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.
Coronavirus: (COVID-19) is a recently discovered viral disease caused by a new strain of coronavirus.
The majority of patients with corona-virus infections will have a mild-moderate respiratory disease that recovers without special care. Most often, the elderly, and others with chronic medical conditions such as asthma, coronary disease, respiratory illness, and malignancy are seriously ill.
COVID-19 is spread mostly by salivary droplets or nasal secretions when an infected person coughs or sneezes.
COVID-19 causes severe acute respiratory illness (SARS-COV-2). The first incidence was recorded in Wuhan, China, in 2019. Since then it spreads leading to a pandemic.
... Show MoreA huge potential from researchers was presented for enhancing the nonlinear optical response for materials that interacts by light. In this work, we study the nonlinear optical response for chemically prepared nano- fluid of silver nanoparticles in de-ionized water with TSC (Tri-sodium citrate) protecting agent. By the means of self-defocusing technique and under CW 473 nm blue laser, the reflected diffraction pattern were observed and recorded by CCD camera. The results demonstrate that, the Ag nano-fluid shows a good third order nonlinear response and the magnitude of the nonlinear refractive index was in the order of 10−7 cm2/W. We determine the maximum change of the nonlinear refractive index and the related phase shift for the mat
... Show MoreBackground: The rhizome of ginger is used in cooking and for medicinal purposes such as anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant. The aims of the study were to test the effect of ethanolic extract of ginger on growth, adherence and acidogenicity of mutans streptococci in comparison to chlorhexidine gluconate 0.2% and de-ionized water. Materials and methods: From saliva often volunteers (dental students 20-22 years); mutans streptococci was isolated, purified and diagnosed according to morphological characteristic and biochemical tests. Ginger was powdered and extracted, different concentrations of ginger extract were prepared. Chlorhexidine gluconate 0.2% used as a control positive; while de-ionized water was used as a
... Show MoreMalaysia has been supported by one of the high-speed fiber internet connections called TM UniFi. TM UniFi is very familiar to be used as a medium to apply Small Office Home Office (SOHO) concept due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of the communication vendors offer varieties of network services to fulfill customers' needs and satisfaction during the pandemic. Quality of Services is queried by most users by the fact of increased on users from time to time. Therefore, it is crucial to know the network performance contrary to the number of devices connected to the TM UniFi network. The main objective of this research is to analyze TM UniFi performance with the impact of multiple device connections or users' services. The study was conducted
... Show MoreThe automatic liquid filling system is used in different applications such as production of detergents, liquid soaps, fruit juices, milk products, bottled water, etc. The automatic bottle filling system is highly expensive. Where, the common filling systems required to complex changes in hardware and software in order to modify volume of liquid. There are many important variables in the filling process such as volume of liquid, the filling time, etc. This paper presents a new approach to develop an automatic liquid filling system. The new proposed system consists of a conveyor subsystem, filling stations, and camera to detect the level of the liquid at any instant during the filling process. The camera can detect accurately the leve
... Show MoreMalaysia will be an ageing population by 2030 as the number of those aged 60 years and above has increased drastically from 6.2 percent in 2000 and is expected to reach 13.6 percent by 2030. There are many challenges that will be faced due to the ageing population, one of which is the increasing cost of pensions in the future. In view of that, it is necessary to investigate the effect of actuarial assumptions on pension liabilities under the perspective of ageing. To estimate the pension liabilities, the Projected Unit Credit method is used in the study and commutation functions are employed in the process. Demographic risk and salary risk have been identified as major risks in analyzing pension liabilities in this study. The sensitivity
... Show MoreCopper electrodeposition by electrorefining process in acidic sulfate media contains 40 g/l of cupric ions and 160 g/l of sulfuric acid was achieved to study the influence of the operating parameters on cathode purity, surface morphology, deposition rate, current efficiency and power consumption. These operating parameters and there ranges are: current density 200, 300 and 400 A/m2, electrolyte temperature 35, 50 and 65 oC, electrodes spacing 15, 30 and 45 mm and electrolyte residence time 6, 4 and 2 h were utilized. XRF, SEM and EDX analyses were attained to clarify the properties of the produced cathode.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is an expanding domain that can revolutionize different industries. Nevertheless, security is among the multiple challenges that it encounters. A major threat in the IoT environment is spoofing attacks, a type of cyber threat in which malicious actors masquerade as legitimate entities. This research aims to develop an effective technique for detecting spoofing attacks for IoT security by utilizing feature-importance methods. The suggested methodology involves three stages: preprocessing, selection of important features, and classification. The feature importance determines the most significant characteristics that play a role in detecting spoofing attacks. This is achieved via two techniques: decision tr
... Show MoreThis study investigates the constructs and related theories that drive social capital in energy sector from the intention perspectives. This research uses theories of 'social support' and 'planned behaviour' alongside satisfaction and perceived value to propose a research model that drives social capital for energy sectors in Malaysia. The model reveals that the Theories of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and Social Support Theory (SST) alongside satisfaction and perceived value factors promote social capital development in energy sectors. Using PLS-SEM to analyse data gathered from energy sector employees in Malaysia, this research demonstrates that social capital is present when there is trust and loyalty among the users and positively effects en
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