BACKGROUND: Burkholderia cepacia adhesion and biofilm formation onto abiotic surfaces is an important feature of clinically relevant isolates. The in vitro biofilm formation of B. cepacia onto coated indwelling urinary catheters (IDCs) with moxifloxacin has not been previously investigated. OBJECTIVES: To examine the ability of B. cepacia to form biofilms on IDCs and the effect of coating IDCs with moxifloxacin on biofilm formation by B. cepacia in vitro. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The adhesion of B. cepacia to coated and uncoated IDCs with moxifloxacin was evaluated. Pieces of IDCs were coated with moxifloxacin (adsorption method). The spectrophotometric method was used to check moxifloxacin leaching into tubes. Coated and uncoated tubes were i

This study emphasizes the infinite-boundary integro-differential equation. To examine the approximate solution of the problem, two modified optimization algorithms are proposed based on generalized Laguerre functions. In the first technique, the proposed method is applied to the original problem by approximating the solution using the truncated generalized Laguerre polynomial of the unknown function, optimizing coefficients through error minimization, and transforming the integro-differential equation into an algebraic equation. In contrast, the second approach incorporates a penalty term into the objective function to effectively enforce boundary and integral constraints. This technique reduces the original problem to a mathematical optimi

Magnetic levitation (Maglev) systems are employed in a wide range of applications and are therefore of significant practical importance, which has led to growing research interest. This paper presents the design of a terminal synergetic control (TSC) and feedback linearization-based proportional-integral-derivative plus second-order derivative (FL-PIDD2) controller for the Maglev system. For developing the control law of both controllers, the mathematical model of the Maglev system is converted into a canonical system where the expression of the nonlinearity is displayed in the last differential dynamic equation of the system. The determination of the TSC and FL-PIDD2 gains for achieving the desired dynamic response is carried out using the

    Identification of complex communities in biological networks is a critical and ongoing challenge since lots of network-related problems correspond to the subgraph isomorphism problem known in the literature as NP-hard. Several optimization algorithms have been dedicated and applied to solve this problem. The main challenge regarding the application of optimization algorithms, specifically to handle large-scale complex networks, is their relatively long execution time. Thus, this paper proposes a parallel extension of the PSO algorithm to detect communities in complex biological networks. The main contribution of this study is summarized in three- fold; Firstly, a modified PSO algorithm with a local search operator is proposed

A simulation study of using 2D tomography to reconstruction a 3D object is presented. The 2D Radon transform is used to create a 2D projection for each slice of the 3D object at different heights. The 2D back-projection and the Fourier slice theorem methods are used to reconstruction each 2D projection slice of the 3D object. The results showed the ability of the Fourier slice theorem method to reconstruct the general shape of the body with its internal structure, unlike the 2D Radon method, which was able to reconstruct the general shape of the body only because of the blurring artefact, Beside that the Fourier slice theorem could not remove all blurring artefact, therefore, this research, suggested the threshold technique to eliminate the

This article discusses how women have significant abilities to cope with the difficulties of war times. They are not the weak and vulnerable victims who are thought to be. On the contrary, they have the power to control over many-sided fronts, like participating in the battlefield as nurses or activists for peace, or even fighters, as well as through the tasks and responsibilities assigned to them to protect and support their families during wartime. The researcher will examine the impact of war upon women. Like men, women suffer during wartime. They are being injured, tortured and killed. Yet, they are able to give examples of love and courage even in the difficult times of war. Hana is one of those women who lived during wartimes,

This paper is devoted to investigate the effect of internal curing technique on the properties of self-compacting concrete (SCC). In this study, SCC is produced by using silica fume (SF) as partial replacement by weight of cement with percentage of (5%), sand is partially replaced by volume with saturated fine lightweight aggregate (LWA) which is thermostone chips as internal curing material in three percentages of (5%, 10% and 15%) for SCC, two external curing conditions water and air. The experimental work was divided into three parts: in the first part, the workability tests of fresh SCC were conducted. The second part included conducting compressive strength test and modulus of rupture test at ages of (7, 28 and 90). The third part i