Background Cadmium (Cd), one of the most abundant heavy metals, is extremely toxic to both humans and animals. hIt is well known that zinc (Zn) administration reduces Cd-induced toxicity and that metallothioneins can have a protective effect in biological systems to mitigate Cd toxicity. Objective The aim of the current study to determine if Zn administration affected the induction of MT-1 and MT-2 in the liver tissue in mice exposed to Cd. Materials and methods Metallothionein protein (MT) level in the tissue of male mice were detected using the anion -exchang high-performance liquid chromatography coupled (HPLC)assay and immunohistochemical staining. Results Single treatment to zinc or cadmium increase the level of MT in the liver, but zi

The undertaken study includes investigating the performance and effluent characteristics of the treatment plant of Al-Doura refinery. Influent concentrations for some important contaminants, which are TDS, oil and grease, TSS, COD, BOD, and turbidity were 2595 mg/L, 13934 mg/L, 466.45 mg/L, 2538.9 mg/L, 1739.2 mg/L, and 89.18 NTU, respectively, while the effluent concentrations were 1337.8 mg/L, 0.53mg/L, 21.7mg/L, 25.45 mg/L, 17.81 mg/L, and 7.08 NTU, respectively, giving removal efficiencies of 44.47%, 99.99%, 94.4%, 98.96%, 98.96% and 92.05%, respectively. All these results indicate that Al-Doura wastewater treatment plant was efficient in removing contaminants according to Iraqi and EPA specifications. Hence, the second part of this

     This research studies the petrography, mineralogy and diagenetic history of the Sarmord Formation at Sulaimani and Erbil Governorates in Northeastern Iraq. The Sarmord Formation consists mainly of alternated yellowish to bluish gray bedded marly limestone with yellowish gray soft marl beds. Petrographic investigations of the marly limestones were based on 270 thin sections and show that the skeletal grains include bioclasts, foraminiferas, radiolarians, calcispheres, echinoderms, ostracods and cephalopods. The groundmass is composed of micrite with light brown to gray colors, rich in organic materials and iron oxides. The X-ray diffraction analysis of the marls revealed that the abundant clay minerals in the Sarmord Formation ar

The shape dimensions and characteristics of pollen grains and seeds have importance in distinguish among species. Therefore, the present study included morphological characteristics of pollen grains and seeds for eight species belonging to eight genera of the family Brassicaceae and these species are: Alliaria petiolata (M.Bieb) Cavara et Grand, Aubrieta parviflora Boiss, Cardamine hirsuta L., Crambe orientalis L., Eromobium aegyptiacum (Spreng.) Schweinf.et Asch.ex Boiss., Parlatoria cakiloidea Boiss., Sterigmostemum sulphureum (Banksetsol.) Bornm. Neotorularia torulosa (Desf.) Hedge & J. Leonard. The pollen grains were studied in morphological and full measurements were taken, the study showed that the majority of the pollen grai

The cytotoxic effect of catechol was examined in two human cancer cell lines, Epidermoid larynx carcinoma (Hep- 2), Cerebral glioblastoma multiforme (AMGM-5) and Murine mammary adenocarcinomacell (AMN3) treated with half concentrations of catechol (1000, 500, 250, 125, 62.5 and 32.25 μM) for 72 hr. The get hold of results showed catechol have a toxic effect of the cell viability of three types of cell lines after 72h of exposure, the toxicity was dependent on catechol concentrations and/or autoxidation for quinines formation, there were a marked decreased of cell viability in a dose dependent manner in all cell line types. Inhibition concentration of catechol for 50% of cell viability (IC50) were calculated, they were at 581.5 μM, 478 μM

     In this paper, some estimators for the unknown shape parameter and reliability function of Basic Gompertz distribution have been obtained, such as Maximum likelihood estimator and Bayesian estimators under Precautionary loss function using Gamma prior and Jefferys prior. Monte-Carlo simulation is conducted to compare mean squared errors (MSE) for all these estimators for the shape parameter and integrated mean squared error (IMSE's) for comparing the performance of the Reliability estimators. Finally, the discussion is provided to illustrate the results that summarized in tables.

The genus Latrodectus Walckenaer, 1805 (Araneae: Theridiidae) is a worldwide distribute genus (Graudins et al., 2001), it includes a group of species commonly referred to as widow spiders. It's considered a taxonomically complex genus as the status of several forms had not been properly evaluated and specific boundaries are not well defined or understood (Levi, 1959; 1967; Garb et al., 2001), therefore, in multiple cases, populations has been uncritically referred to as different taxa. Discriminating between Latrodectus species using morphology has always been problematic (Levi, 1983), it is difficult taxonomically and readily separated from members of other Theridiid genera (Mirshamsi, 2005). The Genus Asagena Sundevall, 1833 was revalidat

The raw material soil of Al-Sowera factory quarry (quarry soil and mixture) used for building brick industry was tested mineralogically, geochemically and geotechnically. Mineral components of soil are characterized by Clay minerals (Palygoriskite and chlorite) and nonclay minerals like calcite, quratz, feldspar, gypsum and halite. The raw material is deficient in SiO2, Al2O3, K2O, Fe2O3 and MgO, while enriched in CaO. Loss on ignition and Na2O are in suitable level and appear to be concordant with the standard. Grain size analyses show that the decreasing sand and clay, and increasing silt ratio in both quarry soil and mixture caused decreasing in strength of brick during molding and after firing. The quarry soil is characterized by high p