Low-level microbial activity due to the production of organic acids is a recognized problem during the initial phase of food waste composting. Increasing such activity levels by adjusting the pH values during the initial composting phase is the primary objective to be investigated. In this study, sodium acetate (NaoAc) was introduced as an amendment to an in-vessel composting system. NaoAc was added when the pH of the compost mixture reached a low level (pH < 5), the addition increased pH to 5.8. This had a positive effect on the degradation of organic materials i.e. the formation of methane gas compared to the results without NaoAc addition.

The results also proved that anaerobic-aerobic in-vessel composting could reduce the

The Maxwell equations have been formulated for a composite slab waveguide at x-band wave propagation. The eigenvalues of the system equations are obtained by using MATLAB program. These eigenvalues are used to obtain the wave propagation constant and a number of modes inside the slabs. A good correspondence was seen between the number of modes and the cut off thickness. The parameter that affects the performance of waveguide is the slab thickness. The propagation constant is usually adopted to characterize this type of waveguide and show how the cutoff frequency of the mode in the slab is increased dramatically by decreasing the frequency.
Our study focused on lower modes, the results for the transmission coefficient are then used to

Several toxigenic cyanobacteria produce the cyanotoxin (microcystin). Being a health and environmental hazard, screening of water sources for the presence of microcystin is increasingly becoming a recommended environmental procedure in many countries of the world. This study was conducted to assess the ability of freshwater cyanobacterial species Westiellopsis prolifica to produce microcystins in Iraqi freshwaters via using molecular and immunological tools. The toxigenicity of W. prolifica was compared via laboratory experiments with other dominant bloom-forming cyanobacteria isolated from the Tigris River: Microcystis aeruginosa, Chroococcus turigidus, Nostoc carneum, and Lyngbya sp. signifi

Production and characterization of methionine γ- lyase from Pseudomonas putida and its effect on cancer cell lines

This study aims to assess the suitability of the sediments present in Tigris River, Tikrit city, northern Iraq for concrete production and road building purposes. Representative samples were collected from three selected stations at the study area using the channel modeling method. According to the grain size analysis, the sediments were classified as a type of poorly graded gravels (GP) depending on the unified soil classification system. The true specific gravity of the soil ranged between 2.28 and 2.568. The chemical analysis of the study samples revealed that gypsum content ranged between 0.82 and 1.69 %. Total soluble salts ranged 2.45- 3.87%, the organic matter content ranged 0.14- 0.76%, and the pH value was between 7.73 and 7.38%

The present study is considered a pioneer investigation that deal with the terrestrial brown garden snail Cornu aspersum (Müller), in Iraq. Cornu aspersum however is considered an exotic species in many parts of the world ,The species is most probably infiltrates with plants transferred from one place to another. The species has gained importance in many ways. Nutritionally, the species is consumed as food item in many countries, but in other cases it is considered as pest for the damage it causes when feeding on valuable plant shoots. It also has medical importance for its role and ability in healing wounds, burns and remedy of other skin problems. This snail species however may act as a vector for some parasitic nematodes that

Radioactive liquid waste contaminated with cesium-137 found in the radiochemistry laboratories at Tuwaitha site, south of Baghdad, was treated in this work. Bentonite was used as a sorbent material for the removal of radioactive cesium-137 from liquid waste by ion exchange method. The results indicated that the best removal efficiency obtained was 95.13% with experimental conditions of 2 h mixture time, 0.04 g sorbent mass, and pH=10 for the radioactive liquid. It was found that the experimental results match well with Langmuir and Freundlich models, with better matching with the latter.

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

The minimization, treatment and disposal of drilling wastes especially oily wastes are important environmental issues.

In this research two fungal isolates named Pleurotus ostreatus and Trichoderma harzianum were chosen carefully f or the purpose of biotreatment of oily drilled cuttings which resulting from  drilling oil wells using oil based muds (OBMs).

A relationship of total petroleum hydrocarbon degradation in oily drilled cuttings with time has been obtained. The results showed that Pleurotus ostreatus and Trichoderma harzianum can be considered hydrocarbon degrading microorganisms and the used biotreatment is cost effective process since most of the materials used in the cultivation and growth of the present f