Acinetobacter baumannii (A. baumannii) is a major opportunistic nosocomial pathogen, mostly resistant to several groups of antibiotics. Colistin is now used as a last-line treatment for isolates that are highly resistant. The purpose of this study is to identify the importance of LptD; which is involved in the translocation of LPS from the inner membrane to the outer membrane in compartment with LptA and LptC of A. baumannii and its indispensable role as a virulence factor, and the efficiency of colistin as a monotherapy. In the current research, two isolates of A.baumannii were used, the local isolate HHR1 isolated from urine sample and the global strain ATCC 17904, and three antibiotics (colistin, rifampicin and Fosfomycin) were used as a monotherapy and synergic therapy in vivo and ex vivo. The results demonstrated that A. baumannii HHR1 was more resistant to Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) than the standard strains. The effect of AMPs on A. baumannii was increased by increasing the concentration and the time of incubation, and also AMPs were shown to be lethal on A. baumannii growth spatially at high concentration (2 µg ml-1) in monotherapy and (1.5, 2 µg ml-1) in synergic. The susceptibility of isolates towards antibiotics was variable, where colistin exerts significant growth had defect as a monotherapy and in combination with others. The results showed that the expression of lptD, lptA genes of A.baumannii HHR1 were higher than of the same genes in A.baumannii ATCC 17904 in the presence of 2 µg ml-1 colistin, while lptE gene of the A.baumannii ATCC 17904 showed an upregulation pattern than in A.baumannii HHR1. Furthermore, colistin influences the adhesion ability of A. baumannii on epithelial cells (A-549 lung cancer cell) by reducing the number of cells, and thus could colistin be a good candidate for A. baunmannii treatment.
Polyacrylonitrile nanofiber (PANFS), a well-known polymers, has been extensively employed in the manufacturing of carbon nanofibers (CNFS), which have recently gained substantial attention due to their excellent features, such as spinnability, environmental friendliness, and commercial feasibility. Because of their high carbon yield and versatility in tailoring the final CNFS structure, In addition to the simple formation of ladder structures through nitrile polymerization to yield stable products, CNFS and PAN have been the focus of extensive research as potential production precursors. For instance, the development of biomedical and high-performance composites has now become achievable. PAN homopolymer or PAN-based precursor copolymer can
... Show MoreChromene is considered a fused pyran ring with a benzene ring, which is found in many plants and is part of many important compounds such as anthocyanidins, anthocyanins, catechins, and flavanones. These compounds are included under the headings "flavonoids" and "isoflavonoids." These compounds are well known as bioactive molecules with wide medicinal uses. According to these pharmacokinetic characteristics, many researchers are giving more attention to this type of compound and its derivatives. Many chromene derivatives have been synthesized to study their biological effects for the treatment of many diseases. Furthermore, the researcher displayed wide interest in finding new methods for synthesizing chromene derivatives. These met
... Show MoreThis study concerns the removal of a trihydrate antibiotic (Amoxicillin) from synthetically contaminated water by adsorption on modified bentonite. The bentonite was modified using hexadecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (HTAB), which turned it from a hydrophilic to a hydrophobic material. The effects of different parameters were studied in batch experiments. These parameters were contact time, solution pH, agitation speed, initial concentration (C0) of the contaminant, and adsorbent dosage. Maximum removal of amoxicillin (93 %) was achieved at contact time = 240 min, pH = 10, agitation speed = 200 rpm, initial concentration = 30 ppm, and adsorbent dosage = 3 g bentonite per 1L of pollutant solution. The characterization of the adsorbent, modi
... Show MoreUnderstanding, promoting, and teaching media literacy is an important societal challenge. STEM educators are increasingly looking to incorporate 21st century skills such as media literacy into core subject education. In this paper we investigate how undergraduate Computer Science (CS) students can learn media literacy as a by-product of collaborative video tutorial production. The paper presents a study of 34 third-year CS undergraduates who, as part of their learning, were each asked to produce three video tutorials on Raspberry Pi programming, using a collaborative video production tool for mobile phones (Bootlegger). We provide results of both quantitative and qualitative analysis of the production process and resulting video tutorials,
... Show MoreBackground: Saliva plays an important role in oral health. Several salivary proteins are involved in the antimicrobial defence mechanism and are able to eliminate or inhibit bacterial growth in the oral cavity. Secretory IgA (SIgA) is one of the principal antibodies present in saliva, could help oral immunity by preventing microbial adherence, neutralizing enzymes and toxins. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between salivary Streptococcus Mutans (SM) count and S IgA in stimulated whole saliva in children with primary dentition compared to those with permanent teeth in relation to some oral hygiene parameters. Material and methods: Stimulated whole saliva was collected from 50 children (25 with primary dentation and
... Show MoreBackground: Menstrual problems with all manifestations ranging from life-threatening bleeding to amen- orrhea are considered patterns of abnormal uterine bleeding (AUB), which is until now a popular reason for referral to the gynaecologic clinic and requires a special diagnostic tool. Objective: To assess the accuracy of hysteroscopy in diagnosing endometrial pathologies and to compare it with sonographic and histopathologic reports. Patients and Methods: A prospective study conducted in the Baghdad Teaching Hospital on 60 Iraqi females having varying complaints from abnormal uterine bleeding in pre- and post-menopausal women, infertility, and chronic pelvic pain with normal or abnormal ultrasound findings. Office hysteroscopy was done and
... Show MoreThe migration from IPv4 to IPv6 can not be achieved in a brief period, thus both protocols co-exist at certain years. IETF Next Generation Transition Working Group (NGtrans) developed IPv4/IPv6 transition mechanisms. Since Iraq infrastructure, including universities, companies and institutions still use IPv4 protocol only. This research article tries to highlight, discuss a required transition roadmap and extend the local knowledge and practice on IPv6. Also, it introduces a prototype model using Packet tracer (network simulator) deployed for the design and implementation of IPv6 migration. Finally, it compares and evaluates the performance of IPv6, IPv4 and dual stack using OPNET based on QoS metrics such as throughput, delay and point to
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