In this study we try to make a first step for making a new list for fauna and flora of Kurdistan in particular and Iraq in general. This is very important study of biodiversity of Iraq. We recognize 52 migratory and resident birds including Alectoris chukar asoica which is recently described. Also, 20 amphibians and reptiles including two snakes recently recorded Zamenis hohenackeri and Platyceps ladacesis, a new form of Asaccus sp. and sub- species of Varanuns griseus caspeius for the first time in Iraq, with many rare specimens. Thirteen different species of mammals were recognized, with comme

    Coral reef area in northwest of the Arabian Gulf was investigated for mineralogy and geochemistry to throw lights on such unique Iraqi Marine Environment; six specimens of two main species of coral reefs, Platygyra pini Chevalier, 1975 and Octocoral Menella were collected at two sites. While eight samples of the surrounding sediments are chosen from other two sites. The mineralogy is determined by XRD, and reveals that calcite, low magnesium-calcite, and aragonite are the main minerals that comprise the Octocoral Menella in site 1, whilst aragonite and calcite are dominate in the P. pini coral reef at site 4.

    The non–carbonate fractions indicate that thes

Photonic crystal fiber interferometers are used in many sensing applications. In this work, an in-reflection photonic crystal fiber (PCF) based on Mach-Zehnder (micro-holes collapsing) (MZ) interferometer, which exhibits high sensitivity to different volatile organic compounds (VOCs), without the needing of any permeable material. The interferometer is robust, compact, and consists of a stub photonic crystal fiber of large-mode area, photonic crystal fiber spliced to standard single mode fiber (SMF) (corning-28), this splicing occurs with optimized splice loss 0.19 dB In the splice regions the voids of the holey fiber are completely collapsed, which allows the excitation and recombination of core and cladding modes. The device reflection

The refractive index sensors based on tapered optical fiber are attractive for many industries due to sensing capability in a variety of application. In this paper, we proposed a refractive index sensor based on multicore fiber (MCF) sandwiched between two standard single mode fibers (SMF). The sensor consisting of three sections, SMF- MCF-SMF is structurally simple and can be easily produced by joining these parts. The MFC contains seven cores and these cores are surrounded by a single cladding. The sensing region is obtained by tapering the MCF section where the evanescent field is generated. The single mode propagating along the SMF is stimulated at the first joint and is coupled to the cladding modes. These modes interfere with the core

A simple all optical fiber sensor based on multimode interference (MMI) for chemical liquids sensing was designed and fabricated. A segment of coreless fiber (CF) was spliced between two single mode fibers to buildup single mode-coreless-single mode (SCS) structure. Broadband source and optical signal analyzer were connected to the ends of SCS structure. De-ionized water, acetone, and n-hexane were used to test the performance of the sensor. Two influence factors on the sensitivity namely the length and the diameter of the CF were investigated. The obtained maximum sensitivity was at n-hexane at 340.89 nm/RIU (at a wavelength resolution of the optical spectrum analyzer of 0.02 nm) when the diameter of the CF reduced from 125 μm to 60 μ

Aluminum oxide (ALO) was grafted by acrylic acid monomer (AlO-AM) and then, it was polymerized to produce alumina grafted poly(acrylic acid) (AlO-AP). The prepared AlO-AM and AlO-AP were characterized by Fourier-transform infrared, differential scanning calorimetry , thermogravemetric analyzer and particle size distribution. Adsorption equilibrium isotherms, adsorption kinetics and thermodynamic studies of the batch adsorption process were used to examine the fundamental adsorption properties of phenol (P) and p-chlorophenol (PCP). The experimental equilibrium adsorption data were analyzed by three widely used two-parameters Langmuir, Freundlich and DubininRadushkevich isotherms. The maximum P and PCP adsorption capacities based on t

When the flange of a reinforced concrete spandrel beam is in tension, current design codes and specifications enable a portion of the bonded flexure tension reinforcement to be distributed over an effective flange width. The flexural behavior of the RC L-shaped spandrel beam when reinforcement is laterally displaced in the tension flange is investigated experimentally and numerically in this work. Numerical analysis utilizing the finite element method is performed on discretized flanged beam models validated using experimentally verified L-shaped beam specimens to achieve study objectives. A parametric study was carried out to evaluate the influence of various factors on the beam’s flexure behavior. Results showed that

The isolation and characterization of Escherichia coli O157:H7 strains from 22 out of 174 fecal samples from petting zoo animals representing twenty‐two different species (camel, lion, goats, zebra, bear, baboon monkey, Siberian monkey, deer, elk, llama, pony, horses, fox, kangaroo, wolf, porcupine, chickens, tiger, ostrich, hyena, dogs, and wildcats) were investigated. One petting Al‐Zawraa zoological society of Baghdad was investigated for E. coli O157:H7 over a 16‐month period that spanned two summer and two autumn seasons. Variation in the occurrence of E. coli O157:H7‐positive petting zoo animals was observed, with animals being culture pos