BACKGROUND: Burkholderia cepacia adhesion and biofilm formation onto abiotic surfaces is an important feature of clinically relevant isolates. The in vitro biofilm formation of B. cepacia onto coated indwelling urinary catheters (IDCs) with moxifloxacin has not been previously investigated. OBJECTIVES: To examine the ability of B. cepacia to form biofilms on IDCs and the effect of coating IDCs with moxifloxacin on biofilm formation by B. cepacia in vitro. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The adhesion of B. cepacia to coated and uncoated IDCs with moxifloxacin was evaluated. Pieces of IDCs were coated with moxifloxacin (adsorption method). The spectrophotometric method was used to check moxifloxacin leaching into tubes. Coated and uncoated tubes were i

This research is a continued efforts for a project on the fire tube boiler control for Al Rasheed edible oil factory. The aim is to enhance the control system with new integral control one. A functional blocks diagram (FBD) was built and simulated. With Schneider smart relays, FBD differs than ladder logic programming in which the PID option is active. An extensive work was done to understand the operation sequence, emergency shutdown, and faults causing the trips. A control program was designed to control logical sequence of operation. Furthermore temperature is controlled via cascade control with fuel and air controllers. The temperature controller output is send as remote set point to the fuel controller in a serial cascade manner. The f

In this study two types of extraction solvents were used to extract the undesirable polyaromatics, the first solvent was furfural which was used today in the Iraqi refineries and the second was NMP (N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone).
The studied effecting variables of extraction are extraction temperature ranged from 70 to 110°C and solvent to oil ratio in the range from 1:1 to 4:1.
The results of this investigation show that the viscosity index of mixed-medium lubricating oil fraction increases with increasing extraction temperature and reaches 107.82 for NMP extraction at extraction temperature 110°C and solvent to oil ratio 4:1, while the viscosity index reaches to 101 for furfural extraction at the same extraction temperature and same

In this work we study the influence of the laser pulse energy and ablation time on the aluminum nanoparticles productivity during nanosecond laser ablation of bulk aluminum immersed in liquid.
Aluminum nanoparticles were synthesized by pulsed laser ablation of Al targets in ethanol for 3-8 minutes using the 1064 nm wavelength of a Nd:YAG laser with energies of 300-500 mJ per pulse.The laser energy was varied between 300 and 500 mJ/pulse, whereas the ablation time was set to 5 minutes. UV-Visible absorption spectra was used for the characterization and comparison of products.

Introduction. Epilepsy is a progressive, chronic neurological disorder characterized by recurrent seizures. Peppermint (Mentha piperita L.) (MP) is one of the most commonly ingested herbal teas or tisanes with a single component. Aim. We aimed to assess the potential antiepileptic and neuroprotective features of MP essential oil (MPO) in pilocarpine (P) and pentylenetetrazol (PTZ) models of epilepsy. Methods. The study used eight groups of mice to assess the anticonvulsant activity of MPO in both the P and PTZ acute models in mice. P (350 mg/kg, i.p.) was given 30 minutes after MPO (1.6, 3.2, and 6.4 ml/kg, i.p.). As a positive control group, diazepam (1 mg/kg, i.p) was used. PTZ (95 mg/kg, i.p.) was given 30 minutes after M

A load flow program is developed using MATLAB and based on the Newton–Raphson method,which shows very fast and efficient rate of convergence as well as computationally the proposed method is very efficient and it requires less computer memory through the use of sparsing method and other methods in programming to accelerate the run speed to be near the real time.
The designed program computes the voltage magnitudes and phase angles at each bus of the network under steady–state operating conditions. It also computes the power flow and power losses for all equipment, including transformers and transmission lines taking into consideration the effects of off–nominal, tap and phase shift transformers, generators, shunt capacitors, sh

Developing smart city planning requires integrating various techniques, including geospatial techniques, building information models (BIM), information and communication technology (ICT), and artificial intelligence, for instance, three-dimensional (3D) building models, in enabling smart city applications. This study aims to comprehensively analyze the role and significance of geospatial techniques in smart city planning and implementation. The literature review encompasses (74) studies from diverse databases, examining relevant solutions and prototypes related to smart city planning. The focus highlights the requirements and preparation of geospatial techniques to support the transition to a smart city. The paper explores various aspects,

In this work, the adsorption of reactive yellow dye (Remazol yellow FG dye) by granular activated carbon (GAC) was investigated using batch and continuous process. The batch process involved determination the equilibrium isotherm curve either favorable or unfavorable by estimation relation between adsorption capacity and concentration of dye at different dosage of activated carbon. The results were fitted with equilibrium isotherm models Langmuir and Freundlich models with R2value (>0.97). Batch Kinetic study showed good fitting with pseudo second order model with R2 (0.987) at contact time 5 h. which provesthat the adsorption is chemisorptions nature. Continuous study was done by fixed bed column where breakthrough time was increased

The insulation system of a machine coil includes several layers made of materials with different characteristics. The effective insulation design of machine coils, especially in the machine end winding, depends upon an accurate model of the stress grading system. This paper proposes a modeling approach to predict the transient overvoltage, electric field, and heat generation in machine coils with a stress grading system, considering the variation of physical properties in the insulation layers. A non-uniform line model is used to divide the coil in different segments based on material properties and lengths: overhang, stress grading and slot. The cascaded connection of chain matrices is used to connect segments for the representation of the