This study investigated the prevalence of oqxA and oqxB genes and their effective roles in the development of multidrug resistant (MDR) phenotype among clinical isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae. Out of 150 clinical samples, 50 (33%) isolates were recognized as K. pneumoniae according to the morphological and biochemical properties. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) assay revealed that the resistance values of the isolates were 43 (86%) against ceftriaxone (4- ≥64 µg/ml), 42 (84%) against ceftazidime (16- ≥64 µg/ml), 41 (82%) against cefepime (≥16 µg/ml), 21 (42%) against ertapenem (≥8 µg/ml), 18 (36%) against imipenem (4- ≥16 µg/ml), 15 (30%) aga

Background: Traumatic ulcerative granuloma with stromal eosinophilia is an impressive benign chronic ulcerative lesion of the oral mucosa with vague etiopathogenesis. It was supposed to represent an oral counterpart of primary cutaneous CD30+ lymphoproliferative disorder. Histopathologically, it is characterized by mixed inflammatory infiltrate predominated by histiocytes, lymphocytes and eosinophils along with presence of scattered large atypical mononuclear cells. It has worrisome clinical presentation. It may heal spontaneously, but in most occasions it persists and never heal unless removed surgically (incisional or excisional biopsy). A rare subset may show worrisome immunohistochemical features. Follow up is highly recommended. Mat

Groupwise non-rigid image alignment is a difficult non-linear optimization problem involving many parameters and often large datasets. Previous methods have explored various metrics and optimization strategies. Good results have been previously achieved with simple metrics, requiring complex optimization, often with many unintuitive parameters that require careful tuning for each dataset. In this chapter, the problem is restructured to use a simpler, iterative optimization algorithm, with very few free parameters. The warps are refined using an iterative Levenberg-Marquardt minimization to the mean, based on updating the locations of a small number of points and incorporating a stiffness constraint. This optimization approach is eff

In this paper, we study the effects of coherent and incoherent illumination on the optical imaging system. The effects were studied qualitatively in terms of Point Spread Function (PSF) and Modulation Transfer Function (MTF), and quantitatively in terms of Root Mean Square Error (RMSE). Different values of radius of aperture were investigated in the presence and absence of spherical aberration with various magnitudes of spherical aberration (M=1, 2, and 3). The experiments were performed using homogeneous media.

     The results show that imaging with incoherent illumination is better than imaging with coherent illumination, especially for small aperture. Also, we found that the effects of spherical aberration

Background: Eucalyptus extracts and derivatives are natural substances with potent antimicrobial properties. This study investigated the in- vitro effects of non-nutritive sweeteners on the antifungal activity of alcoholic and aqueous Eucalyptus extracts against Candida albicans, a common oral pathogen. Materials and Method: Ten isolates of Candida albicans were isolated from dental students’ salivary samples. The alcoholic and aqueous extracts were prepared from fresh Eucalyptus leaves using maceration. The sensitivity of Candida albicans isolates to various concentrations of Eucalyptus extracts ranging from 50 to 250 (mg/mL) was evaluated via agar well diffusion method, while the agar streaking method  was used to assess the minimum

Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) antagonists’ therapy are expensive and has a non-responsive rate between 30% to 40% in rheumatoid arthritis patients. Genetic variation plays a vital role in the responsiveness to this type of therapy.The aim of this study is to investigate if the presence of genetic polymorphism in the TNF-α gene promoter region at locations -376 G/A (rs1800750), -806 C/T (rs4248158), and -1031 T/C (rs1799964) affects rheumatoid arthritis patient's tendency to be a non-responder to etanercept.

Eighty RA patients on etanercept (ETN) for at least six months were recruited from the Rheumatology Unit at Baghdad Teaching Hospital. Based on The European League Against Rheumatism response (EULAR) criteria, patient

Almost all thermal systems utilize some type of heat exchanger. In a lot of cases, evaporators are important for systems like organic Rankine cycle systems. Evaporators give a share in a large portion of the capital cost, and their cost is significantly attached to their size or transfer area. Open-cell metal foams with high porosity are taken into consideration to enhance thermal performance without increase the size of heat exchangers. Numerous researchers have tried to find a representation of the temperature distribution closer to reality due to the different properties between the liquid and solid phases. Evaporation heat transfer in an annular pipe of double pipe heat exchanger (DPHEX) filled with cooper foam is investigated numerical

Background: This study aimed to examine the efficacy of methylene blue (MB) and toluidine blue O (TBO) photodynamic therapy (PDT) as adjuncts to root surface debridement (RSD). Methods: This split-mouth, randomized, controlled clinical trial included eighteen patients, and a total of 332 sites (control = 102, MB = 124 and TBO = 106) were examined. Two sessions of PDT were completed at baseline and two weeks after RSD. Clinical parameters of bleeding on probing (BOP), plaque index (PI), probing pocket depth (PPD), and clinical attachment level (CAL) were measured pre- and post-treatment. Results: PPD and BOP reductions in sites treated by RSD with adjunctive photosensitizers (MB and TBO) were significantly higher than in control site

Each Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) plan needs to be tested and verified before any treatment to check its quality. Octavius 4D-1500 phantom detector is a modern and qualified device for quality assurance procedure. This study aims to compare the common dosimetric criteria 3%/3 mm with 2%/2 mm for H&N plans for the IMRT technique. Twenty-five patients with head and neck (H&N) tumor were with 6MV x-ray photon beam using Monaco 5.1 treatment planning software and exported to Elekta synergy linear accelerator then tested for pretreatment verification study using Octavius 4D-1500 phantom detector. The difference between planned and measured dose were assessed by using local and global gamma index (GI) analysis method at

From 50 stool samples collected from children with diarrhea of both sexes who visited various hospitals in Baghdad, 26 isolates of E.coli were found to belong to the phylogenetic group E. The findings revealed that the percentage of E.coli for thephylogenetic group E is (52%) , making it the dominant group among the other phylogenetic groups. The findings demonstrated that 100% of the E.coli isolates from phylogenetic group E are resistant to penicillin, and only 15% are resistant to imipenem. Multi-drug resistance (MDR) was found to be 15%, while XDR reached 85%. The results of thephylogenetic group for the remaining species of isolates in this study were group A (2/50 and by 4%), gr