High tunnels, or unheated plastic greenhouses, are becoming increasingly popular among organic vegetable growers across the United States. However, the intensive production typical of these systems presents soil health challenges, including salinization due to high fertilizer or compost inputs coupled with lack of rainfall to leach salts. Legume cover crops may improve soil health in high tunnels by reducing the need for external inputs, while adding organic matter. We tested the soil health effects of a winter hairy vetch (Vicia villosa Roth) cover crop used to replace fertilizer N in an organic tomato cropping system in high tunnels. Studies were replicated across three sites differing in climate and soil type (Kansas, Kentucky, and Minnesota) over three years. We measured vetch cover crop effects on a suite of soil health indicators, including potentially mineralizable nitrogen (PMN), permanganate oxidizable carbon, and microbial biomass. Preliminary results suggest that vetch effects on PMN were highly variable. Soil mineral N, meanwhile, was often lower in the vetch treatment than in a fertilized control, both in spring and in fall. While further work on vetch effects on crop yields is needed, our results suggest that even legume cover crops such as vetch have the potential to reduce nitrate leaching.
ABSTRACT
The study aims to identify the level of health services provided in private suites to government hospitals from the perspective of the recipi
... Show More
Coronavirus diseases 2021 (COVID-19) on going situation in Iraq is characterized in this paper. The pandemic handling by the government and the difficulties of public health measures enforcement in Iraq. Estimation of the COVID-19 data set was performed. Iraq is endangered to the pandemic, like the rest of the world besides sharing borders with hotspot neighbouring country Iran. The government of Iraq launched proactive measures in an attempt to prevent the viral spread. Nevertheless, reports of new cases keep escalating leaving the public health officials racing to take more firm constriction to face the pandemic. The paper bring forth the current COVID-19 scenario in Iraq, the government measures towards the public health challenges, and
... Show More
Government-sponsored projects in Iraq significantly improve the economic situation and provide services but face high rates of troubling blocks. This work aims to identify indicative factors of the Troubled Project using periodic health check reports based on a literature review and interviews with Iraqi experts. As a result, a questionnaire was prepared that included four sections. The first is personal information; the second section is information about knowing the level of institutions’ implementation of project management through prepared documents. The third section is about indicative factors for the project's trouble, including 25 workers; the fourth section is about the questions in the periodic reports to che
... Show More
(25)
(26)
This paper analyzes the effect of scaling-up model and acceleration history on seismic response of closed-ended pipe pile using a finite element modeling approach and the findings of 1 g shaking table tests of a pile embedded in dry and saturated soils. A number of scaling laws were used to create the numerical modeling according to the data obtained from 1 g shake table tests performed in the laboratory. The current study found that the behaviors of the scaled models, in general have similar trends. From numerical modeling on both the dry and saturated sands, the normalized lateral displacement, bending moment, and vertical displacement of piles with scale factors of 2 and 35 are less than those of the pile with a scale factor of 1 and the
... Show More
(14)
(11)
Growth is a multifactorial process influenced by genetic, nutritional, hormonal, psychosocial and other factors including the general health of a child. Epilepsy defined as a chronic condition characterized by recurrent clinical events or epileptic seizures, which occur in the absence of a metabolic or toxic disease the drugs that use in the treatment of this condition can affect patients growth due to their mechanisms of action. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of some antiepileptic drugs on growth (height and weight) in children with epilepsy. This work involved 51 newly diagnosed children with a different form of epilepsy (Generalized, absent and partial). Patients divided into three groups according to the treatment (group one
... Show More
(1)
Background: Pain due to muscular cramp during hemodialysis is one of the most common problems experienced by patient undergoing hemodialysis, and is associated with poor outcomes of patients. The main aim of this study was to comparing the effects of lavender oil and olive oil massage on Pain due to muscular cramp during hemodialysis.
Methods: In this random clinical trial, 60 hemodialysis patients were enrolled randomly and allocated to two groups with 30 members in Lordegan and Brojen hospitals, Shahrekord, Iran. The intervention included flora massage on the lower leg muscles so that the first group received olive oil massage (10 drops) and the second group received lavender oil massage (10 dr
... Show More
(5)
(1)
The aim of this study is to compare the effects of three methods: problem-based learning (PBL), PBL with lecture method, and conventional teaching on the understanding of thermodynamics, group work and self-directed learning skills among physics undergraduates. The actual sample size comprises of 122 students, who were selected randomly from the Physics Department, College of Education in Iraq, for academic year 2011-2012. In this study, the pre and posttest were done and the instruments were administered to the students for data collection. Inferential statistics were employed to analyze data. The independent variables were the PBL, the PBL with lecture method, and the conventional teaching. Dependent variables of statistical analysis were
... Show More