High tunnels, or unheated plastic greenhouses, are becoming increasingly popular among organic vegetable growers across the United States. However, the intensive production typical of these systems presents soil health challenges, including salinization due to high fertilizer or compost inputs coupled with lack of rainfall to leach salts. Legume cover crops may improve soil health in high tunnels by reducing the need for external inputs, while adding organic matter. We tested the soil health effects of a winter hairy vetch (Vicia villosa Roth) cover crop used to replace fertilizer N in an organic tomato cropping system in high tunnels. Studies were replicated across three sites differing in climate and soil type (Kansas, Kentucky, and Minne

This paper aims to study the effects of the long term solar activity on the critical frequencies of ionospheric F1 layer over Baghdad city, during the solar cycle 22, within (1988- 1995). It is found that the critical frequency of this layer is closely related to the sunspots number during the years of the solar cycle 22, at a middle latitude region of the world. The study discussed the effect of sunspot numbers and solar events on the electron densities of F1 layer, which is the most important ionospheric parameter.

Watermelon is known to be infested by multiple insect pests both simultaneously and in sequence. Interactions by pests have been shown to have positive or negative, additive or non additive, compensatory or over compensatory effects on yields. Hardly has this sort of relationship been defined for watermelon vis-à-vis insect herbivores. A 2-year, 2-season (4 trials) field experiments were laid in the Research Farm of Federal University Wukari, to investigate the interactive effects of key insect pests of watermelon on fruit yield of Watermelon in 2016 and 2017 using natural infestations. The relationship between the dominant insect pests and fruit yield were determined by correlation (r) and linear regression (simple and multiple) analys

The study was carried out during the 2022 agricultural season in the greenhouses belonging to the-College of Agricultural-Al-Ramadi, the study aimed to investigate the efficacy of alcoholic extract of Solanum eleaegnifolium, potassium silicate and ungicide Previcur Energy in normal and nano formula to control downy mildew disease on cucumber crops caused by the fungus Pseudoperonospora cubensis. The results showed that the normal potassium silicate treatment completely prevented the disease during the length of the season, with an infection severity rate of 0.00%, compared to infection with artificial contamination of 45.90%, followed by the treatment of nano fungicide 4.60%. While the treatments of alcoholic extract and nano of nightshade

Antibiotic resistance increment is a major problem for the human society nowadays which encourages the efforts to look for new therapeutic alternatives from natural defenses. Synergistic antibacterial activity of epidermin and staphylolysin LasA A against Staphylococcus aureus (Staph aureus), Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Ps. aeruginosa) was evaluated. The antibacterial activities of epidermin from Staphylococcus epidermidis (Staph epidermidis) and Staphylolysin (LasA) from Ps. aeruginosa using the agar well diffusion assay were evaluated, and then using the micro dilution method to evaluate the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and the minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC). The checkerboard method and fract

The aim of the current research is to study the effect of adding green tea to the edible film prepared from the whey protein isolate on the effectiveness of microorganisms and evaluating the of antimicrobial effectiveness of these films on Iraqi soft cheese packaging during the nine days of storage as an alternative to commercial packaging. At the beginning of the study, the minimum inhibitory concentration was measured by calculate the diameter of the zone of inhibition on growth of the bacteria and it's included the group of Gram negative bacteria (Escherichia coli, Salmonella spp, Pseudomonas Aeruginosa) and the group of Gram positive bacteria (Staphylococcus Aureus, Bacillus spp) and a yeast (Candida Albican). Where the diameter of t

Background: L. sativum, are traditionally used for the treatment of various diseases and thought to have medicinal value. Isolates from many part of the world is now multidrug resistant. Therefore, there is an urgent need to look for and test an alternative herbal drug.

Objective: The present study aimed to evaluate the antibacterial activity of L. Sativum seed extract against multi drug resistant (MDR) and sensitive Pseudomonas aeruginosa clinical isolates.

Subjects and Methods: An ethanolic and aqueous stock extracts were prepared from L.  sativum seed plant then serial dilutions were prepared and the obtained concentrations (50, 25, 12.5 and 6.2 mg/ml) were tested against 30 multidrug-resistan

The ceramic compound Mg1-xSixAl2O4 (x= 0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4) was prepared from nano powder of Al2O3 and MgO doped with Nano powder of SiO2 at different molar ratios. The specimens were prepared by standard chemical solid reaction technique and sintered at 1450 oC. Structure of the specimens was analyzed by using X-ray diffraction (XRD). The X-ray patterns of the specimens showed the formation of pure simple cubic spinel structure MgAl2O4 phase with space group of ̅ . The average grain size and surface topology were studied by atomic force microscopy. The results showed that the average grain size was about 73-90 nm. The DC electrical properties of the specimen were measured. The apparent density was found to increase and the porosity a