Endophytic fungi live inside plants or any part of them without creating any visible pathogenic signs. Endophytic fungi are found within medicinal plants and have shown strong biologic activity, such as anticancer and antioxidant activities, as well as producing extracellular enzymes. In this study, different fungal strains were isolated from the leaves of the medicinal plant Ziziphus spina, including Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus fumigatus, Aspergillus niger, Cladosporium sp., Rhizopus sp., and Mucor sp. Extracellular enzymes have been quantified using agar plate-based methods in which fungi were grown in specified growth media to detect the enzymes produced. The results showed that A. niger has the highest ability to produce amylase, Cladosporium sp. has the highest ability to produce protease and pectinase, Rhizopus and Mucor sp. have the highest ability to produce cellulase, and A. niger and Cladosporium sp. have the same ability to produce lipase and laccase. The ability of medicinal plant endophytic fungi to produce extracellular enzymes has great therapeutic potential in clinical microbiology. Some of the isolates showed great activity in secreting particular enzymes, indicating that the enzymes of these fungi could be used in a variety of applications.
Imitation learning is an effective method for training an autonomous agent to accomplish a task by imitating expert behaviors in their demonstrations. However, traditional imitation learning methods require a large number of expert demonstrations in order to learn a complex behavior. Such a disadvantage has limited the potential of imitation learning in complex tasks where the expert demonstrations are not sufficient. In order to address the problem, we propose a Generative Adversarial Network-based model which is designed to learn optimal policies using only a single demonstration. The proposed model is evaluated on two simulated tasks in comparison with other methods. The results show that our proposed model is capable of completing co
... Show MoreAfter the fall of the Iraqi regime in the 9th of April 2003, and after the disintegration of the country, political and party political chaos that had never been witnessed before, has now taken over. In the past 2 years, the American military forces had a primary role in spreading this chaos and disorder by applying a set of wrong measures and policies. This chaos that is still affecting the iraqi people was completely ignored by the USA even 2 years after the occupation, no serious steps have been taken in order to bring back order and security, on the other hand, most of the government institutions and its forces were disintegrated, along with the decision made by Paul Bremer of dismissing all the iraqi journals and the workers of the
... Show MoreThis work deals with the separation of benzene and toluene from a BTX fraction. The separation was carried out using adsorption by molecular sieve zeolite 13X in a fixed bed. The concentration of benzene and toluene in the influent streams was measured using gas chromatography. The effect of flow rate in the range 0.77 – 2.0 cm3/min on the benzene and toluene extraction from BTX fraction was studied. The flow rate increasing decreases the breakthrough and saturation times. The effect of bed height in the range 31.6 – 63.3 cm on benzene and toluene adsorption from BTX fraction was studied. The increase of bed height increasing increases the break point values. The effect of the concentration of benzene in the range 0.0559 – 0.2625g/
... Show MoreThe removal of Ibuprofen antibiotics (IBU) by photo-degradation UV/H2O2/Fe+2 system was investigated in a batch reactor under different initial concentrations of H2O2 (100-500) mg/L, Fe+2 (10-40) mg/L, pH (3-9) and initial concentrations of IBU (10-80) mg/L, and their relationship with the degradation efficiency were studied. The result demonstrated that the maximum elimination of IBU was 85.54% achieved at 300 mg/L of H2O2, 30 mg/L of Fe+2, pH=3, and irradiation time of 150 min, for 10 mg/L of IBU. The results have shown that the oxidation reagent H2O2 plays a very important role in IBU degradation.
Nanosilica was extracted from rice husk, which was locally collected from the Iraqi mill at Al-Mishikhab district in Najaf Governorate, Iraq. The precipitation method was used to prepared Nanosilica powder from rice husk ash, after treating it thermally at 700°C, followed by dissolving the silica in the alkaline solution and getting a sodium silicate solution. Two samples of the final solution were collected to study the effect of filtration on the purity of the sample by X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF). The result shows that the filtered samples have purity above while the non-filtered sample purity was around The structure analysis investigated by the X-ray diffraction (XRD), found that the Nanosilica powder has an amorphous
... Show MoreBackground: Birth defects are the leading cause of both neonatal and post-neonatal deaths, as an estimated 240,000 neonates die in their first month of life worldwide each year. In Iraq, local studies have shown varying frequencies and types of congenital anomalies. Objectives: To provide new insight into the incidence and types of congenital anomalies and to explore their possible risk factors in Baghdad City. Methods: In this cross-sectional observational study, a total of 2007 neonates were enrolled from six hospitals in Baghdad during the period extending between September and December 2020. Hospital records and personal interviews were used for data collection. These data included the neonates' demographic and clinical characte
... Show MoreThe preparation of activated carbon (AC) from date stones by using microwave assisted K2CO3 activation was investigated in this paper. The influence of radiation time, radiation power, and impregnation ratio on the yield and methylene blue (MB) uptake of such carbon were studied. Based on Box-Wilson central composite design, two second order polynomial models were developed to correlate the process variables to the two responses. From the analysis of variance the significant variables on each response were identified. Optimum coditions of 8 min radiation time, 660 W radiation power and 1.5 g/g impregnation ratio gave 460.123 mg/g MB uptake and 19.99 % yield. The characteristics of the AC were examined by pore structure analysis, and scan
... Show MoreAdsorption techniques are widely used to remove organics pollutants from waste water particularly, when using low cost adsorbent available in Iraq. Al-Khriet powder which was found in legs of Typha Domingensis is used as bio sorbent for removing phenolic compounds from aqueous solution. The influence of adsorbent dosage and contact time on removal percentage and adsorb ate amount of phenol and 4- nitro phenol onto Al-Khriet were studied. The highest adsorption capacity was for 4-nitrophenol 91.5% than for phenol 82% with 50 mg/L concentration, 0.5 gm. dosage of adsorbent and pH 6 under a batch condition. The experimental data were tested using different isotherm models. The results show that Freundlich model resulted in the best fit also
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