Background: Small cardamom or green cardamom is the dried fruit of the tall perennial herbaceous plant, Elettaria cardamomum Maton belonging to the family Zingiberaceae. The major use of small cardamom on world wide is for domestic culinary purpose and in medicine. This study was conducted to test the effect of small cardamom extracts on Mutans streptococci and Candida Albicans in comparison to 0.2% chlorhexidine gluconate and de-ionized water in vivo. Materials and Methods: Mutans streptococci and Candid Albicans were isolated, purified and diagnosed according to morphological characteristic and biochemical test. In this experiments, the effect of control agents and small cardamom extracts as a mouth rinses was tested on the saliva of group of volunteers to determine the level of Mutans streptococci and Candida Albicans in vivo. Also the salivary flow rate and pH were measured in vivo. Result: 10 % aqueous cardamom extracts had a highly significant antimicrobial activity against mutans streptococci after 15 min after rinsing and following times. 30 % aqueous cardamom extracts had a significant antifungal activity in vivo against Candida albican after 30 min after rinsing and following times. But still CHX is more effective than the other agents in reduction the counts of mutans streptococci and Candida Albicans. CHX 0.2% mouth rinse had the highest stimulation of salivary flow rates and pH followed by hot water cardamom mouth rinse 30% followed by cold cardamom mouth rinse 10% then de-ionized water mouth rinse. Conclusion: Cardamom extracts were effective against Mutans streptococci and Candida Albicans, but still less than CHX.
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 MoreThis study shows that it is possible to fabricate and characterize green bimetallic nanoparticles using eco-friendly reduction and a capping agent, which is then used for removing the orange G dye (OG) from an aqueous solution. Characterization techniques such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDAX), X-Ray diffraction (XRD), and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) were applied on the resultant bimetallic nanoparticles to ensure the size, and surface area of particles nanoparticles. The results found that the removal efficiency of OG depends on the G‑Fe/Cu‑NPs concentration (0.5-2.0 g.L-1), initial pH (2‑9), OG concentration (10-50 mg.L-1), and temperature (30-50 °C). The batch experiments showed
... Show MoreActivated carbon derived from Ficus Binjamina agro-waste synthesized by pyro carbonic acid microwave method and treated with silicon oxide (SiO2) was used to enhance the adsorption capability of the malachite green (MG) dye. Three factors of concentration of dye, time of mixing, and the amount of activated carbon with four levels were used to investigate their effect on the MG removal efficiency. The results show that 0.4 g/L dosage, 80 mg/L dye concentration, and 40 min adsorption duration were found as an optimum conditions for 99.13% removal efficiency. The results also reveal that Freundlich isotherm and the pseudo-second-order kinetic models were the best models to describe the equilibrium adsorption data.
The predatory bush crickets Saga ephippigera Fischer Von Waldheim, 1846 is the largest Iraqi orthopterans and one of the most active and successful predators in the Kurdistan region. The nymphs and adults prey on all the stages of various species of insects. Twelve adult specimens were collected from Erbil Province during May 2018 and June 2021. Morphological structures of the adult insects were described and illustrated in details; important taxonomic characteristics of body regions with their appendages were chosen; and the results indicated the importance of morphological characteristics which confirmed the identification of this species correctly.
A simple, rapid and sensitive spectrophotometric method has been proposed for the determination of La (III) using 3-hydroxy -4-(2-hydroxy-phenyl azo) naphthalene -1- sulfonic acid as a chromogenic reagent. This method is based on the formation of a red-pink colored complex, upon the reaction of La(III) with the reagent in an alkaline medium (pH= 9.50), having a maximum absorbance at 459 nm. Beer's law is valid in the concentration range 0.512 µg.ml-1 with a Sandell's sensitivity value of 0.0188 µg.cm-2 and molar absorptivity of 7376.12 L.mol-1.cm-1. The stoichiometric composition of the chelate is 1:3. The effect of the presence of different cations as interferants in the determination of La(III) under the given optimum conditions wer
... Show MoreThe largest use of x-ray in medical by dentists, employers or persons that needed by patients with specific conditions, lead to higher exposure of x-ray that may cause many diseases. In the present work radiography films have been used in evaluating the efficiency of using unsaturated polyester polymer reinforced with lead oxide (PbO) as shield material for medical x-ray devices, many parameters studied like concentration and thickness that they are increasing the attenuation of x-ray in them. The results show that the attenuation of X-ray increasing with concentration of reinforced material and with thickness, and the optical density decreases with increasing concentration from 0% to 50%, we chose 30% as suitable concentration to increase
... Show MoreThis study analyses six political cartoons selected based on their relevance to current Iraqi political issues, specifically the period between 2005 and 2015, from American online newspapers (calgecartooms.com). The selection criteria included the cartoons' satirical elements, visual rhetoric, and their ability to engage with themes such as power dynamics, social issues, and public opinion. It sheds light on how these cartoons can function as mediators of meanings between the cartoonists and the readers. The data is examined using multimodal discourse analysis (MDA), which combines language study with the analysis of other visual elements, like colors, gestures, and images, to understand meaning (O’Halloran et al., 2011). The Visual Socia
... Show MoreIn this study, NAC-capped CdTe/CdS/ZnS core/double shell QDs were synthesized in an aqueous medium to investigate their utility in distinguishing normal DNA from mutated DNA extracted from biological samples. Following the interaction between the synthesized QDs with DNA extracted from leukemia cases (represents damaged DNA) and that of healthy donors (represents undamaged DNA), differential fluorescent emission maxima and intensities were observed. It was found that damaged DNA from leukemic cells DNA-QDs conjugates at 585 nm while intact DNA (from healthy subjects) DNA–QDs conjugates at 574 nm. The obtained results from the optical analyses indicate that the prepared QDs could be utilized as probe for detecting disrupted DNA th
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