Ecosystems provide humans with services that include benefits from food, fresh water, climate regulation, and socio-economic assets. The Mesopotamian marshlands are among the largest wetlands in the Middle East and they provide various benefits. However, ecosystem services of the Marshlands are consistently undervalued in national economic analysis and decision making. This study focusses on the Central Marshes, the first National Park in Iraq, and is the first attempt at valuing a series of ecosystem services from a valuable natural ecosystem in Iraq. We adopted the Toolkit for Ecosystem Services Site-Based Assessment (TESSA) for the determination of biophysical and economic values of services at the site level. Data on key ecosystem services (as determined by 30 interviews with residents of the Marshes) included the trading of fish, harvested plants, water buffalo milk, and fodder were collected across six months in 2014. We valued the ecosystem services within the CM (40,000 ha) over a 6-month period to have a total value of 860,078.23 USD. This estimated total value was the sum of 86,637.25 USD from harvested plants, 551,334.80 USD from trading fish, 167, 303.70 USD from trading water buffalo milk, and 54,804.00 USD from trading fodder. The average income per individual in Iraq in 2014 was 6720 USD (World Bank data - https://data.worldbank.org/country/iraq): thus, the CM provided an average salary for 256 people. Our results provided greater understanding of the ecosystem services contributed by the Central Marshes and has highlighted the crucial role of nature in supporting sustainable well-being for humans living in the area. In addition, the results can be used to enhance local policy, to aid management plans of the National park, and to estimate lost and damage that could result from impact of climate change on the area.
The Early – Middle Miocene Ghar and Lower Fars sedimentary succession at the representative oil-well Nu-18 of the Nahr Umr oil field south Iraq; is taken by this study to investigate the sedimentological to reservoir rock facies buildups and related reservoir zonation; as first rock-typing attempt for the both formations. The sedimentological characterization of the Early Miocene Ghar formation is mainly comprised by successive buildups of sands-gravels and sandstones, whereas; the Middle Miocene Lower Fars formation is started by limestone, limestone-marly/marl anhydritic, upgraded into interbedded-series of marl and anhydrite facies, with less-common occurrences of thin-sandstone interlayers, terminated by marl-sandy-secti
... Show MoreA revised checklist of the robber fly genera (Diptera, Asilidae) was given during this study in Iraq. The investigation showed (21) genera belonging to seven subfamilies, two genera new recorded to entomofauna of Iraq (Promachus Loew, 1848 and Genus: Dysmacus Loew, 1860). Eight genera showed in this investigation and eleven genera were recorded previously to Iraq.
Evaluation of “Holy Quran & Islamic Education” Curriculum for Second Intermediate Stage from Perspectives of Teachers & Supervisors of material A Field Study conducted in the Directorates-General of Education in Baghdad Governorate. It goes without saying that educational curricula for students of all stages of schooling are in bad need of reviewing, evaluation and revision. The Islamic education curriculum is no exception, since it is a basic subject that plays a role in developing the individual’s moral and conscientious aspects, promotes his/her inner discipline and helps establish coherence with the values system of the community to which he/she belongs.
Based on the foregoing, the evaluation process of
... Show MoreThis research is carried out to investigate the behavior of self-compacting concrete (SCC) two-way slabs with central square opening under uniformly distributed loads. The experimental part of this research is based on casting and testing six SCC simply supported square slabs having the same dimentions and reinforcement. One of these slabs was cast without opening as a control slab. While, the other five slabs having opening ratios (OR) of 2.78%, 6.25%, 11.11%, 17.36% and 25.00%. From the experimental results it is found that the maximum percentage decrease in cracking and ultimate uniform loads were 31.82% and 12.17% compared to control slab for opening ratios (OR
... Show MoreAlbizia lebbeck biomass was used as an adsorbent material in the present study to remove methyl red dye from an aqueous solution. A central composite rotatable design model was used to predict the dye removal efficiency. The optimization was accomplished under a temperature and mixing control system (37?C) with different particle size of 300 and 600 ?m. Highest adsorption efficiencies were obtained at lower dye concentrations and lower weight of adsorbent. The adsorption time, more than 48 h, was found to have a negative effect on the removal efficiency due to secondary metabolites compounds. However, the adsorption time was found to have a positive effect at high dye concentrations and high adsorbent weight. The colour removal effi
... Show MoreAlbizia lebbeck biomass was used as an adsorbent material in the present study to remove methyl red dye from an aqueous solution. A central composite rotatable design model was used to predict the dye removal efficiency. The optimization was accomplished under a temperature and mixing control system (37?C) with different particle size of 300 and 600 ?m. Highest adsorption efficiencies were obtained at lower dye concentrations and lower weight of adsorbent. The adsorption time, more than 48 h, was found to have a negative effect on the removal efficiency due to secondary metabolites compounds. However, the adsorption time was found to have a positive effect at high dye concentrations and high adsorbent weight. The colour removal effi
... Show MoreThe importance of this research is to clarify the nature and the relationship between the indicators of financial policy and banking stability in Iraq, as well as to find a composite index reflects the state of banking stability in Iraq in order to provide an appropriate means to help policymakers in making appropriate decisions before the occurrence of financial crises.
Hence, the problem of research is that the fiscal policy has implications for the macro economy and does not rule out its impact on banking stability. Moreover, the central bank does not possess a single indicator that reflects the stability of the banking system, rather than the scattered indicators that depend o
... Show MoreThe aim of the research is to determine the impact of evaluation of investment projects after the preparation of investment budgets taking into consideration within the investment budgets the concept of competitive strategy, as the harmony between the preparation of investment budgets and competitive strategy will contribute to the success of economic unity and achieve profits well and achieve a competitive advantage. Strategies for economic units because the most important factor to them is the costs produced and the progress of the research problem is focused on "Is it possible to include a strategy of competition, especially within the investment budget when prepared The study concluded that the investment plan prepared by the
... Show MoreThe objective of the study: To diagnose the reality of the relationship between the fluctuations in world oil prices and their reflection on the trends of government spending on the various economic sectors.
The research found: that public expenditures contribute to the increase of national consumption through the purchase of consumer goods by the state for the performance of the state's duties or the payment of wages to employees in the public sector and thus have a direct impact on national consumption
The results of the standard tests showed that there is no common integration between the oil price fluctuations and the government expenditure on the security sector through the A
... Show MoreBackground Bloodstream infection (BSI) is a life-threatening condition caused by the presence of microorganisms, generally caused by a range of bacteria in the blood. Objectives The aim of this study was to evaluate the possible role of procalcitonin (PCT) and C-reactive protein (CRP) as biomarkers of pediatric BSI. Methodology The study was conducted on 150 blood samples collected from the patient who admitted to Children Welfare Teaching Hospital, Medical City, Baghdad. During the period from November 2020 to March 2021, ninety blood samples from them were positive culture and 60 blood samples were negative culture (control group). The isolates were identified depending on the morphological, microscopic examination, and biochemical tests.
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