Baylisascaris procyonis is a helminth parasite of raccoons Procyon lotor and represents a health concern in paratenic hosts, including humans and diverse domestic and wildlife species. In North America the helminth is expanding its geographic range. To better understand patterns of infection in the Ozark region of the USA, raccoons (n = 61) were collected in 2013-2014 from five counties in Missouri and Arkansas, USA and necropsied. We documented B. procyonis in all surveyed locations. The overall prevalence of B. procyonis was 44.3 % (95 % CI = 31.9 - 57.4) and was significantly higher in females than males. There were also significant differences in prevalence among raccoons sampled north and south of the Missouri River. Mean intensity was 9.9 (CI = 5.44 - 17.22), and parasites were highly aggregated among hosts such that approximately 20 % of hosts harbor 90 % of parasites. These levels of parasitism indicate that B. procyonis is common in the region and its impacts on paratenic hosts could be qualitatively similar to effects observed in other localities.
One of the recent significant but challenging research studies in computational biology and bioinformatics is to unveil protein complexes from protein-protein interaction networks (PPINs). However, the development of a reliable algorithm to detect more complexes with high quality is still ongoing in many studies. The main contribution of this paper is to improve the effectiveness of the well-known modularity density ( ) model when used as a single objective optimization function in the framework of the canonical evolutionary algorithm (EA). To this end, the design of the EA is modified with a gene ontology-based mutation operator, where the aim is to make a positive collaboration between the modularity density model and the proposed
... Show MoreBacteria strain H8, which produces high amount of exopolysaccharide (EPS), was isolated from soil, and identified as strain of Azotobacter chrococcum by its biochemical /physiological characteristics, EPS was extracted, partially purified and used as bioflocculant. The biochemical analysis of the partially purified EPS revealed that it was an alginate. analysis of EPS by Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR) show that the -OH groups present in bioflocculant are clearly seen at 3433.06 cm-1, the peaks attributed to the -CH3 groups present at 2916.17 cm-1 , and some distinct peaks such as carboxyl group showed strong absorption bands at 1604.66 cm-1, 1411.80 cm-1 and 1303.79 cm-1 indicate the chemical structure of alginate. The effe
... Show MoreThis study examined the effect of essential oils extracted from peel of Citrus paradisi and Citrus sinensis on two species of fungi: Penicillium oxalicum and Fusarium oxysporum as well as effect of two fungicides: Carbendazim and Thiophanatemethyl against above fungi. Results showed that the essential oil of Citrus paradisi inhibited the radial growth of Penicillium oxalicum and Fusarium oxysporum at concentration 4%. Nevertheless, the essential oil of Citrus sinensis inhibited the radial growth at concentration 5 and 4%, respectively. Furthermore, the two studied fungicides inhibited radial growth of these fungi too. Therefore, there are a positive relationship between the evaluating of concentration and the percentage of inhibiting of rad
... Show MoreSeveral 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
... Show MoreThe purpose of this research is to prepare new vanillic acid derivatives with 1,2,4-triazole-3-thiol heterocyclic ring and evaluate their antimicrobial activity in a preliminary assessment. A multistep synthesis was established for the preparation of new vanillic acid-triazole conjugates. The intermediate of 4-(4-amino-5-mercapto-4H-1,2,4-triazol-3-yl)-2-methoxyphenol (4) reacts with different heterocyclic aldehydes (thiophene-2-carboxaldehyde, pyrrole-2-carboxaldehyde, thiophene-3-carboxaldehyde, and furfural ) in ethanol containing few drops of acetic acid yielded the corresponding 4-(4-(substituted amino)-5-mercapto-4H-1,2,4-1triazol-3-yl)-2-methoxy phenol derivatives (
This research represents a practical attempt applied to calibrate and verify a hydraulic model for the Blue Nile River. The calibration procedures are performed using the observed data for a previous period and comparing them with the calibration results while verification requirements are achieved with the application of the observed data for another future period and comparing them with the verification results. The study objective covered a relationship of the river terrain with the distance between the assumed points of the dam failures along the river length. The computed model values and the observed data should conform to the theoretical analysis and the overall verification performance of the model by comparing i
... Show MoreThe current study focuses on utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to identify the optimal locations of production wells and types for achieving the production company’s primary objective, which is to increase oil production from the Sa’di carbonate reservoir of the Halfaya oil field in southeast Iraq, with the determination of the optimal scenario of various designs for production wells, which include vertical, horizontal, multi-horizontal, and fishbone lateral wells, for all reservoir production layers. Artificial neural network tool was used to identify the optimal locations for obtaining the highest production from the reservoir layers and the optimal well type. Fo