Detection of Methicillin-resistant and Biofilm-producing Staphylococcus aureus in Bovine Mastitis

The present study was employed to investigate the causative microorganisms responsible for clinical and subclinical mastitis and their antibiotic susceptibility pattern on a private cow farm in Assiut Governorate, Egypt, where a history of recurrent mastitis was the main complaint. In addition, the isolates were investigated for their ability to form biofilm. Forty cows were subjected to a physical examination of the udder and milk using the California mastitis test. Additionally, milk sample collections were obtained, and bacterial specimens were isolated and evaluated for the presence of the mecA gene by PCR. Antibacterial susceptibility assays against the common antibiotics used in the veterinary field were conducted for all isolates obtained. Furthermore, biofilm production by bacterial isolates was detected using the microtiter plate method (MTP) and the activity of specific antibiotics was evaluated against preformed biofilms. About 10% of the examined cows showed clinical signs of mastitis, and 22.2% revealed subclinical mastitis infection when evaluated via the California mastitis test. Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) was isolated from all mastitic cows, which indicated that it was the main causative organism for the infection. Streptococcus spp. were isolated from six mastitic animals. Half of the S. aureus isolates were methicillin-resistant, and 83.33% of them were capable of producing biofilm. All Streptococcus spp. isolates were sensitive to all the antibiotics evaluated in the study. S. aureus isolates in the planktonic form were resistant to oxytetracycline and penicillin. In contrast, S. aureus encased in biofilm were resistant to all the antibiotics used in the study. This research detected highly-virulent S. aureus isolates from clinical and subclinical mastitic cases that carry the mecA gene and produce biofilm. The owner is advised to cull the diseased cows to prevent the spread of these virulent isolates to healthy animals. Also, it is advisable not to treat the diseased cows with the antibiotics evaluated in this study as they were found to be ineffective and may potentially contribute to persistence of the infection

Methodology Options for Hydrogen Safety Analysis

Master's thesis in Risk ManagementThe development of applications using hydrogen as a clean energy carrier has increased in recent years. Hydrogen is versatile and can be used in a wide range of applications. Hydrogen is already being widely used as a chemical feedstock for producing fertilizers and petrochemicals. Hydrogen can be used to power vehicles and generate heat and electricity. A prerequisite for commercial applications of hydrogen is to ensure that the risk associated with its production, storage, transport and use is at least not significantly higher than that of existing fuels. Hydrogen is not inherently more dangerous than other conventional fuels, but it has quite different properties, namely very low ignition energy, wide flammability range, high laminar burning velocity and high buoyancy. Consequence analysis is a critical part of any Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA), which is used to predict the physical effects of the accidental release of flammable materials. A wide range of consequence analysis tools exist, ranging from simple integral tools based on empirical correlations to sophisticated three-dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) tools. Integral tools are easy to use and require less computational time; however, they take limited account of the influence of obstacles on the flow. Whereas CFD tools are more complex and require longer computational time (typically hours or day) and more skills, but they can predict the effect of complex geometries on the flow. Despite the intrinsic differences, CFD tools and integral tools are considered to perform the same task in consequences analysis. Uncertainties are always part of any consequence analysis, especially for emerging applications. Thus, it is important to understand the underlying assumptions and inherent limitations of the available tools, as well as the expected level of accuracy in the results for different types of hazardous scenarios. This study examines and compares the results predicted by the CFD tool (FLACS) and integral tools (FRED, PHAST and EFFECTS) which are used in hydrogen safety studies. The focus is to show where the tools predict similar results and where their results deviate strongly. It includes a description of the physical models used in FLACS, FRED, PHAST and EFFECTS for release modelling of hydrogen gas leak through an orifice from a pressurized storage tank. Release and dispersion simulations are carried out in each of FRED, EFFECTS, PHAST and FLACS for 81 hypothetical hydrogen gas release scenarios in open flat terrain. Then, sensitivity analysis is performed with variations in input parameters such as orifice size, wind speed, release direction, atmospheric stability class and surface roughness length to study their effect on the dispersion of the gas cloud. Finally, dispersion simulations are carried out in FLACS for hydrogen gas release from a dispenser in a refuelling gas station and its corresponding release scenario in open flat terrain to study the effect of obstacles on the dispersion of the gas cloud. A comparison tool was developed using the results produced by the four tools for 72 hydrogen gas release scenarios. The comparison includes the mass flow rate, the downwind distances to lower flammability limit (LFL) and half of lower flammability limit (½ LFL), and the amount of flammable mass between upper and lower flammability limits. The results showed that FLACS, FRED, EFFECTS and PHAST predicted almost the same mass flow rates for hydrogen gas released at 5 bar and 25 bar; however, FLACS predicted higher mass flow rates compared to the other tools for hydrogen gas released at 350 bar. The results of the dispersion simulations conclude that EFFECTS is not recommended for hydrogen safety studies due to the large discrepancies in the results when compared to FLACS, FRED and PHAST. FLACS predicted longer downwind distances to LFL and ½ LFL, and larger amount of flammable mass for most of the considered release scenarios; however, the results need to be compared against experimental results as it is not possible to recommend the use of one tool over the other based only on the results of this study. Hydrogen buoyancy does not prevent the formation of a large flammable cloud. The common argument is that a release of hydrogen gas in an unconfined area will rise and disperse relatively quickly upon release; however, this is not always the case. Hydrogen buoyancy is only valid outside the part of dispersion which is controlled by the jet momentum. From the results, a higher initial pressure produces a jet with higher momentum and the buoyancy force takes longer to dominate the flow. Also, hydrogen gas releases near the ground, tend to deflect towards the ground and cling to it because of an effect known as the Coandă effect. The results showed that this effect increases with the increase in wind speed. Obstacles in the path of the gas cloud help in decreasing the jet momentum and allow the buoyancy to have more effect; however, a large flammable cloud can still be formed

Helium Neon laser therapy for post mastectomy lymphedema and shoulder mobility

The aim of this work was to evaluate the efficacy of Helium Neon (He–Ne) laser therapy on post mastectomy lymphedema and shoulder mobility. Thirty female patients with axillary lymph node dissection (ALND), with or without radiotherapy had been participated in this study. The patients were randomly divided into two groups of equal numbers. Group A received He–Ne laser therapy and decongestive lymphatic therapy. Group B received placebo laser therapy in addition to decongestive lymphatic therapy. Measurements of limb volume and shoulder mobility (by tape measurement and standard goniometer) were collected before treatment and after six months of treatment. The mean values of limb volume and Shoulder mobility after 6 months of treatment showed a significant improvement (p< 0.05) for the two groups of the study with a greater improvement for patients in group A. Conclusion: Helium Neon laser therapy has a positive effect in reducing post mastectomy lymphedema and increasing range of motion of shoulder joint.Keywords: Helium Neon laser; Lymphedema; Mastectomy; Shoulder mobilityThe Egyptian Journal of Medical Human Genetics (2013) 14, 195–19

Isolation, Identification Bacteria and Bioremediation of Soil Contaminate Crude Oil from Specific Area (Baiji_Iraq)

In this paper new eight types of bacteria that degrading crude oil were isolated. The isolated were from Baiji, near Tikrit, the center of Salah al-Din Governorate, IRAQ. The nucleotide sequences of the 16rRNA gene revealed that these isolates belong to the genus Bacillus, Cytobacillus and Staphylococcus. These isolated bacteria proved their ability to degradation petroleum hydrocarbons with varying effectiveness, as Cytobacillus firmus IBMA1 bacteria proved 98% effective in degrading hydrocarbons among the mineral salts in petroleum, Bacillus cereus IBMA3 showed a capacity to crack oil compounds by 92% in the medium of SMS mineral salts agar and Bacillus zhangzhouensis IBMA4 showed a cracking ability of 90% for the compounds present in crude oil. The other bacteria degraded petroleum compound with different rates. Based on it, three species that are big destroyers were taken to bioremediate crude oil containment soil from the same polluted site. The capacity of each basin is 10 kg. Each basin was treated with one type of bacteria over a period of two months.  Then also, gas chromatography (GC) was used for soil samples after one and two months of treatment. The experiment was conducted from 17/2/2022 to 17/4/2022. The biological treatment was done using bacteria and contaminated soil. The results showed that IBMA1 bacteria have a great ability to consume PAHs with a consumption rate of 60.365% and that the lowest concentration of the remaining aromatic hydrocarbons was (6.5ppm), while IBMA3 bacteria showed their ability to consume PAHs with an average of 52.217% within two months. From the treatment, the lowest concentration of the remaining aromatic hydrocarbons was (9ppm) and IBMA4 bacteria showed the minimum ability to consume polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, with a consumption rate of 44.65% as an average consumption, and the lowest remaining concentrations of petroleum hydrocarbons were by (12ppm), while the average consumption of compounds during the two-month treatment period was 39.280%, and the results of the statistical analysis show the superiority of soil treatment with IBMA1 bacteria over IBMA3 bacteria and IBMA4 bacteria at the probability of  P≤0.01

Organizational Readiness and its Role in Developing the Managerial Skills of Managers in the National and Iraqi Insurance Companies

The objective of the research was to determine the role of organizational readiness in the development of management skills from the point of view of a sample of managers in the insurance companies of Aloni and Iraqi and the number of 37 directors, and was based on the questionnaire as a main tool in the collection of data and information, and was analyzed based on the statistical program (SPSS) In extract search results. The research reached the main conclusions: 1) There is a positive and positive relationship between organizational readiness and managerial skills. 2)  There is a significant effect between organizational readiness and managerial skills

Contribution of tumour cell signalling and the microenvironment to the pathogenesis of EBV-associated B cell lymphoma and

In this thesis I have explored different components of the pathogenesis of several related EBV associated cancers. In the first part of the thesis I focus on the microenvironment of two of these cancers, nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL). Our group has developed a therapeutic vaccine against EBV which has already been shown to be safe in patients with NPC. Therefore, in the first results chapter (chapter 3), I present a description of the phenotyping of expression of the immune microenvironment including immune checkpoint (ICP) genes and MHC class I and class II genes in NPC tissues. I showed for the first time in NPC tissue samples, two types of PD-L1 expressing tumours: diffuse and marginal. In re-analysis of published data, I found co-expression of immune checkpoint genes and their receptors in EBV positive NPC samples; information which is likely to inform the design of combination immunotherapy in NPC patients. I have shown in my re-analysis of EBV positive NPC that PD-L1 is not up-regulated by LMP-1. In chapter 4, I show the results of studies of the expression of collagen and collagen receptors in DLBCL in which I have identified the over-expression of a potentially novel immune checkpoint receptor, LAIR-1, on the macrophages infiltrating this tumour. In the second part of the thesis I switch my line of inquiry to the tumour cells of EBV-associated cancers, this time focussing on Hodgkin lymphoma (HL), another EBV-associated lymphoma. During the course of the work presented in this chapter I was able to define a role for aberrant sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) signalling in driving PI3-K activation mediated through up-regulation of S1PR1 and downregulation of S1PR2 receptors in HL. I also showed that in turn, PI3-K signalling increases the expression of potentially oncogenic downstream transcription factors, such as BATF3 which I have shown to be overexpressed in HL. These data suggest that antagonists of S1P could be considered for the treatment of patients with HL

Gray scale and color Doppler sonography in the diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome

AbstractPurposeTo determine the diagnostic accuracy of gray scale and color Doppler sonography in the diagnosis of patients with carpal tunnel syndrome.Patients and methodsA total of 53 wrists in 41 consecutive patients with clinical suspicion of carpal tunnel syndrome, referred from the Department of Physical medicine, Rheumatology & Rehabilitation were examined with ultrasonography using a 12MHz linear array transducer. The presence of median nerve edema, swelling, and bowing of the flexor retinaculum was evaluated by gray scale sonography, while intraneural hypervascularity was evaluated by color Doppler sonography. Sensitivity and specificity were calculated for each sonographic feature and compared with electrodiagnostic test (EDT) results.ResultsElectrodiagnostic tests confirmed carpal tunnel syndrome in 48 wrists. A median nerve cross sectional area (CSA) of 11mm2 was calculated as a definition of median nerve swelling. In comparison with electrodiagnostic tests, median nerve swelling showed the highest accuracy (89%) among the gray scale sonographic criteria, and the presence of median nerve hypervascularization showed the highest accuracy (94%) among all sonographic criteria. Median nerve edema and bowing of the flexor retinaculum showed accuracies of 81% and 77% respectively.ConclusionMedian nerve intraneural hypervascularity detected by color Doppler sonography is more accurate in detection of median nerve involvement than gray scale sonography criteria in patients with suspected carpal tunnel syndrome

The Effectiveness of Using Webinar on Improving Speaking Skills for the Rafah UNRWA Seventh Graders and their Anxiety in Speaking

This study aimed at investigating the effectiveness of using Webinar on improving speaking skills for the Rafah UNRWA seventh graders and their anxiety in speaking. The speaking sub-skills which were the study's focus were fluency, accuracy and comprehensibility. For achieving this aim, the researcher adopted the experimental approach. The sample of the study consisted of (48) female students equally divided into (24) students for the experimental group and (24) students for the control one. It was randomly chosen from Rafah Prep (B) Girls' School. The researcher designed three tools; the achievement test to measure the students' speaking achievement, the observation card to observe the students' speaking development, and the anxiety scale to measure the students' anxiety level when speaking occurred due to the implementation of the experiment. The researcher also used the Web based seminar for implementation and the content analysis as helping tools. The experiment was applied during the first term of 2013-2014 scholastic year and used speaking functions in Grade Seven, English for Palestine, Students' book. The experiment lasted for 8 lessons given online through using webinar. The data were analyzed statistically by using Mann Whitney to measure the differences between the performance of the experimental and control group in the pre and the post test. The effectiveness of using Webinar on developing speaking skills was also measured by using Mann Whitney. The results of the study revealed that the webinar has affected positively students' English language speaking skills. It has also reduced students' speaking anxiety. In the light of those findings, the researcher suggested some recommendations that are hoped to help syllabus designers, supervisors and English language teachers in developing teaching speaking skills. The researcher recommends that the Palestinian teachers should update the latest technology tools to get benefit from their advantages

Tafxi:m in the vowels of Muslawi Qeltu and Baghdadi Gilit dialects of Mesopotamian Arabic

PhD ThesisTafxiːm defines a post-velar place of articulation, under which it may subsume consonantal (C) and vocalic (V) Place features for consonantal and vocalic elements that are the correlates of tafxi:m in sounds specified as underlyingly mufaxxama (heavy or dark) sounds in auditory terms (Jackobson,1957), also called post-velars (PVs). A considerable amount of research on tafxi:m in vowels is done on dialects of Arabic of different linguistic backgrounds (Herzallah, 1990; Zawaydeh, 1999; Shahin 2003). However, not much has been done on tafxi:m in the vowels of Mesopotamian Arabic (MA) dialects, the Muslawi Qəltu (MQ) and Baghdadi Gilit (BG) of two different linguistic backgrounds where tafxi:m in vowels is thought to be driven by the dialect background. In the dialects of Arabic including the Mesopotamian sedentary Muslawi Qəltu and Bedouin Baghdadi Gilit dialects under investigation, the post-velars (PVs) represent sounds with two locations for two manners of articulation: the pharyngeals which include the /ʕ/ and the /ħ/, and the uvulars which include the /q/, the /χ/ and /ʁ/. The third group of sounds are the pharyngealised coronals, the so-called emphatics (i.e. heavy or dark). They are represented with two places of articulation. The coronal place as their primary articulation and the pharyngeal place as their secondary articulation. The pharyngealised coronals include sounds with two manners of articulations; that is the stops /tˤ/, and the fricatives /ðˤ/and /sˤ/. They represent the dark or heavy counterparts of the plain stops /t/, /d/, and the plain fricatives /ð/, /s/ respectively (ibid). Tafxi:m in vowels as driven by PV mufaxxama sounds is defined as lowering, retraction, centralisation or as rounding being conditioned by the nature of articulatory feature (constriction) in the trigger PV mufaxxama and is being conditioned by the presence of particular lexemes identified as secondary mufaxxama. However, the featural manifestations of PVs in vowels, and the presence of secondary mufaxxama is phonologically governed by vowel quality and is specific to a particular language or dialect. In this research, it is found that the featural manifestation of tafxi:m are presented both locally and in long domain as backing and backing and rounding in the /i/ and /a/ vowels in Baghdadi Gilit of Bedouin origin with a significant drop in F2 onset in a uvular and pharyngealised PV context conditioned by lexemes identified as secondary PVs (mufaxxama) and are phonologically driven by the dialect background. III On the other hand, tafxi:m is featured as lowering in the /a/ vowel in Muslawi Qəltu of sedentary origin with a significant rise in F1 onset in a uvular context. In MQ, a sedentary vowel feature known as ʔima:la (vowel fronting) of /u/ and centralisation of /i/ vowels occur in domains where it is present as lowering or retraction of /u/ in Gilit. In long / i:, a:, u:/ vowels, tafxi:m is represented as lowering and centralisation with significant lowering of /i:/ and /u:/ in a uvular context in Muslawi Qəltu compared to /a:/ lowering and centralisation in a pharyngeal and pharyngealized context in Baghdadi Gilit. Tafxi:m is also represented as a feature of harmony which is introduced in non-local vowels as /u/ vowel colouring or /a/ backing in Baghdadi Gilit when secondary mufaxxama sounds are present in the same phonological domain