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.
This research explores the obstacles teachers encounter in executing the smart schools initiative within the framework of Iraq, where educational facilities and digital preparedness are still at an early stage. Although worldwide trends reveal the growing use of smart technologies in education, Iraq has been hindered by systemic barriers, such as archaic curricula, restricted access to technologies, and an unqualified teaching staff. Data were collected using a validated questionnaire on 122 public school teachers working in Baghdad with a descriptive-analytical methodology. The study divided challenges into five areas: infrastructure, teacher preparedness, administrative support, curricular adaptation and cultural resistanc
... Show MoreMany purposes require communicating audio files between the users using different applications of social media. The security level of these applications is limited; at the same time many audio files are secured and must be accessed by authorized persons only, while, most present works attempt to hide single audio file in certain cover media. In this paper, a new approach of hiding three audio signals with unequal sizes in single color digital image has been proposed using the frequencies transform of this image. In the proposed approach, the Fast Fourier Transform was adopted where each audio signal is embedded in specific region with high frequencies in the frequency spectrum of the cover image to sa
... Show MoreIn this paper, the process of comparison between the tree regression model and the negative binomial regression. As these models included two types of statistical methods represented by the first type "non parameter statistic" which is the tree regression that aims to divide the data set into subgroups, and the second type is the "parameter statistic" of negative binomial regression, which is usually used when dealing with medical data, especially when dealing with large sample sizes. Comparison of these methods according to the average mean squares error (MSE) and using the simulation of the experiment and taking different sample
... Show MoreBackground: Aesthetic archwires are used to overcome the aesthetic problems of stainless steel wires but the color of the coating layer can be changed with time when exposed to oral environments. The aim of this study was to evaluate the degree of color change of different aesthetic archwires from different companies under different coloring solutions. Materials and Methods: One hundred fifty samples of coated archwires from three companies (Highland, G&H and Dany) were immersed in 5 solutions (artificial saliva, turmeric, tea, coffee and Miranda) to evaluate the degree of color changes after 7, 14 and 21 days using visible spectrophotometer. Data were collected and analyzed using one way ANOVA and post hoc Tukey’s tests. Resu
... Show MoreIn the present work, HgBa2Can-1CunO2n+2+δ superconducting thin films with (100) nm thickness were (n=1, 2 and 3) prepared by Pulsed Laser Deposition technique on glass substrate at R.T (300) K, have been synthesize. The effect of Cu content on the structural, surface morphology, optical and electrical properties of HgBa2Can-1CunO2n+2+δ films were investigated and analyzed. The results of XRD analysis show that all samples are polycrystalline structure with orthorhombic phase, the change of Cu concentration in samples produce changes in the mass density, lattice parameter and the ratio (c/a). AFM techniques were used to examine the surface morphology of HgBa2Can-1CunO2n+2+δ superconducting films, the study showed the values of surface rou
... Show MoreIn this work, the fractional damped Burger's equation (FDBE) formula = 0,
This paper aimed at specifying the leading obstacles which faced by Iraqi EFL secondary school teachers in teaching English language. According to studies and observations, lack of adequate materials, overcrowding classrooms, lack of infrastructures, and low job satisfaction are the main barriers to English language teaching in Iraq. Data were collected from 130 EFL teachers from Iraqi schools through a standard questionnaire. The data were analyzed using a descriptive statistic to summarize and present it in a meaningful way. The findings supported previous studies regarding the classroom overcrowding, lack of teaching aids and materials, and dilapidated facilities. Furthermore, regarding job dissatisfaction and salary, interesting and eye
... Show MoreThe zeolite's textural properties have a significant effect on zeolite's effectiveness in the different industrial processes. This research aimed to study the textual properties of the NaX and FeX zeolites using the nitrogen adsorption-desorption technique at a constant low temperature. According to the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, the adsorption-desorption isotherm showed that the studied materials were mixed kinds I/II isotherms and H3 type hysteresis. The Brunauer-Emmett-Teller isotherm was the best model to describe the nitrogen adsorption-desorption better than the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms. The obtained adsorption capacity and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area values for NaX were greater than FeX. Ac
... Show MoreThe most important function of a prosthetic hand is their ability to perform tasks in a manner similar to a natural hand, so it is necessary to perform kinematic analysis to determine the performance and the ability of the prosthetic human finger design to work normally and smoothly when it's drive by two sets of links that embedded in its structure and pulled by a servomotor, so the Denvit-Hartenberg method was used to analyse the forward kinematics for the prosthetic finger joints to deduction the trajectory of the fingertip and the velocity of the joints was computed by using the Jacobian matrix. The prosthetic finger was modelled by the Solidwork - 2018 program and the results of kinematics were verified using MATLAB. The analys
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