Over the past few decades, the health benefits are under threat as many commonly used antibiotics have become less and less effective against certain illnesses not only because many of them produce toxic reactions but also due to the emergence of drug-resistant bacteria. The clinical use of a combination of antibiotic therapy for Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections is probably more effective than monotherapy. The present study aims to estimate the antibacterial and antibiofilm activity of Conocarpus erectus leaves extracts against multi-drug resistant P. aeruginosa isolated from different hospitals in Baghdad city. One hundred fifty different clinical specimens were collected from patients from September 2021 to January 2022. All samples were cultured on specific and differential media, only 83 isolates were able to grow on cetrimide agar and at 42˚C, and then the VITEK 2 compact system was dependent to complete the identification. The results showed that the high resistance of the isolates was to the two antibiotics Ceftriaxone and Amoxicillin-Clavulanic acid with a percentage of (92.7%) and (89.2%) respectively, followed by Trimethoprim with a resistance rate of (79.5%). Ten isolates with multi-drug resistance are selected to evaluate the antibacterial activity of plant extracts and the combination between Conocarpus erectus extract and antibiotics. Maceration and Soxhlet apparatus were used to prepare the methanolic and aqueous extracts. The results of the radical scavenging ability showed that the methanolic and aqueous extracts (96.44 and 94.13%) in 10 mg/ml respectively, were more than the artificial antioxidant (BHT) which was 93.11% and the approach with the vitamin C which was 97.20%. The results of the total phenolic content were observed at 51.58 and 65.60 mg/g in 5 mg/ml for the aqueous and methanolic extracts respectively. The antibacterial activity of C. erectus leaves extracts showed that the methanolic extract was more effective than the aqueous extract at a concentration of 100 mg/ml. The results of the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of the methanolic extract against P. aeruginosa were between 8-32 mg\ml. While the MIC values of the aqueous extract were 128-256 mg\ml. The synergistic activity between C. erectus methanolic extract and antibiotics against multidrug-resistant P. aeruginosa was assessed using the checkerboard analysis technique. The methanolic extract showed a synergistic effect with Cefepime against six isolates (FICI: ≤0.5), and an additive effect against four isolates (FICI: (≥ 0.5–1.0). Furthermore, a synergistic effect with Ceftriaxone against seven isolates and additive interaction was found against three isolates.
Tillage tools are subject to friction and low-stress abrasive wear processes with the potential deterioration of the desired soil quality, loss of mechanical weed efficacy, and downtime for replacing worn tools. Limited experimental methods exist to quantify investigate the effect of wear-resistant coatings on shape parameters of soil-engaging tools. ASTM standard sand/rubber wheel abrasion and pin-on-disk tests are not able to simulate wear characteristics of the complex shape of the tillage tools. Even though the tribology of tillage tools can be realistic from field tests, tillage wear tests under field conditions are expensive and often challenging to generate repeatable engineeri
Toxic substances have been released into water supplies in recent decades because of fast industrialization and population growth. Fenton electrochemical process has been addressed to treat wastewater which is very popular because of its high efficiency and straightforward design. One of the advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) is electro-Fenton (EF) process, and electrode material significantly affects its performance. Nickel foam was chosen as the source of electro-generated hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) due to its good characteristics. In the present study, the main goals were to explore the effects of operation parameters (FeSO4 concentration, current density, and electrolysis time) on the catalytic performance that was optimized by r
... Show MoreThis article conclude a theoretical study for the possibility to produce additional electric power from Iraqi steam power plants by cutting – off high-pressure feed water heaters . Three separated steam power plants which Dura , south –Baghdad and Nasria were studied . The investigation showed the possibity of increasing the electric power from 10 to 15% for Dura and Nasria , whereas 6% for south – Baghdad . According to the nowadays of operation to Iraqi steam power plants , the results showed that by cutting–off high pressure feed water heaters we can generate additional electric power about 250 MW during 3-4 hrs. daily. In addition, the fuel consumption can be reduced in comparison with diesel generat
... Show MoreThis study is conducted to determine the effect of pathogenicity of the fungus Lecanicillium lecanii in some aspects of life of the insect saw toothed beetle Oryzaephilus surinamensis L. (Coleoptera: Silvanidae) under laboratory conditions with three concentrations of spores and mildew commentator (1 × 103, 1 × 105, 1 × 107) spore / ml , on eggs and larvae second phase of the insect .The study also includs the effect of the fungus concentrations of germination on rice (jasmine) by using direct spray treatment. The results show great fungus efficiency in the control of some aspects of life of the insect, where varied efficiency depends on the concentration of spores, The highest percentage loss of eggs is 63.33% at a concentration
... Show MoreAlPO4 catalysts supported with WO3 were prepared by impregnating the catalysts with ammonium metatungstate. The catalysts were checked by X-ray Diffraction (XRD), AFM, and SEM; also, the catalysts analysis was done by X-Ray (EDX). Finally, the N2 adsorption-desorption was used to measure the pore volume and surface area of the catalyst. The prepared catalyst has a surface area of 185.83 m2/g, pore volume of 0.645 cm3/g at a calcination temperature of 500°C for 3 hrs, and particle size of AlPO4 with an average of 35.36 nm. Transesterification of edible oil using WO3/AlPO4 was performed, it was observed that WO3/AlPO4 catalysts give high conversion of edible oil, and this is attributed to the high surface area, smaller particle size, and the
... Show MoreThe aim of this study is to compare the effects of three methods: problem-based learning (PBL), PBL with lecture method, and conventional teaching on self-directed learning skills among physics undergraduates. The actual sample size comprises of 122 students, who were selected randomly from the Physics Department, College of Education in Iraq. In this study, the pre- and post-test were done and the instruments were administered to the students for data collection. The data was analyzed and statistical results rejected null hypothesis of this study. This study revealed that there are no signifigant differences between PBL and PBL with lecture method, thus the PBL without or with lecture method enhances the self-directed learning skills bette
... Show MoreBackground: The study aimed to investigate the effect of different techniques of en masse retraction on the vertical and sagittal position, axial inclination, rate of space closure, and type of movement of maxillary central incisor. Materials and methods: A typodont simulation system was used (CL II division 2 malocclusion). Three groups were used group 1(N=10, T-loop), group 2(N=10, Time-Saving loop), and group 3(N=10, Microimplant). Photographs were taken before and after retraction and measurements were made using Autodesk AutoCAD© software 2010. Kruskal-Wallis one-way analyses of variance and Mann-Whitney U test (p?0.05) were used. Results: The rate of space closure showed no significant difference among the three groups (p?0.05), whi
... Show MoreThis work deals with thermal cracking of heavy vacuum gas oil which produced from the top of vacuum distillation unit at Al- DURA refinery, by continuous process. An experimental laboratory plant scale was constructed in laboratories of chemical engineering department, Al-Nahrain University and Baghdad University. The thermal cracking process was carried out at temperature ranges between 460-560oC and atmospheric pressure with liquid hourly space velocity (LHSV) equal to 15hr-1.The liquid product from thermal cracking unit was distilled by atmospheric distillation device according to ASTM D-86 in order to achieve two fractions, below 220oC as a gasoline fraction and above 220oC as light cycle o
... Show MoreAbstract
In this work, diabetic glucose concentration level control under disturbing meal has been controlled using two set of advanced controllers. The first set is sliding mode controllers (classical and integral) and the second set is represented by optimal LQR controllers (classical and Min-, ax). Due to their characteristic features of disturbance rejection, both integral sliding mode controller and LQR Minmax controller are dedicated here for comparison. The Bergman minimal mathematical model was used to represent the dynamic behavior of a diabetic patient’s blood glucose concentration to the insulin injection. Simulations based on Matlab/Simulink, were performed to verify the performance of each controll
... Show MoreTwo- dimensional numerical simulations are carried out to study the elements of observing a Dirac point source and a Dirac binary system. The essential features of this simulation are demonstrated in terms of the point spread function and the modulation transfer function. Two mathematical equations have been extracted to present, firstly the relationship between the radius of optical telescope and the distance between the central frequency and cut-off frequency of the optical telescope, secondly the relationship between the radius of the optical telescope and the average frequency components of the modulation transfer function.