270 research outputs found
Acetone Production
Iraq struggles with a lack of acetone production. This overall deficiency impacts the economy of countries like Iraq. Inasmuch, acetone is a vital chemical component for many items imported into this country such as nail polish remover. Therefore, a process of acetone production is proposed in this study.
The ideal process of producing acetone with 90.0% isopropyl alcohol (IPA) decomposition method is proposed within this study. The feed of the process is 100000 ton/ day. This amount of feed is suggested due to the demographic need of acetone for the Iraqi population as well as the surrounding Middle Eastern region. In fact, globally, in 2005, the yearly consumption of acetone was 5 million ton (Table 1). Moreover, acetone (C3H6O) and hydrogen (H2) are produced materials from isopropyl alcohol decomposition. The produced amount of acetone is 63346 Kmol/hr. Finally, the proposed factory of producing acetone is profitable since ROI \u3e 1
Synthesis And Characterization Of Conductive Polyaniline Using 24 Hours Chemical Oxidative Process For Organic Solar Cells
Projek ini menyarankan satu kaedah alternatif untuk sintesis kimia polianilin mengikut kaedah polimerisasi oksidatif dengan persulfat amonium sebagai agen oksida, pada kemolaran sama di antara nisbah anilin ke oksida asid hidroklorik dan sulfurik
The project proposed an alternative way for chemical synthesis of polyaniline following the oxidative polymerization method with ammonium persulphate as oxidant agent, at equal molar of aniline to oxidant ratio of hydrochloric and sulphuric aci
On Fuzzy b-Subimplicative Ideal
Abstract: In this paper, we study a new notion of fuzzy subimplicative ideal of a BH-algebra, namely fuzzy subimplicative ideal with respect to an element in BH-algebra is introduced and some related properties are investigated
Separation of the Petroleum System
This study discusses the overall process of crude oil separation as well as the necessary equipment used in the process. Also discussed and analyzed are potential issues seen in the crude oil extraction process. Reasons why these operation problems may occur are analyzed as well as treatment options for such occurring issues are discussed for employees and students alike. This research is based off of personal involvement at the Nasiriyah Degassing Station located in Dhi Qar, Iraq
AZITHROMYCIN THERAPY REDUCES CARDIAC INFLAMMATION AND MITIGATES ADVERSE CARDIAC REMODELING AFTER MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION
Introduction: Myocardial infarction (MI) remains the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Induced by cardiomyocyte death, MI initiates a prolonged and uncontrolled inflammatory response which impairs the healing process. Immune cells, such as macrophages, play a central role in organizing the early post-MI inflammatory response and the subsequent repair phase. Two activation states of macrophages have been identified with distinct and complementary functions (inflammatory vs. reparatory). This bimodal pattern of macrophage activation is an attractive therapeutic target to favorably resolve post-MI inflammation and enhance recovery. It has been demonstrated that azithromycin (AZM), a commonly used antibiotic with immunomodulatory effects, polarizes macrophages towards the reparatory phenotype. AZM has an excellent safety profile and has been approved for human use. We hypothesize that AZM reduces inflammation and improves heart function in MI.
Methods and results: In our initial studies, we demonstrated that oral free AZM (160 mg/kg daily for 7 days), initiated 3 days prior to MI, enhances post-MI cardiac recovery as a result of shifting macrophages to the reparatory state. We observed a significant reduction in mortality with AZM therapy. AZM-treated mice showed a significant decrease in pro-inflammatory and an increase in reparative macrophages, decreasing the pro-inflammatory/reparative macrophage ratio. Macrophage changes were associated with a significant decline in pro- and an increase in anti-inflammatory cytokines. Additionally, AZM treatment was correlated with a distinct decrease in neutrophil count due to apoptosis, a known signal for shifting macrophages towards the reparative phenotype. Finally, AZM treatment improved cardiac recovery, scar size, and angiogenesis. We designed this proof of concept study using pre-MI AZM therapy to achieve steady state levels prior to injury. Therefore, in our follow-up studies we targeted inflammatory macrophages using a non-Pegylated liposomal formulation of AZM (Lazm) which has been shown in multiple studies to promote drug efficacy and minimize off-target effects. To test the hypothesis that Lazm is more effective and safer than free AZM, low doses of free/liposomal AZM (10 or 40 mg/kg, administered intravenously) were initiated immediately after MI. We observed that Lazm induces early resolution of the post-MI inflammatory response as evidenced by switching of the activation state of monocytes/macrophages towards the reparatory phenotype. Neutrophils were substantially decreased, particularly pro-inflammatory neutrophils. Cytokine profiles were also shifted to the anti-inflammatory status with Lazm therapy. Taken together, AZM treatment resulted in a significant shift in macrophage activation towards the reparatory state. The shift in inflammatory state was accompanied by a decrease in apoptosis and infarct size in the injured heart, as well as enhanced angiogenesis and LV functional recovery in our long-term studies. In addition, Lazm was protective against off-target effects of AZM on the heart.
Conclusion: This is the first evidence of a novel and clinically-relevant therapeutic strategy to modulate post-MI inflammation. We found that AZM reduces cardiac inflammation and improves adverse cardiac remodeling after infarction via promoting a shift of macrophage activation state. The overarching significance of this work is the modulation of sterile inflammation, which can be a viable therapeutic target in many conditions including stroke and heart attack. Additionally, this is the first study to demonstrate the immune modulation properties of liposomal AZM, which has wide potential therapeutic applications beyond the cardiovascular field. Importantly, liposomal formulation of AZM is protective from its cardiac off-target effects. Our findings strongly support clinical trials using AZM as a novel and clinically relevant therapeutic target to improve cardiac recovery and reduce heart failure post-MI in humans
Activity-Based User Authentication Using Smartwatches
Smartwatches, which contain an accelerometer and gyroscope, have recently been used to implement gait and gesture- based biometrics; however, the prior studies have long-established drawbacks. For example, data for both training and evaluation was captured from single sessions (which is not realistic and can lead to overly optimistic performance results), and in cases when the multi-day scenario was considered, the evaluation was often either done improperly or the results are very poor (i.e., greater than 20% of EER). Moreover, limited activities were considered (i.e., gait or gestures), and data captured within a controlled environment which tends to be far less realistic for real world applications. Therefore, this study remedies these past problems by training and evaluating the smartwatch-based biometric system on data from different days, using large dataset that involved the participation of 60 users, and considering different activities (i.e., normal walking (NW), fast walking (FW), typing on a PC keyboard (TypePC), playing mobile game (GameM), and texting on mobile (TypeM)). Unlike the prior art that focussed on simply laboratory controlled data, a more realistic dataset, which was captured within un-constrained environment, is used to evaluate the performance of the proposed system.
Two principal experiments were carried out focusing upon constrained and un-constrained environments. The first experiment included a comprehensive analysis of the aforementioned activities and tested under two different scenarios (i.e., same and cross day). By using all the extracted features (i.e., 88 features) and the same day evaluation, EERs of the acceleration readings were 0.15%, 0.31%, 1.43%, 1.52%, and 1.33% for the NW, FW, TypeM, TypePC, and GameM respectively. The EERs were increased to 0.93%, 3.90%, 5.69%, 6.02%, and 5.61% when the cross-day data was utilized. For comparison, a more selective set of features was used and significantly maximize the system performance under the cross day scenario, at best EERs of 0.29%, 1.31%, 2.66%, 3.83%, and 2.3% for the aforementioned activities respectively.
A realistic methodology was used in the second experiment by using data collected within unconstrained environment. A light activity detection approach was developed to divide the raw signals into gait (i.e., NW and FW) and stationary activities. Competitive results were reported with EERs of 0.60%, 0% and 3.37% for the NW, FW, and stationary activities respectively. The findings suggest that the nature of the signals captured are sufficiently discriminative to be useful in performing transparent and continuous user authentication.University of Kuf
Large Eddy Simulation of Transitional Separated-Reattached Flow over Geometries Characterized by Different Aspect Ratios and with Different Intensities of Free Stream Turbulence
In the current study, changes in the physics of transitional separated-reattached flow due to changes of a geometry nature and an increase of intensity of free stream turbulence have been investigated numerically using the large eddy simulation approach. Numerical simulations have been carried out using the Open FOAM tool box.
Six case studies are selected and divided into two groups of the flows: a low level of intensity of free stream turbulence (< 0.2%) and a high level of intensity of free stream turbulence (3.7%). Each group involves three geometrical shapes: a two-dimensional flat plate, a three-dimensional geometry with an aspect ratio value of 1 and a three-dimensional geometry with an aspect ratio value of 2. To the best of the author’s knowledge, the current study is the first work to explore transitional separated-reattached flow over three-dimensional geometries.
In a comparison among the case studies, the separation bubble that formed on the flat plate is longer than that on other geometries, leading to longer temporal and spatial evolution of the transition. In addition, maximum values of the Reynolds stresses in the flat plate are larger than that in other geometries. Furthermore, all case studies show that the transition in the free shear layer is driven by the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability mechanism.
Spectral analysis is carried out to cover all the computational domains employing both Fourier transform and wavelet power transform methods. In the current geometries for both incoming flows (with high and low levels of intensity of free stream turbulence), the regular shedding frequencies are in a good agreement with that reported in the literature. In addition, these frequencies are compatible with the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability conditions. Moreover, the spectral analysis indicates that the low frequency of the free shear layer flapping is absent.
The evolution of coherent structures is identified by performing flow visualisation techniques. Different evolution processes of transformation of large-scale structures from Kelvin-Helmholtz rolls to hairpin structures are observed depending on the geometry shapes and on the level of intensity of free stream turbulence.
The development of the turbulent boundary layer after the reattachment is also examined. For all case studies used here, a dominant observation is that there is no apparent effect of the geometry nature on the delay in the recovery of the reattached turbulent boundary layer.Iraq Governmen
Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices Regarding Blood Donation Among a Sample of Volunteers in the Holy Karbala City / Iraq
Across–sectional study carried out in the Blood Transfusion Center at the holy Karbala city/ Iraq. the aim of this study was to assess the level of knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding the bases and process of blood donation, during four months started from the 2nd of January to end of April 2017, A total of 446 individuals were interviewed, were donors ‘attendants to the Blood Transfusion Center '',. Ignorance, fear and misconnects about blood donations and lack of voluntary blood donation organizations are major constraints in many developing countries to facilitate voluntary blood donation. More awareness must be create among all strata of population especially among youngsters on importance of blood donation.Regarding respondent knowledge about age limit and weight for donation, the study demonstrated 62.3 % of voluntaries replied that a person between 18-65 years old could donate blood; only 54.0 % of them knew the minimum weight for donation. In respect to the reasons of donation, most of donors 77.9 % were donated blood as a religious and humanity duty, replacement 13.6%,were donated blood for family members or friends (replacement donors), while 8.5 % believed that blood donation is good for their health. The total score of knowledge found good and acceptable among 83% of sample. While unclear for 17 % of donors, blood campaigns was the main source of information in current43 study.Regarding the attitudes of people toward blood donation, 87.9 % of the respondents showed positive attitude toward blood donation and its importance for patients care. 85.9% of donors agreed that blood in the bank is safe. Positive attitudes towards blood donation observed among 82 % of respondents while it was low percent 18 % showed poor attitudes. Regarding the total score of the practice; most of the donors 80 % had good scores.only 20 % of donors, had poor scores;The current study revealed that there is very good and acceptable knowledge of people regarding blood donation among donors, the act of donating blood was associated with a religious and humanity duty rather than replacement with voluntary donation while no asked him to donate and the donation place is far & busy were the main reasons for reluctance to donate blood. In addition, majority of respondents had good attitudes & believes that blood donation is useful, but due to insufficient information, they are less willing to take part in blood donation .Based on this study, an effective strategy should made concerning motivation to blood donors in future. This needs education through dissemination of information on blood donation particularly on electronic media and mass media. Keywords: knowledge, attitudes, practices, Blood donation, Voluntary, holy Karbala city
Developing a Risk Management Framework in Construction Project Based on Agile Management Approach
Construction projects in nature, carry a lot of risks, and unpredictable conditions. Thus, flexible management is required for the purpose of efficient responding to the various changes appear during their implementation. As an attempt to deal with risk in the construction project, this research aims at proposing a risk management framework in construction projects that built based on Agile management concept, which is a sequence of procedure deals with the project’ primary vision to its final delivery. The risk management framework will trace alignment and discover a contact between Agile and traditional project management concepts and find contact points among two of the more used Agile frameworks (Scrum) and one of the more confirmed project management framework (PMBOK®) processes. This will result in a recognition of comparable areas between Scrum and PMBOK® processes. The goal of the framework is to assist the project managers to adapt a more flexible approach to managing and implementing the construction project. The results proved that Agile management process from the create prioritized project backlog, sprint planning, sprint review, to sprint retrospective procedures and less time of the cycle, eliminate or mitigate many risks that lead to project challenges and failure
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