BACKGROUND: Burkholderia cepacia adhesion and biofilm formation onto abiotic surfaces is an important feature of clinically relevant isolates. The in vitro biofilm formation of B. cepacia onto coated indwelling urinary catheters (IDCs) with moxifloxacin has not been previously investigated. OBJECTIVES: To examine the ability of B. cepacia to form biofilms on IDCs and the effect of coating IDCs with moxifloxacin on biofilm formation by B. cepacia in vitro. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The adhesion of B. cepacia to coated and uncoated IDCs with moxifloxacin was evaluated. Pieces of IDCs were coated with moxifloxacin (adsorption method). The spectrophotometric method was used to check moxifloxacin leaching into tubes. Coated and uncoated tubes were i

The objective of this study was tointroduce a recursive least squares (RLS) parameter estimatorenhanced by using a neural network (NN) to facilitate the computing of a bit error rate (BER) (error reduction) during channels estimation of a multiple input-multiple output orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MIMO-OFDM) system over a Rayleigh multipath fading channel.Recursive least square is an efficient approach to neural network training:first, the neural network estimator learns to adapt to the channel variations then it estimates the channel frequency response. Simulation results show that the proposed method has better performance compared to the conventional methods least square (LS) and the original RLS and it is more robust a

        In this study the design and installation of evaporative air cooler was carried out using completely outdoor air (fresh air) according to two stage evaporative cooling principle. The laboratory equipment was installed by designing and manufacturing a cross flow plate heat exchanger, where aluminum plates used for this purpose with dimensions (50 × 30 × 40 cm). The surfaces of heat exchanger were covered by sawdust from wetted channels side, to increase the percentage of wetting these surfaces and hence improve the performance and efficiency of air cooler.

        An experimental study was carried out to estimate the performance of cooling system, where som

 This paper aims to verify the existence of relationships between product innovation and the reputation of the organization. The study problem is that the State Organization for Marketing of Oil (SOMO) system is inflexible in terms of marketing procedures and needs innovative, unconventional methods in innovating its products and improving performance. The reputation of the organization. The importance of the study lies in that it is an attempt to raise the interest of SOMO in its approach to the research variables in order to enhance its competitive position in the future and improve the marketing business environment, which contributes to enhancing the reputation of the organization by product innovation. The study sample

Abstract Background: One of the most important methods to replace lost teeth is dental implants. In order to increase the strength of connection of the implant with the jaw bone to provide early loading after placement, implant is coated by different coating materials that achieved that purpose. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of coating CP Ti implant with calcium carbonate on the strength of bone-implant interface after two and six weeks of implantation in rabbit femur bone by torque removal test, histological and histomorphometric analysis. Materials and methods: Coating the surface of commercially pure titanium screws with extra pure synthetic calcium carbonate via electrophoretic deposition method (EPD) was done. The

The Moisture damage is considered as one of the main challenge for the experts in the field of asphalt pavement design. The aims of the present study is to modify moisture resistance of the asphalt concrete by utilizing ceramic fibers as a type of reinforcement incorporated with hydrated lime. For this purpose, a penetration grade of the asphalt cement (40-50) was utilized as a binder with an aggregate of the maximum nominal size of 12.5mm and mineral filler limestone dust. A series of specimens has been fabricated by utilizing 0.50, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 percentages of ceramic fibers. For each of these contents, another subsequent group of specimens with hydrated lime with 0.0, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 percentages were moulded. For the additi

Steel-concrete-steel (SCS) structural element solutions are rising due to their advantages over conventional reinforced concrete in terms of cost and strength. The impact of SCS sections with various core materials on the structural performance of composites has not yet been fully explored experimentally, and in this work, both slag and polypropylene fibers were incorporated in producing eco-friendly steel-concrete-steel composite sections. This study examined the ductility, ultimate strength, failure modes, and energy absorption capacities of steel-concrete-steel filled with eco-friendly concrete, enhanced by polypropylene fiber (PPF) to understand its impact on modern structural projects. Eco-friendly concrete was produced by the partial

Impact strength of self-compacted concrete is a field of interest, mostly when the concrete is produced from sustainable materials. This research's main objective is to clarify the ability to use two types of Portland limestone cement (Karasta and Tasluja) in self compacted concrete under impact loading, further to the economic and environmental benefits of the limestone cement. The impact loading was applied by a low-speed test, using the drop ball on concrete. Moreover, the study reveals the resistance of the grids reinforced concrete to impact loading by using polymer grid, and steel grid reinforced concrete slabs. Mixes reinforced by steel mesh had the highest results, indicating that the steel mesh was more robust because it had

            An image retrieval system is a computer system for browsing, looking and recovering pictures from a huge database of advanced pictures. The objective of Content-Based Image Retrieval (CBIR) methods is essentially to extract, from large (image) databases, a specified number of images similar in visual and semantic content to a so-called query image. The researchers were developing a new mechanism to retrieval systems which is mainly based on two procedures. The first procedure relies on extract the statistical feature of both original, traditional image by using the histogram and statistical characteristics (mean, standard deviation). The second procedure relies on the T-

Background: White spot lesion is the first visible sign of dental caries that is characterized by demineralized lesion underneath an intact surface. Several studies demonstrated that they could be treated using noninvasive techniques like the use of fluoride or casein phospho-peptide and amorphous calcium phosphate. Improvement in aesthetic outcomes by covering the demineralized enamel is one of the advantages of the use of resin infiltration and opal-ustre microabrasion, which are two new techniques that had been used for treatment of white spot lesion. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of resin infiltration and microabrasion in the microhardness of the artificial white spot lesions at various depths. Material and method