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.
The aim of this study was to evaluate tensile properties of low and medium carbon ferrite -martensite dual phase steel, and the effect cryogenic treatment at liquid nitrogen temperature (-196 ºC) on its properties. Low carbon steel (C12D) and medium carbon steels (C32D & C42D) were used in this work. For each steel grade, five groups of specimens were prepared according to the type of heat treatment. The first group was normalized, the second group was normalized and subsequently subjected to cryogenic treatment then tempered at (200 ºC) for one hour, the third group was quenched from intercritical annealing temperature of (760 ºC) to obtain dual phase (DP) steel, the fourth and fifth groups were both quenched from (760 ºC), but
... Show MoreToxoplasmosis is the most common, widespread disease in the world which is caused by Toxoplasma gondii.The objective of the current study is to determine the effect of the Toxoplasma gondii infection on male sperm, especially on the mitochondria of sperm for men who suffer infertility and the possibility of a hereditary mutation. Sixty seminal fluid and serum samples were taken from sub- fertile patients who attended Teba center for in vitro fertilization / Babylon and similarly samples were also obtained from healthy individuals as a control group, their ages ranged from 20 to 60 years old during the period from 1st may /2016 till 25th January/2017. All samples subjected to the tests included Macroscopic and microscopic examination, molecu
... Show MoreIn this work, results of a mathematical analysis of the role of workpiece preheating in laser keyhole welding were presented. This analysis considered the steady-state welding as well as certain range of boundary conditions over which preheating effect would be indicated. This work is an attempt to interpret the role of preheating to increase welding depth and perform keyhole welding with high quality using physical and thermal properties of steel alloys.
The main objective of this research is to find the coefficient of permeability (k) of the soil and especially clayey soil by finding the degree of consolidation (rate of consolidation). New modify procedure is proposed by using the odometer (consolidation) device. The ordinary conventional permeability test usually takes a long time by preparing and by testing and this could cause some problems especially if there is a need to do a large number of this test and there were a limited number of technicians and/or apparatus. From this point of view the importance of this research is clear, since the modified procedure will require a time of 25 minute only. Derivation made to produce an equation which could be used to fined the permeabi
... Show MoreAn environmentally begnin second derivative spectrometric approach was developed for the estimation of the dissociation constants pKa(s) of metformin, a common anti-diabetic drug. The ultraviolet spectra of the aqueous solution of metformin were measured at different acidities, then the second derivative of each spectrum was graphed. The overlaid second derivative graphs exhibited two isobestic points at 225.5 nm and 244 nm pointing out to the presence of two dissociation constants for metformin pKa1 and pKa2, respectively. The method was validated by evaluating the reproducibility of the acquired results by comparing the estimated values of the dissociation constants of two different strategies that show excellent matching. As we
... Show MoreNisoldipine (NSD) is a dihydropyridine class of calcium channel blockers used for hypertension treatment, it belongs to class II BCS (low solubility with high permeability), its absolute bioavailability is only 5% due to presystemic metabolism in the gut wall. It is also a substrate for a CYP3A and P-gp. Bilosomes are lipid bilayer vesicles incorporating bile salts in their walls to prevent degredation by GIT bile salts. The aim of this study is to prepare nisoldipine bilosomes as vesicular carrier and assess the effect of different formulation variables such as type of surfactant, amount of cholesterol, surfactant and sonication time on particle size, entrapment efficiency and poly dispersity index of the prepared bilos
... Show MoreIn this study, the effect of the thermal conductivity of phase change material (PCM) on the performance of thermal energy storage has been analyzed numerically. A horizontal concentric shell-and-tube latent heat thermal energy storage system (LHTESS) has been performed during the solidification process. Two types of paraffin wax with different melting temperatures and thermal conductivity were used as a PCM on the shell side, case1=0.265W/m.K and case2=0.311 W/m.K. Water has been used as heat transfer fluid (HTF) flow through in tube side. Ansys fluent has been used to analyze the model by taking into account phase change by the enthalpy method used to deal with phase transition. The numerical simulatio
... Show MoreWaste recycling is one of the modern means of treating waste and minimizing its harmful effects that have caused problems for all countries of the world through the disposal of them in a safe and healthy manner as well as achieving economic and social benefits to the United Nations, and through the goals of sustainable development. 2015-2013 seeks to solve the environmental problems, including various peoples of the world, through various projects and programs, including waste recycling. Here is the question of whether there is a relationship between waste recycling and the goals of sustainable development, the research seeks to answer through five categories to determine the type of relationship between waste recycling and the g
... Show MoreAbstract: As human history is implicated in landscape or the natural history, it can be stated that the origins of the Caribbean writers' conflict, in general, are the colonial history of West India. That history which tells the story behind not only their fragmented identity, but also the problems connected to their language as well. Building on the arguments of the prominent Postcolonial ecoccritics such as Elizabeth DeLoughrey, George Handley, Helen Tiffin, and Graham Huggan, this research analyzes selected poems by Derek Walcott's which are bounded in his volume, Collected Poems. It shows how the Caribbean history has been erased due to the brutality of colonization offering landscape as a reliable source which has recorded that history
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