Background: Opportunistic viral infections make an important threat to renal transplantation recipients (RTRs), and with the use of more intense newly-developed immunosuppressive drugs; the risk of renal allograft loss due to reactivation of these viruses has increased considerably. At the top priority of these viruses lie BK polyomavirus (BKV) and human cytomegalovirus (CMV). Reactivation of these viruses in these chronically immunosuppressed RTRs can lead to renal impairment and subsequently allograft loss, unless early detected and properly treated. Objectives: The study aimed to detect and quantify plasma viral load of BKV and CMV in RTRs using quantitative real time PCR (qRT-PCR), in order to study the prevalence of these two viruses in the sole renal transplantation center in Baghdad, and correlate viral load with the diseases severity. Furthermore, the prevalence of BKV-CMV coexistence in RTRs, to find out whether infection by one of them is a risk factor for infection by the other was investigated. Patients and Methods:A total of 99 RTR were enrolled in the study, and 15 non-transplanted patients with chronic kidney diseases (CKD) together with 15 health living donors (LD) were taken as controls. Plasma samples were taken from all participants. From which viral DNA was extracted, and then real time PCR technique was used to measure the viral load. Results:Out of 99, 12 (12.12%) of RTR patients were positive for BK viremia with a viral load (VL) ranging from (1x102 to 1x109 copies/ml), while none of the control groups was BK positive, and 5 patients out of these 12 had BKV nephropathy. For CMV, 13.13% of RTR patients had positive CMV viremia with a VL ranging from (1.25x102 to 7.94x107 copies/ml), and only one of the CKD controls was CMV positive. Only 3 patients had BK-CMV coexistence, which was statistically not a significant risk factor for one another. Conclusion: Our study suggests that both BK polyomavirus and CMV should be considered important causes for nephropathy and allograft loss in RTRs in Iraq.
In this paper the experimentally obtained conditions for the fusion splicing with photonic crystal fibers (PCF) having large mode areas were reported. The physical mechanism of the splice loss and the microhole collapse property of photonic crystal fiber (PCF) were studied. By controlling the arc-power and the arc-time of a conventional electric arc fusion splicer (FSM-60S), the minimum loss of splicing for fusion two conventional single mode fibers (SMF-28) was (0.00dB), which has similar mode field diameter. For splicing PCF (LMA-10) with a conventional single mode fiber (SMF-28), the loss was increased due to the mode field mismatch.
—This paper studies the control motion of a single link flexible joint robot by using a hierarchical non-singular terminal sliding mode controller (HNTSMC). In comparison to the conventional sliding mode controller (CSMC), the proposed algorithm (NTSMC) not only can conserve characteristics of the convention CSMC, such as easy implementation, guaranteed stability and good robustness against system uncertainties and external disturbances, but also can ensure a faster convergence rate of the systems states to zero in a finite time and singularity free. The flexible joint robot (FJR) is a two degree of freedom (2DOF) nonlinear and underactuated system. The system here is modeled as a fourth order system by using Lagrangian method. Based on t
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Background: There is controversy among neurosurgeons whether double Burr Hole craniostomy is better than single Burr Hole, craniostomy in the management of chronic subdural hematoma in terms of lower recurrence rate and complications.
Objective: To assess the outcome and complications including revision rate using Single Burr Hole Craniostomy in the treatment of chronic subdural hematoma (CSDH).
Patients and Methods: This is a retrospective study of 42 cases of chronic subdural hematoma who underwent Single Burr Hole Craniostomy(SBHC) from jan.2012 to jan.2014, preoperative,intraoperative and postoperative data were collected including neurological status ,Brain CT-scan findings, postoperative complications ,recurrent rate and neur
The study focuses on assessment of the quality of some image enhancement methods which were implemented on renal X-ray images. The enhancement methods included Imadjust, Histogram Equalization (HE) and Contrast Limited Adaptive Histogram Equalization (CLAHE). The images qualities were calculated to compare input images with output images from these three enhancement techniques. An eight renal x-ray images are collected to perform these methods. Generally, the x-ray images are lack of contrast and low in radiation dosage. This lack of image quality can be amended by enhancement process. Three quality image factors were done to assess the resulted images involved (Naturalness Image Quality Evaluator (NIQE), Perception based Image Qual
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The human kidney is one of the most important organs in the human body; it performs many functions
and has a great impact on the work of the rest of the organs. Among the most important possible treatments is
dialysis, which works as an external artificial kidney, and several studies have worked to enhance the
mechanism of dialysate flow and improve the permeability of its membrane. This study introduces a new
numerical model based on previous research discussing the variations in the concentrations of sodium,
potassium, and urea in the extracellular area in the blood during hemodialysis. We simulated the differential
equations related to mass transfer diffusion and we developed the model in MATLAB Simu
Bacteriophages have the potential to eliminate both antibiotic-resistant and sensitive bacteria; as a result, they have become a major focus of such research. In contrast to antibiotics, which assault the entire bacterial population without discrimination, bacteriophages have a limited set of characteristics that allow them to target infectious microbes while avoiding friendly species (commensal microbiota). Nevertheless, large groups of naturally occurring bacteriophages that are well-differentiated and selective for the most clinically recognized pathogenic bacterial strains are required. Utilizing genetic engineering techniques that modify the target phage genome to synthesize phages with known characteristics in a brief period o
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Urine specimen (253 samples) had been collected from urinary tract infections. The study showed that Proteus mirabilis was responsible for (11.85%) of the urinary tract infections. Also, the study had declared that the ratio of isolation of this bacterium from women was (7.51%) and it was higher than the ratio in both men and children which ranged (1.58%) and (2.76%) respectively. Morphological and biochemical studies had been applied to characterize this bacterium as well as other kinds of microorganisms that were isolated from urinary tract infection in this study. The study deals with typing methods such as using biotyping and typing according to Dienes phenomenon beside the succestibility to antibiotics. The results had shown that the s
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Two field experimسents were conducted in one of the fields of the Agriculture Division of Ain Al-Tamr /Holy Karbala Governorate at two sites of different textures during the agricultural season 2020/2021. The first site has sandy loam texture (gypsum soils). The second site has loamy sand texture (calcareous soils). The factors of the study included: The first factor included two types of soil, gypsum and calcareous soil. The second factor is the tillage systems (no-tillage, spring spike harrows, disc harrows, and mold board plow). The experiment was designed in the two study sites according to the RCBD with three replications. The Valley type center pivot irrigation system was evaluated before planting, three speeds, 30, 50 and 100% of th
... Show MoreIsotope tracer methods were used to determine flow paths, recharge areas, and relative age for groundwater in the Ameriyat Al- Falluja Al-Anbar governorate. The isotope of surface water and groundwater in the Ameriyat Al- Falluja area was assessed using a stable isotope technique. Data stable isotope parameters (2H and 18O) for three surface water and five groundwater samples were detected. The comparison of hydrogen and oxygen isotope compositions between groundwater and Euphrates River water demonstrated that the composition of the hydrogen and oxygen isotopes from Euphrates River matched that of the local meteoric water. This indicated that rainfall is the primary source of the river wate
... Show MoreBackground: Enterococcus faecalis is emerging as an important endodontic pathogen, which can persist in the environment for extended periods after treatment and may cause endodontic failure. It is known to produce biofilms, a community of bacteria enclosed within a protective polymeric matrix. This study aimed to establish whether the biofilm formation by Enterococcus faecalis can be inhibited with steralium, co+steralium, and 5% sodium hypochlorite in the root surface environment. Materials and Methods: Extracted human teeth were biomechanically prepared, vertically sectioned, placed in the tissue culture wells exposing the root canal surface to E. faecalis to form a biofilm. At the end of the 3rd and 6th weeks, all groups were treated fo
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