Alteration of repeat tract length within the SSR of phase variable genes may enhance the persistence of isolates within their host for a long time (a period of months) (Alamro et al.,2014). Alamro et al. (2014) showed there was trend towards selection for OFF state or low expression for five phase variable genes (opc, hmbr, nadA, nalP, hpuAB) in three carriers (V54, V124 and V64) within strains belonging into CC174 and CC167 in first, second and third time points. He concluded that the selection for low or OFF state helped N. meningitidis to persist for a long time (Alamro et al., 2014). The current study aimed to detect the alteration in the repeat tracts of the same five variable genes within the previous three carriers (V54, V124, and V64) but for other strains belonging to CC22, CC269, and CC198 at the fourth time point. There was also a trend towards selection for an OFF state or low expression for three genes which are (opc, hpuAb, nalP) with 2/3 (66.6%) carriers while hmbr gene showed ON state in all carriers (100%). This indicates that antibodies formed against (opc, HpuAb, nalP) genes in strains belonging to CC174 and CC167 in first, second and third time points were able to enhance immunization against the isolates in the current study for CC269 and CC22 resulting in the selection for the OFF state or low expression. Conversely, antibodies formed against hmbr gene in the previous time points on isolates within the CC167 may not show immunization against hmbr gene in the isolates of current study CC22, CC198 and CC269 and so the gene stayed in the ON state. Interestingly, the nadA gene was missing from isolates under the current study. These results may reflect important aspects in the vaccination program especially as nadA is one of the component of Bexsero vaccine.
This article aims to provide a bibliometric analysis of intellectual capital research published in the Scopus database from 1956 to 2020 to trace the development of scientific activities that can pave the way for future studies by shedding light on the gaps in the field. The analysis focuses on 638 intellectual capital-related papers published in the Scopus database over 60 years, drawing upon a bibliometric analysis using VOSviewer. This paper highlights the mainstream of the current research in the intellectual capital field, based on the Scopus database, by presenting a detailed bibliometric analysis of the trend and development of intellectual capital research in the past six decades, including journals, authors, countries, inst
... Show MorePorosity plays an essential role in petroleum engineering. It controls fluid storage in aquifers, connectivity of the pore structure control fluid flow through reservoir formations. To quantify the relationships between porosity, storage, transport and rock properties, however, the pore structure must be measured and quantitatively described. Porosity estimation of digital image utilizing image processing essential for the reservoir rock analysis since the sample 2D porosity briefly described. The regular procedure utilizes the binarization process, which uses the pixel value threshold to convert the color and grayscale images to binary images. The idea is to accommodate the blue regions entirely with pores and transform it to white in r
... Show MoreUsing the Internet, nothing is secure and as we are in need of means of protecting our data, the use of passwords has become important in the electronic world. To ensure that there is no hacking and to protect the database that contains important information such as the ID card and banking information, the proposed system stores the username after hashing it using the 256 hash algorithm and strong passwords are saved to repel attackers using one of two methods: -The first method is to add a random salt to the password using the CSPRNG algorithm, then hash it using hash 256 and store it on the website. -The second method is to use the PBKDF2 algorithm, which salts the passwords and extends them (deriving the password) before being ha
... Show MoreThis paper aims to identify the approaches used in assessment the credit applications by Iraqi banks, as well as which approach is most used. It also attempted to link these approaches with reduction of credit default and banks’ efficiency particularly for the Gulf Commercial Bank. The paper found that the Gulf Bank widely relies on the method of Judgment Approach for assessment the credit applications in order to select the best of them with low risk of default. In addition, the paper found that the method of Judgment Approach was very important for the Gulf Bank and it driven in reduction the ratio of credit default as percentage of total credit. However, it is important to say that the adoption of statistical approaches for
... Show MoreGrapes and grape seeds are important samples employed for environmental medical studies . The air of this work was to identify and concentration calculation of the elements in grapes fruit and thier seeds by using X-Ray fluoresces technique (XRF) . Samples were collected from Abo Ghraib of Baghdad city ,the grape seeds were obtained from those samples . Both samples were taken under experimental procedure to obtain the sample which were ready for analysis . The samples were then submitted to experimental conditions using a radiation source and then samples were applied for counting analysis shows the elements Na , Mg , Al , Si , P , S , Cl , K , Ca , and Sr as major components of the samples. Fe , Sr , I , Ba and V were
... Show MoreThis research is devoted to investigating the thermal buckling analysis behaviour of laminated composite plates subjected to uniform and non-uniform temperature fields by applying an analytical model based on a refined plate theory (RPT) with five unknown independent variables. The theory accounts for the parabolic distribution of the transverse shear strains through the plate thickness and satisfies the zero-traction boundary condition on the surface without using shear correction factors; hence a shear correction factor is not required. The governing differential equations and associated boundary conditions are derived by using the virtual work principle and solved via Navier-type analytical procedure to obtain critica
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