Mycobacterium tuberculosis resistance to rifampicin is mainly mediated through mutations in the rpoB gene. The effects of rpoB mutations are relieved by secondary mutations in rpoA or rpoC genes. This study aims to identify mutations in rpoB, rpoA, and rpoC genes of Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates and clarify their contribution to rifampicin resistance. Seventy isolates were identified by acid-fast bacilli smear, Genexpert assay, and growth on Lowenstein Jensen medium. Drug susceptibility, testing was performed by the proportional method.  DNA extraction, PCR, and sequencing were accomplished for the entire rpoA, rpoB, and

Copper with different concentrations doped with zinc oxide nanoparticles were prepared from a mixture of zinc acetate and copper acetate with sodium hydroxide in aqueous solution. The structure of the prepared samples was done by X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy (AFM) and UV-VIS absorption spectrophotometer. Debye-Scherer formula was used to calculate the size of the prepared samples. The band gap of the nanoparticle ZnO was determined by using UV-VIS optical spectroscopy.

Two modes of electrochemical harvesting for microalgae were investigated in the current work. A sacrificial anode (aluminum) was used to study the electrocoagulation-flotation process, and a nonsacrificial anode (graphite) was used to investigate the electroflotation process. The study inspected the effect of chloride ions concentration and the interelectrode distance on the performance of the electrochemical harvesting processes. The results demonstrated that both electrodes achieved maximum harvesting efficiency with a 2 g/L NaCl concentration. Interestingly, by increasing the NaCl concentration to 5 g/L, the harvesting efficiency reduced dramatically to its lowest value. Generally, the energy consumption decreased with increasing

Risks are confronting the foundations of buildings and structures when exposed to earthquakes which leads to high displacements that may cause the failure of the structures. This research elaborates numerically the effect of the earthquake on the vertical and lateral displacement of footing resting on the soil. The thickness of the footing and depth of soil layer below the footing was taken as (0.5, 1.0, and 2.0 m) and (10, 20 and 40m), respectively. The stiffness ratio of soil to footing was also elaborated at 0.68, 0.8, 1.0, and 1.7. The results showed an increase in the verticle displacement of footing as the duration of the earthquake increases. The increase of soil layer thickness below the footing leads to a reduction in the vertical

Screw piles are widely used in supporting structures subjected to pullout forces, such as power towers and offshore structures, and this research investigates their performance in gypseous soil of medium relative density. The bearing capacity and displacement of a single screw pile model inserted in gypseous soil with various diameters (D = 20, 30, and 40) mm are examined in this study. The soil used in the testing had a gypsum content of 40% and the bedding soil had a relative density of 40%. To simulate the pullout testing in the lab, a physical model was manufactured with specific dimensions. Three steel screw piles with helix diameters of 20, 30, and 40 mm are used, with a total length of 500 mm. The helix is continuous over the

In recent years, Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are attracting more attention in many fields as they are extensively used in a wide range of applications, such as environment monitoring, the Internet of Things, industrial operation control, electric distribution, and the oil industry. One of the major concerns in these networks is the limited energy sources. Clustering and routing algorithms represent one of the critical issues that directly contribute to power consumption in WSNs. Therefore, optimization techniques and routing protocols for such networks have to be studied and developed. This paper focuses on the most recent studies and algorithms that handle energy-efficiency clustering and routing in WSNs. In addition, the prime