city's resulting infrastructure and ability to absorb the activities and needs of its residents. The study then presents recommendations in the process of transformation in the technique of planning and application
... Show MoreThis work is concerned with the design and performance evaluation of a shell and double concentric tubes heat exchanger using Solid Works and ANSY (Computational Fluid Dynamics).
Computational fluid dynamics technique which is a computer-based analysis is used to simulate the heat exchanger involving fluid flow, heat transfer. CFD resolve the entire heat exchanger in discrete elements to find: (1) the temperature gradients, (2) pressure distribution, and (3) velocity vectors. The RNG k-ε model of turbulence is used to determining the accurate results from CFD.
The heat exchanger design for this work consisted of a shell and eight double concentric tubes. The number of inlets are three and that of o
... Show MoreThe applications of hot plasma are many and numerous applications require high values of the temperature of the electrons within the plasma region. Improving electron temperature values is one of the important processes for using this specification in plasma for being adopted in several modern applications such as nuclear fusion, plating operations and in industrial applications. In this work, theoretical computations were performed to enhance electron temperature under dense homogeneous plasma. The effect of power and duration time of pulsed Nd:YAG laser was studied on the heating of plasmas by inverse bremsstrahlung for several values for the electron density ratio. There results for these ca
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