Background: Legionella pneumophila (L. pneumophila) is gram-negative bacterium, which causes Legionnaires’ disease as well as Pontiac fever. Objective: To determine the frequency of Legionella pneumophila in pneumonic patients, to determine the clinical utility of diagnosing Legionella pneumonia by urinary antigen testing (LPUAT) in terms of sensitivity and specificity, to compares the results obtained from patients by urinary antigen test with q Real Time PCR (RT PCR) using serum samples and to determine the frequency of serogroup 1 and other serogroups of L. pneumophila. Methods: A total of 100 pneumonic patients (community acquired pneumonia) were enrolled in this study during a period between October 2016 to April 2017; 92 samples were collected from patients attended and admitted to Al-Imamein Al-Kadhimein Medical City and 8 samples from those in the (Center of Kidney Diseases and Transplantation) in the Medical City of Baghdad. All patients were under therapy with antibiotics. Serum and urine specimens were obtained from all patients; urine samples were processed for urinary antigen test (rapid test). Serum samples were collected and submitted to DNA extraction for detection of L. pneumophila mip gene by q RT PCR assay. Results: The percentage of L. pneumophila in two hospitals in Bagdad was 30%. Of these 26% was serogroup 1 detected by urinary antigen testing (UAT). In the other hand, 23% of samples were positive by q RT PCR based mip gene, of these 19 % were serogroup 1 and 4% were another serogroup. The sensitivity of UAT is high (P value < 0.001), which means statistically highly significance than q RT PCR. Conclusion: LPUAT is a rapid tool for early diagnosis of Legionella infection, which highlights the need of using this test in hospitals and health institutions and there is a high prevalence of L. pneumophila in Iraq that refer to the necessity of considering this microorganism point of view in future studies for detection and treatment in pneumonic patients. Keywords: L. pneumophila, mip gene, quantitative real time PCR, urinary antigen. Citation: Gauad SA, Abdulrahman TR, Muhamad AK, Jawad AA, Hassan JS. Clinical utility of urinary antigen test and molecular method for detection of Legionella pneumophila. Iraqi JMS. 2018; 16(2): 207-215. doi: 10.22578/IJMS.16.2.13
In this study, phosphorescence analysis (KPA) is used for determining soil collected from the Tigris River from Al- Karrada and Bab Al-Sharq in Baghdad and samples were taken from rainwater collected from Al-Rashad, Al-Obeidi, Al-Dora and Al-Sadr City in Baghdad. The measurements were carried out by the Iraqi Ministry of Health and Environment, in the Radiation Protection Center. The collection, removal and evaporation of the samples ranged from January to the end of March 2018. The results show the presents of concentration of 238U and 235U in soil samples and the rainwater samples. The conclusion of this work is the concentration of uranium in soil samples is more than recommendations by ICRP value of 1.9 μg /l. While all water sample
... Show MoreThe Islamic Bank of Al-Nahrain offers a formula for financing the purchase of real estate through a deferred sale contract, through Murabaha to the order to buy, and the payment of the price is in the form of instalments that include (the purchase price of the profit and the mutual agreement on the real estate). This research aims to show the reflection of real estate murabaha on the bank's investments, by measuring the effect of real estate murabaha on the profits achieved by the Islamic Bank of Al-Nahrain Bank. The growth of 'real estate murabaha' realized from the 'amounts granted by Bank X, in addition to analyzing the financial ratios of profitability indicators, including (return on deposits Y2) and for the years (2016 - 20
... Show MoreThis work aims to enhance acoustic and thermal insulation properties for polymeric composite by adding nanoclay and rock wool as reinforcement materials with different rations. A polymer blend of (epoxy+ polyester) as matrix materials was used. The Hand lay-up technique was used to manufacture the castings. Epoxy and polyester were mixed at different weight ratios involving (50:50, 60:40, 70:30, 80:20, and 90:10) wt. % of (epoxy: polyester) wt. % respectively. Impact tests for optimum sample (OMR), caustic and thermal insulation tests were performed. Nano clay (Kaolinite) with ratios ( 5 and 7.5% ) wt.% , also hybrid reinforcement materials involving (Kaolite 5 & 7.5 % wt.% + 10% volume fraction of rockwool ) were added as reinforcem
... Show MoreThe sunrise, sunset, and day length times for Baghdad (Latitude =33.34º N, Longitude =44.43º E) were calculated with high accuracy on a daily basis during 2019. The results showed that the earliest time of sunrise in Baghdad was at 4h: 53m from 5 Jun. to 20 Jun while the latest was at 7h: 07m from 5 Jan. to 11 Jan. The earliest time of sunset in Baghdad was at16 h: 55m from 30 Nov. to 10 Dec. whereas the latest was at 19h: 16m from 25 Jun. to 5 Jul. The minimum period of day length in Baghdad was 9h: 57m) in 17 Dec. whereas the maximum period was 14h: 22m) in 20 Jun. Day length was calculated and compared among regions of different latitudes(0, 15, 30, 45 and 60 north).
The differential protection of power transformers appears to be more difficult than any type of protection for any other part or element in a power system. Such difficulties arise from the existence of the magnetizing inrush phenomenon. Therefore, it is necessary to recognize between inrush current and the current arise from internal faults. In this paper, two approaches based on wavelet packet transform (WPT) and S-transform (ST) are applied to recognize different types of currents following in the transformer. In WPT approach, the selection of optimal mother wavelet and the optimal number of resolution is carried out using minimum description length (MDL) criteria before taking the decision for the extraction features from the WPT tree
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This research aims to study and improve the passivating specifications of rubber resistant to vibration. In this paper, seven different rubber recipes were prepared based on mixtures of natural rubber(NR) as an essential part in addition to the synthetic rubber (IIR, BRcis, SBR, CR)with different rates. Mechanical tests such as tensile strength, hardness, friction, resistance to compression, fatigue and creep testing in addition to the rheological test were performed. Furthermore, scanning electron microscopy (SEM)test was used to examine the structure morphology of rubber. After studying and analyzing the results, we found that, recipe containing (BRcis) of 40% from th
... Show MoreThis paper presents L1-adaptive controller for controlling uncertain parameters and time-varying unknown parameters to control the position of a DC servomotor. For the purpose of comparison, the effectiveness of L1-adaptive controller for position control of studied servomotor has been examined and compared with another adaptive controller; Model Reference Adaptive Controller (MRAC). Robustness of both L1-adaptive controller and model reference adaptive controller to different input reference signals and different structures of uncertainty were studied. Three different types of input signals are taken into account; ramp, step and sinusoidal. The L1-adaptive controller ensured uniformly bounded
... Show MoreOilwell cementing operations are crucial for drilling and completion, preserving the well's productive life. However, weak and permeable formations pose a high risk of cement slurry loss, leading to failure. Lightweight cement, like foamed cement, is used to avoid these difficulties. This study is focused on creating a range of foamed slurry densities and examining the effect of gas concentration on their rheological properties. The foaming agent and foam stabilizer are tested, and the optimal concentration is determined to be 2% and 0.12%, respectively, by the weight of the cement.
Furthermore, the construction of samples of foam cement with different densities (0.8, 1.0, 1.2, 1.4, and 1.6) g/cc is performed to f
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