In this study, we focused on integrating remote sensing techniques and MaxEnt modeling to develop a restoration approach to determine and rank hotspots for revegetation and restoration planning of ...native desert plant communities. The results showed that the distribution of suitable habitats for native desert communities varied according to climatic, bioclimatic, soil, and topographic factors. Cyperus species occur in deep loose soil, while Rhanterium species predominate on gypsums or calcareous soils growing in areas that contain a thin layer of gravel. Communities such as Cyperus and Haloxylon were not influenced by the wet seasons, making them suitable for restoration because of their resiliency to grow under harsh and drought seasons. Based on the results, a vegetation restoration approach was designed, which classifies the locations into three categories: community management sites (appropriate sites for one community), restoration sites (appropriate sites for two communities), and prioritized restoration sites (appropriate sites for more than three communities). Limited sites were ranked as prioritized restoration sites, making it essential to consider these locations as optimum hotspot sites for future restoration and revegetation. We concluded that the integrated approach helped develop a detailed vegetation community map that ranked suitability habitats based on several environmental factors, which could be used as biological indicators for restoration planning. The vegetation restoration approach is also functional for regional‐scale studies to identify and rank hotspot locations for revegetation and restoration planning.
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FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
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•Multispectral Sentinel-2 data provided adequate spatial and temporal resolution to predict and monitor soil moisture.•Spectral water indices can be utilized as soil moisture ...indicators to predict high-risk mudflow phenomena in arid regions.•Indirect techniques can potentially validate the performance of spectral indices in inaccessible and large-scale areas.
This study aims to evaluate the performance and effectiveness of six spectral water indices - derived from Multispectral sentinel-2 data - to detect soil moisture and inundated area in arid regions to be used as an indicator of mudflow phenomena to predict high-risk areas. Herein, the validation of the performance of spectral indices was conducted using threshold method, spectral curve performance, and soil-line method. These indirect validation techniques play a key role in saving time, effort, and cost, particularly for large-scale and inaccessible areas. It was observed that the Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI), Modified Normalized Difference Water Index (mNDWI), and RSWIR indices have the potential to detect soil moisture and inundated areas in arid regions. According to the temporal spectral curve performance, the spectral characteristics of water and soil moisture were distinct in the Near infrared (NIR) and Short-wave Infrared (SWIR1,2) bands. However, the rate and degree differed between these bands, depending on the amount of water in the soil. Furthermore, the soil line method supported the appropriate selection of threshold values to detect soil moisture. However, the threshold values varied with location, time, season, and between indices. We concluded that considering the factors influencing the behavior of water and soil reflectivity could support decision-makers in identifying high-risk mudflow locations.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
This study focused on evaluating factors influencing the growth of perennial shrubs by integrating field-based experiments and spatial analysis using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to identify ...ecological indicators that can help detect potential locations for restoration and revegetation of native plants. The experiment was implemented in the Al-Abduli protected area in Kuwait, which is mainly dominated by a Rhanterium epapposum community (desert shrub). Aerial imagery of the study site was acquired using UAVs during the growing season to estimate the desert shrub biomass and carbon stock. Then, soil samples were collected based on vegetation density to determine the impact of the soil's physical and chemical properties on vegetation biomass, growth, and distribution. It was found that shrub biomass was significantly correlated with crown area and shrub volume. We also observed that annual plants support the growth of perennial shrubs, as the mean shrub height and crown area (CA) are significantly higher, with averages of 0.7 m and 3 cm, respectively, in the presence of high annual plant density. However, shrubs in plots with low annual density had an average shrub height of 0.5 m and CA of 1.4 cm. Annual plants also enhance the soil by providing approximately 50% higher soil moisture, phosphorous (P), organic matter (OM), and carbon dioxide (CO2) sequestration. In addition, annual plants are mainly supported by loamy soils in the deeper soil layers. We concluded that locations covered with annual plants represent suitable soils and that this can be considered a biological indicator for convenient locations for restoration and revegetation of native perennial shrubs. Remote sensing technologies could be utilized for initial assessments to detect sites that may support annual plant growth over a large scale for classification as potential restoration and revegetation areas.
•Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) is a powerful technology used to measure desert shrub biomass.•Shrub size and density are associated with the high annual plant surrounding the shrub areas.•Annual plants play a significant role in enhancing the soil properties.•Annual plants can be used as a biological indicator of suitable revegetation sites.•More attention needs to be given to annual plants in restoration and revegetation planning.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
A science camp for blind or visually impaired (BVI) students, covering mainly hands-on chemistry experiments, is described. The scientific experiments are detailed, and the feedback of the students ...is recorded, highlighting the benefits of the camp and its impact. BVI students actively participated in conducting the scientific experiments using adaptive methods and assistive technology. The camp increased the students’ awareness of scientific fields, namely, chemistry, and the students look forward to additional adaptable experiments in future camps.
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The primary aim of this study was to determine the differential count of white blood cells and the serum levels of (CCR2 and testosterone) in patients with Toxoplasmosis and the healthy group. The ...study was conducted on 260 Males suspected of Toxoplasmosis ages ranging from 20-50 years old. All these cases were examined by measuring Toxo IgM and IgG serum levels, who attended AL-Hakeem hospital, and (30) healthy males as the control group, collected randomly from AL-Najaf province, these samples were collected from March 2023 to August 2023. Any patient was using the drug or undergoing disease removal from the current study. The present study revealed the numbers and percentage of infected patients fifty out of 260 (19.23%) male patients. The current study was conducted on the effect of WBCs (Monocyte, Lymphocyte and Neutrophil) in patients infected with Toxoplasmosis. The results showed that high concentrations of Monocyte and Neutrophil (9.560± 0.244 ×103 µL) (10.65± 0.13%) (72.48± 0.575%) respectively for the patient, and (6.660 ± 0.067 ×103 µL) (6.933 ± 0.064 %) (52.50 ± 0.252 %) respectively for compared to the control group. However, no significant changes were recorded for lymphocytes (34.33± 0.881%) in patients infected with Toxoplasmosis compared to the control group. The current study revealed that the concentration of (testosterone, CCR2) inpatients infected with Toxoplasmosis was a significant increase (P<0.05) compared to the control group. The current study has concluded that infection with Toxoplasmosis may be a risk factor. A chronic
T. gondii
infection is associated with variations in levels of serum hormones for can result in inducted behavioural alterations and these variations may influence the immune system by (Testosterone, CCR2).
Toxoplasma gondii
has a worldwide distribution and it is one of the most prevalent infectious agents in Iraq, as it is found in various mammals, fish, and terrestrial and water birds. Cats are the ...only definitive host for the parasite that throws the infective phase into the environment. The primary aim of this study was to determine the serum levels of IL-1β, prolactin, Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) in patients and healthy group.The study was conducted on 260 Males suspected of Toxoplasmosis ages ranging from 20-50 years old. All these cases were examined by measuring Toxo IgG serum levels
,
who attended AL-Hakeem hospital, and (30) healthy males as the control group, collected randomly from AL-Najaf province, these samples were collected from March 2023 to August 2023. Any patient was using the drug or undergoing disease removal from the current study. The current study revealed that the concentration of IL-1β inpatients infected with Toxoplasmosis were significant increase (P<0.05) compared to the control group, but the concentration of (prolactin) in patients infected with toxoplasmosis were significant decrease (P<0.05) is compared to the control group. Also, it revealed that the DHEA levels were elevated but non significantly in samples infected with Toxoplasmosis compared to the control group. The current study has concluded that infection with Toxoplasmosis may be a risk factor. A chronic
T. gondii
infection is associated with variations in levels of serum prolactin and these variations may influence the immune system by IL-1β increase the susceptibility to Toxoplasmosis infection.
Abstract The creation of effective, environmentally friendly antimicrobial alternatives is becoming more and more important in light of the development of antibiotic resistance. The objective of the ...present study was to illustrate the biosynthetic process of copper (II) carbonate nanoparticles, CuCo 3 NPs, by using Fusarium oxysporum culture filtrate as an antibacterial activity against multidrug-resistant (MDR) clinical bacterial isolates, Staphylococcus aureus. Fusarium oxysporum isolate was diagnosed by PCR. One hundred and sixty specimens of pathogenic bacteria were collected from different sources (wounds, urine, sputum) then the bacterial isolates were diagnosed as Staphylococcus aureus by conventional morphological examination, biochemical tests, and the Vitek-2 system. Fusarium oxysporum culture filtrate was prepared by a culture of the fungus on Czapek Dox broth media modified by adding cornmeal and incubated for 14 days with shaking at 27±2°C and filtered in the last stages using a Millipore. The biosynthesis of CuCo 3 NPs was done by adding 1g of CuCo 3 Cu (OH) 2 to 10 ml of Fusarium oxysporum culture filtrate. The NPs were diagnosed using modern methods, including UV-VIS, FT-IR, AFM, FE-SEM, and EDX techniques. Multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus was tested on the produced Cu NPs. The results indicated that the prepared CuCo 3 NPs inhibited pathogenic bacterial isolates of Staphylococcus aureus at concentration of 500, 250, 125, and 62.5 mg/ml.
Researchers' interests and academic journals are crucial for advancing scientific inquiry. Journals serve as platforms for sharing and validating discoveries, fostering a symbiotic relationship that ...advances our collective understanding and pushes the boundaries of human knowledge. Journals, which encompass natural edge research and establish benchmarks for academic rigor. In this paper, an analysis, using text mining, of the publications of Iraqi researchers in scientific journals is used to extract the researcher's interest. In more detail, this paper utilizes the following technologies: pre-processing (tokenization, POS (“Part Of Speech”), normalization, case folding, lemmatization) – filtering (stop word elimination) - feature Extraction (TF-IDF), as well as classification using deep neural network classifier (DNNC), to address the problem of identifying the researcher's interests through texts (title &abstract) analysis. The Iraqi researchers’ data in the field of computer science from the years 2010-2022. As obtained from the Scopus repository, a total of 1170 papers were collected via API- key and scrubber depending on the keyword of computer science and the year. Furthermore, these papers were manually classified based on the hierarchical classification of the ACM journal. Finally, the best results obtained from a classification using DNN and TF-IDF as classifying terms achieved a precision of 90%, Recall of 90%, f1-score of 90%, and accuracy of 90%.
This paper provides a comprehensive review of the use of life cycle cost assessment (LCCA) and life cycle assessment (LCA) methods for evaluating the sustainability and costs of using recycled ...materials in asphalt pavement rehabilitation projects. The review begins with an introduction to pavement rehabilitation strategies and the importance of choosing techniques based on thorough engineering and economic analyses. It then explores the different types of recycled materials that can be utilized, including reclaimed asphalt pavement, recycled concrete aggregate, and recycled asphalt shingles, discussing the key characteristics and properties of these materials based on previous laboratory studies. The review also examines the various rehabilitation methods that employ recycled content, such as cold in-place recycling, hot in-place recycling, and full-depth reclamation, providing a detailed breakdown of the construction, maintenance, and rehabilitation costs considered in LCCA and analyzing the environmental benefits of recycled material usage through a review of LCA techniques and criteria like carbon footprint reduction, impacts on air and water quality, and considerations of technological factors. Software tools for conducting LCA are compared and challenges to advancing the adoption of recycled materials are reviewed along with directions for future research efforts. The unique contribution of this work is its holistic assessment of LCCA and LCA methodologies to inform the sustainable and cost-effective deployment of recycled materials in asphalt pavement rehabilitation, a topic of growing importance for transportation infrastructure management. In summary, this current work provides a valuable review of how LCCA and LCA methodologies can assess the sustainability and costs of employing recycled content in asphalt pavement rehabilitation projects.
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Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have started to receive more attention in the ecological field in the past 15 years, as they provide very high-resolution imagery that ranges from meters to ...millimeters. Very high-resolution multispectral imagery obtained from UAVs can help in assessing and monitoring native desert vegetation. Thus, this study use UAVs to develop a method to estimate the biomass and carbon stock of native desert shrubs. The method integrates different techniques and software to monitor native plants' coverage, biomass, and carbon stock. The techniques used in this work are also applicable for other native desert shrubs in the region and could support ecosystem managers in assessing and monitoring arid ecosystems and restoration and revegetation programs. A three-stage image and data management are discussed, including: (1) fieldwork and image acquisition using UAVs, (2) image pre-processing, and (3) image processing using different techniques and software.•Determining shrub biomass is not restricted to multispectral data only but could be applicable for RGB data since it mainly depends on the DSM and DTM.•Allometric parameters could help in estimating desert shrub biomass which could be measured easily and rapidly using UAV imagery.•SVM Supervised classification could help in distinguishing between native shrubs and grasses.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
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