Background: The discriminative power of the classical WHO parameters in relation to male fertility is quite low, because they only address few aspects of sperm quality and function. This has led investigators to focus their attention on the male gamete and in particular its genome.Objective: To explore which of the sperm DNA damage parameters measured by comet assay are more reliable, and their relations with the standard semen parameters.Methods: Study was done on 40 infertile men selected from couples attending the Institute of Embryo Reasearch and Infertility Treatment at Al-Kadhimiya City/ Baghdad in the period between February 2009 and May 2009, with a history of infertility of ≥1 years; and 15 healthy volunteers of proven fertili

The aim of the present research is to illustrate γ-ray levels emitting from soil and bitumen producing from 238U, 232Th, and 40K along Abu-Jir Fault Zone. in the area extended from Al-Marj valley to Abu-Jir village using scintillometer device. Such study is important in environmental assessment to buildup data base about radioactivity. The concentration of natural radionuclides in the study area was determined to be occurring mostly in the clay minerals and organic matter. A high purity germanium spectrometer was used to detect the activity of these elements which ranged between 00.6±18.1- 1526±102, 0- 8.4±1.4, and 70.1±10.9- 328.2±73 in soil, and 28.2±5.6- 94±22.1, 0- 2.2±0.5, and 38.4±7.9- 70.1±10.9 in bitumen for 226Ra

The uniform flow distrbiution in the multi-outlets pipe highly depends on the several parameters act togather. Therefor, there is no general method to achieve this goal. The  goal of this study is to investigate the proposed approach that can provide significant relief of the maldistribution. The method is based on re-circulating portion of flow from the end of the header to reduce pressure at this region . The physical model consists of main manifold with uniform longitudinal section having diameter of 152.4 mm (6 in), five laterals with diameter of 76.2 mm (3 in), and spacing of 300 mm. At first, The experiment is carried out with conventional manifold, which is a closed-end. Then, small amount of water is allowed

ABSTRACT Background:Hydrogen absorption and related degradation in the mechanical properties of Ni-Ti based orthodontic wires has been demonstrated following exposure to fluoride prophylactic agents. This study was designed to investigate the effects of three fluoride containing agents on the load deflection characteristics of heat activated nickel titanium arch wires during unloading phase. Material and method: Eighty specimens of heat activated nickel titanium arch wires were obtained from Ortho Technology Company, half of which had a 0.016 inch round and 0.019x0.025 rectangular. Ten specimens from both wire size were immersed in one of the tested fluoride prophylactic agents (neutral sodium fluoride gel, stannous fluoride gel or phos-flu

Soil wetted pattern from a subsurface drip plays great importance in the design of subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) system for delivering the required water directly to the roots of the plant. An equation to estimate the dimensions of the wetted area in soil are taking into account water uptake by roots is simulated numerically using HYDRUS (2D/3D) software. In this paper, three soil textures namely loamy sand, sandy loam, and loam soil were used with three different types of crops tomato, pepper, and cucumber, respectively, and different values of drip discharge, drip depth, and initial soil moisture content were proposed. The soil wetting patterns were obtained at every thirty minutes for a total time of irrigation equ

When the depth of stressed soil is rather small, Plate Load Test (PLT) becomes the most efficient test to estimate the soil properties for design purposes. Among these properties, modulus of subgrade reaction is the most important one that usually employed in roads and concrete pavement design. Two methods are available to perform PLT: static and dynamic methods. Static PLT is usually adopted due to its simplicity and time saving to be performs in comparison with cyclic (dynamic) method. The two methods are described in ASTM standard.

In this paper the effect of the test method used in PLT in estimation of some mechanical soil properties was distinguished via a series of both test methods applied in a same site. The comparison of

Naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) contaminated sites at Al-Rumaila Iraqi oil fields have been characterized as a part of soil remediation project. Activity of radium isotopes in contaminated soil have been determined using gamma spectrometer High Purity Germanium detector (HPGe) and found to be very high for Al-Markezia, Al-Qurainat degassing stations and storage area at Khadhir Almay region. The activity concentration of samples ranges from 6474.11±563.8 Bq/kg to 1232.5±60.9 Bq/kg with mean value of 3853.3 Bq/kg for ²²⁶Ra, 843.59±8.39 Bq/kg to 302.2±9.2 Bq/kg  with mean value of 572.9 Bq/kg for ²³²Th and 294.31±18.56 Bq/kg to 156.64±18.1 Bq/kg with mean value of 225.5 for ⁴⁰K. S