Microbiological contamination by fungi impacts the quality and safety of wheat grain storage. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of cold plasma in restricting the growth of the fungus, Aspergillus niger, which was isolated from wheat grains. A dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) operating at atmospheric pressure generated cold plasma that was used to treat the fungus, and the impact of this treatment was investigated at various periods 1, 2, 4, 6, and 15 minutes. The results revealed a highly significant decrease in the growth and number of spores of Aspergillus niger compared to the controls. This study revealed an efficient technique for enhancing wheat grain storage that could be a foundation for further large-scale studies.
The possibility of using activated carbon developed from date palm seeds wastes as a permeable reactive barrier (PRB) to remove copper from polluted shallow groundwater was investigated. The activated carbon has been developed from date palm seeds by dehydrating methods using concentrated sulfuric acid. Batch tests were performed to characterize the equilibrium sorption properties of new activated carbon in copper-containing aqueous solutions, while the sandy soil (aquifer) was assumed to be inert. Under the studied conditions, the Langmuir isotherm model gives a better fit for the sorption data of copper by activated carbon than other models. At a pilot scale, One-dimensional column experiments were performed, and an integrated model ba
... Show MoreSeveral toxigenic cyanobacteria produce the cyanotoxin (microcystin). Being a health and environmental hazard, screening of water sources for the presence of microcystin is increasingly becoming a recommended environmental procedure in many countries of the world. This study was conducted to assess the ability of freshwater cyanobacterial species Westiellopsis prolifica to produce microcystins in Iraqi freshwaters via using molecular and immunological tools. The toxigenicity of W. prolifica was compared via laboratory experiments with other dominant bloom-forming cyanobacteria isolated from the Tigris River: Microcystis aeruginosa, Chroococcus turigidus, Nostoc carneum, and Lyngbya sp. signifi
... Show MoreA field experiment was conducted during winter, 2015-16 with the objective to investigate the effect of bread wheat cultivars (Abu-Ghraib3, Ibaa99, and Alfeteh) and seed priming 100, 100, 150 mg L-1 of benzyl adenine, salicylic acid, gibberellic acid (GA3), respectively, ethanolic extract of Salix Sp., water extract of Glycyrrhiza glabra and distilled water (control) on grain growth rate (GGR), effective filling period (EFP) and accelerating of physiological maturity. Randomized complete block design with three replicates was applied. GA3×Ibaa99 surpassed others in grain yield (7.432 tonne ha-1) when gave the highest grain weight (45.13 mg grain-1) and GGR (1.5 mg grain-1 day-1) with the fastest time to start and end EFP (5 and 34 days), w
... Show MoreThe work demonstrates the effect of cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) on adult female rats suffering from osteoporosis, the used plasma was generated by a floating electrode-dielectric barrier discharge system with an electrode diameter of 3 cm. The output power was from (12-20) watts. The effect of non-thermal plasma was observed on rats with various exposure times of 20, 30, and 40 sec. It was noted that the blood calcium percentage of animals exposed to cold plasma increased, as well as an increase in the level of vitamin D3 at the same time, it is noted that there is no effect on parathyroid hormone level. For the thyroid gland, it is noticed an increase in the level of T3, and T4 hormones in the blood during the period of induction for
... Show MoreTo study the qualitative changes in testis tissue after carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) administration and to determine whether citric acid (CA) has a protective effect against testis damage induced by CCl4. This study compared two types of CA by measuring the histoarchitecture of the testis and serum levels of progesterone, estrogen and testosterone on mice. One of the most produced organic acid is citric acid. In this study, CA produced by microbial fermentation using Aspergillus Niger 5mg/kg and derived from citrus limon 400mg/kg (lemon). Mice were treated with daily intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection for seven successive days after randomly separated into six groups: (1) control, (2) CCl4 (0.02%), (3) limon citric acid (400 mg/kg), (4) CCl4 (
... Show MoreFibroblast growth factors-23 (FGF-23) are a class of cell signaling proteins produced by macrophages. They have a range of roles, but they play a particularly important role in the development of animal cells, where they are essential for appropriate growth. Phosphate, which is found in the body as both organic and mineral phosphate, plays crucial roles in cell structure, communication, and metabolism. Most phosphate in the body resides in bone, teeth, and inside cells, with less than 1% circulating in serum. The aim of the study is to evaluate the levels of the Fibroblast Growth Factors-23 and phosphate and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) in acromegaly patients against healthy control. A case control study Fibroblast Growth Fact
... Show MoreThe applications of hot plasma are many and numerous applications require high values of the temperature of the electrons within the plasma region. Improving electron temperature values is one of the important processes for using this specification in plasma for being adopted in several modern applications such as nuclear fusion, plating operations and in industrial applications. In this work, theoretical computations were performed to enhance electron temperature under dense homogeneous plasma. The effect of power and duration time of pulsed Nd:YAG laser was studied on the heating of plasmas by inverse bremsstrahlung for several values for the electron density ratio. There results for these ca
... Show MoreLow-pressure capacitively coupled RF discharge Ar plasma has been studied using Langmuir probe. The electron temperature, electron density and Debay length were calculated under different pressures and electrode gap. In this work the RF Langmuir probe is designed using 4MHz filter as compensation circuit and I-V probe characteristic have been investigated. The pressure varied from 0.07 mbar to 0.1 mbar while electrode gap varied from 2-5 cm. The plasma was generated using power supply at 4MHz frequency with power 300 W. The flowmeter is used to control Argon gas flow in the range of 600 standard cubic centimeters per minute (sccm). The electron temperature drops slowly with pressure and it's gradually decreased when expanding the electro
... Show MoreIn the present work, the effect of size of zinc dust particles on
AC argon discharge characteristics are investigated
experimentally. The plasma characteristics are determined by
using optical emission spectroscopy (OES) techniques. The
results illustrated that the electron temperature (Te) in the present
and absent of Zinc dust particle is reduced with increasing of
pressure. The electron temperature decreases with increasing of
Zinc dust size. Excitation temperature Tex is reduces with
increasing of Ar pressure in present and absent of zinc dust
particles. The present of Zinc dust reduce the Tex of Ar in both
Zinc dust size. The electron density increasing in the present and
absent of both zinc dust siz
The study was conducted to evaluate the anti fungal activity of
water and alcohol ic extracts (cold and hot) and the crude alkaloid
extracts of leaves, seeds and roots of Zygophyllum fabago plant against a standard isolate of C. albicans and an isolate of A. jlavus which was proved to produce aflatoxins. Investigation of presence of active antimicrobial compounds in this plant parts was carried out, crude al kaloid extract was also separated using TLC technique. The antifungal activity of all these extracts was estimated against the two fungi. Results showed variation in anti fungal
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