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

It pays to partner with a firm that writes annual reports well

We use strategic alliances as a setting to examine whether the readability of a firm’s partner’s 10-K matters. We find that the increase in the cumulative abnormal return (CAR) around the announcement of an alliance is relatively lower when the firm’s partner in a strategic alliance has a less readable 10-K report. Additional tests show that the impact of the readability of a partner’s 10-K is much stronger when investors suspect insufficient due diligence before the alliance’s formation, when the partner is from a different industry, and when the alliance occurs before the Sarbanes–Oxley Act. Overall, our results show that the readability of a partner’s annual report matters—it pays to partner with a firm that writes these reports well

Management of tomato damping-off using natural plant extracts, Trichoderma harzianum and selected fungicides in Penjween, Sulaimani Governorate, Kurdistan, Iraq

Tomato seedlings were found epidemically infected with damping-off disease at four locations (Kanimasyan, Kanishaban, Kanisev and Qzlja), in Penjween, Sulaimani Governorate, Kurdistan, Iraq during May 2011. The highest occurrence of disease incidence was observed in Kanimasyan (56%). Fusarium oxysporum (Schlecht), F. solani (Mart.) Sacc., F. acuminatum (Ell. and Ev.), F. equiseti (Corda) Sacc., F. compactum, Rhizoctonia solani (Kuhn), Macrophomina phaseolina (Tassi) Goid., Phoma lycopersici (Kleb), and Cephalosporium sp. were isolated from the infected plants and proved pathogenicity on tomato seeds (cv. Super Queen). Fusarium oxysporum and R. solani showed the highest level of seedling damping-off, with largest effect on decreasing the quality of seedling's vigor. Extracts of H. triquetrifolium, E. billardieri and C. rotundus at (20, 30, 40, 45 mg ml-¹) showed inhibitory effect on the mycelial growth of all pathogenic fungi. In vitro plant extract of C. rotundus revealed the highest inhibitory effects on fungal growth at 45 mg ml-¹. Fungicide of Keenol at 50 ppm proved to be chemostatic against all pathogens. T. harzianum appeared to be an important antagonistic agent against mycelial growth. Management of the disease was carried out in greenhouse using (H. triquetrifolium, Vitavax 200, T. harzianum and Keenol). It was found that the combination of (H. triquetrifolium + keenol) and (T. harzianum + H. triquetrifolium) showed impressive effects on plant height, dry and fresh weight when compared to the other treatments and control

SYNTHESIS OF SOME 2,3-DIHYDRO-1,3,4-OXADIAZOLES AND 4,5-DIHYDRO-1,2,4-TRIAZOLES AS ANTICANCER AGENTS

Objective: The main objective of this work was to synthesize and evaluate the novel 2,3-dihydro-1,3,4-oxadiazole and 4,5-dihydro-1,2,4-triazole derivatives for cytotoxic activities. Methods: The 2,3-dihydro-1,3,4-oxadiazole derivatives 4a-h were synthesized by cyclization of N'-(substituted-benzylidene) isonicotinohydrazide 3a-e in refluxing acetic anhydride. The 2,3-dihydro-1,3,4-oxadiazole derivatives 4a-h were converted into the corresponding 4,5-dihydro-1,2,4-triazoles 5a-h using ammonia. All the synthesized compounds were identified, depending on the physical and spectral data. Title compounds were assessed for their cytotoxic activity against human cancer cell line (MCF-7) by using Sulforhodamine B (SRB) colorimetric assay. Results: All the synthesized compounds showed characteristic peaks in FTIR, 1HNMR and Mass spectral analysis. The results of the in vitro cytotoxic activity revealed that the compound 4c exhibited equipotent cytotoxic activity with an IC50 value of 8.04 µM when compared with that of standard drug doxorubicin (IC50= 8.02 µM). The reminder compounds have shown good to moderate cytotoxic activities when compared with that of a reference standard. Conclusion: We synthesized a series of title compounds in quantitative yields. Most derivatives showed moderate to good cytotoxic activity. &nbsp

Industry Networks and IPO Waves

We offer a new perspective on why initial public offerings (IPO) occur in waves and propose that the customer-supplier relationships among industries help propagate IPO waves. Our empirical tests provide evidence that demand shocks increase the number of IPOs in an industry. The shocks then spread upstream through customer relationships leading to an increase in the number of IPOs in more central and connected industries. These findings contribute to the IPO literature by demonstrating the channel through which IPO waves propagate

396 Characterizing inpatient hospitalizations for hidradenitis suppurativa and assessing the impact of outpatient dermatology care on hospitalizations

Introduction: Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is associated with a significant disease burden. The use of high-cost settings care are common among HS patients. Objective: To explore factors that may influence hospital admissions and readmissions among HS patients. Methods: Using ICD-9/10 codes (705.83 and L73.2), we extracted the medical records of adult HS patients who visited the Henry Ford Health System (HFHS) ED between 2010 and 2020. Results: Of the 100 HS patients, 52 (52%) were admitted to an inpatient service. Hypertension (OR:2.55,95% CI:1.11-5.83, p value=0.027), diabetes mellitus (OR:2.42, 95%CI:1.05-5.61, p value =0.039), cellulitis (OR: 19.28, 95%CI:4.23-87.96 p\u3c0.001), sepsis (OR:10.25, 95%CI:1.34-89.24, p value=0.025), and depression (OR:3.32, 95%CI:1.10-10.04, p value =0.002) were significant predictors of admission. Chronic kidney disease (OR:3.05, 95% CI:1.00-9.23,p value=0.049), congestive heart failure (OR:4.06, 95%CI:1.19-13.80, p value =0.025), coronary artery disease (OR:15.20, 95%CI:2.80-82.65, p value=0.002), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (OR:8.94, 95%: 1.51-52.86, p value =0.003), cellulitis (OR:4.62, 95%CI:1.66-12.88, p=0.003), sepsis (OR:3.75, 95%CI:1.02-13.82,p value =0.047), and depression (OR:4.50, 95%CI:1.54-13.18, p value=0.006) were positively associated with readmission. Those who received outpatient dermatology care had a lower risk of being admitted (n=87, 28.7% vs n=13,100%, p \u3c0.001) and readmitted (n=10, 11.5% vs n=5, 38.5%, p value =0.0108). Discussion: In this study, we demonstrate that certain comorbidities, that are common among HS patients, are significant determinants of admission to an inpatient service. Furthermore, the increase access to outpatient dermatology care significantly reduces the likelihood of HS patients being admitted and readmitted. Conclusion: The findings of this study illuminate the pivotal role of dermatologists in improving patients’ health outcomes while minimizing the avoidable use of high-cost settings care

Casimir force in the presence of a magnetodielectric medium

In this article we investigate the Casimir effect in the presence of a medium by quantizing the Electromagnetic (EM) field in the presence of a magnetodielectric medium by using the path integral formalism. For a given medium with definite electric and magnetic susceptibilities, explicit expressions for the Casimir force are obtained which are in agree with the original Casimir force between two conducting parallel plates immersed in the quantum electromagnetic vacuum.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figur

Detection and Evaluation of Effective of Digital Communication of Drug on Human Body

Nowadays, there is a wide using of mobile and internet from various ages, due to some bad systems which they work to send signals(sound wave frequency) within the music or will be spread to affect the brain of the humankind. Therefore, this paper expresses thedetection and evaluation of (the signal of sound frequency) which influence the human brain, it has been measured some frequency byprogramming in the mobile and found a trend to detect such frequencies and a way to produce a human being from it

Efecto del injerto poli-quitosano (N-L-lactide) sintetizado sobre el material genético humano

Introduction: Chitosan is one of the natural polymers can generally consider as a biocompatible and biodegradable polycationicpolymer, which has minimum immunogenicity and low cytotoxicity. Therefore, chitosan and its derivatives may represent potentially safe cationic carriers for use in gene delivery. Materials andMethods: Chitosan with 90.1 DD% obtained by deacetylation ofchitin extracted from local shrimp shells. Graft copolymerizationof L-lactide onto chitosan was carried out at room temperature byring opening polymerization under a nitrogen atmosphere to prepare chitosan-g-poly (N-lactide) graft copolymer. It was obtainedin good yield and characterized by FTIR. The samples purity andconcentration were detected using both Nanodrop UV-spectroscopy and agarose gel electrophoresis techniques. The humanheat shock proteins gene, hsp-70, was used as a model of humangenes to study the effect of chitosan-g-poly (N-lactide) graft copolymer. Results and Discussion: The results revealed that chitosan-g-poly (N-lactide) graft copolymers had safety effect on theDNA, and binding with it. the human heat shock proteins gene,hsp-70, was used as a model of human genes to study the effectof chitosan-g-poly (N-lactide) graft copolymer, it shows a goodbinding ability the human gene, implies that it might be used inbiomedical applications in the future. Conclusions: Grafting ofL-lactide onto chitosn by ring opening polymerization was confirmed by FTIR. The repared polymer hase safety effectson human DNA and genes. The chitosan-g-poly (N-lactide) graftcopolymer has shown highly efficiency to electrostatic interactionwith human DNA and gene, implying that it is suitable to be usedas DNA and gene delivery