Selective recovery of atropine from Datura innoxia seeds was studied. Applying pertraction in a rotating film contactor (RFC) the alkaloid was successfully recovered from native aqueous extracts obtained from the plant seeds. Decane as a liquid membrane and sulfuric acid as a stripping agent were used. Pertraction from native liquid extracts provided also a good atropine refinement, since the most of co-extracted from the plant species remained in the feed or membrane solution. Solid–liquid extraction of atropine from Datura innoxia seeds was coupled with RF-pertraction in order to purify simultaneously the extract obtained from the plant. Applying the integrated process, proposed in this study, a product containing 92.6% atropine was

A mixture of algae biomass (Chrysophyta, Cyanophyta, and Chlorophyte) has been investigated for its possible adsorption removal of cationic dyes (methylene blue, MB). Effect of pH (1-8), biosorbent dosage (0.2-2 g/100ml), agitated speed (100-300), particle size (1304-89μm), temperature (20-40˚C), initial dye concentration (20-300 mg/L), and sorption–desorption were investigated to assess the algal-dye sorption mechanism. Different pre-treatments, alkali, protonation, and CaCl2 have been experienced in order to enhance the adsorption capacity as well as the stability of the algal biomass. Equilibrium isotherm data were analyzed using Langmuir, Freundlich, and Temkin models. The maximum dye-sorption capacity was 26.65 mg/g at pH= 5, 25

Water scarcity is one of the most important problems facing humanity in various fields such as economics, industry, agriculture, and tourism. This may push people to use low-quality water like industrial-wastewater. The application of some chemical compounds to get rid of heavy metals such as cadmium is an environmentally harmful approach. It is well-known that heavy metals as cadmium may induce harmful problems when present in water and invade to soil, plants and food chain of a human being. In this case, man will be forced to use the low quality water in irrigation. Application of natural materials instead of chemicals to remove cadmium from polluted water is an environmental friendly approach. Attention was drawn in this research wor

Its well known that understanding human facial expressions is a key component in understanding emotions and finds broad applications in the field of human-computer interaction (HCI), has been a long-standing issue. In this paper, we shed light on the utilisation of a deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) for facial emotion recognition from videos using the TensorFlow machine-learning library from Google. This work was applied to ten emotions from the Amsterdam Dynamic Facial Expression Set-Bath Intensity Variations (ADFES-BIV) dataset and tested using two datasets.

     Lately, a growing interest has been emerging in age estimation from face images because of the wide range of potential implementations in law enforcement, security control, and human computer interactions. Nevertheless, in spite of the advances in age estimation, it is still a challenging issue. This is due to the fact that face aging process is not only set by distinct elements, such as genetic factors, but by extrinsic factors, such as lifestyle, expressions, and environment as well. This paper applied machine learning technique to intelligent age estimation from facial images using J48 classifier on FG_NET dataset. The proposed work consists of three phases; the first phase is image preprocessing which include

   A microbubble air flotation technique was used to remove chromium ions from simulated wastewater (e.g. water used for electroplating, textiles, paints and pigments, and tanning leather). Experimental parameters were investigated to analyze the flotation process and determine the removal efficiency. These parameters included the location of the sampling port from the bottom of the column, where the diffuser is located to the top of flotation column (30, 60, and 90 cm), the type of surfactant (anionic, SDS, or cationic, CTAB) and its concentration (5, 10, 15, and 20 mg/L), the pH of the initial solution (3, 5, 7, 9, and 11), the initial contaminant concentration (10, 20, 30, and 40 mg/L), the gas flow rate (0.1, 0.2, 0.3, and 0.5 L/mi

     Bioethanol is an attractive fuel with higher potential for energy security and environmental safety. Olive solid residues were used as a raw material for the production of bioethanol through the use of different preliminary treatments . Separate treatments with cellulose, hydrochloric acid (HCl 5%), sulfuric acid (H₂SO₄ 2%), and liquid ammonia NH₄OH (20%) were used to convert cellulose and hemicellulose into monosaccharaides. The production of ethanol was observed during the fermentation process using R. minuta under anaerobic conditions.  After 3 days of fermentation, lowest concentrations of ethanol of  0.233, 0.249, 0.261, and 0.275 g/ l were produced from ol

This study investigated a novel application of forward osmosis (FO) for oilfield produced water treatment from the East Baghdad oilfield affiliated to the Midland Oil Company (Iraq). FO is a part of a zero liquid discharge system that consists of oil skimming, coagulation/flocculation, forward osmosis, and crystallization. Treatment of oilfield produced water requires systems that use a sustainable driving force to treat high-ionic-strength wastewater and have the ability to separate a wide range of contaminants. The laboratory-scale system was used to evaluate the performance of a cellulose triacetate hollow fiber CTA-HF membrane for the FO process. In this work, sodium chloride solution was used as a feed solution (FS) with a concentratio