Iraq under Saddam Husayn and the Ba'th Party

This work is, essentially, an assessment of Saddam's regime in Iraq, one of the cruellest and most violent regimes of modern times, and the Ba'th Party policies and ideological principles, recognised by Saddam as the theoretical basis for his practices. These policies and practices have had catastrophic consequences for Iraq, "home of ancient civilisations", jeopardising its sovereignty and future and permitting the west and the west-sponsored states in the region to gain favourable concessions at the expense of Iraq's interests. This thesis is divided into nine chapters: The first deals with the Ba'th Party, its founding, ideology, set-backs and seizure of power. The second deals with the founding of the Ba'th Party in Iraq, its political development throughout the Monarchy regime, Qasim's regime and the period during which the Ba'thists came to power on 8 February 1963. The third deals with Saddam's early life and his political activities throughout 'rif's regime. The fourth deals with the circumstances in which the Ba'th Party returned to power. The fifth deals with the presidency of Ahmad Hasan al-Bakr and examines Saddam's role and the nature of the Ba'thist authority during that period. The sixth deals with Saddam's presidency and his assumption of all responsibility for the state and the Party. The seventh and eighth deal with the first and second Gulf wars, the occupation of Kuwait and the results these two destructive wars, embarked upon at the whim of one man, have imposed upon the Iraqi army and people. The ninth comprises a summary of the thesis, in which Saddam's strange and unstable personality will be analysed and a possible solution will be suggested for the future of Iraq - a community different in composition and circumstances from any other countr

Small-scale spatial variability of selected soil biological properties

A strategy for sampling soil from intact monolith lysimeters was established based on measurements of spatial heterogeneity within the lysimeter area. This was part of an ongoing study to determine relationships between soil microbial diversity and nutrient loss by leaching. The sampling protocol had to allow for collection of soil on a regular basis (as opposed to destructive sampling) and ensure high spatial independence of subsamples. On each of two sites (one developed under organic crop management, the other under conventional crop management), ten 15-cm soil cores (sampling points) were taken from three areas (replicates) of 50-cm-diameter (lysimeter surface area) and separately analysed for biotic (microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen; arginine deaminase activity) and abiotic (total carbon and nitrogen) soil properties. The data was tested for variability, expressed as coefficient of variance (biotic and abiotic), and spatial heterogeneity using geostatistics (biotic properties). The biotic soil properties showed significant differences among sampling points, whereas the abiotic parameters were useful in differentiating on a larger scale, i.e. between sites. For all soil properties tested, the differences among the replicates were smaller than those between sites or among points indicating that, in the main experiment, all treatments can be sampled following the same pattern.Geostatistical analysis and fitting of an exponential model showed that a spatial structure exists in the biotic soil properties and that the samples are independent beyond separation distances of 25-30 cm. A revised sampling pattern consisting of 11 samples per lysimeter is described

Role of alternate and fixed partial root-zone drying on water use efficiency and growth of maize (Zea mays L.) in gypsiferous soils

Alternate partial root-zone drying (APRD) is a water-saving method but can regulate crop physiological responses. A pot experiment has been conducted to study the efficiency of partial and fixed root-zone drying on the growth and production of maize (Zea mays L.) in addition to the water use efficiency in soils with different gypsum content. The experimental treatments include three irrigation treatments, i.e. Conventional Irrigation (CI), Alternate Partial Root-zone Drying (APRD) and Fixed Partial Root-zone Drying (FPRD), and three soils with different gypsum content '' (60.0 [G1], 153.7 [G2], and 314.2 [G3] g kg−1)''. The vegetative growth, root dry mass and physiological indices (leaf relative water content, carotenoid concentration, proline) have been studied during three stages of maize plant growth (jointing, tasselling, and maturing). The Results showed that compared to CI, APRD and FPRD increased water use efficiency by 38.93 and 14.94% based on dry seed yield. In addition, compared to CI, APRD increased maize seed yield by 4.62–20.71%, while FPRD decreased yield by 19.24–5.28% for the gypsiferous soils G2 and G3, respectively. APRD has a slight effect on leaf water potential, leaf relative water content, carotenoid and proline activities from jointing to maturing stages at the three gypsiferous soils. Results suggest that APRD could make maize plants use water even more productively with better adaptation to water shortages in the gypsiferous soils

Hippocampal Spatial Position Evaluation on MRI for Research and Clinical Practice

<div><p>In clinical practice as well as in many volumetric studies we use different reorientations of the brain position towards x and y axis on the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. In order to find out whether it has an overall effect on the resulting 2D data, manual hippocampal area measurements and rotation variability of the brain (in two reoriented axes) and the skull were performed in 23 Alzheimer's disease patients and 31 healthy controls. After the MRI scanning, <i>native brain scans</i> (nat) were reoriented into the two different artificial planes (<i>anterior commissure – posterior commissure</i> axis (AC-PC) and <i>hippocampal horizontal long axis</i> (hipp)). Hippocampal area and temporal horn of the lateral ventricle was measured manually using freeware Image J program. We found that 1) hippocampal area of nat images is larger compared to hipp images, area of the nat images is equal to the AC-PC images and area of the hipp images is smaller compared to AC-PC images, 2) hippocampal area together with the area of the temporal horn for nat images is larger compared to hipp images, area of the hipp images is smaller compared to the AC-PC images and area of the nat images is smaller compared to the AC-PC images. The conclusion is that the measured area of the hippocampus in the native MRI is almost the same as the area of MRI reoriented only into the AC-PC axis. Therefore, when performing 2D area studies of the hippocampus or in the clinical practice we recommend usage of not-reoriented MRI images or to reorient them into the AC-PC axis. Surprising finding was that rotation of both AC-PC and hipp line towards x-axis among patients varies up to 35° and the same is true for the skull rotation so that it is not only a matter of the brain position.</p></div