Portulacaria afra is a small succulent tree, previously belonging to the Portulacaceae family, but with further studies, the plant transferred to the Didieracea family. P. afra was used as an ornamental, vegetable, and ethnomedicinal plant. Uses of the plant by rural South Africans to treat chronic skin conditions and rashes, alleviate exhaustion, and aid in treating TB and diarrhea have been documented in folklore. According to pharmaceutical research, plant extracts off er a wide range of remedial outcomes, such as antidiabetic, antifungal, antibacterial, anticancer, antioxidant, and anti-infl ammatory. The study aims to determine some bioactive constituents responsible for pharmacological activities and traditional usefulness. Th

 Abstract

This paper is an experimental work to determinate the effect of welding velocity and formed arc energy for CO2-MAG fusion weld pool. The input parameters (arc voltage, wire feed speed and gas flow rate) were investigated to find their effects on the weld joint efficiency. Design of experiment with response surface methodology technique was used to build empirical mathematical models for welding velocity and arc energy in term of the input welding parameters. The predicted quadratic models were statistically checked for adequacy purpose by ANOVA analysis. Additionally, numerical optimization was conducted to obtain the optimum values for welding velocity and arc energy. A good agree

Some microorganisms can produce nanocellulose, which is known as bacterial nanocellulose (BNC); the most active bacterial producer is acetic acid bacteria (AAB), which is a gram-negative, motile and obligate aerobic belongs to the family Acetobacteraceae. Bacterial nanocellulose has excellent attention in medical (surgical domain), industrial and pharmaceutical fields because of its flexible properties, characteristics and advantages. So, in this study, the AAB (5AC) isolate was isolated from apple vinegar. The production of BNC was performed by using a natural medium called palm dates liquid medium, the produced bacterial Cellulose was purified by using the sodium hydroxide method; it was observed that the wet weight of the BNC was a

The aim of our current study was to identify the effect of particulate matter of both types (PM2.5 and PM10) resulting from hookah smoking on the hemopoietic system of workers (smokers) in closed cafes. This study included six stations (cafes) on the Rusafa side of Baghdad city and conducted a blood test that included a complete blood count (CBC). A multifunctional air quality detector measured both types of particulate matter in the morning and evening. The study included 30 men (workers and smokers) and 30 men (non-smokers), whose ages ranged from 20 to 40 years. The study found that smokers had an increase in white blood cells and red blood cells, as well as an increase in the percentage of hemoglobin (HGB), hematocrit (HCT), the mean co

Four rapid, accurate and very simple derivative spectrophotometric techniques were developed for the quantitative determination of binary mixtures of estradiol (E2) and progesterone (PRG) formulated as a capsule. Method I is the first derivative zero-crossing technique, derivative amplitudes were detected at the zero-crossing wavelength of 239.27 and 292.51 nm for the quantification of estradiol and 249.19 nm for Progesterone. Method II is ratio subtraction, progesterone was determined at λmax 240 nm after subtraction of interference exerted by estradiol. Method III is modified amplitude subtraction, which was established using derivative spectroscopy and mathematical manipulations. Method IIII is the absorbance ratio technique, absorba

Background: This study was conducted to evaluate the surface roughness and dimensional accuracy of commercially obtainable alginate impression material in terms of imbibition after immersion in two different media. Materials and method: Two disinfecting agents, ethanol 70% and povidone-iodine 4%, were used to access the dimensional accuracy and surface roughness of alginate impression material. Weights of specimen discs of alginate impressions were measured before and immediately after immersion to gain a measure of imbibition. For surface roughness, disinfected specimens rectangle was examined before and after disinfection. Results: Minimal changes in weight were observed after disinfection, but a statistically non-significant differenc

Piezoelectric structures are nowadays used in many different applications. A better understanding of the influence of material properties and geometrical design on the performance of these structures helps to develop piezoelectric structures specifically designed for their application. Different equivalent circuits have been introduced in the literature to investigate the behaviour of piezoelectric transducers. The model parameters are usually determined from measurements covering the characteristic frequencies of the piezoelectric transducer. This article introduces an analytical technique for calculating the mechanical and electrical equivalent system parameters and characteristic frequencies based on material properties and geom

Herein, date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) bunch (DPB) waste was transformed into activated carbon (DPAC) adsorbent by using microwaveinduced ZnCl2 activation for 15 min at a power of 600 W. Several analytical methods were used to explain the physicochemical parameters of DPBAC including XRD, pHpzc, BET, SEM–EDX, and FTIR. Afterwards, the adsorptive performance of DPBAC was thoroughly investigated for the removal of two structurally different organic dyes namely methyl violet (MV) and fuchsin basic (FB). The key adsorption parameters, including the dose of DPBAC (A: 0.02–0.06 g), the solution pH (B: 4–10), and the contact time (C: 2–20 min) were statistically optimized using the Box-Behnken design with response surface methodology (RSM