Sustainable water management in Iraq (Kurdistan) as a challenge for governmental responsibility

During the last few decades, a critical scarcity of water has occurred in the Middle East due to climate change and the mismanagement of water resources. The situation is complicated by the absence of an effective legislative framework at the local level as well as by the incapability and disrepute of the local water authorities. Most Iraqi citizens depend on the surface waters of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which have their sources in upstream neighbouring countries. Water crises concerning the shared waters urgently require a solution at the international level. Unfortunately, Iraq has faced several wars in a row (1980-2003), which has prevented the country from establishing its institutions. The rapid increase in the population of the transboundary countries on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and the high demands on agriculture, are accelerating water exploitation. In this paper, the present state of water management in Iraq from the viewpoint of the legislative framework, water balance, and transboundary issues will be discussed, with special attention to Kurdistan. Many legislative documents have been established or amended by the Iraqi and Kurdistan parliaments since 2003. In 2015, the Kurdistan Government Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources, in cooperation with the EU, issued a guide for environmental legislation related to all environmental components such as air, water, and soil. The recommendations on actions needed in the water management in Kurdistan will be presented; they are inspired by the Water Framework Directive (WFD) (2000/60/EC) implemented in EU member states.Web of Science1011art. no. 165

The Biology of the Flounder, Platichthys flesus L. (Pisces: Pleuronectidae) in the Thames, a Polluted Estuary.

PhDFlounders (Platichthys flesus L. ) were sampled from the cooling water intake screens of West Thurrock power station, Essex, from September 1987 to October 1990. Changes in population structure are determined from age and morphometric data. Adult flounders congregate in the mid-estuary in late spring, prior to their spawning migration. New recruits arrive in the estuary in summer and disperse upstream after a few weeks. Dispersal appears to involve density-dependant population regulating mechanisms. Growth appears seasonal to an extent, being reduced during winter months. The gut contents were analysed and a trophic spectrum constructed. P. flesus is an opportunist predator, feeding predominantly on crustaceans in the mid estuary and molluscs in the outer estuary. There is some evidence of resource partitioning between adult and juvenile flounders. The significance of changes in the lipid reserves of 0-group flounders is discussed. The seasonal dynamics of external disease symptoms and parasite burden of these fish was evaluated, and related to population structure, dietary condition and water quality variables. 2 The prevalence of all external disease in flounders from Kest Thurrock is closely related to population structure. Younger fish generally display lower disease prevalences. -Increased prevalence of lymphocystis may be related to increases in the prevalence of ulcerations or heavy infections by the copepod Lepeophtheirus pectoralis. A correlation between the minimum monthly dissolved oxygen (D. O. ) level and the condition factor of flounders is demonstrated. Fewer epidermal ulcers are observed on flounders with a high condition factor. The prevalence of epidermal ulcerations, and to an extent lymphocystis, are thus indirectly associated with estuarine pollution. The use of external disease prevalence as a bioindicator of estuarine pollution is considered. Live flounders were observed in various lighting regimes using time-lapse video techniques to determine the nature and extent of intrinsic rhythmic behaviour. Observations were made on the behaviour modifying effects of contaminated sediments and hypoxic conditions. The findings are discussed in relation to the ecology of the flounder in the Thames estuary

DSDV, DYMO, OLSR: Link Duration and Path Stability

In this paper, we evaluate and compare the impact of link duration and path stability of routing protocols; Destination Sequence Distance vector (DSDV), Dynamic MANET On- Demand (DYMO) and Optimized Link State Routing (OLSR) at different number of connections and node density. In order to improve the efficiency of selected protocols; we enhance DYMO and OLSR. Simulation and comparison of both default and enhanced routing protocols is carried out under the performance parameters; Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR), Average End-to End Delay (AE2ED) and Normalized Routing Overhead (NRO). From the results, we observe that DYMO performs better than DSDV, MOD-OLSR and OLSR in terms of PDR, AE2ED, link duration and path stability at the cost of high value of NRO

On Link Availability Probability of Routing Protocols for Urban Scenario in VANETs

This paper presents the link availability probability. We evaluate and compare the link availability probability for routing protocols; Ad hoc On-demand Distance vector (AODV), Dynamic Source Routing (DSR) and Fisheye State Routing (FSR) for different number of connections and node density. A novel contribution of this work is enhancement in existing parameters of routing protocols; AODV, DSR and FSR as MOD-AODV, MOD-DSR and MOD-FSR. From the results, we observe that MOD-DSR and DSR outperform MOD-AODV, AODV, MODOLSR and OLSR in terms of Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR), Average End-to End Delay (AE2ED), link availability probability at the cost of high value of Normalized Routing Overhead (NRO).Comment: IEEE Conference on Open Systems (ICOS2012)", Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 201

Calcifying fibrous pseudotumor in association with hyaline vascular type castleman\u27s disease.

Calcifying fibrous pseudotumor is a recently described rare entity. It is considered as sclerosing end stage of inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor. An association with hyaline vascular type Castleman\u27s disease has also been described. We report a case of a 13-year-old boy who presented with pain in epigastrium. Computed tomography scan of abdomen revealed a circumscribed mass arising from the gastric wall along the greater curvature. Histology revealed a tumor composed of spindle cells present within the dense hyalinized collagenous tissue. Lymphoplasmacytic infiltrate was seen along with lymphoid follicles, dystrophic and ossifying calcification. Tumor cells were focally positive for alpha smooth muscle actin and negative for anaplastic lymphoma kinase protein

Novel Method of Identifying Fingerprint Using Minutiae Matching in Biometric Security System

Fingerprint is one of the best apparatus to identify human because of its uniqueness, details information, hard to change and long-term indicators of human identity where there are several biometric feature that can be recycled to endorse the individuality. Identification of fingerprint is very important in forensic science, trace any part of human, collection of crime part and proof from a crime. This paper presents a new method of identifying fingerprint in biometrics security system. Fingerprint is one of the best example in biometric security because it can identify personal information and it is much secure than any other biometric identification system. The experimental result exhibits the performance of the proposed method

Effects of calibration uncertainties on the detection and parameter estimation of isotropic gravitational-wave backgrounds

Gravitational-wave backgrounds are expected to arise from the superposition of gravitational wave signals from a large number of unresolved sources and also from the stochastic processes that occurred in the Early universe. So far, we have not detected any gravitational wave background, but with the improvements in the detectors' sensitivities, such detection is expected in the near future. The detection and inferences we draw from the search for a gravitational-wave background will depend on the source model, the type of search pipeline used, and the data generation in the gravitational-wave detectors. In this work, we focus on the effect of the data generation process, specifically the calibration of the detectors' digital output into strain data used by the search pipelines. Using the calibration model of the current LIGO detectors as an example, we show that for power-law source models and calibration uncertainties $\lesssim 10 \%$, the detection of isotropic gravitational wave background is not significantly affected. We also show that the source parameter estimation and upper limits calculations get biased. For calibration uncertainties of $\lesssim 5 \%$, the biases are not significant ($\lesssim 2 \%$), but for larger calibration uncertainties, they might become significant, especially when trying to differentiate between different models of isotropic gravitational-wave backgrounds.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figure

Prevalence of Neural tube defects at PUMHS Hospital.

Introduction: Spina bifida, anencephaly, and encephalocele are neural tube defects (NTD) and result from failure of closure of the neural tube between 21and 28 days following conception. Encephaloceles are possibly post-closure defects. NTDs are an important cause of mortality and morbidity globally. NTD encompasses about one-tenth of the burden of all congenital conditions and make up the third largest congenital burden after congenital heart disease and Down’s syndrome. In low income countries, NTDs may account for 29% of neonatal deaths in observable birth defects Objective: To know the prevalence of neural tube defects at PUMHS Benazirabad.. Methodology: All pregnant ladies when diagnosed to have fetus with neural tube defect through ultrasound examination were counselled for termination of pregnancy. Data collected through proforma with details of demography, gynecological history, and type of neural tube defect evaluated by senior gynecologist and neonatologist. NTDs were defined as cases of anencephaly, spina bifida, encephalocele and meningocele among infants of any gestational age. Results: A total of 7152 deliveries took place in the obstetrics department of PUMHS Hospital from January 2018 to September 2019. 38 (thirty-eight) pregnancies were terminated at different gestational ages, diagnosed as cases of neural tube defects, making a prevalence of 5.313 per 1000 births. Among the NT defects, 22/38 (57.89%) were anencephaly and 12/38 (31.57%) were spina bifida with hydrocephalus. Conclusion: The most common neural tube defect is anencephaly followed by spina bifida with hydrocephalus. Overall prevalence of NTD is comparable published literature from South East Asia.   Keywords: Neural tube defects, Anencephaly, Spina bifida, Hydrocephalus. &nbsp

Influence of urea-fortified corncob diets on growth performance and carcass characteristics in West African dwarf goats

The experiment was carried out to determine the effect of urea-fortified concentrate corncob diets on growth performance and carcass characteristics of West African dwarf (WAD) goats. Fifteen WAD goats with an average weight of 9.33 kg were studied. The animals were weighted and randomly assigned to five (5) treatments in a completely randomized design (CRD). The treatments were of different levels i.e. 0%, 1%, 2%, 3% and 4% of urea in corncob-based concentrate diets. Results showed variation (P<0.05) in the live weight among all the treatments while no effect was observed in average daily weight gain, average daily feed intake and feed conversion ratio, carcass and non-carcass characteristics among the treatment groups. However, the physicochemical properties of the meat showed that meat water holding capacity, moisture, dry matter, crude fibre and ash were not influenced by urea but there was a significant  (P<0.05) difference in meat pH and meat crude protein among the treated groups. In conclusion, for better performance in the live weight gain of WAD goats, 3% best level inclusion of urea fortified corncob diet should be taken into cognizance. Keywords: Carcass characteristics; Corncob; Urea; West African Dwarf Goats; Nigeria