Public-private partnership (PPP) has been used over the past 20-30 years by governments in developed countries to meet the public demand for infrastructural services. In Iraq, the PPP concept is comparatively new to the Government of Iraq (GoI), where the government has historically taken most of the responsibility for providing public services. There are few PPP projects in Iraq. However, the number is increasing. Recently the Iraqi market has experienced a number of attempts of PPP in different sectors, especially after the new investment law in 2006. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the investment environment in Iraq and to indicate the main factors affecting PPP in particular for infrastructure projects. Some literature review and data collections have been made, and for validation purposes a limited number of semi-structured interviews with professionals involved in Iraq’s projects have been conducted. The findings indicate that undertaking infrastructure business in Iraq is subject to some specific risks and obstacles limiting the readiness of the private sector to participate. Finally the major issues are pointed out to be tackled by decision makers in both the public and private sectors in Iraq to establish a more efficient framework for the future PPP projects in Iraq.
Quercetin, one of the flavonoids family member, can be found in many vegetables, fruits, and beverages with a noticeable nutritional pharmacological properties. This study was aimed to evaluate the ability of quercetin to inhibit lipopolysaccharide (LPS) that induced lethal toxicity in vivo, and to elucidate the importance of the quercetin as an antitumor agent in breast cancer cell line MCF-7.In vivo experiments included the effect of hesperidin and LPS on the liver and spleen of male mice. In the liver, the antioxidant activity was measured by estimating the concentration of glutathione (GSH), and catalase (CAT), while in the spleen, the concentration of cytokines was measured including IL-33 and TNF-α. In vitro experiments included MTT
... Show MoreM. domestica is the most important insect that transmit pathogens for diseases in the world. The use of nanotechnology is eco-friendly method in control pests. The study aims to investigate the feasibility of bio-manufacturing nanocapsules of fungal secondary metabolites in order to improve the efficiency of metabolite and assess their inhibitory effect on the acetylcholine esterase enzyme in housefly larvae. An equal mixture of organic solvents, ethyl acetate and dichloromethane, was used to extract the metabolic products of the fungus M. anisopliae, (PEG4000) and chitosan was used in the preparation of nanocapsules. The results of the DLS granular size assay showed that the size of the extract particles and the size of the chitosa
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The aim of present work is to study the removal of phenol present in aqueous feed solution by the emulsion liquid membrane technique using kerosene as a diluent, sodium hydroxide as a stripping agent, and sorbitan monooleate (Span 80) as a surfactant. The parameters studied were: surfactant concentration, volume ratio of membrane phase to internal phase, and stirring speed. It was found that more than 98% of phenol can be removed at the conditions were surfactant concentration 2% (v/v), volume ratio of membrane phase to internal phase 5:1 and stirring speed 400 rpm. Maximum phenol extraction efficiency at 7 minutes of process time was observed. It was found that there was a good agreement between the standard kerosene an
... Show MoreNanoceria have shown numerous unique characteristics, such as biocompatibility and are excellent agents for biological applications. The aim of this study is to investigate cerium oxide nanoparticles for 2, 2- diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl-hydrate (DPPH) free radical scavenging activity and their ability to offer protection against ionizing radiation. In vitro antioxidant activity study of nanoceria particles has shown good free radical scavenging activity for DPPH radical assayed within a concentration range of 0.01 to 0.05 g/l, at higher concentrations of nanoparticles showed reverse trend in absorbance and inhibition indicating this finite rang of concentration is suitable for scavenging free radicals, also nanoparticles were found to ha
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Previously, many empirical models have been used to predict corrosion rates under different CO2 corrosion parameters conditions. Most of these models did not predict the corrosion rate exactly, besides it determined effects of variables by holding some variables constant and changing the values of other variables to obtain the regression model. As a result the experiments will be large and cost too much. In this paper response surface methodology (RSM) was proposed to optimize the experiments and reduce the experimental running. The experiments studied effects of temperature (40 – 60 °C), pH (3-5), acetic acid (HAc) concentration (1000-3000 ppm) and rotation speed (1000-1500 rpm) on CO2 corrosion performance of t
... Show MoreBackground: Beta thalassemia major (β-TM) is an inheritable condition with many complications, especially in children. The blood-borne viral infection was proposed as a risk factor due to the recurrent blood transfusion regimen (hemotherapy) as human parvovirus B19 (B19V). Objective: This study investigated the B19V seroprevalence, DNA presence, B19V viral load, and B19V genotypes in β-TM patients and blood donors. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study incorporating 180 subjects, segregated into three distinct groups each of 60 patients, namely control, β-TM, and β-TM infected with Hepatitis C Virus (HCV). For the B19V prevalence in the studied group, the ELISA technique and real-time PCR were used. The genotyping was follo
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Objectives: A cross sectional analytic study was carried out to identify the maternal risk factors which
contribute to occurrence of low birth weight, and to determine the statistical significant differences between low
birth weight and maternal risk factors.
Methodology: A purposive sample of (400) woman was selected from AL-Elwyia Maternity Teaching Hospital
and Fatima Al-Zaharia Maternity and Pediatric Teaching Hospital. Data was collected through the interview of
mothers. Questionnaire format was designed and consisted seven parts, demographic variables, and reproductive
variables , Reproductive health variables, complications during the current pregnancy, the mother newborn
variables nutritional status for the m
Back ground: Diabetic nephropathy is rapidly becoming the leading cause of end-stage renal disease (ESRD). The onset and course of DN can be ameliorated to a very significant degree if intervention institutes at a point very early in the course of the development of this complication.
Objective: The aim of this study was to characterize risk factors associated with nephropathy in type I diabetes and construct a module for early prediction of diabetic nephropathy (DN) by analyzing their risk factors.
Methods: Case control design of 400 patients with type I diabetes mellitus (IDDM), aged 19-45 years. The cases were 200 diabetic patients with overt protein urea while the controls were 200 diabetic patients with no protein urea or micr
Prostate cancer is an important and potentially fatal disease in humans. Both genetic and environmental risk factors are associated with increased risk of prostate cancer among Asian pop