Estimation of validity Tigris River Water for Swimming in Baghdad City

This study was conducted during 2012 utilizing selected four swim areas on the Tigris river in Baghdad city. Twenty water samples from four swim areas during swim season were collected for quality analyses using chemical, physical and bacterial parameters. The result revealed that  the temperature, pH and means dissolved solid in the Tigris river water in all swim areas were within limit recommended by environmental protection Agency standards. While mean of the total dissolved solid, turbidity, chlorophyll and blue green algae were ranged from 0.69-0.89 g/l, 10.15-1248 NTU, 1.85-222.82 µg/l and 338-7999 cells/ml respectively. The total viable counts (TVCs) of bacteria were ranged from 128 to 10000 cells/ml. The total Coliforms (TCs) and fecal Coliforms (FCs) were ranged  from 300-1600ml and126-1600 /100ml respectively. During the study 77 isolates of enteric bacteria were isolated and identified. Escherichia coli isolated from all water samples (20 isolates) which it represents 100%, Enterobacter  spp. were 70%, Klebsiella spp. were 60%, Protus mirabilis were 65%, Protus vulgaris were 15%, Vibrio spp. were 30%, Morganella morgani were 10%, Pseudomonas aeruginosa was 5%, Salmonella Sp. was 5% and Staphylococcus spp. were 25%. Key word: Tigris river, swimming, bacteria

Impact Resistance of GFRP Reinforced Concrete One-Way Slabs

Concrete structures are usually subjected to short-term dynamic loads besides long-term static loads. Tensile strength and energy dissipation characteristics are reduced as a result of these loads as long as the concrete is weak in resisting impact loads. This paper studies the behavior of one-way concrete slabs reinforced with glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) under an impact load. A comparison one-way concrete slabs reinforced with GFRP and normal steel has been done. Six slabs with dimensions of (4000*1000*180) mm are cast. Three specimens for each type of slab have been constructed and tested under impact load. A simple device has been made mainly to subject an impact load by applying a load of a weight 7 Kg that falls in the center of the slab from two different heights,1000 mm and 2000 mm. The concrete strain at different locations is measured during a specific time. Results have been taken as an average of three specimens for each type of slab. The results showed that the slabs reinforced with GFRP bars has a better behavior than the ones reinforced with normal steel. The strain of the slabs with GFRP is 25% less than the slab with steel bars, also the time interval was 37.5% less. The value of strains is greater in the short direction than the other directions

COVID-19 research in critical care: the good, the bad, and the ugly

The extraordinary pace of research on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been one of the major success stories of the pandemic. Therapeutic trials involving thousands of patients, which usually take years to complete, have been reported in a matter of months. National and international registries and networks have reported on tens of thousands of patients in near real time. However, there have also been many challenges: hundreds of trials have been underpowered, duplicated, or of poor quality; excessive bureaucracy has complicated study initiation; and only a small percentage of eligible patients worldwide have been enrolled in studies, while many others have been treated with off-label, unproven therapies. All of this has been complicated by an “infodemic” of low-quality medical information, accelerated by social media.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Evaluation of Radioactivity in Soil Sample from Al-Hadbaa Cement Plant in Nineveh Governorate, Iraq

The fundamental goal of this study is to measure the level of radioactivity in the soil of the area around Al-Hadbaa cement plant, also to evaluate the radiological hazard of radionuclide, gamma-spectroscopy with an HPGe detector with the crystal diameter of 70.6 mm and length of 70 mm has been used to estimate the specific activity of natural radionuclides 226Ra, 232Th, 40K, and artificial radionuclides 137Cs in the fifteen soil samples collected. The results show that the average concentration of specific activity of 226Ra, 232Th, 40K, and 137Cs was 11.17 ± 1.69, 13.38 ± 0.72, 158.36 ± 5.35 Bq/kg, and 1.52 ± 0.19 Bq/kg, respectively. The average specific activity of these radionuclides is discovered to be lower than the global average which is 33 Bq/kg for 226Ra, 30 Bq/kg for 232Th, and 400 Bq/kg for 40K. Radiological hazard indices are determined according to the activity concentration of the radionuclides in the area under study. The outcome of the radiological hazard index is within the globally recognized limit proposed by UNSCEAR which is 1000 μSv/y for annual effective dose and 290 × 10-6 for cancer risk, so it is possible to conclude that there are no radiological hazards as a result of radiation exposure to the workers working in the cement plant as well as the organisms living in the region

Digital marketing effect to intention to domestic tourism during COVID-19 in Jordan

The pandemic COVID-19 proved as a great challenge for today world. The “Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan” timely control it due it’s aggressive actions against pandemic COVID-19, in contrast with other “MENA” countries. Where the government encouraged domestic tourism to reduce the burden on this sector. The purpose of this study is to lay emphasis on the Jordan domestic tourism in light of the investigation as to how digital marketing influence intention to domestic tourism with the moderating role of price, and the role of mediator perceived ease of use (PEOU). In order to achieve the objective, the study has adopted quantitative technique of analysis. The study has initially collected the primary data through questionnaire. The data were collected from 377 respondents (customers want to do domestic tourism) by using a convenience sampling technique. In the second step the collected data is analyzed by using statistical tools i.e. SPSS and AMOS. The outcomes of the “structural equation modeling”, concluded that digital marketing has significant relationship with PEOU and intentions to domestic tourism. Moreover; PEOU has a significant relationship with intentions to domestic tourism. Additionally, the PEOU also work as a mediating factor in association between the digital marketing, and intention to domestic tourism. Hypothesis on moderation effects were not justified. The outcomes of such study are useful to the domestic tourism industry for identifying tourists' needs during COVID-19 pandemic

Factors for extending e-government adoption in Jordan

This article establishes an e-government adoption structure to survey the mediating roles of perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEOU), & trust, as well as the moderating role of transparency, in citizens' adoption of e-government services in the Jordanian public sector institutes. A quantitative approach using the questionnaire method was employed to test this model. Based on a snowball sampling, 423 questionnaires were staff of public universities in Jordan. Structural Equation Modelling was used to analyze the data. The findings show that PU and PEOU have a significant impact on service quality (SQ). Furthermore, PU, PEOU has a significant association with the adoption of e-government. More likely, the study found a link between SQ and e-government adoption through PU and PEOU. Also; trust plays a mediating role among PEOU and e-government adoption. It also shows that accountability enhances the PEOU’s commitment to e-government adoption. This article adds to e-government analysis from a theoretical as well as practical viewpoint. Theoretically, this research established a conceptual context for a greater understanding of e-government implementation in Jordanian public universities. Nonetheless, this article provides a comprehensive review of the acute causes for e-government adoption to provide practical input to Jordanian decision-makers on how to convince Jordanians to embrace e-government

Can Depression be Diagnosed by Response to Mother's Face? A Personalized Attachment-Based Paradigm for Diagnostic fMRI

OBJECTIVE: Objective measurement of depression remains elusive. Depression has been associated with insecure attachment, and both have been associated with changes in brain reactivity in response to viewing standard emotional and neutral faces. In this study, we developed a method to calculate predicted scores for the Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II) using personalized stimuli: fMRI imaging of subjects viewing pictures of their own mothers. METHODS: 28 female subjects ages 18-30 (14 healthy controls and 14 unipolar depressed diagnosed by MINI psychiatric interview) were scored on the Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II) and the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) coherence of mind scale of global attachment security. Subjects viewed pictures of Mother (M), Friend (F) and Stranger (S), during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Using a principal component regression method (PCR), a predicted Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II) score was obtained from activity patterns in the paracingulate gyrus (Brodmann area 32) and compared to clinical diagnosis and the measured BDI-II score. The same procedure was performed for AAI coherence of mind scores. RESULTS: Activity patterns in BA-32 identified depressed subjects. The categorical agreement between the derived BDI-II score (using the standard clinical cut-score of 14 on the BDI-II) and depression diagnosis by MINI psychiatric interview was 89%, with sensitivity 85.7% and specificity 92.8%. Predicted and measured BDI-II scores had a correlation of 0.55. Prediction of attachment security was not statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: Brain activity in response to viewing one's mother may be diagnostic of depression. Functional magnetic resonance imaging using personalized paradigms has the potential to provide objective assessments, even when behavioral measures are not informative. Further, fMRI based diagnostic algorithms may enhance our understanding of the neural mechanisms of depression by identifying distinctive neural features of the illness

Application of ultraviolet-C radiation and gaseous ozone for microbial inactivation on different materials

[Image: see text] With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a global incentive for applying environmentally sustainable and rapid sterilization methods, such as ultraviolet-C radiation (UVC) and ozonation. Material sterilization is a requirement for a variety of industries, including food, water treatment, clothing, healthcare, medical equipment, and pharmaceuticals. It becomes inevitable when devices and items like protective equipment are to be reused on/by different persons. This study presents novel findings on the performance of these sterilization methods using four microorganisms (Escherichia coli,Staphylococcus aureus,Candida albicans, and Aspergillus fumigatus) and six material substrates (stainless steel, polymethyl methacrylate, copper, surgical facemask, denim, and a cotton-polyester fabric). The combination of both ozone and UVC generally yields improved performance compared to their respective applications for the range of materials and microorganisms considered. Furthermore, the effectiveness of both UVC and ozone was higher when the fungi utilized were smeared onto the nonabsorbent materials than when 10 μL droplets were placed on the material surfaces. This dependence on the contaminating liquid surface area was not exhibited by the bacteria. This study highlights the necessity of adequate UVC and ozone dosage control as well as their synergistic and multifunctional attributes when sterilizing different materials contaminated with a wide range of microorganisms