This review focuses on conservation agriculture (CA) and its effects on increasing the soil’s resistance to erosion. CA involves minimum soil disturbance (minimum tillage/ no-till), diversified crop rotation, and maintenance of the soil cover to increase soil fertility and reduce erosion. CA reduces soil loss by up to 90% and water erosion by approximately 50 to 70% from runoff as it increases the health of the soil, yield of crops, and water-retention capacity of the soil by incorporating soil organic matter and promoting biodiversity. Crop rotation prevents the replenishment and depletion of soil nutrients by atmospheric fixation of nitrogen/biological nitrogen fixation. Controlled traffic farming (CTF) is a new strategy in which travel

This study was aimed to determine the effect of milk fortification with encapsulated and non-encapsulated iron on the physiochemical, rheological and sensory properties of the functional yoghurt. Different concentrations of capsulated ferrous sulphate 5, 7.5, 15 mg / 100ml milk were used and represented as T2,T3 and T4 treatments respectively, as well as the treatment with non-encapsulated iron 15 mg / 100 ml as T1 and control treatment (C) in which yoghurt was made from whole milk without iron addition. The physiochemical, rheological and sensory properties of the products were tested during storage period at a temperature ( 5 ± 1) ° C.

Semantic segmentation is an exciting research topic in medical image analysis because it aims to detect objects in medical images. In recent years, approaches based on deep learning have shown a more reliable performance than traditional approaches in medical image segmentation. The U-Net network is one of the most successful end-to-end convolutional neural networks (CNNs) presented for medical image segmentation. This paper proposes a multiscale Residual Dilated convolution neural network (MSRD-UNet) based on U-Net. MSRD-UNet replaced the traditional convolution block with a novel deeper block that fuses multi-layer features using dilated and residual convolution. In addition, the squeeze and execution attention mechanism (SE) and the s

When embankment is constructed on very soft soil, special construction methods are adopted. One of the techniques is a piled embankment. Piled (stone columns) embankments provide an economic and effective solution to the problem of constructing embankments over soft soils. This method can reduce settlements, construction time and cost. Stone columns provide an effective improvement method for soft soils under light structures such as rail or road embankments. The present work investigates the behavior of the embankment models resting on soft soil reinforced with stone columns. Model tests were performed with different spacing distances between stone columns and two lengths to diameter ratios of the stone columns, in addition to different

Integrating Renewable Energy (RE) into Distribution Power Networks (DPNs) is a choice for efficient and sustainable electricity. Controlling the power factor of these sources is one of the techniques employed to manage the power loss of the grid. Capacitor banks have been employed to control phantom power, improving voltage and reducing power losses for several decades. The voltage sag and the significant power losses in the Iraqi DPN make it good evidence to be a case study proving the efficiency enhancement by adjusting the RE power factor. Therefore, this paper studies a part of the Iraqi network in a windy and sunny region, the Badra-Zurbatya-11 kV feeder, in the Wasit governorate. A substation of hybrid RE sources is connected to this

الهدف من هذه الدراسة هو استخدام منهجية سطح الاستجابة (RSM) لتقييم تاثير الظروف التجريبية المختلفة على أزاله ليفوفلوكساسين (LVX) من المحاليل المائية عن طريق تقنيه التكتل الكهربائي (EC) مع اقطاب الفولاذ المقاوم للصدا. تم تحقيق عمليه التكتل الكهربائي بنجاح مع كفاءه أزاله 90 ٪. وفقا للنتائج التي تم الحصول عليها من تحليل الانحدار ، ويبين ان البيانات

Many cities suffer from the large spread of slums, especially the cities of the Middle East. The purpose of the paper is to study the reality of informal housing in Al-Barrakia and the most important problems that it suffers from. The paper also seeks to study the presence or absence of a correlation between urban safety indicators and urban containment indicators as one of the methods of developing and planning cities. This can be achieved through sustainable urban management. The slums are a source of many urban problems that threaten the security and safety of the residents and represent a focus for the concentration of crimes and drugs. The paper seeks to answer the following question: How can urban safety be improved through urban cont

Peer-Reviewed Journal

Many image processing and machine learning applications require sufficient image feature selection and representation. This can be achieved by imitating human ability to process visual information. One such ability is that human eyes are much more sensitive to changes in the intensity (luminance) than the color information. In this paper, we present how to exploit luminance information, organized in a pyramid structure, to transfer properties between two images. Two applications are presented to demonstrate the results of using luminance channel in the similarity metric of two images. These are image generation; where a target image is to be generated from a source one, and image colorization; where color information is to be browsed from o

Background:

Multiple sclerosis is a chronic disease believed to be the result of autoimmune disorders of the central nervous system, characterised by inflammation, demyelination, and axonal transection, affecting primarily young adults. Disease modifying therapies have become widely used, and the rapid development of these drugs highlighted the need to update our knowledge on their short- and long-term safety profile.

Objective:

The study aim is to evaluate the impact of disease-modifying treatments on thyroid functions and thyroid autoantibodies with subsequent effects on the outcome of the disease.

Materials and Methods:

A retro prospective study

Carbon fibre reinforced polymers are widely used to strengthen steel structural elements. These structural elements are normally subjected to static, dynamic and fatigue loadings during their life-time. A number of studies have focused on the characteristics of CFRP sheets bonded to steel members under static, dynamic and fatigue loadings. However, there is a gap in understanding the bonding behaviour between CFRP laminates and steel members under impact loading. This paper shows the effect of different load rates from quasi-static to 300 × 103 mm/min on this bond. Two types of CFRP laminate, CFK 150/2000 and CFK 200/2000, were used to strengthen steel joints using Araldite 420 epoxy. The results show a significant bond strength enhancemen

This work concerns the thermal and sound insulation as well as the mechanical properties of polymer matrix composite reinforced with glass fibers. These fibers may have dangerous effect during handling, for example the glass fibers might cause some damage to the eyes, lungs and even skin. For this reason the present work, investigates the behavior of polymer composite reinforced with natural fibers (Plant fibers) as replacement to glass fibers. Unsaturated Polyester resin was used as matrix material reinforced with two types of fibers, one of them is artificial (Glass fibers) and the other type is natural (Jute, Fronds Palm and Reed Fibers) by hand lay-up technique. All fibers are untreated with any chemical solvent. The Percentage of mi

Background: COVID-19 is an ongoing disease that caused, and still causes, many challenges for humanity. In fact, COVID-19 death cases reached more than 4.5 million by the end of August 2021, although an improvement in the medical treatments and pharmaceutical protocols was obtained, and many vaccines were released. Objective: To, statistically, analyze the data of COVID-19 patients at Alshifaa Healthcare Center (Baghdad, Iraq). Methods: In this work, a statistical analysis was conducted on data included the total number, positive cases, and negative cases of people tested for COVID-19 at the Alshifaa Healthcare Center/Baghdad for the period 1 September – 31 December 2020. The number of people who got the test was 1080, where 424 w

The depletion of petroleum reserves and increasing environmental concerns have driven the development of eco-friendly asphalt binders. This research investigates the performance of natural asphalt (NA) modified with waste engine oil (WEO) as a sustainable alternative to conventional petroleum asphalt (PA). The study examines NA modified with 10%, 20%, and 30% WEO by the weight of asphalt to identify an optimal blend ratio that enhances the binder’s flexibility and workability while maintaining high-temperature stability. Comprehensive testing was conducted, including penetration, softening point, viscosity, ductility, multiple stress creep recovery (MSCR), linear amplitude sweep (LAS), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), F

The study of biopolymers and their derivative materials had received a considerable degree of attention from researchers in the preparation of novel material. Biopolymers and their derivatives have a wide range of applications as a result of their bio-compatibility, bio-degradability and non-toxicity. In this paper, chitosan reacted with different aldehydes(2,4 –dichloro- benzaldehyde or 2-methyl benzaldehyde), different ketones (4-bromoacetophenone or 3-aminoacetophenone) to produce chitosan schiff base (1-4) . Chitosan schiff base (1-4) reacted with glutaric acid or adipic acid in acidic media in distilled water according to the steps of Fischer and Speier to produce compounds (5-12)

The ability of beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) to uptake three pharmaceuticals (diclofenac, mefenamic acid and metronidazole) from two types of soil (clay and sandy soil) was investigated in this study to explore the human exposure to these pharmaceuticals via the consumption of beans. A pot experiment was conducted with beans plants which were grown in two types of soil for six weeks under controlled conditions. During the experiment period, the soil pore water was collected weekly and the concentrations of the test compounds in soil pore water as well as in plant organs (roots, stems and leaves) were weekly determined.
The results showed that the studied pharmaceuticals were detected in all plant tissues; their concentration

Background: Oocytes are susceptible to alterations in the various fatty acid contents of follicular fluid (FF), which may influence maturation and embryogenesis. Different fatty acids exert various effects on intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), which needs further studies to uncover the involved mechanisms. Objectives: To assess FF fatty acids in women undergoing ICSI and to correlate them with ICSI parameters, namely the total count of aspirated oocytes, oocyte maturation rate, fertilization rate and percentage of good-quality embryos. Methods: Fifty women undergoing ICSI were enrolled in this cross-sectional study. FF samples were collected during oocyte retrieval and were analyzed for fatty acids using gas chromatography. Fa