Quality of water in hemodialysis centers in Baghdad,Iraq

Dialysis water quality is one of the important parameters all over the world because of its direct influence on the health of kidney patients. In Iraq, there are more than 20 dialysis centers; most of them contain identical units for the production of dialysis water. In this work, the quality of water used for dialysis in six dialysis centers located within Baghdad hospitals was evaluated. Samples of product water from each of the six dialysis centers were examined for total heterotrophic bacteria, endotoxin, and chemical contaminants. Endotoxin was measured on‐site using a portable instrument. Bacteriological and chemical examinations were done in the laboratory after collecting samples from each dialysis center. The results showed a fluctuation in the produced water quality that makes the produced water unaccepted when compared with international standards. Bacterial counts for 60% of the analyzed samples were above the action level (50 colony‐forming units[CFU]/mL), while five out of the six dialysis centers showed values higher than the maximum value (100 CFU/mL). Chemical analysis showed that the dialysis water quality suffers from elevated aluminum concentration for all dialysis centers. All hemodialysis centers need thorough monitoring and preventive maintenance to ensure good water quality. In addition, it is important to revise the design of the water treatment units according to the feed and product water quality.     

Bisphenol A (BPA) Leading to Obesity and Cardiovascular Complications: A Compilation of Current In Vivo Study

BPA is one of the most common endocrine disruptors that is widely being manufactured daily nationwide. Although scientific evidence supports claims of negative effects of BPA on humans, there is also evidence suggesting that a low level of BPA is safe. However, numerous in vivo trials contraindicate with this claim and there is a high possibility of BPA exposure could lead to obesity. It has been speculated that this does not stop with the exposed subjects only, but may also cause transgenerational effects. Direct disruption of endocrine regulation, neuroimmune and signaling pathways, as well as gut microbiata, has been identified to be interrupted by BPA exposure, leading to overweight or obesity. In these instances, cardiovascular complications are one of the primary notable clinical signs. In regard to this claim, this review paper discusses the role of BPA on obesity in the perspective of endocrine disruptions and possible cardiovascular complications that may arise due to BPA. Thus, the aim of this review is to outline the changes in gut microbiota and neuroimmune or signaling mechanisms involved in obesity in relation to BPA. To identify potentially relevant articles, a depth search was done on the databases Nature, PubMed, Wiley Online Library, and Medline & Ovid from the past 5 years. According to Boolean operator guideline, selected keywords such as (1) BPA OR environmental chemical AND fat OR LDL OR obese AND transgenerational effects or phenocopy (2) Endocrine disruptors OR chemical AND lipodystrophy AND phenocopy (3) Lipid profile OR weight changes AND cardiovascular effect (4) BPA AND neuroimmune OR gene signaling, were used as search terms. Upon screening, 11 articles were finalized to be further reviewed and data extraction tables containing information on (1) the type of animal model (2) duration and dosage of BPA exposure (3) changes in the lipid profile or weight (4) genes, signaling mechanism, or any neuroimmune signal involved, and (5) transgenerational effects were created. In toto, the study indicates there are high chances of BPA exposure affecting lipid profile and gene associated with lipolysis, leading to obesity. Therefore, this scoping review recapitulates the possible effects of BPA that may lead to obesity with the evidence of current in vivo trials. The biomarkers, safety concerns, recommended dosage, and the impact of COVID-19 on BPA are also briefly described.     

Effects of multiple slip on flow of magneto-Carreau fluid along wedge with chemically reactive species

Neural Computing and Applications - Of concern in this work is an investigation of the heat and mass transfer mechanisms in the presence of first-order chemical reaction for an incompressible flow...     

Oxygenation absorption and light scattering driven facial animation of natural virtual human

Multimedia Tools and Applications - The color of skin is one of the key indicators of bodily change that affect facial expressions. The skin colour tenacity is majorly determined by the light...     

Effects of controller and cubic temperature profile on onset of Bénard–Marangoni convection in ferrofluid

This study investigated the instability of Bénard–Marangoni convection in a horizontal layer of ferrofluid under the influence of a linear feedback control and cubic temperature profile. A linear stability analysis was performed. A single-term Galerkin technique was used to obtain the critical Marangoni number and critical Rayleigh number. The possibility of delaying the onset of convection by the application of linear feedback control is demonstrated.     

Prediction of the Heat of Vaporization from the Heat of Vaporization at Normal Boiling Point

Abstract

A generalized enthalpy-temperature correlation for a group of liquid compounds has been developed to represent the data for a wide range of temperatures. Detailed analysis shows that the proposed correlation fits the experimental measurements of enthalpy of liquid with the calculated values with an overall absolute error of 3.7% for 79 data points.     

An overview of cathode material and catalysts suitable for generating hydrogen in microbial electrolysis cell

Bio-electrohydrogenesis through Microbial Electrolysis Cell (MEC) is one of the promising technologies for generating hydrogen from wastewater through degradation of organic waste by microbes. While microbial activity occurs at anode, hydrogen gas is evolved at the cathode. Identifying a highly efficient and low cost cathode is very important for practical implication of MEC. In this review, we have summarized the efforts of different research groups to develop different types of efficient and low cost cathodes or cathode catalysts for hydrogen generation. Among all the materials used, stainless steel, Ni alloys Pd nanoparticle decorated cathode are worth mentioning and have very good efficiency. Industrial application of MEC should consider a balance of availability and efficiency of the cathode material.     

LTE‐Based Passive Bistatic Radar System for Detection of Ground‐Moving Targets

Use of a passive bistatic radar (PBR) system in the surveillance or monitoring of an area has its advantages. For example, a PBR system is able to utilize any available signal of opportunity (for example, broadcasting, communication, or radio navigation signals) for the purposes of surveillance. With this in mind, there are potentially many research areas to be explored; in particular, the capability of signals from existing and future communication systems, such as 4G and 5G. Long‐Term Evolution (LTE) is the world's most current communication system. Given this fact, this paper presents the latest feasibility studies and experimental results from using LTE signals in PBR applications. Details are provided about aspects such as signal characteristics, experimental configurations, and SNR studies. Six experimental scenarios are carried out to investigate the detection performance of our proposed system on ground‐moving targets. The ability to detect is demonstrated through use of the cross‐ambiguity function. The detection results suggest that LTE signals are suitable as a source signal for PBR.