Treatment with Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD) plasma restricts Aspergillus niger growth isolated from wheat grain

يؤثر التلوث الميكروبيولوجي بالفطر على جودة وسلامة تخزين حبوب القمح. تهدف هذه الدراسة إلى تقييم فاعلية البلازما الباردة في الحد من نمو فطريات الرشاشيات السوداء ( Aspergillus Niger )، وهو تلوث فطري معزول من حبوب القمح. أدى التفريغ  الكهربائي عبر حاجز عازل (DBD) الذي يعمل تحت الضغط الجوي إلى توليد البلازما الباردة المستخدمة في علاج فطريات الرشاشيات السوداء. تم التحقيق في تأثير بلازما DBD على فطريات الرشاشيات السوداء في فترات مختلفة (1 ، 2 ، 4 ، 6 ، و 15 دقيقة). أظهرت النتائج انخفاض معنوي كبير في نمو فطريات الرشاشيات السوداء ، و ايضا عدد الجراثيم مقارنة بالعينات غير المعاملة . أظهرت هذه الدراسة تقنية فعالة لتعزيز تخزين حبوب القمح ويمكن اعتبارها أساسًا لمزيد من الدراسات واسعة النطاق.Microbiological contamination by fungi impacts the quality and safety of wheat grain storage. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of cold plasma in restricting the growth of the fungus, Aspergillus niger, which was isolated from wheat grains. A dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) operating at atmospheric pressure generated cold plasma that was used to treat the fungus, and the impact of this treatment was investigated at various periods  1, 2, 4, 6, and 15 minutes. The results revealed a highly significant decrease in the growth and number of spores of Aspergillus niger compared to the controls. This study revealed an efficient technique for enhancing wheat grain storage that could be a foundation for further large-scale studies

Detection of Human Torovirus Like Particles and Adenovirus Type F in Children Attending to Babylon Maternity and Children Hospital

Toroviruses are enteric viruses belonging to the Nidovirales order that infect different animal species and human . Torovirus-like particales (TVLPs) that are immunologically related to BRV have been reported as etiological agents of gastroenteritis in humans. The lack of “in vitro” culture systems for toroviruses, except  for the prototype Berne virus or BEV, isolated originally from an infected horse, has hampered their study and the development of diagnostic assays. This  study  describes a real time RT-PCR method to detect  human  torovirus- like particles  (TVLPs) RNA in clinical  stool  samples using primers corresponding to the gene coding for  the nucleocapsid protein which are conserved in all (TVLPs) strains known to date. During this study, the CT value  measured  during real-time PCR analysis was used as an indication of the viral load found in the stool  sample . The assay was evaluated with 72 stool samples from children attending the Babylon maternity and children hospital. Fifty tow out of 72 (72.2%) children were shedding virus at  the time of sample collection, indicating a high incidence of TVLPs  infection  in Babylon Province. This  is the first study  attempted  for   estimating  the presence of TVLPs  in Iraq. The real time RT-PCR assay described in this study  provides a rapid, highly sensitive, specific and reliable detection and quantization  method enabling future TVLPs  epidemiological studies. In addition to that  the study included the development of real-time PCR assays for the detection of group F Adenovirus in 250 stool samples of pediatric subjects  exhibiting symptoms of diarrhea and/ or vomiting  which  were examined. PCR results of 10 positive Adenovirus group F diarrheic stool samples were confirmed by electron microscopy  examination which gave clear positive Adenovirus appearance . Till now there was no successful virus  culture growth for  isolation of diarrhegenic type 40 and 41 grow in routine cell culture . The result of this study by real time reverse transcription  – PCR  assay reflected in 72 .2 % and 58 % torovirus and adenovirus group F respectively. The genotyping results of adenoviruses(genotype 40 and 41)  highlight the significance of rapid molecular methods for the routine screening of stool samples in diagnostic laboratories to provide rapid and efficient methods . Keywords: Human Torovirus, Adenovirus, RT-PCR, Electron Microscopy

Quadtree partitioning scheme of color image based

Image segmentation is an essential complementary process in digital image processing and computer vision, but mostly utilizes simple segmentation techniques, such as fixed partitioning scheme and global thresholding techniques due to their simplicity and popularity, in spite of their inefficiency. This paper introduces a new split-merge segmentation process for a quadtree scheme of colour images, based on exploiting the spatial and spectral information embedded within the bands and between bands, respectively. The results show that this technique is efficient in terms of quality of segmentation and time, which can be used in standard techniques as alternative to a fixed partitioning scheme

A New Algorithm to Preserve Sensitive Frequents Itemsets (APSFI) in Horizontal or Vertical Database

This research aimed to preserve on privacy of sensitive information from adversaries. We propose an Algorithm to Preserve Sensitive Frequents Itemsets (APSFI) with two ramifications to hides sensitive frequents itemsets in horizontal or vertical databases which minimize the number of database scanning processes during hiding operation. The main approach to hide sensitive frequent itemsets is to reduce the support of each given frequents sensitive 1-itemsets to be insensitive and convert another insensitive to be sensitive in the same transaction to avoid the change of database size and transaction's nature to avoid adversaries' doubt. The experiments of APSFI showed very encouraging results; it excluded 91% of database scan operations in vertical databases and 41% in horizontal layout databases in comparison with the well-known FHSFI algorithm. The experiments depict the APSFI tolerance for database size scalability, and its linear outperformance, from execution time aspect, in contrast with FHSFI

Experimental Establishing of Moving Hydraulic Jump in a Trapezoidal Channel

This research was prepared as a preliminary laboratory study to achieve a moving hydraulic jump with controlled discharges. It is an initial part of the study that is being prepared to treat the salt tide occurring in the Shatt al-Arab due to the lack of water imports that were coming from the Karun and Karkheh rivers from Iranian territory, as this scarcity caused a salt tide that affected significantly the environmental reality of the city of Basra and the agricultural lands surrounding the Shatt al-Arab, such as the Shatt al-Arab district and the Siba orchards. As part of the proposed solutions, a moving hydraulic jump is created that pushes the salt tongue into the Persian Gulf; the results were promising. A moving hydraulic leap is a good example of unstable super- and sub-critical flow regimes and is regarded as a specific case of unsteady flow in a channel. There aren't many published experiments on this particular flow type, and the quantitative simulation of such a flow state has some inherent complexity. An experimental setup was created for this work in order to assess the hydraulic performance of a moving hydraulic jump in a trapezoidal flume. A sluice gate was installed at the flume's upstream edge to provide an unstable supercritical flow regime, movable hydraulic jumps along the channel, and temporal water stages at the gate's upstream side for the various downstream end boundary situations. Several flow factors, including energy head, pressure head, and flow depth, were estimated from the recorded data. The study found connections between discharge and shifting hydraulic jump variables. By employing relatively stable momentum and energy formulas, simple and time-independent formulas were developed that accurately predicted the pressure head in the subcritical region of an unstable mixed flow. As a result, the moving hydraulic jump factor can be correctly predicted using time-independent correlations by using the discharge variation as a boundary scenario. Doi: 10.28991/CEJ-2023-09-04-08 Full Text: PD

Membrane Computing for Real Medical Image Segmentation

In this paper, membrane-based computing image segmentation, both region-based and edge-based, is proposed for medical images that involve two types of neighborhood relations between pixels. These neighborhood relations—namely, 4-adjacency and 8-adjacency of a membrane computing approach—construct a family of tissue-like P systems for segmenting actual 2D medical images in a constant number of steps; the two types of adjacency were compared using different hardware platforms. The process involves the generation of membrane-based segmentation rules for 2D medical images. The rules are written in the P-Lingua format and appended to the input image for visualization. The findings show that the neighborhood relations between pixels of 8-adjacency give better results compared with the 4-adjacency neighborhood relations, because the 8-adjacency considers the eight pixels around the center pixel, which reduces the required communication rules to obtain the final segmentation results. The experimental results proved that the proposed approach has superior results in terms of the number of computational steps and processing time. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time an evaluation procedure is conducted to evaluate the efficiency of real image segmentations using membrane computing

Organoaluminium complexes derived from Anilines or Schiff bases for ring opening polymerization of epsilon-caprolactone, delta-valerolactone and rac-lactide

Reaction of R¹R²CHN=CH(3,5-tBu₂C₆H₂-OH-2) (R¹ = R² = Me L¹H; R¹ = Me, R² = Ph L²H; R¹ = R2 = Ph L³H) with one equivalent of R³3Al (R³ = Me, Et) afforded [(L¹-³)AlR³₂] (L¹, R³ = Me 1, R³ = Et 2; L², R³ = Me 3, R³ = Et 4; L³ R³ = Me 5, R³ = Et 6); complex 1 has been previously reported. Use of the N,O-ligand derived from 2,2/-diphenylglycine afforded either 5 or a by-product [Ph₂NCH₂(3,5-tBu₂C₆H₂-O-2)AlMe₂] (7). The known Schiff base complex [2-Ph₂PC₆H4CH₂(3,5-tBu₂C₃H₂-O-2)AlMe₂] (8) and the product of the reaction of 2-diphenylphosphinoaniline 1-NH₂,2-PPh₂C₆H4 with Me3Al, namely {Ph₂PC₆H4N[(Me₂Al)₂mu-Me](mu-Me₂Al)} (9) were also isolated. For structural and catalytic comparisons, complexes resulting from interaction of Me₃Al with diphenylamine or benzhydrylamine, namely {Ph₂N[(Me₂Al)2mu-Me]} (10) and [Ph₂CHNH(mu-Me₂Al)]₂·MeCN (11), were prepared. The molecular structures of the Schiff pro-ligands derived from Ph₂CHNH₂ and 2,2/-Ph2C(CO₂H)(NH₂), together with complexes 5, 7 and 9 - 11·MeCN were determined. All complexes have been screened for their ability to ring opening polymerization (ROP) epsilon-caprolactone, delta-valerolactone or rac-lactide, in the presence of benzyl alcohol, with or without solvent present. The co-polymerization of epsilon-caprolactone with rac-lactide has also been studied

Content Based Image Clustering Technique Using Statistical Features and Genetic Algorithm

Text based-image clustering (TBIC) is an insufficient approach for clustering related web images. It is a challenging task to abstract the visual features of images with the support of textual information in a database. In content-based image clustering (CBIC), image data are clustered on the foundation of specific features like texture, colors, boundaries, shapes. In this paper, an effective CBIC) technique is presented, which uses texture and statistical features of the images. The statistical features or moments of colors (mean, skewness, standard deviation, kurtosis, and variance) are extracted from the images. These features are collected in a one dimension array, and then genetic algorithm (GA) is applied for image clustering. The extraction of features gave a high distinguishability and helped GA reach the solution more accurately and faster

Effect of Date Palm Pollen Suspension on Ovarian Function and Fertility in Adult Female Rats Exposed to Lead Acetate

       This study present the effects of Date Palm Pollen grains (DPP) (phoenix dactylifera) on ovary function and fertility in adult  female rats exposed to lead acetate. Forty adult female albino rats were divided randomly into four equal groups. The first control  group was given orally (1 ml) distal water,(T1) group given orally 150 mg / kg .B.W. DPP ( 0.5ml),(T2) group given orally  (10) mg / kg. B.W. lead acetate (1 ml) ,(T3) group given daily by oral administration of both DPP150 mg/kg B.W. and 10 mg / kg.  B.W. lead acetate .all animals treated via gavages needle for 6 weeks.At the end of experiment blood were collected to determine serum LH & FSH  level .      Treated( T1)  group showed the increase levels of LH  were on significant importance at a level of < 0.05 in comparison with zero time of the same group and in comparison with control group . To contrast to treated(T1)  group, the level on LH showed a significantly decrease levels in animals on treated (T2) group exposure lead acetate at a dose rate of  10 mg / kg. B.W daily .  The significant decrease in LH were showed in comparison the value with that at zero day of the same group and at a time on experiment 14, 28, 42 day post exposure in comparison with control group and with (T1) group exposed to DPP. Animal on  treated (T3) group exposed of both DPP at 150 mg /kg. B. W. and lead acetate 10 mg / kg. B.W. for 6 weeks didn`t show any significant changes during the experiment.      Animals on( T1) group that exposed to DPP at a dose rate on 150 mg / k. B.W. for 6 weeks showed a significant increase FSH level in serum of exposed animal in comparison with zero time of the same group and in comparison with contrl group  . While those on (T2) group which exposed to lead acetate at a dose rate of 10 mg / kg. B.W. for 6 weeks showed a significant decrease in FSH level in serum on day 14 and 42 following the exposure the decrease in FSH level in serum may significant in comparison with zero day of same group and with level on T1 group and control group. Animal on group T3 didn`t show any significant changes during the experiment.            This study conclude that DPP has obvious improvement effect on fertility hormones of Adult  female rats exposed to lead acetate