Facies Analysis and Depositional Environment of the Rus and Jil Formations (l- Eocene) in Najaf and Samawa Areas, Southern Iraq

This research deals with study of facies and depositional environment of the lower Eocene Rus and Jil Formations at Najaf and Samawa Governorates, Southern Iraq. Two major lithofacies are recognized in the studied sections, namely carbonate and evaporite lithofacies. The carbonate lithofacies is divided into five microfacies whereas the evaporite lithofacies is divided into three Sublithofacies.From facies analysis the Rus and Jil Formations, in the study area, represent deposition in a shallow carbonate rimmed platform. The Rus Formation consists of two shallowing upward successions each of them represents peritidal environment, i.e., beginning with subtidal followed by intertidal and culminated with supratidal setting. The Jil Formation consists of two shallowing upwards successions representing shelf to peritidal environments. The Jil Formation grades from open marine to sabkha, i.e., beginning open marine followed by shoal, subtidal, intertidal and culminates with supratidal setting. The abundance of evaporites indicates that the climate during their depositions is arid to semi-arid. Keywords: Facies, depositional environment, Rus Formation, Jil Formation, Sabkha

Insular Glioma Esoteric Precinct

Background and Objective:  The complex insular anatomy and its proximity to eloquent areas make this area almost inaccessible for safe surgical resection of Glioma. Aim of our study is to determine outcome assessment after surgical resection. Materials & Methods:  This was a retrospective analysis of 59 patients over a period of 5 years from July 2013 till June 2018. All patients of insular Glioma were included in our study irrespective of age and sex. Degree of surgical resection, Post-operative neurological deficits and complications were assessed. They were followed in the outpatient department at 3, 6 and 12 months. Results:  Total 59 patients were included 38 (64.40%) male and 21 (35.59%) females. 36 (61%) patients had right sided insular Glioma and 23 (38.98%) have left sided. Seizures were main presentation in 46(77.96%) patients. Trans-sylvian route adopted in 34 (57.6%) patients followed by transcortical route. Near total Resection was Possible in 30 (50.84%) patients and partial in 29 (49.15%) patients. Focal neurological deficits the motor weakness & dysphasia were main post-operative complications in 18 (30.5%) patients. Three (5.08%) patients died. In all grade II and grade III Gliomas no increase in size was discovered on MRI Brain at 6 and 12 months. Conclusion:  Maximum safe resection of insular Glioma with acceptable morbidity is possible with improved overall survival and disease free interval

A new hybrid text encryption approach over mobile ad hoc network

Data exchange has been rapidly increased recently by increasing the use of mobile networks. Sharing information (text, image, audio and video) over unsecured mobile network channels is liable for attacking and stealing. Encryption techniques are the most suitable methods to protect information from hackers. Hill cipher algorithm is one of symmetric techniques, it has a simple structure and fast computations, but weak security because sender and receiver need to use and share the same private key within a non-secure channel. Therefore, a novel hybrid encryption approach between elliptic curve cryptosystem and hill cipher (ECCHC) is proposed in this paper to convert Hill Cipher from symmetric technique (private key) to asymmetric one (public key) and increase its security and efficiency and resist the hackers. Thus, no need to share the secret key between sender and receiver and both can generate it from the private and public keys. Therefore, the proposed approach presents a new contribution by its ability to encrypt every character in the 128 ASCII table by using its ASCII value direct without needing to assign a numerical value for each character. The main advantages of the proposed method are represented in the computation simplicity, security efficiency and faster computation

Encapsulated deep eutectic solvent for esterification of free fatty acid

A novel encapsulated deep eutectic solvent (DES) was introduced for biodiesel production via a two-step process. The DES was encapsulated in medical capsules and were used to reduce the free fatty acid (FFA) content of acidic crude palm oil (ACPO) to the minimum acceptable level (< 1%). The DES was synthesized from methyltriphenylphosphonium bromide (MTPB) and p-toluenesulfonic acid (PTSA). The effects pertaining to different operating conditions such as capsule dosage, reaction time, molar ratio, and reaction temperature were optimized. The FFA content of ACPO was reduced from existing 9.61% to less than 1% under optimum operating conditions. This indicated that encapsulated MTPB-DES performed high catalytic activity in FFA esterification reaction and showed considerable activity even after four consecutive recycling runs. The produced biodiesel after acid esterification and alkaline transesterification met the EN14214 international biodiesel standard specifications. To our best knowledge, this is the first study to introduce an acidic catalyst in capsule form. This method presents a new route for the safe storage of new materials to be used for biofuel production. Conductor-like screening model for real solvents (COSMO-RS) representation of the DES using σ-profile and σ-potential graphs indicated that MTPB and PTSA is a compatible combination due to the balanced presence and affinity towards hydrogen bond donor and hydrogen bond acceptor in each constituent

Midline Posterior Fossa Tumors in Young Adults: Evolution of Thought and Practice

Objective:&nbsp;&nbsp;The aim of our study was to evaluate the surgical outcome of posterior fossa lesions and to find out the relation between surgical skill and post-operative outcome and to determine how evolution in surgical skill dictates post-operative outcome. Material &amp; Methods:&nbsp;&nbsp;This was a retrospective analysis of 207 patients with midline posterior fossa lesions over a period of 10 years from Jan 2009 till December 2018. The degree of surgical outcome was assessed by degree of surgical resection, Post-operative neurological deficits and complications, Stay in ICU and duration in hospital. Results:&nbsp;&nbsp;207 Midline posterior fossa tumors were operated. Headache was leading symptom in patients followed by vomiting and balance problem. Medulloblastoma was a most common pathology in 133, Ependymoma 32, Astrocytoma in 28 Choroid Plexus Papilloma in 3, dermoid cyst 3,arachnoid cyst 4 and Hemangioblastoma in 4 patients. Gross Total resection was possible in 110 patients. Post operatively gag reflex was impaired in 36 and facial palsy in 5 patients. Chest infection was the most common complication in 84 patients, followed by wound infection, CSF Leak and Meningitis. Mortality was 11.59% as 24 patients died within one month, while 28.5% patients stayed in ICU. Conclusion:&nbsp;&nbsp;Post-operative mortality and morbidity is relatively high among post fossa tumors. Improvement in surgical skills better instruments revealed better outcome over a period of 10 years due to better understanding of microsurgical anatomy and utilization of modern therapeutic strategies for resection

Development of novel API-based deep eutectic solvents for esterification of high free fatty acid

Low-value feedstocks containing high free fatty acid (FFA) content are incompatible with direct alkali-catalysed transesterification, and require a deacidification step through esterification to reduce its FFA level. Herein, innovative acid catalysts were developed based on deep eutectic solvents (DESs) to pretreat low-quality palm oil (12.43 % FFA). DESs were formed using Brønsted acids (5-sulfosalicyclic acid and benzenesulfonic acid) and an active pharmaceutical ingredient (paracetamol) at a 3:1 M ratio. The DESs were characterized using ATR-FTIR and Hammett acidity function (H0). DES catalyst dosage, methanol requirement, reaction time and temperature parameters were optimized, and its recyclability was evaluated. The FFA contents were reduced to below the limit of &lt; 2 % using acidic DESs at optimized conditions. Reaction kinetics revealed that DES-catalysed reactions followed the pseudo first order rate of reaction and required the lowest activation energy of 40.91 kJ/mol. Through the Eyring-Polanyi thermodynamic study, the DES-catalysed esterification reactions were endothermic (ΔH° &gt; 0), non-spontaneous (ΔS° &lt; 0 and ΔG° &gt; 0) and endergonic. COSMO-RS computational calculations reveal the viable formation of the DESs based on its moieties, and supports the good solubility of the DESs in methanol. This study demonstrates the feasible valorisation of low-value feedstocks using innovative catalysts in enabling biodiesel production

Palm raceme as a promising biomass precursor for activated carbon to promote lipase activity with the aid of eutectic solvents

This study concerns the role of activated carbon (AC) from palm raceme as a support material for the enhancement of lipase-catalyzed reactions in an aqueous solution, with deep eutectic solvent (DES) as a co-solvent. The effects of carbonization temperature, impregnation ratio, and carbonization time on lipase activity were studied. The activities of Amano lipase from Burkholderia cepacia (AML) and lipase from the porcine pancreas (PPL) were used to investigate the optimum conditions for AC preparation. The results showed that AC has more interaction with PPL and effectively provides greater enzymatic activity compared with AML. The optimum treatment conditions of AC samples that yield the highest enzymatic activity were 0.5 (NaOH (g)/palm raceme (g)), 150 min, and a carbonization temperature of 400 °C. DES was prepared from alanine/sodium hydroxide and used with AC for the further enhancement of enzymatic activity. Kinetic studies demonstrated that the activity of PPL was enhanced with the immobilization of AC in a DES medium

New route for preparing palmitic acid imidazole from free fatty acid using imidazole

In this study, imidazole was used for the first time in esterification of free fatty acid (FFA) from acidic oil and for palmitic acid imidazole production. The FFA content in jatropha oil mixed with crude palm oil (CPO) was significantly reduced from 10.57% to 1.73% under the following optimum conditions (25% imidazole dosage, 30 mins of reaction time, reaction temperature at 60 °C and methanol to oil molar ratio of 20:1). This research opens up new possibilities for utilizing imidazole as a catalyst in various esterification processes, offering a promising and eco-friendly pathway for industrial applications

Enhanced large-scale production of recombinant phytase in E. coli DH5 α: Medium components optimization and thermodynamic studies

Medium components and their solubility for improvement of recombinant phytase production in Escherichia coli DH5α. was optimized and reported in this study. Solubility study was supported by the computational works conducted using COSMO-RS, a quick tool to predict the thermophysical and chemical properties of fluid mixture. Solubility concept through thermodynamic calculation was introduced to study the interaction between medium components with water and selected medium components with each other. Based on the σ-profile and σ-potential, together with Gibbs free energy, a less soluble medium component showed a negative effect on phytase production due to the formation of insoluble metal-ion phytate complexes. Highest phytase production was obtained under optimum conditions of as 30 g/L yeast extracts, 1 g/L (NH4)2HPO4, 3 g/L MgSO4·7H2O, 0.3 g/L FeSO4·7H2O and 0.1 % (v/v) glycerol. Both experimental and computational works were conducted to investigate the interaction between medium components. The melting point and phase appearance of the mixture were studied. From experimental results, the mixtures were seemed to be unstable due to its higher melting point compared to individual medium components. The analysis from Gibbs free energy reflected the total immiscibility between medium components. It was concluded that medium components worked individually to promote the phytase production. Yeast extract, MgSO4·7H2O and FeSO4·7H2O were selected for optimization by central composite design, whereas other factors were maintained at their optimal level. Statistical analysis showed that the optimum media containing 34.06 g/L yeast extract, 3.6 g/L MgSO4·7H2O and 0.32 g/L FeSO4·7H2O gave the maximum phytase production of 118.91 U/mL. The optimization of process condition such as temperature, agitation speed and seed age were further investigated by employing Full Factorial Experimental (FUFE) Design after fixing the media composition. The maximum phytase production of 200 U/mL was obtained at optimum condition (temperature 37 °C, agitation speed 500 rpm and seed age 1.55 at OD600nm). The phytase production in a larger scale was conducted by submerged fermentation in 2 L and 30 L bioreactor. In large scale production, constant tip speed suited the best for scale-up strategy comparing to the constant power number. The optimum process condition improved the phytase production and plasmid stability