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
This 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 MoreIn this study NiO - CoO bimetallic catalysts are prepared with two Ni/Co ratios (70:30 and 80: 20) using the precipitation method of nitrate salts. The effects of Ni /Co ratio and preparation methods on the catalyst are analyzed by using different characterization techniques, i.e. atomic absorption (AA) , XRD, surface area and pore volume measurements according to the BET method . The results indicate that the best catalyst is the one containing the percentage of Ni :Co ( 70 : 30 ). Experiments indicate that the optimal conditions to prepare catalyst are stirring for three hours at a temperature of 60oC of the preparation , pH= (8-9) , calcination temperature at 400oC for two hours
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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 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
... Show MoreDairy wastewater generally contains fats, lactose, whey proteins, and nutrients. Casein precipitation causes the effluent to decompose into a dark, strong-smelling sludge. Fluid waste contains soluble organic matter, suspended solids, and gaseous organic matter, which cause undesirable taste and smell, grant tone and turbidity, and advance eutrophication, which plays an essential role in increasing biological oxygen demand (BOD) in water. It also contains detergents and disinfecting agents from the rinses and washing processes, which increase the need for chemical oxygen (COD). One of the characteristics of dairy effluents is their relatively high temperature, high organic contents, and wide pH range, so the discharge of wastewater into
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Itraconazole is a triazole antifungal given orally for the treatment of oropharyngeal and vulvovaginal candidiasis, for systemic infections including aspergillosis, candidiasis, and for the prophylaxis of fungal infections in immunocompromised patients.
The study aimed to formulate a practical water-insoluble Itraconazole, with insufficient bioavailability as nanosuspension to increase aqueous solubility and improve its dissolution and oral bioavailability.
Itraconazole nanosuspension was produced by a
... Show Moreraisin on mice in comparison with negative (phosphate buffer saline (PBS) and positive Mitomycin-C (MMC) controls. Moreover, the effect on fertility hormones (follicles stimulation hormone/FSH, lutenising hormone/LH) was also measured. The effect of the extracted samples were measured by employing cytogenetic analysis which included (the mitotic index (MI), chromosomal aberrations (CAs) and micronucleus (MN)) parameters. Results showed that significant increase in MI and significant reduction in both CAs and MN percentage were seen after treatment with both alcoholic and water extracts of the two raisins and alcoholic extracts was more effective than water extracts. On the other hand both the gold and black raisin enhanced the levels of the
... Show MoreThe paper presents a highly accurate power flow solution, reducing the possibility of ending at local minima, by using Real-Coded Genetic Algorithm (RCGA) with system reduction and restoration. The proposed method (RCGA) is modified to reduce the total computing time by reducing the system in size to that of the generator buses, which, for any realistic system, will be smaller in number, and the load buses are eliminated. Then solving the power flow problem for the generator buses only by real-coded GA to calculate the voltage phase angles, whereas the voltage magnitudes are specified resulted in reduced computation time for the solution. Then the system is restored by calculating the voltages of the load buses in terms
... Show MoreA numerical model for Polypropylene 575 polymer melts flow along the solid conveying screw of a single screw extruder under constant heat flux using ANSYS-FLUENT 17.2 software has been conducted. The model uses the thermophysical properties such as Viscosity, thermal conductivity, Specific heat and density of polypropylene 575 that measured as a function of temperature, and residence time data for process simulation. The numerical simulation using CFD models for single screw extruder and the polymer extrusion was analysed for parameters such as (thermal conductivity, specific heat, density and viscosity) reveals a high degree of similarity to experimental data measured. The most important outcome of this study is that geometrical, parame
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The present work aims to study the efficiency of coagulation/ flocculation as 1st stage, natural gravity water filter or microfiltration (MF) as 2nd stage and nanofiltration (NF) technology as final stage for treatment of water of main outfall drain (MOD) for injection in Nasiriyah oil field. Effects of operating parameters such as coagulant dosage, speed and time of slow mixing step and settling time in the 1st stage were studied. Also feed turbidity and total suspended solids (TSS) in the 2
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