Microbiological contamination by fungi impacts the quality and safety of wheat grain storage. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of cold plasma in restricting the growth of the fungus, Aspergillus niger, which was isolated from wheat grains. A dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) operating at atmospheric pressure generated cold plasma that was used to treat the fungus, and the impact of this treatment was investigated at various periods  1, 2, 4, 6, and 15 minutes. The results revealed a highly significant decrease in the growth and number of spores of Aspergillus niger compared to the controls. This study revealed an efficient technique for enhancing wheat grain storage that could be a foundation for further large-scale studies.

The purpose of this preliminary study is to verify the possibility of using Iraqi Zahdi date palm biomass as a resource for biogas production, methane in particular using thermophilic anaerobic digestion with waste water treatment activated sludge. Moreover, is to investigate the influence of extra nutrients addition to the digestion mixture. Biogas was captured in sealed jars with remote sensing modules connected to computer with integrated program to record the gas pressure continuously. A total gas pressure with 67% Methane was produced from date pulp waste fermentation with a yield of 0.57 Lit for each gram volatile solid of substrate. Addition of 1% yeast extract solution as nutrient increased Methane yield in liters by 5.9%. This i

The present study devoted to determine the ultimate lateral carrying capacity of piles foundation in contaminated clayey soils and subjected to lateral cyclical loading. Two methods have been used to calculate the lateral carrying capacity of piles foundation; the first one is two-line slopes intersection method (TLSI) and the second method is a modified model of soil degradation. The model proposed by Heerama and then developed by Smith has been modified to take into consideration the effects of heavy loads and soil contamination. The ultimate lateral carrying capacity of single pile and piles group (2×2) driven into samples of contaminated clayey soils have been calculated by using the two methods. Clayey soil samples are contami

The presence of antibiotic residues such as ciprofloxacin (CIPR) in an aqueous environment is dangerous when their concentrations exceed the allowable. Therefore, eliminating these residues from the wastewater becomes an essential issue to prevent their harm. In this work, the potential of efficient adsorption of ciprofloxacin antibiotics was studied using eco-friendly ZSM-5 nanocrystals‑carbon composite (NZC). An inexpensive effective natural binder made of the sucrose-citric acid mixture was used for preparing NZC. The characterization methods revealed the successful preparation of NZC with a favorable surface area of 103.739 m2/g, and unique morphology and functional groups. Investigating the ability of NZC for adsorbing CIPR antibioti

Direct contact membrane distillation is an effective method for production of fresh water from saline water. In this study two samples were used as feed solutions; the first one was RO waste from Al-Hilla Coca-Cola Factory (TDS= 2382 mg/l) and the other was Haji Ali drainage water (TDS= 4127 mg/l). Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) hydrophobic membrane supported with polypropylene (PP) was used as flat sheet form with plate and frame cell. Results proved that membrane distillation is an effective technique to produce fresh water with high quality from brine with low salinity content. With membrane area of 8x8 cm², the volume of treated water decreased from 34.97 ml at first half hour to 33.02 ml after 180 min of

The disposal of textile effluents to the surface water bodies represents the critical issue especially these effluents can have negative impacts on such bodies due to the presence of dyes in their composition. Biological remediation methods like constructed wetlands are more cost-effective and environmental friendly technique in comparison with traditional methods. The ability of vertical subsurface flow constructed wetlands units for treating of simulated wastewater polluted with Congo red dye has been studied in this work. The units were packed with waterworks sludge bed that either be unplanted or planted with Phragmites australis and Typha domingensis. The efficacy of present units was evaluated by monitoring of DO, Temperature, COD

Organic permeable‐base transistors (OPBTs) show potential for high‐speed, flexible electronics. Scaling laws of OPBTs are discussed and it is shown that OPBT performance can be increased by reducing their effective device area. Comparing the performance of optimized OPBTs with state‐of‐the‐art organic field‐effect transistors (OFETs), it is shown that OPBTs have a higher potential for an increased transit frequency. Not only do OPBTs reach higher transconductance values without the need for sophisticated structuring techniques, but they are also less sensitive to parasitic contact resistances. With the help of a 2D numerical model, the reduced contact resistances of OPBTs are explained by a homogeneous injection of current acros