Background: The occurrence of seizures in bacterial meningitis is important, as it has been reported to increase the risk of complications; however, its frequency and predictors are not well studied yet. Objective: To assess the frequency, clinical, and biochemical predictors of seizures in children with acute bacterial meningitis. Method: A cross-sectional study recruited confirmed acute bacterial meningitis cases based on positive CSF culture and sensitivity among children aged 2 months to 15 years admitted to the Central Child Teaching Hospital emergency department in Iraq. Patients were divided into two groups based on seizure at presentation time. Demographic characteristics [age, gender, residence, duration of fever and disease, presenting complaints and antibiotic intake]; hematological [WBC, neutrophils] Lymphocyte, N/L ratio, packed cell volume, platelets, blood sugar, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) indices were compared between groups. Results: Seizures had a frequency of 18% among the 122 children and were significantly higher in younger cases with female predominance. By multivariate analysis and odds ratio (OR), predictors for seizure were as follows: CSF lymphocytes (OR=0.25, 95%CI=0.08–0.26), lethargy (OR=8.15, 95%CI=1.03-68.65), headache (OR=0.09, 95%CI=0.02-0.45), neck stiffness (OR=0.07, 95% CI=0.01-0.61) and poor feeding (OR=4.8, 95%CI=1.21–18.97). Conclusions: CSF lymphocytes reliably predicted seizure with good sensitivity and specificity of 75% and 73%. Lethargy and poor feeding had the highest odds as clinical predictors of seizures. Together, those results can help with risk stratification and allocate resources for high-risk cases to improve patient outcomes
Background: Isoxazoles are an important class of five-membered unsaturated heterocyclic compounds. They show several applications in diverse areas such as pharmaceuticals, agrochemistry and industry. Isoxazoles are also found in natural sources showing insecticidal, plant growth regulation and pigment functions. Current study was conducted for synthesis of twenty five new Isoxazole derivatives and to evaluate the in vitro antibacterial activities of these derivatives. Methods: Benzaldoxime and their substituted [I] ae were prepared via addition-elimination reactions between aromatic aldehyde and hydroxylamine hydrochloride. In a second step, para-or meta-substituted benzaldoximes [I] ae were reacted with N-chlorosucceinimide in DMF to yield
... Show MoreNine fish specimens of Thryssa setirostris (Broussonet, 1782) were collected from the Arabian Gulf, during the period from July 2015 to April 2016. Because of the scarcity of this fish and overlapping and ambiguous of its taxonomic characters with other Thryssa spp., a detailed taxonomic study was conducted. The present study includes the most important meristic and morphometric characteristics.
The mean of the total length of the specimens was 149.67 mm; dorsal fin consists of 12 rays, anal fin with 34-37 rays and pectoral fin with 12-13 rays; Gill rakers were 4 upper,1 medial an.10 lower. The most important character that isolates T. setiristis from
... Show MoreHeterogeneous organic compounds play an important role in our daily life as they contribute in many medical and industrial fields and are in continuous development as a result of the preparation of new derivatives with different properties. From this premise, the goal of this work appears, which is preparation of (four, five, six, and seven) membered ring systems derived from furfural, by its reaction with different aromatic aldehydes, and record their antioxidant activity by using free radical scavenging method of DPPH radicals. The new ring systems are synthesized by reacting the prepared Schiff-bases with different ring closure agents (chloroacetyl chloride, mercaptoaceticacid, anthranilic acid, and phthalic anhydride), the prep
... Show MoreObjective: Using green chemistry, an effective, inexpensive, and environmentally safe method, sulfur nanoparticles with specific properties can be prepared and used in nanotechnology. This research aimed to prepare sulfur nanoparticles from chilli pepper extract and determine their effectiveness against colon cancer. Method: Chilli pepper extract obtained from local markets was treated with aqueous sodium thiosulfate (Na2S2O7.5H2O). After mixing, it was continuously stirred, heated, and filtered. NaBH4 was then added, resulting in a yellow precipitate. The precipitate was centrifuged, purified, and dried at 250°C. Results: Standardised tests such as UV-Vis, XRD, SEM, TEM, AFM, and EDX were used, resulting in sulfur nanoparticles with an av
... Show MoreThe presence of heavy metals in the environment is major concern due to their toxicity. In the present study a strong acid cation exchange resin, Amberlite IR 120 was used for the removal of lead, zinc and copper from simulated wastewater. The optimum conditions were determined in a batch system of concentration 100 mg/L, pH range between 1 and 8, contact time between 5 and 120 minutes, and amount of adsorbent was from 0.05 to 0.45 g/100 ml. A constant stirring speed, 180 rpm, was chosen during all of the experiments. The optimum conditions were found to be pH of 4 for copper and lead and pH 6 for zinc, contact time of 60 min and 0.35 g of adsorbent. Three different temperatures (25, 40 and 60°C) were selected to investigate the effect
... Show MoreThe removal of cadmium ions from simulated groundwater by zeolite permeable reactive barrier was investigated. Batch tests have been performed to characterize the equilibrium sorption properties of the zeolite in cadmium-containing aqueous solutions. Many operating parameters such as contact time, initial pH of solution, initial concentration, resin dosage and agitation speed were investigated. The best values of these parameters that will achieved removal efficiency of cadmium (=99.5%) were 60 min, 6.5, 50 mg/L, 0.25 g/100 ml and 270 rpm respectively. A 1D explicit finite difference model has been developed to describe pollutant transport within a groundwater taking the pollutant sorption on the permeable reactive barrier (PRB), which i
... Show MoreThe research aims to use a new technology for industrial water concentrating that contains poisonous metals and recovery quantities from pure water. Therefore, the technology investigated is the forward osmosis process (FO). It is a new process that use membranes available commercial and this process distinguishes by its low cost compared to other process. Sodium chloride (NaCl) was used as draw solution to extract water from poisonous metals solution. The driving force in the FO process is provided by a different in osmotic pressure (concentration) across the membrane between the draw and poisonous metals solution sides. Experimental work was divided into three parts. The first part includes operating the forward osmosis process using T
... Show MoreCoumarin is a natural substance isolated from different plants. It belonges to a group of benzobyrones which consists of a benzene ring joined to a pyrone nucleus. In the present research, a new series of coumarin derivatives were formed. Compound (1) (7-hydroxy-4-methyl Coumarin) was converted into 4-methylquinolin-2(H) derivative (2) by reaction with acetamide, and then reaction of (2) with thiosemicarbazide in ethanol leads to the synthesize of hydrazincarbothioamide derivative (3).The reaction of (3) with ethylchloroacetate in presence of sodium acetate leads to closure ring to get [(1-(5-oxo-2-thioxoimidazolidin-1-ylimino) ethyl)]quinolin-2(1H)-one (4). Mannich bases were prepared through the reaction of (4) with primary
... Show MoreThe adsorption behavior of congo red dye from its aqueous solutions was investigated onto natural and modified bauxite clays. Both bauxite and modified bauxite are primarily characterized by using, FTIR, SEM, AFM, and XRD. Several variables are studied as a function of adsorption including contact time, adsorbent weight, pH, ionic strength, particle size and temperature under batch adsorption technique. The absorbance of the solution before and after adsorption was measured spectrophotometrically. The equilibrium data fit with Langmuir model of adsorption and the linear regression coefficient R2 is found to be 0.9832 and 0.9630 for natural and modified bauxite respectively at 37.5°C which elucidate the best fitting isotherm model. The gene
... Show MoreThe present work aimed to study the efficiency of nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) process for treatment of heavy metals wastewater contains zinc. In this research, the salt of heavy metals were zinc chloride (ZnCl2) used as feed solution.Nanofiltration and reverse osmosis membranes are made from polyamide as spiral wound module. The parameters studied were: operating time (0 – 70 min), feed concentrations for zinc ions (10 – 300 mg/l), operating pressure (1 – 4 bar).The theoretical results showed, flux of water through membrane decline from 19 to 10.85 LMH with time. Flux decrease from 25.84 to 10.88 LMH with the increment of feed concentration. The raise of pressure, the flux increase for NF and RO membranes.The maximum
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