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.
In this work, seven soil samples were brought brought to study and analyses the element concentrations from different southern regions of Iraq using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) technique. It has been documented as an atomic emission spectroscopy (AES) technique. Laser-induced plasma utilized to analyze elements in materials (gases, liquids, and solids). In order to analyze elements in materials (gases, liquids, and solid). The Nd: YAG laser excitation source at 1064 nm with pulse width 9 ns is used to generate power density of 5.5 x 1012 MW/mm2, with optical spectrum in the range 320-740 nm. From this investigation, the soil sample analysis of the southern cities of Iraqi, it is concluded that the rich soil element of P, Si,
... Show MoreIsolated Bacteria from the roots of barley were studied; two stages of processes Isolated and screening were applied in order to find the best bacteria to remove kerosene from soil. The active bacteria are isolated for kerosene degradation process. It has been found that Klebsiella pneumoniae sp. have the highest kerosene degradation which is 88.5%. The optimum conditions of kerosene degradation by Klebsiella pneumonia sp. are pH5, 48hr incubation period, 35°C temperature and 10000ppm the best kerosene concentration. The results 10000ppm showed that the maximum kerosene degradation can reach 99.58% after 48 h of incubation. Higher Kerosene degradation which was 99.83% was obtained at pH5. Kerosene degradation was found to be maximum at 3
... Show MoreIsolated Bacteria from the roots of barley were studied; two stages of processes Isolated and screening were applied in order to nd the best bacteria to remove kerosene from soil. The acve bacteria are isolated for kerosene degradaon process. It has been found that Klebsiella pneumoniae sp. have the highest kerosene degradaon which is 88.5%. The opmum condions of kerosene degradaon by Klebsiella pneumonia sp. are pH5, 48hr incubaon period, 35°C temperature and 10000ppm the best kerosene concentraon. The results 10000ppm showed that the maximum kerosene degradaon can reach 99.58% aer 48 h of incubaon. Higher Kerosene degradaon which was 99.83% was obtained at pH5. Kerosene degradaon was found
... Show MoreThe In this experimental study, natural stone powder was utilized to improve a cohesive soil’s compaction and strength properties. According to the significant availability of limestone in the globe, it has been chosen for the purpose of the study, in addition to considering the existing rock industry massive waste. Stone powder was used in percentages of 4, 8, 12, 16% replaced from the soil weight in dry state. Some of cohesive soil’s consistency, shear, and compaction properties were depicted after improvement. The outcomes yielded in significant amendments in the experimented geotechnical properties after stone powder addition considering 60 days curing period. Cohesion and friction angle were notably increased by
... Show MoreIn this study, phosphorescence analysis (KPA) is used for determining soil collected from the Tigris River from Al- Karrada and Bab Al-Sharq in Baghdad and samples were taken from rainwater collected from Al-Rashad, Al-Obeidi, Al-Dora and Al-Sadr City in Baghdad. The measurements were carried out by the Iraqi Ministry of Health and Environment, in the Radiation Protection Center. The collection, removal and evaporation of the samples ranged from January to the end of March 2018. The results show the presents of concentration of 238U and 235U in soil samples and the rainwater samples. The conclusion of this work is the concentration of uranium in soil samples is more than recommendations by ICRP value of 1.9 μg /l. While all water sample
... Show MoreThe current study involves placing 135 boreholes drilled to a depth of 10 m below the existing ground level. Three standard penetration tests (SPT) are performed at depths of 1.5, 6, and 9.5 m for each borehole. To produce thematic maps with coordinates and depths for the bearing capacity variation of the soil, a numerical analysis was conducted using MATLAB software. Despite several-order interpolation polynomials being used to estimate the bearing capacity of soil, the first-order polynomial was the best among the other trials due to its simplicity and fast calculations. Additionally, the root mean squared error (RMSE) was almost the same for the all of the tried models. The results of the study can be summarized by the production
... Show MoreThe smart city concept has attracted high research attention in recent years within diverse application domains, such as crime suspect identification, border security, transportation, aerospace, and so on. Specific focus has been on increased automation using data driven approaches, while leveraging remote sensing and real-time streaming of heterogenous data from various resources, including unmanned aerial vehicles, surveillance cameras, and low-earth-orbit satellites. One of the core challenges in exploitation of such high temporal data streams, specifically videos, is the trade-off between the quality of video streaming and limited transmission bandwidth. An optimal compromise is needed between video quality and subsequently, rec
... Show MoreIn this study, an experimental investigation had conducted for six high strength laced reinforced concrete one-way slabs to discover the behavior of laced structural members after being exposed to fire flame (high temperature). Self-compacted concrete (SCC) had used to achieve easy casting and high strength concrete. All the adopted specimens were identical in their compressive strength of ( , geometric layout 2000 750 150 mm and reinforcement specifics except those of lacing steel content, three ratios of laced steel reinforcement of (0.0021, 0.0040 and 0.0060) were adopted. Three specimens were fired with a steady state temperature of for two hours duration and then after the specimens were cooled suddenly by spraying water. The
... Show MoreIraqi bentonite is used as main material for preparing ceramic samples with the additions of alumina and magnesia. X-ray diffractions analyses were carried out for the raw material at room temperature. The sequence of mineral phase's transformations of the bentonite for temperatures 1000 ,1100 ,1200 and 1250 ºC reflects that it finally transformed in to mullite 39.18% and cristobalite 62.82%. Samples of different weight constituent were prepared. The effect of its constitutional change reveals through its heat treatments at 1000,1100,1200,1250and 1300ºC .The samples of additions less than 15% of alumina and magnesia could not stand up to 1300ºC while the samples of addition more than 15% are stable .That is shown by analy
... Show MoreThis research analyzes the level of the short circuit effect of the Iraqi super network and decides the suitable location for the High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) connections in order to obtain the best short circuit reduction of the total currents of the buses in the network. The proposed method depends on choosing the transmission lines for Alternating current (AC) system that suffers from high Short Circuit Levels (SCLs) in order to reduce its impact on the transmission system and on the lines adjacent to it and this after replacing the alternating current (AC) line by direct current (DC) line. In this paper, Power System Simulator for Engineering (PSS/E) is used to model two types of HVDC lines in an effective regi
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