This study aimed to evaluate the occurrence of microbial contamination in food keeping freezers in some local markets in Baghdad city/ Iraq, as well as the contamination of the hands of workers in markets, and the possibility of contamination caused by the transport of food. 30 samples of snow ice found in food keeping freezers in local markets was randomly collected, and 30 swabs from workers hands were taken from the same markets at the same time. Microbiological examination of ice samples was conducted as well as the hands of workers’swabs, and the bacteria were isolated and diagnosed through microbiological and biochemical tests followed. Microbial test results showed some isolates of bacteria in ice samples obtained from food keep

Prodigiosin is a ‘natural red pigment produced by Serratia marcescens which exhibits immunosuppressive and anticancer properties in addition to antimicrobial activities. This work presents an attempt to maximize the production of prodigiosin by two different strategies: one factor at time (OFAT) and statistical optimization. The result of OFAT revealed that sucrose and peptone were the best carbon and nitrogen sources for pigment production with concentration of prodigiosin of about 135 mg/ L. This value was increased to 331.6mg/ L with an optimized ratio of C/N (60:40) and reached 356.8 with pH 6 and 2% inoculum size at end of classical optimization. Statistical experimental design based on Response surface methodology was co

In this article, the high accuracy and effectiveness of forecasting global gold prices are verified using a hybrid machine learning algorithm incorporating an Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) model with Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Gray Wolf Optimizer (GWO). The hybrid approach had successes that enabled it to be a good strategy for practical use. The ARIMA-ANFIS hybrid methodology was used to forecast global gold prices. The ARIMA model is implemented on real data, and then its nonlinear residuals are predicted by ANFIS, ANFIS-PSO, and ANFIS-GWO. The results indicate that hybrid models improve the accuracy of single ARIMA and ANFIS models in forecasting. Finally, a comparison was made between the hybrid foreca

The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is commonly used as a measure of land surface greenness based on the assumption that NDVI value is positively proportional to the amount of green vegetation in an image pixel area. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index data set of Landsat based on the remote sensing information is used to estimate the area of plant cover in region west of Baghdad during 1990-2001. The results show that in the period of 1990 and 2001 the plant area in region of Baghdad increased from (44760.25) hectare to (75410.67) hectare. The vegetation area increased during the period 1990-2001, and decreases the exposed area.

This research aims to examine the relationship between hydrothermal alteration and mineralization (ore mineralogy) in the study area and geological structures in the deformation mechanism. The hydrothermal alteration was determined based on petrographic analysis, and ore mineralogy which was determined based on the ore microscopic analysis. The deformation mechanism is determined by paleo stress analysis using win-tensor, and the direction of principal stress on joints/veins and faults is calculated by the right-dihedron method. Hydrothermal alteration includes silicification, argillic, propylitic, and phyllic alterations; and ore mineralogy consists of stibnite, cinnabar, pyrite, chalcopyrite, sphalerite, covellite, hematite, and a

Despite the G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) being the largest family of signalling proteins at the surface of cells, their potential to be targeted in cancer therapy is still under-utilised. This review highlights the contribution of these receptors to the process of oncogenesis and points to some likely challenges that might be encountered in targeting them. GPCR-signalling pathways are often complex and can be tissue-specific. Cancer cells hijack these communication networks to their proliferative advantage. The role of selected GPCRs in the different hallmarks of cancer is examined to highlight the complexity of targeting these receptors for therapeutic benefit. Our

Dermatophytes are species with slight genetic variation, and are yet several uncertainties about the differences among species. This study aims to isolate and diagnose the Trichophyton interdigitale by molecular technique and to reveal the phylogenetic distance and similarity of the Iraqi isolates to other isolates from the globe, in addition, to submit the obtained sequences to the NCBI database. This study included 86 with multiple lesions on different parts of the body. The results showed different variations within the ITS gene between the isolates. It was concluded that Trichophyton interdigitale in Iraqi isolates had two types of substitution variations (Transition and Transversion) different than global isolates. Moreover, it

Coagulation is the most important process in drinking water treatment. Alum coagulant increases the aluminum residuals, which have been linked in many studies to Alzheimer's disease. Therefore, it is very important to use it with the very optimal dose. In this paper, four sets of experiments were done to determine the relationship between raw water characteristics: turbidity, pH, alkalinity, temperature, and optimum doses of alum [   .14 O] to form a mathematical equation that could replace the need for jar test experiments. The experiments were performed under different conditions and under different seasonal circumstances. The optimal dose in every set was determined, and used to build a gene expression model (GEP). The models were co