Pharmaceuticals have been widely remaining contaminants in wastewater, and diclofenac is the most common pharmaceutical pollutant. Therefore, the removal of diclofenac from aqueous solutions using activated carbon produced by pyrocarbonic acid and microwaves was investigated in this research. Apricot seed powder and pyrophosphoric acid (45 wt%) were selected as raw material and activator respectively, and microwave irradiation technique was used to prepare the activated carbon. The raw material was impregnated in pyrophosphoric acid at 80◦C with an impregnation ratio of 1: 3 (apricot seeds to phosphoric acid), the impregnation time was 4 h, whereas the power of the microwave was 700 watts with a radiation time of 20 min. A series of experiments were conducted at constant mixing speed (300 revolutions per minute) to evaluate the effect of experimental factors likes, adsorption time, pH of diclofenac solution, diclofenac initial concentration, and dosage of activated carbon on removal efficiency. The design of experiments (version 13 Stat-Ease) was implemented using the central composite method to define the optimum effect of the process factors on the removal efficiency. The analysis of variance showed that the quadratic model for the experiment was significant with a very low probability value (P- value < 0.0001). The adjusted R2 of the model was 0.9826 and the predicted R2 was 0.9574. Whereas the optimum conditions suggested by the model for the process variable were found to be 150 min, 3.25 pH, 30 mg/L, 0.267g, for adsorption time, pH of diclofenac solution, diclofenac initial concentration, a dosage of activated carbon, respectively and the maximum removal efficiency was found to be 94.6%. The data obtained from the experiments were fitted with Langmuir and Freundlich models and the results show that the data was well fitted Langmuir model with R2 = 0.9685 as compared to the Freundlich model which has R2 = 0.93249. Likewise, the data was analyzed by pseudo first and second-order kinetic models and the results show that the adsorption on apricot-activated carbon was well adequate with the pseudo-second-order model.
One hundred twelve urine samples were collected from Baghdad hospitals and examined by different identification techniques. Seventy isolates (62.5%) were diagnosed as Escherichia coli after microscopic and cultural identifications. The result of PCR product electrophoresis on the isolates showed that thirteen isolates (18.57%) have Pap E gene which are uropathogenic E. coli. Antibiotic susceptibility test was done, and four high resistant strains were mixed with aqueous extract of Quercus infectoria plant in 96 well ELISA plate and incubated for different times. After 0, 6, and 12 hr. of incubation, the effect of the plant extract on the bacterial growth was determined by ELISA reader, and the effect on the expression of P
... Show MoreMedicinal plants are used to treat various diseases although little is known about their toxicity. Coriandrum sativum is one of the most commonly plants that is used to treat several physiological disorders. Thus, this study was conducted to evaluate the effect of aqueous extract of C. sativum on the structure and function of liver in male albino mice. Thirty male mice were randomly divided into three groups: Group 1 untreated (control), Group 2 and 3 were administrated orally with the aqueous extract of the plant at dose 125 and 250 mg/kg. b. w. For 30 days. The effect of the extract on liver weights, biochemical parameters as well as histological study were assessed. There were no significant difference (P>0.05) observed in relative organ
... Show MoreAn experiment was carried out to study the effect of soil organic carbon (SOC) and soil texture on the distance of the wetting front, cumulative water infiltration (I), infiltration rate (IR), saturated water conductivity (Ks), and water holding capacity (WHC). Three levels ( 0, 10, 20, and 30 g OC kg-1 ) from organic carbon (OC) were mixed with different soil materials sandy, loam, and clay texture soils. Field capacity (FC) and permanent wilting point (PWP) were estimated. Soil materials were placed in transparent plastic columns(12 cm soil column ), and water infiltration(I) was measured as a function of time, the distance of the wetting front and Ks. Results showed that advance we
The aim of this work is to study reverse osmosis characteristics for copper sulfate hexahydrate (CuSO4.6H2O), nickel sulfate hexahydrate (NiSO4.6H2O) and zinc sulfate hexahydrate (ZnSO4.6H2O) removal from aqueous solution which discharge from some Iraqi factories such as Alnasser Company for mechanical industries. The mode of operation of reverse osmosis was permeate is removed and the concentrate of metals solution is recycled back to the feed vessel. Spiral-wound membrane is thin film composite membrane (TFC) was used to conduct this study on reverse osmosis. The variables studied are metals concentrations (50 – 150 ppm) and time (15 – 90 min). It was found that increasing the time results in an increase in concentration of metal in p
... Show MoreThis study has been carried out in the animal field of the college of agricultural engineering sciences, university of Baghdad, for the period from 12/15/2021 to 1/26 /2022 for 42 d, to investigate the effect of adding different levels of ellagic acid to the diet of broilers, on some physiological characteristics & oxidation indicators in meat compared to vitamin C in meat, 225 Ross 308 chicks were used, divided randomly to five treatments such us: T1: control group without additives to diet, & the other T2, T3, T4 was added ellagic acid (
... Show MoreMicroorganisms have an active role in biotechnology for example yeasts, especially in some genus like Saccharomyces, Pichia, and Candida. C.tropicalis one of the most important species of Candida and despite it is one of the causative agents of candidiasis but it has a major role in the production of many chemical compounds. C.tropicalis in the previous study was isolated from sheep dung and morphologically and molecularly classified the result of sequencing was elucidate 100% similarity between the studied isolate and other isolates inserted in DNA Data Bank of Japan DDBJ, physiologically this isolate tolerated 6% ethanol concentration in broth media with the ability to the pro
... Show MoreFour samples were collected from the wastewater of State Battery Manufacturing Company (SBMC); Babylon 2 factory in AL-Waziriya district, as triplicates. Physical and chemical measurements were carried out such as temperature, pH, Lead concentrations and their ranges were: (19.5-34.5) °C, (6.1-6.4) and (4.5-6.5) mg/L, respectively. Six dominant Bacillus spp. isolates were isolated from these samples; namely, Bacillus subtilis N1, Bacillus subtilis N2, Bacillus subtilis N3, Bacillus cereus N4, Bacillus cereus N5 , Bacillus cereus N6. These isolates were capable of removing Lead from aqueous solutions in a capacity reached 27.6 ± 1.4, 10.1 ± 1.7, 74.5 ± 0.7, 8.93 ± 2.8, 8.1 ± 3.5, 1.6± 0.7 mg/L, respectively. Whereas cell walls,
... Show MoreNanoparticles (NPs) have unique capabilities that make them an eye-opener opportunity for the upstream oil industry. Their nano-size allows them to flow within reservoir rocks without the fear of retention between micro-sized pores. Incorporating NPs with drilling and completion fluids has proved to be an effective additive that improves various properties such as mud rheology, filtration, thermal conductivity, and wellbore stability. However, the biodegradability of drilling fluid chemicals is becoming a global issue as the discharged wetted cuttings raise toxicity concerns and environmental hazards. Therefore, it is urged to utilize chemicals that tend to break down and susceptible to biodegradation. This research presents the pra
... Show MoreActivation of farnesoid X receptor (FXR) markedly attenuates development of atherosclerosis in animal models. However, the underlying mechanism is not well elucidated. Here, we show that the FXR agonist, obeticholic acid (OCA), increases fecal cholesterol excretion and macrophage reverse cholesterol transport (RCT) dependent on activation of hepatic FXR. OCA does not increase biliary cholesterol secretion, but inhibits intestinal cholesterol absorption. OCA markedly inhibits hepatic cholesterol 7α‐hydroxylase (