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 Minnesota) over three years. We measured vetch cover crop effects on a suite of soil health indicators, including potentially mineralizable nitrogen (PMN), permanganate oxidizable carbon, and microbial biomass. Preliminary results suggest that vetch effects on PMN were highly variable. Soil mineral N, meanwhile, was often lower in the vetch treatment than in a fertilized control, both in spring and in fall. While further work on vetch effects on crop yields is needed, our results suggest that even legume cover crops such as vetch have the potential to reduce nitrate leaching.
Soil fertility is a crucial factor in measuring soil quality, it indicates the extent to which soil can support plant life. Soil fertility is measured by the amount of macro and micronutrients, pH, etc. Soil nutrients are depleted after each harvest and therefore must be added. To maintain soil nutrient levels, fertilizer is added to the soil. Adding fertilizer in the precise amount is a matter of great importance because excess or insufficient application can harm plant life and reduce productivity. The use of modern technology is a solution to this problem. Although automated techniques for sowing, weeding, crop harvesting, etc. have been proposed and implemented, none of the techniques are aimed to maintaining soil fertility. The study a
... Show MoreIn this research, the program SEEP / W was used to compute the value of seepage through the homogenous and non-homogeneous earth dam with known dimensions. The results show that the relationship between the seepage and water height in upstream of the dam to its length for saturated soil was nonlinear when the dam is homogenous. For the non-homogeneous dam, the relationship was linear and the amount of seepage increase with the height of water in upstream to its length. Also the quantity of seepage was calculated using the method of (Fredlund and Xing, 1994) and (Van Genuchten, 1980) when the soil is saturated – unsaturated, the results referred to that the higher value of seepage when the soil is saturated and the lowe
... Show MoreRecently, a great rise in the population and fast manufacturing processes were noticed. These processes release significant magnitudes of waste. These wastes occupied a notable ground region, generating big issues for the earth and the environment. To enhance the geotechnical properties of fine-grained soil, a sequence of research projects in the lab were conducted to analyze the impacts of adding sludge waste (SW). The tests were done on both natural and mixed soil with SW at various proportions (2%, 4%, 6%, 8%, and 10%) based on the dry mass of the soil used. The experiments conducted focused on consistency, compaction, and shear strength. With the addition of 10% of SW, the values of LL and PI decreased by 29.7% and 3
... Show MoreIn the early 90s military operations and United Nations Special Commission “UNSCOM” teams have been destroyed the past Iraqi chemical program. Both operations led an extensive number of scattered remnants of contaminated areas. The quantities of hazardous materials, incomplete destructed materials, and toxic chemicals were sealed in two bunkers. Deficiency of appropriate destruction technology led to spreading the contamination around the storage site. This paper aims to introduce the environmental detection of the contamination in the storage site area using geospatial analysis technique. The environmental contamination level of nutrients and major ions such as sulphate (SO4), potassium (K), sodium (Na), magnesi
... Show MoreIn order to take measures in controlling soil erosion it is required to estimate soil loss over area of interest. Soil loss due to soil erosion can be estimated using predictive models such as Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE). The accuracy of these models depends on parameters that are used in equations. One of the most important parameters in equations used in both of models is (C) factor that represents effects of vegetation and other land covers. Estimating land cover by interpretation of remote sensing imagery involves Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), an indicator that shows vegetation cover. The aim of this study is estimate (C) factor values for Part of Baghdad city using NDVI derived from satellite Image of Landsat-7
... Show MoreThe study presents the test results of stabilizing gypseous soil embankment obtained from
Al- Faluja university Campus at Al-Ramady province. The laboratory investigation was divided
into three phases, The physical and chemical properties, the optimum liquid asphalt (emulsion)
requirements (which are manufactured in Iraq) were determined by using one dimensional
unconfined compression strength test.in the first phase , The optimum fluid content was 11%
(6% of emulsion with 5% water content).. At phase two, the effect of Aeration technique was
investigated using both direct shear and permeability test. At phase three for the case of static
load , the pure soil embankment model under dry test condition was investigated
the research was exposed to a study the importance of the role of the supportive entities in providing the useful information to the tax administration and their ability to extend the level of the tax base of taxpayers, through the improvement of the tax payers determination and their tax settle for the purpose of increasing the tax revenue, and shed light on the legal evidence through which these entities become officially assigned to perform a supplementary task to the General Committee for Taxes GCT, to help it to perform its task efficiently, and to study the reasons of the weak cooperation of the supportive entities and their reluctance to provide useful information which leads to limiting the tax base.
The research data hav
... Show MoreBackground: Orthodontic tooth movement is characterized by tissue reactions, which consist of an inflammatory response in periodontal ligament and followed by bone remodeling in the periodontium depending on the forces applied. These processes trigger the secretion of various proteins and enzymes into the saliva.The purpose of this study was to evaluate the activity of alkaline phosphatase (ALP) in saliva during orthodontic tooth movement using different magnitude of continuous orthodontic forces. Materials and Methods: Thirty orthodontic patients (12 males and 18 females) aged 17-23 years with class II division I malocclusion all requiring bilateral maxillary first premolar extractions were randomly divided into three groups according to t
... Show MoreCommunication skills are essential for health professionals to achieve a positive relationship with patients, improving their health and quality of life. Communication is the foundation for obtaining medical history and conveying a diagnosis and treatment plan.
To assess the knowledge, practice of communication skills among primary care physicians, to find out any barriers related to the communication skills, and the association between the studied variables with knowledge and practice of communicati