Nahrain University (Arabic: جامعة النهرين), also known as Al-Nahrain University, is a coeducational public university established in 1987 and located in Baghdad, Iraq. The university offers undergraduate and postgraduate education as well as research opportunities. From 1987 to the 2003 Invasion of Iraq, the university was known as Saddam University which was then changed to its current name "Nahrain" meaning The Two Rivers (as in the two rivers of Iraq: Tigris and Euphrates).
The combination of piezo catalysis with and photocatalysis as an effective approach to increasing the decomposing of organic pollutants, has recently received considerable attention. Herein, barium and bismuth codoped TiO 2 nano heterostructures were successfully prepared by simple and modified chemical co-precipitation approaches for capable combined piezo/photo-catalytic decomposition of malachite-green-oxalate dye (MGO). Remarkably, the optimized 5 wt% bimetallic (Ba/Bi) co-doped TiO 2 catalyst sample showed superior piezo/photocatalytic efficiency toward MGO, achieving 95.6% through 120 min of visible-illumination/sonication conditions while the individual photocatalytic and piezocatalytic systems possessed 73.7% and 81.5%, respectively. Besides, the result showed that the bimetallic (Ba/Bi) co-doped TiO 2 catalyst possessed higher performance when compared with single Ba-doped TiO 2 and Bi-doped TiO 2 samples. Scavenger studies revealed that • OH radicals and h + were the main reactive degradation species involved in the process. The enhanced piezo/photo-catalytic performance was assigned to the Ba and Bi defects within TiO 2 , which provoked piezoelectric impacts. This significant enhancement underscores the importance of bimetals doping and photoelectric synergy in facilitating charge separation and preventing electron-hole recombination, thereby enhancing overall catalytic performance.
Food fraud and mislabeling represent persistent threats to food safety and public health, particularly in Sub Saharan Africa where fragmented supply chains, dominant informal markets, and limited regulatory capacity increase vulnerability to adulteration and misrepresentation. The growing complexity of global food systems has intensified the need for reliable authentication and traceability tools as integral components of preventive food safety frameworks. This review critically examines the current landscape of food authentication technologies in Sub Saharan Africa, with emphasis on their analytical performance, practical applicability, and integration into regulatory control systems. A systematic narrative review approach was adopted, guided by structured evidence synthesis principles. Peer reviewed literature published between 2010 and 2026 was analyzed across major scientific databases, focusing on spectroscopic, chromatographic, molecular, and isotopic analytical methods, alongside digital traceability systems and artificial intelligence-driven data analytics. The review employed thematic and comparative synthesis to evaluate technological effectiveness, adoption patterns, and regulatory relevance. The evidence indicates that spectroscopic techniques enable rapid screening, while chromatographic and molecular methods provide high precision confirmatory analysis. Isotope ratio analysis supports origin verification, while digital traceability systems, including blockchain-based ledgers, improve supply chain transparency, while artificial intelligence and machine learning tools function as analytical decision-support systems that enhance pattern recognition and predictive analytics for fraud detection. However, significant limitations persist, including inadequate context specific validation, high costs, limited infrastructure, and weak integration into preventive food safety systems. Technology adoption remains uneven, with concentration in urban laboratories and limited coverage in informal markets. Strengthening food authentication in Sub Saharan Africa requires coordinated investment in low cost technologies, context specific validation frameworks, and regulatory harmonization. Integrating authentication into risk-based food safety systems is essential for improving surveillance, enhancing consumer protection, and aligning regional practices with international standards.
This study assesses drought and land-cover change in Diwaniya Governorate, Iraq, over 1990–2025 using Landsat 5/8/9 imagery, Google Earth Engine cloud processing, and an unsupervised K-Means classification. Five spectral/climatic indicators (NDVI, NDMI, BSI, LST, SPEI) and a supervised land-use/land-cover (LULC) classification were used to characterize seasonal and interannual change. Results show substantial environmental degradation: vegetation cover declined by 69% between 1990 and 2025, while barren land expanded by 24.7% in area, covering approximately 85.6% of the classified area by 2025. Water bodies declined by 64.6% over the full study period, including a 70.5% loss between 2013 and 2025 alone. Vegetation loss, bare-soil expansion and water-body decline changed in a consistent direction across the four epochs. These environmental trends were mirrored in agricultural production: wheat output fell by approximately 150,000 tons in 2001, and cultivation of the region's characteristic “Anbar” rice variety declined sharply from 1990 levels. The K-Means classification, which groups pixels by the intensity of spring-to-summer change in NDVI, NDMI, BSI and LST, is a composite indicator of seasonal land-surface stress rather than a direct measure of drought severity. It shows a non-monotonic trajectory: low seasonal stress in 1990, marked deterioration by 2001, a temporary partial recovery in 2013, and the widest extent of the highest-intensity class (labeled “Extreme”) in 2025, covering 59.7% of the governorate, 95.1% of which is non-vegetated land. Because healthy irrigated cropland also falls into high-change classes through normal crop phenology, these classes are interpreted as drought-related stress only for non-cultivated land. This drought classification was cross-validated indirectly against the independently computed indices, the LULC classification, and agricultural statistics; because no independent, documented ground truth was available, no classification accuracy statistic is claimed for either the LULC or the K-Means product, and the LULC trends are treated as indicative.
The combination of piezo catalysis with and photocatalysis as an effective approach to increasing the decomposing of organic pollutants, has recently received considerable attention. Herein, barium and bismuth codoped TiO2 nano heterostructures were successfully prepared by simple and modified chemical co-precipitation approaches for capable combined piezo/photo-catalytic decomposition of malachite-green-oxalate dye (MGO). Remarkably, the optimized 5 wt% bimetallic (Ba/Bi) co-doped TiO2 catalyst sample showed superior piezo/photocatalytic efficiency toward MGO, achieving 95.6% through 120 min of visible-illumination/sonication conditions while the individual photocatalytic and piezocatalytic systems possessed 73.7% and 81.5%, respectively. Besides, the result showed that the bimetallic (Ba/Bi) co-doped TiO2 catalyst possessed higher performance when compared with single Ba-doped TiO2 and Bi-doped TiO2 samples. Scavenger studies revealed that •OH radicals and h+ were the main reactive degradation species involved in the process. The enhanced piezo/photo-catalytic performance was assigned to the Ba and Bi defects within TiO2, which provoked piezoelectric impacts. This significant enhancement underscores the importance of bimetals doping and photoelectric synergy in facilitating charge separation and preventing electron-hole recombination, thereby enhancing overall catalytic performance.
Typical drug administration methods are often limited by low bioavailability, lack of specificity in biodistribution, rapid systemic clearance and dose-dependent toxicity, which adversely impact both the therapeutic efficacy and safety of the patient. Nanoparticle-based drug delivery systems have been heralded as potential solutions to various challenges that are simply inherent in conventional methods of drug treatment, for instance, the capacity to administer drugs in a controlled release manner, enhancing stability and targeted delivery to very specific sites. In this review, a more detailed and in-depth discussion of the different categories of nanoparticle systems will be presented. For example, organic nanoparticles (liposomes, polymeric nanoparticles, solid lipid nanoparticles, nanostructured lipid carriers and nanoemulsions), inorganic nanoparticles (iron oxide nanoparticles, quantum dots and gold nanoparticles) and hybrid systems that integrate multifunctional design features. Besides, the various mechanisms through which targeted delivery is achieved have been very thoroughly brought up in the paper. These mechanisms are passive targeting via the enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect, active ligand-mediated targeting through receptor-ligand interactions and also, pH, redox, enzyme, temperature and external field stimuli responsive systems. Various important synthesis methods include nanoprecipitation, high-pressure homogenization, microfluidics and green synthesis while some of the important characterization methods entail dynamic light scattering, electron microscopy, zeta potential analysis and drug loading efficiency analysis. In addition to descriptive classification, other translational factors such as scalability, batch reproducibility, protein corona formation, biodistribution variability, long-term safety and regulatory issues that affect clinical applicability are highlighted in this review. Although, a few nanoparticle formulations have been allowed by regulatory bodies, numerous potential platforms are limited by the challenge of the complexity of manufacturing and poor consistency in vivo. The future outlooks point at the necessity of standardized characterization schemes, enhanced predictive in vivo protocols, incorporation of precision medicine schemes and rational design schemes that would compromise between multifunctionality and clinical attainability. It will not be possible to generalize the use of nanoparticle-based drug delivery without not only innovative material engineering but also a realistic correspondence with biological and regulatory constraints to provide meaningful therapeutic translation. This review summarizes the recent developments that are recorded mainly within the 2018–2025 period, with notable changes in the priorities of assessing translational effectiveness, regulation and design of nanoparticles. Nanoparticles and nanomaterials have restructured the arena of targeted drug delivery to provide unprecedented manipulation of drug localisation, release kinetics and intracellular fate. The ability of their tunable properties, size, shape, charge and surface functionality and responsiveness to biological or external cues, allows them to surmount most of the inherent constraints of traditional therapeutics.
