Abstract Background: Multidrug-resistant bacteria (MDR) often contaminate hospital environment and cause serious illnesses. Quorum Sensing (QS) regulates a variety of downstream cellular processes, including antibiotics resistance mechanisms and biofilm formation, and causes harm to the host. This study investigates antibacterial susceptibility and biofilm formation of pathogenic bacteria in hospital environment. Methods: Hundred bacterial isolates were collected from various environments in the Medical City hospital. The antimicrobial susceptibility technique was evaluated through disk diffusion method. Next, biofilms formation was detected by the microliter plate assay. Finally, PCR was used to analyze the frequency of QS system genes. Results: Current findings showed that the predominant isolates were Acinetobacter baumannii (34%), Escherichia coli (30%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (19%), and Klebsiella pneumonia (17%). In general, significant resistance was found related to trimethoprim (88%), Augmentin (88%), and cefotaxime (72%). Among all isolates, 62% of sensitivity was related to ciprofloxacin. Biofilm had been formed by 39% of isolates. PCR results showed that the frequency of lasI and rhlI gene was 70% and 61%, respectively. Conclusion: Current findings revealed that the hospital environment is a potential reservoir of MDR gram-negative pathogenic bacteria. Thus, we suggest that the health policymakers in Iraq must critically apply the guidelines and recommendations for monitoring the environments in the health sector. Keywords: Antibiotics Footprint, Acinetobacter baumannii, Antibiotics Resistance, Quorum-Sensing, PCR.
In every country in the world, there are a number of amputees who have been exposed to some accidents that led to the loss of their upper limbs. The aim of this study is to suggest a system for real-time classification of five classes of shoulder girdle motions for high-level upper limb amputees using a pattern recognition system. In the suggested system, the wavelet transform was utilized for feature extraction, and the extreme learning machine was used as a classifier. The system was tested on four intact-limbed subjects and one amputee, with eight channels involving five electromyography channels and three-axis accelerometer sensor. The study shows that the suggested pattern recognition system has the ability to classify the sho
... Show MoreInefficient wastewater disposal and wastewater discharge problems in water bodies have led to increasing pollution in water bodies. Pollutants in the river contribute to increasing the biological oxygen demand (BOD), total suspended solids (SS), total dissolved solids (TDS), chemical oxygen demand (COD), and toxic metals render this water unsuitable for consumption and even pose a significant risk to human health. Over the last few years, water conservation has been the subject of growing awareness and concern throughout the world, so this research focused on review studies of researches that studied the importance of water quality of wastewater treated disposal in water bodies and modern technology to management w
... Show MoreDam break is series phenomenon that can result in fatal consequences and loss of properties. Unfortunately, the observed consequences can only be available after the dam breaks. Therefore, it is important to anticipate what will happen prior to dam break to issue suitable warning and locate the possible risk areas. This study attempts to simulate the case of dam break in Blue Nile at Roseires dam and see its consequences downstream. Roseires dam lies at a distance of 630 km south of Khartoum, Sennar dam lies at about 260 km downstream of Roseires dam. In this study hydraulic model is developed based of Hydraulic Engineering Centre (HEC), River Analysis System (RAS), and HEC- RAS. The HEC-RAS based model is calibrated and validated usi
... Show MoreDocetaxel is an effective treatment approved for many types of cancers, but its effectiveness in clinical practice can be compromised by significant occurrence of adverse drug reactions. The aim of the current study was to measure the distribution of adverse drug reactions of docetaxel reported in Iraq and to assess the causality, severity, seriousness, preventability, expectedness and outcome of these adverse reactions. A retrospective study conducted on individual case safety reports from the Iraqi Pharmacovigilance Center / Ministry of Health. The study included 118 individual case safety report containing 236 adverse drug reactions.
Most of the adverse drug reactions were related to skin and subcutaneous tissue disorders(26.7%), f
A series of laboratory model tests has been carried out to investigate the using of pomegranate sticks mat as reinforcement to increase the bearing capacity of footing on loose sand. The influence of depth and length of pomegranate sticks layer was examined. In the present research single layer of pomegranate sticks reinforcement was used to strengthen the loose sand stratum beneath the strip footing. The dimensions of the used foundation were 4*20 cm. The reinforcement layer has been embedded at depth 2, 4 and 8 cm under surcharge stresses . Reinforcing layer with length of 8 and 16 cm were used. The final model test results indicated that the inclusion of pomegranate sticks reinforcement is very effective in improvement the loading cap
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This work involves studying the effect of adding some selective organic component mixture on corrosion behavior of pure Al and its alloys in condensed synthetic automotive solution (CSAS) at room temperature. This mixture indicates the increasing of octane number in previous study and in this study show the increasing in corrosion resistance through the decreasing in corrosion rate values.
Electrochemical measurements were carried out by potentiostat at 3 mV/sec to estimate the corrosion parameters using Tafel extrapolation method, in addition to cyclic polarization test to know the pitting susceptibility of materials in tested medium.
The cathodic Tafel slope
... Show MoreThe Weibull distribution is considered one of the Type-I Generalized Extreme Value (GEV) distribution, and it plays a crucial role in modeling extreme events in various fields, such as hydrology, finance, and environmental sciences. Bayesian methods play a strong, decisive role in estimating the parameters of the GEV distribution due to their ability to incorporate prior knowledge and handle small sample sizes effectively. In this research, we compare several shrinkage Bayesian estimation methods based on the squared error and the linear exponential loss functions. They were adopted and compared by the Monte Carlo simulation method. The performance of these methods is assessed based on their accuracy and computational efficiency in estimati
... Show MorePultruded materials made of Fiber-Reinforced Polymer (FRP) come in a broad range of shapes, such as bars, I-sections, C-sections, etc. FRP materials are starting to compete with steel as structural materials owing to their great resistance, low self-weight, and cheap maintenance costs, especially in corrosive conditions. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a novel concrete Composite Column (CC) using Encased I-Section (EIS) as a reinforcement in contrast to traditional steel bars by using Glass Fiber-Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) as I-section (CC-EIS) to evaluate the effectiveness of the hybrid columns which have been built by combining GFRP profiles with concrete columns. To achieve the aims of this study, nine circular co
... Show MoreDouble-layer micro-perforated panels (MPPs) have been studied extensively as sound absorption systems to increase the absorption performance of single-layer MPPs. However, existing proposed models indicate that there is still room for improvement regarding the frequency bands of absorption for the double-layer MPP. This study presents a double-layer MPP formed with two single MPPs with inhomogeneous perforation backed by multiple cavities of varying depths. The theoretical formulation is developed using the electrical equivalent circuit method to calculate the absorption coefficient under a normal incident sound. The simulation results show that the proposed model can produce absorption coefficient with wider absorption bandwidth compared w
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