The study deals with palaeoecology and paleoclimates of Holocene sediments of historical Babylon area on palynological evidence which located at Euphrates river, (100) Km south of Baghdad. Links between environmental and socio- cultural changes are explored in archaeological and palaeoenvironmental data. The increased social and cultural developments as a response of enhanced aridity, driven by population accumulation in environments characterized by the presence of surface water resource. Three palaeoecological zones PZ1, PZ2, and PZ3 are deduced from the pollen diagram which reflect the climatic and ecologic changes throughout parts of the Holocene (5500-7500; 5500- 4000 and 4000-Present yr BP).
Cereal grasses appear at the beginning of the PZ3 which indicate the flourishing of cultivation during the Palaeo-Babylonian and Meso-Babylonian periods (3950-2950 yr BP). Cereal grasses pollen (cultivated) distinguished from the wild grass pollen by their morphology and the pore shape and size. Social complexity and cultural development were largely driven by climatic and environmental changes that prevailed the area throughout parts of the Holocene, as a response to the increased aridity which has led to a great progress in the irrigation facilities and building dykes along the cultivated areas and social communities at the site, as well.
In this study, wax worm larvae (Galleria mellonella) were used to examine their ability to degrade and assimilate polyethylene (PE) as an energy source. This idea came from the similarity of wax, that is used as the sole diet for larvae, with PE in composition. Morphology changes, weight loss, FTIR analysis and GC-Mass test were studied to prove the degradation of PE by G. mellonella. The maximum depth of holes on the plastic surface and 16% PE weight loss was due to extensive cutting. The creation of a novel O-H stretching alcohols/phenols group absorbance peak at 3293cm-1 observed in wax worm larvae PE frass samples may be due to the oxidation in their gut. Accordingly, the biodegradation of PE by
... Show MoreIn a global context increasingly concerned with climate change, understanding the impact of economic growth on the environment is becoming crucial, especially for developing countries. Morocco has been committed to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to achieve the objectives set for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 13% by 2030, with 2010 as the reference year. Such a target could reach 32% by the same horizon under certain technical, financial and capacity building support conditions.
The main emitters of greenhouse gases (CH4 and CO2) are landfills because during the decomposition of solid waste CO2 is the most present gas pollutant is for this reason focuses this case study carried out in a
Urban agriculture is one of the important urban uses of land in cities since the inception of cities and civilizations, but the great expansion of cities in the world during the twentieth century and the beginning of the twentieth century and the increase in the number of urban residents compared to the rural population has led to a decline in this use in favor of other uses.
This decline in agricultural and green land areas in cities has negatively affected the environment, natural life and biological diversity in cities in addition to the great impact on the climate and the increase in temperatures and the negative impact on the economic side, since urban agriculture is an important pillar of the economy, especially
... Show MoreRecent phosphorus (P) pollution in the United States, mainly in Maine, has raised some severe concerns over the use of P fertilizer application rates in agriculture. Phosphorus is the second most limiting nutrient after nitrogen and has damaging impacts on crop yield if found to be deficient. Therefore, farmers tend to apply more P than is required to satisfy any P loss after its application at planting. Several important questions were raised in this study to improve P efficiency and reduce its pollution. The objective of this study was to find potential reasons for P pollution in water bodies despite a decrease in potato acreage. Historically, the potato was found to be responsible for P water contamination due to its high P sensitivity a
... Show MoreThis study assessed the advantage of using earthworms in combination with punch waste and nutrients in remediating drill cuttings contaminated with hydrocarbons. Analyses were performed on day 0, 7, 14, 21, and 28 of the experiment. Two hydrocarbon concentrations were used (20000 mg/kg and 40000 mg/kg) for three groups of earthworms number which were five, ten and twenty earthworms. After 28 days, the total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) concentration (20000 mg/kg) was reduced to 13200 mg/kg, 9800 mg/kg, and 6300 mg/kg in treatments with five, ten and twenty earthworms respectively. Also, TPH concentration (40000 mg/kg) was reduced to 22000 mg/kg, 10100 mg/kg, and 4200 mg/kg in treatments with the above number of earthworms respectively. The p
... Show MoreThe aim of the research was to assess effects of short and long-period exposure to radiation from mobile phone on blood indices in experimental rats. In this study forty mature female rats were used; the animals were divided into two experimental group, each group consists of twenty animals. Short-period group of rats were exposed to cell phone radiation for different duration 30 m, 60 m, and 90 m per day for six weeks. Long-period group of rats were exposed to radiation from mobile phone for different duration 2h, 4h, and 6h per day for three months. The study noticed that there was significant (P≥0.05) elevation in total white blood cells and the study demonstrated significant increment (P≥0.05) in percentage of
... Show MoreThis study aims at recognizing Pesticides and how the process of pesticides biodegradation by microbiology took place, and the effect of environmental condition on this process. And how the research uncovered the efficiency of microbiology in the biodegradation process of pesticides, as the perfect temperature for the biodegradation process is 40 °C and humidity effect on pesticides efficiency, when high humidity reduces pesticide efficiency and the perfect acidity to increase bacteria efficiency is 7, for the incubation period, it was found during the previous studies that the best incubation period is 5-7 days, in this period the bacteria imprint on pesticides and increase biodegradation of it.
Numerical study has been conducted to investigate the thermal performance enhancement of flat plate solar water collector by integrating the solar collector with metal foam blocks.The flow is assumed to be steady, incompressible and two dimensional in an inclined channel. The channel is provided with eight foam blocks manufactured form copper. The Brinkman-Forchheimer extended Darcy model is utilized to simulate the flow in the porous medium and the Navier-Stokes equation in the fluid region. The energy equation is used with local thermal equilibrium (LTE) assumption to simulate the thermofield inside the porous medium. The current investigation covers a range of solar radiation intensity at 09:00 AM, 12:00 PM, and 04:00
... Show Moreone of the most important consequences of climate change is the rise in sea levels, which leads to the drowning of some low-lying island states, which leads to them losing the elements of statehood and thus affecting their status as a state, this resulted in several proposals made by the jurisprudence of international law to solve this issue, perhaps the most important of which is the idea of the government in exile, and the proposal to continue recognition of submerged countries, in a way that makes it possible to talk about a new concept of states represented by deterritorialized states, all of which are ultimately proposals that contain great difficulties that hinder their implementation in reality.
Automation is one of the key systems in modern agriculture, providing potential solutions to the challenges related to the growing world population, demographic shifts, and economic situation. The present article aims to highlight the importance of precision agriculture (PA) and smart agriculture (SA) in increasing agricultural production and the importance of environmental protection in increasing production and reducing traditional production. For this purpose, different types of automation systems in the field of agricultural operations are discussed, as well as smart agriculture technologies including the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), big data analysis, in addition to agricultural robots,
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