MRSA is one of the major pathogens in hospitals and the community, which have the ability to produce biofilm as a virulence factor, the impact of chalcone on biofilm formation, the synergism effect of chalcone and antibiotic in both in vitro and in vivo experiments, the gene expression of virulence genes (srtA, fnbA, fnbB) before and after treatment of it on MRSA biofilm cells in vitro, all these were the prime aims of this study. Chalcone at MBIC (20 μg/ml), significantly reduced the biofilm formation to 21.45% and at sub MBIC (15 μg/ml) to 36.58 %. While, Chalcone at MIC(5 μg/ml) reduced MRSA planktonic cells to 49.61%. Susceptibility of MRSA isolates against eight antibiotics showed that all isolates were sensitive to vancomycin and none of the isolates developed susceptibility to erythromycin. The combinatorial effect of chalcone at 5 μg/ml and vancomycin at MIC of (1 μg/ml) on MRSA planktonic cells was reduced it from 70 to 23.3% , and in combination with erythromycin at 32 μg/ml, was decreased from 53.1% to 22% and the effect of chalcone at sub MBIC (15 μg/ml) when combined with vancomycin was reducing the biofilm formation from 87% to 27.6 and with erythromycin from 55.1% to 23.8%. Combinatorial phenotypic effect of the antibiotics and chalcone (at sub MBIC), in vitro came in line with the result of in vivo experiment and the results showed decrease in the expression of fnbA, fnbB and srtA genes in tested isolates in the presence of chalcone at sub MBIC. In our study, we demonstrated that chalcone exhibited significant effect in biofilm formation of MRSA strains, which can be considered as promising antimicrobial agents that can be used for prevention of MRSA adherence or as adjunct to antibiotics in conventional therapy.
Laser assisted skin wound closure offers many distinct advantages over conventional closure
techniques. The objective of this in vitro experimental study, carried out at the Institute of Laser for
Postgraduate Studies/Baghdad University, was to determine the effectiveness of 980 nm diode laser in
welding of human skin wounds. Multiple 3-4 cm long full thickness incisions in a specimen of human
skin obtained from the discarded panniculus of an Abdominoplasty operation were tried to be laser
welded using a 4 mm spot diameter laser beam from a 980 nm diode laser at different laser parameters
and modes of action. The tensile strength at the weld site was analyzed experimentally. Although laser
assisted wound welding did
Polycystic ovary syndrome(PCOS) is a heterogeneous disorder of uncertain etiology , it is the most common endocrinopathy in women and most common cause of anovulatery infertility ,characterized by chronic anovulation and hyperandrogenemia .The present study was designed to investigate the effect of silymarin which is known to have antioxidant and insulin sensitivity effects on the levels of glucose, insulin ,testosterone ,leutinizing hormone(LH) and progesterone .Ovulation rate and Homeostasis Model Assessment of insulin Resistance (HOMA) ratio were determined .A 3-months of treatment were conducted in 60 PCOS patients in three well-matched groups .The first one (n=20),received silymarin(750mg/day) .The second group received
... Show MoreObjective: To identify barriers to healthcare access, to assess the health literacy levels of the foreign-born Arabic speaking population in Iowa, USA and to measure their prevalence of seeking preventive healthcare services. Methods: A cross-sectional study of native Arabic speaking adults involved a focus group and an anonymous paper-based survey. The focus group and the Andersen Model were used to develop the survey questionnaire. The survey participants were customers at Arabic grocery stores, worshippers at the city mosque and patients at free University Clinic. Chi-square test was used to measure the relationship between the characteristics of survey participants and preventive healthcare services. Thematic analysis was
... Show MoreRheumatoid arthritis is a chronic systemic inflammatory disease. Inflammation leads to joint damage and increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases. Neutrophil lymphocyte ratio (NLR) is a measure of inflammation in many diseases. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the usefulness of NLR to detect inflammation in RA, and its correlation to RA disease activity indices and some hematological parameters. A cross-sectional study involving 24 patients with active rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who are using MTX participated in this study. All patients were clinically evaluated using disease activity score of 28 joints (DAS28) and simplified disease activity index (SDAI), whereas functional disability was assessed by health assessment questionnaire di
... Show MoreIn data transmission a change in single bit in the received data may lead to miss understanding or a disaster. Each bit in the sent information has high priority especially with information such as the address of the receiver. The importance of error detection with each single change is a key issue in data transmission field.
The ordinary single parity detection method can detect odd number of errors efficiently, but fails with even number of errors. Other detection methods such as two-dimensional and checksum showed better results and failed to cope with the increasing number of errors.
Two novel methods were suggested to detect the binary bit change errors when transmitting data in a noisy media.Those methods were: 2D-Checksum me
The present investigation is concerned primarily with sorting and identification of subfamily Tubificinae from River Tigris and some water surface in Baghdad /Iraq . For this purpose six study sites were chosen, including a Al- Kadhemyia drainage canal, North Baghdad; three sites on the shore of River Tigris; in addition to site in Al-Jaish canal , East Baghdad, finally the sixth site was from pond in Al-Zawra'a park , within the center of Baghdad .These sites were characterized by sediment rang from clay, silty-clay to silty with a percentage of organic matter ranged between 0.7% - 9.9% . According to water temperature, salinity and pH values, they were nearly identical in all study sites, the water temperature was ranged through the study
... Show MoreIn this paper, we propose a new and efficient ferroelectric nanostructure metal oxide lithium niobate [(Li1.075Nb0.625Ti0.45O3), (LNTO)] solid film as a saturable absorber (SA) for modulating passive Q-switched erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL). The SA is fabricated as a nanocomposite solid film by the drop-casting process in which the LNTO is planted within polyvinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene [P(VDF-TrFE)] as host copolymer. The optical and physical characteristics of the solid film are experimentally established. The SA is incorporated within the cavity of EDFL to examine its capability for producing multi-wavelength laser. The experimental results proved that a multi-wavelength laser is produced, where stable four lines with central
... Show MoreBackground: Gastroesophageal reflux disease, is a quite prevalent gastrointestinal disease, among which gastric content (excluding the air) returns into the oral cavity. Many 0ral manifestations related t0 this disease include tooth wear, dental caries also changes in salivary flow rate and pH. This study was conducted among gastroesophageal reflux disease patients in order to assess tooth wear in relation to salivary flow rate and pH among these patients and the effect of gastroesophageal reflux disease duration on this relation. Materials and methods: One hundred patients participate in this cross-sectional study for both genders and having an age range of 20-40 years old, patients had been endoscopically identified as having gastroeso
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