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 paper, the botnet detection problem is defined as a feature selection problem and the genetic algorithm (GA) is used to search for the best significant combination of features from the entire search space of set of features. Furthermore, the Decision Tree (DT) classifier is used as an objective function to direct the ability of the proposed GA to locate the combination of features that can correctly classify the activities into normal traffics and botnet attacks. Two datasets namely the UNSW-NB15 and the Canadian Institute for Cybersecurity Intrusion Detection System 2017 (CICIDS2017), are used as evaluation datasets. The results reveal that the proposed DT-aware GA can effectively find the relevant features from
... Show MoreGlobal Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) have become an integral part of wide range of applications. One of these applications of GNSS is implementation of the cellular phone to locate the position of users and this technology has been employed in social media applications. Moreover, GNSS have been effectively employed in transportation, GIS, mobile satellite communications, and etc. On the other hand, the geomatics sciences use the GNSS for many practical and scientific applications such as surveying and mapping and monitoring, etc.
In this study, the GNSS raw data of ISER CORS, which is located in the North of Iraq, are processed and analyzed to build up coordinate time series for the purpose of detection the
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This study is concerned with the estimation of constant and time-varying parameters in non-linear ordinary differential equations, which do not have analytical solutions. The estimation is done in a multi-stage method where constant and time-varying parameters are estimated in a straight sequential way from several stages. In the first stage, the model of the differential equations is converted to a regression model that includes the state variables with their derivatives and then the estimation of the state variables and their derivatives in a penalized splines method and compensating the estimations in the regression model. In the second stage, the pseudo- least squares method was used to es
... Show More: zonal are included in phraseological units, form metaphorical names for a person, give him various emotional and evaluative characteristics. This article examines the topic of zoomorphic metaphors that characterize a person in the Russian and Arabic languages in the aspect of their comparative analysis, since the comparative analysis of the metaphorical meanings of animalisms is an important method for studying cultural linguistics, since zoomorphic metaphors are a reflection of culture in a language.
Q fever is an infectious disease of animals and humans, caused by globally distributed C. burnetii. In Iraq, there are no previous studies associated with the detection of the organism in cattle. An overall of 130 lactating cows were submitted to direct collection of milk samples. Initially, the samples of milk were tested using the molecular polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay targeting three genes (16S rRNA, IS1111a transposase, and htpB). However, positive results (18.46%; 24/130) were detected only with the 16s rRNA gene. Concerning risk factors, the highest prevalence of C. burnetii was showed in the district of Badra (42.86%), whereas the lowest - in Al-Numaniyah and Al-Suwaira districts (P=0.025). There was no significant v
... Show MoreThe isolates of Staphylococcus aureus were isolated from patients with various infections in hospitals, the isolates were identified and accurately diagnosed by phenotypic examination and biochemical tests, as well Vitek-2, and then genetic detection and diagnosis of many of the pathogenic factors associated with Staphylococcus aureus using conventional polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and testing for association by antibiotic resistance and production of some toxins by Staphylococcus aureus. After performing analysis of statistical, it was set up that the correlation coefficient of the PCR technique using virulence genes, sensitivity test to antibiotics and other virulence factors were significant at p < 0.05, but was insignificant with the
... Show MoreGovernment spending is the tool that the state uses to achieve its various goals. The research aims to identify the most important determinants of government spending in Iraq and to indicate the type and nature of the relationship between government spending and its determinants, which will contribute to understanding the movement of government spending. The results of the co-integration test using the border test methodology showed that the variables of population growth and oil prices have a long-term effect on government spending while inflation is not significant in the long run, and that 47% of the equilibrium imbalance (short-term imbalance) in government spending in the previous period (t-) can be corrected in the current period (t)
... Show MoreThe study investigated the behaviour of asphalt concrete mixes for aggregate gradations, according to the Iraqi specification using the Bailey method designed by an Excel spreadsheet. In mixing aggregates with varying gradations (coarse and fine aggregate), The Bailey method is a systematic methodology that offers aggregate interlocking as the backbone of the framework and a controlled gradation to complete the blends. Six types of gradation are used according to the bailey method considered in this study. Two-course prepared Asphalt Concrete Wearing and Asphalt Concrete binder, the Nominal Maximum Aggregate Sizes (NMAS) of the mixtures are 19 and 12.5 mm, respectively. The total number of specimens was 240 for both layers (15 samp
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The research addresses the specification table and the extent of its use in developing achievement tests, as well as detects the obstacles to its use through a sample of (120) respondents from the faculty members in some Baghdad schools and colleges. After unpacking and processing the data statistically, the research reached several results: the study sample do not use the test map in the development of their tests, as their percentage reached (82%) and there are no statistically significant differences in the use of the specification table by the sample members according to their place of work or the number of years of experience. The results also revealed the most important reasons that prevent the use
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