Metal contents in vegetables are interesting because of issues related to food safety and potential health risks. The availability of these metals in the human body may perform many biochemical functions and some of them linked with various diseases at high levels. The current study aimed to evaluate the concentration of various metals in common local consumed vegetables using ICP-MS. The concentrations of metals in vegetables of tarragon, Bay laurel, dill, Syrian mesquite, vine leaves, thymes, arugula, basil, common purslane and parsley of this study were found to be in the range of, 76-778 for Al, 10-333 for B, 4-119 for Ba, 2812-24645 for Ca, 0.1-0.32 for Co, 201-464 for Fe, 3661-46400 for K, 0.31–1.53 for Li, 860-14330 for Mg, 16.20-71.5 for Mn, 612-4725 for Na and 15.8-46 µg g-1 for Zn. The results revealed that the concentration of Al, B except in Syrian mesquite, Ba, Ca, Fe, K, Mg and Mn in all analysed vegetables is higher than the recommended value, Li is well-within the safe limit, and Co, Na except in dill, arugula and common purslane, Zn are lower than the recommended intake of these elements. From health point of view, the HQ values for Al, Fe (for all vegetables) and Ba (in dill, vine leaves, thymes, arugula, basil, common purslane and parsley) were higher than one, indicating potential non-cancer health risk due to exposure to these metals. Furthermore, the HI value for all vegetables was higher than one, indicating potential non-cancer health risk due to long-term exposure to these metals.
The need for renewable energy sources is higher than ever due to rising global warming, climate change, and ozone depletion. For refrigeration and air conditioning applications, adsorption refrigeration systems are viable alternatives cooling techniques. This study is a topic and part of the M.Sc. thesis. A field solar-powered ice maker unit was created, studied, tested, and evaluated on the 13th and 30th of May, 2022. Activated carbon and methanol pair was used to set up a refrigeration system in Baghdad (Al Dora). Experimental tests were carried out outdoors to determine the coefficient of performance COP and specific cooling power SCP of the system. The results showed that the lowest temperature
... Show MoreA model using the artificial neural networks and genetic algorithm technique is developed for obtaining optimum dimensions of the foundation length and protections of small hydraulic structures. The procedure involves optimizing an objective function comprising a weighted summation of the state variables. The decision variables considered in the optimization are the upstream and downstream cutoffs lengths and their angles of inclination, the foundation length, and the length of the downstream soil protection. These were obtained for a given maximum difference in head, depth of impervious layer and degree of anisotropy. The optimization carried out is subjected to constraints that ensure a safe structure aga
... Show MoreThe increasing drinking water demand in many countries leads to an increase in the use of desalination plants, which are considered a great solution for water treatment processes. Reverse osmosis (RO) and electro-dialysis (ED) systems are the most popular membrane processes used to desalinate water at high salinity. Both systems work by separating the ionic contaminates and disposing of them as a brine solution, but ED uses electrical current as a driving force while RO uses osmotic pressure. A direct comparison of reverse osmosis and electro-dialysis systems is needed to highlight process development similarities and variances. This work aims to provide an overview of previous studies on reverse osmosis and electro-dial
... Show MoreOne of the most important virulence factors in Pseudomonas aeruginosa is biofilm formation, as it works as a barrier for entering antibiotics into the bacterial cell. Different environmental and nutritional conditions were used to optimize biofilm formation using microtitre plate assay by P. aeruginosa. The low nutrient level of the medium represented by tryptic soy broth (TSB) was better in biofilm formation than the high nutrient level of the medium with Luria Broth (LB). The optimized condition for biofilm production at room temperature (25 °C) is better than at host temperature (37 °C). Moreover, the staining with 0.1% crystal violet and reading the biofilm with wavelength 360 are considered essential factors in
... Show MoreMany managers in geometrical and technical organizations prefer to deal with quantitative values to choose between the available options and choose the best alternative to avoid randomization and bias in decision making. One of them Baghdad Water Department, which seeks to develop the quality of its product (drinking water) and achieve its objectives under increasing growing population and the demand for water, Some of TQM tools, especially the statistical, have this ability because there is chance to use historical data and experiment of employees in Application . Two statistical tools were applied: the nominal group technique, matrix data analysis technique as well as the brainstorming tool to search for the best o
... Show MoreIn this study, from a total of 856 mastitis cases in lactating ewes, only 34 Streptococcus agalactiae isolates showed various types of resistance to three types of antibiotics (Penicillin, Erythromycin and Tetracycline). St. agalactiae isolates were identified according to the standard methods, including a new suggested technique called specific Chromogenic agar. It was found that antibiotic bacterial resistance was clearly identified by using MIC-microplate assay (dilution method). Also, by real-time PCR technique, it was determined that there were three antibiotics genes resistance ( pbp2b, tetO and mefA ). The high percentage of isolate carried of a single gene which was the Tetracycline (20.59%) followed by percentage Penicillin was
... Show MoreBackground: Helicobacter pylori are important gastrointestinal pathogen associated with gastritis, peptic ulcers, and an increased risk of gastric carcinoma. There are several popular methods for detection of H. pylori (invasive and non-invasive methods) each having its own advantages, disadvantages, and limitations, and by using PCR technique the ability to detect H. pylori in saliva samples offers a potential for an alternative test for detection of this microorganism. Materials and methods: The study sample consists of fifty participants of both genders, who undergo Oesophageo-gastrodudenoscopy at the Gastroenterology Department of Al-Kindy Teaching Hospital Baghdad/ Iraq, during five months period from January 2014 to May 2014. They we
... Show MorePurpose: To use the balanced measurement approach as a strategic link for increasing the effectiveness of strategic planning in the direction of achieving satisfaction rates at Bisha University in Saudi Arabia
Design / methodology / approach –The questionnaire survey was used to collect the data of the study from the faculty members at University of Bisha.
Findings –Prove the assumption that the use of the balanced measurement approach - as a strategic planning tool - leads to maximize the satisfaction rates among faculty members at the University of Bisha.
Research limitations/implications- adopt effective strategic planning in order to achieve
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