In order to achieve optimal plant growth and production, essential nutrients must be readily available in adequate quantities and in a balanced proportion to give a good yield, especially broccoli which has health benefits that may not be found in many other plants. For this purpose, this experiment was carried out during the seasons 2019/2020 in the botanical garden of the Department of Biology, College of Science for Women, University of Baghdad, to study the effects of nitrogen and sulphur and their interaction on eight parameters reflecting the overall traits of vegetative growth, yield, and chlorophyll content of broccoli Brassica oleracea L. (var. italic JASSMINE F1 Hybrid). A factorial design with three replicates was used, each with 7 plants treated via foliar spraying. The first factor included three groups; control N0 (distill water spray), N1 (500 mg.l-1 nitrogen), and N2 (1000 mg.l-1 nitrogen). The second factor also included three groups; control S0 (distill water spray), S1 (500 mg.l-1 sulfur), and S2 (1000 mg.l-1 sulfur). We used Urea (CO(NH2)2) as a nitrogen source and zinc sulphate (ZnSO4) as a sulfur source. As for the treatment with nitrogen, the results revealed that N2 treatment caused the significantly highest values in all the studied traits, except for the plant height, where there was no significant difference between N1 and N2. As related to the treatment with sulphur, the results showed that S2 treatment resulted in the significantly highest values of leave area, leave dry weight, and root fresh weight. S2 also caused the highest values, but with no significant differences, of plant height, stem diameter and chlorophyll content index. S1 treatment, on the other hand, caused insignificantly higher values of leave number per plant and main curd weight. Based on the results of the interaction between nitrogen and sulfur, S1N2 treatment resulted in the significantly highest values as compared to all other treatments of all the studied traits, except for the plant height, root fresh weight, and main curd weight. The results presented here may facilitate improvements of Broccoli cultivation with suitable nutrient concentrations for sustainable agriculture. In conclusion, the present study comes up with the following: nitrogen and sulfur and their interaction enhance significantly the growth and production of broccoli.
This research aims to estimate production functions through which production relations, possibilities for production elements substitution, measurement of its substitution elasticity, and efficiency and distribution coefficients can be analyzed. This would be done through estimation of constant elasticity of substitution production function for agricultural companies in Iraq depending on data from Iraqi Stock Exchange reports of 2005-2016. The researcher had used panel data model and estimated its three models: the Pooled Regression Model (PRM), the Fixed Effect Model (FEM) and the Random Effect Model (REM). A comparison was made for theses three models using F, LM, Husman tests. Tests show that Fixed Effect Model (FEM) is the best
... Show MoreAggregate production planning (APP) is one of the most significant and complicated problems in production planning and aim to set overall production levels for each product category to meet fluctuating or uncertain demand in future. and to set decision concerning hiring, firing, overtime, subcontract, carrying inventory level. In this paper, we present a simulated annealing (SA) for multi-objective linear programming to solve APP. SA is considered to be a good tool for imprecise optimization problems. The proposed model minimizes total production and workforce costs. In this study, the proposed SA is compared with particle swarm optimization (PSO). The results show that the proposed SA is effective in reducing total production costs and req
... Show MoreBis-anthraquinones with a unique molecular backbone, (+)-2,2’-epicytoskyrin A (epi) and (+)-1,1′-bislunatin (bis), was produced by endophytic fungi Diaporthe sp GNBP-10 associated with Gambir plant (Uncaria gambier). Epi and bis possess robust antimicrobial activity toward various pathogens. This study focus on knowing the optimum condition of epi and bis production from Diaporthe sp GNBP-10. A series of culture media with various nutrient compositions was investigated in epi and bis production. The content of epi and bis was determined by measuring the area under the curve from TLC-densitometric (scanner) experiment. The linear regression analysis was then applied to obtain the results. The optimi
... Show MoreWhen the guard honey bees, Apis mellifera L., form a clump at the hive entrance or on the flight board, the oriental hornet, Vespa orientails L., either creeps toward the clump or hovers over it in order to take a bee. Once the hornet creeps, only few bees facing the hornet become alert, rock their heads and antennae, open their wings, and take a posture of defense. The rest of the clump stays listless without any signal of concern. However, the clump stays dense and the defending bees do not detach themselves neither from the rest of the clump nor from each other. For this reason, it is very difficult for the hornet to grab a bee unless the latter makes a “mistake” by detaching herself from other adjacent bees. If the hornet grabs s
... Show MoreThe study included the extraction of volatile oil from Mentha piperita which was 1.3 % in the leaves and flowers . Volatile oil of the Mentha piperita leaves had special aromatic odour, pale yellow color, slightly pungent taste . The specific gravity and refractive index were (0.9794) and ( 1.464) respectively. The inhibition activity of the Mentha piperita Volatile oil extracts were studied on some pathogenic microorganisms like Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella typhi, Escherichia coli, Proteus sp, and Klebsiella pneumoniae . The result showed that the volatile oil had an inhibition effect on the growth of all microorganisms, and it gave the higher inhibition effect on the growth of S. aureus in which the inhibition zone reached to 2
... Show MoreAbstract: Recently, there is increasing interest in using mode-division multipelexing (MDM) technique to enhace data rate transmission over multimode fibers. In this technique, each fiber mode is treated as a separate optical carrier to transfer its own data. This paper presents a broadband, compact, and low loss three-mode (de)multiplexer designed for C+L band using subwavelength grating (SWG) technology and built-in silicon-on-insulator SOI platform. SWG offers refractive index engineering for wider operating bandwidth and compact devices compared to conventional ones. The designed (de)multiplex deals with three modes (TE0, TE1, and TE2) and has a loss > -1 dB and crosstalk < −15 dB, and its operation c
... Show MoreExperimental and numerical investigations of the centrifugal pump performance at non-cavitating and cavitating flow conditions were carried out in the present study. Experiments were performed by applying a vacuum to a closed-loop system to investigate the effects of the net positive suction head available (NPSHa), flow rate, water temperature and pump speed on the centrifugal pump performance. Accordingly, many of the important parameters concerning cavitation phenomenon were calculated. Also, the noise which is accompanied by cavitation was measured. Numerical analysis was implemented for two phase flow (the water and its vapor) using a 2-D simulation by ANSYS FLUENT software to investigate the internal flow of centrifugal pump under c
... Show MoreThis quasi-experimental study investigated generative AI (GenAI) tools—Copilot for chemistry and GitHub Copilot for mathematics—on academic achievement and sustainable professional development among 160 undergraduates (40 experimental/control per department) at the University of Baghdad’s Ibn Al-Haitham College of Education for Pure Sciences (2024–2025). Non-random assignment controlled for covariates. Pre/post validated tests (α ≥ .85; 15 MCQ + 5 essay items) measured outcomes. ANOVA revealed significant gains for experimental groups (p < .001, η2 = .41, Cohen’s d = 0.72 [95% CI: 0.45–0.98]). Chemistry excelled in affective domains; mathematics in cognitive/skills. Findings affirm GenAI’s domain-specific efficacy, prov
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