Engineering and Technology Journal

The lead concentration in soil and of plant (Eucalyptus) samples from different areas in Baghdad city (Zafarana, Sheikh Omar Street and Al Zawara Park). The results shows that the concentration of lead element is higher than the world average of uncontaminated soils. Depending on the results of the Geoaccumulation index it can be seen that the soil samples collected from Al Zawara Park were moderately polluted while the soil samples collected from the Zafarana district were moderate to severely contaminated and the soil samples collected from the Sheikh Omar street were heavily contaminated with lead element and this is clearly evident as a result of the impact of industrial activity in the region. Furthermore, the highest values of BCF were observed in Al Zawara Park and this evidence may be related to the plant age in this area.

This work aims to measure the concentrations of radionuclides of natural radioactivity of the elements of uranium series (Bi-214 & Ra-226), thorium (Tl-208 and Pb-212), and Potassium-40 and industrial isotope Cesium-137 using gamma spectroscopy. High purity detector Germanium (HPGe) with efficiency (50 %) and the ability of the analysis (2.2 keV) for energy 1332 keV belong to 60Co. This detector connected to ICS -PCI card as multi- channel analyzer. The results of the specific activity Ra-226 ranged between 89.46-368.52 Bq/kg while Bi-214 had a
range of 22.74 -48.65 Bq/kg. However, Tl-208 gave a range of 18.66 - 40.61 Bq/kg
and Pb-212 values varied from 18.56 to 44.13 Bq/kg. In case of potassium-40, the
values ranged between 181.59 - 926.58 Bq/kg. For the cesium-137 has ranged from
7.36 to 12.94 Bq/kg. In general, the results that have been obtained are within the
allowable range but higher than those of the worldwide average for the concentration
of uranium and close to worldwide average for other radionuclides, and this is due to
the nature of the geological composition of the area

This research included a comparison between the chemical and physical aspects of Sawa Lake water and the chemical and physical aspects of wells water, which are located around Sawa Lake. This research has chosen four wells that are located near Sawa Lake and then the laboratory tests were done for the samples of wells water and Sawa Lake water a long three months (November, December and January 2014-2015). The results showed, there are large differences between the chemical and physical aspects of wells water, in comparison with the chemical and physical aspects of Sawa Lake water. The high concentration of salinity for the water of Sawa Lake and the differences of temperature between the water of Sawa Lake and wells was the distinguishing feature. The average temperature for well (1) water was (24.5ºC) whereas for Sawa Lake was (12ºC). In addition, the average of electrical Conductivity for Sawa Lake water was (37600μs/cm) whereas for well (1) was (5244μs/cm) and well (4) (5730μs/cm). In addition, there were very large differences in the Chloride
concentrations between the Sawa lake water (8987 mg/L), the water of first well
(993.3 mg/L) and the water of second well (1135 mg/L).

Environmental awareness level for university of technology students was investigated at scholastic year (2013-2014) towards some environmental statements suggested by the researcher and endorsed by ten of local environmental experts. 341 students were selected by using random selection technique divided into (176) male and (165) female belong to different scientific departments and different stream. Questionnaire form was designed, included 30 questions distributed at three contents, pollution, environmental awareness and environmental conservation, ten questions for each topic, Likert quaternary scale with known weight was used. All findings were analyzed by descriptive analysis, T test and variable analyses (ANOVA I). From the results, we note environmental awareness towards environmental status among students of university (72.1%) Compared with the supposed ratio (70%), there is no significant differences according to gender variable

The study aimed to use of baker’s yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae in Bioremediation of some heavy metals and improving its capability by mutation. The dried baker's yeast from Aldnaamaya China Company used in this study. The yeast subjected to serial diagnostic tests to ensure its belongings to S. cerevisiae. To improve the ability of the yeast to remove the metals, it was mutated by Nitrosoguanidine, and among different mutants, it was found that three of them designated as Sc6-1, Sc6-2 and Sc6-3, were more resistant to the antifungal cycloheximide in a concentration of 5 and 10 μg/ ml. These mutants were selected to study their efficiency to remove metals under the specific circumstances of attachment 10 minutes, pH 6, temperature 25○C, the stirring speed 150 rpm/ min, by using an inoculums size 1×106 cells/ ml in a solution containing 1mg/L of from each metal. it was found that the mutant Sc6-2 has gain an excellent efficiency to remove of chromium, nickel, cobalt, cadmium, lead, iron and copper in combined at a rate 72.23%, while the removal efficiency of these elements by the other mutants Sc6-1 and Sc6-3 were 64.67% and 65.37% respectively.

A theoretical and practical study was conducted for the vacuum solar dryer, which locally manufactured to drying of salted and unsalted carp Fish and compared with natural sun drying and vacuum electric dryer in Basrah province for the period from October 2011 to July 2012. The study included simplifying the Crank’s equation to predict the theory moisture content compared with practical data. Solar radiation intensity, temperature in the atmosphere and in the solar dried were measured. The
results indicated a convergence is too big between the theoretical and practical moisture content and coefficient of determination ranged between 0.8848-0.9503. The average temperature in the solar dryer 50°C in all days of the year with sunny weather while on cloudy days, the temperature in the solar dryer reached to 43°C with fluctuations in solar radiation intensity. The moisture content results of dried Fish by vacuum solar dryer and vacuum electric dryer were convergent but it is significantly better than natural sun-drying method

This paper deals with the role of communication in environmental management and the importance of communication as it is contact one of the cornerstones in our daily life as he knew Carl Hofland as “a process that conveys whereby existing contact cues are usually symbols of language in order to modify the behavior of other individuals futuristic message”, refers George Lindberg to connect as a process which refers to the reaction by the mark and symbols that may be movements, image, or another language or works as an alarm behavior. Include environmental management process of developing environmental goals and find ways to implement them, such as the protection of biological systems and upgraded, and involve management of the environment to manage all vital natural components of the environment, and the connection works on the administration to the environment by the need to develop a vision for the work of internal and external communications for the management of environmental issues by moving the work force and continuity of the right way, and explain environmental policy and environmental management systems, and determine the extent of the possibility of the development of environmental management system, monitoring and evaluation of environmental performance, so the contact is an important engine in the process of environmental management and work to stand on environmental problems and address them.

The current study has been applied on the sector of the Tigris River runs from the Dejail area in Salaheldin province even the outskirts of the city of Baghdad near Muthanna Bridge, for the purpose of the follow-up changes of the physico-chemical factors of river water as a result of human activities affecting in the river environment and of throwing household waste, wastewater, fish cages, agricultural and industrial wastes, six different stations were selected along the course for a distance of about 50 km, and chosen on the basis of the diversity of human activities and given symbols (ST1, ST2, ST3, ST4, ST5and ST6), respectively. Water samples have been collected per month for a full year from January up to December (2014). Many factors such as temperature of air and water, water flow velocity, depth, light transmittance, turbidity, (EC, TDS, pH, DO, BOD5, Ca, Mg , TH, TA, NO2 , NO3, PO4, SiO3, SO4,) in addition to Cl were measured. The results showed that the ranges of air and water temperature were between (12.16-40.13 and 10.5-30.27) °C respectively, and flow velocity ranged from (0.29 to 4.17) m/sec; depth (3.75 -7.5) meters, light transmittance (10.0-133) cm, turbidity (10-300) NUT, EC, (673-2028) ms/cm, salinity (0.41-1.2) part per thousand, TDS (574-1017) mg/l, pH (6.70-7.9), DO (2.1-11.7) mg/l, BOD5 (0.18-5.66) mg/l , Ca (132-520) mg/l, Mg (19 -47) mg/l, TH value varied from (231 to 640) and TA (69-158) mg CaCO3/l, NO2 (0.001-0.008), NO3 (0.30-1.4) mg/l, PO4 (0.004-5.12) mg/l, SiO3 (1.95-5.5) mg/l, SO4 (62-702) mg/l and Cl, (26-110) mg/l. From the results, it can be concluded that the volatility in most of the studied factors between the sites and the values of months significantly subjected to the effects of human activities and diversity, and most of these values have exceeded the conditions by Iraqi and international determinants of the river water

Selected optimal conditions for production of prodgiosin for pathological and environmental isolates of the bacterium Serratia marcescens which was isolated from pathological and environmental sources, the results showed that the peanut powder medium at 2% concentration was the highest production of pigment under the conditions of pH 8, volume 50 ml from the medium in 250 ml conical flask at 28 ºC for 72 hrs without light

The present study investigated the cytotoxic effects of aqueous crude extracts of Vincarosea leaves, flowers and seeds on Human brain carcinoma cell line (AMGA, Ahmed Majeed Glioblastoma Multiform ) in vitro, by using serial double dilution (concentration between 1.95-1000 μg/ml). The results showed that the cytotoxic effect of extracts was depended on type of parts of plant extracted, concentration and exposure time. The concentration 1000 μg/ml gave inhibition rate (IR), were (34, 49 and 64) % of leaves, flowers and seeds extracts respectively compared with control 100% after 24 hours from exposure time. However, low concentrations of aqueous extracts were found to induce the AMGA cells growth and proliferation (PR), it was 115% by treatment with aqueous extract offlowers extract in 1.95 μg/ml after 24 hours of exposed

In this study, test the ability of some of the fungus Aspergillus flavus, Penicillium spp. , Trichoderma harzianum growth on soild media Prepared locally from the husks of each of apple Malus domestica, the seeds of sunflower Helinthus sp. ,banana Musa sapientum and eggplant Solanum melongena . The results of the study showed that all fungi that surveyed her the ability to grow typical and uninterrupted all media prepared locally.Moreover the study showed the following fungi isolated from some refrigerators of laboratories of department of Biology –College of Science–Mustansiriyah University, Aspergillus, Mucor, Penicillium Candida, Saccharomyces, Rhodotorula in addition toTrichoderma harziaum isolated from soil.

Geometrical optimization and electronic structure of chlorophenols were researched by DFT (B3LYP) utilizing a 3-21G basis set. We have likewise researched the aggregate electronic properties, Highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO), lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) and energy gap. The calculated HOMO and LUMO energies demonstrate that charge transfer occurs within the molecule

The photochemistry of chelate complex 2-(6-methoxynaphthalen-2-yl) propanoic acid iron (III) Fe(L)3 was studied in three polar aprotic solvents: Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), Dimethyl form amide (DMF), Acetone (Ac). Monochromatic light of wavelength 311 nm was utilized for the irradiation-process at 25oC. UV-VIS changes demonstrated an intraoxidation-reduction response happening amid the photolysis of Fe(L)3 complex, with homolytic scission of Fe-L bond. Quantum yield (Qd), rate of photodecomposition and reactivity proportion (k2/k-1) was resolved in every used solvent. These values dependably increment as polarity of the solvent increments and take after the order: DMSO > DMF > Ac. The mechanism of photodecomposition of this complex under the connected conditions was proposed.

Clinical Laboratory workers undergo a periodic checkup as biosafety management's procedures; due to that, they are in continuous exposure to pathogens during such work. Smoking is a problem for healthy peoples, but as laboratory technicians, this subject was not under seeking before. Total WBCs count is a test listed in the clinical form depended by Ministry of Health, while phagocytosis activity is not. These two clinical parameters were estimated in this research in healthy volunteers Blood; working in Al-Muthana Governorate clinical laboratories, NBT test was used for Neutrophils activity evaluation. Results showed elevation in WBCs Total Counts and decrease in phagocytic activity; smoking caused more elevation in total count and lower percentages of active phagocytic Neutrophils comparing with the non-smokers obtained values. Conclusion: Periodic checkup in Iraq should be updated and smoking status must be included

The current study is aimed to evaluate the possible biochemical variation in renal functions and proteins of plasma due to exposure of petrol vapor. Thirty-six station attendant assessed in Basrah, Iraq. A corresponding (20), healthy persons were used as controls group. The results of our study have been shown a significant increase in the level of blood urea, blood creatinine and in the level of plasma protein for those workers from (6-10) years, when compared the results with the control group. The results refer to that exposure to petroleum products is cause imbalance in renal function. These results, from our study, may be directly related to the time of exposure.

Dates fruits and wheat flour constitute a large part of the daily diet in both rural and urban population of Iraqi, the present study was conducted to estimate some physical, chemical characterization and microbial contamination for five types of Iraqi dates, (Zahdi, Barhi, Khistawi, Maktoum and khdrawi) and three samples of local wheat, (BB10, BB19 and BB20), beside two imported wheat samples from local markets (Zer and Al-Zahara ׳a). Microbial varieties were assessed by using total viable
count technique (TVC), as well as some chemical and physical properties for
examined samples were recorded such as moisture, total protein, lipids, and gluten for
wheat samples, total sugars and gravimetric measurements for date fruits. Findings
refer to that BB10 and Khdrawi have highest TVC (1.5×106 and 3.3×106) (CFU/gm)
respectively, while Pseudomonas sp. showed in Barhi (2.3×103) CFU/gm, and
Staphylococcus sp. recorded highest value in BB19 wheat flour (0.5×104 ) CFU/gm
with significant differences at (p≤0.05), E coli gave highest appearance in Barhi
(3.5×103) CFU/gm

Selenium (Se) is an essential micronutrient for living cell to be highly rich antioxidants, anti aging, anti cancer and many diseases. Also having an important effect on plant growth as a nutrient. Wheat is an important dietary source of organic selenium. Experiment in north Baghdad included six levels of Selenium Sulphate solution applied as a foliage feeding on wheat plant to increase grain Se content (Biofortification) and to improve grain yield .Results showed that grain selenium concentration increased to 4.5 mg per kg at the upper level (5mgm/L). Grain yield (ton/ha) showed a positive response, the yield was increased by 123% attributed to increasing of spikes per m2, 1000 grain weight and grain no. per spike. Biomass yield also showed a positive response to increased (se) solution concentration by doubled at the upper limit. Over all, these results encourage us to increase the upper limit of (Se) solution concentration to obtain the climax point.

The natural radioactivity level of phosphate rock, P2O5 (29 - 30 %), TSP, MAP, phosphoric acid, NPK, cryolite, zeolite samples obtained from Al-Qaim Complex Plant in Iraq, as well as organic bitmuse fertilizers were recorded by using solid state nuclear track detector, (SSNTD) CR-39. Three positions were selected for detectors exposure; the upper position that can record the radon originated from uranium; the middle (sample surface), and inside the sample to estimate the total alpha emitter isotopes. The measured values of the radioactivity level were found to be within the range of 113.52 - 1034.29 Bq/m3 and these values belong to Cold (organic bitmuse fertilizers) and MAP-3 (Monoammonium phosphate) samples, respectively. The later was obtained from the treatment process of ~ 60 % phosphoric acid (WPA) with phosphate rock in the Wet process. Generally, the value of the total of radon and thoron radioactivity Ca, roughly indicated by the surface detectors, throughout the chemical process was generally twice the measurement related to uranium at the upper detector. Zeolite sample showed higher radioactivity level than phosphate rock, and this can be considered, as unexpected result for it is not famous ore for uranium scavenging

Physiochemical characteristics of Tigris river water were examined monthly to assess the possible impacts of wastewater discharged from Baghdad Medical City hospital for the period from October 2012 to September 2013. Four sites were selected during this study; the first was located about 500 meters before the Medical City Complex to act as control. The second was the discharge point of Medical City discharge. The third was almost 500 meters away south the second site, and the forth was located about 1500 meters away from the third site. Water samples were collected monthly from these four sites, at depth of approximately 10-20 cm of water surface and subjected for determination several physiochemical variables such as temperature, pH, Electrical Conductivity (EC), turbidity, DO, COD, BOD, total hardness, chlorides and nitrate. The obtained results showed that air and water temperature mean values varied from 13.0 ± 2.86 to 31.0 ± 5.28 C ° and from 12.0 ±3.12 to 29.0 ±4.33 C° respectively. Also, mean turbidity values were found to range from 10.0±5.64 to 138.0±14.58 NTU while EC mean value was situated between 621.0±44.67 μS/cm and 1549.0±162.83μS/cm. However, this study has found that the mean values of EC, turbidity, chemical oxygen demand, chlorides, total hardness, and nitrate in site 2 (discharge point) were significantly (P≥0.001) higher than those of other sites during the study period. In general, it was found that Tigris river water tends to be alkaline with pH mean values ranging from 7.0 ± 0.42 to 8.8± 0.68 while DO mean values varied from 2.5±0.62 to 9.6±0.94 mg/l. The BOD mean values were found to range from1.7±0.26to5.0 ±1.86 mg/l, while COD mean values varying from56.6±8.98 to688.6±112.42 mg/l. In addition, the current results have shown that total hardness mean values were very high and ranged between 235.0±24.56and 530.0±78.68 mg/l while chlorides mean values ranging from45.0±10.44 to 143.6±21.26 mg/l, but nitrate mean values were found with the range of 2.5±0.86and 28.8±4.98 mg/l. These results, however, have been found to be mostly exceeding those of the permissible limits for Iraqi and WHO standards for protecting surface water

Public water system must produce pure water strictly meet standards to be sure it
is safe for drinking. However, that does not mean it is void of all contaminants. Tap
water may contain pollutants effect on the taste, color and smell of water. Water filter
systems, like Reverse Osmosis filter, will remove pollutants from the water. These
systems, also known as faucet water filters, in this study the activity of water filter
(kifllow) which widely used in Iraqi houses was tested through compared the tap
water quality before and after entrance to this filter this drinking water systems filter
contain six different stages. Each stage or filter gives results different from the others.

This study investigates the effect of drinking magnetically treated water (MTW) on animal's immune response against bacterial infection to see whether MTW improve the health and the immune response of the body, as MTW producers claimed. 32 female rabbits were housed for 58 days and divided into two groups (treated group and control group) where treated group drank magnetized water with 3500 Guse while control group drank tap water. In the twenty three day, they injected with Salmonella typhi somatic antigen (O-Ag) according to immunization schedule for bacteria. Coulter counter was used for measurement of innate immunity (White blood cell, lymphocyte, monocyte and granulocyte) and Architect system was used for detection of adaptive immune system (immunoglobulin M-IgM titer). No significant difference among treated group and control group was observed in innate immunity before and after vaccination with Sallmonella typhi (O-Ag). However, hemoglobin concentrations show significant decrease (p=0.027) in treated animals after vaccination with salmonella typhi O-Ag. Additionally no immunoglobulin G (IgG) was detected after 7 days from the immunization schedule, while IgM was detected and shows a significant elevation (p=0.030) in control group compared with treated group. For this reason magnetically treated water not only has no effect on hematological parameter but also has adverse effect on immune response to bacterial infection in rabbit.

First part to determination concentrations of Rn-222 in surface samples of soil, the highest average concentration of Rn-222 was found in AL-Refai region was equal to (127.500±2 Bq/m3), while lowest the average was found in AL-Aekeckh region which was equal to (33.750±2.2 Bq/m3), with an average value of (75.875±21.8 Bq/m3) ,while the (RER) was found to be ranged from (36.821 mBq/m2h) (T19 region) to (139.103 mBq/m2h) (T1 region), with average value (82.780±18.6 mBq/m2h), second part to determine of concentration of Rn-222 in samples of soil from depth 10 cm , the highest average concentration of radon in AL-Refai region which was equal to (109.500±7.7 Bq/m3), while the lowest average concentration of Rn-222 gas was found in AL-Aekeckh region equal to (30.250±2.9 Bq/m3), with an average value (66.703±14.8 Bq/m3), while (RER) was found to be ranged from (33.003 mBq/m2h) (T19 region) to (119.465 mBq/m2h) (T1 region) ,with value of average (72.784±16.2 mBq/m2h).The concentration of Rn-222 in surface soil and at depth (10 cm) were less than the recommended value given (ICRP, 1993).