The influence of Toxoplasma gondii in the pathogenesis of hepatic disease has lately  had considerable attention. The objective of this study is to assess the seroprevalence of T. gondii infection in patients with chronic liver disease from Baghdad-Iraq. All patients have attended Gastroenterology and Hepatology  Teaching Hospital, Medical city in Baghdad, Iraq An analytical case–control study was achieved from September to November 2018. Seventy male patients with chronic liver disease (CLD) and 70 control males  (free of chronic liver diseases) participated in this study, their ages were between (18-80) years old. Serum samples were taken from all subjects and were analysed with enzyme-linked imm

The cyanobacterial neurotoxinβ-N-methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA) is considered to be an “excitotoxin,” and its suggested mechanism of action is killing neurons. Long-term exposure to L-BMAA is believed to lead to neurodegenerative diseases including Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease). Objectives of this study were to determine the presumptive median lethal dose (LD₅₀), the Lowest-Observed-Adverse-Effect Level (LOAEL), and histopathologic lesions caused by the naturally occurring BMAA isomer, L-BMAA, in mice. Seventy NIH Swiss Outbred mice (35 male and 35 female) were used. Treatment group mice

Background: previous researches showed that the hepatoprotective effect of silymarin was through inhibition of cytochrome p450- system (e.g. protection against Amanita toxin), in addition to protection from free radicals generated by this enzymatic system. In contrast to that, many evidences clarified that silymarin may increase first pass metabolism of e.g. cyclosporine and benzodiazepenes.
Objective: Our aim from this animal experiment was to relieve this confusion and detect that this herbal extract is absolutely hepatoprotective or induce hepatotoxicity in other conditions.
Materials and Methods: this study was performed on 15 healthy male rats randomized into two treatment groups; first group (5 rats)

     This study focused on the synthesis of chitosan-alginate (CH-ALg) nanoparticles by ionotropic gelation technique using sodium alginate and calcium chloride. The particle size of the synthesized nanoparticles was confirmed by atomic force microscope (AFM) and it was 61.9 nm. While the nature of functional groups present in chitosan nanoparticles was determined by FT-IR analysis. The antibacterial activity of chitosan-alginate was tested against multidrug resistance (MDR) gram- positive (Enterococcus faecalis) and gram-negative (Proteus mirabilis) bacteria. The results showed a significant effect against MDR isolates. The nanoparticles were loaded with the antibiotic doxycycline in order to improv

Effects of Ozonated Water on Micro Leakage between Enamel and Fissure Sealants Prepared by Different Etching Technique (An in vitro Study), Baraa M Jabar*, Muna S Khalaf

The aim of the present work was to study the possibility of producing an effective bacteriocin from bacteria naturally exists in the mouth. Streptococcus salivarius KA101 was selected among 120 oral isolates collected from healthy people based on its ability to produce an effective bactericidal bacteriocin. Modified tryptic soy agar with 2% yeast extract and 0.1% calcium carbonate was the best medium for the production of bacteriocin with an activity of 40 AU/ml. Response surface methodology (RSM) based on central composite design (CCD) was employed to build a model in order to evaluate the optimum effective factors for bacteriocin production using four factors: yeast extract, CaCO₃, pH and incubation time. Based on t

In this paper, the fundamental harmonic of a Nd:YAG laser (Q-switched 1064nm wavelength, 1 Hz repetition rate and 9 ns pulse duration) has been used for the ablation of cadmium samples in air at atmospheric pressure and the generation of the cadmium plasma. The experimentally observed lines of cadmium plasma emission have been used to calculate the plasma parameters such as (electron temperature (TReR), electron density (nReR), Debye length (λRDR) and plasma frequency (ωRpR)). Line pair ratio of neutral species have been used for the electron temperature and electron density measurements. Plasma parameters were studied as a functions of laser pulse energy.

This paper deals with the modeling of a preventive maintenance strategy applied to a single-unit system subject to random failures.

According to this policy, the system is subjected to imperfect periodic preventive maintenance restoring it to ‘as good as new’ with probability

p and leaving it at state ‘as bad as old’ with probability q. Imperfect repairs are performed following failures occurring between consecutive

preventive maintenance actions, i.e the times between failures follow a decreasing quasi-renewal process with parameter a. Considering the

average durations of the preventive and corrective maintenance actions a

Background: The prevalence of multidrug-resistant bacteria and their contribution to increased morbidity and mortality due to the difficult-to-treat diseases caused by these bacteria, has demonstrated a need to develop and use alternative antimicrobial agents to control multidrug-resistant bacteria. There has been a growing interest in medicinal plants and herbs and their extracts for the discovery of new natural therapeutic alternatives. Therefore, this current study aimed to know the antibacterial activity of aqueous and alcoholic extracts of the Sumac (Rhus coriaria L) fruits against multidrug-resistant clinical bacterial isolates and the effect of these extracts on biofilm production as an important virulenc