ARO-THE SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL OF KOYA UNIVERSITY
Not a member yet
373 research outputs found
Sort by
Chemical Composition and Cytotoxic Activity of Pistacia atlantica var. kurdica Fruits
Get PDFPistacia atlantica var. kurdica (Anacardiaceae) is a major subspecies found in the Kurdistan region of Iraq and has several beneficial bioactivities such as antioxidant, antibacterial, and antiviral. P. atlantica growing in the Kurdistan region is not yet studied phytochemically and pharmacologically. Hence, the goal of the present study is to characterize chemical compounds present in ethanolic extract of P. atlantica fruits by gas chromatography–mass spectroscopy (GC–MS) and to evaluate cytotoxic activity using A549 (human lung cancer) cell lines by (3-4,5 dimethylthiazol-2yl2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide) assay. The GC–MS analysis shows the presence of 33 chemical compounds which constitute about 99.95% of total compounds, and isospathulenol (14.63%), spathulenol (13.45%), α-terpineol (13.28%), limonene (10.92%), terpinolene (10.89%), β-myrcene (6.92%), ethyl pentadecanoate (6.15%), β-pinene (4.98%), and caryophyllene oxide (4.01%) were found as major chemical compounds. P. atlantica inhibits cell proliferation in A549 cell lines in a time (24 h) and dose-dependent manner (0.5–500 µg/mL). After 24 h of treatment with P. atlantica, the cell viability of A549 cell lines ranged from 93.01 ± 5.24 to 57.69 ± 4.15% for concentrations of 0.5–500 µg/mL, respectively. This study expands the knowledge of the chemical composition of P. atlantica fruits and provides scientific evidence for its possible use as an anticancer medicine. The substantial anticancer activity of P. atlantica fruits may be due to the presence of isospathulenol, spathulenol, α-terpineol, limonene, terpinolene, β-myrcene, ethyl pentadecanoate, β-pinene, and caryophyllene oxide
Flood Modeling on Koya Catchment Area Using Hyfran, Web Map Service, and HEC-RAS Software
Get PDFIn this research, The boundaries of the Koya catchment area have been delineated, and valley paths in the region were drawn by using the Water Modeling System (WMS) software, Analysis of the morphometric information indicated that the morphometric characteristics of watersheds contribute to the floods. The average surface runoff depth depends on the curve number values that are determined based on the types of soil cover and soil class according to Harmonized World Soil Database HWSD software that indicates the soil class in the study area are Group B silt loam, The results obtained also show that the potential for surface runoff varies with land use and soil characteristics. Also, the value of the curve number (CN) was determined to be 71. The hydrological modeling was performed by the HEC-HMS program that simulates the process of rainfall to runoff using the SCS curve number model. A flood hydrograph was constructed at the catchment area outlet and the floodplain delineation was verified by the HEC-RAS software. The results indicated that the 100-year return period flood could Reach critical areas such as the urban area, agricultural area, residential areas. the results of this study indicate that there are suitable sites in the catchment areas for constructing small dams and ponds for water harvesting. 
Kurdish Dialect Recognition using 1D CNN
Get PDFDialect recognition is one of the most attentive topics in the speech analysis area. Machine learning algorithms have been widely used to identify dialects. In this paper, a model that based on three different 1D Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) structures is developed for Kurdish dialect recognition. This model is evaluated, and CNN structures are compared to each other. The result shows that the proposed model has outperformed the state of the art. The model is evaluated on the experimental data that have been collected by the staff of department of computer science at the University of Halabja. Three dialects are involved in the dataset as the Kurdish language consists of three major dialects, namely Northern Kurdish (Badini variant), Central Kurdish (Sorani variant), and Hawrami. The advantage of the CNN model is not required to concern handcraft as the CNN model is featureless. According to the results, the 1 D CNN method can make predictions with an average accuracy of 95.53% on the Kurdish dialect classification. In this study, a new method is proposed to interpret the closeness of the Kurdish dialects by using a confusion matrix and a non-metric multi-dimensional visualization technique. The outcome demonstrates that it is straightforward to cluster given Kurdish dialects and linearly isolated from the neighboring dialects
Reducing Environment Pollution by Reusing of Alum Sludge Waste in Stone Mastic Asphalt Mixtures
Get PDFGlobally, a huge quantity of alum sludge waste is produced as a by-product material from drinking water treatment plants that utilize aluminum salts as an essential coagulate and is the most generally produced water treatment remaining sludge around the world, which causes a serious environmental problem. Direct discarding of this substance has ecological effects. Hence, it is important to reuse this alum sludge waste material in such a manner to diminish its detrimental impacts on the environment. This research investigates the possibility of reusing alum sludge waste as a partial replacement of cement filler in stone mastic asphalt (SMA) paving mixtures. For this investigation, the alum sludge was used as a filler material in SMA mixtures in two modes; dried alum sludge at 110°C and burned alum sludge at 700°C. Different percentages of alum sludge were used as a replacement by the total weight of mineral filler at 0, 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100%. The results showed that using alum sludge as a substitution of filler in SMA mixtures reduces the performance of the mixtures in terms of Marshall properties and tensile strength for both dried and burned alum sludge compared with a standard mix. However, the performance of the mixtures containing burned alum sludge gave a better performance than the mixtures containing dried alum sludge
Feasibility Study of Concrete Louvers for High-rise Residential Buildings in Terms of Cooling Energy Requirements
Get PDFHigh-rise residential buildings are increasing worldwide, including cities in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Therefore, creating sustainable environments in and around these residential buildings are becoming an important problem. Improving energy efficiency in buildings has received critical attention worldwide. Countries have developed national sustainability strategies that lead to the lower energy consumption while maintaining comfort, reducing energy consumption, and minimizing harmful emissions. In this paper, an analysis of the impact of external shading devices in high-rise residential buildings on energy consumption of a 13-storey building in Sulaimani city is studied. The study is focused on fixed shading elements, explaining the influence of the design of vertical and horizontal shading devices on the total energy consumption of this type of building. The results show that both a single fixed horizontal blind with a depth of 20 cm and a triple vertical shading with the same depth are considered useless. The reduction in cooling loads by two fixed horizontal louvers almost doubled compared to a single fixed horizontal shading with 20 cm. Moreover, triple fixed horizontal louvers with 40 cm have almost the same effect on reducing cooling loads as triple fixed louvers with 60 cm. On the other hand, a triple fixed horizontal shading device with 60 cm has twice the effect on reducing annual cooling loads as a triple fixed vertical shading device with 60 cm
A Comparison of Top Distributed Bragg Reflector for 1300 nm Vertical Cavity Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers Based on III–V Compound
Get PDFIn this work, the design of GaAs/AlGaAs distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) has been implemented for 1300 nm vertical cavity semiconductor optical amplifiers (VCSOAs) for optical fiber communication applications. The top DBR period and Al concentration are varied, the peak reflectivity of the DBR is increasing from 50% to 97.5% for 13 periods with increasing Al concentration, whereas the reflectivity bandwidth is increased to almost 190 nm. The relation between wavelength and incidence angle variation on DBR reflectivity is increasing with the incident angle (0°, 20°, 30°, and 50°), the resonant wavelength and bandwidth of the measured reflectance spectra shifts to shorter wavelength and wider bandwidth, respectively. In addition, a comparison between the linear, the graded, and the parabolic DBRs has been achieved with transfer matrix method using MATLAB software to show the influence of layer in DBRs and its effect on lasing wavelength. It is shown that using grading DBR mirror is much more beneficial compared to abrupt DBR, whereas it has lower reflectivity of almost 10% due to VCSOAs device which needs less number of top layers until prevent reaching lasing threshold
Effect of Sand Percentage on the Compaction Properties and Undrained Shear Strength of Low Plasticity Clay
Get PDFThis paper investigates the influence of sand content on the mechanical behavior of a low plasticity clay that collected from south of Iraq (Sumer town). Samples have been prepared with sand contents of 0%, 10%, 20%, 30%, and 40% of the clay weight. Standard Proctor and unconfined compression tests have been carried out and the optimum moisture content, maximum dry density, and undrained shear strength have been determined. The results show a gradual increasing trend of the maximum dry density with the increase of the sand content up to 30%. The highest dry density reaches 1.90 g/cm3 corresponding to an optimum moisture content of 12%. In addition, this paper shows that the undrained shear strength is inversely proportional to the increase of the percentage of sand. The results of this work provide a useful addition to the literature regarding the behaviour or low plasticity clay-sand mixture
Chemical Characterization and Antidiabetic Activity of Essential Oils from Pelargonium graveolens Leaves
Get PDFPelargonium graveolens (Geranium) is a source of the finest quality of fragrance and its essential oils are used as antibacterial, and antifungal agents. The aim of the current research is to determine chemical constituents in the essential oil of P. graveolens by GC-MS and evaluate its antidiabetic activity via α-glucosidase inhibition assay. The chemical composition of P. graveolens essential oil was determined by GC/MS and its antidiabetic activity was assessed through inhibition of α-glucosidase enzyme in in-vitro models. GC-MS analysis determines 36 chemical components in the essential oil of P. graveolens leaves, and citronellyl isovalerate (10.41 %), menthol (9.61 %), linalool (8.63 %), p-menthone (6.31 %), and geranyl tiglate (4.99 %) were recorded as major constituents. The essential oil of P. graveolens leaves showed concentration dependant inhibition of α-glucosidase enzyme ranging from 28.13±1.41 to 74.24±2.53 µg/mL for concentration ranging from 31.25 to 1000 µg/mL. The IC50 values for of P. graveolens and acarbose were found as 93.72±4.76 and 80.4±2.17 µg/mL, respectively against the α-glucosidase enzyme. The study finding explores the chemical components of P. graveolens growing in the Iraqi Kurdistan region and scientifically supported its possible use in diabetic patients for controlling postprandial hyperglycemia
Seroprevalence of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus-2 Immunoglobulin M and Immunoglobulin G Antibodies among the Population of Koya University
Get PDFCoronavirus is a pandemic disease. In most cases, the exact infection rate cannot be determined as not everybody can be tested for the virus, even though some of them carry the virus silently. Therefore, detection of antibodies of this virus is more practical to give us a better clue about the rate of infection because the asymptomatic people can be tested too. The serological detection of anti-Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus (SARS-COV-2) antibodies among asymptomatic and moderate symptomatic individuals gives us the vital point to understanding the prevalence rate of COVID-19 among the population. Total of (436) volunteers were participated, (96) from teaching staff, (172) employee, and (168) students. Anti-SARS-COV-2 immunoglobulin G (IgG) and Immunoglobulin M (IgM) were detected in the serum by ELISA technique, and complete blood count was performed for all participants. The number of seropositive of anti-SARS-COV-2/IgG was (159), whereas IgM was (66). The highest prevalence rate of IgG detected among participants with family member infected with coronavirus (42.7%). Total WBCs count significantly increased among IgM positive participants. Many asymptomatic people were infected with coronavirus, which lead to more spreading of the virus among the population. Therefore, mass screening of the population for specific antibody against coronavirus is important to reduce the infection rate
Contact Geometrical Study for Top Emitting 980 nm InGaAs/GaAsP Vertical-Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers
Get PDFGeometrical contacts of a double mesa structure with 16 rows ×15 columns arrays of top emitting GaAs based 980 nm vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) are fabricated and characterized. In this paper, 5 strained In0.22Ga0.78As/Ga0.9AsP0.1 quantum wells (QWs) within λ/2 thick cavity have been employed. The top and the bottom epitaxially grown mirrors are based on the linear graded Al0.9Ga0.1As/GaAs distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs) with 20.5 and 37 periods, respectively. Static parameters including threshold currents, rollover currents, maximum optical output power and wall-plug efficiency are extracted from light out power-current-voltage (LIV) of VCSELs with fixed oxide aperture diameter of ∅~ 6 μm and various mesa2 diameters. In addition, spectral emission for 980 nm VCSELs of oxide aperture between ∅~ 6 and 19 μm and with fixed ∅~ 6 μm and different bias currents are analyzed. The highest optical output power of around 33 dBm is observed at bias current of 0.8 mA for short−reach optical interconnect applications