Paving the Way for PPP's to Infrastructure Projects in Iraq

The political situation experienced by Iraq before the events of 2003 that led to the collapse of infrastructure. rebuilding costs were estimated after 2003 by187(million USD) according to the estimates of the basic needs as stated in Five-Year Plan 2010-2014. The difficult in financing projects and the continuous demands for maintenance and operating cost, and working by contemporary styles in different countries, the strategic option is to adopt the government entering the private sector as a partner in the development process. Since public _private partnership (PPP's) is at a germinating stage of development in Iraq, it has been studied the critical success factors(CSF's) in the experiences of countries that have implemented the style (PPP's) in infrastructure projects which can be ensured or controlled in some way and in the effective management of those already embarked upon . It should pave the way for enhanced decision making in the choice of suitable projects. The mainly aims of this paper are: 1- To highlight the importance and need of PPP‘s contracts in Iraq. 2- Establishing a model of CSF's for infrastructure projects in Iraq. collected (87)success factors which characterized by the state directly in PPP's projects consists of (8)main criteria(Privatization and investment Policy, Economical , Legal and political ,Financial and commercial, Administration and organizational ,Social and environmental ,Technical and Support , motives and guarantees of government) and found out (40) CSFs among them through questionnaire experienced in these projects to work to assess the standards and compare them and come to decisions by the decision maker, and therefore have a database of views experienced for use in other projects

Observations on the Pearl Oyster Fishery of Kuwait

The pearl oyster fishery of Kuwait was monitored daily from January 1989 to May 1990. Landings of pearl oysters in 1989 totaled 287 tons with a market value of U.S. $1.0 million. Commercial pearls (\u3e3 mm) were estimated to be present in one of every 4200 oysters. Most of the pearl oysters landed were new recruits with hinge lengths between 40-56 mm. There was a curvilinear relationship between total weight and size of oysters (length) and the sex ratio approached 1:1. Spawning occurs throughout the year, with a spat settlement peak in early fall. Over the size range examined there was no relationship between the size of oysters and the size of pearls and subsequent resource management strategies are discussed

The role of seagrass vegetation and local environmental conditions in shaping benthic bacterial and macroinvertebrate communities in a tropical coastal lagoon

We investigated the influence of seagrass canopies on the benthic biodiversity of bacteria and macroinvertebrates in a Red Sea tropical lagoon. Changes in abundance, number of taxa and assemblage structure were analyzed in response to seagrass densities (low, SLD; high, SHD; seagrasses with algae, SA), and compared with unvegetated sediments. Biological and environmental variables were examined in these four habitats (hereafter called treatments), both in the underlaying sediments and overlaying waters, at three randomly picked locations in March 2017. Differences between treatments were more apparent in the benthic habitat than in the overlaying waters. The presence of vegetation (more than its cover) and changes in sedimentary features (grain size and metals) at local scales influenced the observed biological patterns, particularly for macroinvertebrates. Of note, the highest percentage of exclusive macroinvertebrate taxa (18% of the gamma diversity) was observed in the SHD treatment peaking in the SA for bacteria. Benthic macroinvertebrates and bacteria shared a generally low number of taxa across treatments and locations; approximately, 25% of the gamma diversity was shared among all treatments and locations for macrofauna, dropping to 11% for bacteria. Given the low overlap in the species distribution across the lagoon, sustaining the connectivity among heterogeneous soft sediment habitats appears to be essential for maintaining regional biodiversity. This study addresses a current scientific gap related to the relative contributions of vegetated and unvegetated habitats to biodiversity in tropical regions.Peer reviewe

Species replacement dominates megabenthos beta diversity in a remote seamount setting

Seamounts are proposed to be hotspots of deep-sea biodiversity, a pattern potentially arising from increased productivity in a heterogeneous landscape leading to either high species co-existence or species turnover (beta diversity). However, studies on individual seamounts remain rare, hindering our understanding of the underlying causes of local changes in beta diversity. Here, we investigated processes behind beta diversity using ROV video, coupled with oceanographic and quantitative terrain parameters, over a depth gradient in Annan Seamount, Equatorial Atlantic. By applying recently developed beta diversity analyses, we identified ecologically unique sites and distinguished between two beta diversity processes: species replacement and changes in species richness. The total beta diversity was high with an index of 0.92 out of 1 and was dominated by species replacement (68%). Species replacement was affected by depth-related variables, including temperature and water mass in addition to the aspect and local elevation of the seabed. In contrast, changes in species richness component were affected only by the water mass. Water mass, along with substrate also affected differences in species abundance. This study identified, for the first time on seamount megabenthos, the different beta diversity components and drivers, which can contribute towards understanding and protecting regional deep-sea biodiversity

Applicability of API ZYM to capture seasonal and spatial variabilities in lake and river sediments

Waters draining into a lake carry with them much of the suspended sediment that is transported by rivers and streams from the local drainage basin. The organic matter processing in the sediments is executed by heterotrophic microbial communities, whose activities may vary spatially and temporally. Thus, to capture and evaluate some of these variabilities in the sediments, we sampled six sites: three from the St. Clair River and three from Lake St. Clair in spring, summer, fall, and winter of 2016. At all sites and dates, we investigated the spatial and temporal variations in 19 extracellular enzyme activities using API ZYM. Our results indicated that a broad range of enzymes were found to be active in the sediments. Phosphatases, lipases, and esterases were synthesized most intensively by the sediment microbial communities. No consistent difference was found between the lake and sediment samples. Differences were more obvious between sites and seasons. Sites with the highest metabolic (enzyme) diversity reflected the capacity of the sediment microbial communities to breakdown a broader range of substrates and may be linked to differences in river and lake water quality. The seasonal variability of the enzymes activities was governed by the variations of environmental factors caused by anthropogenic and terrestrial inputs, and provides information for a better understanding of the dynamics of sediment organic matter of the river and lake ecosystems. The experimental results suggest that API ZYM is a simple and rapid enzyme assay procedure to evaluate natural processes in ecosystems and their changes.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/191235/2/2019 API ZYM paper.pdfPublished versionDescription of 2019 API ZYM paper.pdf : Published versio

Metallothionein Gene Polymorphism is Considered to Be A Risk Factor for Chronic Diseases

Metallothioneins are considered the main proteins to protect the cell from toxins like heavy metals and oxidative stress encoded by the Metallothionein gene. Any mutation in this gene leads to a defect in the function of Metallothionein proteins, leading to an increase in the effect of heavy metals. Reactive oxygen species, the SNP A-G (rs28366003) in promotor of the metallothionein gene converts the A allele to G allele, and therefore decreases the transcription qualification of the Metallothionein gene; the aim of the study is correlation between  A-G (rs28366003) polymorphism in promotor of Metallothionein gene and the risk factor as well as detecting the levels of heavy metals in patients with Kidney failure, this study includes 60 persons with Kidney failure and 20 persons as a control group with age gape (30-55) years, the blood sample collects from the subject and separate into two-tube, EDTA tube to extraction the DNA and Gel tube to biochemical test. The result showed that there is a relationship between polymorphism in the promotor of the Metallothionein gene in the site  A-G (rs28366003). The distribution of different genotypes is wild A.A. 22 %, hetero AG 25%, and mutant 53% in the patients

Nitric Oxide Synthase Is Expressed In Human Macrophages During Foreign Body Inflammation

Although nitric oxide (NO) is a well documented effector molecule in rodent macrophages, its significance in human mononuclear phagocytic cells has been controversial. The foreign body inflammatory reaction around loosened joint replacement implants lea