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.
An experiment was carried out on the fields of the college of Agriculture - Abu Ghraib, of a silty clay loam soil that has moisture of 15-16%, to study the effect of plowing and pulverization systems on some plant indicators of onion. The experiment included plowing systems with three levels (plowing with a moldboard plow, plowing by chisel plow and zero tillage plowing) as a primary factor. The second factor was that pulverization for only one time and repeating the pulverization twice through the use of the rotary tiller. The plant indicators of onion that are studied: plant length, onion diameter, onion weight and onion neck diameter. The experiment has carried out according to SPLIT PLOT design according to RCBD design by three replicat
... Show MoreIn this work, we have investigated optical properties of the thermally evaporation PbS/CdS thin films. The optical constant such as (refractive index n, dielectric constant εi,r and Extinction coefficient κ) of the deposition films were obtained from the analysis of the experimental recorded transmittance spectral data. The optical band gap of PbS/CdS films is calculate from (αhυ)1/2 vs. photon energy curve.
In this work, the effect of vortex shedding on the solar collector performance of the parabolic trough solar collector (PTSC) was estimated experimentally. The effect of structure oscillations due to wind vortex shedding on solar collector performance degradation was estimated. The performance of PTSC is evaluated by using the useful heat gain and the thermal instantaneous efficiency. Experimental work to simulate the vortex shedding excitation was done. The useful heat gain and the thermal efficiency of the parabolic trough collector were calculated from experimental measurements with and without vortex loading. The prototype of the collector was fabricated for this purpose. The effect of vortex shedding at different operation condition
... Show MoreIn this study, the four tests employed for non-linear dependence which is Engle (1982), McLeod &Li (1983), Tsay (1986), and Hinich & Patterson (1995). To test the null hypothesis that the time series is a serially independent and identical distribution process .The linear structure is removed from the data which is represent the sales of State Company for Electrical Industries, through a pre-whitening model, AR (p) model .From The results for tests to the data is not so clear.
The objective of this research was to investigate the effect of replacing fat(shortening) with different percentages of tahena on the quality properties (physiochemical and sensory ) of shortened cake.The percentages of moisture,protein ,fat and ash of cake increased significantly(p<0.05) as the replacement was increased .The highest increase percentages were 10,48,5,and 90 %,respectivly, at 100% replacement .Carbohydrate,however,decreased by 10%at 100% replacement .these findings may indicate improvement of cake nutritional value.Standing height,as an indicator of cake volume, also increased significantly by 4% at the 50% replacement then it decreased by 4% 100% replacement level. Basic formula (control) has signific
... Show MoreIntroduction: This study was performed to compare the effect of Fractional CO2 laser or Q switched Nd:YAG laser of surface treatment on the shear bond strength of zirconia-porcelain interface. Methods: Fractional CO2 laser at 30 W, 2 ms, time interval 1 ms, distance between spots 0.3 mm, and number of scans is (4) or Q switched Nd:YAG laser at 30 J/mm2 and 10 Hz were used to assess the shear bond strength of zirconia to porcelain. Pre-sintered zirconia specimens were divided into three groups (n = 10) according to the surface treatment technique used: (a) untreated (Control) group; (b) CO2 group; (c) Nd:YAG group. All samples were then sintered and veneered with porcelain according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Surface morph
... Show MoreCarbon nanoparticles are prepared by sonication using carbon black powder. The surface morphology of carbon black (CB) and carbon nanoparticles (CNPs) is investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The particles size ranges from 100 nm to 400 nm for CB and from 10 nm to 100 nm for CNPs. CNPs and CB are mixed with silicon glue of different ratios of 0.025, 0.2, 0.05, and 0.1 to synthesis films. The optical properties of the prepared films are investigated through reflectance and absorbance analyses. The ratio of 0.05 for CNPs and CB is the best for solar paint because of its higher solar water heater efficiency and is then added to the silicon glue . Temperature of cold water and temperature of hot water in storage tank were ta
... Show MoreTransparent thin films of CdO:Ce has been deposited on to glass and silicon substrates by spray pyrolysis technique for various concentrations of cerium (2, 4, and 6 Vol.%). CdO:Ce films were characterized using different techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy(AFM) and optical properties. XRD analysis show that CdO films exhibit cubic crystal structure with (1 1 1) preferred orientation and the intensity of the peak increases with increasing's of Ce contain when deposited films on glass substrate, while for silicon substrate, the intensity of peaks decreases, the results reveal that the grain size of the prepared thin film is approximately (73.75-109.88) nm various with increased of cerium content. With a sur
... Show MoreLocking of the knee is a one of the commonest orthopedic outpatient presentation. This patient usually need magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) when there is suspected lesion in the soft tissue clinically. Meniscal tears is the first differential diagnosis when accompany with painful knee. (1, 2)Giant cell tumor (GCT) is benign a localized nodular tenosynovitis often occur in the tendon sheath , Mostly involve the hand tendons in middle age group between 30 and 50 years old , female affect more than male.(3,4) The WHO defines two well-known kinds of giant cell tumor: (1) pigmented villonodular synovitis ( generalized type), which mainly involve the joints of the lower limb and (2) giant cell tumor of the tendon sheath ( localized type)
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