Twenty five vaginal swabs from outpatients' healthy women were collected from Kamal Al-Samarai Hospital, Baghdad, to isolate and identify of Lactobacillus acidophilus. Three isolates were diagnosed as L. acidophilus which represents 15% of the total number of lactic acid bacterial (LAB) isolates; other LAB types represent 65% (20 isolates).The ability of L. acidophilus to produce surlactin was detected after measuring its biological activity to inhibit the adhesion of biofilm formed by Pseudomonas aeruginosa to surfaces using test tube method. It was found that all isolates were able to produce surlactin but the activity of surlactin was varying in each isolate. Surlactin produced by isolates 1 and 13 was the most effective. Biological appl

Straight tendons in pretensioned members can cause high-tensile stresses in the concrete extreme fibers at end sections because of the absence of the bending stresses due to self-weight and superimposed loads and the dominance of the moment due to prestressing force alone. Accordingly, the concrete tensile stresses at the ends of a member prestressed with straight tendons may limit the service load capacity of the member. It is therefore important to establish limiting zone in the concrete section within which the prestressing force can be applied without causing tension in the extreme concrete fibers. Two practical methods are available to reduce the stresses at the end sections due to the prestressing force. The first method based

The calculation of the charge on an isolated dust grain immersed in plasma with different grain sizes is a challenging one, especially under moderately high plasma temperature when secondary electron emission significant. The discrete charging model is used to calculate the charges of dust grain in dusty plasma. In this model, we included the effect of grain size dependence on secondary electron emission. The results show that the secondary electron emission from the glass dust grains due to energetic electron (40eV) can lead to the small grain to be slightly more positive than the large grain. Under these conditions, the smaller and larger grains would be attracted rather than repelled, which possibly lead to enhanced coagulation rates.

The main goal of this work is to obtain the plasma electron temperature Te by optical emission spectroscopy of low pressure microwave argon plasma, as a function of working pressure and microwave power. A plasma system was designed and constructed in our laboratory using a magnetron of domestic microwave oven with power 800W without any commercial part. The applied voltage on the magnetron electrical circuit is changed for the purpose of obtaining the variable values of the microwave power. The spectral detection is performed with a spectrometer of wavelength range (200−1000nm). The working pressure and magnetron applied voltage were 0.3-3.0mbar and 180-240V, respectively. Two methods had been applied to estimate the electron temperatu

The gamma dose rates and specific activity of 137Cs, 60Co and 40K in
samples of soil taken from places near the landfill radiation at Al-
Tuwaitha site were measured using a portable NaI(Tl) detector. The
results of gamma dose rates in samples were ranged from 52.6
nGy.h-1 to 131nGy.h-1. Then the specific activity of 137Cs, 60Co and
40K in soil were determined using high pure germanium (HPGe)
detector. The specific activities were varied from 1.9 to 115500 Bq.
kg-1 for 137Cs, from 6.37 to 616.5 Bq. kg-1 for 60Co, and from 3 to
839.5 Bq. kg-1 for 40K. The corresponding health risk for the annual
effective dose equivalent varied from 1.85×10-14 to 15.7mSv/y. The
results were compared with various internationa

Current design codes and specifications allow for part of the bonded flexure tension reinforcement to be distributed over an effective flange width when the T-beams' flanges are in tension. This study presents an experimental and numerical investigation on the reinforced concrete flanged section's flexural behavior when reinforcement in the tension flange is laterally distributed. To achieve the goals of the study, numerical analysis using the finite element method was conducted on discretized flanged beam models validated via experimentally tested T-beam specimen. Parametric study was performed to investigate the effect of different parameters on the T-beams flexural behavior. The study revealed that a significant reduction in the

The increase in the number of trucks and other heavy vehicles in Iraqi highways lead to cracking and deteriorations in the flexible highway. The use of polymermodified asphalt may solve this problem to match the required performance standards. This study investigates the effects of styrene-butadiene-styrene (SBS) polymer on the performance behaviour of Iraqi bitumen binder. The characteristics of bitumen binder were analysed to observe the compatibility of bitumen with SBS polymer. The bitumen binder was mixed with three different contents of SBS (4%, 4.5%, and 5%) by weight of asphalt cement. Viscosity tests were conducted on the SBS polymer-modified asphalt at 135 oC and 165 oC in addition to conventional binder tests. The prepar

Background: As acetaminophen (APAP) toxicity has become more common in many countries, related cases of poisoning, whether deliberate or unintentional, have been identified as a key contributor to acute liver failure. Aime: To discover if omega-369 fatty acids could protect the liver of male mice from the effects of acetamiophen. Methods: Thirty-five albino male mice were allocated to one of five groups at random. Group 1 served as the "negative control" and received a single intraperitoneal injection (10 ml/kg) of normal saline on the eleventh day of the test following ten days of receiving liquid paraffin orally at a dose of 10 ml/kg. The liquid paraffin was given to group 2 "positive control". Group 3 received Omega 369 (50 mg/kg