Catalytic microwave-assisted pyrolysis of biomass is gaining popularity as an alternative to fossil fuels due to health, environmental, climate, and economic issues. This study conducted a catalytic pyrolysis process of the Albizia plant's branches using an Iraqi clay catalyst (bentonite) focusing on the variables including the biomass-particle size, experimental time, microwave power level, and the catalyst-to-biomass ratio. The physical and chemical properties of the resulting biofuel were analyzed presented by HHV, acidity, density, viscosity, GC-MS, FTIR for bio-oil and SEM, EDX, BET, HHV, FTIR for biochar. The study revealed that addition of bentonite as a catalyst led to enhanced production of biogas produced from 5% to 45% and decreased the power level used from 700 W to 450 W. Also, it raised the production of bio-oil generated with less power level and duration time. The addition of catalyst also affected the characteristics of bio-oil produced such as reducing the acidity by increasing its pH from 5 to 5.7, lowering the viscosity from 4.8 to 3.3 cSt, and the density from 1045 to 1039.2 kg/m3. Adding catalyst increased the percentage of aromatic and alcoholic substances in the bio-oil which led to improve the calorific value from 19.5 to 23 MJ/kg. Additionally, the biochar properties also improved, where the surface area and pore volume increased from 0.5512 to 40.384 m2/g and 0.00011 to 0.0361cm3/g respectively. The higher heating value was raised from 23.5 to 25 MJ/kg also. CH4 is also increased from 3.6 to 8.6% which is one of the essential fuel gasses.
The ability of pulverized walnut-shell to remove oil from aqueous solutions has been studied. It involves two-phase process which consists of using walnut-shell as a filtering bed for the accumulation and adsorption of oil onto its surface. Up to 96% oil removal from synthetic wastewater samples was achieved while tests results showed that 75% of oil can be removed from the actual wastewater discharged from Al- Duara refinery in the south of Baghdad.
The segmentation of aerial images using different clustering techniques offers valuable insights into interpreting and analyzing such images. By partitioning the images into meaningful regions, clustering techniques help identify and differentiate various objects and areas of interest, facilitating various applications, including urban planning, environmental monitoring, and disaster management. This paper aims to segment color aerial images to provide a means of organizing and understanding the visual information contained within the image for various applications and research purposes. It is also important to look into and compare the basic workings of three popular clustering algorithms: K-Medoids, Fuzzy C-Mean (FCM), and Gaussia
... Show MoreThe most common nosocomial fungal infection in hospitals is urinary tract candidiasis. Candida albicans is the most prevalent cause of nosocomial fungal urinary tract infections, however Candida species distribution is changing rapidly. At the same time, the rise in urinary tract candidiasis has resulted in the emergence of antifungal-resistant Candida species. This study aimed to diagnose Candida Spp. In women with UTI and reveal the nucleotides sequences of CA-INT-L Gene to look for mutation within the gene. This study included 100 women patients suffering from urinary tract infections and vaginal swabs samples from those individuals were taken to identify the presence of Candida. They were between the ages of 22 and 67. Candida i
... Show MoreGiardia lamblia is the worldwide most common intestinal protozoan parasite. It was indicated that Giardia is the most important agent that causes acute and chronic diarrhea in infants, young children and travelers. The aim was to detect the influence of host HLA alleles on the susceptibility to infection with G. lamblia in a sample of Iraqi patients. A total of (40) patients with giardiasis aged (14-39) years were registered. All of them were symptomatic and (40) healthy individuals matched age and sexes were included as controls. All patients were prepared to stool examination to detect G. lamblia and eliminated other pathogens, as well as human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class II alleles (DRB1) typing. The most common detected alleles in pat
... Show MoreAfter restoration of Iraqi marshes during 2003, three locations were chosen, one in each main marsh (Um Al-Naaj site in Al-Hwaizeh marsh; Al-Nagarah site in Al-Hammar marsh and Al-Baghdadia site in Al-Chebaysh marsh) to determine the concentrations of nutrients (Nitrate, Nitrite, Phosphate and Silicate) in water seasonally for the period winter, spring, summer, and autumn at 2007. Five water replicates were collected from each site, seasonally. In the Lab., the samples were analyzed by colorimetric methods; the results showed that Um-Al-Naaj site has the highest nutrients level, while Al-Nagarah site has the lowest level. The statistical program t-test was applied at the significant levels (P-value < 0.01) and (P-value < 0.05) to know
... Show MoreBreast cancer is the commonest cancer affecting women worldwide. Different studies have dealt with the etiological factors of that cancer aiming to find a way for early diagnosis and satisfactory therapy. The present study clarified the relationship between genetic polymorphisms of BRCA1 & BRCA2 genes and some etiological risk factors among breast cancer patients in Iraq. This investigation was carried out on 25 patients (all were females) who were diagnosed as breast cancer patients attended AL-Kadhemya Teaching Hospital in Baghdad and 10 apparently healthy women were used as a control, all women (patients and control) aged above 40 years. The Wizard Promega kit was used for DNA isolation from breast patients and normal individuals. B
... Show MoreBackground: Little is known about asymmetry of children's dental arches, the purpose of this study was to verify the presence of asymmetry of dental arches among Iraqi children in the mixed dentition stage. Materials and methods: The sample included 52 pairs of dental casts, 27 pairs belong to males and 25 pairs for females. Three linear distances were utilized on each side on the dental arch: Incisal-canine distance, canine-molar distance and incisal-molar distance, which represent the dental arch segmental measurements using the digital sliding calipers, which is accurate up to 0.02 mm. Results: No significant sides' differences with high correlation coefficient were found between the right and left incisal-canine, canine-molar and in
... Show MoreThis study aimed to compare lysyl oxidase-1 level in diabetic patients with and without renal dysfunction, that LOX-1 may be an indicator for the early stage of diabetic nephropathy (DN). In addition to finding it is a relationship with kidney functions in Iraqi diabetic patients with and without renal dysfunction. Blood was obtained from 25 healthy individuals as a control group (G1), 25 diabetic patients with renal dysfunction, and 25 diabetic patients without renal dysfunction. Age range 40-60 years for all subjects. BMI (25-27) Kg/m2 . The serum was used for the analysis of LOX-1, FBG, urea, creatinine and uric acid. Whole blood is used for the determination of HbA1C. Results of FBG and HbA1C revealed a significant increase in G2 and G
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