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.
Unsaturated soil can raise many geotechnical problems upon wetting and drying resulting in swelling upon wetting and collapsing (shrinkage) in drying and changing in the soil shear strength. The classical principles of saturated soil are often not suitable in explaining these phenomena. In this study, expansive soil (bentonite and sand) were tested in different water contents and dry unit weight chosen from the compaction curve to examine the effect of water content change on soil properties (swelling pressure, expansion index, shear strength (soil cohesion) and soil suction by the filter paper method). The physical properties of these soils were studied by conducting series of tests in laboratory. Fitting methods
... Show MoreExperimental tests were conducted to study the behavior of skirted foundations rested on dry medium sandy soil subjected to vertical and inclined loads. To achieve this goal, a small-scale physical model was designed and performed which contained an aluminum circular footing (100 mm) in diameter and (10 mm) in thickness and skirts with different heights, local medium poorly graded dry sand is placed in a steel soil container (2 mm) thick with internal dimensions (1000 mm x 1000 mm in cross section and 800 mm in height). The main objective of this study was to evaluate the response of skirt attached to the foundation at different skirt (L/D) ratios (0.0, 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5) and is subjected to point load at different angles of inclinat
... Show MoreSamples of Oxytricha falax were collected from Tigris River by 55µ. mesh net. Culturing of O. falax were cultivated in specific conditions (DO 3-5mg/l.; W.Temp. 24±1ºC; pH: 6.8-7.5).The effect of various furfural concentration 0, 20, 40, 80,100 and 124 ppm and toluene concentration 0, 15, 30, 34.2, 34.5 and 35 ppm after two periods of treatment (24 and 48 hr.) on the physiological parameters of O. falax ciliate were observed. This study showed that the lethal concentration of furfural was 124ppm and 80ppm after 24hr. and 48hr. from treatment which killed all the individual community respectively. Furthermore the treatment of O. falax individuals with different concentrations of toluene indicated that 34.5 ppm of it caused disappearance o
... Show MoreThis study describe the effect of temperature on the optical
properties of nickel(ii) phthalocyanine tetrasulfonic acid tetrasodium
salt (NiPcTs) organic thin films which are prepared by spin coating
on indium tin oxide (ITO-glass). The optical absorption spectra of
these thin films are measured. Present studies reveal that the optical
band gap energies of NiPcTs thin films are dependent on the
annealing temperatures. The optical band gap decreases with increase
in annealing temperature, then increased when the temperature rising
to 473K. To enhance the results of Uv-Vis measurements and get
more accurate values of optical energy gaps; the Photoluminescence
spectra of as-deposited and annealed NiPcTs thin fi
A freshwater bivalve plays a crucial function in aquatic habitats as the filtered water and burrowing mussels mix the sediment, thus increasing oxygen content and making the ecosystem healthier. The aim of the study is to see how chlorpyrifos affects biochemical markers in freshwater mussel Unio tigridis. About 180 individuals per taxon and water samples were collected from the Qandil water resource on the Greater Zab River, Erbil Province, Iraq. Once arrived at the lab, the individuals were kept in aquaria with river water and an air-conditioned room Temperature: 25±2 and Light: 12h/12h and acclimatized to laboratory conditions for seven days in aged tap water. The mussel's identification molecularly and the DNA sequence of t
... Show MoreThe Mediating Role of Cobit 2019 in Managing the Relationship Between Qualitative Characteristics of Accounting Information and Information Asymmetry
This research aims to know the reality of succession planning in the researched organization and how it occupies the important jobs in the organization and its readiness for sudden and urgent events that lead to the vacancy of these jobs, and the importance of this research is that it is one of the rare Arab and Iraqi studies and research in this field, as it is one of the first researches It deals with the reality of succession planning in light of the retirement law No. (26) of 2019, and the research problem was the absence of consecutive planning programs and the weak preparation of suitable candidates to face sudden and urgent conditions as replacements for current leaders who occupy the leading and key positions in the depar
... Show MoreThe x-ray fluorescence (XRF) of Znpc molecule with (flow of Ar) and Znpc molecule with (grow in N2) showed two peaks at (8.5and 9.5 Kv) referring to orbital transition ) K?-shell & K?-shell) respectively. The study of x-ray diffraction (XRD) where it was observed good growth of the crystal structure as a needle by the sublimation technique with a ?-phase of (monoclinic structure ) . Using Bragg equation the value of the interdistance of the crystalline plane (d-value) were calculated. We noticed good similarity with like once in the American Standards for Testing Material (ASTM) .Powder Diffraction File (PDF) Program was used to ensure the information obtained from (ASTM) . The output of (PDF) was compared with celn program, where the val
... Show MoreDry gas is considered one of the most environmentally friendly sources of energy. As a result, developing an efficient strategy for storing this gas has become essential. In this work, MOF-199 was synthesized and characterized in order to investigate the MOF-199 in dry gas adsorption using a built-in volumetric system (methane, ethane, and propane from Basrah gas company). The MOF-199 (metal organic framework) was synthesized using the solvothermal method at 373K for 24h, and then it was characterized. The dry gas adsorption on MOF-199 was studied under various conditions (adsorbent dosage, contact time, temperature, and pressure). The isothermal adsorption of the dry gas had been studied on MOF-199 using two types of mo
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