Microbubble Distillation Studies of a Binary Mixture

The characteristics of microbubble distillation of binary system of ethanol and water have been investigated. The study describes the use of a fluidic oscillator used to generate microbubbles. The effects of air temperature and liquid level on separation performance have been studied. The results demonstrate that ethanol concentration in the distilled phase decreases with the increasing liquid level. Increasing air temperature enhances the separation efficiency of the two components. It is shown that the ethanol fraction in distilled phase and the evaporation ratio increases by increasing the air temperature. Furthermore, the concentration of ethanol in the residual liquid shows a corresponding decrease. The vapour -liquid composition of microbubble distillation can exceed the isothermal equilibrium vapour-liquid composition by controlling the liquid level and the air temperature within the process

La constitution irakienne de 2005 : entre diversité et unité

The 2005 Constitution is an essential step in the history of modern Iraq. Years of dictatorship and one-party rule under Saddam Hussein led Iraq into a series of external and internal crises. Political change in 2003 and the events that followed have created the conditions for the legal reconstruction of Iraq. The Constituent Assembly drafted the Constitution that the Iraqis have approved by a large turnout in the referendum of 15October 2005. This work was supported by the international community and the Security Council of the UN.The Constitution founded a federal form of government and a "parliamentary" system gives broad powers to the Council of Representatives. These principles and application of "consociational" democracy ensured respect for pluralism, but otherwise, they amplified the feeling of segmental membership at the expense of national belonging. Despite the incompleteness of legislation to the full implementation of the Constitution and some of the pillars of democracy, this text came to be that organized several elections, peacefully passed power and guarantee the democratic process in Iraq. It remains the best chance to gather the Iraqis.La Constitution de 2005 est une étape essentielle dans l’histoire de l’Irak moderne. Des années de dictature et de régime de parti unique sous Saddam Hussein ont entraîné l’Irak dans une série de crises externes et internes. Le changement politique en 2003 et les événements qui l’ont suivi ont créé les conditions pour la reconstruction juridique de l’Irak. L’Assemblée Constituante a élaboré la Constitution que les Irakiens ont approuvée par une large participation au référendum du 15 octobre 2005. Ce travail a bénéficié du soutien de la communauté internationale et du Conseil de Sécurité de l’ONU. La Constitution a établi une forme fédérale de l’État et un régime « parlementaire » donnant de larges pouvoirs au Conseil des Représentants.Ces principes et l’application de la démocratie « consociative » ont garanti le respect du pluralisme, mais, par ailleurs, ils ont amplifié le sentiment d’appartenance à une composante au détriment de celui d’appartenance nationale. Malgré l’inachèvement des textes législatifs permettant l’application complète de la Constitution et de quelques-uns des piliers de la démocratie ce texte est arrivé à ce que soient organisées plusieur sélections, transmis pacifiquement le pouvoir et garantie la vie démocratique en Irak. Elle reste la meilleure chance pour rassembler les Irakiens

Microbubble Distillation for Ethanol-Water Separation

In the current study, a novel approach for separating ethanol-water mixture by microbubble distillation technology was investigated. Traditional distillation processes require large amounts of energy to raise the liquid to its boiling point to effect removal of volatile components. The concept of microbubble distillation by comparison is to heat the gas phase rather than the liquid phase to achieve separation. The removal of ethanol from the thermally sensitive fermentation broths was taken as a case of study. Consequently the results were then compared with those which could be obtained under equilibrium conditions expected in an “ideal” distillation unit. Microbubble distillation has achieved vapour compositions higher than that which could be obtained under traditional equilibrium conditions. The separation was achieved at liquid temperature significantly less than the boiling point of the mixture. In addition, it was observed that the separation efficiency of the microbubble distillation could be increased by raising the injected air temperature, while the temperature of the liquid mixture increased only moderately. The separation efficiency of microbubble distillation was compared with that of pervaporation for the recovery of bioethanol from the thermally sensitive fermentation broths. The technology could be controlled to give high separation and energy efficiency. This could contribute to improving commercial viability of biofuel production and other coproducts of biorefinery processing

Awareness of Breast Cancer Risk Factors, Symptoms and Breast Self-Examination Among Omani Female Teachers: A cross-sectional study

Objectives: This study aimed to assess knowledge of breast cancer (BC) risk factors, warning signs and symptoms and breast self-examination (BSE) practice among Omani female teachers in Al-Dhahira Governorate. Methods: A cross-sectional sample of female teachers aged 20–50 years was collected from January to December 2018 from three wilayats (provinces) in Al-Dhahira—Ibri, Dhank and Yunqal. A questionnaire that included the Breast Cancer Awareness Scale and demographic characteristics was administered. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, regression analysis and Pearson’s Chi-square test. Results: A total of 478 female teachers were included in the study (response rate: 72.4%). The majority of participants (60.5%) had good overall knowledge about BC while 19.9% of participants had excellent overall knowledge. Only 9% of participants demonstrating excellent knowledge of BC risk factors. More than half of the participants (56.1%) reported excellent knowledge in screening methods. Unfortunately, only 57% of the female teachers indicated practising BSE. Knowledge of BC symptoms was closely divided between excellent and good levels (45.8 and 42.5%, respectively). BSE practice was significantly (P <0.05) correlated with overall knowledge of BC and its symptoms and screening methods, but not with knowledge of BC risk factors. Conclusion: This study revealed unsatisfactory overall knowledge of BC risk factors, symptoms, screening methods and BSE practice among female Omani teachers in Al-Dhahira Governorate. These findings constitute a challenge to healthcare providers to continue developing awareness of BC and providing health information to the public.Keywords: Breast Cancer; Awareness; Knowledge; Breast Self-Examination; Risk factors; Signs and Symptoms; Oman

Relative wettability measurement of porous diffuser and its impact on the generated bubble size

Controlling the bubble size is a major concern in enhancing transport performance in gas-liquid systems. The role of wettability of diffuser surface on bubble size is the subject of the current work. The study inspects the contact angle of a set of liquids on HP ceramic diffusers using the Washburn method. The results demonstrate that organic liquids like toluene, methanol-water (1:1 v/v), ethanol-water (1:1 v/v) and decane have small contact angles of 12.9◦, 37.5◦, 24.4◦ and 22.5◦ respectively. Water has a lower wettability than the organic compounds where the contact angle was about 67.4◦. The effect of wettability of the bubble size is investigated by measuring the size of air bubble produced using the same diffuser material. The results of bubble size measurement demonstrates that with liquids of small contact angle, i.e. good wetting properties, small bubble sizes are produced in comparison with liquids with a higher contact angle. The study demonstrates the viability of Washburn method in characterization of wettability of porous diffuser, which was verified by measuring the bubble size produced. A high reduction in bubble size can be obtained by a carefully chosen diffuser material that provides better wettability

Full-Waveform Inversion To 3D Seismic Land Data

Full-waveform inversion (FWI) is a technique that seeks to find a high-resolution high-fidelity model of the Earth's subsurface that is capable of matching individual seismic waveforms, within an original raw field dataset, trace by trace. The method begins from a best-guess starting model, which is then iteratively improved using a sequence of linearized local inversions to solve a fully non-linear problem. In principle, FWI can be used to recover any physical property that has an influence upon the seismic wavefield, but in practice the technique has been used predominantly to recover P-wave velocity, and this is the route that is followed here. Full-waveform tomographic techniques seek to determine a highly resolved quantitative model of the sub-surface that will ultimately be able to explain the entire seismic wavefield including those phases that conventional processing and migration seek to remove such as refracted arrivals. Although the underlying theory of FWI is well established, its practical application to 3D land data, and especially to seismic data that have been acquired using vibrators, in a form that is effective and robust, is still a subject of intense research. In this study, 2D and 3D FWI techniques have been applied to a vibrator dataset from onshore Oman. Both the raw dataset and the subsurface model cause difficulties for FWI. In particular, the data are noisy, have weak early arrivals, are strongly elastic, and especially are lacking in low-frequency content. The Earth model appears to contain shallow low-velocity layers, and these compromise the use of first-arrival travel-time tomography for the generation of a starting velocity model. The 2D results show good recovery of the shallow part of the velocity models. The results show a low-velocity layer that extends across the velocity model, but lacking in a high-resolution image due to the absence of the third dimension. The seismograms of the final inversion models give a good comparison with the field data and produce a reasonably high correlation coefficient compared to the starting model. An inversion scheme has been developed in this study in which only data from the shorter offsets are initially inverted since these represent the subset of the data that is not cycle skipped. The offset range is then gradually extended as the model improves. The final 3D model contains a strongly developed low-velocity layer in the shallow section. The results from this inversion appear to match p-wave logs from a shallow drill hole, better flatten the gathers, and better stack and migrate the reflection data. The inversion scheme is generic, and should have applications to other similar difficult datasets

Parasites of Cockroach Periplaneta americana (L.) in Al-Diwaniya province,Iraq.

Out of 150 cockroaches examined in this study, 125 cockroaches (83. 33%) were infected with one or several species of external parasites (33.3) or gastro-intestinal helminthes (80%). The percentage infection and number of parasites of Cockroaches trapped in the toilets of houses more than infection of cockroaches trapped from the kitchens of houses (100% and 50%respectively) and 2-62 parasites/ml of Cockroaches trapped in the toilets while those trapped from the kitchens was1- 28 parasites/ml houses. A seven species were isolated from the external surface and intestinal tract represented two protozoa and five nematodes. This species were: Entamoeba blatti (33%), Nyctotherus ovalis (65.3 %), Hammersmiditiella diesingi (33.3 %), Thelastoma bulhoe (51.4 %), Gordius robustus (Horsehair worm) (1.3%), Enterobius vermicularis eggs , (2%) Ascaris lumbricoids eggs (1.3%). No Cestodes were records in the study. Prevalence of intestinal worms was statistically higher significant than the protozoa in (P<0.05). The number of worms per cockroaches ranged from 1-3 while protozoa 42 parasites/ml. Prevalence of endoparasites were higher than ectoparasites and intestinal worms was statistically higher significant than the protozoa in (80%; 3. 3%) and (83. 3%; 65.3 %) respectively. This study revealed Cockroach represent an important reservoir or carrier for medical importance parasites of human in houses as Enterobius vermicularis and Ascaris lumbricoids . The work presents the first record of cockroach's parasites in Al-Diwaniya

Parasites of Cockroach Periplaneta americana (L.) in Al-Diwaniya province,Iraq.

Out of 150 cockroaches examined in this study, 125 cockroaches (83. 33%) were infected with one or several species of external parasites (33.3) or gastro-intestinal helminthes (80%). The percentage infection and number of parasites of Cockroaches trapped in the toilets of houses more than infection of cockroaches trapped from the kitchens of houses (100% and 50%respectively) and 2-62 parasites/ml of Cockroaches trapped in the toilets while those trapped from the kitchens was1- 28 parasites/ml houses. A seven species were isolated from the external surface and intestinal tract represented two protozoa and five nematodes. This species were: Entamoeba blatti (33%), Nyctotherus ovalis (65.3 %), Hammersmiditiella diesingi (33.3 %), Thelastoma bulhoe (51.4 %), Gordius robustus (Horsehair worm) (1.3%), Enterobius vermicularis eggs , (2%) Ascaris lumbricoids eggs (1.3%). No Cestodes were records in the study. Prevalence of intestinal worms was statistically higher significant than the protozoa in (P<0.05). The number of worms per cockroaches ranged from 1-3 while protozoa 42 parasites/ml. Prevalence of endoparasites were higher than ectoparasites and intestinal worms was statistically higher significant than the protozoa in (80%; 3. 3%) and (83. 3%; 65.3 %) respectively. This study revealed Cockroach represent an important reservoir or carrier for medical importance parasites of human in houses as Enterobius vermicularis and Ascaris lumbricoids . The work presents the first record of cockroach's parasites in Al-Diwaniya

The Role of Microbubble Distillation in Biorefinery Process of Biofuel Production

Biorefinery processing of biofuel and chemical production from biomass faces several challenges. Factors that inversely affect the production of bioethanol by fermentation include toxicity to the microorganism by high ethanol concentration during processing. The removal of ethanol by distillation involves operating at a high temperature, which damage the microorganisms with high energy consumption. Bio-oil is a complex mixture containing thermally unstable components. Furthermore, bio-oil characterised by high water content, acidity and other properties that setup many obstacles in its applications. In addition, in solvent extraction of biomass lipid components, the solvent is usually retrieved by distillation. Due to the high temperature during the process, the lipid and biomass components may be degraded. In the current study, microbubble distillation has been introduced as a novel technology for separation of a thermally sensitive mixture. The results showed that the microbubble distillation has achieved higher separation efficiency compared to that obtained with fine bubble distillation. Thereafter, microbubble distillation has been applied to separate ethanol and water mixtures. The study showed that the liquid level and air temperature could be engineered to achieve high separation efficiency compared to that obtained from an idealised equilibrium distillation stage, while the liquid mixture temperature was far from the mixture's boiling point. Microbubble distillation also has been applied to upgrade a simulated bio-oil mixture. The mixture was contained water, acetic acid, cyclohexanone, and salicylaldehyde. Post-treatment, it was shown that the mixture was free of water and 86% of the acetic acid was removed after 120 minutes, and no polymerization or other ageing reactions occurred during the process. Additionally microbubble distillation has been shown capable of separation azeotropic mixtures. Microbubble distillation is a potential replacement for traditional distillation in biorefining processes. The technology could be controlled to give high separation and energy efficiency. This could contribute to improving commercial viability of biofuel and other co-products biorefinery process

"Le consociativisme irakien, moyen d'établir un Etat de droit", in: Etat du droit, état des droits - Mélanges en l'honneur du Pr D. Turpin, C. Marliac (dir.), Editions du Centre Michel de l'Hospital, La Collection des Mélanges - LGDJ Lextenso, 2017, N° 1, pp. 381-387

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