Background: Oil refinery workers are continuously exposed to numerous hazardous materials. Petroleum contains the heavy metals as a natural constituent or as additives. These metals induce the production of ROS which associated with an oxidative damage to DNA, proteins, and lipids. This study was conducted to assess the salivary levels of heavy metals, salivary oxidative status, oral immunological activity (salivary sIgA) and assessment of the oral findings among the workers of Al-Daura oil refinery in Baghdad city. Subjects, Materials and Methods: This study was done in Al-Daura oil refinery; samples consist of 60 workers involved in refinery processes (study group) and 20 non-workers (control group). Oral examination and saliva collection was done to assess the oral findings and measurement the level of heavy metals (lead and cadmium), oxidative status (MDA and SOD) and secretary IgA. Results: salivary lead and cadmium was higher in study group (6.34 µg/dl and 0.56 µg/l) than that of control group (3.3 µg/dl and 0.34 µg/l) with highly significant difference (p<0.001). A significant increase (p<0.05) was found in salivary MDA (15.3 ng/ml) and salivary sIgA (464.36 µg/ml) and significant decrease in salivary SOD (1895.1 pg/ml) among the study group. Lead has shown significant linear correlation with MDA and IgA. A significant reverse correlation was found between heavy metals (lead and cadmium) and SOD. The oral examination revealed no oral lesions of interest. Conclusion: Workers in Al- Daura oil refinery exposed to pollution with heavy metals (Pb and Cd) which was associated with changes in the biochemical and immunological findings among the oral cavity.
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Abstract: Polarization beam splitter (PBS) integrated waveguides are the key components in the receiver of quantum key distribution (QKD) systems. Their function is to analyze the polarization of polarized light and separate the transverse-electric (TE) and transverse-magnetic (TM) polarizations into different waveguides. In this paper, a performance study of polarization beam splitters based on horizontal slot waveguide has been investigated for a wavelength of . PBS based on horizontal slot waveguide structure shows a polarization extinction ratio for quasi-TE and quasi-TM modes larger than with insertion loss below and a bandwidth of . Also, the fabrication tolerance of the structure is analyzed.<
... Show MoreThe impacts of numerous important factors on the Energy Absorption (EA) of torsional Reinforced Concrete (RC) beams strengthened with external FRP is the main purpose and innovation of the current research. A total of 81 datasets were collected from previous studies, focused on the investigation of EA behaviour. The impact of nine different parameters on the Torsional EA of RC-beams was examined and evaluated, namely the concrete compressive strength (f’c), steel yield strength (fy), FRP thickness (tFRP), width-to-depth of the beam section (b/h), horizontal (ρh) and vertical (ρv) steel ratio, angle of twist (θu), ultimate torque (Tu), and FRP ultimate strength (fy-FRP). For the evaluation of the energy absorption capacity at di
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The present study aims to detect CTX-M-type ESBL from Escherichia coli clinical isolates and to analyze their antibotic susceptibility patterns. One hundred of E. coli isolates were collected from different clinical samples from a tertiary hospital. ESBL positivity was determined by the disk diffusion method. PCR used for amplification of CTX-M-type ESBL produced by E. coli. Out of 100 E. coli isolates, twenty-four isolates (24%) were ESBL-producers. E. coli isolated from pus was the most frequent clinical specimen that produced ESBL (41.66%) followed by urine (34.21%), respiratory (22.23%), and blood (19.05%). After PCR amplification of these 24 isolates, 10 (41.66%) isolates were found to possess CTX-M genes. The CTX-M type ESBL
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The present paper addresses cultivation of Chlorella vulgaris microalgae using airlift photobioreactor that sparged with 5% CO2/air. The experimental data were compared with that obtained from bioreactor aerated with air and unsparged bioreactor. The results showed that the concentration of biomass is 0.36 g l-1 in sparged bioreactor with CO2/air, while, the concentration of biomass reached to 0.069 g l-1 in the unsparged bioreactor. They showed also that aerated bioreactor with CO2/air gives more biomass production even the bioreactor was aerated with air. This study proved that application of sparging system for cultivation of Chlorella vulgaris microalgae using either CO2/air mixture or air has a significant growth rate, since the biorea
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A new simple and sensitive spectrophotometric method for the determination of trace amount of Co(II) in the ethanol absolute solution have been developed. The method is based on the reaction of Co(II) with ethyl cyano(2-methyl carboxylate phenyl azo acetate) (ECA) in acid medium of hydrochloric acid (0.1 M) givining maximum absorbance at ((λmax = 656 nm). Beer's law is obeyed over the concentration range (5-60) (μg / ml) with molar absorptivity of (1.5263 × 103 L mol-1 cm-1) and correlation coefficient (0.9995). The precision (RSD% ˂ 1%). The stoichiometry of complex was confirmed by Job's method which indicated the ratio of metal to reagent is (2:1). The studied effect of interference elements Zn(II), Cu(II), Na(I), K(I), Ca(II) and Mg
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