In recent years, infectious diseases are increasingly being encountered in clinical settings. Due to the development of antibiotic resistance and the outbreak of these diseases caused by resistant pathogenic bacteria, the pharmaceutical companies and the researchers are now searching for new unconventional antibacterial agents. Recently, in this field, the application of nanoparticles is an emerging area of nanoscience and nanotechnology. For this reason, nanotechnology has a great deal of attention from the scientific community and may provide solutions to technological and environmental challenges. A common feature that these nanoparticles exhibit their antimicrobial behavior against pathogenic bacteria. In this report, we evaluate the antibacterial activity of Ag, Fe and ZnO nanoparticles against both Gram-negative (E. coli and P. aeruginosa) and Gram-positive (Staph. aureus) bacteria, using agar well diffusion method, as well as determine of minimal bactericidal concentrations by the broth dilution method. The results showed that antibacterial activities of these nanoparticles were found active against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria used in this study. Among the three nanoparticles, Ag nanoparticles have excellent bactericidal potential, while Fe nanoparticles exhibited the least bactericidal activity.
Permanent deformation (rutting) of asphalt mixtures is one of the major forms of distress. Aggregate gradation is one of the most important factors affecting the permanent deformation of asphalt mixtures. Other variables are also important to understand their effects on the mixture such as temperature, binder content and compaction level. For this purpose 6 different aggregate gradations have been chosen and each one of them has been manufactured / tested with different variables. The results showed that at relatively low temperature there is little effect of aggregate packing on the permanent deformation. However, as the temperature increases the effect of gradation becomes apparent, in that the better the packing the better the resistance
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Different solvents (light naphtha, n-heptane, and n-hexane) are used to treat Iraqi Atmospheric oil residue by the deasphalting process. Oil residue from Al-Dura refinery with specific gravity 0.9705, API 14.9, and 0.5 wt. % sulfur content was used. Deasphalting oil (DAO) was examined on a laboratory scale by using solvents with different operation conditions (temperature, concentration of solvent, solvent to oil ratio, and duration time). This study investigates the effects of these parameters on asphaltene yield. The results show that an increase in temperature for all solvents increases the extraction of asphaltene yield. The higher reduction in asphaltene content is obtained with hexane solvent at operating conditions of (90 °C, 4/1
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The survival of dried spores of A.flavus, Penicillia Spp., and Cladosporia Spp.inoculated into multivitamins and folic acid tablets were examined at different compression pressures.Survival of fungal spores decreased with increasing compression pressure. The level of survival at particular pressures was shown to depend on the size of the contaminating fungal spores.The lethal effect of tabletting was attributed to shearing forces upon the contaminating spores generated by interparticulate movement. This hypothesis was supported by the dependence of survival upon spore size.
Key words: Fungal spores, microbial contamination.
In this research, nanofibers have been prepared by using an electrospinning method. Three types of polymer (PVA, VC, PMMA) have been used with different concentration. The applied voltage and the gap length were changed. It was observed that VC is the best polymer than the other types of polymers.
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In this work, wide band range photo detector operating in UV, Visible and IR was fabricated using carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs, SWCNTs) decorated with silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs). Silicon was used as a substrate to deposited CNTs/Ag NPs by the drop casting technique. Polyamide nylon polymer was used to coat CNTs/Ag NPs to enhance the photo-response of the detector. The electro-exploding wire technology was used to synthesize Ag NPs. Good dispersion of silver NPs achieved by a simple chemistry process on the surface of CNTs. The optical, structure and electrical characteristic of CNTs decorated with Ag NPs were characterized by X-Ray diffraction and Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy. X-ray diffra
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Methotrexate (MTX) is a folate antagonist widely used in the treatment of neoplastic diseases; its biotransformation in the liver produced active metabolites that promote hepatotoxicity. The present study was designed to evaluate the hepatoprotective effect of aqueous extract of Camellia sinensis (Green tea) against MTX-induced liver damage in rats. A model of liver injury in rats was induced by intraperitoneal injection of 20mg/kg MTX as a single dose followed by saline and 1.25% and 2.5% aqueous extract of green tea (GTE) were orally administered 7 days prior and 5 days after MTX-intoxication as a sole source of drinking water. After killing the animals, blood samples were obtained for evaluation of serum levels of alanine and
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This study relates to synthesis of bentonite-supported iron/copper nanoparticles through the biosynthesis method using eucalyptus plant leaf extract, which were then named E-Fe/Cu@B-NPs. The synthesised E-Fe/Cu@B-NPs were examined by a set of experiments involving a heterogeneous Fenton-like process that removed direct blue 15 (DB15) dye from wastewater. The resultant E-Fe/Cu@B-NPs were characterised by scanning electron microscopy, Brunauer–Emmet–Teller analysis, zeta potential analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy. The operating parameters in batch experiments were optimised using Box–Behnken design. These parameters were pH, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2
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