Escherichia coli has been recognized worldwide as the most common causative agent for severe infections of the urinary tract. Colibactin is a genotoxin produced through a gene cluster called polyketide synthase (pks) island by members of Enterobacteriaceae. Limited information is available about the frequency of colibactin in E. coli isolates in Iraq. Hence, this study aimed to examine the frequency of some colibactin genes (CIbA and CIbQ) in clinical isolates of E. coli obtained from urinary tract infections (UTIs) in Iraq. Between October 2023 and January 2024, 120 urine samples were collected from females diagnosed with UTIs in Iraqi hospitals. 70 E. coli isolates were isolated after identification by biochemical methods and confirmed by molecular technique. In particular, the 16S rRNA gene was targeted using specific primers to confirm their identity. Conventional polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was employed to detect the CIbA and CIbQ genes and confirm the presence of colibactin. The findings of this study revealed a high prevalence of colibactin-producing isolates (40%, 28/70) compared to colibactin-non-producing isolates (60%, 42/70) with non-significant differences (p>0.05). In conclusion, the frequency of colibactin genes is high in E. coli strains isolated from UTIs in Iraq. The presence of pks-positive isolates at a high frequency is concerning, as it suggests the spread of a highly genotoxic strain in urinary tract infections in Iraq that could potentially lead to the development of urinary tract cancer diseases.
This study focuses on producing wood-plastic composites using unsaturated polyester resin reinforced with Pistacia vera shell particles and wood industry waste powder. Composites with reinforcement ratios of 0%, 20%, 30%, and 40% were prepared and tested for thermal conductivity, impact strength, hardness, and compressive strength. The results revealed that thermal conductivity increases with reinforcement, while maintaining good thermal insulation, reaching a peak value of 0.633453 W/m·K. Hardness decreased with increased reinforcement, reaching a minimum nominal hardness value of 0.9479. Meanwhile, impact strength and compressive strength improved, with peak values of 14.103 k/m² and 57.3864568 MPa, respectively. The main aim is to manu
... Show MoreThis work discusses the beginning of fractional calculus and how the Sumudu and Elzaki transforms are applied to fractional derivatives. This approach combines a double Sumudu-Elzaki transform strategy to discover analytic solutions to space-time fractional partial differential equations in Mittag-Leffler functions subject to initial and boundary conditions. Where this method gets closer and closer to the correct answer, and the technique's efficacy is demonstrated using numerical examples performed with Matlab R2015a.
Bipedal robotic mechanisms are unstable due to the unilateral contact passive joint between the sole and the ground. Hierarchical control layers are crucial for creating walking patterns, stabilizing locomotion, and ensuring correct angular trajectories for bipedal joints due to the system’s various degrees of freedom. This work provides a hierarchical control scheme for a bipedal robot that focuses on balance (stabilization) and low-level tracking control while considering flexible joints. The stabilization control method uses the Newton–Euler formulation to establish a mathematical relationship between the zero-moment point (ZMP) and the center of mass (COM), resulting in highly nonlinear and coupled dynamic equations. Adaptiv
... Show MoreArbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and sulphur foam added either at direct seeding or at transplanting decreased the effects of nematode (Meloidogyne javanica) on eggplant growth, and improved plant health. Experiments were conducted to study the possible interactions between the Mycorrhizal fungi (Glomus mossae and Gigaspora spp.) and sulphur foam to control M. javanica on eggplant at seed or seedling stage. Experiment at seed stage treated with Mycorrhiza or sulphur foam alone or together stimulated the growth and reduced Nematode infestation significantly. Treated plant at seedling stage increased plant growth and reduced the number of galls /gm of root system. The interaction between Mycorrhiza and sulpher foam treatments was not significant
... Show MoreSoftware-defined networks (SDN) have a centralized control architecture that makes them a tempting target for cyber attackers. One of the major threats is distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. It aims to exhaust network resources to make its services unavailable to legitimate users. DDoS attack detection based on machine learning algorithms is considered one of the most used techniques in SDN security. In this paper, four machine learning techniques (Random Forest, K-nearest neighbors, Naive Bayes, and Logistic Regression) have been tested to detect DDoS attacks. Also, a mitigation technique has been used to eliminate the attack effect on SDN. RF and KNN were selected because of their high accuracy results. Three types of ne
... Show MoreObjective: To compare distal tibia nonunion plating and grafting with and without platelet-rich plasma (PRP) regarding union rate, union time and complications Conclusion: Combining PRP with autologous bone graft results in a higher union rate, less healing duration, less post-operative pain, and more callus formation. (Rawal Med J 202;45:629- 632). Methodology: In this prospective comparative study, 32 patients with nonunion tibia from July 2017 January 2019 were divided into two groups: group A (16 cases) were treated by plating and grafting with PRP and group B (16 cases) were treated by plating and grafting only. Keywords: Tibial nonunion, bone graft, plateletrich plasma. Results: There was higher union rate in group A related to group
... Show MoreEpithelial ovarian cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths from gynecological malignancies. Angiogenesis is considered essential for tumor growth and the development of metastases. VEGF and IL?8 are potent angiostimulatory molecules and their expression has been demonstrated in many solid tumors, including ovarian cancer.VEGF and IL-8 concentrations were measured by ELISA test (HumanVEGF,IL-8). Bioassay ELISA/ US Biological / USA).The median VEGF and IL-8 levels were significantly higher in the sera of ovarian cancer patients than in those with benign tumors and in healthy controls.Pretreatment VEGF and IL-8 serum levels might be regarded as an additional tool in the differentiation of ovarian tumors.