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 compa

The presence of residual antibiotics in water results in the development of antibiotics resistant genes. The available wastewater treatment systems are not capable of removing such antibiotics from sewage. Thus, antibiotics need to be removed before the discharge of wastewater. Adsorption is among the promising techniques for the wastewater treatment to aid the removal of a wide range of organic and inorganic pollutants. The present work is a contribution to the search for an economical method for the removal of low concentrations of amoxicillin (AMX) from water by adsorption on water treatment residue, WTR, taken from a local drinking water facility. The chemical composition and the adsorptive characteristics of the material were first

The present study was conducted to examine toxicological effects of copper sulfate (Cu) in common carp fish (Cyprinus carpio L.). The LC50 (median lethal concentrations) of copper on Cyprinus carpio were 3.64, 3.36, 3.04, 2.65 mg/L respectively. In general, behavioral responses of the fishes exposed to copper included uncontrolled swimming, erratic movements, loss of balance, swam near the water surface with sudden jerky movements. Haematological parameters such, red blood cells (RBC), white blood cells (WBC), haemoglobin (Hb), Packed cell volume (PCV), mean cell volume (MCV) mean cell haemoglobin (MCH), and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) were studied. The obtained results indicated that the (RBC) and (WBC) have increas

This paper reports a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) as a biosensor. The FBGs were etched using a chemical agent,namely,hydrofluoric acid (HF). This implies the removal of some part of the cladding layer. Consequently, the evanescent field propagating out of the core will be closer to the environment and become more sensitive to the change in the surrounding. The proposed FBG sensor was utilized to detect toxic heavy metal ions aqueous medium namely, copper ions (Cu2+). Two FBG sensors were etched with 20 and 40 μm diameters and fabricated. The sensors were studied towards Cu2+ with different concentrations using wavelength shift as a result of the interaction between the evanescent field and copper ions. The FBG sensors showed

Copper nanoparticles (CuNPs) were prepared with different diameters by sonoelectrodeposition technique using Electrodeposition process coupled with high-power ultrasound horn (Sonoelectrodeposition). The particle diameter of the CuNPs was adjusted by varying CuSO4 solution acidity (pH) and current density. The morphology and structure of the CuNPs were examined by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). It was found that the size of the produced copper nanoparticles ranged between 22 to 77 nm, where the diameter of CuNPs increases with reduction the solution acidity from 0.5 to 1.5 pH and increasing the current density of the deposition from 100 to 400 nm. Finally the produced CuNPs were pressed to fabricate disc

Background: Mobile phones are approximately widely used everywhere like in hospital wards, clinics and universities as well as biomedical laboratories. They have become very important tool in students’ life. In contrast, these tools carry many harmful bacteria which are responsible for infectious diseases in human because they serve as a reservoir for different pathogens. Current study was aimed to isolate bacteria from students’ mobile phones at the Institute of Medical Technology/Al-Mansour/The Middle Technical University, Baghdad, Iraq. Also, the study investigated microbial resistance to many antimicrobial agents as well as the appropriate remedial measures. Method: Four hundred and fifty swabs from mobile phones were collected from

The fabrication of Solid and Hollow silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) has been achieved and their characterization was performed using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), zeta potential, UV–VIS spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction (XRD). A TEM image revealed a quasispherical form for both Solid and Hollow Ag NPs. The measurement of surface charge revealed that although Hollow Ag NPs have a zeta potential of -43 mV, Solid Ag NPs have a zeta potential of -33 mV. According to UV-VIS spectroscopy measurement Solid and Hollow Ag NPs both showed absorption peaks at wavelengths of 436 nm and 412 nm, respectively. XRD pattern demonstrates that the samples' crystal structure is cubic, similar to that of the bulk materials, with

A study was conducted to evaluate the antibacterial effect of Phyllanthus emblica extract (ethanol:methanol, 1:1) against Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli at different concentrations, i.e. 0.625, 1.25, 2.50, 5.0, 10.0 and 20.0 mg/ml. The antibacterial activity was determined by the agar well diffusion method to investigate the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC). The alcoholic extract of Phyllanthus emblica had the highest antibacterial activity at 20 mg/ml and 5 mg/ml except for Pseudomonas aeruginosa where the value of inhibition was between 20 and 10 mg/ml. The MIC concentrations were mostly very high and ranged from 5 to 1.25 mg/ml, while the MBC range fro

Background: Since the invention of laser in 1960, lasers have been developed and approved in many fields. Lasers can now be regarded as practical tools with unique properties that have been utilized effectively in several applications in fields of medical and biological sciences.Objectives: The aim of the current study was to preparation of vaccines (live attenuated and killed) by irradiation of the bacteria by the low level diode laser.Methods: six bacterial isolates were isolated from human samples of diabetic foot infections, which used for preparation of vaccines. The experiment was conducted on fifteen adult male rabbits; they were divided into three groups with 5 rabbits each. Blood samples were collected from the marginal ear vein