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We present the result of the geomorphological mapping of the central sector of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Therein, landscape evolution was mostly overseen by the regional geodynamic, related to the Arabia-Eurasia convergence, and in the Quaternary, regional climate fluctuations contributed to shaping landforms. The combination of such processes affected the distribution, types, and evolution of landforms (related to structural, hillslope, fluvial, and karst processes), with a noteworthy influence on the development of the local drainage network, which belongs to Tigris River catchment. The Great Zab and Little Zab Rivers – the main left tributaries of Tigris River – progressively cut anticline ridges growing in the area. Our analyses suggest that the structural deformation of the Zagros also controlled the evolution of the low-order channels of the hydrographic network. Since the Holocene, landforms dynamic was altered by intense human exploitation of the landscape and increased fluctuations between arid and humid conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tells are multi-layered, archaeological mounds representing anthropogenic landforms common in arid regions. In such contexts, the preservation of the archaeological record is mined by ongoing climate changes, shift in land use, and intense human overgrazing. Such natural and human-driven factors tune the response of archaeological soils and sediments to erosion. Geomorphology offers a plethora of tools for mapping natural and anthropogenic landforms and evaluating their response to unremitting weathering, erosional and depositional processes. Here, we present a geomorphological investigation on two anthropogenic mounds in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, with a special focus on the ongoing erosional processes mining their slope stability and threatening the preservation of the local archaeological landscape. Applying the revised universal soil loss equation model for soil loess derived from UAV imagery and implemented with geoarchaeological investigation, we assess the erosion rate along anthropogenic mounds and estimate the risk of losing archaeological deposits. We argue that a large-scale application of our approach in arid and semi-arid regions may improve our ability to (i) estimate the rate of soil and/or archaeological sediments loss, (ii) propose mitigation strategies to prevent the dismantling of the archaeological record, and (iii) schedule archaeological operations in areas of moderate to extreme erosion risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the first millennia of the Holocene, human communities in the Fertile Crescent experienced drastic cultural and technological transformations that modified social and human-environments interactions, ultimately leading to the rise of complex societies. The potential influence of climate on this "Neolithic Revolution" has long been debated. Here we present a speleothem record from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, covering from Early Neolithic to Early Chalcolithic periods (~ 11 to 7.3 ka, 9000–5300 BCE). The record reveals the influence of the Siberian High on regional precipitation, and shows large hydroclimatic variability at the multicentennial scale. In particular, it highlights wetter conditions between 9.7 and 9.0 ka, followed by an abrupt reduction of precipitation between 9.0 and 8.5 ka, and a wetter interval between 8.5 and 8.0 ka. A comparison with regional and local archaeological data demonstrates an influence of recorded hydroclimatic changes on settlement patterns (size, distribution, permanent vs. seasonal occupation) and on the exploitation of water resources by Neolithic to Chalcolithic populations. Our record does not show prominent hydroclimatic changes at 9.3 and 8.2 ka, thus not supporting direct influence of such rapid and widespread events on the process of Neolithization and its cultural dispersal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Located along the Tigris River in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, the Mosul Dam Reservoir is the second biggest dam of the Near East and represents an important water storage for local human activities. The dam was built between 1981 and 1988 north of the village of Eski Mosul, submerging the course of the Tigris River for c. 100 km. The analysis of historical images derived from declassified Corona satellite imagery acquired between December 1967 and August 1968 reveals the pristine pattern of the Tigris River, including the seasonal changes of its riverbed, shifting across the hydrological year from meandering to anastomosing patterns. Geomorphological mapping based on Corona images allowed us to estimate the seasonal modification of fluvial elements such as the floodplain and point, middle and longitudinal bars. The comparison with Landsat data collected since the 1990s showed the first phases of the basin filling and the control on the present‐day aspect of the lake inherited from the setting of the Tigris channel belt and, more in general, the litho‐structural control over the evolution of the local hydrographic network; we also document the influence of the original Tigris River course on its recent insertion into the lake. Our work allowed reconstruction of the ancient fluvial landscape below the Mosul Dam Lake and the evolution of its riverscape controlled by litho‐structural factors and seasonal variations of the river discharge. Finally, this contribution highlights the relevance of declassified intelligence satellite imagery in interpreting natural geomorphic processes and landforms, today altered by human agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the Assyrian rule over Northern Mesopotamia (present-day northern Iraq), complex systems of canals were built to increase the surface of cultivable land and improve the movement of people and goods across the irrigated waterscape of the hinterland of Nineveh and other major urban centres, with the aim of granting socio-economic prosperity to the empire. Nevertheless, supra-regional political instability eventually led to the rapid downfall of the Assyrian state during the late seventh century BCE, causing the swift abandonment of the canal systems. In this study, we examine the post-abandonment formation processes of the natural and anthropogenic infillings of three portions of King Sennacherib's Khinis canal system (705–681 BCE, northwestern Kurdistan Region of Iraq) through means of archaeological, sedimentological and micromorphological analyses. We identify water lain sediments, desiccation features, colluvial gravel intake and pastoral occupation layers, anchoring the deposit to radiometric dating and contextualising it against the known regional climatic history. The interpretation of pedostratigraphic evidence highlights subsequent phases of use, abandonment, and repurposing of the canals, reflecting shifts in land-use from agriculture to pastoralism and dynamic adaptation and resilience of the local ancient communities in response to Late-Holocene climate changes and geopolitical events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the geomorphological map of the northwestern part of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, where the landscape expresses the tectonic activity associated with the Arabia-Eurasia convergence and Neogene climate change. These processes influenced the evolution of landforms and fluvial pathways, where major rivers Tigris, Khabur, and Great Zab incise the landscape of Northeastern Mesopotamia Anticlinal ridges and syncline trough compose the Zagros orogen. The development of water and wind gaps, slope, and karsts processes in the highlands and the tilting of fluvial terraces in the flat areas are the main evidence of the relationship between tectonics, climate variations and geomorphological processes. During the Quaternary, especially after the Last Glacial Maximum, fluctuating arid and wet periods also influenced local landforms and fluvial patterns of the area. Finally, the intensified Holocene human occupation and agricultural activities during the passage to more complex societies over time impacted the evolution of the landscape in this part of Mesopotamia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mesopotamia is often regarded the "cradle of civilization." The development of water management practices in the region is thought to have played a key role in the emergence of these early civilizations. We present the first direct dating of a palaeo-canal system at the ancient city of Girsu, Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) (occupied between 4800 and 1600 BC). We describe the use of archaeological and radiocarbon (14C) dating techniques to establish the age of this canal system. Our results show considerable differences between shell 14C dates on the one hand and charcoal 14C dates and archaeological evidence on the other. This likely reflects the impact of freshwater reservoir effects from the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Although the FRE from rivers is widely acknowledged, its impact on 14C dates in Mesopotamia is rarely discussed and poorly understood. Our results provide a first indication of its variability and magnitude. With the publication of our results we aim to highlight the problem and re-initiate collaborative research efforts in improving 14C dating in this important region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Iraq (00210889) is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper presents the results of an archaeological survey carried out in the Navkur Plain, Iraqi Kurdistan, as part of the 'Asingeran Archaeological Project'. The survey was prepared using remote sensing products accessed via Google Earth Engineⓒ, a large‐scale cloud computing service freely available to the scientific community that allows processing remote sensing big data. Outputs generated with a multitemporal approach are particularly successful for archaeological research, because it is possible to maximize the visibility of archaeological sites, improving their detection. Multispectral imagery from Landsat 5, Landsat 7 and Sentinel‐2 collections were used and processed, testing their utility for finding unknown ancient settlements in the densely studied area of Northern Mesopotamia. Seventeen new sites were discovered in an already surveyed area of limited size (<100 km2), showing the potentialities of this method. The advantages of cloud computing for Near Eastern Archaeology and the results of the survey are also presented and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

aiman Rahman,1,2 Darya Saeed Abdulateef,1 Narmin Hamaamin Hussen,3 Aso Faiq Salih,4 Hemn Hassan Othman,5 Trifa Mahmood Abdulla,1 Shirwan Hama Salih Omer,1 Talar Hamaali Mohammed,1 Mohammed Omar Mohammed,6 Masrur Sleman Aziz,7 Rasedee Abdullah81Department of Physiology, College of Medicine, University of Sulaimani, Sulaimaniyah, Republic of Iraq; 2Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences, Komar University of Science and Technology, Sulaimaniyah, Republic of Iraq; 3Department of Pharmacognosy and Pharmaceutical Chemistry, College of Pharmacy, University of Sulaimani, Sulaimaniyah, Republic of Iraq; 4Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, University of Sulaimani, Sulaimaniyah, Republic of Iraq; 5Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, College of Pharmacy, University of Sulaimani, Sulaimaniyah, Republic of Iraq; 6Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Sulaimani, Sulaimaniyah, Republic of Iraq; 7Department of Biology, College of Education, Salahaddin University, Erbil, Republic of Iraq; 8Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universiti Putra Malaysia, UPM, Serdang, Selangor, 43400, MalaysiaCorrespondence: Heshu Sulaiman RahmanDepartment of Physiology, College of Medicine, University of Sulaimani, Sulaimaniyah, 46001, Republic of IraqTel +964 7726159598Email [email protected] Aso Faiq SalihDepartment of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, University of Sulaimani, Sulaimaniyah, Republic of IraqEmail [email protected] Over the last few decades, there have been several global outbreaks of severe respiratory infections. The causes of these outbreaks were coronaviruses that had infected birds, mammals and humans. The outbreaks predominantly caused respiratory tract and gastrointestinal tract symptoms and other mild to very severe clinical signs. The current coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, caused by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is a rapidly spreading illness affecting millions of people worldwide. Among the countries most affected by the disease are the United States of America (USA), India, Brazil, and Russia, with France recording the highest infection, morbidity, and mortality rates. Since early January 2021, thousands of articles have been published on COVID-19. Most of these articles were consistent with the reports on the mode of transmission, spread, duration, and severity of the sickness. Thus, this review comprehensively discusses the most critical aspects of COVID-19, including etiology, epidemiology, pathogenesis, clinical signs, transmission, pathological changes, diagnosis, treatment, prevention and control, and vaccination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Iraqi Bulletin of Geology & Mining is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

About ten percent of the world’s people are infected with Entamoeba. histolytica, which representing over fifty million people annually. Sequences of 18S ribosomal RNA gene have been obtained for five new isolates of Entamoeba histolytica. which is represented new insights into the evolution of phylogenetic analyses of this parasite in Iraq. In the current study, the phylogenetic relationships between five local isolations of Entamoeba histolytica and eight Entamoeba spp global isolates were studied by using the18S rRNA gene sequence. The analysis of multiple sequence alignment and the adjoining phylogenetic tree analysis was carried out by using ClustalW multiple sequence alignment online based analysis of 355bp 18S rRNA gene was amplified by Polymerase Chain Reaction. Phylogenetic analysis results of these gene sequences revealed that Entamoeba histolytica local isolations were closely related to Entamoeba histolytica two Japan isolation (AB282660.1) and (AB485592.1) more than other countries. Accession No: KT253450, KT253451, KT253452, KT253453 and KT253454, these isolates are unique, and a new strain, this is the first report on the usage of molecular phylogeny to classify Entamoeba histolytica which is found in Babylon Province of Iraq. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fortunately, extreme temperatures reaching 50 °C are not common on our planet. The capability of the consortium for small-scale modelling regional climate model (COSMO-CLM), with 0.44° resolution, to project future trends of an extremely hot environment with direct model output (DMO) is questioned. The temperature distribution of COSMO-CLM output driven by reanalysis and RCP4.5 scenario in southern Iraq was remarkably good, with a slight temperature overestimation, compared to the overlapping observations from Basra airport. An attempt to enhance the DMO with a statistical downscaling method did not improve the results. The COSMO-CLM projection indicates that a very sharp increase in the number of consecutive hours and days with the temperature reaching 50 °C or higher will occur. During 1951–1980, consecutive hours and days reaching 50 °C were rare events. By the end of the century, the projected climate in southern Iraq contains up to 13 consecutive hours and 21 consecutive days reaching 50 °C or higher. As the average projected temperature will increase by ~2 °C compared to the recent climate, new records may be expected. However, the major climate change feature is the increase in consecutive hours and days of very high temperatures. These findings require adaptation measures to support future habitation of the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]