Antibiotic resistance increment is a major problem for the human society nowadays which encourages the efforts to look for new therapeutic alternatives from natural defenses. Synergistic antibacterial activity of epidermin and staphylolysin LasA A against Staphylococcus aureus (Staph aureus), Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Ps. aeruginosa) was evaluated. The antibacterial activities of epidermin from Staphylococcus epidermidis (Staph epidermidis) and Staphylolysin (LasA) from Ps. aeruginosa using the agar well diffusion assay were evaluated, and then using the micro dilution method to evaluate the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and the minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC). The checkerboard method and fractional inhibitory concentration (FIC) were used to evaluate the combination between epidermin and LasA toward targeted clinical isolates of Staph aureus, E. coli and Ps. aeruginosa. The results revealed a synergistic effect between epidermin and LasA on all clinical isolates growth. The highest MIC and MBC of epidermin were 36.04 µL/mL and 51.73 µL/mL against Staph aureus; meanwhile, the highest MIC and MBC of LasA were 44.38 µL/mL and 50 µL/mL against Staph aureus. The FICindex revealed synergistic interactions in combination of epidermin and LasA which recorded 0.286 for Staph aureus while for E. coli was 0.327 and for Ps. aeruginosa was 0.390 respectively showing a synergism effect. This study finds that combination of epidermin with LasA had inhibitory activity on the targeted clinical isolate growth, which can be useful for designing and developing alternative therapeutic strategies against pathogens causing wound and burn infections.
Background: A carefully planned clinical medical education is critical for the provision of supportive clinical educational environment. The latter will ensure effective teaching, active learning and good attitudes and performance at the bedside. The aim of this study was to evaluate clinical learning environment at AL-Diwaniyah Teaching Hospital. Materials and Methods: A descripitive cross-sectional study involved resident doctors from Internal Medicine and Surgery departments who had six months or more residency training in the respective departments. Data were collected using the Postgraduate Hospital Educational Environment Measure. Data where analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 21.0 and presented us
... Show MoreA mixture model is used to model data that come from more than one component. In recent years, it became an effective tool in drawing inferences about the complex data that we might come across in real life. Moreover, it can represent a tremendous confirmatory tool in classification observations based on similarities amongst them. In this paper, several mixture regression-based methods were conducted under the assumption that the data come from a finite number of components. A comparison of these methods has been made according to their results in estimating component parameters. Also, observation membership has been inferred and assessed for these methods. The results showed that the flexible mixture model outperformed the
... Show MoreThe purpose of this study is designate quenching and tempering heat treatment by using Taguchi technique to determine optimal factors of heat treatment (austenitizing temperature, percentage of nanoparticles, type of base media, nanoparticles type and soaking time) for increasing hardness, wear rate and impact energy properties of 420 martensitic stainless steel. An (L18) orthogonal array was chosen for the design of experiment. The optimum process parameters were determined by using signal-to-noise ratio (larger is better) criterion for hardness and impact energy while (Smaller is better) criterion was for the wear rate. The importance levels of process parameters that effect on hardness, wear rate and impact energy propertie
... Show MoreReligion in its general and simplified form is defined as a set of values or moral laws, which include provisions that people should follow to organize their affairs and ratify that they are provisions sent from the divine.
The concept of religion is not limited to the narrower sense represented by the performance of the virtual rituals of worship and religious fashions, etc., but also includes all the moral and spiritual values, conduct and good dealing that reflect the true essence of religion, which boils down to a set of values – such as sincerity, honesty and dedication to work, merciful dealing and compassion, etc. All religions agree on the moral content of religion. The Prophet of Is
... Show MoreFrequently, load associated mode of failure, rutting and fatigue, are the main failure types found in some newly constructed roads within Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, and some suburban areas. The use of excessive amount of natural sand in asphalt concrete mixes which is attractive to local contractors could be one of the possible causes to the lack of strength properties of the mixes resulting in frustration in the pavement performance. In this study, the performance properties of asphalt concrete mixes with two natural sand types, desert and river sands, were evaluated. Moreover, five replacement rates of 0, 25, 50, 75, and 100% by weight of the fine aggregate finer than 4.75 were used. The performance properties including moisture susc
... Show MoreHerpes labialis is an infection caused by the herpes simplex virus, characterized by an eruption of small and usually painful blisters on the skin of the lips, mouth, gums, or the skin around the mouth. Although there is no successful treatment available, the local use of compounds with effective anti-inflammatory and cytoprotective effects may be of value in this respect. This project was designed to evaluate clinically the local use of silymarin, a group of flavonoids with powerful antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and cytoprotective activity, in the treatment of herpes simplex ulcer. Fifty three patients with herpes labialis ulcers (HLU) were enrolled in this randomized, single blinded, placebo controlled clinical study, and they were al
... Show MoreThe aim of this paper is to determine the role of job engagement in the Iraqi Residency Affairs Directorate and its impact on employees, as the job engagement variable based on the Rich’s model included dimensions of cognitive engagement, emotional engagement and physical engagement. This variable has been studied in the Directorate of Residence Affairs which are one of the specialized directorates in the Iraqi Ministry of Interior. This study relied on a questionnaire as a main tool for measuring and collecting data based on the random sampling method . The sample size included 206 individuals among 400 individuals. However, the respondents were 190 whereas the final
... Show MoreCeramic to metal joining technique, which was used in this investigation includes the use of active filler alloy as a sandwich between the alumina and kovar alloy for brazing. High purity powdered metals of silver, copper, and additives of titanium were used to prepare the active filler alloy, through compacting the mixed powders and alloying in a furnace with argon atmosphere at the temperature of 800oC for 10 minutes. To use it as an active filler metal, it has been modified to a proper thickness. Two groups of alumina were prepared with different sintering temperatures (1450oC and 1650oC) and each group was tested under atmospheric pressure, vacuum furnace pressure of 2*10-4 torr and vacuum furnace pressure of 2*10-6 torr. All the pro
... Show MoreThis study aimed to make an inventory of leguminous plants for the purpose of identifying the plants that were collected over long periods and stored in the herbarium of Iraq Natural History Museum. It was found that the herbarium contains a large and varied number of plants from different parts of Iraq and in different and varied environments. It was collected and arranged according to a specific system in the herbarium to remain an important source for all graduate students and researchers to take advantage of these plants. Also, the flowering and fruiting periods of these plants in Iraq were recorded for different regions. Most of these plants begin to flower in the spring and thrive in fields and farms.