The current study was conducted to demonstrate the effects of air pollution on different biochemical parameters inCitrus aurantium plant and calculation the Air Pollution Tolerance Index (APTI). Five sites were selected tocollect plant leaves, four of them within the city of Baghdad, namely Al-Jadriya, Al-Andlous, Al-Doura and closeto the private generators to represent the urban areas and Abu Ghraib site to represent the rural area. Seasonalsamples were collected for the period from October 2016 to June 2017. Eleven biochemical parameters totalchlorophyll, ascorbic acid, leaf extract pH, relative water content, total nitrogen, total protein content, total sugarcontent, proline, electrical conductivity, cadmium and lead. The results of Citr

Objective Thalassemic patients present with multiple immune abnormalities that may predispose them to oral Candida, however this has not been investigated. The aim of this study was to assess oral candidal colonization in a group of patients with β-thalassemia major both qualitatively and quantitatively. Study design The oral mycologic flora of 50 β-thalassemia major patients and 50 age- and sex-matched control subjects was assessed using the concentrated oral rinse technique. Candida species were identified using the germ tube test and the Vitek yeast identification system. Results Oral Candida was isolated from 37 patients (74%) and 28 healthy subjects (56%; P = .04). The mean candidal count was significantly higher in thalassemic patie

This paper describes the problem of online autonomous mobile robot path planning, which is consisted of finding optimal paths or trajectories for an autonomous mobile robot from a starting point to a destination across a flat map of a terrain, represented by a 2-D workspace. An enhanced algorithm for solving the problem of path planning using Bacterial Foraging Optimization algorithm is presented. This nature-inspired metaheuristic algorithm, which imitates the foraging behavior of E-coli bacteria, was used to find the optimal path from a starting point to a target point. The proposed algorithm was demonstrated by simulations in both static and dynamic different environments. A comparative study was evaluated between the developed algori

The study reported here aims to investigate the application of shape memory alloys (SMAs) in the form of strips for strengthening cracked reinforced concrete (RC) beams. The study proposes an innovative technique for prestressing RC beams by utilizing the shape recovery property of the alloy. Nine full-scale RC beams with a length of 3.75 m and a cross-section of 200 mm × 300 mm were categorized into three groups based on the steel reinforcement ratio, and tested under static loading. Three RC beams were used as control specimens and the other six were retrofitted with either one layer or two layers of SMA strips. The beams to be strengthened were exposed to an initial applied load before the installation of the SMA strip to sim