When the guard honey bees, Apis mellifera L., form a clump at the hive entrance or on the flight board, the oriental hornet, Vespa orientails L., either creeps toward the clump or hovers over it in order to take a bee. Once the hornet creeps, only few bees facing the hornet become alert, rock their heads and antennae, open their wings, and take a posture of defense. The rest of the clump stays listless without any signal of concern. However, the clump stays dense and the defending bees do not detach themselves neither from the rest of the clump nor from each other. For this reason, it is very difficult for the hornet to grab a bee unless the latter makes a “mistake” by detaching herself from other adjacent bees. If the hornet grabs s

   This research provides a novel technique for using metal organic frameworks (HKUST-1) as a gas storage system for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in Iraqi vehicles to avoid the drawbacks of the currently employed method of LPG gas storage. A low-cost adsorbent called HKUST-1 was prepared and characterized in this research to investigate its ability for propane storage at different temperatures (25, 30, 35, and 40 ^oC) and pressures of (1-7) bar. HKUST-1 was made using a hydrothermal method and characterized using powder X-ray diffraction, BET surface area, scanning electron microscopic (SEM), and Fourier Transforms infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The HKUST-1 was produced using a hydrothermal technique and possesses a high crys

Addition of bioactive materials such as Titanium oxide (TiO₂), and incorporation of bio inert ceramic such as alumina (Al₂O₃), into polyetheretherketone (PEEK) has been adopted as an effective approach to improve bone-implant interfaces. In this paper, hot pressing technique has been adopted as a production method. This technique gave a homogenous distribution of the additive materials in the proposed composite biomaterial. Different compositions and compounding temperatures have been applied to all samples. Mechanical properties and animal model have been studied in all different production conditions. The results of these new TiO₂/Al₂O₃/PEEK biocomposites with different

Keys for 22 species representing 10 genera of Thripidae were provided collection of
samples carried out during 1999-2001 in different localities in the middle of Iraq. Of them
four species are described as new to science, Frankliniella megacephala sp. nov; Retithrips
bagdadensis sp. nov; Chirothrips imperatus sp. nov; Taeniothrips tigridis sp. nov; Another
fourteen species are recorded for the first time in Iraq; Thrips meridionalis (Pri.);
Microcephalothrips abdominils (Crawford Scolothrips sexmaculatus (Pergande),);Scolothrips
pallidus (Beach); Scritothrips mangiferae Pri.; Frankliniella tritici Bagnall; Frankliniella
schultzie Trybom; Frankliniella unicolor Morgan; Retithrips aegypticus Marchal; Retithrips
java

               Microalgae have been used widely in bioremediation processes to degrade or adsorb toxic dyes. Here, we evaluated the decolorization efficiency of Chlorella vulgaris and Nostoc paludosum against two toxic dyes, crystal violet (CV) and malachite green (MG). Furthermore, the effect of CV and MG dyes on the metabolic profiling of the studied algae has been investigated. The data showed that C. vulgaris was most efficient in decolorization of CV and MG: the highest percentage of decolorization was 93.55% in case of MG, while CV decolorization percentage was 62.98%. N. paludosum decolorized MG dye by 77.6%, and the decolorization percentage of CV was 35.1%. Metabolic profiling of

A survey of blood parasites among members of two species of Iraqi babblers Timaliidae,
Turodoides caudatus salvadori (de Fillipi, 1865) and Turdoides alterostris (Hartert, 1909)
was carried out in the middle and south of Iraq. Two species of haematozoa were recovered,
Haemoproteus turdoidus sp. nov. and Plasmodium relictum Grassi &Felleti. The description
of the new taxon is provided and discussed with pertinent literature.