The cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon) is a North American native fruit and contains a very wide variety of phytochemicals, which has several beneficial effects on humans. Aim: The study was designed to assess the protective effect of cranberry fruit extract on selected genotoxic parameters induced by cisplatin in mice’s bone marrow. Methods: 56 male albino mice were randomLy divided into two equal numbers (28 mice) for each part of the study [Part one: for the evaluation of chromosomal aberrations and the mitotic index; and Part two: for the evaluation of micronucleus index]; and for each part, mice were randomly divided into 4 groups: Group I [negative Control/orally-administered normal saline]; Group II [Orally-administered cranberry fr

This project presents an enhanced Iraqi vehicle plate identification system, incorporating digital processing technologies and the XOR Auto-Associative Memory advanced associative memory algorithm, towards a fast and efficient performance under diverse conditions of imagery. The system consists of three major stages: identification of the panel area, or localization, using edge transformations and morphological operations; symbol segmentation, or segmentation, based on horizontal and vertical projections for the exact extraction of numbers and letters; and finally, recognition use of XOR operations and a binary distance criterion known as Hamming Distance. The model was tested on 420 images of panels in different scenarios of lighting

In this work, two different laser dye solutions were used to host highly-pure silicon nitride nanoparticles as scattering centers to fabricate random gain media. The laser dye was dissolved in three different solvents (ethanol, methanol and acetone) and the final results were obtained for methanol only. The silicon nitride nanoparticles were synthesized by dc reactive magnetron sputtering technique with average particle size of 35 nm. The random gain medium was made as a solid rod with high spectral efficiency and low production cost. Optical emission with narrow linewidth was detected at 532-534 nm as 9 mg of silicon nitride nanoparticles were added to the 10 -5 M dye solution. The FWHM of 0.3 and 3.52 nm was determined for Rhodamine B and

The manganese doped zinc sulfide nanoparticles were synthesized by simple aqueous chemical reaction of manganese chloride, zinc acetate and thioacitamide in aqueous solution. Thioglycolic acid is used as capping agent for controlling the nanoparticle size. The main advantage of the ZnS:Mn nanoparticles of diameter ~ 2.73 nm is that the sample is prepared by using non-toxic precursors in a cost effective and eco-friendly way. The structural, morphological and chemical composition of the nanoparticles have been investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) with energy dispersion spectroscopy (EDS) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The nanosize of the prepared nanoparticles was elucidated by Scan

Introduction and Aim: Cancers are a complex group of genetic illnesses that develop through multistep, mutagenic processes which can invade or spread throughout the body. Recent advances in cancer treatment involve oncolytic viruses to infect and destroy cancer cells. The Newcastle disease virus (NDV), an oncolytic virus has shown to have anti-cancer effects either directly by lysing cancer cells or indirectly by activating the immune system. The green fluorescent protein (GFP) has been widely used in studying the anti-tumor activity of oncolytic viruses. This study aimed to study the anticancer effect of a recombinant rNDV-GFP clone on NCI-H727 lung carcinoma cell line in vitro.   Materials and Methods: The GFP gene was inserted t

Studies were conducted to screen eight sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) genotypes for their allelopathic potential against weeds and wheat crop, which customarily follows sunflower in Iraq. All sunflower genotypes significantly inhibited the total number and biomass of companion weeds and the magnitude of inhibition was genotype dependent. Among the eight genotypes tested, Sin-Altheeb and Coupon were the most weed-suppressing cultivars, and Euroflor and Shumoos were the least. A subsequent field experiment indicated that sunflower residues incorporated into the field soil significantly inhibited the total number and biomass of weeds growing in the wheat field. Sunflower genotypes Sin-Altheeb and Coupon appeared to inhibit total weed number

In cooling water systems, cooling towers play a critical role in removing heat from the water. Cooling water systems are commonly used in industry to dispose the waste heat. An upward spray cooling water systems was especially designed and investigated in this work. The effect of two nanofluids (Al₂O₃/ water, black carbon /water) on velocity and temperature distributions along reverse spray cooling tower at various concentrations (0.02, 0.08, 0.1, 0.15, and 0.2 wt.%) were investigated, beside the effect of the inlet water temperature (35 ,40, and 45 ͦ C) and water to air flow ratio (L/G) of 0.5, 0.75, and 1.  The best thermal performance was found when the working solution contained 0.1 wt.% for each of Al₂

Phytophagous stink bugs (Hemiptera, Pentatomidae) are economically important insect pests of fruit, vegetable, nut and field crops. This study was carried out during the season of 2013 in orchards within Erbil city, to follow the stink bug Mustha spinulosa (Lefebvre, 1831) seasonal fluctuation on some fruit trees: olive, plum, apricot, pear, apple and almond.
The stink bug reaches its maximum abundance throughout the second week of August (38.2/tree) coinciding with mean temperature and relative humidity of 33.40C and 28.14% respectively, and the highest total mean of the number of the insect was recorded on the olive trees (181.8/tree). The study reveals that the stink bug attacked 22 trees (fruit and forest) while it has not atta

The research dealt with the analysis of the relations between the GDP of the agricultural sector in Iraq, oil prices, the exchange rate and the GDP both on the short term and long term. The research adopted data analysis for the period from 1980-2019 using the ARDL model. the results indicate the existence of long-term relationships between oil prices and the prices of each agricultural commodity at a significance level of 5%. Also, oil prices have a negative consequence on agricultural production in Iraq, and the Iraqi economy is a rentier economy that depends mainly on oil as a source of income and budget financing.