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.
In this work, analytical study for simulating a Fabry-Perot bistable etalon (F-P cavity) filled with a dispersive optimized nonlinear optical material (Kerr type) such as semiconductors Indium Antimonide (InSb). Because of a trade off between the etalon finesse values and driving terms, an optimization procedures have been done on the InSb etalon/CO laser parameters, using critical switching irradiance (Ic) via simulation systems of optimization procedures of optical cavity. in order to achieve the minimum switching power and faster switching time, the optimization parameters of the finesse values and driving terms on optical bistability and switching dynamics must be studied.
... Show MoreLow bearing capacity of weak soil under shallow footings represents one of construction problems.
Kaolin with water content converges to liquid limit used to represent the weak soil under shallow
footing prototype. On the other hand, fly ash, which can be defined as undesirable industrial waste
material, was used to improve the bearing capacity of the soft soil considered in this research. The soft
soil was prepared in steel box (36×36×25) cm and shallow square footing prototype (6×6) cm were
used .Group of physical and chemical tests were conducted on kaolin and fly ash. The soft soil was
improved by a bed of compacted fly ash placed under the footing with dimensions equal to that of
footing but with different de
The study attempts to measure the level of shyness; the level of psychological isolation; to identify the relationship between shyness and psychological isolation; and to identify the differences between shyness and psychological isolation among first-intermediate students. To this end, a random sample comprised (187) male and female students was chosen for the academic year (2016-2017) from Baghdad \ Al-Rasafa. To measure the shyness and psychological isolation, the researcher designed two scales: one to measure the shyness composed of (37) items divided into four domains; and the other to measure the psychological isolation made of (56) items divided into three domains. The study concluded that the sample has a medium level of shyness;
... Show MoreThis studies deals with investigated the potential of a Iraqi bentonite clay for the adsorption of bromo phenol red dye from contaminated water. Impulse adsorption experiments were performed. The contact time influence of initial dye concentration, temperature, pH, ionic strength, partical size adsorbent and adsorbent dosage on bromo phenol red adsorption are investigated in a series of batch adsorption experiments. Adsorption equilibrium data were analyzed and described by the Freundlich, Langmuir and temkin isotherms equations. Thermodynamic parameters inclusive the Gibbs free energy (∆G• ), enthalpy (∆H• ), and entropy (∆S• ), were also calculated. These parameters specified that adsorption of bromo phenol red onto bentonite
... Show MoreLanguage as a means of communication has long been the concern of many conversation analysts in their studies such as: Sacks et al. (1974), Schegloff et al. (1977), Duncan (1972), Grice (1975) and Burton (1980). Burton has attempted analyzing the first ten transitions of the play “The Dumb Waiter” for mere a presentation of her approach. This paper aims at analyzing the conversational structure of forum on the subject of literary fiction and genre fiction by applying Burton’s model (1980) of analysis to answer the question to what extent this model is applicable in analyzing the presented text. The findings of the investigation have proved the applicability of the structure of conversation formulated by Burton (1980) in her model wit
... Show MoreSphingolipids (SLs) are major structural constituents of eukaryotes, including the kinetoplastid parasite Leishmania. SLs are important for cellular trafficking and signaling and participate in different cell functions, such as, differentiation and cell death (apoptosis). In this study we have investigated the viability of Leishmania major wild type (W.T) and L. major knockout LmLCB2, one of two subunits of serine palmitoyl transferase (SPT) after treatment with myriocin (potent inhibitor of SPT) in order to detect the survival and proliferation of the parasites in vitro. This is to focus on the de novo sphingolipids biosynthesis pathway in both Leishmania wild type which can synthesize SPT and knockout Leishmania which genetically ablated
... Show MoreThis study aims to simulate and assess the hydraulic characteristics and residual chlorine in the water supply network of a selected area in Al-Najaf City using WaterGEMS software. Field and laboratory work were conducted to measure the pressure heads and velocities, and water was sampled from different sites in the network and then tested to estimate chlorine residual. Records and field measurements were utilized to validate WaterGEMS software. Good agreement was obtained between the observed and predicted values of pressure with RMSE range between 0.09–0.17 and 0.08–0.09 for chlorine residual. The results of the analysis of water distribution systems (WDS) during maximum demand
In this paper, an estimate has been made for parameters and the reliability function for Transmuted power function (TPF) distribution through using some estimation methods as proposed new technique for white, percentile, least square, weighted least square and modification moment methods. A simulation was used to generate random data that follow the (TPF) distribution on three experiments (E1 , E2 , E3) of the real values of the parameters, and with sample size (n=10,25,50 and 100) and iteration samples (N=1000), and taking reliability times (0< t < 0) . Comparisons have been made between the obtained results from the estimators using mean square error (MSE). The results showed the
... Show MoreIn this work an experimental simulation is made to predict the performance of steady-state natural heat convection along heated finned vertical base plate to ambient air with different inclination angles and configurations of fin array. Two types of fin arrays namely vertical fins array and V-fins array on heated vertical base plate are used with different heights and spaces. The influence of inclination angle of the plate , configuration of fins array and fin geometrical parameters such as fin height and fin spacing on the temperature distribution, base convection heat transfer coefficient and average Nusselt number have been plotted and discussed. The experimental data are correlated to a formula between average Nusselt number versus R
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