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.
Two experiments were carried out, the first at the College of Agriculture - University of Baghdad during spring season 2017 Everest cv. class (Elite) was used to study the effect of foliar application of calcium and magnesium and addition of humic acid to the soil on potato growth and yield, The layout of the experiment was factorial within RCBD design using three replicates. Calcium and Magnesium sprayed with concentrations (0, 500, 1000 mg.L-1), while the humic acid was added to the soil with (0, 0.75 gm.m2), The second experiment included storage of tubers produced from the spring season, with to study the effect of field treatments on improving the storability of the tubers. The results showed that the treatment of calci
... Show MoreBackground: Information concerning the maximum bite force in human population is important to clinical orthodontics. Additionally, the influence of bite force on the vertical stability of any treatment result is important. The new position of the dentition should be compatible with the dynamics of the muscular and occlusal forces in all planes. This study was conducted to 1) to measure and compare maximum bite force, body height and weight among normal occlusion and malocclusion groups (cl I,cl II,cl III) in both gender 2) to evaluate the correlation between bite force and craniofacial morphology, body height and weight. Materials and Methods: The sample consists of 100 Iraqi adult subjects aged 18-25 years. It was classified in to four gr
... Show MoreBackground: The use of Miswak, chewing sticks (salvadorapersica) can be traced back to Babylonians some 7000 years ago. It is commonly used throughout the world especially for the purpose of oral hygiene. Muslims are using as the religious view. Current study aimed to test the ability of aqueous siwak extract to increase the resistance of enamel surface against acid dissolution compared to sodium fluoride. Materials and Method: Twenty maxillary first premolars were treated with the selected solutions included two aqueous siwak extract concentration(5%,10%) and sodium fluoride(0.05%)as control positive for 2 minutes once daily for 20days interval, de ionized water was used as control negative. The concentration of the dissolved phosphorus i
... Show MoreThe surplus glycerol produced from biodiesel production process as a by-product with high quantity can be considered as a good source to prepare glycerol carbonate (GC) whereas with each 1000 kg from biodiesel obtains 100 kg from glycerol. Glycerol converted to glycerol carbonate over bio-char as a catalyst prepared by slow pyrolysis process under various temperatures from 400 ᴼC to 800 ᴼC. The char prepared at 700 ᴼC considered as a best one between the others which was manufactured to activate the transesterification reaction. GC have large scale of uses such as liquid membrane in gas separation, surfactants ,detergents , blowing agent , in plastics industry, in Pharmaceutical industry and electrolytes in lithium batteries.
... Show MoreFor structural concrete members that may expose to serious earthquake, overload or accident impact, the design of ductility must be given the same importance as the flexural strength. The aim of this investigation is to study the change in ductility of structural concrete flexural members during their exposure to limited cycles of repeated loading. Twenty full-scale beam specimens have been fabricated in to two identical groups; each group consisted of ten specimens. The first group was tested under monotonic static loading to failure and regarded as control beams, while the specimens of the second group were subjected to ten cycles of repeated loading with constant load interval, which ranged between 40% and 60% of ultimate load. S
... Show MoreIn this work, a series of new maleimides linked to substituted benzothiazole moiety were synthesized. Synthesis of these new cyclic imides were performed via three steps, the first one involved preparation of a series of 2-aminobenzothiazole substituted with different substituents via reaction of different primary aromatic amines with ammonium thiocyanate and bromine in glacial acetic acid. The prepared 2- amino benzothiozoles were introduced in the second step in reaction with maleic anhydride producing a series of N-(substituted benzothiazole-2-yl) maleamic acids.The resulted maleamic acids were dehydrated in the third step via treatment with acetic anhydride and anhydrous sodium acetate to afford a series of the desirable N-(substitu
... Show MoreIntroduction: Candida spp. has become increasingly resistant to antifungal drugs, with elevated MIC levels causing a negative medical impact and increasing the number of patients at risk of candidiasis. According to the CDC, about 7% of Candida blood samples show reduced susceptibility to fluconazole. Monitoring the antifungal resistance profile of Candida spp. is vital, as non-Albicans species may limit treatment options. Objective: Evaluate the antifungal effectiveness against clinical Candida spp. isolates of six antifungals: amphotericin B, fluconazole, voriconazole, itraconazole, caspofungin, and 5-fluorocytosine. Methods: 100 samples were collected from various clinical samples at the National Centre of Teaching Laboratories
... Show MoreFor structural concrete members that may expose to serious earthquake, overload or accident impact, the design of ductility must be given the same importance as the flexural strength. The aim of this investigation is to study the change in ductility of structural concrete flexural members during their exposure to limited cycles of repeated loading. Twenty full-scale beam specimens have been fabricated in to two identical groups; each group consisted of ten specimens. The first group was tested under monotonic static loading to failure and regarded as control beams, while the specimens of the second group were subjected to ten cycles of repeated loading with constant load interval, which ranged between 40% and 60% of ultimate load. S
... Show MorePlasma physics and digital image processing technique (DIPT) were utilized in this research to show the effect of the cold plasma (plasma needle) on blood cells. The second order statistical features were used to study this effect. Different samples were used to reach the aim of this paper; the patients have leukemia and their leukocytes number was abnormal. By studying the results of statistical features (mean, variance, energy and entropy), it is concluded that the blood cells of the sample showed a good response to the cold plasma.