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.
A series of batch demulsification runs were carried out to evaluate the final emulsified water content of emulsion samples after the exposure to microwave. An experimental study was conducted to evaluate the effects of a set of operating variables on the demulsification performance. Several microwave irradiation demulsification runs were carried out at different irradiation powers (700, 800, and 900 watt), using water-in-oil emulsion samples containing different water contents (20-80%, 30-70%, and 50-50%) and salt contents (10000, 20000, and 30000 ppm). It was found that the best separation efficiency was obtained at 900watt, 50% water content and 160 s of irradiation time. Experimental results showed that microwave radiation method can
... Show MoreIn this study a polymeric composite material was prepared by hand
lay-up technique from epoxy resin as a matrix and magnesium oxide
(MgO) as a reinforcement with different weight fraction (5,10,15,
and 20)% to resin. Then the prepared samples were immersed under
normal condition in H2So4(1 M) solution, for periods ranging up to
10 weeks. The result revealed that the diffusion coefficient
decreasing as the concentration of MgO increase. Also we studied
Hardness for the prepared samples before and after immersion. The
result revealed that the hardness values increase as the concentration
of MgO increase, while the hardness for the samples after immersion
in H2SO4 dec
The Ge0.4Te0.6 alloy has been prepared. Thin films of Ge0.4Te0.6 has been prepared via a thermal evaporation method with 4000A thickness, and rate of deposition (4.2) A/sec at pressure 2x10-6 Torr. The A.C electrical conductivity of a-Ge0.4Te0.6 thin films has been studied as a function of frequency for annealing temperature within the range (423-623) K, the deduced exponent s values, was found to decrease with increasing of annealing temperature through the frequency of the range (102-106) Hz. It was found that, the correlated barrier hopping (CBH) is the dominant conduction mechanism. Values of dielectric constant ε1 and dielectric loss ε2 were found to decrease with frequency and increase with temperature. The activation energies have
... Show MoreThe Sr doped La1Ba1-xSrx Ca2Cu4O8.5+δ samples with 0 ≤ x ≤ 0.3 had been prepared using the solid state reaction. The samples were claimed at 800°C for 3hr, palletized and sintered at 860°C for 20hr in air . Dielectric constant and loss by means of capacitance have been investigated with frequencies in the range of 1kHZ to 1MHZ for our samples at room temperature. Also, Shore hardness has been measured. The dielectric constant and loss decrease slightly with the increase of frequency for all compounds. Additionally, the partial substitution of Sr+2 into Ba+2 sites never have effect on the dielectric properties. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis showed a tetragonal structure and the
... Show MoreIn the present work polymer electrolytes were formulated using the solvent casting technique. Under special conditions, the electrolyte content was of fixed ratio of polyvinylpyrolidone (PVP): polyacrylonitrile (PAN) (25:75), ethylene carbonate (EC) and propylene carbonate (PC) (1:1) with 10% of potassium iodide (KI) and iodine I2 = 10% by weight of KI. The conductivity was increased with the addition of ZnO nanoparticles. It is also increased with the temperature increase within the range (293 to 343 K). The conductivity reaches maximum value of about (0.0296 S.cm-1) with (0.25 g) ZnO. The results of FTIR for blend electrolytes indicated a significant degree of interaction between the polymer blend (PVP and PAN)
... Show MoreIn this paper, a simulation of the electrical performance for Pentacene-based top-contact bottom-gate (TCBG) Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFET) model with Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) and silicon nitride (Si3N4) as gate dielectrics was studied. The effects of gate dielectrics thickness on the device performance were investigated. The thickness of the two gate dielectric materials was in the range of 100-200nm to maintain a large current density and stable performance. MATLAB simulation demonstrated for model simulation results in terms of output and transfer characteristics for drain current and the transconductance. The layer thickness of 200nm may result in gate leakage current points to the requirement of optimizing the t
... Show MoreNicotiana tobaccum L (Solanacea) extracts are used as a mollusciede to the snail Bulinus truncatus the intermediate host of urinary Schistosomiasis. LC50 of the extracts to the snail with 24 hour was 3.27 ml/l? 48 hour was 3.33 ml/l? 72 hour was 2.67 ml/l and 96 hour was 2.28ml/l. This study showed the ability to use the leaf extracts in the control of this type of snail.
Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM) is a non-traditional cutting technique for metals removing which is relied upon the basic fact that negligible tool force is produced during the machining process. Also, electrical discharge machining is used in manufacturing very hard materials that are electrically conductive. Regarding the electrical discharge machining procedure, the most significant factor of the cutting parameter is the surface roughness (Ra). Conventional try and error method is time consuming as well as high cost. The purpose of the present research is to develop a mathematical model using response graph modeling (RGM). The impact of various parameters such as (current, pulsation on time and pulsation off time) are studied on
... Show MoreAsthma is a chronic in?ammatory respiratory disease associated with the changes of asthmatic airway structural that result from interact remodeling and in?ammatory processes lead to obstruction of airway. Guggulsterone (GS) is a bioactive compound and plant steroid present in guggul gum of Commiphora wightii, which has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities. This study designed to investigate of anti-inflammatory activity of gugglsterone in improvement of asthma. Forty eight healthy albino male rats divided to six groups, Group I: Control group (distal water), Group II: Positive control group (distal water) with sensitization, Group III: Guggulsterone (25 mg/kg/day) with sens
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