Quorum sensing (QS) is a perfectly orchestrated molecular communication system. It is a boon for Klebsiella pneumoniae, and bane for the host. This system is believed to make K. pneumoniae a leading cause of multidrug-resistant (MDR) nosocomial infections. This study aimed to investigate the antibacterial and anti-biofilm potential of medicinal plant extracts through interfering with QS of K. pneumoniae. The effect of different concentrations of ethanolic extracts of cinnamon and clove on K. pneumoniae was determined by analyzing the growth curve, survival assay (MTT), Qualitative and quantitative biofilm formation, antibiotic resistance, along with studying gene expression of the genes encoding the above traits, using quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The low concentrations of the plant extracts did not affect neither on the bacterial growth, nor on the viability of K. pneumoniae, supported with growth curves. Additionally, the biofilm production was inhibited even by lower plant concentrations, and both cinnamon and clove extracts were able to render the MDR bacteria to be more susceptible to antibiotics. At the molecular levels, the bacterium treated with either clove or cinnamon or in combination showed under expression of the biofilm formation regulation gene (bssS), the carbapenem resistance gene (bla), as well as the QS target gene (LuxS). Both clove and cinnamon ethanolic extracts exerted potent impacts on reducing pathogenic traits regulated by QS in K. pneumoniae. Finally, the study recommends further exploration of clove and cinnamon extracts separately or in combination to develop alternative therapies against MDR K. pneumoniae infections.
Today’s modern medical imaging research faces the challenge of detecting brain tumor through Magnetic Resonance Images (MRI). Normally, to produce images of soft tissue of human body, MRI images are used by experts. It is used for analysis of human organs to replace surgery. For brain tumor detection, image segmentation is required. For this purpose, the brain is partitioned into two distinct regions. This is considered to be one of the most important but difficult part of the process of detecting brain tumor. Hence, it is highly necessary that segmentation of the MRI images must be done accurately before asking the computer to do the exact diagnosis. Earlier, a variety of algorithms were developed for segmentation of MRI images by usin
... Show MoreObjectives: To assess patients' satisfaction to nursing care at hemodialysis units and determine the relationship
between patients' satisfaction and patients' demographic data.
Methodology: A descriptive study was carried out at hemodialysis units of Baghdad teaching hospitals from Feb.
4
th
, 2010 through Sep. 5
th, 2010. A purposive (non-probability) sample of (150) patients ta hemodialysis units ni
Baghdad teaching hospitals was selected. The data were collected through the use of constructing questionnaire
and by means of an interview technique with the patients; the questionnaire consists of two parts (1)
demographic data (2) patients' satisfaction to nursing care. The validity of the study questionnaire w
Chemotherapy is one of the most efficient methods for treating cancer patients. Chemotherapy aims to eliminate cancer cells as thoroughly as possible. Delivering medications to patients’ bodies through various methods, either oral or intravenous is part of the chemotherapy process. Different cell-kill hypotheses take into account the interactions of the expansion of the tumor volume, external drugs, and the rate of their eradication. For the control of drug usage and tumor volume, a model based smooth super-twisting control (MBSSTC) is proposed in this paper. Firstly, three nonlinear cell-kill mathematical models are considered in this work, including the log-kill, Norton-Simon, and hypotheses subject to parametric uncertainties and exo
... Show MoreFace recognition is required in various applications, and major progress has been witnessed in this area. Many face recognition algorithms have been proposed thus far; however, achieving high recognition accuracy and low execution time remains a challenge. In this work, a new scheme for face recognition is presented using hybrid orthogonal polynomials to extract features. The embedded image kernel technique is used to decrease the complexity of feature extraction, then a support vector machine is adopted to classify these features. Moreover, a fast-overlapping block processing algorithm for feature extraction is used to reduce the computation time. Extensive evaluation of the proposed method was carried out on two different face ima
... Show MoreThe objective of the study was to predict crop coefficient (K) values for cucumber inside the greenhouse during the growing season 2014, using watermarks gypsum blocks and atmometer c apparatus during the growing stages and to compare the predicted values of the crop coefficient with different methods and approaches. The study was conducted in the greenhouses field within Al-Mahawil Township, 70 km south of Baghdad, Iraq. The watermarks soil water sensors and atmometer apparatus were used to measure crop evapotranspiration and reference evapotranspiration on daily basis, respectively. The comparison and the statistical analysis between the calculated K in this study and values obtained from greenhouse gave a good agreement. The root mean
... Show MoreAsphaltenes are a solubility class described as a component of crude oil with undesired characteristics. In this study, Sharqy Baghdad heavy oil upgrading was achieved utilizing the solvent deasphalting approach as asphaltenes are insoluble in paraffinic solvents; they may be removed from heavy crude oil by adding N-Hexane as a solvent to create deasphalted oil (DAO)of higher quality. This method is known as Solvent De-asphalting (SDA). Different effects have been assessed for the SDA process, such as solvent to oil ratio (4-16/1 ml/g), the extraction temperature (23 ºC) room temperature and (68 ºC) reflux temperature at (0.5 h mixing time with 400 rpm mixing speed). The best solvent deasphalting results were obtained at room temp
... Show MoreThe aim of present study was to investigate the effect of Pregabalin on hormonal profile of pituitary and ovarian hormones in female albino rats. Three groups of healthy adult female albino rats having fifteen rats in each group were selected for present study. The rats of groups G2 and G3 were administered with Pregabalin with two doses 150 mg and 300mg/kg b.wt/day respectively by orally route daily for 1month, 2 months, and 3 months. Animals of group G1 (Control) were given saline alone. After the experimental periods, the rats were sacrificed, and the study of hormonal profile was carried out by collecting blood samples from the heart puncture method, centrifuged sera and analyzing concentrations of estrogen, progesterone and gonadotropi
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