Acinetobacter baumannii (A. baumannii ) is considered a critical healthcare problem for patients in intensive care units due to its high ability to be multidrug-resistant to most commercially available antibiotics. The aim of this study is to develop a colorimetric assay to quantitatively detect the target DNA of A. baumannii based on unmodified gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) from different clinical samples (burns, surgical wounds, sputum, blood and urine). A total of thirty-six A. baumannii clinical isolates were collected from five Iraqi hospitals in Erbil and Mosul provinces within the period from September 2020 to January 2021. Bacterial isolation and biochemical identification of isolates were carried out followed by DNA extraction from 36 isolates and six negative ATCC strains (Salmonalle typhi, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumonia, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Enterobacter aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aures) and only one positive control ATCC A. baumannii using Phenol/Chloroform method. AuNPs were synthesized using the citrate reduction method and examined by XDR, FTIR, UV-VIS, FE-SEM, and TEM. The optimized colorimetric assay was employed based on unmodified spherical AuNPs and PCR amplification of 16S rRNA intergenic spacer sequences (ITS) with species-specific DNA oligo-targeters. Detection and optimization of A. baumannii amplicons using unmodified AuNPs were performed based on species-specific DNA oligonucleotide. The AuNPs assay was able to colorimetrically detect and distinguish A. baumannii from other ATCC bacterial isolates. The turnaround time of this assay was about 3 hours, including sample preparation and amplification, to show (0.025-6 ngµl-1) as a detection limit of DNA concentration. The efficacy of colorimetric detection was proved to effectively diagnose A. baumannii isolates with high sensitivity, simplicity, and robustness to rapidly diagnose A. baumannii isolates from different clinical samples.
The current study is designed to investigate the histological and immunohistochemical characteristics of the thyroid gland in adult male Sciurus anamalus. This study found that the thyroid gland of the Caucasian squirrel is located in the neck area, below the larynx, on both sides of the trachea. It has two lobes (right and left) with cylindrical shape. The histological studies revealed that the thyroid gland is surrounded by a capsule which consists of connective tissue and forming of two layers which are outer layer and inner layer, and a layer of adipose tissue appears overlapping the outer layer. The inner tissue of the gland consists of follicles with different shapes and sizes, and is lined with simple cuboidal epithelial tissue (foll
... Show MoreThe combined system of electrocoagulation (EC) and electro-oxidation (EO) is one of the most promising methods in dye removal. In this work, a solution of 200 mg/l of Congo red was used to examine the removal of anionic dye using an EC-EO system with three stainless steel electrodes as the auxiliary electrodes and an aluminum electrode as anode for the EC process, Cu-Mn-Ni Nanocomposite as anode for the EO process. This composite oxide was simultaneously synthesized by anodic and cathodic deposition of Cu (NO3)2, MnCl2, and Ni (NO3)2 salts with 0.075 M as concentrations of each salt with a fixed molar ratio (1:1:1) at a constant current density of 25 mA/cm2. The characteristics structure and surface morphology of the depo
... Show MoreIn the present study, magnet silica-coated Ag2WO4/Ag2S nanocomposites (FOSOAWAS) were fabricated via a multistep method to address the drawbacks related to single photocatalysts (pure Ag2WO4 and pure Ag2S) and to clarify the significant influence of semiconductor heterojunction on the enhancement of visible-light-driven organic degradation. Different techniques were performed to investigate the elemental composition, morphology, magnetic and photoelectrochemical properties of the fabricated FOSOAWAS photocatalyst. The FOSOAWAS photocatalyst (1 g/L) exhibited excellent photodegradation efficiency (99.5%) against Congo red dye (CR = 20 ppm) after 140 min of visible-light illumination. This result confirmed the ability of the heterojunction be
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The grey system model GM(1,1) is the model of the prediction of the time series and the basis of the grey theory. This research presents the methods for estimating parameters of the grey model GM(1,1) is the accumulative method (ACC), the exponential method (EXP), modified exponential method (Mod EXP) and the Particle Swarm Optimization method (PSO). These methods were compared based on the Mean square error (MSE) and the Mean Absolute percentage error (MAPE) as a basis comparator and the simulation method was adopted for the best of the four methods, The best method was obtained and then applied to real data. This data represents the consumption rate of two types of oils a he
... Show MoreThe heavy metal cadmium is extremely harmful to both humans and animals. Zinc supplementation protects the biological system and reduces cadmium-induced toxicity. This study aimed to determine whether zinc chloride (ZnCl2) could protect male mice with the damaged liver induced by cadmium chloride (CdCl2). The protective role of zinc chloride and expression of the metallothionein (MT), Ki-67, and Bcl-2 apoptotic proteins in hepatocytes were studied after subchronic exposure of mice to cadmium chloride for 21 days. Thirty male mice were randomly categorized into 6 groups (5 mice/group) as follows: a control group that did not receive any treatment, a group given ZnCl2 at 10 mg/kg alone, and two groups received ZnCl2 (10 mg/kg) i
... Show MoreOptimization is essentially the art, science and mathematics of choosing the best among a given set of finite or infinite alternatives. Though currently optimization is an interdisciplinary subject cutting through the boundaries of mathematics, economics, engineering, natural sciences, and many other fields of human Endeavour it had its root in antiquity. In modern day language the problem mathematically is as follows - Among all closed curves of a given length find the one that closes maximum area. This is called the Isoperimetric problem. This problem is now mentioned in a regular fashion in any course in the Calculus of Variations. However, most problems of antiquity came from geometry and since there were no general methods to solve suc
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