The present work reports the performance of three types of polyethersulfone (PES) membrane in the removal of highly polluting and toxic lead Pb2+ and cadmium Cd2+ ions from a single salt. This study investigated the effect of operating variables, including pH, types of PES membrane, and feed concentration, on the separation process. The transport parameters and mass transfer coefficient (k) of the membranes were estimated using the combined film theory-solution-diffusion (CFSD), combined film theory-Spiegler-Kedem (CFSK), and combined film theory-finely-porous (CFFP) membrane transport models. Various parameters were used to estimate the enrichment factors, concentration polarization modulus, and Péclet number. The pH values significantly affected the permeation flux of the Pb2+ solution but only had a slight effect on the Cd2+ solution. However, Cd2+ rejection was highly improved by increasing the pH value. The rejection of the PES membranes increased greatly as the heavy metal concentration rose, while the heavy metal concentration moderately affected the permeation flux. The maximum rejection of Pb2+ in a single-salt solution was 99%, 97.5%, and 98% for a feed solution containing 10 mg Pb/L at pH 6, 6.2, and 5.7, for PES1, PES2, and PES3, respectively. The maximum rejection of Cd2+ in single-salt solutions was 78%, 50.2%, and 44% for a feed solution containing 10 mg Cd/L at pH 6.5, 6.2, and 6.5, for PES1, PES2, and PES3, respectively. The analysis of the experimental data using the CFSD, CFSK, and CFFP models showed a good agreement between the theoretical and experimental results. The effective membrane thickness and active skin layer thickness were evaluated using the CFFP model, indicating that the Péclet number is important for determining the mechanism of separation by diffusion.
In this study, the upgrading of Iraqi heavy crude oil was achieved utilizing the solvent deasphalting approach (SDA) and enhanced solvent deasphalting (e-SDA) by adding Nanosilica (NS). The NS was synthesized from local sand. The XRD result, referred to as the amorphous phase, has a wide peak at 2Θ= (22 - 23º) The inclusion of hydrogen-bonded silanol groups (Si–O–H) and siloxane groups (Si–O–Si) in the FTIR spectra. The SDA process was handled using n-pentane solvent at various solvent to oil ratios (SOR) (4-16/1ml/g), room and reflux temperature, and 0.5 h mixing time. In the e-SDA process, various fractions of the NS (1–7 wt.%) have been utilized with 61 nm particle size and 560.86 m²/g surface area in the presence of
... Show MoreDipeptidyl peptidase-4 DPP-4 inhibition has remained one of the most established ways in treating type 2 diabetes mellitus. Therefore, the development of improved DPP-4 inhibiters is consideredan essential strategy in the design of antidiabetic drugs. In the present study, a structure-based virtual approach was considered to design and evaluate new sitagliptin analogues with improved binding stability and pharmacokinetic properties. A virtual library consisting of 15,034 different compounds was created and then screened using a hierarchical Glide docking protocol (HTVS, SP, and XP). Using integrated computational analyses, the top ranked compounds were further assessed. Based on ADMET predictions, MM-GBSA binding free energy
... Show MoreAggregate production planning (APP) is one of the most significant and complicated problems in production planning and aim to set overall production levels for each product category to meet fluctuating or uncertain demand in future. and to set decision concerning hiring, firing, overtime, subcontract, carrying inventory level. In this paper, we present a simulated annealing (SA) for multi-objective linear programming to solve APP. SA is considered to be a good tool for imprecise optimization problems. The proposed model minimizes total production and workforce costs. In this study, the proposed SA is compared with particle swarm optimization (PSO). The results show that the proposed SA is effective in reducing total production costs and req
... Show MoreIn this study, the hydromorphodynamic simulation of a stretch of the Euphrates River was conducted. The stretch of the Euphrates River extended from Haditha dam to the city of Heet in Al-Anbar Governorate and it is estimated to be 124.4 km. Samples were taken from 3 sites along the banks of the river stretch using sampling equipment. The samples were taken to the laboratory for grain size analysis where the median size (D50) and sediment load were determined. The hydromorphodynamic simulation was conducted using the NACY 2DH solver of the iRIC model. The model was calibration using the Manning roughness, sediment load, and median particle size and the validation process showed that the error between th
... Show MoreSelenium is naturally present in the human body, animals, and plants, and is one of the important elements in their growth and maintenance. Recently, the nanoform of selenium has attracted attention due to its low toxicity and a high degree of adsorption compared to its organic and inorganic forms. The current study aimed to examine the effect of Cress leaves (Lepidium sativum L.) extract in combination with selenium nanoparticles in alleviating polycystic ovary syndrome in letrozole-induced PCOS in adult female rats. Nonthermal or cold plasma was used in the synthesis of selenium nanoparticles. Subsequently, the produced nanoparticles were identified, the 30 rats were divided into 6 equal groups, the first group was healthy (negative contr
... Show MoreHypertrophic scars are fibroproliferative illnesses caused by improper wound healing, during that, excessive inflammation, angiogenesis, and differentiated human dermal fibroblast (HDF ) function contribute to scarring, whereas hyperpigmentation negatively affects scar quality. Over 100 million patients heal with a scar every year. To investigate the role of the beta 2 adrenergic receptor (β2AR); Ritodrine, in wound scarring, the ability of beta 2 adrenergic receptor agonist (β2ARag) to alter HDF differentiation and function, wound inflammation, angiogenesis, and wound scarring was explored in HDFs, zebrafish, chick chorioallantoic membrane assay (CAM), and a porcine skin wound model, respectively. A study identify a β2AR-mediated m
... Show MoreConcentrations of uranium were measured in this study for twenty soil samples from four areas with different depths (soil surface-20-40-60-80)cm .The study regions include Missan Governorate (Al-Iskan area,Al-Shibbana area ,Hai-Al Moualimin Al Jadied area ,Sector 30 area). The Uranium concentrations in soil samples measured by using fission tracks registration in (CR-39) track detector that caused by the bombardment of (U-283) with thermal neutrons from (241Am-Be) neutron source that has flux neutron thermal of (5 ×103 n cm-2 s-1). The concentrations values were calculated by a comparison with standard samples. Through out the result, it was found that averages of uranium concentrations in soil samples were as the following : Al - Iskan
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