The effects of different dietary vitamin C and iron levels on the growth, hematological and immunological parameters of rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss fingerlings

A 60-days growth trial was conducted in a flow-through culture system to examine the effects of different dietary vitamin C and iron levels on the growth, hematological and immunological parameters of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) fingerlings (with average initial weight of 5.12 ± 0.02 g). Three levels of vitamin C (150, 200 and 250 mg kg^-1 diet) and iron (5, 7 and 9 mg kg^-1 diet) (as ferrous sulfate) and their combination were used to prepare diets used in nine experimental treatments with three replicates. The results revealed that the supplementation of basal diet with vitamin C and iron significantly affected the final body weight (FBW), total length (TL), feed conversion ratio (FCR) and specific growth rate (SGR). Among the haematological parameters haematocrit and mean corpuscular volume (MCV) were significantly influenced by vitamin C and iron. Results also showed that lysozyme and IgM concentrations significantly changed among dietary treatments. Based on the results of this study, it can be concluded that addition of vitamin C and iron to the basal diet of cultured rainbow trout will improve the growth rate and well-being of this fish

Measurement of some Air Pollutantsin Printing Units and Copy Centers Within Baghdad City

إن انبعاث المواد الدقائقية من الأوراق المتناهية الصغر فضلا عن الأحبار والمذيبات العضوية خلال عملية تشغيل ماكينات الطباعة والاستنساخ تشكل خطرا على صحة الإنسان بالأخص بعد التعرض طويل الأمد في بيئات العمل المغلقة . أجريت الدراسة الحالية في بعض دور الطباعة ومراكز الاستنساخ في مدينة بغداد خلال شهري شباط ونيسان، وأثبتت الدراسة حدوث مشكلة تلوث الهواء فيما يتعلق بمحتويات الرصاص والزنك في جميع مواقع الدراسة .تم تحديد تركيز الرصاص والزنك والنحاس من خلال جمع العينات بوساطة جهاز جمع عينات الهواء وبعدها تم ترشيح العينات وهضمها وتحديد نسبة العناصر الثقيلة بوساطة جهاز المطياف الذري اللهبي، أما المواد الدقائقية تم قياسها بوساطة جهاز قياس الدقائق العالقة في الهواء ، واستعمل جهاز قياس الغازات الملوثة للهواء لقياس غاز ثنائي أكسيد لنتروجين وثنائي أكسيد الكبريت وأول أكسيد الكربون والمركبات العضوية المتطايرة . سجل أعلى تركيز للرصاص والزنك في هواء المطابع (2.75 مايكرو غرام/م3 ) و (51.95 مايكرو غرام /م3) على التوالي . بالمقابل سجل أعلى قيمة معنوية نحاس في  هواء مكاتب الاستنساخ (0.65 مايكرو غرام /م3) مقارنة بدور الطباعة . سجل أعلى تركيز للمواد الدقائقية الناعمة (PM2.5) التي يكون قطرها أقل من 2.5 مايكرو متر(44.50 مايكرو غرام /م3) في دور الطباعة يليها أعلى تركيز للمواد الدقائقية الخشنة المستنشقة(PM10)  التي يتراوح قطرها بين 2.5 الى 10 مايكرو متر والدقائق الكلية العالقة (477.66 و667.00 مايكرو غرام /م3) في دور الطباعة على التوالي . أظهرت النتائج أعلى تركيز لغاز أول أكسيد الكربون CO (6.13 جزء في المليون) والمركبات العضوية المتطايرة ((VOCs (21.88 جزء في المليون) في دور الطباعة بينما سجل أعلى تركيز لغاز ثنائي أكسيد النتروجين(NO2)  (1.44 جزء في المليون) في مراكز الاستنساخ . تجاوزت تركيز الرصاص والزنك والنحاس والمواد الدقائقية PM2.5و PM1والدقائق الكلية العالقة المستويات المسموح بها في جميع مواقع الدراسة على عكس مستويات أول أكسيد الكربون وثنائي أكسيد النتروجين وثنائي أكسيد الكبريت والمركبات العضوية المتطايرة التي كانت ضمن محددات جودة الهواء المسموح بها .Emissions of particulate matter from nanopapers as well as inks and organic solvents during the printing operationand copying machines constitute a threat to human health, especially with long time exposure in closed working environments. The present study was conducted in some printing houses and copying centers of Baghdad city during February and April  .The studyproved the occurrence of an air pollution problem concerning lead and zinc contents in all the study sites. The levels of Pb, Zn and Cu were collected by low volume sampler from the air of the study sites then filter papers digested and determined the heavy metals by flame atomic spectrophotometer. Particulate matter was measured by Aerocet, Microtector  meter device was used to measure nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide and volatile organic compounds . The highest concentrations of lead and zinc were recorded in the printing houses air (2.75μg/m3) and (51.95μg/m3) respectively. In contrast,copper concentration in the copying offices air recorded a significantly higher value (0.65μg/m3) (P>0.05) as compared to that in printing houses. Fine particulate matter(PM2.5)(particles diameter < 2.5 μm) hasrecorded the highest concentration (44.50μg/m3) in printing houses, followed by the highest concentrations of inhalable coarse particulate matter (PM10)  (particles with diameter  of 2.5 to 10 μm)  and total suspended particulates (TSP)(the total of solid particles) (477.66 and 667.00μg/m3) respectively in printing houses. The results obviously showed the highest concentrations of carbon monoxide (CO) (6.13 ppm) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) (21.88 ppm) in  printing houses, while nitrogen dioxide (NO2) recorded its highest concentration (1.44 ppm) in copy centers. Lead, zinc, copper, PM2.5, PM10 and TSP concentrations exceeded the permissble levels in all study sites converselywith the levels of carbon monoxide , nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide(SO2) and volatile organic compounds that were within permissible air quality standards

The Application of Water Jets in Coal Mining

Water is one of the natural erosion agents which through time has changed the face of the earth. Application of this principle to remove earth and rock by man is a long established technique. This paper briefly describes the changes in technology which have brought the application of water jets from the slow erosion of soil to the point where in Canada some 3,400 tons per shift are currently mined in a coal mine using high pressure water jet technology. The use of water jets has shown sufficient promise that there are several research programs currently being funded by the U.S. Bureau of Mines and other Federal agencies in the field of excavation technology. Three current areas of water jet mining are described. The first is the use of water at 10,000 psi as a modification of the cutting head of a longwall mining machine. The work which is being carried out at the University of Missouri is briefly described with the rationale for the jet parameters chosen for the experimentation. The second method of mining is a project currently under way in Canada where in a seam 50 ft thick and dipping at an angle of some 40 degrees, a low pressure, high volume flow rate up to 1,500 gallons per minute water jet system produced up to 3,400 tons per manshift. The third method of mining is an experimental program being carried out by Flow Research, Inc. in Washington state. With this method coal is mined from underground seams to boreholes driven from the surface, coal being reamed to the borehole by high pressure water jets and crushed in the bottom of the borehole prior to being pumped out of the borehole for external usage. This method does not, therefore, require access to the underground

Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices of Yemeni Women Attending Primary Healthcare Centers in Sana’a City towards Family Planning

Objective: To investigate the knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAPs) of Yemeni women attending primary healthcare centers (PHCCs) in Sana’a city towards family planning (FP).Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted among women attending three PHCCs in Sana'a city; namely, in Hadah, Al-Soneinah and Madhbah zones, between 21 November and 1 December 2011. The study included a sample of 281 married women, where data about socio-demographic characteristics and the KAPs towards FP were collected by interviewing women using a pre-designed, structured questionnaire and then analyzed using appropriate statistical tests.Results: Of the married women attending the PHCCs in Sana'a, the majority of respondents were from urban areas (96.4%; 271/281), aged between 25–29 years old (23.1% 65/281), employed (75.8%; 213/281) and with primary or secondary levels of education (60.9%; 171/281). In addition, the majority of women had a marriage length of 6–11 years (65.5%; 182/281) and 3–4 children (44.8%; 126/281). The majority of respondents (89.7%) knew about FP, and 60.2% considered it as birth spacing. Moreover, most respondents (87.5%) were aware of at least four methods of FP, and 53.6% heard of modern FP contraceptive methods. Of them, 85.9% and 74.0% heard of contraceptive pills and intrauterine contraceptive devices (ICDU), respectively; however, the least known contraceptive method was the use of male condoms (28.1%). Healthcare providers were the source of information on FP for the majority of respondents (60.5%). The majority of respondents believed that the optimum spacing between births should be two or three years, being 31.7% and 38.8%, respectively. In addition, most respondents (80.8%) believed that both couples must share the decision-making on FP. Socio-cultural beliefs and values were thought to be the most common (57.3%) barriers to the practice of FP.Conclusions: Although the majority of Yemeni women seeking healthcare after marriage have a good level of knowledge of several traditional and modern methods of FP and their preference of long birth spacing, the use of such methods is still limited to contraceptive pills and ICDU. Therefore, attention should be paid to health education of women on the benefits of using other alternative methods of FP for better family lifestyle, health and well-being

Isolation and characterisation of microorganisms contaminating herbal infusion sold in Minna, Nigeria

The microbiological assessment of ten herbal infusion samples from ten different locations in Minna, Niger State was investigated. The assessment of the microbial contamination on the herbal products was carried out, using standard methods. Pour plate method was used to cultivate serially diluted portions of the medicinal plant infusion samples. The results revealed that all the herbal preparations had the presence of microbial contaminants. The total heterotrophic counts of the different herbal samples ranged from 0 cfu/mL to 25.0 × 108cfu/mL while the total fungal counts ranged from 3.0×106cfu/mL to 3.5×108cfu/mL. The total viable bacteria counts showed that the highest counts of 25.0 × 108cfu/mL was recorded in the sample from Bosso and the least counts of 0 cfu/mL from Kasuwan-Gwari while the total fungal counts showed that the highest count of 3.5×108cfu/mL was found in the sample obtained from FUT campus and the least counts of 3.0×106cfu/mL in the sample from Mai-Kunkele. One way analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that there was significant difference (p<0.05) in the microbial load of the herbal infusions from each location. The microbial isolates identified were E. coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Shigella sp, Klebsiella sp, Pseudomonas sp, Micrococcus sp, Salmonella sp, Aspergillus sp, Penicillium sp and Saccharomyces cerevisaie. Members of the genus Aspergillus were found to be predominant. This suggests that the herbal infusion harbors microorganisms that could be hazardous to human health and hence producers should maintain the highest possible level of hygiene during the processing and packaging of the products in order to ensure safety of the products

Robotic dry cleaner for photovoltaic solar panels: an implemented design that evaluated in iraq's weather

Arabian desert areas are suffered from high mitigation in the produced photovoltaic (PV) power due to high dusty weather. This article presents a robotic cleaner that will significantly reduce the impact of dust on the installed PV systems in these areas. The proposed robotic cleaner is simple, low cost, standalone, self-powered, portable, and connected to the cloud. ESP32 used as a controller that manages the cleaning process and monitors its PV power production, the battery's state of charge, time of the day, and weather conditions. Thanks to the ESP32 features and its ability to connect to the cloud, as an internet of things (IoT), via the ThingSpeak website. All the electrical, mechanical, and electronic design aspects are presented and implemented in this article. The results show the effectiveness and performance enhancement due to periodic cleaning using the proposed robotic cleaner. The results also show that the total percentage of the monthly normalized accumulated losses for the two scheduled cleaning photovoltaic strings with a performance improvement of 15.54% for the weekly cleaned string (WCS) 83.04% for the never cleaned string (NCS) through the tested month

Wavelets operational methods for fractional differential equations and systems of fractional differential equations

In this thesis, new and effective operational methods based on polynomials and wavelets for the solutions of FDEs and systems of FDEs are developed. In particular we study one of the important polynomial that belongs to the Appell family of polynomials, namely, Genocchi polynomial. This polynomial has certain great advantages based on which an effective and simple operational matrix of derivative was first derived and applied together with collocation method to solve some singular second order differential equations of Emden-Fowler type, a class of generalized Pantograph equations and Delay differential systems. A new operational matrix of fractional order derivative and integration based on this polynomial was also developed and used together with collocation method to solve FDEs, systems of FDEs and fractional order delay differential equations. Error bound for some of the considered problems is also shown and proved. Further, a wavelet bases based on Genocchi polynomials is also constructed, its operational matrix of fractional order derivative is derived and used for the solutions of FDEs and systems of FDEs. A novel approach for obtaining operational matrices of fractional derivative based on Legendre and Chebyshev wavelets is developed, where, the wavelets are first transformed into corresponding shifted polynomials and the transformation matrices are formed and used together with the polynomials operational matrices of fractional derivatives to obtain the wavelets operational matrix. These new operational matrices are used together with spectral Tau and collocation methods to solve FDEs and systems of FDEs

Sinteza, protuupalno, analgetsko i antikonvulzivno djelovanje 1,8-dihidro-1-aril-8-alkil pirazolo(3,4-b)indola

A series of 1,8-dihydro-1-aryl-8-alkyl pyrazolo(3,4-b)indoles 4a-j, 5a-j and 6a-j has been synthesized and tested for their anti-inflammatory and anticonvulsant activities. Formation of the pyrazoloindole derivatives was achieved by treating arylhydrazones of N-alkyl indole-3-carboxaldehydes 1a-j, 2a-j and 3a-j with ten times their mass of polyphosphoric acid as a condensing agent. The newly synthesized compounds were evaluated for their anti-inflammatory, analgesic and anticonvulsant activities compared to indomethacin, flufenamic acid and diazepam as positive controls. Detailed synthesis, spectroscopic and toxicity data are reported.Serija 1,8-dihidro-1-aril-8-alkil pirazolo(3,4-b)indola 4a-j, 5a-j i 6a-j sintetizirana je i testirana na protuupalno i antikonvulzivno djelovanje. Pirazolindol derivati pripravljeni su reakcijom arilhidrazona N-alkil indol-3-karboksaldehida 1a-j, 2a-j i 3a-j s deset puta većom masom polifosforne kiseline kao sredstva za kondenzaciju. Novosintetizirani spojevi testirani su na protuupalno, analgetsko i antikonvulzivno djelovanje i uspoređeni s djelovanjem indometacina, flufenaminske kiseline i diazepama. U radu su dati detaljni sintetski, spektroskopski i toksikološki podaci