Removal of pharmaceutical compound (ibuprofen) using a novel modified polyacrylonitrile grafted palm seed powder

Adsorption of ibuprofen onto a low cost amidoxime-modified poly(AN-g-PSP) has been investigated. Poly(acrylonitrile-grafted-palm seed powder) (poly(AN-g-PSP)) was chemically modified with hydroxylamine hydrochloride (NH2OH.HCl) to convert the nitrile groups into oxime functional groups. The PSP and amidoxime-modified poly(AN-g-PSP) were characterized by Brauner-Emmet-Teller (BET). It was observed that the specific surface area, pore volume and average pore diameter of were significantly increased after modification with NH2OH.HCl. The influence of pH, contact time, adsorbent dosage and initial metal concentration towards the adsorption of ibuprofen onto amidoxime-modified poly(AN-g-PSP) were carried out via HPLC coupled with UV. The adsorption kinetic study showed that the maximum time required for the removal of ibuprofen to reach equilibrium was found to be 40 min., at pH 6.0 , adsorbent dose 0.30 g with initial concentration of ibuprofen of 100pm at room temperature

Aqueous Foams Stabilized by Hydrophilic Silica Nanoparticles via In-Situ Physisorption of Nonionic TX100 Surfactant

This paper present the study of aqueous CO foam prepared 2 by a mixtures hydrophilic silica nanoparticles and non-ionic Triton X100, TX100, surfactant. The synergistic effects of the mixture on stabilizing the CO2 foam were inferred into few key parameters namely; particles and surfactant concentration, adsorption of surfactant onto the particles via surface tension and adsorption isotherm, foam lifetime and, the size of the bubbles produced. It was found that the adsorption behaviour of TX100 on silica surface exhibit a particular characteristics depend on the concentration of silica, high total surface area available leads to high adsorptionof surfactant molecules. The synergetic performance of silica/TX100 in stabilizing foam can be observed at low (0.01%) and intermediate (0.1%) concentration of TX100. Lower concentration required low silica concentration while the intermediate concentration required high silica fraction in the dispersion to stabilize the foam

Bio-potential of fermented fruits waste solutions on in vitro seed germination and regeneration of Lycium barbarum and Aquilaria malaccensis Lamk.

There are many synthetic growth media for plant tissue culture available in the market such as Murashige and Skoog (MS) Medium, Woody Plant Medium (WPM), Schenk and Hildebrandt (SH) Medium and Gamborg’s B-5 Medium. The aim of this study was to substitute the synthetic media used in the plant tissue culture by organic additives which are pineapple, banana, papaya, calamansi lime, kaffir lime and key lime peels. Two formulated fermented fruits waste solutions composed of these organic additives were prepared in different concentrations (Formula A- calamansi lime, kaffir lime, and key lime peel; Formula B -banana, pineapple, and papaya peels) to study their effects on in vitro seed germination and regeneration of Lycium barbarum and Aquilaria malaccensis Lamk. Statistical results showed that they were significantly different in interaction effects (p<0.05) in promoting the plant growth in the formulated media as compared to control medium determined by ANOVA test. Application of this formulated fermented fruits waste solutions should be considered since it is found to be responsive in in vitro seed germination and regeneration of L. barbarum and A. malaccensis Lamk and will potentially minimize the operational cost

Kinetics and redox copolymerization of acrylonitrile grafted palm seed powder after chemical modification with hydroxylamine as adsorbents for methylene blue removal

In this research the potentials of palm seeds powder (PSP) as an alternative and environmental friendly adsorbent for the treatment of dye-methylene blue (MB) in waste water was explored. Also, the copolymerization of acrylonitrile (AN) onto palm seeds powder (PSP), using sodium persulphate (SPS) and potassium persulphate (KPS) as initiators were successfully carried out via redox copolymerization method under optimum conditions. The optimum conditions of grafting efficiency and grafting yield were achieved within 2 h and 40 reaction time. Afterwards, grafted product was chemically modified using hydroxylamine hydrochloride in order to convert the nitrile into oxime functional group. The characterization of poly(AN-g-PSP) and amidoxime –modified (AN-g-PSP) were done using: Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) Spectroscopy, Thermal Gravimetric Analysis (TGA) and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) . All the results from the characterization techniques shows that the copolymerization of PSP onto PAN and subsequently modification of poly(AN-g-PSP) using hydroxylamine hydrochloride were successfully carried out. The influence of pH, contact time and initial metal concentration towards adsorption of MB onto amidoxime-modified poly(AN-g-PSP) were investigated via the atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS). The optimum removal of MB onto amidoxime-modified poly(AN-g-PSP) was found to be 97% (16.03 mg/g). Kinetic and thermodynamic studies were investigated, pseudo second-order was observed to be the most suitable that describes the adsorption process R² (0.998). Values obtained from thermodynamic analysis shows that the adsorption process is endothermic, spontaneous and chemisorptions in nature

The Influence of Heat Treatment on the Microstructure and Hardness Properties of Ti6Al4V and MgAZ91D Alloys / Yusliza Yusuf...[et al.]

Ti6Al4V alloy and MgAZ91D alloy have excellent combinatorial properties. However, in many cases their applications are limited because of weaknesses in their mechanical properties such as low fatigue strength for MgAZ91D and low modulus elasticity for Ti6Al4V. In this work, the proposed solution is to improve their hardness properties by applying the suitable heat treatment process on these alloys. The heat treatment temperature of Ti6Al4V was performed at 950oC and 900oC, while for MgA91D at 500oC and 450oC. This is followed by water and air quenching and aging treatment at 400oC/4 hours for Ti6Al4V and 200oC/8 hours for MgAZ91D. The results show that the heat treatment process with water quenching medium helps to improve the properties of Ti6Al4V and MgAZ91D alloy in terms of microstructure's changes and generally the value of hardness and roughness was increased after the heat treatment process

Investigation of some expired antibiotic drugs: Effect on the corrosion inhibition of mild steel in 0.1 M HCl medium via experimental and molecular dynamics simulation

Three expired antibiotic drugs namely, ampiclox, ciprofloxacin, and ampicillin were studied at low concentrations on the corrosion inhibition of mild steel (MS) in 0.1 M HCl medium using weight loss and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniques. Subsequently, the molecular structures of the antibiotic inhibitors were subjected to molecular dynamic (MD) simulation using Material Studio 8.0 software to have insight into their dynamic binding energy onto the Fe (110) surface in an acidic medium. The results showed that the weight loss and corrosion rate decrease with an increase in the inhibitor concentration, while the inhibition efficiency (%) and surface coverage increase with the increase in the inhibitor concentration respectively. The maximum inhibition efficiency of 97.72 % was attained at 0.009M concentration for ciprofloxacin followed by ampiclox and ampicillin. The SEM analysis of the MS with the expired ciprofloxacin (0.009 M) revealed a soother surface through the formation of a protective film that prevented the corrosion attack which confirms the highest inhibition efficiency. The MD simulation showed that the ciprofloxacin has the highest binding energy of -474.582 kcal/mol, followed by -248.448 kcal/mol for ampicillin and -234.955 kcal/mol for ampiclox respectively. Hence, the ciprofloxacin with the more negative magnitude of the binding energy was predicted to exhibit stronger chemisorption interaction onto the Fe (110) metal surface when compared with ampicillin and ampiclox. The findings in this research reveal good agreement between the experimental and theoretical results in studying the corrosion inhibition of the studied antibiotic drugs

The Use of Foramen Magnum in The Determination of Sex Using Computed Tomography (CT) Scan Images of Sampled Population Attending National Ear Care Centre Kaduna State, Nigeria

Determination of sex is an important element of human identification which becomes challenging when only only fragments of body parts are available for investigation by forensic experts. This study was aimed at assessing the utility of foramen magnum parameters in the determination of sex among the Nigerian population. A retrospective study was conducted on patients attending National Ear Care Center Kaduna between the years 2017-2019. A total of 399 normal Multislice CT images of skulls (236 males and 163 females) of the age of 18 – 95 years were randomly picked from the archives of the Hospital in the computer database of the Radiology Department. The foramen magnum and occipital condyles parameters were measured by an experienced radiologist. Males tend to have a significantly higher mean value of foramen magnum width, Foramen Magnum Index, the length of the right occipital condyle, and the length of left occipital condyles as well as the width of the right occipital condyle at a p-value ≤ 0.05. The width of right occipital condyles was the only variable that got a significant (p ≤ 0.05) impact on our sex estimation following multiple logistic regression. However, by applying discriminate function analysis the length of the left occipital condyle and width of the right occipital condyle were the only discriminatory variables chosen for this study population. In conclusion, this study indicated that five variables of foramen magnum out of ten were statistically significantly different with males having higher mean values than females. Moreover, the only significant discriminatory variables to determine sex in this study population were the length of the left occipital condyle and the width of the right occipital condyle respectively

Novel hydroxyapatite-based bio-ceramic hollow fiber membrane derived from waste cow bone for textile wastewater treatment

Industrial textile wastewater is toxic due to the presence of recalcitrant color pigments and poisonous heavy metals. In this study, the hydroxyapatite (HAp)-based bio-ceramic hollow fiber membranes (h-bio-CHFM) were developed via the combined phase inversion and sintering technique. It was found that the properties of the developed h-bio-CHFMs were greatly affected by the HAp content of the ceramic suspension, and sintering temperature. The h-bio-CHFM with the sintering temperature of 1200 degrees C exhibited the long rod-shaped HAp particles and the smallest pore size (0.013 mu m). High removals of color (99.9%), COD (80.1%), turbidity (99.4%) and conductivity (30.1%) were achieved using the h-bio-CHFM sintered at 1200 degrees C with stable high flux of 88.3 L/m(2)h. Remarkably, the h-bio-CHFM sintered in the temperature range of 1000-1200 degrees C also demonstrated excellent adsorption ability towards heavy metals with 100% removals. The results of this study show the potential of the h-bio-CHFM for the efficient industrial textile wastewater treatment applications

Assessment of growth and phytochemical quality of Gynura procumbens through nitrogen, potassium fertilization and evapotranspiration replacement interaction

Despite the progressive reports on potential pharmacological properties of G. procumbens, the importance of agronomic requirements to produce high yields and phytochemical content that may vary due to environmental variations are often overlooked. Therefore, this study was conducted to examine the effects of N, K and ER interaction on the growth and phytochemical content of G. procumbens. The study was a three-factorial experiment; two rates of N and K, four rates of ER and three H time. The treatments have affected plant growth and phytochemical content significantly (p≤0.05) with stronger effect on physiology and biochemical attributes (p≤0.01). The study has shown discrete effect on growth, physiology, and phytochemicals content with N0K30>N90K0 and ER 75>50>100>25% treatment. The highest and lowest yield of plant biomass and phytochemical were observed under N0K30(70) and N90K0(25), respectively. The results have shown that the interaction and effect of treatments are highly significant (p≤0.0001) in Cond, CNB, TChlC, TPrC and TFC analysis, (p≤0.05) in NoL, CF and PWP, and not significant in TLA, Photo, TCC, TLC and TPC. The 75% ER has produced significant output of biomass as well as phytochemical content. The study also showed that low rate of N, moderate rate of K with 75% ER have produced high biomass as well as phytochemical content. Meanwhile, caffeic acid and kaempferol were demonstrated as the lead secondary metabolite compounds in this stud

Series of clinical cases and management of histopathologically diagnosis of squamous cell carcinoma in African pygmy hedgehogs (Atelerix albiventris)

Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is frequently seen as an invasive cutaneous tumour that can be fatal in animals. In this case series, the clinical management of histopathologically diagnosis of SCC in three different individuals of African pygmy hedgehogs is described. In two of the cases presented, the tumours were presented as an oral mass on the gingiva, which were ulcerative and septic. Lumpectomy was performed in both cases and histopathology revealed encapsulated mass composed of neoplastic cells showing squamous differentiation arranged in islands with presence of keratin pearls, intercellular bridges and frequent mitotic figures which are typical features of squamous cell carcinoma. Following lumpectomy, the two hedgehogs were discharged but were later found to developed ocular lesion and anorexia before they were found dead. In the third case, SCC was diagnosed on the phalanges of the 3rd and 4th digits and surgical resection was successfully performed in this case and post-surgical complications were not recorded. Squamous cell carcinoma is one of the most common malignant tumours in African pygmy hedgehogs. In this case series, three cases of SCC were diagnosed using histopathology which two of the cases had predilections in the oral cavity while the third one only involved the digits