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.
Dam operation and management have become more complex recently because of the need for considering hydraulic structure sustainability and environmental protect on. An Earthfill dam that includes a powerhouse system is considered as a significant multipurpose hydraulic structure. Understanding the effects of running hydropower plant turbines on the dam body is one of the major safety concerns for earthfill dams. In this research, dynamic analysis of earthfill dam, integrated with a hydropower plant system containing six vertical Kaplan turbines (i.e., Haditha dam), is investigated. In the first stage of the study, ANSYS-CFX was used to represent one vertical Kaplan turbine unit by designing a three-dimensional (3-D) finite element (F
... Show MoreThe peculiarity of the theater does not lie in its dramatic content because many literary genres and other artistic styles share with it in this content. The peculiarity of the theater lies in contemplating the drama through what is architectural, and this architectural axis is what distinguishes its character. It is a spatial poetry which is composed by the laws of physics and chemistry, (Weight, height, distance, rhythm, gravity, impulses and chemical excretions). i.e., what cannot be expressed in words. This is a game of space to exchange and organize energy and communicate in space by the living body, which contains the possibilities of the living drawing in space: in the time and place. This research deals with the importance of the
... Show MoreThis study presents a detailed morphology and taxonomic study of Polysiphonia subtilissima collected from Abdul Rehman Goth, Karachi coast, Pakistan. Polysiphonia is a filamentous heterotrichous red algae, characterized by its branching structures and attachment mechanisms. P. subtilissima is notable for its broad salinity tolerance and wide distribution across marine and freshwater ecosystems. This research provides an in-depth examination of the internal and external structures of P. subtilissima, contributing to its systematic study and documenting its first recorded occurrence in Pakistani coastal areas, bordering the northern Arabian Sea. The findings enhance the understanding of the species taxonomy and its ecological role in
... Show MoreA novel planar type antenna printed on a high permittivity Rogers’ substrate is proposed for early stage microwave breast cancer detection. The design is based on a p-shaped wide-slot structure with microstrip feeding circuit to eliminate losses of transmission. The design parameters are optimized resulting in a good reflection coefficient at −10 dB from 4.5 to 10.9 GHz. Imaging result using inhomogeneous breast phantom indicates that the proposed antenna is capable of detecting a 5 mm size cancerous tumor embedded inside the fibroglandular region with dielectric contrast between the target and the surrounding materials ranging from 1.7 : 1 to 3.6 : 1.
Azo dyes like methyl orange (MO) are very toxic components due to their recalcitrant properties which makes their removal from wastewater of textile industries a significant issue. The present study aimed to study their removal by utilizing aluminum and Ni foam (NiF) as anodes besides Fe foam electrodes as cathodes in an electrocoagulation (EC) system. Primary experiments were conducted using two Al anodes, two NiF anodes, or Al-NiF anodes to predict their advantages and drawbacks. It was concluded that the Al-NiF anodes were very effective in removing MO dye without long time of treatment or Ni leaching at in the case of adopting the Al-Al or NiF-NiF anodes, respectively. The structure and surface morphology of the NiF electrode were inves
... Show MoreIn the present study, a total of 272 freshwater fishes belonging to three species namely: Cyprinus carpio, Barbus xanthopterus and Aspius vorax, were collected from Euphrates river at Al-Haklania distrct, Al-Anbar province during the period from August 2008 till the end of July 2009, by using gill nets and cast nets. Fishes were survyed for intestinal parasitic worms. The investigation revealed the infectation of these fishes with four parasitic species: the digenetic trematode Aspidogaster limacoides from the intestine of C. carpio, B. xanthopterus and A. vorax, larval nematode Contracaecum spp. from the body cavity of C. carpio and the external surface of intestine of B
... Show MoreThe objective of this study is to examine the properties of Bayes estimators of the shape parameter of the Power Function Distribution (PFD-I), by using two different prior distributions for the parameter θ and different loss functions that were compared with the maximum likelihood estimators. In many practical applications, we may have two different prior information about the prior distribution for the shape parameter of the Power Function Distribution, which influences the parameter estimation. So, we used two different kinds of conjugate priors of shape parameter θ of the <
... Show MoreAlthough its wide utilization in microbial cultures, the one factor-at-a-time method, failed to find the true optimum, this is due to the interaction between optimized parameters which is not taken into account. Therefore, in order to find the true optimum conditions, it is necessary to repeat the one factor-at-a-time method in many sequential experimental runs, which is extremely time-consuming and expensive for many variables. This work is an attempt to enhance bioactive yellow pigment production by Streptomyces thinghirensis based on a statistical design. The yellow pigment demonstrated inhibitory effects against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus and was characterized by UV-vis spectroscopy which showed lambda maximum of
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