Background: Mobile phones are approximately widely used everywhere like in hospital wards, clinics and universities as well as biomedical laboratories. They have become very important tool in students’ life. In contrast, these tools carry many harmful bacteria which are responsible for infectious diseases in human because they serve as a reservoir for different pathogens. Current study was aimed to isolate bacteria from students’ mobile phones at the Institute of Medical Technology/Al-Mansour/The Middle Technical University, Baghdad, Iraq. Also, the study investigated microbial resistance to many antimicrobial agents as well as the appropriate remedial measures. Method: Four hundred and fifty swabs from mobile phones were collected from 450 students (271 males and 179 females). Their age range was (17-30) years. Swabs were collected from students during March 2018. Results: Out of the 450 swabs, 150(33.33%) swabs were positive. The percentages of the isolated bacteria according to gender were 53.33%(80 isolates) from males’ mobile phones and 46.66%(70 isolates) from females’ mobile phones. The most frequent Gram-positive bacteria isolated were Staphylococcus aureus (50%) followed by S. epidermidis (20%), whereas Gram-negative bacteria isolated were Escherichia coli (6.0%), Proteus mirabilis (2.66%), Proteus vulgaris (2.66%) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (2.66%). The isolated bacteria showed variable antimicrobial sensitivity patterns for different antibiotics. Most S. aureus isolates were resistant to Cefotaxime, Gentamycin, Amoxicillin, Ciprofloxacin and Augmentin, whereas other isolated species showed the highest resistance to many antibiotics of interest. The isolates of Micrococcus spp. were sensitive to all the studied antibiotics except Tetracycline and Fucidic acid. Conclusion: The present findings indicated that contaminated students’ mobile phones could serve as reservoirs of bacterial agents. Also, most of the latter were resistant to many commonly prescribed antimicrobial agents.
Background: White spot lesions (WSLs) are subsurface enamel demineralization manifested as white opacities which had an esthetic problem. The purpose of this in-vitro study was to evaluate the lesion depth improvement of WSLs following application of fluoride varnish, tooth mousse and resin infiltration (ICON). Materials and methods: Artificial WSLs were created on 120 premolar teeth using demineralization solution with pH (4-4.5). Samples randomly allocated into four groups; fluoride varnish, tooth mousse, ICON and untreated group. Groups were discolored in Cola and orange juice for 24 hours. Teeth were ground sectioned by longitudinal cutting then these sections examined and photographed under stereomicroscope at 12X magnification then an
... Show MoreThe new bidentate Schiff base ligand namely [(E)-N1-(4-methoxy benzylidene) benzene-1, 2-diamine] was prepared from condensation of 4-Methoxy benzaldehyde with O-Phenylene diamine at 1:1 molar ratio in ethanol as a solvent in presence of drops of 48% HBr. The structure of ligand (L) was characterized by, FT-IR, U.V-Vis., 1H-, 13C- NMR spectrophotometer, melting point and elemental microanalysis C.H.N. Metal complexes of the ligand (L) in general molecular formula [M(L)3], where M= Mn(II), Co(II), Ni(II),Cu(II) and Hg(II); L=(C14H14N2O) in ratio (1:3)(Metal:Ligand) were synthesized and characterized by Atomic absorption, FT- IR, U.V-Vis. spectra, molar conductivity, chloride content, melting point and magnetic susceptibility from the above d
... Show MoreSummary The aim of this study is the evaluation the resistance of S. marcescence obtained from soil and water to metals chlorides (Zn+2, Hg+2, Fe+2, Al+3, and Pb+2). Four isolates, identified as Serratia marcescence and S. marcescena (S4) were selected for this study according to their resistance to five heavy metals. The ability of S. marcescena (S4) to grow in different concentrations of metals chloride (200-1200 µg/ml) was tested, the highest concentration that S. marcescence (S4) tolerate was 1000 µg/ml for Zn+2, Hg+2, Fe+2, AL+3, pb+2 and 300 µg/ml for Hg+2 through 24 hrs incubation at 37 Co. The effects of temperature and pH on bacteria growth during 72 hrs were also studied. S. marcescence (S4) was affected by ZnCl2, PbCl2, FeC12
... Show MoreIn order to obtain a mixed model with high significance and accurate alertness, it is necessary to search for the method that performs the task of selecting the most important variables to be included in the model, especially when the data under study suffers from the problem of multicollinearity as well as the problem of high dimensions. The research aims to compare some methods of choosing the explanatory variables and the estimation of the parameters of the regression model, which are Bayesian Ridge Regression (unbiased) and the adaptive Lasso regression model, using simulation. MSE was used to compare the methods.
Samples of Oxytricha falax were collected from Tigris River by 55µ. mesh net. Culturing of O. falax were cultivated in specific conditions (DO 3-5mg/l.; W.Temp. 24±1ºC; pH: 6.8-7.5).The effect of various furfural concentration 0, 20, 40, 80,100 and 124 ppm and toluene concentration 0, 15, 30, 34.2, 34.5 and 35 ppm after two periods of treatment (24 and 48 hr.) on the physiological parameters of O. falax ciliate were observed. This study showed that the lethal concentration of furfural was 124ppm and 80ppm after 24hr. and 48hr. from treatment which killed all the individual community respectively. Furthermore the treatment of O. falax individuals with different concentrations of toluene indicated that 34.5 ppm of it caused disappearance o
... Show MoreA polycrystalline PbxS1-x alloys with various Pb content ( 0.54 and 0.55) has been prepared successfully. The structure and composition of alloys are determined by X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) respectively. The X-ray diffraction results shows that the structure is polycrystalline with cubic structure, and there are strong peaks at the direction (200) and (111), the grain size varies between 20 and 82 nm. From AAS and XRF result, the concentrations of Pb content for these alloys were determined. The results show high accuracy and very close to the theoretical values. A photoconductive detector as a bulk has been fabricated by taking pieces of prepared alloys and polished chemic
... Show MoreThe present work reports on the performance of three types of nanofiltration membranes in the removal of highly polluting and toxic lead (Pb2+) and cadmium (Cd2+) from single and binary salt aqueous solutions simulating real wastewaters. The effect of the operating variables (pH (5.5-6.5), types of NF membrane and initial ions concentration (10-250 ppm)) on the separation process and water flux was investigated. It was observed that the rejection efficiency increased with increasing pH of solution and decreasing the initial metal ions concentrations. While the flux decreased with increasing pH of solution and increasing initial metal ions concentrations. The maximum rejection of lead and cadmium ion
... Show MoreA total of 13 samples of domestic cat Felis cattus (Linnaeus, 1758 ) and 9 samples of wild cat Felis chaus furax (de Winton, 1898) of the Felidae Family were trapped and examined to detect the hard ticks. The areas of the collection were: Baghdad, Al-Rashidiya, Tharthar, Nahrawan, AL-Mahmoudiya (middle of Iraq) and AL-Haretha (south of Iraq), Mosul (north of Iraq). The results of the current study revealed that four species belong to two genera of hard ticks: Haemaphysalis sp. (Koch, 1844), Rhipicephalus turanicus (Morel, 1969), Rhipicephalus sanguineus (Neumann, 1904) and Rhipicephalus appendiculatus (Santos, 1955). The rates and the density of infestation were discussed. The current study aimed to clarify the infestation differe
... Show MoreThe research aims to apply the novel forward osmosis (FO) process to recover pure water
from contaminated water. Phenol was used as organic substance in the feed solution, while sodium
chloride salt was used as draw solution. Membranes used in the FO process is the cellulose
triacetate (CTA) and polyamide (thin film composite (TFC)) membrane. Reverse osmosis process
was used to treatment the draw solution, the exterior from the forward osmosis process. In the FO
process the active layer of the membrane faces the feed solution and the porous support layer faces
the draw solution and this will show the effect of dilutive internal concentration polarization and
concentrative external concentration polarization.
In th