Several toxigenic cyanobacteria produce the cyanotoxin (microcystin). Being a health and environmental hazard, screening of water sources for the presence of microcystin is increasingly becoming a recommended environmental procedure in many countries of the world. This study was conducted to assess the ability of freshwater cyanobacterial species Westiellopsis prolifica to produce microcystins in Iraqi freshwaters via using molecular and immunological tools. The toxigenicity of W. prolifica was compared via laboratory experiments with other dominant bloom-forming cyanobacteria isolated from the Tigris River: Microcystis aeruginosa, Chroococcus turigidus, Nostoc carneum, and Lyngbya sp. significant expression of mcyE gene and microcystin production was most evident in W. prolifica. Contrary to the prevailing concept that M. aeruginosa is a main microcystin producer in freshwaters around the world, no significant microcystin production was observed with this species throughout the time points studied in our laboratory methods. As for C. turigidus, N. carneum and Lyngbya sp., neither mcyE expression nor microcystin production was significant. Data from mcyE expression by RT-qPCR were generally in agreement with those obtained from microcystin quantification by ELISA. Interestingly, W. prolifica, which showed clear microcystin-producing ability in this study and which was not reported before in the literature to produce microcystin, can be added as a new microcystin producer to the list of toxigenic cyanobacteria.
Background: A Catheter-associated with candidiasis infection is the most common nosocomial infection and the objective of this work is to isolate and identify Candida species from catheterized patients by ordinary culture and PCR.Objective:To study the isolation and identification of Candida species from catheterized patients by culture media and polymerase chain reaction(PCR).Methods: One hundred and thirty five Candida species isolates were obtained from urine culture of catheterized specimens from male and female patients , During the period between October 2011 to April 2012 , attending AL-Ramadi general teaching Hospital. A quantitative urine culture for isolation and identification of Candida species was. The isolation of Candida s
... Show MoreThe study aimed to determine the impact of energy for the north and south magnetic poles on the the growth of bacteria isolated from cases of tooth decay, 68 swabs were collected from surfaces of faulty tooth, the detected of Staphylococcus aureus
... Show MoreBaghdad Metro is a vital project to fulfill the rapidly increased traffic volume requirements. The proposed metro will connect both sides of Baghdad City, passing under the Tigris River. This study is employed finite elements software (PLAXIS 3D) to evaluate the seepage force developed around the sub-river segment during different construction stages and for other water levels of Tigris. The study found that when the water level changes from maximum to minimum, the developed seepage force decreases by (8 to 13%) and (22 to 27%) respectively. The seepage forces were found to be maximum during the excavation stage. The concrete lining process led to a noticeable reduction in seepage forces at all locations. The study also
... Show MoreThis study aims to assess the water quality index (WQI) according to the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment's Water Quality Index method (CCME WQI). Four locations (measurement stations) are selected along the Tigris River, in Iraq. Two of them are located in the north near Mosul City, (Mosul Dam and Mosul city), and the other two are located in the south near Al-Amarah city, (Ali Garbi and Al-Amarah). The water data collected is for the period 2011 to 2013, including eleven water quality parameters. These are magnesium (Mg+2), calcium (Ca2+), potassium (K+), sodium (Na+), sulfate (SO42-), chloride (Cl-), nitrate (NO3<
... Show MoreMutans streptococci (MS) are a group of oral bacteria considered as the main cariogenic organisms. MS consists of several species of genus Streptococcus which are sharing similar phenotypes and genotypes. The aim of this study is to determine the genetic diversity of the core species of clinical strains of Streptococcus mutans, Streptococcus sobrinus and Streptococcus downei by using repitative extragenic palindromic (REP) primer. The DNA of the clinical strains of S. mutans (n=10), S. sobrinus (n=05) and S. downei (n=04) have been employed in the present study, which have been previously isolated from caries active subjects. The DNA of the clinical and reference strains was
... Show MoreThis study was conducted to isolate and identify killer yeast Hanseniaspora uvarum from dates vinegar and measurement the ability of this yeast to produce killer toxin. The antimicrobial activity of the concentrated supernatant containing partially purified concentrated killer toxin was also detected against several pathogenic bacteria and yeast species, which includes two types of yeast Rhodotorula mucilaginosa and Candida tropicalis and four human pathogenic bacteria Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeurginosa. In addition, the antagonistic activity of examined yeast have been studied toward four types of fungi, where two are pathogenic
... Show MoreDepletion of fossil fuel is one of the main reasons why the bioethanol has become popular. It is a renewable energy source. In order to meet the great demand of bioethanol, it is best that the bioethanol production is from cheap raw materials. Since the golden shower fruit is not being utilized and is considered as waste material, hence, this study was conducted to make use of the large volume of the residue as feedstock to test its potential for bioethanol extraction.The main goal of this study is to obtain the most volume of bioethanol from the golden shower fruit liquid residue by the factors, days of fermentation (3, 5, and 7 days) and sugar concentration (15, 20 and 25 brix) of the liquid residue. Also, part of the study is to compu
... Show MoreIn this study water quality index (WQI) was calculated to classify the flowing water in the Tigris River in Baghdad city. GIS was used to develop colored water quality maps indicating the classification of the river for drinking water purposes. Water quality parameters including: Turbidity, pH, Alkalinity, Total hardness, Calcium, Magnesium, Iron, Chloride, Sulfate, Nitrite, Nitrate, Ammonia, Orthophosphate and Total dissolved solids were used for WQI determination. These parameters were recorded at the intakes of the WTPs in Baghdad for the period 2004 to 2011. The results from the annual average WQI analysis classified the Tigris River very poor to polluted at the north of Baghdad (Alkarkh WTP) while it was very poor to very polluted in t
... Show MoreThis article proposes a new technique for determining the rate of contamination. First, a generative adversarial neural network (ANN) parallel processing technique is constructed and trained using real and secret images. Then, after the model is stabilized, the real image is passed to the generator. Finally, the generator creates an image that is visually similar to the secret image, thus achieving the same effect as the secret image transmission. Experimental results show that this technique has a good effect on the security of secret information transmission and increases the capacity of information hiding. The metric signal of noise, a structural similarity index measure, was used to determine the success of colour image-hiding t
... Show MoreThe Tigris River is a major source of Iraq’s drinking and agricultural water supply. An increase in pollution by heavy metals can be a great threat to human and aquatic life. In this study, the pollution index (PI) and metal index (MI) were used to evaluate the status of the Tigris River in Baghdad City. Five stations were chosen to conduct the study. Five heavy metals were analyzed: iron (Fe), lead (Pb), nickel (Ni), zinc (Zn), and chromium (Cr). The result of PI was ranked between “No effect to moderately affected for Fe; Slightly Affected to Seriously Affected for Pb; no effect to moderately affected for Ni, and no effect to strongly affected for Cr; only Zn was in the No effec