Thi-Qar University Journal for Agricultural Researches

A frequent endocrine condition that impacts both metabolic and reproductive processes is hyperprolactinemia. Hormonal imbalance is frequently linked to disruptions in dopaminergic control. Natural substances have recently drawn interest because of their possible regulatory and antioxidant properties.

This study was conducted in the saran-covered canopy belonging to the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, College of Agriculture and Marshes, University of Dhi Qar, to evaluate the efficacy of foliar melatonin application in enhancing the drought tolerance of China rose (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis L.) seedlings subjected to water stress induced by prolonged irrigation intervals. The experiment was implemented as a two-factor completely randomized block design (RCBD) with three replicates. The first factor comprised three irrigation regimes: daily irrigation (control), irrigation every four days (moderate drought), and weekly irrigation (severe drought). The second factor consisted of three exogenous melatonin concentrations: 0, 50, and 100 mg L⁻¹. Quantitative and qualitative data were statistically analyzed using the Least Significant Difference (L.S.D.) test at a significance threshold of P≤0.05.
The results demonstrated that water deficit induced by expanding irrigation intervals caused a statistically significant decline across all evaluated vegetative and physiological traits. Specifically, plant height, leaf count, total leaf area, stem diameter, and total chlorophyll content systematically decreased with rising drought severity. Conversely, leaf chlorosis and tissue damage percentages escalated significantly under water stress, while the healthy green leaf area percentage dropped sharply. The weekly irrigation treatment recorded the lowest structural and biochemical values; total chlorophyll content dropped by over 46% compared to the daily irrigated control, while chlorosis and cellular damage reached their peak levels.
In contrast, exogenous foliar spray with melatonin achieved significant and substantial ameliorations in all studied parameters, particularly at the maximum concentration of 100 mg L⁻¹. This treatment markedly increased plant height, leaf number, functional leaf area, stem diameter, and chlorophyll synthesis, while successfully minimizing chlorosis and tissue necrosis percentages. Furthermore, the dual interaction between irrigation intervals and melatonin treatments demonstrated that daily irrigation combined with 100 mg L⁻¹ melatonin optimized overall seedling performance. Crucially, melatonin application effectively mitigated the deleterious impacts of water deficit even under the most severe weekly irrigation regime. The study concludes that melatonin exerts a vital protective, signaling, and physiological role in bolstering the drought tolerance of Hibiscus rosa-sinensis L. by preserving photosystem integrity, maintaining cellular turgor, improving growth efficiency, and reducing oxidative cellular damage caused by severe water deficit

Major development of the cities in the Middle East has commonly led to the disorganization of space, a deteriorating environmental state, and a poor performance of urban space. This paper will examine how the implementation of urban planning and urban landscape architecture will affect the quality of urban spaces in Basrah, Iraq, which is representative of a rapidly growing city. Using a quantitative analytical method, the study employs secondary spatial data, satellite data and publicly accessible records of municipalities to assess 30 spatial units in the city. The descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis, spatial autocorrelation, and GIS-based simulation scenarios were employed to analyze important urban quality indicators: green cover, walkability, shading cover, land-use mix, thermal comfort and visual quality.
The findings indicate that there are high levels of spatial inequality, 60 percent of the units have green cover below 15 percent and 63 percent obtained below the visual quality index of 0.50. Regression analysis revealed that the strongest positive predictors of urban space quality are the green cover ( = 0.38), pedestrian accessibility ( = 0.29), and shading coverage ( = 0.24) and the most negative predictor is the building density ( = -0.27). The analysis of spatial autocorrelation (Morans I = 0.41, p = 0.01) showed that low-quality environment was clustered in the old and peripheral districts. The scenario simulations using GIS also showed that a small-scale intervention, which included expanding the green cover by 10% and pedestrian access by 15%, would help improve the environmental performance, social vitality, and spatial coherence of rapidly expanding cities by an average of 23.6% and up to 3.4 o C respectively. The research provides a replicable methodological approach to quality of urban space and relays policy and design interventions that will result in sustainable, resilient and habitable urban environments.

Environmental stressors such as heat, crowding, and nutritional deficiencies significantly impair reproductive efficiency in female rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus). This study examined the effects of combined stressors on hormonal profiles, ovarian function, embryo viability, and fetal development. Sixty adult does were divided into control and stressed groups, with the latter exposed to cyclic heat stress (30–32°C), restricted feeding (70% of ad libitum intake), and high-density housing (0.2 m²/rabbit) for 10 weeks. Blood samples were analyzed for cortisol, progesterone, estradiol, luteinizing hormone (LH), and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), liptin insulin and T3. Stressed rabbits exhibited elevated cortisol (p < 0.001), suppressed progesterone (p < 0.01), reduced LH pulsatility (p < 0.05), The metabolic hormone analysis revealed significant alterations in stressed rabbits, with leptin showing the most dramatic reduction (61% decrease from 1.8±0.2 to 0.7±0.1 ng/mL, p<0.001). Insulin levels decreased by 38% (8.2±0.7 vs 5.1±0.5 μIU/mL, p<0.01), suggesting developing insulin resistance, while T3 declined by 22% (0.9±0.1 vs 0.7±0.1 ng/mL, p<0.05).
These findings demonstrates that combined environmental stressors—heat, crowding, and nutritional deficiencies—severely disrupt physiological response, reproductive efficiency, stress and metabolic hormones. in female rabbits.

The antioxidant activities of almond peels extracts were evaluated and compared with the antioxidant Butylated Hydroxy Toluene ( BHT) using the following tests: reducing power, beta-carotene bleaching, hydrogen peroxide scavenging activity, and F.TC.. almond peels were extracted with different polarities solvents (methanol , ethanol, ethyl acetate, chloroform and hexane ). The properties of extraction solvents significantly affected Extraction yield , total phenolic compound and antioxidant activity of peels extract, methanol (80%) as extraction media give highest extracted yield of crude extract from peels, also the methanolic extract showed highest content of total phenolic compounds compared with other extraction solvents used in study .The methanolic crude extract of peels has better antioxidant activity compared with samples treated with extracts by other extraction solvents . The antioxidant activities can be arranged as follow: BHT > Extracted with methanol> Extracted with ethanol >Extracted with ethyl acetate > Extracted chloroform > Hexane extracted.

The intensive use of synthetic fungicides in Iraq, particularly in arid agricultural regions such as Karbala Governorate, has raised concerns regarding pathogen resistance and environmental contamination, highlighting the need for sustainable disease management strategies. This study evaluated the antifungal potential of locally sourced Oregano Essential Oil (OEO) against Alternaria porri, the causal agent of onion purple blotch, and Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici, responsible for tomato fusarium wilt, in the Al-Rujibah district of Karbala. The chemical composition of OEO was characterized using Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry (GC–MS), while its antifungal efficacy was assessed through in vitro mycelial growth and spore germination assays. Phytotoxicity tests were conducted to determine safe application levels for tomato seeds and onion bulbs, followed by greenhouse experiments to evaluate disease control performance under in vivo conditions. GC–MS analysis revealed that the oil was predominantly composed of carvacrol (57.7%) and thymol (24.5%). The oil exhibited strong antifungal activity, with minimum inhibitory concentrations of 1.0 μL/mL against A. porri and 1.5 μL/mL against F. oxysporum. Concentrations up to 1.0 μL/mL showed no significant phytotoxic effects and were therefore established as the maximum safe threshold for crop application. Greenhouse trials demonstrated that OEO significantly reduced disease incidence and severity, surpassing the performance of carbendazim in tomato wilt management and providing comparable control of onion purple blotch while enhancing plant growth and yield parameters. These findings demonstrate that OEO represents a promising, environmentally friendly biocontrol agent with potential application in sustainable horticultural production systems and integrated disease management programs in Iraq and other arid regions of the Middle East.

Infectious bursal disease is a disease of young chicks it is distributed worldwide. The disease is caused by double stranded RNA Birnavirus causes immunosuppression in young chicken. The study is a clinical comparison between vaccinated flocks and non-vaccinated flocks based on the history from the owner the histopathology was conducted for bursa of Fabricius and thymus. Generally, the vaccinated flocks showed milder lesion in contrary to non-vaccinated flocks there were lymphocytic depletion and inflammatory cell infiltration in bursa mostly. In conclusion the vaccine can prevent lesion and this may lead to reduce immunosuppression, but not infection.

Employing olive leaves as a plant-derived antimicrobials sources against the resistant bacteria to antibiotics is emphasized by research. The bacterial growth as well as formation of biofilms may be inhibited via olive leaf extracts (OLE), which have been raised in bioactive polyphenols such as hydroxytyrosol along with oleuropein.
To evaluate the antibacterial efficacy of OLE against some multidrug resistant bacteria (E. coli, P. aeruginosa, K. pneumoniae, S. aureus, S. pyogenes, B. cereus). Distilled water had been utilized to prepare O. europaea leaf extracts. Agar diffusion well method had been utilized to assess the microbial attributes of olive leaf aqueous extract against clinically significant bacteria. The extract of olive leaf (OLE) had been significant versus Bacillus cereus with inhibitory, 10.2 mm. Our results confirm OLE's encouraging antibacterial activity against pathogens which are resistant to multiple antibiotics. But prior such extracts are applied in medical settings, more research on accurate dose optimization as well as safety over time assessments is necessary.