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Jordan is one of the most water-scarce countries in the world. The country’s renewable water supply currently only meets about half of the population’s water demands. The aim of the present study was to investigate the changes in the level of heavy metals found in pharmaceutical wastewater from Al-Hikma Drugs Industry using palm fronds - Washingtonia Robusta (PF-WR) as organic adsorbents. Removal of heavy metals, turbidity, chemical, and biological oxygen demand, and suspended solids from industrial water using bioadsorbent materials was studied. Increasing the concentration of PFWR increased the removal efficiency. The optimum reductions of Fe, Ni, Cu, Cr, Pb, Co, Al, Na, COD, BOD, and turbidity were 64.29 %, 90.35 %, 61.75 %, 62.6 %, 60.60 %, 34.09 %, 10.09 %, 85.26 %, 87.41 %, and 78 %, respectively, were achieved by increasing the PF-WR concentration to 100 %. The removal efficiency was found to be concentration-dependent of PF-WR. The lowest reduction was achieved by sodium and pH.

The technique of multi-stage desalination with brine recirculation (MSF-BR) is characterized by its high energy demand, necessitating the exploration of efficient operational methods to minimize energy consumption and enhance plant performance. In this research study, Matlab R2021a software was used to apply a genetic algorithm with the aim of determining the optimal values of the operating variables of the MSF-BR system within certain limits, considering energy consumption and feed seawater temperature variation. The study included improving several operational factors, including top brine temperature, steam temperature, feed seawater temperature, cooling water flow rate and make up flow rate, number of station stages, and the stages of the heat rejection section. The optimal maintenance period during the operational year was also determined. The results of the analysis were based on data from the Al-Khafji desalination plant, which consists of 16 stages and has a production capacity of 7,053,393.8 gallons/day. The study aimed to achieve two main objectives: increasing the gain output ratio (GOR) and reducing the proportion of the recovery ratio. The results showed that the optimal period for maintenance is January, where the performance ratio ranges between 0.987 and 9.38, compared to the currently used month of December, where the performance ratio ranges between 1.096 and 9.56. Optimal target values were set at the following operating parameters: 33.3 °C for feed seawater temperature, 98.67 °C for steam temperature, 95.62 °C for brine temperature, 1571.18 kg/s for cooling water flow rate, 1624.24 kg/s for feed water flow rate, 21 stages for the station, and two stages for the heat rejection section. To achieve the highest GOR, the number of stages and heat rejection section should be more than 19 and 2, respectively. In general, to achieve improvements in GOR and reduce energy consumption, it is recommended to maintain Tf in the range of 33–34 °C and set Mcw between 1050 and 1800 kg/s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This simulation study has been designed to study and scale the head losses (hf) through internal flow passages with different five cross-section areas: these are circular, elliptical, rectangular, square and triangular cross-sectional passages. Those equivalent hydraulic diameters (Dh) were modelled for each shape to be used in head loss calculations and analysis using the Darcy-Weisbach equation. These equations formed the main structure of the mathematical model of this study to enable the building of the subsequent computerized model using MATLAB® software. Five major parameters were considered for head losses investigation and scaling for each pipe shape, these are the pipe length (L), the hydraulic diameters (Dh), friction coefficient (f), volumetric flow rate or discharge (Q) and mass flow rate (dm/dt). The results showed that head losses of non-circular pipes have relatively higher head losses than that of circular pipes, also the scaling head losses were strongly affected by the pipe geometry and shape, the flow characteristics and fluid properties. Furthermore, the head losses have been severely inversely affected by low pipe hydraulic diameter (Dh <0.10 m) and then be likely to be the same at higher pipe diameter (Dh ≥ 0.25 m) for all pipe shapes. Also, the most recommended pipe shapes for lower head losses next to the circular pipe are elliptical and square, while the less recommended are triangular and rectangular shapes respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The enlarged veins in the pampiniform venous plexus, known as varicocele disease, are typically identified using ultrasound scans. The medical diagnosis of varicocele is based on examinations made in three positions taken to the right and left testicles of the male patient. The proposed system is designed to determine whether a patient is affected. Varicocele is more frequent on the left side of the scrotum than on the right and physicians commonly depend on the supine position more than other positions. Therefore, the experimental results of this study focused on images taken in the supine position of the left testicles of patients. There are two possible vein structures in each image: a cross-section (circular) and a tube (non-circular) structure. This proposed system identifies dilated (varicocele) veins of these structures in ultrasound images in three stages: preprocessing, processing, and detection and measurement. These three stages are applied in three different color modes: Grayscale, Red-Green-Blue (RGB), and Hue, Saturation, and Value (HSV). In the preprocessing stage, the region of interest enclosing the pampiniform plexus area is extracted using a median filter and threshold segmentation. Then, the processing stage employs different filters to perform image denoising. Finally, edge detection is applied in multiple steps and the detected veins are measured to determine if dilated veins exist. Overall implementation results showed the proposed system is faster and more effective than the previous work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is considered as one of the main environmental challenges which occurred during the last five decades. Climate change poses an additional heavy pressure on Jordan's limited water resources and the environment. This paper aimed to assess climate change in Jordan using many temperature indicators (max. T>25, max. T>30, min. T>10 and min. T<10°C). Also, the area method was used as a new approach to assess the trend in the mentioned indicators. The data collected for 30 years in 10 stations was used for calculation and analysis. The results indicated that two stations recorded a noteworthy increase in temperature above 25 and 30°C, while the others showed an insignificant increase/decrease. Only one station showed a significant increase in the min. T>10°C with an irrelevant change in the other stations. Analysis of monthly data revealed that 50, 60 and 30% of the stations showed an increase in the max. temp. (>25) in June, July and August, respectively, with a notable increase for two stations. In comparison with the minimum temperature >15°C, six of the 10 stations showed increases during June, four in July and four in August, with a significant trend in two stations in two different months. Regarding the coldest days (min.<10°C), 6 of 8 stations and 8 of 10 stations showed a decrease in the average min. monthly temperature<10°C in November and December, respectively, which indicated late commencement of the winter season and a significant change in the season's pattern. By comparing the results of the area method with those of the linear regression method, a high agreement was found between the trends in both approaches, while a substantial difference in R2 value was found. Based on the obtained results, it was concluded that the climate change in temperature is pronounced and can be determined successfully by the area method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a new method for the determination of the values of the first-order Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) model coefficients (k and L).Cubic spline interpolation and MATLAB were used for that purpose after the experimental and theoretical BOD values were made dimensionless. Experimental BOD values taken from the literature are made dimensionless by dividing them by experimental BOD1 through BOD5. Theoretical BOD values are made dimensionless by dividing them by the theoretical BOD1 through BOD5 for different theoretical k values. Experimental dimensionless BOD values are connected smoothly using cubic spline method. Using MATLAB, the closest theoretical dimensionless BOD curve to the cubic spline curve is selected and used for the determination of k and L. The closest curve is the one that has the same area under it as to that under the cubic spline curve with the areas that lie between the two curves being the smallest. The new method has proved to give more accurate values after it has been compared with a number of other methods used for that purpose. The new method produced the smallest error and the highest coefficient of determination than the other methods used. The newly introduced method is expected to replace all other methods, as these methods give different values for k and L depending on the method used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]