Acinetobacter baumannii (A. baumannii ) is considered a critical healthcare problem for patients in intensive care units due to its high ability to be multidrug-resistant to most commercially available antibiotics. The aim of this study is to develop a colorimetric assay to quantitatively detect the target DNA of A. baumannii based on unmodified gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) from different clinical samples (burns, surgical wounds, sputum, blood and urine). A total of thirty-six A. baumannii clinical isolates were collected from five Iraqi hospitals in Erbil and Mosul provinces within the period from September 2020 to January 2021. Bacterial isolation and biochemical identification of isolates were carried out followed by DNA extraction from 36 isolates and six negative ATCC strains (Salmonalle typhi, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumonia, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Enterobacter aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aures) and only one positive control ATCC A. baumannii using Phenol/Chloroform method. AuNPs were synthesized using the citrate reduction method and examined by XDR, FTIR, UV-VIS, FE-SEM, and TEM. The optimized colorimetric assay was employed based on unmodified spherical AuNPs and PCR amplification of 16S rRNA intergenic spacer sequences (ITS) with species-specific DNA oligo-targeters. Detection and optimization of A. baumannii amplicons using unmodified AuNPs were performed based on species-specific DNA oligonucleotide. The AuNPs assay was able to colorimetrically detect and distinguish A. baumannii from other ATCC bacterial isolates. The turnaround time of this assay was about 3 hours, including sample preparation and amplification, to show (0.025-6 ngµl-1) as a detection limit of DNA concentration. The efficacy of colorimetric detection was proved to effectively diagnose A. baumannii isolates with high sensitivity, simplicity, and robustness to rapidly diagnose A. baumannii isolates from different clinical samples.
Background: Oocytes are susceptible to alterations in the various fatty acid contents of follicular fluid (FF), which may influence maturation and embryogenesis. Different fatty acids exert various effects on intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), which needs further studies to uncover the involved mechanisms. Objectives: To assess FF fatty acids in women undergoing ICSI and to correlate them with ICSI parameters, namely the total count of aspirated oocytes, oocyte maturation rate, fertilization rate and percentage of good-quality embryos. Methods: Fifty women undergoing ICSI were enrolled in this cross-sectional study. FF samples were collected during oocyte retrieval and were analyzed for fatty acids using gas chromatography. Fa
... Show MoreIn this work, nanostructure aluminum oxide thin films were deposited on glass substrates using a direct current (DC) magnetic reactive sputtering (MRS) technique. A gaseous mixture of argon and oxygen at different mixing ratios was used to synthesize Al2O3 nanoparticles. After extracting Al2O3 powder from the glass substrate, X-ray diffraction (XRD), field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), and energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) were used to analyze the structural and morphological properties of the synthesized thin films. The effect of deposition time on the spectral properties, as well as on the size of the nanoparticles, was determined.
Four mixed ligand complexes were prepared from 1,10-phenanthroline (Phen), 5-chlorosalicylic acid (CSA), and anthranilic acid (Anthra) dissolved in aqueous ethanol at a ratio of (1:1:1:1) M: Phen:CSA: Anthra, M(II)= Cu, Zn, Cd, and Hg. The prepared compounds were analyzed by flame atomic absorption, FT-IR, UV-Vis, and spectroscopic methods, as well as conductivity measurements and magnetic properties. After analyzing the prepared compounds using the acquired data, the complexes formed by mixing ligands were concluded to adopt an octahedral geometry. That study has been conducted to test the inhibitory effectiveness of the complexes (1,10-Phenanthroline (Phen), 5-Chlorosalicylic acid (CSA), Na[Cu(Phen)(CSA)(Anthra), Na[Zn(Phen)(CSA
... Show MoreA numerical study has been carried out to investigate heat transfer by natural convection and radiation under the effect of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) for steady state axisymmetric twodimensional laminar flow in a vertical cylindrical channel filled with saturated porous media. Heat is generated uniformly along the center of the channel with its vertical surface remain with cooled constant wall temperature and insulated horizontal top and bottom surfaces. The governing equations which used are continuity, momentum and energy equations which are transformed to dimensionless equations. The finite difference approach is used to obtain all the computational results using the MATLAB-7 programming. The parameters affected on the system are Rayl
... Show MoreShatt al-Arab is the only navigational artery in Iraq, extending from the city of Qurna to its mouth in the Arabian Gulf at the city of Al-Fao within the governorate of Basrah for a length of approximately 204 km. Its width ranges from 400 m to 2000 m, and its depth ranges from 8 m to 20 m. The southern part of it, 93 km long from Umm al-Rassas Island to Ras al-Bisha, represents the international border between Iraq and Iran, where the Thalweg line represents the border between the two countries, which is the deepest point in the riverbed (according to the 1975 Algiers Agreement). The western bank (the Iraqi side) within the common border of Shatt al-Arab is subject to continuous erosion, which leads to the shifting of t
... Show MoreIn this manuscript has investigated the synthesis of plasma-polymerized pyrrole (C4H5N) nano-particles prepared by the proposed atmospheric pressure nonequilibrium plasma jet through the parametric studies, particularly gas flow rate (0.5, 1 and 1.5 L/min). The plasma jet which used operates with alternating voltage 7.5kv and frequency 28kHz. The plasma-flow characteristics were investigated based on optical emission spectroscopy (OES). UV-Vis spectroscopy was used to characterize the oxidization state for polypyrrole. The major absorption appears around 464.1, 449.7 and 435.3 nm at the three flow rate of argon gas. The chemical composition and structural properties of the
... Show MoreIn the city, building space could transform to be as place, because architecture does not include only traditional values such as housing, human protection, stability, etc, but could carry other dimensions beyond the housing or building occupancy or develop urban design. Rivers had vision in motion as a way to show dynamic processes in its flowing slowly, which are simply measured in time and the life of citizens. The research consider the river path in traditional cities as Alley connecting the spaces of the city ... old Baghdad was characterized by this property and it is look like Venice in the past, while traditional European cities were able to preserve this property till now, and capable to take transformation of the city with deve
... Show MoreThis study focused on two areas in AL-Najaf city, AL-Ruhbah and Al-Haydariyah regions because of the importance and widespread use of groundwater in these areas. The two areas were compared quantitatively and qualitatively. For the quantitative approach, the GMS software was used in conjunction with the GIS software to simulate the groundwater flow behavior. The solid model for both areas was created, the geological formation was determined, and the hydraulic properties were identified using GMS software. To test the quantity of groundwater in both areas, the wells have been redistributed to a distance of 2000 m between them, and a period of 1000 days was chosen. When a discharge of 10 l/s and operation times of 4, 8, an
... Show MoreIn this work, a joint quadrature for numerical solution of the double integral is presented. This method is based on combining two rules of the same precision level to form a higher level of precision. Numerical results of the present method with a lower level of precision are presented and compared with those performed by the existing high-precision Gauss-Legendre five-point rule in two variables, which has the same functional evaluation. The efficiency of the proposed method is justified with numerical examples. From an application point of view, the determination of the center of gravity is a special consideration for the present scheme. Convergence analysis is demonstrated to validate the current method.