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 thesis aims to study the effect of addition polymer materials on mechanical properties of self-compacting concrete, and also to assess the influence of petroleum products (kerosene and gas oil) on mechanical properties of polymer modified self-compacting concrete (PMSCC) after different exposure periods of (30 ,60 ,90 ,and 180 days).
Two type of curing are used; 28 days in water for SCC and 2 days in water followed 26 days in air for PMSCC.
The test results show that the PMSCC (15% P/C ratio) which is exposed to oil products recorded a lower deterioration in compressive strength's values than reference concrete. The percentages of reduction in compressive strength values of PMSCC (15% P/C ratio) was
... Show MoreStatic loads exposing to mechanical components can cause cracks, which are lead to form stress concentration regions causing the failure of structure. Generally, from 80% to 90% of structure failure is due to initiation of the cracks. Therefore, it is necessary to repair the crack and reduce its effect on the structure where the effect of the crack is modelled as an additional flexibility to the structure. In the last few years, piezoelectric materials have been considered as one of the most favourable repairing techniques. The piezoelectric material converts the applied voltage on it to a bending moment to counter the bending moment caused by the external load on the beam at the crack location. In this study, the design of the piez
... Show MoreIn this paper the effect of engagement length, number of teeth, amount of applied load, wave propagation time, number of cycles, and initial crack length on the principal stress distribution, velocity of crack propagation, and cyclic crack growth rate in a spline coupling subjected to cyclic torsional impact have been investigated analytically and experimentally. It was found that the stresses induced due to cyclic impact loading are higher than the stresses induced due to impact loading with high percentage depends on the number of cycles and total loading time. Also increasing the engagement length and the number of teeth reduces the principal stresses (40%) and
(25%) respectively for increasing the engagement length from (0.15 to 0
Gas lift is one of the artificial lift techniques which it is frequently implemented to raise oil production. Conventionally, the oil wells produce depending on the energy of reservoir pressure and solution gas which declines due to continuous production. Therefore, many oil wells after a certain production time become unable to lift oil to the surface. Thus, the continuity of production requires implementation of gas lift which works to decrease the average fluid density in the tubing by injection gas through the annulus into the tubing. This paper aims to get maximum oil production of an Iraqi giant oil field at optimum injected gas rate. The field is located in south of Iraq and in
This paper discusses a comparative study to relate parametric and non-parametric mode decomposition algorithms for response-only data. Three popular mode decomposition algorithms are included in this study: the Eigensystem Realization Algorithm with the Natural Excitation Technique (NExT-ERA) for the parametric algorithm, as well as the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and the Independent Component Analysis (ICA) for the non-parametric algorithms. A comprehensive parametric study is provided for (i) different response types, (ii) excitation types, (iii) system damping, and (iv) sensor spatial resolution to compare the mode shapes and modal coordinates of using a 10-DOF building model. The mode decomposition results are also compared using
... Show MoreThe inhibitory action of four lactobacilli isolates Lactobacillus bulgaricus, L. acidophilus, L. plantarum and L. fermentum, isolated from four different samples; yoghurt, vinegar, saliva and vagina respectively, on Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus adhesion to uroepithelial cells were investigated. Results showed that all Lactobacillus isolates or their supernatant were able to reduce the number of the uropathogens attached to uroepithelial cells. However, inhibition level of lactobacilli cells was higher than their supernatant. Nevertheless, the human indigenous lactobacilli (L. fermentum and L. plantarum) were more competitive than food lactobacilli (L. acidophilus and L. bulgaricus).
An experimental program was conducted to determine the residual of composite Steel Beams-Reinforced Concrete (SB-RC) deck floors fabricated from a rolled steel beam topped with a reinforced concrete slab, exposed to high temperatures (fire flame) of 300, 500, and 700ºC for 1 hour, and then allowed to cool down by leaving them in the lab condition to return to the ambient temperature. The burning results showed that, by exposing them to a fire flame of up to 300ºC, no serious permanent deflection occurred. It was also noticed that the specimen recovered 93% of 19.2 mm of the deflection caused by burning. The recovered deflection of burned composite SB-RC deck floor at 500ºC was 40% of 77.9 mm of the deflection caused by burning with a res
... Show More<span lang="EN-US">Proper employment of Hybrid Wind/ PV system is often implemented near the load, and it is linked with the grid to study dynamic stability analysis. Generally, instability is because of sudden load demand variant and variant in renewable sources generation. As well as, weather variation creates several factors that affect the operation of the integrated hybrid system. So this paper introduces output result of a PV /wind via power electronic technique; DC chopper; that is linked to Iraqi power system to promote the facilitating achievement of Wind/ PV voltage. Moreover, PSS/E is used to study dynamic power stability for hybrid system which is attached to an effective region of Iraqi Network. The hybrid system
... Show MoreThe research summarizes the knowledge of the dimensions and denotations of T.V advertisement; and its constituents for building it through the semiotic approach of an ad sample represented by the announcement of Zain Kuwait Telecom Company which carries the title "Mr. President" using Roland Barth's approach, starting with the designation, implicit, and linguistic reading to reach the narrative features and their denotations. That makes television advertising as a semiotic and pragmatic discourse in view of the still and motion picture with its efficiency and strength to inform and communicate. And what lies in it of aesthetic, artistic elements; informational and effective power in influencing the recipients by focusing on narratives and a
... Show MoreThe sensitivity of SnO2 nanoparticles/reduced graphene oxide hybrid to NO2 gas is discussed in the present work using density functional theory (DFT). The SnO2 nanoparticles shapes are taken as pyramids, as proved by experiments. The reduced graphene oxide (rGO) edges have oxygen or oxygen-containing functional groups. However, the upper and lower surfaces of rGO are clean, as expected from the oxide reduction procedure. Results show that SnO2 particles are connected at the edges of rGO, making a p-n heterojunction with a reduced agglomeration of SnO2 particles and high gas sensitivity. The DFT results are in