The technology of subsurface soil water retention (SWRT) uses a polyethylene trough that is fixed under the root zone of the plant. It is a modern technology to increase the values of water use efficiency, plant productivity and saving irrigation water by applying as little irrigation water as possible. This study work aims at improving the crop yield and water use efficiency of a cucumber plant with less applied irrigation water by installing membrane trough below the soil surface. The field experiment was conducted in the Hawr Rajab District of Baghdad Governorate in Winter 2018 for testing various trickle irrigation systems. Two agricultural treatment plots were utilized in a greenhouse for the comparison. Plot T1 has used a subsurface trickle irrigation together with membrane trough. Plot T2 has used only surface trickle irrigation system without using SWRT. The total area of the plots T1and T2 was 13.2 m2 and 6.66 m2, respectively. The obtained results of the study confirmed that the plot T1 satisfies values greater than plot T2 in terms of crop yield, field water use efficiency and in saving the applied irrigation water. The increase rate of field water use efficiency and crop yield in plot T1 compared with plot T2 was 103 %, and 24 %, respectively. Additionally, the increase rate in saving the applied irrigation water in plot T1 comparing with plot T2 was 64 %. The installation of the membrane trough below the plant’s root zone together with subsurface trickle irrigation system assisted in keeping the water, nutrients, and fertilizers during the root zone profile, improving the field water use efficiency and then the parameter of water productivity.
Construction is a complicated process that takes place in an almost uncontrollable environment. Although projects can be carefully planned in advance in principle, there is a chance that unforeseen events and crises can disrupt these plans, affecting project development. Because the initial investment expenditures in construction projects are so large, they may be quickly influenced by crises, resulting in significant financial losses. The 2014 financial crisis was one of the most prominent crises that Iraq faced, which significantly impacted various activities in general and the construction industry in particular. Despite the importance of crisis management systems, the researchers found a great lack of local studies l
... Show MoreThis paper proposes a new strategy to enhance the performance and accuracy of the Spiral dynamic algorithm (SDA) for use in solving real-world problems by hybridizing the SDA with the Bacterial Foraging optimization algorithm (BFA). The dynamic step size of SDA makes it a useful exploitation approach. However, it has limited exploration throughout the diversification phase, which results in getting trapped at local optima. The optimal initialization position for the SDA algorithm has been determined with the help of the chemotactic strategy of the BFA optimization algorithm, which has been utilized to improve the exploration approach of the SDA. The proposed Hybrid Adaptive Spiral Dynamic Bacterial Foraging (HASDBF)
... Show MoreThe primary objective of this study was to identify the mechanisms for the development and propagation of longitudinal cracks that initiate at the surface of composite pavement. In this study the finite element program ANSYS version (5.4) was used and the model worked out using this program has the ability to analyze a composite pavement structure of different layer properties. Also, the aim of this study was modeling and analyzing of the composite pavement structure with the physical presence of crack induced in concrete underlying layer. The results obtained indicates that increasing the thickness of the asphalt layer tends to decrease the stress intensity factor, which may be attributed to the rapidly decrease of horizontal tensile st
... Show MoreConstruction is a complicated process that takes place in an almost uncontrollable environment. Although projects can be carefully planned in advance in principle, there is a chance that unforeseen events and crises can disrupt these plans, affecting project development. Because the initial investment expenditures in construction projects are so large, they may be quickly influenced by crises, resulting in significant financial losses. The 2014 financial crisis was one of the most prominent crises that Iraq faced, which significantly impacted various activities in general and the construction industry in particular. Despite the importance of crisis management systems, the researchers found a great lack of local studies looking at cr
... Show MoreThe research problem arose from the researchers’ sense of the importance of Digital Intelligence (DI), as it is a basic requirement to help students engage in the digital world and be disciplined in using technology and digital techniques, as students’ ideas are sufficiently susceptible to influence at this stage in light of modern technology. The research aims to determine the level of DI among university students using Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques. To verify this, the researchers built a measure of DI. The measure in its final form consisted of (24) items distributed among (8) main skills, and the validity and reliability of the tool were confirmed. It was applied to a sample of 139 male and female students who were chosen
... Show MoreSurvivin, a member of inhibitor of apoptosis family is increasingly used as a target for cancer therapy design because it has a key role in cell growth and inhibition of cell apoptosis. Also it can be used as a biomarker for targeting cancer because it is found in almost all cancer but not normal cells. Our strategy was to design (computationally) a molecule to be used as survivin inhibitor. This molecule was named lead10 and was used furthermore to find (virtually) existing drugs with a good survivin inhibition activity.