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Water harvesting (WH) and aquifer recharge (AR) have been promoted in recent decades as solutions to the overexploitation of groundwater resources in many countries around the world. Remote sensing (RS) and geographic information system (GIS) technologies with multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) enable the analysis of many parameters to identify potential WH and AR sites and suitable zones for site-specific and cost-effective recharge structures. Iraq is located within an arid and semiarid region and thus suffers from water scarcity and absent surface water resources. The use of RS and GIS technology for detection of appropriate sites for WH and AR could potentially increase water availability. The criteria selected for determining appropriate WH and AR areas were runoff, drainage, geology, groundwater depth, slope, soil texture, and land use/land cover. The selection of these criteria was found to be more important and more frequent in a literature review for WH and AR, and the weightage of each criterion should be based on the opinion of experts. The obtained results indicated only five optimum sites for check dam construction for WH, due to their locations in suitable land class, slope (

The aim of this study was to study the correlation between the Ser447ter (C-G) polymorphisms of the LPL gene and rs9939609 of the FTO gene and obesity in children and adolescents of the Rostov region (Russia). A case-control study examined the relationship between the rs9939609 polymorphisms of the FTO gene and Ser447Ter (S447X) of the LPL gene with obesity in 520 children and adolescents of both sexes aged 3 to 18 years: the main group consisted of 370 obese children and adolescents, and the control group - 150 children and adolescents without obesity. Genotyping of polymorphisms T / A rs9939609 of the FTO gene and C / G Ser447Ter of the LPL gene was performed using PCR- allele-specific primers. Polymorphisms of the FTO rs9939609 and LPL Ser447Ter genes in donor DNA samples were typed by the electrophoretic method using commercial test systems from the Litekh research and production com-pany (Russia). The relationship between the rs9939609 polymorphism of the FTO gene and obesity was revealed, differences (P

In the near future, natural disasters and associated risks are expected to increase, mainly because of the impact of climate change. Australia is considered one of the most vulnerable areas for natural disasters, including flooding. Therefore, an evaluation of the morphometric characteristics of the Onkaparinga basin in South Australia was undertaken using the integration of remote sensing and geospatial techniques to identify its impact on flash floods. The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) and Landsat images with other available geologic, topographic, and secondary data were analysed in geographic information system (GIS) to outline the drainage basins, estimate the morphometric parameters, and rank the parameters to demarcate the flash flood susceptibility zones of the basin. The main goal was to develop a flash flood susceptibility map showing the different hazard zones within the study areas. The results showed that 10.87%, 24.27%, and 64.85% are classified as low, moderate, and highly susceptible for flooding, respectively. These findings were then verified against secondary data relating to the historic flood events of the area. About 30.77% of the historical floods are found located within the high to extremely susceptible zones. Moreover, a significant correlation has been found between the high precipitation concentration index (PCI) and the irregular rainfall and high potential for flooding. Finally, the social and economic vulnerability was applied to determine the impact of the flood hazards. The result indicates a widespread threat to the economy, environment, and community in the study area. This study can be utilized to support and assist decision makers with planning and the devotion of alleviation measures to reducing and avoiding catastrophic flooding events, especially in highly susceptible areas in the world, such as South Australian basins. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

The infill walls may lose their positive effects during the first stages of earthquakes, either by leaving their plane or through breakage. That is why it is common to strengthen these walls before design earthquakes or to repair and strengthen them after suffering slight or moderate damage due to the occurrence of an earthquake. In this study, the effect of adding and strengthening these walls on the structural behavior of reinforced concrete structures was investigated. For this purpose, the infill walls were strengthened with a single mesh of reinforcement and covered with plaster. Five one-story, single bay and ½ scaled reinforced concrete frames were cast, one was built without infill, the second with a bare infill wall, and the other three with strengthened infill walls with anchorage of different diameters. All these specimens were tested under cyclic loading type reverse. The tests resulted in important relationships and curves, including the lateral load-lateral displacement, envelope curve-lateral load and lateral displacement, as well as stiffness- lateral displacement and others. Through these results, the effect of adding infill walls and the strengthening procedure of these walls on the structural behavior of the structures was discussed.

At the end of 2019, a novel coronavirus COVID-19 emerged in Wuhan, China, and later spread throughout the world, including Iraq. To control the rapid dispersion of the virus, Iraq, like other countries, has imposed national lockdown measures, such as social distancing, restriction of automobile traffic, and industrial enterprises. This has led to reduced human activities and air pollutant emissions, which caused improvement in air quality. This study focused on the analysis of the impact of the six partial, total, and post-lockdown periods (1st partial lockdown from March 1 to16, 2020, 1st total lockdown from March 17 to April 21, 2nd partial lockdown from April 22 to May 23, 2nd total lockdown from May 24 to June 13, 3rd partial lockdown from June 14 to August 19, and end partial lockdown from August 20 to 31) on the average of daily NO2, O3, PM2.5, and PM10 concentrations, as well as air quality index (AQI) in 18 Iraqi provinces during these periods (from March 1st to August 31st, 2020). The analysis showed a decline in the average of daily PM2.5, PM10, and NO2 concentrations by 24%, 15%, and 8%, respectively from March 17 to April 21, 2020 (first phase of total lockdown) in comparison to the 1st phase of partial lockdown (March 1 to March 16, 2020). Furthermore, the O3 increased by 10% over the same period. The 2nd phase of total lockdown, the 3rd partial lockdown, and the post-lockdown periods witnessed declines in PM2.5 by 8%, 11%, and 21%, respectively, while the PM10 increases over the same period. Iraqi also witnessed improvement in the AQI by 8% during the 1st phase of total lockdown compared to the 1st phase of partial lockdown. The level of air pollutants in Iraq declined significantly during the six lockdown periods as a result of reduced human activities. This study gives confidence that when strict measures are implemented, air quality can improve.

Tigris River is a major source to supply water for a big part of Iraq. Lately, Iraq has experienced water shortage problems such as variability in climate and the building of huge dams in the upstream countries (Turkey and Iran). In this work, the total dissolved salts (T.D.S.) were measured at fourteen sites on the Tigris River in two periods of the year 2014. The first period consisted of six rainy-months (April–September) and the second period covered non-rainy-months (October-March). Interpolation technique of inverse-distance-weighting (I.D.W.) in ArcGIS was applied to create the prediction maps of the river for (T.D.S.) concentration in both periods. The findings revealed that the (T.D.S.) levels continued to the last site in Al-Qurnah-city (Basrah) from the first site in Fish-Khabur-city (S-1). In the first period, the (T.D.S.) levels at fourteen selected sites were over the levels in the second period. According to World-Health-Organization (2003), the (T.D.S.) concentration on the Tigris River in both periods in 2014 was graded into five classes, then, the prediction maps of the (T.D.S.) classifications were created.

Quantification of the soil physicochemical properties is one of the essential process in the field of soil geo-science. In the current research, three types of machine learning (ML) models including support vector machine (SVM), random forest (RF), and gradient boosted decision tree (GBDT) were developed for Total Dissolved Salt (TDS) prediction over several locations in Iraq region. Various physicochemical soil properties were used as predictors for the TDS prediction. Four modeling scenarios are constructed based on the types of the associated soil input variables properties. The applied ML models were analyzed and discussed based on several statistical measures and graphical presentations. Based on the correlation analysis; Gypsum concentration, Sulfur trioxide ( $SO_{3}$ ), Chloride (Cl), and organic matter (OR) were the essential soil properties for the TDS concentration influence. The prediction results indicated that incorporating all the types of input variables including chemical, soil consistency limits, and soil sieve analysis attained the best prediction process. In quantitative terms, the SVM model attained the maximum coefficient of determination ( $R^{2}=0.849$ ) and minimum root mean square error (RMSE=3.882). Overall, the development of the ML models for the TDS of soil prediction provided a robust and reliable methodology that contributes to the soil geoscience field.

For decades, human health was threaten (especially that of children) by what considered as a potential sources of lead exposure which are: lead-contaminated water, soil, and air. The proposed of the research involve developing an integrated exposure, uptake, and biokinetic (IEUBK) model as a human health risk model to predict the blood lead levels BLL in children. The data set of this project for human health risk posed by Pb contamination in air, water and soil were obtained from previous study achieved in 2014 which carried out on 108 school children (School children in rural areas (n=76 child) and School children in urban areas (n=32child) matched for age. The environmental samples demonstrated that the concentration of lead for air and soil exceeded the international acceptable threshold values. However, the concentration of lead in water was below the threshold value. The BLL value from currently result of IEUBK model was above the agency’s threshold of concern, 10 μg/dL which was documented as children’s BLL lowest level of concern. This predicted values result of BLL was in agreement with actual value of BLL in blood samples of school children for the chosen study. Also, the results of this research confirmed that the high BLL could be attributed to the high lead level in both air and soil of contaminate environment.

In many parts of the world, groundwater quality is decreasing due to urbanization industrialization and use of agricultures in rural areas. This subject has formed an urgent need to determine the suitability of groundwater for various purposes. The aim of this study is to determine a groundwater index for groundwater use for irrigation in agriculture. The study is carried out in an agricultural area; near Al Kufa city, North of Al Najaf province, Iraq. Many chemical variables are used in this model, including (total dissolved solids TDS, electrical conductivity EC, sodium Na, potassium K and iron Fe), in addition to some of the heavy metals (cadmium Cd, lead Pb, chromium Cr, and nickel Ni), that also added to the index. The weight’s parameters are determined using analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and classified into five groups based on the human health significance of these parameters and negative effect on agriculture. The result of this study indicates that the water quality index (WQI) records values between (0 and 4.33), and in which the value of (2.16) represents the limit between unpolluted and polluted groundwater. This study confirms that all groundwater samples over the study area are suitable for agriculture. The final WQI values are exported to ArcMap environment to prepare the final WQI maps of study area.

In recent years, the problem of rising salinity levels in the Shatt al-Arab river in southern Iraq has been repeated, which has directly affected the living and health situation and the agricultural activity of these areas. Six sampling stations were selected along Shatt al-Arab to estimate the concentration of total dissolved solids (TDS) in the river; these stations included the following: Qurna, Labani, City Centre, Kateban, Corniche, and Sihan. In addition, three Landsat-8 satellite images which were taken at the same time as collected samples also used for detecting the salinity in the river. After processing of atmospheric correction and inserted remote sensing indices, the reflectance of water extracted from satellite images was used to express the spectral characteristics of different TDS concentrations. Correlation and regression were used to obtain accurate models for detecting the salinity depending on the spectral reflectance of Landsat 8 operational land image OLI. The results presented Pearson correlation (r) value of 0.70, 0.97, and 0.71, and correlation coefficient (R2) of 0.56, 0.94, and 0.85 between field data with spectral data of salinity index 2 (SI-2) derived from the green and blue bands of Landsat obtained in 2015, 2017, and 2018 respectively. In conclusion, remote sensing and GIS technologies coupled with spectral modeling are useful tools for providing a solution of future water resources planning and management, and also offer great undertaking as a means to improve knowledge of water quality and support water decision making.

A crisis of water scarcity in the world encouraged researchers, especially in the arid areas to know the nature and quality of all its sources regardless of surface water. The groundwater evaluation for irrigation was suggested by using the model of Water Quality Index for Irrigation (WQIIR) in the ArcMap/GIS Software. This model was applied to 48 wells distributed throughout the Hilla district, Babylon, Iraq. The samples of EC, Ca+2, Mg+2, Cl−1, Na+1, HCO3−1, and SAR for groundwater were collected from these wells during wet and dry seasons in 2016. The generated maps in GIS for the WQIIR model in both seasons were divided into categories based on restriction’s groundwater use for irrigation. These categories consisted of Severe Restriction (SR), High Restriction (HR), Moderate Restriction (MR), Low Restriction, and No Restriction. The areas values and their classification of restriction’s groundwater use for irrigation related to the five categories that resulted within the generated maps in GIS using the WQIIR model in the wet season (in km2) were: 42.79 (SR), 407.05 (HR), 377.77 (MR), 32.39 (LR) and 0.23 (NR) respectively and for the dry season were as follows: 42.79 (SR), 407.05 (HR), 377.77 (MR), 32.39 (LR) and 0.23 (NR) respectively. The areas and the classification categories of restriction groundwater for irrigation calculated based on the values resulted from the WQIIR model have shown variation in the dry and wet seasons.

Most of the third world countries having rivers passing through them suffer from the water contaminant problem. This problem is considered so difficult to get the water quality within the standard allowable limits for drinking, as well as for industrial and agricultural purposes. This research aims to assess the water quality of the Tigris River using the water quality index method and GIS software. Twelve parameters (Ca, Mg, Na, K, Cl, SO4, HCO3, TH, TDS, BOD5, NO3, and EC) were taken from 14 stations along the river. The weighted arithmetic method was applied to compute the water quality index (WQI). The interpolation method (IDW) was applied in ArcGIS 10.5 to produce the prediction maps for 12 parameters at 11 stations along the Tigris River during the wet and dry seasons in 2016. The regression prediction was applied on three stations in the Tigris River between observed values and predicted values, from the prediction maps, in both seasons. The results showed that the regression prediction for all parameters was given the acceptable values of the determination coefficient (R2). Furthermore, the state of water quality for the Tigris River was degraded downstream of the Tigris River, especially at the station (8) in Aziziyah in the wet and dry seasons and increase degradation clearly at Qurnah (Basrah province) in the south of Iraq. This paper considers the whole length of the Tigris River for the study. This is important to give comprehensive knowledge about the contamination reality of the river. Such that it becomes easier to understand the problem of contamination, analyze it, and then find the suitable treatments and solutions.

The Nile rose or water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) is an aquatic species threaten socio-economic and ecological systems, by invading freshwater ecosystems, affecting their productivity and functionality, as well as causing unfixable damage to key hydrological processes. Spectral signature differences can play a common role through using remote identification for these invasive plants, by using hyperspectral data, while many other studies showed that textural and phrenological differences are also can be considered as an effective strategy in this critical problem. New generation sensors like Sentinel 2 and Landsat 8 sensors of recently launched crop with improved sensing characteristics, unlike the previous broadband multispectral sensors has been provided untapped prospective alternatives. New insights were introduced in the detecting, mapping, and monitoring the spread of Nile Rose aquatic plant in the Tigris River at Wasit province in Iraq which has caused damage to fishing nets and make it difficult for fishermen to paddle on the river. Vegetation indices have been used to assess the impacts on major socio-economic activities in the study area. Spectral reflectance of Landsat 8 operational land imager OLI (acquired at 6 Oct 2016) was used to differentiate the spectral signature of the water hyacinth from other plants. These indices recorded the highest reflection of the Nile Rose plant relative to the rest of the plants. The result showed that the green Chlorophyll Index (CL Green) with overall accuracy of 89% which proved that this study has established a promising method for monitoring the invasion of the Nile Rose in the Tigris River to insure the availability of safe drinking water as a main source for the people such as in the study area nearby the part of Tigris River. Validerad;2021;Nivå 2;2021-06-09 (johcin)

Covid-19 was first reported in Iraq on February 24, 2020. Since then, to prevent its propagation, the Iraqi government declared a state of health emergency. A set of rapid and strict countermeasures have taken, including locking down cities and limiting population's mobility. In this study, concentrations of four criteria pollutants, NO2, O3, PM2.5 and PM10 before the lockdown from January 16 to February 29, 2020, and during four periods of partial and total lockdown from March 1 to July 24, 2020, in Baghdad were analysed. Overall, 6, 8 and 15% decreases in NO2, PM2.5, and PM10 concentrations, respectively in Baghdad during the 1st partial and total lockdown from March 1 to April 21, compared to the period before the lockdown. While, there were 13% increase in O3 for same period. During the 2nd partial lockdown from June 14 to July 24, NO2 and PM2.5 decreases 20 and 2.5%, respectively. While, there were 525 and 56% increase in O3 and PM10, respectively for same period. The air quality index (AQI) improved by 13% in Baghdad during the 1st partial lockdown from March 1 to April 21, compared to its pre-lockdown. The results of NO2 tropospheric column extracted from the Sentinel-5P satellite shown the NO2 emissions reduced up to 35 to 40% across Iraq, due to lockdown measures, between January and July, 2020, especially across the major cities such as Baghdad, Basra and Erbil. The lockdown due to COVID-19 has drastic effects on social and economic aspects. However, the lockdown also has some positive effect on natural environment and air quality improvement., Graphical abstract Unlabelled Image, Highlights • NO2 concentrations reduced by 6, 7, 8 and 20%, respectively in Baghdad during the lockdown. • O3 concentrations increased by 13%, 75%, 225% and 525%, for the same periods. • AQI improved in Baghdad by 13%, compared to the pre-lockdown. • NO2 emissions reduced up to 35 to 40% in Iraq compared to the pre-lockdown.

A total of 73 soil samples were initially analyzed for lead (Pb) concentration as an indicator of the environment impact of smelter activity in the Port Pirie, South Australia. Chemometric techniques were used to assess the ability of near-infrared (NIR) reflectance spectroscopy to predict soil Pb using spectrally active soil characteristics such as soil carbon (C). The result indicated a strong linear relationship between log-transformed data of soil Pb and spectral reflectance in the range between 500 and 612 nm with R2 = 0.54 and a low root-mean-square error (RMSEv = 0.38) for the validation mode with an acceptable ratio of performance to deviation and ratio of error range (1.6 and 7.7, respectively). This study suggested that NIR spectroscopy based on auxiliary spectrally active components is a rapid and noninvasive assessment technique and has the ability to determine Pb contamination in urban soil to be useful in environmental health risk assessment. Validerad;2018;Nivå 2;2018-05-21 (andbra)

The global impact of shale oil has revolutionized the world’s energy markets, resulting in significantly lower oil prices, higher global gross domestic product, changing geopolitics and shifted business models for oil and gas companies. Further and developed research initiative is required to fill critical gaps in knowledge at the interface of shale oil development along with environmental protection, so countries can prepare better for its energy future. This paper explores the characterization of Iraqi originated oil shale using various analytical techniques, such as mass spectrometry (MS), infrared spectroscopy (IR), and Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrography (GC/MS). Based upon analytical results, it is found that the majority of chemical structure is in aliphatic hydrocarbon forms. Validerad;2018;Nivå 1;2018-02-05 (rokbeg)

Comparison of two conventional analytical techniques such as X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) for measuring Pb concentrations in soil samples was achieved using field and laboratory work. Seventy-three samples were collected from urban areas surrounding the large lead smelter at South Australia, as an indicator of the environment impact of smelter activity. Soil Pb concentrations were determined using hand-held XRF analyser under laboratory conditions. ICP-MS analysis on digested soils (using a microwave-assisted nitric acid digestion-extraction) was applied to validate p-XRF data. The analysis showed that Pb concentrations determined by XRF correlated with high linearity with Pb concentrations determined by ICP-MS measurements (R2 = 0.89). Statistical test (t test) was applied to the data of both methods applied without any significant difference between the two techniques. These results indicated that ICP-MS corroborated XRF for Pb soil measurements and suggests that XRF was a reliable and quick alternative to traditional analytical methods in studies of environmental health risk assessment, allowing for much larger sampling regimes in relatively shorter times and could be applied in the field. Validerad;2017;Nivå 2;2017-06-27 (andbra)

Objectives: The study was designed to an estimate the prevalence of antiphospholipid IgG and IgM antibodies with toxoplasmosis patients among aborted and non-aborted women. Methodology: A total number of 70 Iraqi patients aborted and non-aborted women were included in the present study. In addition, a total of 30 apparently healthy women and negative for antiphospholipid IgG and IgM antibodies were selected as a control group. The study was carried out during the period of October 2012 till January 2013. Blood samples and laboratory investigation was in Teaching Laboratory of the Medical city of Baghdad, using to detect antibodies type IgG and IgM for antiphospholipid and Toxoplasma gondii by utilize ELISA technique according to standard procedures describe by manufacturer. Results: The results showed that the age stratum (21-30) years was found to be highly frequent in both studiedgroups was significant (P

Visible–Near and short-wave infrared reflectance spectroscopy has the potential to become an important additional technique in the geosciences for soil classification, mapping and remote determination of soil properties and mineral composition. It is also becoming increasingly important to improve the spatial resolution of soil maps to better tackle localized issues such as soil contamination. Long-term spiked soils having a range of lead (Pb) concentrations from five different locations across Australia were analysed for a range of physio-chemical properties as well as their spectral reflectance between 400 and 2500 nm. Spectral and chemical analyses were correlated using partial least squares regression (PLSR), to predict soil Pb concentration. While across all soils studied ( n = 31 ) , the Pb content was weakly predicted from spectra, reliable correlations with the major spectrally active components were found in models of total carbon and iron, which were predicted much better than most other soil constituents. However, a good prediction of Pb concentration was found in two of the soil subsets which indicated that spectral reflectance analysis may require soils to be of the same type in order to be effective. For a long-term atmospheric smelter emission Pb contaminated soil, the correlations between Pb measurements and spectral reflectance in both calibration ( R c 2 ) and validation ( R v 2 ) modes reached 0.99 and 0.75 respectively with a calibration root mean square error ( R M S E c ) of 19 and validation root mean square error ( R M S E V ) of 345 and an acceptable performance of deviation RPD of 1.7. For a long-term spiked (LTS) soil, both R c 2 and R v 2 reached 0.99 and 0.96 respectively with a R M S E c of 58 and a R M S E V of 396 with an excellent RPD of 12.15. These results indicated that reflectance spectroscopy has the potential to rapidly determine Pb contamination in a homogeneous soil.

Exposure to Lead (Pb) from soil and dust in urban areas continues to threaten human health especially that of children, who are more likely to ingest a higher Pb fraction from contaminated soil. Geostatistical approaches were evaluated for the prediction of soil Pb concentrations. Ordinary kriging (OK) and co-kriging (CoK) were used to predict spatial distributions of both soil Pb concentrations and bioaccessibility. The relative accuracies of the developed predictive models were assessed using of coefficients of determination ( R 2 ) and the root mean square error (RMSE) based on the cross validation method. The accuracy of the final model was evaluated via comparison between predicted and traditional soil measurements. While OK models ( n = 73 ) were unreliable for predicting a Pb concentration surface, correlation between Pb and Zn was a useful mechanism for obtaining better predictions of soil Pb using CoK. The CoK model of log transformed Pb with Zn resulted in the best fitted model ( R 2 = 0.63 ). The percentage relative improvement (RI) for this model was 39% which suggested relatively reliable prediction accuracy. A probability kriging (PK) surface was used to describe the probability of bioaccessibility exceeding a threshold of 17% as an indicator for potential human risk. The areas with highest probability of exceeding the threshold were in agreement with previous risk area divisions related to blood Pb (BPb) levels for children under 5 years of age. The results of this research confirmed that geostatistical methods had the ability to rapidly estimate soil Pb distributions for environmental health risk assessment.

Advances in remote sensing technologies are increasingly becoming more useful for resource, ecosystem and agricultural management applications to the extent that these techniques can now also be applied for monitoring of soil contamination and human health risk assessment. While, extensive previous studies have shown that Visible and Near Infrared Spectroscopy (VNIRS) in the spectral range 400–2500 nm can be used to quantify various soil constituents simultaneously, the direct determination of metal concentrations by remote sensing and reflectance spectroscopy is not as well examined as other soil parameters. The application of VNIRS, including laboratory hyperpectral measurements, field spectrometer measurements or image spectroscopy, generally achieves a good prediction of metal concentrations when compared to traditional wet chemical methods and has the advantage of being relatively less expensive and faster, allowing chemical assessment of contamination in close to real time. Furthermore, imaging spectroscopy can potentially provide significantly more samples over a larger spatial extent than traditional ground sampling methods. Thus the development of remote sensing techniques (field based and either airborne or satellite hyperspectral imaging) can support the monitoring and efficient mapping of metal contamination (in dust and soil) for environmental and health impact assessment. This review is concerned with the application of remote sensing and reflectance spectroscopy to the detection of heavy metals and discusses how current methods could be applied for the quantification of Pb contaminated soil surrounding mines and smelters.