Perennial biofuel and cover crops systems are important for enhancing soil health and can provide numerous soil, agricultural, and environmental benefits. The study objective was to investigate the effects of cover crops and biofuel crops on soil hydraulic properties relative to traditional management for claypan soils. The study site included selected management practices: cover crop (CC) and no cover crop (NC) with corn/soybean rotation, switchgrass (SW), and miscanthus (MI). The CC mixture consisted of cereal rye, hairy vetch, and Austrian winter pea. The research site was located at Bradford Research Center in Missouri, USA, and was implemented on a Mexico silt loam. Intact soil cores (76‐mm diam. by 76‐mm long) were taken from the 0–10, 10–20, 20–30, and 30–40 cm depths with three plot replicates and two sub‐samples per plot replicate per depth. Soil hydraulic properties evaluated for each sample included: saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ksat), water retention, bulk density, and pore size distributions. Results showed with the test of Duncan's least significant differences that treatments of MI (1.18 Mg m−3) and SW (1.21 Mg m−3) had lower values of bulk density averaging across soil depth than CC (1.27 Mg m−3) and NC (1.31 Mg m). Management systems significantly increased Ksat with the biofuel treatments at 0–10 cm compared to NC system. The MI management showed a significant increase in macroporosity and fine mesoporosity as compared to other management systems. Slight changes have occurred in the measured soil physical properties for CC system compared to NC plots. Overall, increasing soil organic matter from more plant roots from long‐term biofuel cropping systems can improve soil water storage and crop productivity.
In this study a polymeric composite material was prepared by hand
lay-up technique from epoxy resin as a matrix and magnesium oxide
(MgO) as a reinforcement with different weight fraction (5,10,15,
and 20)% to resin. Then the prepared samples were immersed under
normal condition in H2So4(1 M) solution, for periods ranging up to
10 weeks. The result revealed that the diffusion coefficient
decreasing as the concentration of MgO increase. Also we studied
Hardness for the prepared samples before and after immersion. The
result revealed that the hardness values increase as the concentration
of MgO increase, while the hardness for the samples after immersion
in H2SO4 dec
Phytoplankton, as one of the most important primary producers in aquatic ecosystems, has been widely used to indicate the health of ecosystems. Nine physico-chemical parameters of water, as well as the phytoplankton community, of Al-Chibayish marsh were studied. Samples were collected from four sites and analyzed every two months from January to October 2019.
Seasonal variations in physical and chemical properties were observed at all sites during the study period. The results indicated that 154 species of phytoplankton were recorded. The highest percentage of species was recorded to be 64.28% for Bacillariophyceae (diatoms) (Centrales 3.24% and Pennales 61.03%), followed by Chlorophyceae (16.23%), Cyanophyceae
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The nanocompsite of alumina (Al2O3) produced a number of beneficial effects in alloys. There is increasing in resistance of materials to surface related failures , such as the mechanical properties , fatigue and stress corrosion cracking .The experimental results observed that the adding of reinforced nanomaterials type Al2O3 enhanced the HB hardness, UTS, 0.2 YS and ductility of 2014 Al/Al2O3 nano composites . the analysis of experiments, indicated that The maximum enhancement was observed at 0.4 wt.% Al2O3. The ultimate improvement percentage were 15.78% HB hardness, 18.1% (UTS), 12.86% (
... Show MoreThree new polyphosphates were synthesized in good yields by reacting diethylenetriamine with the appropriate phosphate ester in ethanol under acidic conditions. The polyphosphate structures were determined using FT-IR and 1H-NMR spectroscopies, and their elemental compositions were confirmed by EDX spectroscopy. Polyphosphates were added to poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) at low concentrations to fabricate thin films. The PVC films were irradiated with ultraviolet light for long periods, and the effect of polyphosphates as the photostabilizer was investigated by determining changes in the infrared spectra (intensity of specific functional group peaks), reduction in molecular weight, weight loss, and surface morphology. Minimal changes we
... Show MoreTransportability refers to the ease with which people, goods, or services may be transferred. When transportability is high, distance becomes less of a limitation for activities. Transportation networks are frequently represented by a set of locations and a set of links that indicate the connections between those places which is usually called network topology. Hence, each transmission network has a unique topology that distinguishes its structure. The most essential components of such a framework are the network architecture and the connection level. This research aims to demonstrate the efficiency of the road network in the Al-Karrada area which is located in the Baghdad city. The analysis based on a quantitative evaluation using graph th
... Show MoreThe reuse or recycling of waste materials in different aspects of life is served the objective of sustainability and be beneficial to society. In recent years, a wide variety of waste materials were used in pavement construction. One of these materials is glass that generally produces in large quantities and crushed glass can be considered feasible alternative source of aggregate for asphalt mixture production. This study focused on examining the asphalt mixture properties of wearing course using crushed glass as fine aggregates. Fine crushed glass with various percentages by total weight retained on sieve 2.36 mm, 0.3 mm and 0.075 mm was used in the study. The results indicate that mixes containing crushed glass had lower Marshall stabilit
... Show MoreZinc oxide films (ZnO) are prepared by an electrolysis technique and without vacuum and then annealed atvarious temperatures (300,400,500)OC for an hour. The structural analysis performed by X-Ray diffraction (XRD) shows,dominant orientation of this films is plane (101), has a hexagonal structure and polycrystalline pattern and it was is found that the crystal size increases(24,29) nm at annealing temperatures (300, 400)° C, but the crystal size decreases to (20 nm) at annealing temperature (500 ° C). As the results of a surface nature study of these films showed by examining the atomic force microscope (AFM), the grain size increases from (60.79 to 88.11) nm, and the surface roughnes
... Show MoreIn this study, geopolymer mortar was designed in various experimental combinations employing 1% micro steel fibers and was subjected to different temperatures, according to the prior works of other researchers. The geopolymer mortar was developed using a variety of sustainable material proportions (fly ash and slag) to examine the influence of fibers on its strength. The fly ash weight percentage was 50%, 60%, and 70% by slag weight to study its effect on the geopolymer mortar's properties. The optimal ratio produced the most significant results when mixed at a 50:50 ratio of fly ash and slag with 1% micro steel fibers at curing temperature 240oC for 4 hours through two days. The compressive strength of the geopolymer mortar increas
... Show MoreThe researchers are doing their best to find the best methods and techniques to improve the lubricating oils specifications. In addition to trying to produce environmentally friendly and low cost lubricating oils In the present research a Nano-gel of titanium dioxide have been studied to be added to mineral base oil produced by Al- doura Iraqi refinery at volume percentage of (0.5%, 0.75%, 1%, 1.5%, 2%, and 3%), and investigate its effects on base oil properties as well as its tribological performance. It revealed slight effects on viscosity index and density while an obvious rising in pour point and flash point. Remarkable reduction was in specific wear rate and coefficient of friction results, which import a friction reducing in machin
... Show MoreThe effect of adding different volume of coumarin dye (5, 15, 25 and 35) ml on optical properties of Poly (Methyl Meth Acrylate) was studied. Films of pure PMMA and PMMA with different volume of coumarin dye (5, 15, 25 and 35) ml were prepared using the casting technique. Transmission and absorption of the films were measured by using UV-VIS spectrometer technique type (100 Conc), in order to assess the type of transmission which was found an indirect transition. An optical energy gap of pure PMMA is (4.95e v) and after adding coumarin with volume (25, 35) ml, the energy gap for PMMA decrease by (0.05) compere to pure PMMA films and addition energy gap appear equal to (4.1 e v). It was found that the absorption coefficient, extinction coeff
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