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.
The current study included the isolation, purification and cultivation of blue-green alga Oscillatoria pseudogeminata G.Schmidle from soil using the BG-11liquid culture medium for 60 days of cultivation. The growth constant (k) and generation time (G) were measured which (K=0.144) and (G=2.09 days).
Microcystins were purified and determined qualitatively and quantitatively from this alga by using the technique of enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (Elisa Kits). The alga showed the ability to produce microcystins in concentration reached 1.47 µg/L for each 50 mg DW. Tomato plants (Lycopersicon esculentum) aged two months were irrigated with three concentrations of purified microcystins 0.5 , 3.0 and 6.0
... Show MoreThe Umm Al-Naaj Marsh was chosen in Maysan province, and it is one of the sections of Mar Al-Hawza, which is one of the most prominent Iraqi marshes in the south. The marshes are located between latitudes 30 35 and 32 45 latitudes and longitudes 13 46 and 48 00. The area of the study area is 76479.432142 hectares to evaluate soil quality and health index and their spatial distribution based on measuring physical, chemical, biological and fertility traits and calculating the total quality index for those characteristics. Using an auger drilling machine, we collected 50 randomly selected surface samples, evenly distributed across the study region, from Al-Aq 0.0–0.30 m, noting their precise locations along the way. Soil health and quality w
... Show MoreChanges in mechanical properties of material as a result of service in different conditions can be provided by mechanical testing to assist the estimation of current internal situation of these materials, or the degree of deterioration may exist in furnaces serviced at high temperature and exceed their design life. Because of the rarity works on austenitic stainless steel material type AISI 321H, in this work, ultimate tensile strength, yield strength, elongation, hardness, and absorbed energy by impact are evaluated based on experimental data obtained from mechanical testing. Samples of tubes are extracted from furnace belong to hydrotreaterunit, also samples from un-used tube material are used to make comparisons between these properti
... Show MoreBackground: Environmental tobacco smoking is produced by active smokers burning the tip of a cigarette and breathed by nonsmokers and measured by cotinine level. It has the potential to raise the risk of periodontal disease. One of the most frequent chronic diseases in adults is periodontal disease. The lower maternal-fetal attachment has been found to predict smoking status in previous studies, but no research has examined whether maternal-fetal attachment predicts environmental tobacco smoking. This study assessed the effects of maternal environmental tobacco smoke exposure on periodontal health and mother-infant bonding concerning salivary cotinine levels. Materials and methods: This is a comparative cross-sectional study comparing en
... Show MoreLand Use / Land Cover (LULC) classification is considered one of the basic tasks that decision makers and map makers rely on to evaluate the infrastructure, using different types of satellite data, despite the large spectral difference or overlap in the spectra in the same land cover in addition to the problem of aberration and the degree of inclination of the images that may be negatively affect rating performance. The main objective of this study is to develop a working method for classifying the land cover using high-resolution satellite images using object based method. Maximum likelihood pixel based supervised as well as object approaches were examined on QuickBird satellite image in Karbala, Iraq. This study illustrated that
... Show MoreErratum for Organic acid concentration thresholds for ageing of carbonate minerals: Implications for CO2 trapping/storage.
الخلاصة
تعد الانتخابات بمثابة الطريق المؤدي إلى الديمقراطية كونها النمط الأكثر شيوعاً لمشاركة المواطنين في الحياة السياسية للبلدان واختيار ممثليهم في المجالس التشريعية، حيث أن مطلب إجراء انتخابات حرة ونزيهة لم يعد مطلباً داخلياً فحسب بل مطلباً دولياً يصرّ المجتمع الدولي على الوفاء به وهذا يلقي على عاتق كل دولة أن تضع من الضمانات ما يكفل ممارسة هذه الانتخابات ب
... Show MoreThe choice of gate dielectric materials is fundamental for organic field effect transistors (OFET), integrated circuits, and several electronic applications. The operation of the OFET depends on two essential parameters: the insulation between the semiconductor layer and the gate electrode and the capacitance of the insulator. In this work, the electrical behavior of a pentacene-based OFET with a top contact / bottom gate was studied. Organic polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and inorganic hafnium oxide (HfO2) were chosen as gate dielectric materials to lower the operation voltage to achieve the next generation of electronic applications. In this study, the performance of the OFET was studied using monolayer and bilayer gate insulators. To mo
... Show MoreThe choice of gate dielectric materials is fundamental for organic field effect transistors (OFET), integrated circuits, and several electronic applications. The operation of the OFET depends on two essential parameters: the insulation between the semiconductor layer and the gate electrode and the capacitance of the insulator. In this work, the electrical behavior of a pentacene-based OFET with a top contact / bottom gate was studied. Organic polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and inorganic hafnium oxide (HfO2) were chosen as gate dielectric materials to lower the operation voltage to achieve the next generation of electronic applications. In this study, the performance of the OFET was studied using monolayer and bilayer gate insulators.
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