Purpose: To use the L25 Taguchi orthogonal array for optimizing the three main solvothermal parameters that affect the synthesis of metal-organic frameworks-5 (MOF-5). Methods: The L25 Taguchi methodology was used to study various parameters that affect the degree of crystallinity (DOC) of MOF-5. The parameters comprised temperature of synthesis, duration of synthesis, and ratio of the solvent, N,N-dimethyl formamide (DMF) to reactants. For each parameter, the volume of DMF was varied while keeping the weight of reactants constant. The weights of 1,4-benzodicarboxylate (BDC) and Zn(NO3)2.6H2O used were 0.390 g and 2.166 g, respectively. For each parameter investigated, five different levels were used. The MOF-5 samples were synthesized using the solvothermal reaction method, and successful synthesis was confirmed with x-ray diffraction (XRD), microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS). The DOC obtained via XRD served as a parameter of objective quality. Results: The optimum conditions that gave the highest DOC were synthesis temperature of 130 °C, duration of 60 h, and a vehicle volume of 50 mL, with optimum Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area (BET -SA) of 800 m2/g. All the three synthesis parameters significantly influenced the DOC of the synthesized MOF-5 (p < 0.05). Sub-optimal conditions resulted in distorted MOFs, products that deviated from MOF-5 specifications, or MOF-5 with low DOC. Conclusion: Based on DOC and BET-SA, the best conditions for synthesis of MOF-5 when using Taguchi OA, were temperature of 130 °C, duration of 60 h, and a DMF volume of 50 mL.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) flooding is an EOR technique in which carbon dioxide is injected into the reservoir to improve the oil recovery. The reservoir oil and rock properties are altered when carbon dioxide interacts with the oil and rock present in the reservoir. Carbon dioxide injection alters the oil and rock properties by causing reduction in oil viscosity, oil swelling and wettability alteration of the rock. This paper will present a proposal to study the wettability alteration in carbonate formations during miscible carbon dioxide flooding. In miscible carbon dioxide flooding, the injection pressure of carbon dioxide would be kept above the minimum miscibility pressure. Thus carbon dioxide is miscible with the oil present in the reservoi
... Show MoreThe mean age of AS patients was (35.0 ± 9.8) years.When the patients and control subjects were divided into different age groups (>40, 30-40, <30 years), the differences were not significantin terms of disease prevalence. The results also showed that the percentage of male patients is higher than that of females. There was no significant difference (P?0.05) between patients and controls in the distribution of males and females.Most of the patients had the disease for a period of 5 years or higher, with a disease severity of ? 2.1 and functional disability degree of I, II. The resultsshoweddifferent patterns of distribution for the three tested cytokines. A significant increase in the level of TNF-?, anon-significantincrease i
... Show MoreThis paper considers and proposes new estimators that depend on the sample and on prior information in the case that they either are equally or are not equally important in the model. The prior information is described as linear stochastic restrictions. We study the properties and the performances of these estimators compared to other common estimators using the mean squared error as a criterion for the goodness of fit. A numerical example and a simulation study are proposed to explain the performance of the estimators.
The aim of this work was to estimate the concentrations of natural and artificial nuclides in some fertilized and unfertilized plant samples. These samples were collected and prepared in a petri dish for the measurements using gamma spectroscopy. The average values of 238U, 232Th, 40K, and 137Cs for the unfertilized plant samples were (11.964 ± 3.226, 8.273 ± 2.639, 402.436 ± 18.099, and 2.761 ± 1.613) respectively, and for the fertilized plant samples were (30.434 ± 5.282, 22.584 ± 4.620, 711.332 ± 25.806, and 6.986 ± 2.542) respectively. The average values of radiological hazard indices, Raeq, D, D for 137Cs, (AEDE)in, (AEDE)out, Iγ, Hin, and Hout for the unfertilized plant samples were (54.782 ± 7.216, 27.306, 0.469, 0.
... Show MoreHuman cytomegalovirus (CMV) is the globally highly prevalent herpesvirus worldwide. CMV infects populations of all ages according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO). CMV infections remain the most common viral complication potentially multiple in humans and are a major cause of congenital normality in women, which is why they are critical for diagnosis in several times when it happens during pregnancy. Pregnant women with CMV infection can be in charge of abortion or congenital expandaedby. This study involves the collection a total of (90) samples taken from each aborted and pregnant woman (70 with abortion cases and 20 of pregnant without history of abortion as control subjects) r
... Show MoreSwarming is one of the most important virulence factors used by bacteria to invade new sites. This study aimed to test the effects of gentamicin on swarming motility of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, both phenotypically and molecularly. The present results revealed that 11/25 isolates had gentamicin MIC of 1024 µg/ml. However, gentamicin at sub-minimal inhibitory concentration significantly (P< 0.05) reduced the diameter of swarming in all P. aeruginosa isolates. Noticeably the mean and median swarming diameter before treatment with gentamicin 5.557 and 5.816 cm respectively had significantly (P < 0.001) reduced to 0.871 and 0.766 cm respectively. At the molecular level, amrZ (a global regulator of multiple genes) and
... Show MoreThe members of the family of Eentrobacteriaceae harbour a gene cluster called polyketide synthase (pks) island. This cluster is responsible for the synthesis of the genotoxin colibactin that might have an important role in the induction of double-strand DNA breaks, leading to promote human colorectal cancer (CRC). Eleven out of the eighty eight isolates (12.5%) were pks+, distributed as 7 (8%) isolates of E. coli, 2 (2.25%) of K. pneumoniae and 2 (2.25%) of E. aerogenes. The cytotoxic effects of selected pks+ isolates (E. coli and E. aerogenes) on HeLa cells were represented by decreasing cell numbers and enlarged cell nuclei in comparison to the untreated cells. Cyt
... Show MoreBackground and objective: Viral Hepatitis Type B&C is serious public health challenge throughout the world.Hepatitis B and C viruses still remain to be the major causes of chronic hepatitis.It is estimated that around 350-400 million people in the world are chronic carriers of HBV, which represents approximately 7% of the total populationwhereas infection with HCV is found in approximately 3% of the world population, which represents 160 million people. Hepatitis B infection has a wide range of seroprevalence in the Mediterranean countries ranging from intermediate (=>2% ) to high prevalence ( =>7%). World Health Organization estimated a prevalence rate for HCV infection of about 4.6% in Eastern Mediterranean in 1999. During the eightieths
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