Twenty five vaginal swabs from outpatients' healthy women were collected from Kamal Al-Samarai Hospital, Baghdad, to isolate and identify of Lactobacillus acidophilus. Three isolates were diagnosed as L. acidophilus which represents 15% of the total number of lactic acid bacterial (LAB) isolates; other LAB types represent 65% (20 isolates).The ability of L. acidophilus to produce surlactin was detected after measuring its biological activity to inhibit the adhesion of biofilm formed by Pseudomonas aeruginosa to surfaces using test tube method. It was found that all isolates were able to produce surlactin but the activity of surlactin was varying in each isolate. Surlactin produced by isolates 1 and 13 was the most effective. Biological applications of surlactin were studied by inhibiting the adhesion of pathogenic P. aeruginosa producing biofilm on contact lenses. In this study the surlactin has the ability to inhibit the adhesion up to 60% and 55% for isolates 1 and 13 respectively and does not have an antibacterial activity.Surlactin showed an ability to treat the infection in rabbits' eyes with P. aeruginosa while it did not show this ability against Staphylococcus aureus. Additionally, it prevented the infection with P. aeruginosa when administrated to rabbits' eyes inoculated with these bacteria only, while it showed no effect against S. aureus.
The dielectric constant of most polymers is very low; the addition of TiO2 particles into the polymers provides an attractive and promising way to reach a high dielectric constant. Polymer-based materials with a high dielectric constant show great potential for energy storage applications. Four samples were prepared, one of them was polyurethane (PU) and the other were PU with different weight percent (wt %) of TiO2 (0.1, 0.2, 0.3) powder AFM test was used to distinguish the nanoparticles. The result shows that the most shape of these nanoparticles are spherical and the roughness average is 0.798 nm. The dielectric properties were measured for all samples before and after the exposure to the UV radiation. The result illustrates that the
... Show MoreSKF Sami I. Jafar, Mohammad J. Kadhim, Engineering and Technology Journal, 2018 - Cited by 4
Soils located above the groundwater table are generally unsaturated and possess negative pore-water pressures. A soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC) that relates the water content of a soil to matric suction is an important relationship for the unsaturated soil mechanics. The SWCC essentially shows the ability of an unsaturated soil to retain water under various matric suctions. The filter paper method is a soil suction measurement technique. Soil suction is one of the most important parameters describing the moisture condition of unsaturated soils. The measurement of soil suction is crucial for applying the theories of the engineering behavior of unsaturated soils.In this paper, three soil samples were collected from three sites within
... Show MoreAs an alternative to Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC), the alkali-activated binders have been developed with better technical characteristics and more extended durability. The Alkali-Activated Iraqi Natural Pozzolans (AANP) could produce geopolymer cementation building materials and make them ecologically acceptable. The primary advantage of geopolymer cement is that it has a lower environmental effect that contributes to it. The engineering characteristics of geopolymer concrete produced using activated Iraqi natural Pozzolan are summarized in this research. The mechanical properties, modulus of elasticity, and ultrasonic pulse velocity of various concrete mixes were determined via experimental study. The impact of essential variables like w
... Show MoreAs an alternative to Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC), the alkali-activated binders have been developed with better technical characteristics and more extended durability. The Alkali-Activated Iraqi Natural Pozzolans (AANP) could produce geopolymer cementation building materials and make them ecologically acceptable. The primary advantage of geopolymer cement is that it has a lower environmental effect that contributes to it. The engineering characteristics of geopolymer concrete produced using activated Iraqi natural Pozzolan are summarized in this research. The mechanical properties, modulus of elasticity, and ultrasonic pulse velocity of various concrete mixes were determined via exp
CdO films were deposited on substrates from glass, Silicon and Porous silicon by thermal chemical spray pyrolysis technique with different thicknesses (130 and 438.46) nm. Measurements of X-ray diffraction of CdO thin film proved that the structure of the Polycrystalline is cubic lattice, and its crystallite size is located within nano scale range where the perfect orientation is (200). The results show that the surface’s roughness and the root mean square increased with increasing the thickness of prepared films. The UV-Visible measurements show that the CdO films with different thicknesses possess an allowed direct transition with band gap (4) eV. AFM measurement revealed that the silicon porosity located in nano range. Cadmium oxide f
... Show MoreFor the purpose of determining the impact of three levels of nitrogen fertilizer (0, 60, and 120 kg.ha-1) and sulfur fertilizer (0, 40, and 60 kg.ha-1) on production and growth indicators (number of leaves, number of branches, chlorophyll pigments, and fresh and dry weights), a field experiment was carried out during the winter season (2021/2022) in the fields of Al-Diwaniyah Province, Ministry of Agriculture, Diwaniyah Agriculture Directorate, Al-Nouriyah Forest Division. Means were compared using the least significant difference test (LSD) at a 0.05 level of probability. In a factorial experiment employing a wholly randomized block design wi
Expansive soils are recognized by their swelling potential upon wetting due to the existence of some clay minerals such as montmorillonite. An effective solution was found to avoid the danger of such soils by using piles. A single pile embedded in an elasto-plastic expansive soil has been analyzed by using one of the available software which is ABAQUS to investigate the effect of applied loads on pile’s top and investigate the effect of swelling soils on load carrying capacity of the pile. The result shows that as the pile is axially loaded at its top, the axial force along the pile gradually changes from (tension) to (compression) and the pile tends to move downward. The applied load needed to initiate pile’s settlement depend
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