Background: Mobile phones are approximately widely used everywhere like in hospital wards, clinics and universities as well as biomedical laboratories. They have become very important tool in students’ life. In contrast, these tools carry many harmful bacteria which are responsible for infectious diseases in human because they serve as a reservoir for different pathogens. Current study was aimed to isolate bacteria from students’ mobile phones at the Institute of Medical Technology/Al-Mansour/The Middle Technical University, Baghdad, Iraq. Also, the study investigated microbial resistance to many antimicrobial agents as well as the appropriate remedial measures. Method: Four hundred and fifty swabs from mobile phones were collected from 450 students (271 males and 179 females). Their age range was (17-30) years. Swabs were collected from students during March 2018. Results: Out of the 450 swabs, 150(33.33%) swabs were positive. The percentages of the isolated bacteria according to gender were 53.33%(80 isolates) from males’ mobile phones and 46.66%(70 isolates) from females’ mobile phones. The most frequent Gram-positive bacteria isolated were Staphylococcus aureus (50%) followed by S. epidermidis (20%), whereas Gram-negative bacteria isolated were Escherichia coli (6.0%), Proteus mirabilis (2.66%), Proteus vulgaris (2.66%) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (2.66%). The isolated bacteria showed variable antimicrobial sensitivity patterns for different antibiotics. Most S. aureus isolates were resistant to Cefotaxime, Gentamycin, Amoxicillin, Ciprofloxacin and Augmentin, whereas other isolated species showed the highest resistance to many antibiotics of interest. The isolates of Micrococcus spp. were sensitive to all the studied antibiotics except Tetracycline and Fucidic acid. Conclusion: The present findings indicated that contaminated students’ mobile phones could serve as reservoirs of bacterial agents. Also, most of the latter were resistant to many commonly prescribed antimicrobial agents.
Background: Strangles is a highly contagious equine respiratory disease caused by Streptococcus equi subsp. equi. It is a globally significant pathogen and one of the most common infectious agents in horses. In Iraq, no sequencing data on this pathogen are available, and only two molecular studies have been published to date. This study provides preliminary insights into strain diversity and provides a foundation for future large-scale investigations. Aim: This study aimed to investigate the molecular characteristics, identify SeM gene alleles, and perform a phylogenetic analysis of S. equi isolates from horses in Baghdad, Iraq. Methods: We analyzed 59 Streptococcus spp. isolates previously obtained from equine clinical sample
... Show MoreThe Weibull distribution is considered one of the Type-I Generalized Extreme Value (GEV) distribution, and it plays a crucial role in modeling extreme events in various fields, such as hydrology, finance, and environmental sciences. Bayesian methods play a strong, decisive role in estimating the parameters of the GEV distribution due to their ability to incorporate prior knowledge and handle small sample sizes effectively. In this research, we compare several shrinkage Bayesian estimation methods based on the squared error and the linear exponential loss functions. They were adopted and compared by the Monte Carlo simulation method. The performance of these methods is assessed based on their accuracy and computational efficiency in estimati
... Show MoreOff-nucleus isotropic magnetic shielding (σiso(r)) and multi-points nucleus independent chemical shift (NICS(0-2 Å)) index were utilized to find the impacts of the isomerization of gas-phase furfuraldehyde (FD) on bonding and aromaticity of FD. Multidimensional (1D to 3D) grids of ghost atoms (bqs) were used as local magnetic probes to evaluate σiso(r) through gauge-including atomic orbitals (GIAO) at density functional theory (DFT) and B3LYP functional/6-311+G(d,p) basis set level of theory. 1D σiso(r) responses along each bond of FD were examined. Also, a σiso(r) 2D-scan was performed to obtain σiso(r) behavior at vertical heights of 0–1 Å above the FD plane in its cis, transition state (TS) and trans forms. New techniques fo
... Show MoreThe present study was conducted to estimate the antimicrobial activity and the potential biological control of the killer toxin produced by
Al-Huweizah Marsh is considered as the largest in Iraq. This research aims to maintain thesustainability of Al-Huweizah Marsh under all circumstances and within the limits of the
available natural resources from the Iraqi side and the absence of feeding from the Iranian sidedue to the recent Iranian separation dike along the international boundaries within the marsh.
Twelve scenarios have been suggested as a first step to restore the whole marsh. But the
uncontrolled Iranian feeders and exiguity of their discharges recently, it was necessary to studyonly the northern part of the marsh as an alternative case to ensure reasonable amounts of waterfor the purpose of maintaining and restore the marsh. Hydrological routing model was
A one-dimensional hydraulic model was conducted to simulate the flow in Diyala River. The research aims to study the flow capacity along Diyala River and especially concerning on reach of the river within Baqubah City during flood seasons by using HEC-RAS, 5.07 software. Moreover, specifying the hydraulic problems and then the necessary treatments to overcome them were suggested. A 190 km length of the reach of Diyala River was included in this study, starts from Diyala submerged weir to the confluence of Diyala-Tigris River south of Baghdad City. Good agreement resulted between the measured and the simulation results with a determination coefficient (R2) value of 0.84 with Manning Co
Diabetic mellitus is one of the main risk factors of fungal infections because poor glycemic control is associated with a high level of glucose in blood and saliva which could be treated as nutrient to fungi. This study aimed to isolate and identification of pathogenic fungi from diabetic patient. 140 samples were taken from different places of human body from the national center of diabetic patients that related to Mustansiriyah University / college of medicine and Al-yarmuk Hospital in Baghdad. 84 sample (60%) tested positive to fungi and 56 sample (40%) tested negative to fungi. The most frequented fungi isolated have been chosen for molecular identification by PCR (Millerozyma farinosa and Candida orthopsilosis) using specific pri
... Show MoreMany studies have recommended implying the skills and strategies of creative thinking, critical thinking, and reflective thinking in EFLT curriculum to overcome EFL teaching-learning process difficulties. It is really necessary to make EFL teachers aware of the importance of cultural thinking and have a high perception of its forces. Culture of thinking consists of eight cultural forces in every learning situation; it helps to shape the group's cultural dynamic. These forces are expectations, language, time, modeling, opportunities, routines, interactions, and environment. This study aims to investigate EFL student-teachers’ perceptions of cultural thinking. The participants are selected randomly from the fourth-stage students at
... Show MoreMany studies have recommended implying the skills and strategies of creative thinking, critical thinking, and reflective thinking in EFLT curriculum to overcome EFL teaching-learning process difficulties. It is really necessary to make EFL teachers aware of the importance of cultural thinking and have a high perception of its forces. Culture of thinking consists of eight cultural forces in every learning situation; it helps to shape the group's cultural dynamic. These forces are expectations, language, time, modeling, opportunities, routines, interactions, and environment. This study aims to investigate EFL student-teachers’ perceptions of cultural thinking. The participants are selected randomly from the fourth-stage students at the D
... Show MoreIn this paper, An application of non-additive measures for re-evaluating the degree of importance of some student failure reasons has been discussed. We apply non-additive fuzzy integral model (Sugeno, Shilkret and Choquet) integrals for some expected factors which effect student examination performance for different students' cases.