Background: Legionella pneumophila (L. pneumophila) is gram-negative bacterium, which causes Legionnaires’ disease as well as Pontiac fever. Objective: To determine the frequency of Legionella pneumophila in pneumonic patients, to determine the clinical utility of diagnosing Legionella pneumonia by urinary antigen testing (LPUAT) in terms of sensitivity and specificity, to compares the results obtained from patients by urinary antigen test with q Real Time PCR (RT PCR) using serum samples and to determine the frequency of serogroup 1 and other serogroups of L. pneumophila. Methods: A total of 100 pneumonic patients (community acquired pneumonia) were enrolled in this study during a period between October 2016 to April 2017; 92 samples were collected from patients attended and admitted to Al-Imamein Al-Kadhimein Medical City and 8 samples from those in the (Center of Kidney Diseases and Transplantation) in the Medical City of Baghdad. All patients were under therapy with antibiotics. Serum and urine specimens were obtained from all patients; urine samples were processed for urinary antigen test (rapid test). Serum samples were collected and submitted to DNA extraction for detection of L. pneumophila mip gene by q RT PCR assay. Results: The percentage of L. pneumophila in two hospitals in Bagdad was 30%. Of these 26% was serogroup 1 detected by urinary antigen testing (UAT). In the other hand, 23% of samples were positive by q RT PCR based mip gene, of these 19 % were serogroup 1 and 4% were another serogroup. The sensitivity of UAT is high (P value < 0.001), which means statistically highly significance than q RT PCR. Conclusion: LPUAT is a rapid tool for early diagnosis of Legionella infection, which highlights the need of using this test in hospitals and health institutions and there is a high prevalence of L. pneumophila in Iraq that refer to the necessity of considering this microorganism point of view in future studies for detection and treatment in pneumonic patients. Keywords: L. pneumophila, mip gene, quantitative real time PCR, urinary antigen. Citation: Gauad SA, Abdulrahman TR, Muhamad AK, Jawad AA, Hassan JS. Clinical utility of urinary antigen test and molecular method for detection of Legionella pneumophila. Iraqi JMS. 2018; 16(2): 207-215. doi: 10.22578/IJMS.16.2.13
The main aim of this study was to molecular identification and determine the antagonistic impact of rhizosphere Trichoderma spp. against some phytopathogenic fungi, including (Magnaporthe grisea) pyricularia oryzae, Rhizoctonia solani and Macrophomina phasolina. Four Trichoderma isolates were isolated from rhizosphere soils of the different host plants in different locations of Egyptian governorates. The morphological characterization of isolated Trichoderma as well as using of (ITS1-5.8S-ITS2) ribosomal gene sequence acquisition and data analyses. By comparing the results of DNA sequences of ITS region, the fungi represented one isolate were positively identified as T. asperellum (1 isolate T1) and one as T. longibrachiatum (1 isolate T2)
... Show MoreThe pandemic SARS-CoV-2 is highly transmittable with its proliferation among nations. This study aims to design and exploring the efficacy of novel nirmatrelvir derivatives as SARS entry inhibitors by adapting a molecular modeling approach combined with theoretical design. The study focuses on the preparation of these derivatives and understanding their effectiveness, with a special focus on their binding affinity to the S protein, which is pivotal for the virus’s access to the host cell. Considering molecular docking aspects in the scope of a study on nirmatrelvir derivatives and S protein, dynamics simulations with 25 nanoseconds of their binding are explored. The study shows that these derivatives might work as effective antivi
... Show MoreIn this paper we proposed a new method for selecting a smoothing parameter in kernel estimator to estimate a nonparametric regression function in the presence of missing values. The proposed method is based on work on the golden ratio and Surah AL-E-Imran in the Qur'an. Simulation experiments were conducted to study a small sample behavior. The results proved the superiority the proposed on the competition method for selecting smoothing parameter.
In this paper, a method based on modified adomian decomposition method for solving Seventh order integro-differential equations (MADM). The distinctive feature of the method is that it can be used to find the analytic solution without transformation of boundary value problems. To test the efficiency of the method presented two examples are solved by proposed method.
The aim of this paper is to propose a reliable iterative method for resolving many types of Volterra - Fredholm Integro - Differential Equations of the second kind with initial conditions. The series solutions of the problems under consideration are obtained by means of the iterative method. Four various problems are resolved with high accuracy to make evident the enforcement of the iterative method on such type of integro differential equations. Results were compared with the exact solution which exhibits that this technique was compatible with the right solutions, simple, effective and easy for solving such problems. To evaluate the results in an iterative process the MATLAB is used as a math program for the calculations.
Terrestrial laser scanners (TLSs) are 3D imaging systems that provide the most powerful 3D representation and practical solutions for various applications. Hence this is due to effective range measurements, 3D point cloud reliability, and rapid acquisition performance. Stonex X300 TOF scanner delivered better certainty in far-range than in close-range measurements due to the high noise level inherent within the data delivered from Time of Flight (TOF) scanning sensors. However, if these errors are manipulated properly using a valid calibration model, more accurate products can be obtained even from very close-range measurements. Therefore, to fill this gap, this research presents a user-oriented target-based calibration routine to
... Show MoreAn Alternating Directions Implicit method is presented to solve the homogeneous heat diffusion equation when the governing equation is a bi-harmonic equation (X) based on Alternative Direction Implicit (ADI). Numerical results are compared with other results obtained by other numerical (explicit and implicit) methods. We apply these methods it two examples (X): the first one, we apply explicit when the temperature .