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 weather of Iraq has longer summer season compared with other countries. The ambient temperature during this season reaches over 50 OC which makes the evaporative cooling system suitable for this climate. In present work, the two-stage evaporative cooling system is studied. The first stage is indirect evaporative cooling (IEC) represented by two heat exchangers with the groundwater flow rate (5 L/min). The second stage is direct evaporative cooling (DEC) which represents three pads with groundwater flow rates of (4.5 L/min). The experimental work was conducted in July, August, September, and October in Baghdad. Results showed that overall evaporative efficiency of the system (two coils with three pads each
... Show MoreThe Web Design Quality Index, known as WDQI, was applied to assess the quality of websites for six Iraqi universities, namely Basra University, Mosul, Muthanna, Samarra, Dijla University College, and Al-Isra University College. The results of the index showed that the universities of Basra and Dijla University College had the highest value, at 71.07 and 70.39, respectively. Its final evaluation metric was that the website of these two universities needed a slight improvement. As for the rest of the other universities, the final values of the index ranged from 64.72-69.71. When the final values of the index are displayed on the final evaluation scale, it appears that the websites of the four universities need many improvements. The study
... Show MoreThe robot arm is the most popular robotic form used in industry. Thus, it is crucial to make a system programming which could controlled the movement of each part in the industrial robot to make it works properly. One of the simplest models of the robot arm is EDARM ED-7100 which has a controller to control the movement of the robot arm manually. In this study, the robot controller has been redesigned in order to improve this robot's function. The new controller system used AT89S52 microcontroller which has wire connected to the robot hand. A function has been added with this controller to improve the system of controlling and becomes better than the previous system (only manually). The functions of the new system include three mo
... Show MoreCatalytic microwave-assisted pyrolysis of biomass is gaining popularity as an alternative to fossil fuels due to health, environmental, climate, and economic issues. This study conducted a catalytic pyrolysis process of the Albizia plant's branches using an Iraqi clay catalyst (bentonite) focusing on the variables including the biomass-particle size, experimental time, microwave power level, and the catalyst-to-biomass ratio. The physical and chemical properties of the resulting biofuel were analyzed presented by HHV, acidity, density, viscosity, GC-MS, FTIR for bio-oil and SEM, EDX, BET, HHV, FTIR for biochar. The study revealed that addition of bentonite as a catalyst led to enhanced production of biogas produced from 5% to 45% an
... Show MoreThe primary objective of this study is to manage price market items in the construction of walls for affordable structures with load-bearing hollow masonry units using the ACI 211.1 blend design with a slump range of 25-50 mm that follows the specification limits of IQS 1077. It was difficult to reach a suitable cement weight to minimum content (economic and environmental goal), so many trail mixtures were cast. A portion (10-20%) of the coarse aggregates was replaced with concrete, tile, and clay-brick waste. Finally, two curing methods were used: immersion under water as normal curing, and water spraying as it is closer to the field conditions. The recommendation in IQS 1077 to increase the curing period from 14 to 28 days was tak
... Show MoreAn investigation was conducted for the study of extraction of metal ions using aqueous biphasic systems. The extraction of iron, zinc and copper from aqueous sulphate media at different kinds of extractants SCN− , Cl- and I- , different values of pH of the feed solution, phase ratio, concentration of metals, concentration of extractant, concentration of polymer, and concentration of salt was investigated. Atomic absorption spectrophotometer was used to measure the concentration of iron, zinc and copper in the aqueous phase throughout the experiments. The results of the extraction experiments showed the use of SCN− as extractant, pH=2.5, phase ratio=1.5, concentration of metals 1g/l, concentration of extractant 0.06 %, concentration o
... Show MoreIn all process industries, the process variables like flow, pressure, level, concentration
and temperature are the main parameters that need to be controlled in both set point
and load changes.
A control system of propylene glycol production in a non isothermal (CSTR) was
developed in this work where the dynamic and control system based on basic mass
and energy balance were carried out.
Inlet concentration and temperature are the two disturbances, while the inlet
volumetric flow rate and the coolant temperature are the two manipulations. The
objective is to maintain constant temperature and concentration within the CSTR.
A dynamic model for non isothermal CSTR is described by a first order plus dead
time (FO
