Reproduction potential and age –specific fecundity of the Mealybug Planococcus citri Risso were studied in the laboratories of Biological control research unit,college of Agriculture –Baghdad university at 25± 2Cº and 60-70% R.H.with 16 light:8 dark photo period.The results showed that the survival ratio began to decline at the 38th day, the average female age was 20 days ,while the average age was 8 days at the first reproduction . Net reproduction rate ( Ro ) was 58.59 female female generation which prove that the population of the mealybug was of the unstable kind , intrinsic rate of increase (rm) was 0.118 femalefemale and the average length period of generation ( T ) was 34.30 days . Many local predators attack the mealybug

The current study was conductedas a pot experiment to determine the effect of soil texture on biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) of six most efficient local isolates, specified, of Bradyrhizobium. Cowpea (Vignaunguiculata L.), as a legume host crop, was used as a host crop and 15N dilution analysis was used for accurate determination of the amount of N biologically fixed under experimental parameters specified. Soils used are clay loam, sandy clay loam and sandy loam. Biological Nitrogen Fixation (BNF), in different soil textural classes, was as in the following order: medium texture soil > heavy texture soil > light textured soil. Statistical analysis showed that there is a significant variation in BNF % among six Iraqi isolates in the th

The present paper investigates the role of fear and predator dependent refuge in the prey-predator system. The system describes the interaction between prey and a stage structure of predator that incorporates Holling II functional response. The predator splits into two compartments immature (juvenile) and mature (adult). The mature predators can hunt and reproduce but this capability is not found in the immature predators, the immature depend on their parents. The growth rate of prey decreases due to the existence of mature predators. The existence, uniqueness, and boundedness of the solution of the system are investigated. Three equilibrium points of the system are determined. The local stability of the system is studied. The global stabil

In this paper, an enhanced artificial potential field (EAPF) planner is introduced. This planner is proposed to rapidly find online solutions for the mobile robot path planning problems, when the underlying environment contains obstacles with unknown locations and sizes. The classical artificial potential field represents both the repulsive force due to the detected obstacle and the attractive force due to the target. These forces can be considered as the primary directional indicator for the mobile robot. However, the classical artificial potential field has many drawbacks. So, we suggest two secondary forces which are called the midpoint

Regression Discontinuity (RD) means a study that exposes a definite group to the effect of a treatment. The uniqueness of this design lies in classifying the study population into two groups based on a specific threshold limit or regression point, and this point is determined in advance according to the terms of the study and its requirements. Thus , thinking was focused on finding a solution to the issue of workers retirement and trying to propose a scenario to attract the idea of granting an end-of-service reward to fill the gap ( discontinuity point) if it had not been granted. The regression discontinuity method has been used to study and to estimate the effect of the end -service reward on the cutoff of insured workers as well as t

Due to severe scouring, many bridges failed worldwide. Therefore, the safety of the existing bridge (after contrition) mainly depends on the continuous monitoring of local scour at the substructure. However, the bridge's safety before construction mainly depends on the consideration of local scour estimation at the bridge substructure. Estimating the local scour at the bridge piers is usually done using the available formulae. Almost all the formulae used in estimating local scour at the bridge piers were derived from laboratory data. It is essential to test the performance of proposed local scour formulae using field data. In this study, the performance of selected bridge scours estimation formulae was validated and sta

        Artificial Neural networks (ANN) are powerful and effective tools in time-series applications. The first aim of this paper is to diagnose better and more efficient ANN models (Back Propagation, Radial Basis Function Neural networks (RBF), and Recurrent neural networks) in solving the linear and nonlinear time-series behavior. The second aim is dealing with finding accurate estimators as the convergence sometimes is stack in the local minima. It is one of the problems that can bias the test of the robustness of the ANN in time series forecasting. To determine the best or the optimal ANN models, forecast Skill (SS) employed to measure the efficiency of the performance of ANN models. The mean square error and

The current research aimed to analyze the importance, correlation and the effect of independent variables represented by marketing variables on the dependent variable represented by local brand, through taking ENIEM as a model for this study, which represents a sensitive sector for the Algerian consumer. The results of the study evinced that the Algerian consumer has a positive image toward the brand ENIEM given marketing variables which has acquired considerable importance to this consumer. Also, the results of this study showed a statistically significant correlation between marketing variables and good perception toward the brand ENIEM, at the same time, the existence of a statistically significant effect for each of these variables o

An essential tool for studying the web is its ability to show how energy moves through an ecosystem. Understanding and elucidating the relationship between species variety and their placement within the inclusive trophic dynamics is also beneficial. A food web ecological model with prey and two rival predators under fear and wind flow conditions is developed in this article. The boundedness and positivity of the system’s solution are established mathematically. The stability and existence constraints of the system’s equilibria are examined. The proposed system’s persistence limitations are established. Additionally, the bifurcation analysis of every potential equilibrium is examined using the Sotomayor theorem. To describe the

The interplay of predation, competition between species and harvesting is one of the most critical aspects of the environment. This paper involves exploring the dynamics of four species' interactions. The system includes two competitive prey and two predators; the first prey is preyed on by the first predator, with the former representing an additional food source for the latter. While the second prey is not exposed to predation but rather is exposed to the harvest. The existence of possible equilibria is found. Conditions of local and global stability for the equilibria are derived. To corroborate our findings, we constructed time series to illustrate the existence and the stability of equilibria numerically by varying the different values