Several toxigenic cyanobacteria produce the cyanotoxin (microcystin). Being a health and environmental hazard, screening of water sources for the presence of microcystin is increasingly becoming a recommended environmental procedure in many countries of the world. This study was conducted to assess the ability of freshwater cyanobacterial species Westiellopsis prolifica to produce microcystins in Iraqi freshwaters via using molecular and immunological tools. The toxigenicity of W. prolifica was compared via laboratory experiments with other dominant bloom-forming cyanobacteria isolated from the Tigris River: Microcystis aeruginosa, Chroococcus turigidus, Nostoc carneum, and Lyngbya sp. signifi

    Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a neuro-inflammatory disorder in which the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is proposed to have a pathogenic role. Therefore, a case-control study was performed (93 patients with relapsing-remitting MS and 113 healthy controls (HC) to analyze the prevalence and viral load of EBV infection using real time-polymerase chain reaction. Prevalence of EBV infection was lower in patients compared to HC but the difference was not significant (12.9 vs. 21.2%; probability [p] = 0.187). EBV-positive MS cases were more common in females than in males (83.3 vs. 16.7%), while an opposite distribution was observed in HC (37.5 vs. 62.5%), and the difference was significant (p = 0.041). Blood group O frequency was higher in EBV-p

An experiment was conducted using pots (capacity of 4 kg soil/pot) in the glasshouse of Biology Dept. College of Education (Ibn Al-Haitham) University of Baghdad during 2008-2009 growing season, in order to determine the effect of different levels of urea fertilizer (Zero, 0.1, 0.2, 0.4 gm/4 kg soil in pot) these equal to (Zero, 100,200,400 kg/ha) and different levels of superphosphate fertilizer (Zero, 0.1, 0.2 gm/4kg soil in pot), these equal to (Zero, 100,200 kg/ha) on some morphological and physiological characteristics of fenugreek plant. This experiment was conducted using Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with three replications and the experiment included (36) pots. Results indicated clear increase in all studied characteristics wi

Diamond-like carbon (DLC) homogeneous thin films were deposited from cyclohexane (Ccyclohexane (Ccyclohexane (Ccyclohexane (C cyclohexane (Ccyclohexane (Ccyclohexane (C cyclohexane (Ccyclohexane (C 6H12 ) liquid by using a plasma jet system which operates with alternating high voltage 7.5 which operates with alternating high voltage 7.5which operates with alternating high voltage 7.5which operates with alternating high voltage 7.5 which operates with alternating high voltage 7.5which operates with alternating high voltage 7.5which operates with alternating high voltage 7.5 which operates with alternating high voltage 7.5which operates with alternating high voltage 7.5 which operates with alternating high voltage 7.5which operates with al

The complexation between folic acid and a typical polyaromatic hydrocarbon, fluorene, was investigated using FTIR and UV spectra. Appearance of a new IR band at 2401cm−1 demonstrates that NH2–C=N moiety on pterin ring in folic acid is protonated when fluorene is introduced. The emergence of two charge transfer bands at 217 nm and 278 nm in UV difference spectra shows the presence of π-π complexation between folic acid and fluorene. These experiments confirm that fluorene could combine with the pterin ring of folic acid through π-π donor–acceptor interaction and induce the protonation process in folic acid upon strengthening electron accepting ability of pterin ring. The results suggest that complexatio

Background: Lamotrigine is a second generation Anti-epileptic drug; it is widely used for the treatment of epilepsy and bipolar disorder. Sufficient data is not available concerning its teratogenicity. Aim of the study: The study has been carried out to evaluate the effect of lamotrigine on Rat kidney development. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted on 10 pregnant Albino Rats (Rattus rattus) divided equally into two groups, control and experiment groups. Experiment group received lamotrigne 10mg/kg/day orally using naso-gastric tube from the first day of gestation until the first week after birth, while the control group received distilled water. Newborn kidneys were collected at day 7 postnatal and fixated in bouin’s solution,

     In the present investigation two different types of fiber reinforced polymer composites were prepared by hand lay-up method using three different parameters (curing temperature, pressing load and fiber volume fraction). These composites were prepared from the polyester resin as the matrix material reinforced with glass fibers as first group of samples and mat Kevlar fibers as the second group, both with different volume fractions (4%, 8%, and 12%) of fibers. They were then tested by tensile strength and impact strength. The main objective in this study is to use Taguchi method for predicting the better parameters that give the better tensile and impact strength to the composites, and then preparing composites at