Millions of pilgrims and visitors from numerous parts of the world flock to Karbala (one of the most prominent ideological and religious places in central Iraq) each year to visit the holy shrines in Karbala due to their sanctity. Many improvements have been made to the Two Holy Shrines (THS), the Shrines of Imam Husayn and Imam Abbas, and the area between them (ATHS), due to the high temperatures in this region and to improve pedestrian thermal comfort. Studies on improving outdoor thermal comfort in Karbala are scarce. Hence, this research aims to look into historical and current architectural changes and how they affect thermal comfort. On the hottest summer day, the ENVI-met software program was used to simulate the building des

An attempt was made to determine the insect parasites of cockroaches in Iraq. As a result of this survey three species of Hymenoptera representing two separate families, which have been reared from ootheca of cockroaches were recovered. These were: Evania dimidiata Fabricius, Evania appendigaster (Linnaeus) (Evaniidae) and Anastatus longicornis sp. n. (Eupelmidae) which described here as a new species from Iraq.

This paper was aimed to evaluate the polyurethane (PU) and polyurethane/polyvinyl chloride (90 wt. % / 10 wt. %) as organic coating of carbon steel substrate against marine environment (3.5 wt.% NaCl aqueous solution) as a severe corrosion environment . The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and fitting impedance data by ZsimpWin 3.22 software were used to estimate the physical barrier of the samples for different exposure times. Different equivalent electrical circuits were proposed for the physical barrier at different immersion times to get appropriate fitting .Both PU and PU/PVC coatings showed excellent corrosion protection ability for steel .The PU/PVC coating showed better protection and stability than PU coating against

            Environmentally friendly copper oxide nanoparticles (CuO NPs) were prepared with a green synthesis route via Anchusa strigosa L.  Flowers extract. These nanoparticles were further characterized by FTIR, XRD and SEM techniques. Removing of Gongo red from water was applied successfully by using synthesized CuO NPs which used as an adsorbent material. It was validated that the CuO NPs eliminate Congo red by means of adsorption, and the best efficiency of adsorption was gained at pH (3). The maximum adsorption capacity of CuO NPs for Congo red was observed at (35) mg/g. The equilibrium information for adsorption have been outfitted to the Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin and Halsey adsorption isot

This study was aimed to produce bacteriocin from Bacillus. licheniformis isolated from local soil of corn and sunflower fields and using as antimicrobial agent . Fourteen of local isolates of Bacillus sp. were obtained and ability of these isolates for growth on Brain heart infusion agar (BHI) at 550C were tested. Isolate C4 was revealed high growth density in comparison with other isolates. Isolate C4 was identified as Bacillus licheniformis according to morphological, cultural and biochemical tests, Moreover genetic analysis for 16S rRNA gene and given accession number MT192715.1 in GenBank of NCBI . Production of bacteriocin from this isolate was carried out in Luria Broth (LB) and partially purified by precipitation with 30-70 % saturat

Acinetobacter baumannii received attention for its multi-drug resistant associated with many severe infections and outbreaks in clinical environment. The aims of the study are to investigate the antibiotic susceptibility profile of clinically isolated A. baumannii, biofilm production, and the efficiency of Low Frequency Ultrasound (LFU) and honey to attenuate biofilm production. A total of 100 samples were taken from different sources from Baghdad hospitals. The susceptibility patterns revealed the percentage of pan drug resistant (PDR) isolates were 1.5 %, 72.7 % were extended drug resistant (XDR), 16.7 % were multidrug resistant (MDR), and 9.1 % were non MDR and sensitive to most antibiotics used. The ability to form

Convection heat transfer in a horizontal channel provided with metal foam blocks of two numbers of pores per unit of length (10 and 40 PPI) and partially heated at a constant heat flux is experimentally investigated with air as the working fluid. A series of experiments have been carried out under steady state condition. The experimental investigations cover the Reynolds number range from 638 to 2168, heat fluxes varied from 453 to 4462 W/m², and Darcy number 1.77x10^-5, 3.95x10^-6. The measured data were collected and analyzed. Results show that the wall temperatures at each heated section are affected by the imposed heat flux variation, Darcy number, and Reynolds number variation. The var

In the present study a new synthesis method has been introduced for the decoration of platinum(Pt) on the functionalized graphene nanoplatelet (GNP) and also highlighted the preparation method of nanofluids. GNP–Pt uniform nanocomposite was produced from a simple chemical reaction procedure, which included acid treatment for functionalization of GNP. The surface characterization was performed by various techniques such as XRD, FESEMand TEM. The effective thermal conductivity, density, viscosity, specific heat capacity and stability of functionalized GNP–Pt water based nanofluids were investigated in different instruments. The GNP–Pt hybrid nanofluids were prepared by dispersing the nanocomposite in base fluid without adding any surfac