Freshwater mussels are a guild of stationary, suspended-feeding species; they perform significant ecological functions like nitrogen cycling, bioturbation that gives oxygen and habitat that other creatures need to survive, and increasing water clearance by filtration. Knowledge of the freshwater mussel Unio tigridis Bourguignat, 1852, distribution, and molecular study in Iraq was inadequate. In the current study, this species of freshwater Mussels belonging to the family Unionidae was collected from different locations in the Greater Zab River, from April 2022 to November 2022. The average water temperature of the site was arranged between (17.8 to 36.1 C°). All previous studies in the Kurdistan Region and Iraq were based on morphologic

Expanded use of antibiotics may increase the ability of pathogenic bacteria to develop antimicrobial resistance. Greater attention must be paid to applying more sustainable techniques for treating wastewater contaminated with antibiotics. Semiconductor photocatalytic processes have proven to be the most effective methods for the degradation of antibiotics. Thus, constructing durable and highly active photocatalytic hybrid materials for the photodegradation of antibiotic pollutants is challenging. Herein, FeTiO3/Fe-doped g-C3N4 (FTO/FCN) heterojunctions were designed with different FTO to FCN ratios by matching the energy level of semiconductors, thereby developing effective direct Z-type heterojunctions. The photodegradation behaviors of th

      The monocyte chemo-attractant protein-1 (MCP-1) is one of the pro-inflammatory cytokines. It controls the passage and infiltration of monocytes, macrophages, natural killers, and T cells into the sites of inflammation. The aim of this study is to inspect the role of MCP-1 in maternal metabolic, physiological changes and pregnancy complications like gestational diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, and hypertension to develop pharmaceutical strategies for these complications. This study included ninety Iraqi women divided into three groups: thirty pregnant women in their first trimester as the P1 group; thirty pregnant women in their third trimester as the P2 group; and thirty healthy non-pregnant women as the control or C group. Se

     The evaluation of the Nfayil limestones in Bahr Al-Najaf Depression as construction materials was done on 15 sites distributed over a region. The study included field and laboratory aspects. The field side included collecting information about the study area and samples. As for the laboratory side, laboratory tests were conducted to study the thermal conductivity of samples by a device called Lee’s disc in the Tikri University. The thermal conductivity results ranged between 2.34 and 0.27. The rocks are of high thermal insulation at low temperatures and low insulation at high temperatures according to the specifications of the suitability of limestone for thermal conductivity standards (ASTM C 1057-03-2010).

     The study area is encompassed by the 33.59-34.93°N latitudes and 45.44-46.39°E longitudes and divided into four groups with respect to earthquake event locations. We determined fault plane solutions, moment magnitudes, focal depths, and trend of slip with the direction of the moment stress axes (P, N, and T) for 102 earthquakes. These earthquakes had a local magnitude in the range between 4.0 and 6.4 for the time period from January 2018 to the end of August 2019, with focal depths ranged between 6 and 17 km. Waveform moment tensor inversion technique was used to analyze the database constructed from seismic stations on local and neighboring country networks (Iraq, Iran, and Turkey). We separated the studie

     In the present work, polymeric composites were prepared for coating floors and swimming pools in dark colors. This was achieved through the use of a polymer coating solution added to fine cement with weight percentage (wt%) values of 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 to obtain dark-colored (gray) composites. Mortar samples were prepared using the adhesion test. The contact angle and adhesion strength were studied for the prepared samples concerning the effect of changing the weight ratio of additive cement on water absorption. Also, the antibacterial activity was tested for the prepared coatings. The results showed that the contact angle increases with increasing the weight ratios of additive cement, which indicates that the

Moringa oleifera L. and red pomegranate extracts have been reported to inhibit gram-positive facultative anaerobe growth and inhibit the formation of biofilm on tooth surfaces. The current study aimed to assess the antibacterial effect of M. oleifera L. and red pomegranate extracts and their combinations against Porphyromonas gingivalis. The antimicrobial sensitivity, minimum inhibition concentrations (MIC), and minimum bactericidal concentrations after treatment with the aqueous extracts of M. oleifera L. and red pomegranate as well as their combination against clinically isolated P. gingivalis were determined using agar well diffusion and two-fold serial dilution. The anti-biofilm activity of the extracts and their combination was evaluat

 In this work, a reactive DC magnetron sputtering technique was used to prepare TiO₂ thin films. The variation in argon and oxygen gases mixing ratios (4:1, 2:1, 1:1, 1:2, 1:4) was used to achieve optimal properties for gas sensing. In addition, an analysis of the optical XRD properties of TiO₂ thin films is presented. High-quality and uniform nanocrystalline films were obtained at a working gas pressure of 0.25 mbar and  1:4 (Ar/O₂) gas mixture. The optical properties showed a transparent thin film with uniform adherence to the substrate. The average transmission of the TiO₂ films deposited on the glass substrates was higher than 95% over the range of 400 to 800 nm.