The increasing population growth resulting in the tremendous increase in consumption of fuels, energy, and petrochemical products and coupled with the depletion in conventional crude oil reserves and production make it imperative for Nigeria to explore her bitumen reserves so as to meet her energy and petrochemicals needs. Samples of Agbabu bitumen were subjected to thermal cracking in a tubular steel reactor operated at 10 bar pressure to investigate the effect of temperature on the cracking reaction. The gas produced was analyzed in a Gas Chromatograph while the liquid products were subjected to Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis. Heptane was the dominant gas produced in bitumen cracking at all temperatures and the r

n this study, Cr−Mo−N thin films with different Mo contents were synthesised via closed field unbalanced magnetron sputtering ion plating. The effects of Mo content on the microstructure, chemical bonding state, and optical properties of the prepared films were investigated by X-ray diffraction spectroscopy (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), field emission scanning electron microscopy, and ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometry. XRD results determined the face centered cubic (fcc) structure of pure CrN film. The incorporation of molybdenum (Mo) in the CrN matrix was confirmed by both XRD and XPS analyses. The CrMoN coatings demonstrate various polycrystalline phases including CrN, γ-Mo2N, Cr with oxides layers of MoO3, CrO3,

In this study, Cr−Mo−N thin films with different Mo contents were synthesised via closed field unbalanced magnetron sputtering ion plating. The effects of Mo content on the microstructure, chemical bonding state, and optical properties of the prepared films were investigated by X-ray diffraction spectroscopy (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), field emission scanning electron microscopy, and ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometry. XRD results determined the face centered cubic (fcc) structure of pure CrN film. The incorporation of molybdenum (Mo) in the CrN matrix was confirmed by both XRD and XPS analyses. The CrMoN coatings demonstrate various polycrystalline phases including CrN, γ-Mo2N, Cr with oxides layers of MoO3, CrO3

Objective: Comprehending microbial diversity and antibiotic resistance patterns is essential for efficient treatment protocols. This study sought to determine the incidence of bacterial and fungal pathogens responsible for burn and wound infections and their antibiotic susceptibility profiles. Methods: This cross-sectional study involved 140 patients with burn or wound infections. Sterile swabs and pus aspiration were employed to collect samples, which were subsequently processed using standard microbiological procedures. Antibiotic resistance was determined using the Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method, following Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) guidelines. Data was analysed using IBM SPSS version 25.0, and the Chi-

In this work we present a technique to extract the heart contours from noisy echocardiograph images. Our technique is based on improving the image before applying contours detection to reduce heavy noise and get better image quality. To perform that, we combine many pre-processing techniques (filtering, morphological operations, and contrast adjustment) to avoid unclear edges and enhance low contrast of echocardiograph images, after implementing these techniques we can get legible detection for heart boundaries and valves movement by traditional edge detection methods.

This study aimed to determine the effect of varicocelectomy on sperm parameters, oxidant- antioxidant status and chromatin maturity percent. The current study has been conducted on 154 infertile patients complaining from varicocele and varicocelomized men in addition to 25 fertile men as control. The results revealed significant decrease (P<0.05) in sperm concentration, progressive motile sperm percent, normal sperm morphology percent, GSH, SOD1, CAT levels and chromatin maturity percent and significant increase (P<0.05) in MDA and ROS concentrations in infertile patients with varicocele when compared to fertile men. The results revealed improvement (P<0.05) of sperm parameters quality, GSH, SOD1, CAT, MDA, ROS concentration and chromatin m