Ecosystems provide humans with services that include benefits from food, fresh water, climate regulation, and socio-economic assets. The Mesopotamian marshlands are among the largest wetlands in the Middle East and they provide various benefits. However, ecosystem services of the Marshlands are consistently undervalued in national economic analysis and decision making. This study focusses on the Central Marshes, the first National Park in Iraq, and is the first attempt at valuing a series of ecosystem services from a valuable natural ecosystem in Iraq. We adopted the Toolkit for Ecosystem Services Site-Based Assessment (TESSA) for the determination of biophysical and economic values of services at the site level. Data on key ecosystem services (as determined by 30 interviews with residents of the Marshes) included the trading of fish, harvested plants, water buffalo milk, and fodder were collected across six months in 2014. We valued the ecosystem services within the CM (40,000 ha) over a 6-month period to have a total value of 860,078.23 USD. This estimated total value was the sum of 86,637.25 USD from harvested plants, 551,334.80 USD from trading fish, 167, 303.70 USD from trading water buffalo milk, and 54,804.00 USD from trading fodder. The average income per individual in Iraq in 2014 was 6720 USD (World Bank data - https://data.worldbank.org/country/iraq): thus, the CM provided an average salary for 256 people. Our results provided greater understanding of the ecosystem services contributed by the Central Marshes and has highlighted the crucial role of nature in supporting sustainable well-being for humans living in the area. In addition, the results can be used to enhance local policy, to aid management plans of the National park, and to estimate lost and damage that could result from impact of climate change on the area.
In the last few years, the literature conferred a great interest in studying the feasibility of using memristive devices for computing. Memristive devices are important in structure, dynamics, as well as functionalities of artificial neural networks (ANNs) because of their resemblance to biological learning in synapses and neurons regarding switching characteristics of their resistance. Memristive architecture consists of a number of metastable switches (MSSs). Although the literature covered a variety of memristive applications for general purpose computations, the effect of low or high conductance of each MSS was unclear. This paper focuses on finding a potential criterion to calculate the conductance of each MMS rather t
... Show MoreObjectives : This study was seeks to determine the IgG and IgM in serum mothers and their babies of Iraqi patient suffering from congenital anomalies toward some microorganisms such as Cytomegalovirus (CMV), Congenital toxoplasmosis , Congenital rubella and Genital herpes simplex virus (HSV) correlated with age and babies gender the sample was collected from AL- Alwayia hospital for children / Baghdad . Methodology : Fifth blood sample have been collected from mothers and their babies suffering from congenital anomalies to detection IgG and IgM of some viruses including as Cytomegalovirus (CMV), congenital tox
Objectives: With the advent of ongoing novel modalities toward the treatment of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)/NEU - positive malignancies, the serious side effects of chemoradiotherapy have been minimized. Hence, this study was conducted to identify the patterns of immunohistochemical expression of the promising therapeutic target (HER2/NEU) among Iraqi patients with medulloblastoma in an attempt to provide basic histological information’s that would help in future clinical researches.Materials and Methods: In this retrospective study, 42 formalin - fixed paraffin - embedded tissue blocks represent cases of surgically removed medulloblastomas were retrieved from the archived materials in a specialized surgical ho
... Show MoreBackground: One of the major problems in endodontics is micro-leakage of root canal fillings which might contribute to the failure of endodontic treatment. To avoid this problem, a variety of sealers have been tested. The objective of this, in vitro, study was to evaluate the shear bond strength of four resin based sealers (AH plus, silver free AH26, RealSeal SE and Perma Evolution permanent root canal filling material) to dentin. Materials and Methods: Forty non-carious extracted lower premolars were used. The 2mm of the occlusal surfaces of teeth were sectioned, to expose the dentin surface. The exposed dentin surfaces of teeth were washed with 5ml of 2.5% NaOCl solution followed by 5ml of 17 % EDTA then rinsed by deionized water to remov
... Show MoreA simple, accurate, and cost-efficient UV-Visible spectrophotometric method has been developed for the determination of naphazoline nitrate (NPZ) in pure and pharmaceutical formulations. The suggested method was based on the nucleophilic substitution reaction of NPZ with 1,2-naphthoquinone-4-sulfonate sodium salt in alkaline medium at 80°C to form an orange/red-colored product of maximum absorption (λmax) at 483 nm. The stoichiometry of the reaction was determined via Job's method and limiting logarithmic method, and the mechanism of the reaction was postulated. Under the optimal conditions of the reaction, Beerʼs law was obeyed within the concentration range 0.5–50 μg/mL, the molar absorptivity value (ε) was 5766.5 L × mol–1 × c
... Show MoreIn the present work, the critical micelle concentration (CMC) of the solution of Sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) as anionic surfactant, Cocamidopropyl Betaine (CAPB) as amphoteric surfactant, and their mixture have been determined using surface tension and conductivity measurements at a temperature range 293 -323 K. The adsorption and thermodynamic micellization parameters (?G?m, ?G?ads, ?max ,Amin,?cmc ) for individual surfactants was calculated. Rosen model which is focuses on the adsorbed mixed surfactant film at the air/solution interface was used to calculate the interaction parameter ( ?? ) at the interface and the activity coefficients g1 and g2. The results indicate that the CMC of the individual surfactants was affected by
... Show MoreThis paper presents the effect of Cr doping on the optical and structural properties of TiO2 films synthesized by sol-gel and deposited by the dip- coating technique. The characteristics of pure and Cr-doped TiO2 were studied by absorption and X-ray diffraction measurement. The spectrum of UV absorption of TiO2 chromium concentrations indicates a red shift; therefore, the energy gap decreases with increased doping. The minimum value of energy gap (2.5 eV) is found at concentration of 4 %. XRD measurements show that the anatase phase is shown for all thin films. Surface morphology measurement by atomic force microscope (AFM) showed that the roughness of thin films decrease with doping and has a minimum value with 4 wt % doping ratio.
Breast cancer (BC) is one of the most frequently observed malignancy in females worldwide. Today, tamoxifen (TAM) is considered as the highly effective therapy for treatment of breast tumors. Oxidative stress has implicated strongly in the pathophysiology of malignancies. This study aimed to investigate the changes in the levels of oxidants and antioxidants in patients with newly diagnosed and TAM-treated BC. Sixty newly diagnosed and 60 TAM-treated women with BC and 50 healthy volunteers were included in this study. Parameters including total oxidant capacity (TOC), total antioxidant capacity (TAC), and catalase (CAT) activity were determined before and after treatment with TAM. The serum levels of TOC and oxidative stress index (OSI) were
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