Background: Multidrug-resistant (MDR) enterococci have become a major problem in recent times and have been reported increasingly around the world. Lytic phages infect bacteria leading to rapid host death with limited risk of phage transduction, underlining the increasing interest in potential phage therapy in the future. Objective (s): The aim of this study is to use phage therapy as alternative approach for treatment of Enterococcus faecalis infections that recorded as MDR in Iraq to tackle this problem. Materials and Methods: Thirty E. faecalis isolates were collected from patients with different infectious diseases such as urinary tract infection (UTI), diabetic foot, septicemia, and wound infections. The isolation of specific lytic phages was from different environmental sources such as (sewage, and wastewater). The biokinetic assays were carried out to measure the characteristics of the isolated phage. The study of the bacteriophage and the formed phage cocktail infectivity against isolates E.faecalis was tested by the top layer assay. The phage endolysin was extracted from the best bacteriophage that gave best results. Results: All the isolated E.faecalis was reported as MDR in this study. About 75 E.faecalis specific phages were isolated and purified. All the isolated bacteria were 100% sensitive to the lytic phages. The formed phage cocktail was capable to create inhibition zones on the most bacterial isolates' lawns. The molecular weight and the concentration of the extracted endolysin was evaluated in this study and found to be as (48 kDa) and (0.5mg/ml), respectively. The antibacterial activity of the extracted endolysin was evaluated by the turbidity reduction assay. A clear decline in the bacterial growth was manifested (5x107 CFU/ml) to (1x104 CFU/ml), in which the bacterial growth was reduced by (3.63 log). The endolysin found to be effective against 90% of E.faeclais isolates. Conclusion: The activity of the isolated specific phage together with the activity of the formed phage cocktail, were efficient as successful and inexpensive method of therapy against MDR E.faecalis. The potential of the extracted endolysin over the phage therapy was verified in this study. The coverage rate and the absence of resistant E.faecalis to the phage and its endolysin had emphasized on the importance of this alternative therapy to commonly used antibiotics. List of abbreviation: MDR = multiple drug-resistant, E. faecalis = Enterococcus faecalis, BT = burst time, BS = burst size, IP = infective percentage, Phage =bacteriophage, CFU = Colony forming unit, kDa = Kilodalton, OD = Optical Densities.
This study aims to find the effect of water-cement ratio on the compressive strength of concrete by using ultrasonic pulse velocity test (UPVT). Over 230 standard cube specimens were used in this study, with dimensions of 150mm, and concrete cubes were cured in water at 20 °C. Also, the specimens used in the study were made of concrete with varied water-cement ratio contents from 0.48 to 0.59. The specimens were taken from Diyarbakir-Turkey concrete centers and tested at the structure and material science lab, civil engineering, faculty of engineering from Dicle University. The UPV measurement and compressive strength tests were carried out at the concrete age of 28 days. Their UPV and compressive strength ranged
... Show MoreThe aim of the research is to identify to what extent to which Malcolm Baldrige standards of total quality are applied in the after-sales services of a private sector company for electrical appliances, from the point of view of administrative leaders, in it. To achieve this aim a questionnaire has been used to measure the degree of application of Malcolm’s seven criteria for total quality, namely: (leadership, strategic planning, focus on the customer, measurement and analysis and knowledge management, focus in human resource and operation management and results of the company’s management), the research found that the company achieved a good level of the standard from the de
... Show MoreThe levels of circulating angiogenic and anti-angiogenic factors, namely vascular endothelial growth factor–A (VEGF-A) and soluble vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-1 (sVEGFR-1), have been linked to the development of renal dysfunction due to the proliferation of microvasculature within the kidneys of type 2 diabetic (T2DM) patients. The study aims to scrutinize serum levels of VEGF and sVEGFR-1 in a sample of Iraqi diabetic nephropathy patients to support their reliability as markers for the prediction of nephropathy in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients as well as to assess the ACE inhibitor’s effect on the levels of these two markers. Method: The ninety participants of this case-control study were split into three gr
... Show MoreIn Iraq, government contributions to the public companies have become a very important aspect which contributes to the survival and sustainability of these institutions as it consider one of the main sources of funding, if not it consider the basis of funding.
According to the vital roles assigned to these institutions to follow up, which usually include important activities in the national economy, the research focused on studying the field reality of the method used in evaluating the stock of total production and purchases of goods for the purpose of selling the strategic commodities of the General Company for Grain Trade. As a result, the aim of this study came to came to highlight&n
... Show MoreObjective: To evaluate the therapeutic activity of probiotics mixture of Lactobacillus plantarum and Lactobacillus acidophilus towards Cryptosporidium infection in experimentally infected mice. Oocysts of Cryptosporidium were separated from the stool of humans to infect mice. Methods: Forty male albino mice were split equally into four groups, every group contained 10 mice, the group I (early treated group), were treated from the 1st day from infection to the 11th post-infection, group II (late treated group), were treated from the 4th day from infection to the 15th post-infection, and group (III) (untreated group), were mice considered as a positive control group. Results: It was showed that daily application of a mixture of L. plantarum w
... Show MoreAs cultures are mainly divided into collectivistic and individualistic, members tend to emphasize, through communication, either their position as part of their group or their independence from the group. This emphasis is manifested in using the pragmatic concepts of positive politeness and negative politeness. The present study looks into the reflection of these two cultures in Rockstar’s renowned video game, Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018). It aims at identifying the two cultures as present in the game and showing their significance to its narrative. It fills the gap in the studies of language used within video games as well as its cultural reflections. The study addresses the following question: What are the positive and negative
... Show MoreIn this study the new azo compounds (3compounds) for nitrogen bases (Adenine and Cytosine) are synthesized through two reaction steps (formation of diazonium salt and coupling reaction). The compounds have been characterized by FTIR, melting point, and ultra-violate (UV) spectra. All synthesized compounds have been estimated in vitro for their antimicrobial activities against two species of bacteria(E.coli, S.aureus)and one kind of fungi ( Aspergillus flavus) .The results show that these compounds have very good antibacterial and antifungal activities especially compounds 1 and 3.To study the effect of these compounds were making some physiological tests on rats are made ,the results of hematological study showed decreasing level of
... Show MoreThe present study aims to identify wisdom-based thinking and its relationship to psychological capital. It further aims to find out the differences in the level of wisdom-based thinking and psychological capital according to the variables of gender and specialization (scientific, humanities). To achieve this, the study has been conducted on a sample of (380) male and female students. The two scales, wisdom-based thinking and psychological capital are implemented to the sample after being constructed by the researcher and after ensuring their psychometric characteristics' suitability for the study's aims. Results concerning the first aim have shown that there is a significant relationship among students. The second aim has revealed that t
... Show MoreIn this paper, game theory was used and applied to the transport sector in Iraq, as this sector includes two axes, the public transport axis and the second axis the private transport axis, as each of these axes includes several types of transport, namely (sea transport, air transport, land transport, transport by rail, port transport) and the travel and tourism sector, as public transport lacks this sector, as the competitive advantage matrix for the transport sector was formed and after applying the MinMax-MaxMin principle to the matrix in all its stages, it was found that there was an equilibrium point except for the last stage where the equilibrium point was not available Therefore, the use of the linear programming method was
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