This study was conducted on species composition, morphology, ecological characteristics, biotope distribution, ecological groups, biodiversity indicators and zoogeography of leeches and gastropods distributed in the lower Ak-Buura River. According to the results, it was found that 7 species of leeches belonging to 4 families and 6 genera and 10 species of fresh-water gastropods belonging to 3 families and 6 genera live in the lower Ak-Buura River. In the river, it was observed that leeches are mainly distributed in muddy biotopes, and gastropods are widespread in muddy, stony and sandy biotopes with a lot of plants. Biodiversity indices of leeches and gastropods in the Ak-Buura River were analyzed using the Shannon index. As a result, it

Medicinal plants contain bioactive substances that are highly bioavailable in extracts or pure molecules, making them promising for therapeutic applications and precursors for chemo-pharmaceutical semi-synthesis. Harpagophytum procumbens (Devil’s Claw) is widely recognized as one of the most potent therapeutic herbs. This study aimed to extract seeds from H. procumbens using two types of solvents and to assess both qualitative and quantitative aspects of the extracts. The two extracts were evaluated for antibacterial and anti-biofilm activities using agar well diffusion assays against four bacterial isolates and two yeast isolates. Qualitative analysis identified the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, tannins, saponins, and terpen

The durability of asphalt concrete is highly dependent on the geometry and mineralogy of coarse aggregates, yet their combined influence on mechanical and moisture resistance properties is still not fully understood. This study evaluates the effects of coarse aggregate geometry, specifically flat and elongated particle ratios and angularity, as well as mineral composition (quartz versus calcite), on asphalt mixture durability. The durability of mixtures was evaluated through Marshall properties as well as moisture susceptibility indicators, including the tensile strength ratio (TSR) and index of retained strength (IRS). Statistical analyses (ANOVA and t-tests) were also conducted to confirm the significance of the observed effects.

Clausena excavata (Lour.), locally known as “Kemantu hitam,” is a common plant in Malaysian folklore medicine. This study evaluated the antioxidant properties of the solvent extracts of C. excavata leaves and determined the acute toxicity of methanolic extract C. excavata (MECE) leaves in Sprague‐Dawley rats. Harvested leaves were dried and subjected to solvent extraction using petroleum ether, chloroform, ethyl acetate and methanol in succession. The antioxidant activity of each extract was determined using the ferric‐reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) and 2,2‐diphenyl‐1‐picryl dihydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity. The total pheno

Scleral acrylic resin is widely used to synthesize ocular prosthesis. However, the properties of this material change over time, thus requiring the prosthesis to be refabricated. Many studies were conducted to improve these properties by reinforcing this material with nanoparticles. This study aims to evaluate the effect of silver nanoparticle powder on the mechanical properties (transverse flexural strength, impact strength, shear bond strength, surface microhardness, and surface roughness) of scleral acrylic resin used for ocular prostheses. Two concentrations were selected from the pilot study and evaluated for their effects on scleral acrylic resin properties. According to the pilot study, 0.01 and 0.02wt% AgNPs powder improved

A new Schiff base [I] was prepared by refluxing Amoxicillin trihydrate and 4-Hydroxy- 3,5-dimethoxybenzaldehyde in aqueous methanol solution using glacial acetic acid as a catalyst. The new 1,3-oxazepine derivative [II] was obtained by Diels- Alder reaction of Schiff base [I] with phthalic anhydride in dry benzene. The reaction of Schiff base [I] with thioglycolic acid in dry benzene led to the formation of thiazolidin-4-one derivative [III]. While the imidazolidin-4-one [IV] derivative was produced by reacting the mentioned Schiff base [I] with glycine and triethylamine in ethanol for 9 hrs. Tetrazole derivative [V] was synthesized by refluxing Schiff base [I] with sodium azide in dimethylformamid DMF. The structure of synthesized compound

Peak ground acceleration (PGA) is one of the critical factors that affect the determination of earthquake intensity. PGA is generally utilized to describe ground motion in a particular zone and is able to efficiently predict the parameters of site ground motion for the design of engineering structures. Therefore, novel models are developed to forecast PGA in the case of the Iraqi database, which utilizes the particle swarm optimization (PSO) approach. A data set of 187 historical ground-motion recordings in Iraq’s tectonic regions was used to build the explicit proposed models. The proposed PGA models relate to different seismic parameters, including the magnitude of the earthquake (Mw), average shear-wave velocity (VS30), focal depth (FD

The current study involves placing 135 boreholes drilled to a depth of 10 m below the existing ground level. Three standard penetration tests (SPT) are performed at depths of 1.5, 6, and 9.5 m for each borehole. To produce thematic maps with coordinates and depths for the bearing capacity variation of the soil, a numerical analysis was conducted using MATLAB software. Despite several-order interpolation polynomials being used to estimate the bearing capacity of soil, the first-order polynomial was the best among the other trials due to its simplicity and fast calculations. Additionally, the root mean squared error (RMSE) was almost the same for the all of the tried models. The results of the study can be summarized by the production