Activities associated with mining of uranium have generated significant quantities of waste materials containing uranium and other toxic metals. A qualitative and quantitative study was performed to assess the situation of nuclear pollution resulting from waste of drilling and exploration left on the surface layer of soil surrounding the abandoned uranium mine hole located in the southern of Najaf province in Iraq state. To measure the specific activity, twenty five surface soil samples were collected, prepared and analyzed by using gamma- ray spectrometer based on high counting efficiency NaI(Tl) scintillation detector. The results showed that the specific activities in Bq/kg are 37.31 to 1112.47 with mean of 268.16, 0.28 to 18.57 with mean of 6.68 and 132.25 to 678.33 with mean of 277.49 for 238U, 232Th and 40K respectively. Based on these values, radium equivalent activity in Bq/kg and absorbed dose rate one meter above the ground surface nGy/h were calculated and found to be vary 52.72 to 1189.84 and from 25.02 to 553.01. The indoor and outdoor annual effective dose rate in mSv/y ranged from 0.12 to 2.71 and from 0.03 to 0.67 respectively. To evaluate the dangerous of the study area, the external (Hex) and internal (Hin) hazard indexes are calculated and found to be ranged 0.14 to 3.21 and from 0.24 to 6.22. For the purpose of assessing the seriousness of the study area, results were compared with the world wide average. This comparison indicated that the study area is not safe from the radiological protection point view.
The hydrolysis of urea by the enzyme urease is significant for increasing the irroles in human pathogenicity, biocementation, soil fertilizer, and subsequently in soil improvement. This study devoted to the isolation of urease from urea-rich soil samples collected from seven different locations. Isolation of the various bacterial species was conducted using nutrient agar. The identity of isolated urease was based on morphological characteristics and standard microbiological and biochemical procedures. The urease producing strains of bacteria were obtained using the urease hydrolysis test. The bacterial isolates produced from soil samples collected from different environments and treat
The placement of buildings and structures on/or adjacent to slopes is possible, but this poses a danger to the structure due to failures that occur in slopes. Therefore, a solution or improvement should be determined for these issues of the collapse of the structure as a result of the failure of the slopes. A laboratory model has been built to test the impact of some variables on the bearing capacity factor. The variables include the magnitude of static axial load applied at the center of footing, the depth of embedment, the spacing between geogrid reinforcement layer and the numbering of the geogrid sheet under the footing, the inclination angle of slope clayey soil (β), the spacing between the footing's edge and the slope's end (b/H). Th
... Show MoreIn this study, the relationship between the bare soil temperature with respect to its salinity is presented, the bare soil feature is considered only by eliminating all other land features by classifying the site location by using the support vector machine algorithm, in the same time the salinity index that calculated from the spectral response from the satellite bands is calibrated using empirical salinity value calculated from field soil samples. A 2D probability density function is used to analyze the relationship between the temperature rising from the minimum temperature (from the sunrise time) due to the solar radiation duration tell the time of the satellite capturing the scene image and the calibrated salinity index is presented. T
... Show MoreGypseous soil is considered as a problematic soil for embankment construction, however, implementation of emulsified asphalt as a stabilization agent could be a proper solution for enhancing its properties as a subgrade soil. In this work, the sustainability of asphalt stabilized soil has been assessed in terms of its resistance to cyclic (freezing-thawing) and (heating-cooling) processes. Specimens have been prepared at optimum fluid content (moisture and emulsion) and tested under direct shear stresses while subjected to 30 cycles of (freezing-thawing) and (heating-cooling). Both of dry and soaked testing conditions have been implemented. Data have been observed after each 10 cycles, and compared with that of reference mix. It was conclud
... Show MoreWater flow into unsaturated porous media is governed by the Richards’ partial differential equation expressing the mass conservation and Darcy’s laws. The Richards’ equation may be written in three forms,where the dependent variable is pressure head or moisture content, and the constitutive relationships between water content and pressure head allow for conversion of one form into the other. In the present paper, the “moisture-based" form of Richards’ equation is linearized by applying Kirchhoff’s transformation, which
combines the soil water diffusivity and soil water content. Then the similarity method is used to obtain the analytical solution of wetting front position. This exact solution is obtained by means of Lie’s
The aim of this research work is to study the effect of stabilizing gypseous soil, which covers
vast areas in the middle, west and south parts of Iraq, using liquid asphalt on its strength properties
to be used as a base course layer replacing the traditional materials of coarse aggregate and broken
stones which are scarce at economical prices and hauling distances.
Gypseous soil brought from Al-Ramadi City, west of Iraq, with gypsum content of 66.65%,
medium curing cutback asphalt (MC-30), and hydrated lime are used in this study.
The conducted tests on untreated and treated gypseous soil with different percentages of medium
curing cutback asphalt (MC-30), water, and lime were: unconfined compression strength, and o
Ex-situ bioremediation of 2,4-D herbicide-contaminated soil was studied using a slurry bioreactor operate at aerobic conditions. The performance of the slurry bioreactor was tested for three types of soil (sand, sandy loam and clay) contaminated with different concentration of 2,4-D, 200,300and500mg/kg soil. Sewage sludge was used as an inexpensive source of microorganisms which is available in large quantities in wastewater treatment plants. The results show that all biodegradation experiments demonstrated a significant decreases in 2,4-D concentration in the tested soils. The degradation efficiency in the slurry bioreactor decreases as the initial concentration of 2,4-D in the soils increases.A 100 % removal was achieved at initial con
... Show MoreThe change in project cost, or cost growth, occurs from many factors, some of which are related to soil problem conditions that may occurs during construction and/or during site investigation period. This paper described a new soil improvement method with a minimum cost solution by using polymer fiber materials having a length of (3 cm) in both directions and (2.5 mm) in thickness, distributed in uniform medium dense .
sandy soil at different depths (B, 1.5B and 2B) below the footings. Three square footings has been used (5,7.5 and 10 cm) to carry the above investigation by using lever arm loading system design for such purposes.
These fibers were distributed from depth of (0.1B) below the footing base down to the investigated dep
Background Depression is one of the most common medical illnesses worldwide. Medical students during their training will be subjected to many stressors, both mentally and emotionally. Objectives Assess the prevalence of depressive symptoms among medical students and to identify any association between depressive symptoms and some socio-demographic factors.