The red palm weevil Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Olivier, 1790), which belongs to the family Curculionidae, order Coleoptera, is one of the most important palm pests, which leads to heavy losses in date palms. In the last few years, it has been recorded in Iraq, from Safwan city south of Iraq, where it was detected on date palm trees (Phoenix dactylifera L, Arecales: Arecaceae). In the current study, specimens of adult weevils were collected from infested date palms (Phoenix dactylifera), that showed signs of infection in Safwan district, south of Basra province. The results of the investigation showed the presence of phoretic mites associated with the red palm weevil Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Olivier, 1790). Two genera of Uropodid mites, deutonymph, were attached by anal pedicel to body parts of adult red palm weevils. They were collected and identified as Centrouropoda (Uropodidae), and Uroovbovella (Urodinychidae), according to accurate taxonomic keys. The differentiation between two genera of mites was studied. The deutonymphs were examined and photographed by an AM Scop camera installed on a light microscope, and the insects were photographed by a LEICA microscope. The infestation symptoms were illustrated with pictures.
A modified chemical method was used to prepare titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2 NPs), which were diagnosed by several techniques: X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared, field emission scaning electron microscopy, energy disperse X-ray, and UV-visible spectroscopy, which proved the success of the preparation process at the nanoscale level. Where the titanium oxide particles have an average particle size equal to 6.8 nm, titanium dioxide particles were used in the process of adsorption of Congo red dye from its aqueous solutions using a batch system. The titanium oxide particles gave an adsorption efficiency of Congo red dye up to more than 79 %. The experimental data of the adsorption process were analyzed with kinetic models and
... Show MoreThe possibility of using activated carbon developed from date palm seeds wastes as a permeable reactive barrier (PRB) to remove copper from polluted shallow groundwater was investigated. The activated carbon has been developed from date palm seeds by dehydrating methods using concentrated sulfuric acid. Batch tests were performed to characterize the equilibrium sorption properties of new activated carbon in copper-containing aqueous solutions, while the sandy soil (aquifer) was assumed to be inert. Under the studied conditions, the Langmuir isotherm model gives a better fit for the sorption data of copper by activated carbon than other models. At a pilot scale, One-dimensional column experiments were performed, and an integrated model ba
... Show MoreThe adsorption behavior of congo red dye from its aqueous solutions was investigated onto natural and modified bauxite clays. Both bauxite and modified bauxite are primarily characterized by using, FTIR, SEM, AFM, and XRD. Several variables are studied as a function of adsorption including contact time, adsorbent weight, pH, ionic strength, particle size and temperature under batch adsorption technique. The absorbance of the solution before and after adsorption was measured spectrophotometrically. The equilibrium data fit with Langmuir model of adsorption and the linear regression coefficient R2 is found to be 0.9832 and 0.9630 for natural and modified bauxite respectively at 37.5°C which elucidate the best fitting isotherm model. The gene
... Show MoreHere we report for the first time the presence of Apoleptomastix bicoloricornis (Girault, 1915) (Hymenoptera, Encyrtidae), as parasitoid of the rice mealybug, Brevennia rehi (Lindinger, 1943) (Hemiptera, Psedococcidae) in Iraq. Brief notes are provided in distinguishing the parasitoid from other closely allied species.
Mauddud Formation (Albian stage-the Early Cretaceous) is an important oil reservoir in Ratawi field of southern Iraq. Four wells, R T-2, R T-3, R T-6, and R T-7, located 70 km northwest of Basra, were selected to study microfacies properties and petrophysical associations with the probability of oil production. Seventy-seven core samples are collected, and thin sections for petrographic analysis. The self-potential, Gamma-ray, resistivity, and porosity logs are used to determine the top and bottom of the Mauddud Formation. Water saturation of the invaded and uninvaded zones, shale volume, and porosity were calculated. The study area results showed that the quantity of shale is less than 15% for most of the wells, and the dominant po
... Show MoreMultiple eliminations (de-multiple) are one of seismic processing steps to remove their effects and delineate the correct primary refractors. Using normal move out to flatten primaries is the way to eliminate multiples through transforming these data to frequency-wavenumber domain. The flatten primaries are aligned with zero axis of the frequency-wavenumber domain and any other reflection types (multiples and random noise) are distributed elsewhere. Dip-filter is applied to pass the aligned data and reject others will separate primaries from multiple after transforming the data back from frequency-wavenumber domain to time-distance domain. For that, a suggested name for this technique as normal move out- frequency-wavenumber domain
... Show MoreThis study is concerned with the adsorption of Congo red from solution on the surface of Chaff. The adsorption isotherm is of L-curve type according to Giles classification and the experimental data were best fitted to Langmuir isotherm model. The adsorption phenomenon was examined as a function of temperature (25, 40, 55 oC). The extent of adsorption of Congo red on Chaff was found to increase with the increase of temperature (endothermic process). The basic thermodynamic functions have also been calculated. The effect of contact time was investigated and found that the adsorption process of dye on Chaff surface reached complete equilibrium within 90 min. The maximum uptake of Congo red by Chaff was found to be 92.9% at 25oC. The kineti
... Show MoreThree monogeneans: Dactylogyrus folkmanovae from gills of Chondrostoma regium, D. reinii from gills of Mesopotamichthys sharpeyi and D. robustus from gills of Leuciscus vorax were collected from Diyala River in Diyala Province. The description, measurements and illustrations of these parasites were given.
Biodegradation is utilizing microorganisms to degrade materials into products that are safe for the
environment, such as carbon dioxide, water, and biomass. The current study aims to isolate and characterize
bacteria with polyethylene terephthalate (PET) degradation ability isolated from Shatt al-Arab water and
sewage from Basra, the bacteria were identified as Klebsiella pneumonia. According to the findings, the
isolates showed a highly significant difference in degradation of PET (24% during 7 days) and the percent of
degradation increased to 46% at 4 weeks compared to the control. The study also involved determining the
optimum temperature of K. pneumonia growth, which was 37°C, while the preferred