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.
Exposure to lead results in significant accumulation in most of vital organs, and free radical damage has been proposed as a cause of lead-induced tissue damage, where oxidative stress is a likely molecular mechanism. This study was designed to evaluate therapeutic effects of melatonin in lead-induced organ toxicity in rats. The therapeutic effects of melatonin on lead induced toxicity in rats were evaluated using 36 rats, which were allocated into 3 groups and treated as follows: Group I, includes 12 rats injected subcutaneously with 0.2 ml physiological saline for 30 days, followed by treatment with a daily dose of 20mg/kg melatonin, administrated I.P for the successive 30 da
... Show MoreThe sunrise, sunset, and day length times for Baghdad (Latitude =33.34º N, Longitude =44.43º E) were calculated with high accuracy on a daily basis during 2019. The results showed that the earliest time of sunrise in Baghdad was at 4h: 53m from 5 Jun. to 20 Jun while the latest was at 7h: 07m from 5 Jan. to 11 Jan. The earliest time of sunset in Baghdad was at16 h: 55m from 30 Nov. to 10 Dec. whereas the latest was at 19h: 16m from 25 Jun. to 5 Jul. The minimum period of day length in Baghdad was 9h: 57m) in 17 Dec. whereas the maximum period was 14h: 22m) in 20 Jun. Day length
... Show MoreThe sunrise, sunset, and day length times for Baghdad (Latitude =33.34º N, Longitude =44.43º E) were calculated with high accuracy on a daily basis during 2019. The results showed that the earliest time of sunrise in Baghdad was at 4h: 53m from 5 Jun. to 20 Jun while the latest was at 7h: 07m from 5 Jan. to 11 Jan. The earliest time of sunset in Baghdad was at16 h: 55m from 30 Nov. to 10 Dec. whereas the latest was at 19h: 16m from 25 Jun. to 5 Jul. The minimum period of day length in Baghdad was 9h: 57m) in 17 Dec. whereas the maximum period was 14h: 22m) in 20 Jun. Day length was calculated and compared among regions of different latitudes(0, 15, 30, 45 and 60 north).
The aim of this paper is to investigate the effects of Nd:YAG laser shock processing (LSP) on micro-hardness and surface roughness of 86400Cu-Zn alloy. X-ray fluorescence technique was used to analyze the chemical composition of this alloy. LSP treatment was performed with a Q-switched Nd: YAG laser with a wavelength of 1064 nm. The results show that laser shock processing can significantly increase. The micro-hardness and surface roughness of the LSP-treated sample. Vickers diamond indenter was used to measure the micro-hardness of all samples with different laser pulse energy and the different number of laser pulses. It is found that the metal hardness can be significantly increased to more than 80% by increasing the laser energy and t
... Show MoreThis paper introduces a non-conventional approach with multi-dimensional random sampling to solve a cocaine abuse model with statistical probability. The mean Latin hypercube finite difference (MLHFD) method is proposed for the first time via hybrid integration of the classical numerical finite difference (FD) formula with Latin hypercube sampling (LHS) technique to create a random distribution for the model parameters which are dependent on time t . The LHS technique gives advantage to MLHFD method to produce fast variation of the parameters’ values via number of multidimensional simulations (100, 1000 and 5000). The generated Latin hypercube sample which is random or non-deterministic in nature is further integrated with the FD method t
... Show MoreImproving the quality of health services in the health sector is an important and necessary matter that must be taken care of and improved, and this study seeks to demonstrate the role of quality costs in improving the quality of health services and achieving a high level of quality to satisfy the beneficiaries and to provide health services of good quality, and the research concluded that the main point of service provision Good health is the costs of prevention and evaluation (costs of quality conformity) and attention to it, and that technical competition contributes greatly to the development of the level of quality, as well as the use of health and medical staff with competent expertise, and that the costs of internal failure and th
... Show MoreObjective To investigate the accuracy of gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) E-cadherin and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) to discriminate periodontal health from disease. Subjects and Methods GCF samples were collected from participants with periodontal health (control), gingivitis, and periodontitis (n = 25 each group). The latter group was further subdivided according to stage (S) and grade. Periodontal parameters were recorded then levels of biomarkers were assayed using ELISA and antioxidant status by use of the Total Antioxidant Capacity Assay for E-cadherin and TAC, respectively. Results All periodontal parameters were significantly higher in periodontally diseased groups than controls. The GCF E-cadherin significantly increased
... Show MorePerchloroethylene (PERC) is commonly used as a dry-cleaning solvent, it is attributed to many deleterious effects in the biological system. The study aimed to investigate the harmful effect associated with PERC exposure among dry-cleaning workers. The study was carried out on 58 adults in two groups. PERC-exposed group; include thirty-two male dry-cleaning workers using PERC as a dry-cleaning solvent and twenty-six healthy non-exposed subjects. History of PERC exposure, use of personal protection equipment (PPE), safety measurement of the exposed group was recorded. Blood sample was taken from each participant for measurement of hematological markers, liver and kidney function tests. The results showed that 28.1% of the workers were usin
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