Separation of Sediment Contents and Water from Crude Oil of Khurmala and Guwayer Oil Fields in Kurdistan Region by using Centrifuge Method

The present research paper is aimed at determining water and sediment contents in crude oil by using centrifuge method in laboratory in which ASTM D 4007-02 is used to analyze the samples. Furthermore, water and sediment contents in crude oil should be removed because for custody transfer process purchasers prefer to pay only for crude oil and want to minimize the quantity of water and sediment contents in crude oil. Presence of water and sediment contents in crude oil creates problems such as corrosion of equipment when dealt in oil industry along with the problem of oil viscosity. We examined sixteen samples. Four samples were taken from Guwayer oil site area and remaining four from Khurmalla oil site area. These samples were analyzed properly at MNR laboratory in Kurdistan Region-Iraq. The crude oils is considered as the best if it contains less water and sediment content and the vice versa is for the worst quality of crude oil .The method is easy and sharp to check the quantity of sediments and water in crude oil samples in lab and this quantity helps to tell the quality of crude oil

Novel VPS13B Mutations in Three Large Pakistani Cohen Syndrome Families Suggests a Baloch Variant with Autistic-Like Features.

BackgroundCohen Syndrome (COH1) is a rare autosomal recessive disorder, principally identified by ocular, neural and muscular deficits. We identified three large consanguineous Pakistani families with intellectual disability and in some cases with autistic traits.MethodsClinical assessments were performed in order to allow comparison of clinical features with other VPS13B mutations. Homozygosity mapping followed by whole exome sequencing and Sanger sequencing strategies were used to identify disease-related mutations.ResultsWe identified two novel homozygous deletion mutations in VPS13B, firstly a 1 bp deletion, NM_017890.4:c.6879delT; p.Phe2293Leufs*24, and secondly a deletion of exons 37-40, which co-segregate with affected status. In addition to COH1-related traits, autistic features were reported in a number of family members, contrasting with the "friendly" demeanour often associated with COH1. The c.6879delT mutation is present in two families from different regions of the country, but both from the Baloch sub-ethnic group, and with a shared haplotype, indicating a founder effect among the Baloch population.ConclusionWe suspect that the c.6879delT mutation may be a common cause of COH1 and similar phenotypes among the Baloch population. Additionally, most of the individuals with the c.6879delT mutation in these two families also present with autistic like traits, and suggests that this variant may lead to a distinct autistic-like COH1 subgroup

Effects of Crude Oil Spillage on the Physico-chemical Properties of Soil, Tarjan, Kurdistan Region, Iraq

Kurdistan is a new oil producing region in the Middle East, and the oil wells are located in or near farm-lands. Crude oil spillage is a big threat to the soil fertility, which is especially important for farming. Spillage occurs due to the pipeline rupture, and traffic accidents involving tankers which are very common in Kurdistan. The physico-chemical properties of soil are susceptible to alteration when polluted with crude oil, and this issue is not been studied well in Kurdistan. The intent of this paper is to study the effects of crude oil spillage on the physico-chemical properties of soil in Tarjan village, Kurdistan region-Iraq. For this purpose soil samples were collected in the Tarjan area, tested in a laboratory, and compared to non-polluted soil sample. The pH values of the soil samples remained almost the same. The electrical conductivity, and salinity increased. The amount of sulfate increased, the amount of potassium decreased. The amount of lead increased. The changes in these parameters in the soil affected plant growth in the spillage area, as there was no sign of vegetation on the affected soils. There was a positive correlation between salinity and lead and negative correlation between pH, electrical conductivity, potassium ions and sulphate ions. Keywords: Crude oil, Soil, pH, EC, Salinity, Sulfate, Potassium, Lea

Focused Ion Beam Tomography

To study the fundamental effect of shape and morphology of any material on its properties, it is very essential to know and study its morphology. Focused ion beam (FIB) tomography is a 3D chemical and structural relationship studying technique. The instrumentation of FIB looks like that of the scanning electron microscopy (SEM), but there is a major difference in the beam used for scanning. For SEM, a beam of electrons is used with scanning medium whereas in FIB, a much focused beam of ions is used for scanning. FIB can be used for lithography and ablation purposes, but due to advancements and high-energy focused beam, it is nowadays being used as a tomographic technique. Tomography is defined as imaging by sectoring or cross-sectioning any desired area. The hyphenation of FIB with energy-dispersive spectrometry or secondary ion mass spectrometry can give us elemental analysis with very high-resolution 3D images for a sample. This technique contributes to acquaintance of qualitative and quantitative analyses, 3D volume creations, and image processing. In this chapter, we will discuss the advancements in FIB instrumentation and its use as 3D imaging tool for different samples ranging from nanometer (nm)-sized materials to micrometer (μm)-sized biological samples

Predictive analytics in maternal health:a machine learning approach for classification of preeclampsia

The condition known as preeclampsia is a hypertensive disorder that occurs during pregnancy and has serious implications for both the mother and the fetus. Proper management of the condition depends on early detection of preeclampsia to make a correct prognosis. In this study, we classify pre-eclampsia using three datasets: two of which are the public datasets acquired from Mendeley and Kaggle, respectively, while the third is a real-world clinical dataset obtained from a local hospital. Recursive feature elimination, principal component analysis, correlation-based feature selection, and particle swarm optimization were used to select significant features from the predictor variables of the public datasets. To improve the classification performance, several models were created, with an emphasis on ensemble learning methods. Specifically, we propose three models: the alternative classification models include the Soft Decision Fusion Model, which applies soft-voting; the Stacking-Based Classifier, which is an ensemble stacking; and the Hybrid Soft Stacking Model. These models were assessed in detail concerning their quantitative indicators for the AUC-ROC criterion. The performance of our proposed models in the public datasets was an AUC-ROC of more than 95% and in the clinical dataset an even higher 96%. These ensemble methods accurately show that they have effective results in improving the precision and reliability of pre-eclampsia forecasts. With the help of real and public clinical data, the present work presents an effective and ecological approach that can help healthcare professionals make appropriate and timely decisions about the management of pre-eclampsia. In particular, the results of the Hybrid Soft Stacking Model look quite convincing in terms of predictive value, so the model could be considered a useful tool in the clinical context

Refining the accuracy of validated target identification through coding variant fine-mapping in type 2 diabetes.

We aggregated coding variant data for 81,412 type 2 diabetes cases and 370,832 controls of diverse ancestry, identifying 40 coding variant association signals (P < 2.2 × 10-7); of these, 16 map outside known risk-associated loci. We make two important observations. First, only five of these signals are driven by low-frequency variants: even for these, effect sizes are modest (odds ratio ≤1.29). Second, when we used large-scale genome-wide association data to fine-map the associated variants in their regional context, accounting for the global enrichment of complex trait associations in coding sequence, compelling evidence for coding variant causality was obtained for only 16 signals. At 13 others, the associated coding variants clearly represent 'false leads' with potential to generate erroneous mechanistic inference. Coding variant associations offer a direct route to biological insight for complex diseases and identification of validated therapeutic targets; however, appropriate mechanistic inference requires careful specification of their causal contribution to disease predisposition

Incidence of Depression and Anxiety among Patients with Acute Myocardial Infarction during COVID-19 Pandemic

Objective:  This study aimed to assess the incidence of anxiety and depression among AMI patients during COVID-19 pandemic in Pakistan. Material & Method:  This cross-sectional study was conducted from February 27 to June 2, 2020, at the Cardiology ward of Dera Ghazi Khan Teaching Hospital.  Total 611 patients selected through convenience sampling. The patients were requested to respond to Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and demographic information. An independent samples t test was applied for comparisons. Results:  Patients’ age was ranging from 41 to 79 years, with a mean age of 52.35 ± 5.12. There was a high frequency of anxiety (51.72%) and depression (34.86%) among AMI patients. A significant difference was observed in the level of anxiety (p = 0.001) and depression (p = 0.000) among male and female patients. Conclusion:  The present study findings affirmed that increased level of anxiety and depression are prevalent in AMI patients. Additionally, both anxiety and depressive symptoms were more common in female patients. Keywords:  COVID-19, Anxiety, Depression, Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI)

Pre-Formulation Study for Palatable Microbeads of Lycopene

Lycopene is a widely used nutraceuticals for its antioxidant property but the molecule has poor aqueous solubility, high instability, and extremely low intestinal permeability leading to its poor bioavailability. In the present study, pre-formulation study was carried out to prepare sodium alginate microbeads with the intention to deliver an effective amount of lycopene for high absorption through oral route. A thorough physical characterization and spectral analysis were done to understand the characteristic of lycopene such as its melting point, UV spectrophotometric analysis, chromatography through reverse phase HPLC. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry were adopted to know the interaction of sodium alginate with lycopene. Box-Behnken design (version 9.0.2.0, Stat Ease Inc, USA) was used to analyse the effect of formulation variables such as sodium alginate (%), glutaraldehyde (%) and stirring speed on lycopene entrapment and its loading into microbeads. The adopted preformulation strategy revealed that lycopene was a crystalline powder with a sharp melting point at 155oC and the prominent functional groups were present in the sample. UV and HPLC analysis revealed precise quantitation and authenticity of lycopene. Excipient compatibility also revealed inertness of sodium alginate. Response surface morphology revealed significant effect of alginate, glutaraldehyde and stirring speed on formation of best composition. Therefore, it is concluded that lycopene can be formulated as microbeads for oral drug delivery. Keywords: lycopene, sodium alginate, permeation, absorption, microbead

Successful Transplantation of Primary Hepatocytes from DsRed Mice into Fah-/-;Scid/Scid Mice; A Future In Vivo Model System for Receiving Human Hepatocytes

We have developed a system for studying hepatocellular growth potential in which liver cells are introduced into the diseased livers of Fah-/-; Scid/Scid double knockout mice. To use this system to study cell transplantation, DsRed  liver cells were introduced into severe immunodeficient Fah-/-; Scid/Scid double knockout  mice. In regenerated recipient livers, up to 20% of the mouse liver is repopulated by DsRed mouse hepatocytes demonstrating the creation of a functional mouse liver in which parenchyma is derived from DsRed mouse hepatocytes. The severe immunodeficient Fah-/-;Scid/Scid double knockout mice provide a tool for studying hepatocellular biology. Keywords: Human Hepatocytes, Transplantation, DsRed and Fah-/-;Scid/Scid Mice