This study was conducted to evaluate the hydrocarbon biodegradation abilities of Enterobacter cloacae, Staphylococcus aureus, Sphingomonas paucimobilis, and Pentoae species which were isolated from different diesel-contaminated soil samples. The isolates were identified by the Vitek 2 system. Fourier-transform spectroscopy (FT-IR) tested the potential of these isolates to biodegrade the diesel according to the peak areas, a significant decrease in the area of the peaks at 2856-2928 cm−1 corresponds to aliphatic hydrocarbons. The appearance of small peaks at 900-1032 cm−1 refers to substituted benzene derivative compounds. An appearance of some new peaks at 3010- 3030 cm−1 which indicate the presence of alcohol (-OH) and ketones (RC=O). A sharp peak appeared at 1712 cm−1 refers to the carbonyl group (C=O). The potential of biological surfactant production was tested using the Sigma 703D stand-alone tensiometer showed that these isolates were biological surfactant producers. The better results of the surface tension reduction test were obtained when using the mixed bacterial culture which reduced the surface tension of the medium from 66 mN/m to 35.15 mN/m. Single isolates and mixed bacterial culture have investigated their ability to degrade 3.0 % (v/v) of diesel as sole source of carbon and energy in Bushnell- Haas medium. The results demonstrated that the bacterial isolates could be effective in biodegradation of diesel spills individually and showed good biodegradation abilities when they are used together in the mixed bacterial culture.
Steel-concrete-steel (SCS) structural element solutions are rising due to their advantages over conventional reinforced concrete in terms of cost and strength. The impact of SCS sections with various core materials on the structural performance of composites has not yet been fully explored experimentally, and in this work, both slag and polypropylene fibers were incorporated in producing eco-friendly steel-concrete-steel composite sections. This study examined the ductility, ultimate strength, failure modes, and energy absorption capacities of steel-concrete-steel filled with eco-friendly concrete, enhanced by polypropylene fiber (PPF) to understand its impact on modern structural projects. Eco-friendly concrete was produced by the partial
... Show MoreExperimental measurements were done for characterizing current-voltage and power-voltage of two types of photovoltaic (PV) solar modules; monocrystalline silicon (mc-Si) and copper indium gallium di-selenide (CIGS). The conversion efficiency depends on many factors, such as irradiation and temperature. The assembling measures as a rule cause contrast in electrical boundaries, even in cells of a similar kind. Additionally, if the misfortunes because of cell associations in a module are considered, it is hard to track down two indistinguishable photovoltaic modules. This way, just the I-V, and P-V bends' trial estimation permit knowing the electrical boundaries of a photovoltaic gadget with accuracy. This measure
... Show MoreThis study expands the state of the art in studies that assess torsional retrofit of reinforced concrete (RC) multi-cell box girders with carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) strips. The torsional behavior of non-damaged and pre-damaged RC multi-cell box girder specimens externally retrofitted by CFRP strips was investigated through a series of laboratory experiments. It was found that retrofitting the pre-damaged specimens with CFRP strips increased the ultimate torsional capacity by more than 50% as compared to the un-damaged specimens subjected to equivalent retrofitting. This indicated that the retrofit has been less effective for the girder specimen that did not develop distortion beforehand as a result of pre-loading. From
... Show MoreObjective. This study aimed to evaluate the orthodontic bond strength and enamel-preserving ability of a hydroxyapatite nanoparticles-containingself-etch system following exposure to various ageing methods. Materials and Methods. Hydroxyapatite nanoparticles (nHAp) were incorporated into an orthodontic self-etch primer (SEP, Transbond™ plus) in three different concentrations (5%, 7%, and 9% wt) and tested versus the plain SEP (control) for shear bond strength (SBS), adhesive remnant index (ARI) scores, and enamel damage in range-finding experiments using premolar teeth. The best-performing formulation was further exposed to the following four artificial ageing methods: initial debonding, 24 h water storage, one-month water stora
... Show MoreLaboratory studies were conducted at the biological control unit, college of Agriculture, University of Baghdad to evaluate some biological aspects of the predator Chilocorus bipustulatus (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae), which is considered one of the most important predators on many insect pests, especially the scale insect, Parlatoria blanchardi, (Homoptera: Diaspididae) on date palms. The results showed that biological parameters of the predator were varied according to different degree of temperature. Egg incubation period was significantly different and reached to 7.5 and 5.44 day at 25 and 30°C respectively, Fertility was the same 100% at both temperature degrees. Larval growth periods were 17.41 and 16.12 day as well as the mortality
... Show More