Drought is a complex phenomenon that has severe impacts on the environment. Vegetation and its conditions are very sensitive to drought effects. This study aimed to monitor and assess the drought severity and its relationships to some ecological variables in ten districts of Erbil Governorate (Kurdistan Region), Iraq, throughout 20 years (1998-2017). The results revealed that droughts frequently hit Erbil throughout the study period. The Landsat time-series- based on Vegetation Condition Index (VCI) significantly correlated with precipitation, Digital Elevation Model (DEM), and latitude. Extreme VCI-based drought area percentages were recorded in 1999, 2000, 2008, and 2011 by 43.4%, 67.9%, 43.3%, and 40.0%, respectively. The highest crop yield reduction in the study area occurred mainly in 2000, 2008, and 2012 due to low precipitation rates. These results reveal the capability of the VCI for drought characteristics and highlighting relationships with some ecological variables, which provide vital information to the decision-makers, environmental, and economic sectors.
Background: The grading systems of salivary mucoepidermoid carcinoma depend on different histologic and morphologic features. The aim of this study was to compare between Auclair and Brandwein systems according to their histologic criteria, and the type of cell predominant. Materials and Methods: Twenty-one case included hematoxylin-eosin (H&E) stained tissue slides that were diagnosed as MEC, originally categorized into low and high grade type regardless of the grading system, have meticulously undergone histopathologic review. The sample was graded according to criteria owing to Auclair and Brandwein methods. The predominant type of cells was determined by microscopic examination according to grade of tumor. Results: Regarding the
... Show MoreThis paper presents an analysis solution for systems of partial differential equations using a new modification of the decomposition method to overcome the computational difficulties. Convergence of series solution was discussed with two illustrated examples, and the method showed a high-precision, being a fast approach to solve the non-linear system of PDEs with initial conditions. There is no need to convert the nonlinear terms into the linear ones due to the Adomian polynomials. The method does not require any discretization or assumption for a small parameter to be present in the problem. The steps of the suggested method are easily implemented, with high accuracy and rapid convergence to the exact solution,
... Show MoreNowadays, the use of natural bio-products in pharmaceuticals is gaining popularity as safe alternatives to chemicals and synthetic drugs. Algal products are offering a pure, healthy and sustainable choice for pharmaceutical applications. Algae are photosynthetic microorganisms that can survive in different environmental conditions. Algae have many outstanding properties that make them excellent candidate for use in therapeutics. Algae grow in fresh and marine waters and produce in their cells a wide range of biologically active chemical compounds. These bioactive compounds are offering a great source of highly economic bio-products. The prese
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Alumina thin films have significant applications in the areas of optoelectronics, optics, electrical insulators, sensors and tribology. The novel aspect of this work is that the homogeneous alumina thin films were prepared in several stages to generate a plasma jet. In this paper, aluminium nanoparticles suspended in vinyl alcohol were prepared using exploding wire plasma. TEM analysis was used to determine the size and shape of particles in aluminium and vinyl alcohol suspensions; the TEM images showed that the particle size is 17.2 nm. Aluminium/poly vinyl alcohol (Al/PVA) thin films were prepared using this suspension on quartz substrate by plasma jet technique at room temperature with an argon gas flow rate of 1 L/min. The Al/PV
... Show MoreEnhancement of the performance for hybrid solar air conditioning system was presented in this paper. The refrigerant temperature leaving the condenser was controlled using three-way valve, this valve was installed after the compressor to regulate refrigerant flow rate towards the solar system. A control system using data logger, sensors and computer was proposed to set the opening valve ratio. The function of control program using LabVIEW software is to obtain a minimum refrigerant temperature from the condenser outlet to enhance the overall COP of the unit by increasing the degree of subcooled refrigerant. A variable load electrical heater with coiled pipe was used instead of the solar collector and the storage tank to simulate the sola
... Show MoreSTAG proteins, which are part of the cohesin complex and encoded by the STAG genes, are known as Irr1/Scc3 in yeast and as SA/STAG/stromalin in mammals. There are more variants as there are alternate splice sites, maybe three open reading frames (ORFs) code for three main proteins, including: SA1 (STAG1), SA2 (STAG2) and SA3 (STAG3). The cohesin protein complex has various essential roles in eukaryotic cell biology. This study compared the expression of the STAG1 gene in four different breast cancer cell lines, including: MCF-7, T-47D, MDA-MB-468, and MDA-MB-231 and normal breast tissue. RNA was extracted from these cell lines and mRNA was converted to cDNA, and then expression of the STAG1 gene was quantified by three sets of specific p
... Show MoreToni Morrison (1931-), the first African-American winner of Noble Prize in literature (1993) and the winner of the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, regards herself as the historian of African-American people. She does not think of her writings as literature but as a sacred book dedicated to explore the interior lives of blacks. She creates history by disregarding European standards and the white man's view of African- Americans. She adopts her people's point of view, invests their heritage, voices their pains and uses their vernacular. She even writes to a black audience. She establishes the black novel by depicting the blackness of American literature. In choos
... Show MoreThe thermal properties of four nematogenic Schiff’s bases, n-butyl-to-n-heptyl of bis (4-n-alkyloxybenzylidine)-2,3,5.6- tetramethyl-1, 4-phenylenediamine, have been studied. The transition temperatures and enthalpies of transition were examined by differential scanning calorimeter (DSC). Several correlations were carried out; those included the relations between transition temperatures, enthalpies and entropies of transition with increasing the
number of carbon atoms in the terminal alkyl chains. In addition, new regular relations were found between the ratio of the enthalpies and of the entropies, for noematic-isotropic transition and crystal-isotropic transition ( ΔΗÎ-i/AHC-I, ΔS