The accumulation of toxic elements in vegetables and melons grown in agriculture, Brassica rapa - turnip, Solanum lycopersicum - tomato, Citrullus lanatus - watermelon, Capsicum annuum - bell pepper, Daucus carota - carrots, Cucurbita pepo - pumpkin, Cucumis melo - melon, and also Prunus armeniaca - apricot from fruit trees were analyzed. The excess of maximum allowable concentrations in agricultural crops of the element As by 1.65-1.75, Cd - 1.6-2.3, Cr -1.2-2.35, Cu -1.6-3.3, Ni - 1.16-3.53, Pb - 1.54-3.08, Al - 1.36-3.5, Sb - 2.0-33, Se - 1.1-3.3 times was established. The maximum allowable concentration of mercury in vegetables and melons was equal to 0.02 mg/kg,

Objective: To identify barriers to healthcare access, to assess the health literacy levels of the foreign-born Arabic speaking population in Iowa, USA and to measure their prevalence of seeking preventive healthcare services. Methods: A cross-sectional study of native Arabic speaking adults involved a focus group and an anonymous paper-based survey. The focus group and the Andersen Model were used to develop the survey questionnaire. The survey participants were customers at Arabic grocery stores, worshippers at the city mosque and patients at free University Clinic. Chi-square test was used to measure the relationship between the characteristics of survey participants and preventive healthcare services. Thematic analysis was

The aim of this study was to investigate antibiotic amoxicillin removal from syn­thetic pharmaceutical wastewater. Titanium dioxide (TiO₂) was used in photocatalysis treatment method under natural solar irradiation in a tubular reactor. The photocatalytic removal efficiency was evaluated by the reduction in amoxicillin concentration. The effects of antibiotics concentration, TiO₂ dose, irradiation time and the effect of pH were studied. The optimum conditions were found to be irradiation time 5 hr, catalyst dosage 0.6 g/L, flow rate 1 L/min and pH 5. The photocatalytic treatment was able to destruct the amoxicillin in 5 hr and induced an amoxicillin reduction of about 10% with 141.8 kJ/L accumulate

Objectives: Bromelain is a potent proteolytic enzyme that has a unique functionality makes it valuable for various therapeutic purposes. This study aimed to develop three novel formulations based on bromelain to be used as chemomechanical caries removal agents. Methods: The novel agents were prepared using different concentrations of bromelain (10–40 wt. %), with and without 0.1–0.3 wt. % chloramine T or 0.5–1.5 wt. % chlorhexidine (CHX). Based on the enzymatic activity test, three formulations were selected; 30 % bromelain (F1), 30 % bromelain-0.1 % chloramine (F2) and 30 % bromelain-1.5 % CHX (F3). The assessments included molecular docking, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), viscosity and pH measurements. The efficie

A three species food web model involving a stage structure and cannibalism in the top predator species is proposed and studied. It is assumed that the prey species growth logistically in the absence of predator and the predation process occurred according to theLotka-Volterra functional response. The existence, uniqueness and bounded-ness of the solution of the model are investigated. The local and global stability conditions of all possible equilibrium points are established.The persistence conditions of the model are also determined. The local bifurcation near each of the equilibrium points is analyzed. The global dynamics of the model is investigated numerically and compared with the obtained analytical results. It is observed that the p

The sustainable development according to the United Nation, listed firms throughout globally now routinely provide sustainability data. However, there is not enough information on Sustainability Performance Quality (SPQ) in the majority of emerging economies, including Malaysia. This study looks at how the SPQ of the top 100 Malaysian-listed businesses is affected by factors as connected with corporate governance (e.g., board meeting, board size, and board ethnic diversity). Utilizing 500 firm-year data, a longitudinal sample of 500 nonfinancial firms on the Bursa Malaysia for 2015-2019 is employed in this study. The findings from the analysis using the panel regression demonstrated that: ethnic diversity and board siz

The study targets exploring the similarities and differences between Iraqi and Malaysian learners of English in refusing marriage proposals. Also, it examines the favored politeness strategies that learners use to protect their interlocutors’ face, heeding both their social distance and status. Data were gathered by a Discourse Completion Task (DCT) which contained six marriage situations. Responses were analyzed based on Beebe et al.’s (1990) refusal taxonomy and Scollon et al.’s (2012) politeness system. The findings indicated that both the Iraqi and Malaysian learners preferred the indirect refusal strategies in marriage proposals, as well as the hierarchical politeness in the form of independence strategies regardless of t