Quorum sensing (QS) is a perfectly orchestrated molecular communication system. It is a boon for Klebsiella pneumoniae, and bane for the host. This system is believed to make K. pneumoniae a leading cause of multidrug-resistant (MDR) nosocomial infections. This study aimed to investigate the antibacterial and anti-biofilm potential of medicinal plant extracts through interfering with QS of K. pneumoniae. The effect of different concentrations of ethanolic extracts of cinnamon and clove on K. pneumoniae was determined by analyzing the growth curve, survival assay (MTT), Qualitative and quantitative biofilm formation, antibiotic resistance, along with studying gene expression of the genes encoding the above traits, using quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The low concentrations of the plant extracts did not affect neither on the bacterial growth, nor on the viability of K. pneumoniae, supported with growth curves. Additionally, the biofilm production was inhibited even by lower plant concentrations, and both cinnamon and clove extracts were able to render the MDR bacteria to be more susceptible to antibiotics. At the molecular levels, the bacterium treated with either clove or cinnamon or in combination showed under expression of the biofilm formation regulation gene (bssS), the carbapenem resistance gene (bla), as well as the QS target gene (LuxS). Both clove and cinnamon ethanolic extracts exerted potent impacts on reducing pathogenic traits regulated by QS in K. pneumoniae. Finally, the study recommends further exploration of clove and cinnamon extracts separately or in combination to develop alternative therapies against MDR K. pneumoniae infections.
Arabic text categorization for pattern recognitions is challenging. We propose for the first time a novel holistic method based on clustering for classifying Arabic writer. The categorization is accomplished stage-wise. Firstly, these document images are sectioned into lines, words, and characters. Secondly, their structural and statistical features are obtained from sectioned portions. Thirdly, F-Measure is used to evaluate the performance of the extracted features and their combination in different linkage methods for each distance measures and different numbers of groups. Finally, experiments are conducted on the standard KHATT dataset of Arabic handwritten text comprised of varying samples from 1000 writers. The results in the generatio
... Show MorePropranolol is a nonselective-adrenergic blocker used in the treatment of hypertension, cardiac arrhythmias, and angina pectoris. A significant problem in propranolol therapy is that it undergoes extensive presystemic metabolism after oral administration leading to reduced bioavailability. In this study, two new propranolol derivatives have been designed, synthesized and characterized. These compounds were formed by acylation of propranolol followed by nucleophilic substitution reaction of acylated propranolol, these derivatives were analyzed for IR, CHN, melting points, and evaluated for their lipophilic properties compared with propranolol. The lower partition coefficient of these two derivatives revealed that the prodrug approach may be
... Show MoreIn this study multi objective optimization is utilized to optimize a turning operation to reveal the appropriate level of process features. The goal of this work is to evaluate the optimal combination of cutting parameters like feed, spindle speed, inclination angle and workpiece material to have a best surface quality Taguchi technique L9 mixed orthogonal array, has been adopted to optimize the roughness of surface. Three rods of length around (200 mm) for the three metals are used for this work. Each rod is divided into three parts with 50 mm length. For brass the optimum parametric mix for minimum Ra is A1, B1 and C3, i.e., at tool inclination angle (5), feedrate of 0.01, spindle speed of 120
... Show MoreIn this work chemical vapor deposition method (CVD) for the production of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been improved by the addition of S. Steel mesh container (SSMC) inside which the catalyst (Fe/Al2O3) was placed. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) investigation method used to study nanotubes produced, showed that high yield of two types of (CNTs) obtained, single wall carbon nanotube (SWCNTs) with diameter and length of less than 50nm and several micrometers respectively and nanocoil tubes with a diameter and length of less than 100nm and several micrometers respectively. The chemical analysis of (CNTs) reveals that the main component is carbon (94%) and a little amount of Al (0.32%), Fe (2.22%) the reminder is oxygen. It was also fou
... Show MoreIn this work the structural, optical and sensitive properties of Cerium - Copper oxide thin film prepared on silicon and glass substrate by the spray pyrolysis technique at a temperature of (200, 250, 300 °C). The results of (XRD) showed that all the prepared films were of a polycrystalline installation and monoclinic crystal structure with a preferable directions was (111) of CuO. Optical characteristics observed that the absorption coefficient has values for all the prepared CuO: Ce% (104 cm-1) in the visible spectrum, indicating that all the thin films prepared have a direct energy gap. Been fabrication of gas sensors of (CuO: Ce %) within optimum preparation conditions and study sensitivity properties were examined her exposed to ni
... Show MoreFlexible paving is the most popular type of paving used in road building and one of the biggest problems facing the world's paving business is the rising demand for scarce natural resources. Uncontrolled. Numerous studies have shown that secondary materials reduce the need for traditional materials, offer efficient waste disposal technology and lower the overall cost of paving. The current study aimed to evaluate the efficiency of both fibers and dust on the sustainability and cost of flexible pavement by studying each of polyester fibers as a waste of the textile industry and fibers or rubber particles as one of the rubber waste products, in addition to studying the efficiency of using cement dust and marble dust on the paving proc
... Show MoreA number of glow discharge experiments has been carried out in a relatively large-volume metallic vacuum chamber containing argon at low pressure and immersed in an inhomogeneous magnetic field generated by a solenoidal coil capable of delivering 2100G. Two Paschen curves demonstrating the dependence of the discharge voltage on sparking parameter Pd and magnetic field strength B were deduced. A graphical correlation showing the behaviour of the voltage difference from the two curves on the ratio B/Pd was constructed. Investigations showed a reduction in the nominal impedance of the discharge device of nearly 20% when B reaches a value of 525G. Plasma confinement regions were found around the internal surface of the chamber at the entranc
... Show MoreFormation of emulsions during oil production is a costly problem, and decreased water content in emulsions leads to increases productivity and reduces the potential for pipeline corrosion and equipment used. The chemical demulsification process of crude oil emulsions is one of the methods used for reducing water content. The demulsifier presence causes the film layer between water droplets and the crude oil emulsion that to become unstable, leading to the accelerated of water coalescence. This research was performed to study the performance of a chemical demulsifier Chimec2439 (commercial) a blend of non-ionic oil-soluble surfactants. The crude oils used in these experiments were Basrah and Kirkuk Iraqi crude oil. These
... Show MoreThe alloys of CdSe1-xTex compound have been prepared from their elements successfully with high purity (99.9999%) which mixed stoichiometry ratio (x=0.0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75 and 1.0) of (Cd, Se and Te) elements. Films of CdSe1-xTex alloys for different values of composition with thickness(0.5?m) have been prepared by thermal evaporation method at cleaned glass substrates which heated at (473K) under very low pressure (4×10-5mbar) at rate of deposition (3A?/s), after that thin films have been heat treated under low pressure (10-2mbar) at (523K) for two hours. The optical studies revealed that the absorption coefficient (?) is fairly high. It is found that the electronic transitions in the fundamental absorption edge tend to be allowed direct tr
... Show MoreIn this paper a decoder of binary BCH code is implemented using a PIC microcontroller for code length n=127 bits with multiple error correction capability, the results are presented for correcting errors up to 13 errors. The Berkelam-Massey decoding algorithm was chosen for its efficiency. The microcontroller PIC18f45k22 was chosen for the implementation and programmed using assembly language to achieve highest performance. This makes the BCH decoder implementable as a low cost module that can be used as a part of larger systems. The performance evaluation is presented in terms of total number of instructions and the bit rate.