Investigation of Bacterial Persistence and Filaments Formation in Clinical Klebsiella pneumoniae: First Report from Iraq

Bacterial persistence is recognized as a major cause of antibiotic therapy failure, causing biofilms, and chronic intractable infections. The emergence of persisters in Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates has become a worldwide public health concern. The goal of the present study is to investigate the formation of persister cells beside filaments in Iraqi K. pneumoniae isolates. A total of fifty clinical K. pneumoniae isolates were collected from different clinical specimens and identified using the genotypic identification by using specific primer (rpoB gene) from housekeeping genes. Persister cells investigation is performed by exposure of stationary phase K. pneumoniae isolates to a high concentration of ciprofloxacin (×10 MIC) and counting the number of viable persister cells by CFU counts. Bacterial filament formation is detected and measured by light microscope scanning electron microscope. The results show the  bility of these pathogenic bacteria to form persister cells to survive the bactericidal antibiotics and to cause chronic infection.Furthermore, persistent isolates have the ability to change in shape and size extensively, about 4 times increase in cell length than their normal length. These phenomena are possibly the initial stages of bacterial resistance prevalence

The commitment of The Jordanian Industrial Companies in Applying Environmental Accounting

Accounting ideology is becoming highly concerned with the environmental responsibility. This study diagnoses the importance of environmental accounting principles of all enterprises .Environmental commitment calls for the need to evaluate any project in terms of its contribution to its environmental responsibilities. This study aims at assessing the environmental responsibility unit of Jordan’s Industrial Companies listed at ASE, and how the financial department in each company copes with the environmental aspects. Study results have indicated that all Jordan’s Industrial Companies are in general committed towards environmental accounting and they keep pace to the developments in this field. Results also revealed that environmental accounting function in industrial corporations keeps pace with the developments in environmental accounting. Key Words: Environmental Accounting, Hypothesis Testing, Validity, Reliability JEL Codes:  Q56, C12 ,C520,Q26

Estimation of Umbilical Artery Resistive Index in Pregnant Women with Preeclampsia in Al-Najaf Province

اجريت هذه الدراسة على105 مريضة مصابة بتسمم الحمل بالإضافة الى 105 مريضة اخرى غير مصابة بتسمم الحمل في محافظة النجف من شهر التاسع 2017 الى شهر الخامس 2018.  . تم اجراء السونار الدوبلر الملون لكل المريضات المصابات بتسمم الحمل وغير المصابات بالإضافة الى مجموعة السيطرة لقياس معامل الممانعة الوعائية لشريان الحبل السري. وبينت النتائج بوجود فرق معنوي في قياس معامل الممانعة الوعائية لشريان الحبل السري (0.658±0.304) فيما يخص الحوامل المصابات بالمقارنة بالحوامل الغير مصابات (0.571±0.215). بالإضافة الى ذلك تم قياس معامل الممانعة الوعائية للحوامل المصابات بتسمم الحمل حسب شدة الاصابة, وكانت (0.577±0.301) في الاقل شدة بينما كانت (0.813±0.247) في الاكثر شدة ويوجد بينهما فرق معنوي (PV اقل من 0.05). وكذلك هذه الدراسة بينت ان قياس معامل الممانعة الوعائية للحبل السري للحوامل المصابات بتسمم الحمل بالإضافة الى اصابتها بجرثومة المعدة (1.11±0.319) اكثر من الحوامل المصابات بتسمم الحمل وغير مصابات بجرثومة المعدة بنسبة (0.919±0.25) بفرق معنوي اقل من 0.5. نستنتج من ذلك ان معامل قياس معامل الممانعة الوعائية لشريان الحبل السري ذا فائدة في تشخيص تسمم الحمل وشدته وكذلك له فائدة في تنبؤ حدوث الاصابة الموجبة بجرثومة المعدة وارتباطها بتسمم الحمل.This study was carried out on 105 pregnant women with preeclampsia in addition to 105 pregnant women without preeclampsia as a control at Al-Najaf province from September ,2017-May 2018. All the included patients were examined by Doppler study to assess the resistive index of umbilical artery RI in preeclamptic pregnant patients with PE and pregnant women without PE. The results reveals that there was  significant difference of umbilical artery RI  0.658±0.304,  concerning preeclamptic pregnant patients in comparison to pregnant women without PE(0.571±0.215) , ( PV lesser than0.05) .                                                                            In addition to that the umbilical artery RI was (0.577±0.301) in preeclamptic pregnant patient  with mild PE  while it was (0.813±0.247) in preeclamptic pregnant patient with severe PE which displayed a statistically significant difference( PV less than0.05).Also this study showed  that the umbilical artery RI in preeclamptic pregnant patients with H. pylori was(1.11±0.319) which was  greater than that for preeclamptic pregnant patients  without H. pylori (0.919±0.25) with a statistically significant difference ( PV less than 0.5). It was concluded that Umbilical artery resistive index is a useful parameter in detection of preeclampsia and its severity and the umbilical artery resistive index might be useful parameter in prediction of infection of positive H. pylori infection associated with preeclampsia

Dissipation of Hydraulic Energy by Curved Baffle Blocks

Experimental evaluation of the effects of relative size, curvature and location of curved floor baffle blocks in the dissipation of energy and control of hydraulic jump is presented. The flow over floor blocks with curved upstream edges (in plan) was described by a set of dimensionless ratios using dimensional analysis techniques. The solution was evaluated in the laboratory with respect to measurable elements of the flow. The results have indicated that, for all flow conditions, the curved blocks are generally more effective in lowering the downstream kinetic energy than regular straight edges blocks; thereby, creating optimum flow conditions having lower capacity for erosion of the downstream channel bed together with economy in structural requirements

Multiplateau structure in photoemission spectra of strong-field ionization of dense media

Strong-field ionization of dense molecular gases in a short infrared laser pulse is studied by means of photoelectron spectroscopy combined with a liquid microjet technique. By increasing the gas density, we observe how the laser- assisted electron scattering on neighboring particles becomes a dominant mechanism of hot electron emission. The angle-resolved energy distributions of rescattered electrons are obtained by analyzing the density dependency of emission spectra. A semiclassical consideration of electron trajectories is shown to provide a good description of experimental spectra. The model predicts the existence of four energy plateaus. Two cutoffs at higher energies are evident in the spectra

Knowledge and practices on i-Ta'aleem and other educational technologies among International Islamic University Malaysia Kulliyyah of Medicine lecturers

Technologies in the classroom require teacher’s knowledge and skills in utilizing it. Teaching for medical student can be different in some areas. To date, no studies has been conducted on the use of technologies among medical lecturer in International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM). Thus, the objective of this survey is to determine the level of awareness, practice and perception of learning management system (i-Ta’aleem) and educational technologies among Kulliyyah of Medicine (KOM) lectures. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among all IIUM KOM lecturers. Only 26.1% responded to the self-administered questionnaire which was distributed via google form for one month. Descriptive analysis was used to analyze the background information and their awareness, practice and perception. Results: Majority of the respondents were male (56.8%), permanent staff (94.6%) with mean years of service at IIUM was6.7. Most of them owned technology tools [smartphone (100%), personal computer (73.0%), tablet (54.1%) and laptop (97.3%)]. All of them heard about i-Ta’aleem. However, 78.4% never use i-Ta’aleem and only a small percentage of them always uses other technologies for their teaching and learning (2.7% to 5.4%) except the usage of laptop (48.6%) and projector (59.5%). Conclusion: Although the lecturers were aware about i-Ta’aleem and owned high technology tools and gadget, only a small percentage of them use it in teaching activities

Rapid thermal annealing: An efficient method to improve the electrical properties of tellurium compensated Interfacial Misfit GaSb/GaAs heterostructures

The effect of thermal annealing on Te compensated Interfacial Misfit GaSb/GaAs heterostructures is investigated by using two different thermal annealing procedures, namely rapid thermal annealing and furnace annealing. The electrical properties of the devices are studied by using Current–Voltage, Capacitance–Voltage and Deep Level Transient Spectroscopy techniques. It is observed that rapid thermal annealing treatment is superior in terms of improvement of the electrical characteristics compared to furnace annealing treatment. The lowest leakage current and defect concentration are obtained when rapid thermal annealing is employed

Effect of Magnetic Field on Peroxidase Activity and Growth of Panicum miliaceum L. Seeds

In latest years in agricultural sector, physical techniques based on magnetic field are being designed. The present work studied the impact of magnetic field on the germination of fresh and partially-aged Panicum miliaceum L. (PM) seeds. The germinated PM seeds were categorized into 6 groups. Groups 1,2 and 3 were fresh seeds, and Groups 4, 5 and 6 (LV30%) were left for 6 days to lose about 30% of their viabilityLV30% seeds. Groups 1 and 4 were normal unexposed seeds. Groups 2 and 5 were seeds exposed to magnetic field intensity of 100mT, while those of 3 and 6 to 200mT for 60 minutes. Germination was monitored on days 2, 5, 7, 10, 12, 14 and 16. The effect of magnetic field on the % germination, growth characteristics of radical and shoot, protein concentration and peroxidase activity in fresh and LV30%were studied. Both the exposed and unexposed seeds lost their viability by 16 days of ageing in fresh and 14 days in (LV30%). Exposed seeds to magnetic fields 100 and 200 mT revealed significant increase in the length of root and shoot compared to normal unexposed seeds. The magnetically exposed aged seeds had significantly higher protein than in the unexposed aged seeds. The peroxidase activity decreased with ageing and the magnetically exposed seeds showed higher activity than the corresponding aged unexposed normal seeds. The present study suggests the magnetic field could accelerate the germination of PM seeds, accelerate their growth characteristics and increase soluble protein content. In addition the peroxidase activity significantly improved