ABSTRACTBackground: In Iraq smoking is a common habit in both the urban and rural areas. There are many respiratory diseases like chronic bronchitis, bronchial carcinoma and emphysema which are related to chronic tobacco smoking.Objectives: To study the effect of tobacco smoking on the respiratory system, to establish a correlation between chronic tobacco smoking and its effects on the parameters which were studied and to create awareness in tobacco smokers about the effects of tobacco on their healthMethod: In this study 100 male subjects, 50 chronic smokers and 50 non- smokers were assessed for their pulmonary function tests by using a computerized spirometer.Results: Almost all their respiratory parameters were significantly reduced.

Information security is a crucial factor when communicating sensitive information between two parties. Steganography is one of the most techniques used for this purpose. This paper aims to enhance the capacity and robustness of hiding information by compressing image data to a small size while maintaining high quality so that the secret information remains invisible and only the sender and recipient can recognize the transmission. Three techniques are employed to conceal color and gray images, the Wavelet Color Process Technique (WCPT), Wavelet Gray Process Technique (WGPT), and Hybrid Gray Process Technique (HGPT). A comparison between the first and second techniques according to quality metrics, Root-Mean-Square Error (RMSE), Compression-

Fractal image compression gives some desirable properties like fast decoding image, and very good rate-distortion curves, but suffers from a high encoding time. In fractal image compression a partitioning of the image into ranges is required. In this work, we introduced good partitioning process by means of merge approach, since some ranges are connected to the others. This paper presents a method to reduce the encoding time of this technique by reducing the number of range blocks based on the computing the statistical measures between them . Experimental results on standard images show that the proposed method yields minimize (decrease) the encoding time and remain the quality results passable visually.

This study was conducted to explore the effects of using ionized water on the productive and physiological performance of Japanese quails (Coturnix japonica). Our study was conducted at a private farm from 20th April, 2016 to 13th July, 2016 (84 d). One hundred 42-day-old Japanese quail chicks were used, divided randomly into 5 groups with 4 replicates. Treatments consisted in a control group (T1 - normal water:), alkaline (T2 - pH 8 and T3 - pH 9), and acidic water (T4 - pH 6 and T5 - pH 5). All birds were fed a balanced diet of energy and protein. The egg production ratio, egg weight, cumulative number of eggs, egg mass, feed conversion ratio, productivity per hen per week, and effects on plasma lipids, uric acid, glucose, calcium, and ph

tA novel synthesis procedure is presented for preparing triethanolamine-treated graphene nanoplatelets(TEA-GNPs) with different specific areas (SSAs). Using ultrasonication, the covalently functionalizedTEA-GNPs with different weight concentrations and SSAs were dispersed in distilled water to prepareTEA-GNPs nanofluids. A simple direct coupling of GNPs with TEA molecules is implemented to synthesizestable water-based nanofluids. The effectiveness of the functionalization procedure was validated by thecharacterization and morphology tests, i.e., FTIR, Raman spectroscopy, EDS, and TEM. Thermal conduc-tivity, dispersion stability, and rheological properties were investigated. Using UV–vis spectrometer, ahighest dispersion stability of 0.876

Pseudomonas aeruginosa readily binds to different kind of abiotic surfaces and form biofilm. The ability of the bacterial species to form biofilm onto polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is associated with several economic, health and environmental problems. The effect of kind of water on ability of this bacterium to form biofilm is scanty in literature. In present study, the ability of different environmental isolates of P. aeruginosa to form biofilm onto polystyrene microtiter plate was evaluated. Furthermore, the effect of waters that collected from different sources on biofilm formation of this bacterium onto PVC was studied. Spectrophotometric method was used to check the ability of bacteria to form biofilm and evaluated the role of waters onto a

Biosorpion of lead (Pb), Cadmium (Cd) and Nickl(Ni) by dried biomass of Chara sp. for sample of BMP was used as alternative approach of conventional method. The range of removal percentages was between 92-97%, 70-98.7% and 46.6-96.6% for Pb, Cd and Ni respectively at 3h.Treatment time, with 300-500 mg dried weight from Chara sp. powder at pH 4, with 60 rpm at shaker. FTIR analysis showed the active groups which are responsible for sequestration of heavy metals represented by carboxyl, hydroxyl alkyl, amine and amide. The Biosorption equilibrium experiment for elements showed that the highest sorption percentage for three elements was, Pb 96.6% after 30 minute, for Cd was 100% after 15 minute and 40% to Ni after 75 minute, while the biosorp