The manuscript should contain an abstract. The abstract should be self-contained and citation-free and should not exceed 200 words. The abstract should state the purpose, approach, results and conclusions of the work. The author should assume that the reader has some knowledge of the subject but has not read the paper. Thus, the abstract should be intelligible and complete in it-self (no numerical references); it should not cite figures, tables, or sections of the paper. The abstract should be written using third person instead of first perso The fast microwave assisted pyrolysis (FMWAP) of water hyacinth (WH) for biochar production is investigated. Taguchi’s method was used to optimize FMWAP parameters. The effects of microwave power, temperature, microwave absorber (activated carbon) ratio, and biomass particle size on biochar yield as the response for the process, were studied. The maximum yield was achieved using the optimized conditions of microwave power-994 W; temperature-300°C; microwave absorber ratio-0.25; and biomass particle size-0.0315 mm. The reaction time was kept constant at 2 min. The analysis of Signal to Noise ratio (S/N) and variance (ANOVA) were used to identify the effect and the significance of the process parameters on biochar yield. The final results show the significance of all process parameters on biochar yield. The order of significance of these parameters are: microwave power > temperature > microwave absorber > biomass particle size. The produced biochar was analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Energy Dispersive X-Ray Analyzer (EDX). The WH biochar has macroporous and microporous structure and amorphous in nature with some mineral oxides attached to the surface.
The aim of the study was to evaluate the efficacy of diode laser (λ=940 nm) in the management of gingival hyperpigmentation compared to the conventional bur method. Materials and methods: Eighteen patients with gingival hyperpigmentation were selected for the study with an age between 12-37 years old. The site of treatment was the upper gingiva using diode laser for the right half and the conventional method for the left half. All patients were re-evaluated after the following intervals: 3 days, 7 days, 1 month and 6 months post-operation. Pain and functions were re-evaluated in each visit for a period of 1 day, 3 days and 1 week post-operation. Laser parameters included 1.5 W in continuous mode with an initiated tip (400 μm) placed in
... Show MoreInterval methods for verified integration of initial value problems (IVPs) for ODEs have been used for more than 40 years. For many classes of IVPs, these methods have the ability to compute guaranteed error bounds for the flow of an ODE, where traditional methods provide only approximations to a solution. Overestimation, however, is a potential drawback of verified methods. For some problems, the computed error bounds become overly pessimistic, or integration even breaks down. The dependency problem and the wrapping effect are particular sources of overestimations in interval computations. Berz (see [1]) and his co-workers have developed Taylor model methods, which extend interval arithmetic with symbolic computations. The latter is an ef
... Show MoreA coin has two sides. Steganography although conceals the existence of a message but is not completely secure. It is not meant to supersede cryptography but to supplement it. The main goal of this method is to minimize the number of LSBs that are changed when substituting them with the bits of characters in the secret message. This will lead to decrease the distortion (noise) that is occurred in the pixels of the stego-image and as a result increase the immunity of the stego-image against the visual attack. The experiment shows that the proposed method gives good enhancement to the steganoraphy technique and there is no difference between the cover-image and the stego-image that can be seen by the human vision system (HVS), so this method c
... Show MoreFormation of emulsions during oil production is a costly problem, and decreased water content in emulsions leads to increases productivity and reduces the potential for pipeline corrosion and equipment used. The chemical demulsification process of crude oil emulsions is one of the methods used for reducing water content. The demulsifier presence causes the film layer between water droplets and the crude oil emulsion that to become unstable, leading to the accelerated of water coalescence. This research was performed to study the performance of a chemical demulsifier Chimec2439 (commercial) a blend of non-ionic oil-soluble surfactants. The crude oils used in these experiments were Basrah and Kirkuk Iraqi crude oil. These
... Show MoreCrude soybean peroxidase (SBP), isolated from soybean seed coats (hulls) at unusually low concentrations, catalyses the oxidative polymerisation of hazardous aqueous benzidine and its 3,3′-dichloro, 3,3′-dimethyl and 3,3′-dimethoxy derivatives in the presence of hydrogen peroxide. The optimum operating conditions for oxidation of 0·10 mM benzidine were investigated. At pH 5, the hydrogen peroxide-to-substrate concentration ratio was 1·5 and the minimum SBP concentration required to achieve at least 95% conversion of the benzidine in synthetic wastewater was 0·43 mU/ml. Progress curves were established for the conversion of the four substrates, and apparent first-order rate constants were derived. Enzyme-catalysed polym
... Show MoreThis study examined the effects of water scarcity on rural household economy in El Fashir Rural Council / North Darfur State- western Sudan. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used as to get a deeper understanding of the impact of water scarcity on the rural house economy in the study area. 174 households out of 2017 were selected from 45 villages which were distributed in eight village councils forming the study area. Statistical methods were used to manipulate the data of the study. The obtained results revealed that water scarcity negatively affected the rural household economy in the study area in many features. These include the followings: much family efforts and time were directed to fetch for water consequentl
... Show MoreThe study was conducted over the period of Oct 2018 to Apr 2019 and is aimed for the detection and estimation of four hazardous Volatile Organic Compounds VOC (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene) so-called (BTEX) in samples collected from the produced water in the Al-Ahdab oil field in Iraq also to track their availability in the important natural water sources around the field. These compounds pose a risk to human health as well as environment. To avoid the laborious and tiresome conventional extraction methods, water samples were collected and concentrated using solid-phase extraction technique (SPE) which is a robust and cost-effective method of sample extraction with minimal exposure and handling of solvents and then to be analy
... Show MoreBiodiesel production from microalgae depends on the biomass and lipid production. Both biomass and lipid accumulation is controlled by several factors. The effect of various culture media (BG11, BBM, and Urea), nutrients stress [nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P), magnesium (Mg) and carbonate (CO3)] and gamma (γ) radiation on the growth and lipid accumulation of Dictyochloropsis splendida were investigated. The highest biomass and lipid yield of D. splendida were achieved on BG11 medium. Cultivation of D. splendida in a medium containing 3000 mg L−1 N, or 160 mg L−1 P, or 113 mg L−1 Mg, or 20 mg L-1 CO3, led to enhanced growth rate. While u
... Show MoreThe study focused on the treatment of real oilfield produced water from the East Baghdad field affiliated to the Midland Oil Company (Iraq) using an oil skimming process followed by a coagulation/flocculation process for zero liquid discharge system applications. Belt type oil skimmer was utilized for evaluating the process efficiency with various operating conditions such as temperature (17-40 °C) and time (0.5-2.5 hr.). Polyaluminum chloride (PAC) coagulant and polyacrylamide (PAM) flocculant was used to investigate the performance of the coagulation/flocculation process with PAC dosage (5-90 ppm) and pH (5-10) as operating conditions. In the skimming process, the oil content, COD, turbidity, and TSS decreased with an increase in tempera
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