This study aimed to determine the radioactivity and radiation hazard indicators of rice samples potentially for human consumption. Gamma spectroscopy was used to calculate the specific activity of natural and artificial radionuclides (238U, 232Th, 40K, and 137Cs) in local and imported rice samples collected from local markets in Baghdad Governorate, Iraq, in addition to various radiological hazard indices. The radionuclide concentrations in the samples varied from 2.123 ± 1.457 Bq/kg to 13.032 ± 3.610 Bq/kg for 238U, 2.906 ± 1.705 Bq/kg to 17.290 ± 4.158 Bq/kg for 232Th, 55.161 ± 7.427 Bq/kg to 155.897 ± 12.486 Bq/kg for 40K, and 0.840 ± 0.916 Bq/kg to 5.473 ± 2.339 Bq/kg for 137Cs. The average results for the radiological hazard indices were 24.292 ± 4.855 Bq/kg, 11.579 nGy/h, 0.378 nGy/h, 0.057 mSv/y, 0.014 mSv/y, 0.181, 0.082, and 0.066 for Raeq, Dγ, Dγ for 137Cs, AEDEin, AEDEout, Iγ, Hin, and Hex, respectively. The values obtained from the current study indicate that the concentrations of radionuclides and the hazard indices in the rice samples studied are less than globally permissible limits. Therefore, rice consumption is safe from a radiological perspective and does not threaten human health.
Diabetes mellitus type II is a disorder of metabolism and complex diseases affected by genetic environmental factors and associated with inflammation. The symptoms of type II diabetes develop gradually, which are associated with increased blood concentration of marker of the endothelial inflammatory factors. The expression of adhesion molecules, including E-selectin, intracellular adhesion molecule-1(ICAM-1) and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) on the surface of vascular endothelial cells to help leukocyte stick to other surrounding tissues. Many researchers have made attempts to determine the significance of particular ABO phenotype for the susceptibility to diseases. Many reports show a strong association with the ABO blood grou
... Show MoreDue to economic reasons or need for environmental conservatism or also preserve the natural resources; there has been an increasing shift towards the use of reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) materials in the pavement construction industry. Therefore, use the Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) has been enormously increased in pavement construction and has been become common practice in many countries. Nevertheless, this is a relatively new concept in Iraq, and has to be remarked that is not used RAP in the production of HMA and this valuable material is mostly degraded. For this purpose, the reclaimed materials were collected from deteriorated pavement segments. The components of asphalt mixtures consist of: two asphalt penetration grades (40-5
... Show MoreAutomatic license plate recognition (ALPR) used for many applications especially in security applications, including border control. However, more accurate and language-independent techniques are still needed. This work provides a new approach to identifying Arabic license plates in different formats, colors, and even including English characters. Numbers, characters, and layouts with either 1-line or 2-line layouts are presented. For the test, we intend to use Iraqi license plates as there is a wide range of license plate styles written in Arabic, Kurdish, and English/Arabic languages, each different in style and color. This variety makes it difficult for recent traditional license plate recognition systems and algorithms to recogn
... Show MoreGovernment expenditure represents one of the controlling financial policies in the economic affairs and management of the economic cycle in order to achieve price stability, raise the rate of output growth and decrease the level of unemployment. The price stability represents one of the macroeconomic goals that all countries seek without exception, regardless of the economic philosophy adopted by each country; in addition to this is raising the productive capacity and reaching the actual output to the level of the expected output, that is, the level of output related to the natural unemployment rate or what is sometimes called the Non-inflationary unemployment rate. The restriction of government expenditure (G=T+∆B/iP+∆M/P) is
... Show MoreCoral reef area in northwest of the Arabian Gulf was investigated for mineralogy and geochemistry to throw lights on such unique Iraqi Marine Environment; six specimens of two main species of coral reefs, Platygyra pini Chevalier, 1975 and Octocoral Menella were collected at two sites. While eight samples of the surrounding sediments are chosen from other two sites. The mineralogy is determined by XRD, and reveals that calcite, low magnesium-calcite, and aragonite are the main minerals that comprise the Octocoral Menella in site 1, whilst aragonite and calcite are dominate in the P. pini coral reef at site 4.
The non–carbonate fractions indicate that thes
... Show MoreThis study provides valuable information on secondary microbial infections in H1N1 patients compared to Seasonal Influenza in Iraqi Patients. Nasopharynx swabs were collected from (12 ) patients infected with Seasonal influenza (11 from Baghdad and 1 Patient from south of Iraq) ,and ( 22 ) samples from patients with 2009 H1N1 ( 20 from Baghdad and 2 from south of Iraq). The results show that the patients infected with 2009 H1N1 Virus were younger than healthy subjects and those infected with seasonal influenza. And the difference reached to the level of significance (p< 0.01) compared with healthy subjects.Two cases infected with 2009 H1N1 virus (9.1%) were fro
... Show MoreThe current research includes a look at the participation of Iraqi women in the combat roles, which starts from the assumption of the democratic transition that must be led - in one of its aspect - until the army or the military foundation to become a "citizen army," the matter which is represented a demand increasingly needed in the experiences of Democratic transformation that facing serious security challenges such as in Iraq, this means that the army or security foundation - which is involved in counterterrorism - should not reflect a specific group in society , and hence embody the most important democratic principles, which are equality and equal opportunities, especially gender equality. On the other hand, the influence of armed conf
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