ARO-THE SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL OF KOYA UNIVERSITY
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Bacterial Profile and Antimicrobial Susceptibility of Isolates Recovered from Lower Respiratory Tract Infection for Patients in Rizgary Hospital, Erbil
Get PDFRecognition of etiologies of lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI) may help in delivering effective treatment options and circumvent emergence of antibiotic resistance. This study was carried out to uncover bacterial profile and antibiotic sensitivity patterns among 310 LRTI patients attended Rizagary Hospital between January 2014 to December 2016. Standard laboratory techniques were applied in collecting, processing, and culturing sputum and bronchial wash specimens. VITEK® 2 compact systems were used to identify bacteria and their antibiotic sensitivity patterns. Results showed that Streptococcus parasanguinis and Acinetobacter baumannii were the most abundant gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria (GPB & GNB), respectively, isolated from sputum specimens. From bronchial wash specimens, only GNB were detected and Serratia marcescens was the most abundant one. Antibiotic sensitivity tests revealed that Streptococcus parasanguinis was the most resistant GPB and Acinetobacter baumannii was the most resistant GNB. Sputum recovered GPB were highly resistant to Ampicillin, Erythromycin, Levofloxacin, Trimethoprim/Sulfamethoxazole, and Tetracycline. Bronchial wash recovered GNB were highly resistant to Ampicillin, Minocycline, Pefloxacin, Piperacillin, and Ticarcillin. In conclusion, LRTIs are mainly associated with GNB rather than GPB. The recovered Streptococcus parasanguinis and Acinetobacter baumannii were found to be multidrug-resistant pathogens. Ampicillin was ineffective against any of recovered pathogenic bacteria
Cloud Storage Protection Scheme Based on Fully Homomorphic Encryption
Get PDFCloud computing allows enterprises and individuals to have a less physical infrastructure of software and hardware. Nevertheless, there are some concerns regarding privacy protection which may turn out to be a strong barrier. Traditional encryption schemes have been used to encrypt the data before sending them to the cloud. However, the private key has to be provided to the server before any calculations on the data. To solve this security problem, this paper proposes a fully homomorphic encryption scheme for securing cloud data at rest. The scheme is based on prime modular operation, its security depends on factoring multiple large prime numbers (p1, p2,...pn) up to n, which is formed from very large prime numbers up to hundreds of digits as this is an open problem in mathematics. In addition, the elements of the secret key are derived from a series of mathematical operations and the calculation of an Euler coefficient within the modular of integers. Furthermore, it adds the complexity of noise to the plaintext using the number of users of the Cloud Service Provider. Moreover, its randomness is evaluated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology statistical tests, and the results demonstrating that the best statistical performance was obtained with this algorithm
Moderate Range Static Magnetic Field Promoted Variation of Blood Parameters: An In vitro Study
Get PDFThis study was undertaken to investigate the influence of a homogenous and uniform static magnetic field (SMF) on the main blood cell counts in vitro experiment. Fresh blood samples were collected from albino rats and exposed to SMF (2.4, 6, 25, 50, 75, and 100 mT) versus 15–60 min. Results showed a significant change of blood counts under the low field effects. A 2.4 mT was a trend of white blood cells (WBCs) count increase non-linearly. However, a 6 mT exposure reduced WBCs with about 39%. Other variations fluctuated within 30%. The 25 mT decreased red blood cells (RBCs), hemoglobin, and hematocrit levels with 13% similarly. The lower exposure field, (2.4 and 6) mT, and effects on RBCs were 6% fluctuation. The 6 mT reduced platelet counts with half in comparison to control blood samples. About 20% increase obtained due to 50 mT exposure during all period. None of 75 and 100 mT exposures dominated blood counts alterations. The quiet magnetic field exposure for a certain time can be interesting to control blood cell count-related diseases
Influence of Natural Fibers on the Performance of Hot Mix Asphalt for the Wearing Course of Pavement
Get PDFCracking in the flexible pavement is a serious problem that reduces the service life of the roads pavement unless they are treated with great care. Since flexible pavement is very weaker in tension than in compression, it is usually necessary to consider the tensile stresses and some type of additives to improve asphaltpavement performance, and one of the most effective ways of improving asphalt pavement performance is to reinforce asphalt mixtures by incorporating natural fibers. The main objective of this study is to use palm fiber, which is locally available, in hot mix asphalt mixtures. To achieve this objective, the Marshall test and indirect tensile strength test were conducted on four asphalt mixtures with different types of natural fibers (Coconut, Corn, Palm, and Sisal), added in varying percentages 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, and 0.5% and different lengths of fiber 0.5, 1, 1.5, and 2 cm. Based on the analyzed results, it can be concluded that the use of palm fiber increased the Marshall stability by 20% as compared with the conventional mixture and raised up the retained tensile strength ratio up to 92%. Finally, the use of 0.2% content of natural fiber at 1.5 cm length gave a better performance for the mixtures
Petrophysical Investigation of the Khurmala Formation in Taq Taq Oil Field, Zagros Folded Belt
Get PDFThe Tertiary rocks of Khurmala Formation in the Taq Taq oil field have been studied using wireline log analysis, drilling cutting descriptions with integration of mud logging report, and test results for understanding reservoir potentiality and fluid distribution. The formation comprised dolostone and dolomitic limestone with an intercalation of clay layers between the recognized beds. The formation has variable thickness throughout the field, 99.8 m from the northeastern limb and 109 m in the southeastern plunge. The calculated shale volume in the studied interval shows a high rate of the clay contents which in some points the gamma ray has 100% of shale. The corrected log-derived bulk porosity subdivided the Khurmala Formation into 5 porosity units from the top to the bottom including (Kh-1, Kh-2, Kh-3, Kh-4, and Kh-5). The first (Kh-1), third (Kh-3), and fifth (Kh-5) porosity units have the average porosity ≥0.10 (10%) that can be considered as good reservoir unit in terms of porosity, whereas the shale contents reduced the reservoir quality of these units. However, well hydrocarbon entrapment through interconnected fractures and fault in the other Tertiary reservoir was recorded in Taq Taq field , but the weak connectivity of the pores in the Khurmala Formation caused this rock interval remains as water bearing zone
Theoretical Study of Diels-Alder Reaction of But-3-en-2-one with Hexa-1,2,4-triene: A Density Functional Theory Study
No full textThe Diels-Alder reaction between but-3-en-2-one with hexa-1,2,4-triene was studied using density functional theory method at B3LYP-D3/6-311++G(d,p) level of theory. The geometries of the transition states were determined. Moreover, calculations of the vibrational frequencies permitted computation of the activation enthalpies and entropies. The computational results show that the cycloadducts from trans conformer have the lower relative energies (−46.48 and −47.50 kcal/mol) as compared to the cis conformer of cycloadducts (−44.45 and −45.87 kcal/mol). The global reactivity indices were analyzed at the ground state of reactants to predict the reactivity of the studied organic molecules in the cycloaddition reactions. The electronic chemical potential of hexa-1,2,4-trien found to be than but-3-en-2-one, which indicates that the net charge transfer will be from hexa-1,2,4-trien toward the electron-deficient but-3-en-2-one reactant
An Area-efficient Microstrip Diplexer with a Novel Structure and Low Group Delay for Microwave Wireless Applications
Get PDFIn this work, a novel structure of a microstrip diplexer consisting of coupled patch cells is presented. It works at 2.5 GHz and 4.7 GHz for wireless applications. The proposed structure is well miniaturized with a compact area of 0.015 λg2, fabricated on 0.787 mm substrate height. It has two wide fractional bandwidths (FBWs) of 28% and 17.9% at the lower and upper channels, respectively. Another feature of the proposed design is the low group delays, which are better than 0.4 ns for both channels. Moreover, the designed diplexer can suppress the harmonics up to 10 GHz. Meanwhile, the insertion losses at both channels are low. The design method is based on proposing an approximated equivalent LC circuit of a novel basic resonator. The information about the resonator behavior is extracted from the even and odd modes analysis of the proposed equivalent LC circuit. Finally, our introduced diplexer is fabricated and measured to verify the simulation results, where the simulated and measured results are in good agreement
Effect of Modeling Techniques on the Simulation: Calculating the Stress Concentration Factors in Square Hollow Section T-Joints as a Case Study
Get PDFThe capability of the simulation software motivates the engineers to analyze the stress in complex welded joints where ordinary mathematical expression may lack. However, unfortunately, the simulations were interpreted mechanically without considering the simulation parameters deeply. For this reason, this research aims to study the effect of simulation parameters on the stress concentration factor of square hollow sections structures using ANSYS workbench. In this context, two main meshing techniques (face split vs. slicing) and various behavior of materials (linear vs. nonlinear) having been considered. The outputs of the investigations revealed the superiority of the materials nonlinearity over linear behavior in terms of results acceptability comparing to their corresponding real-life ones. For instance, the supercritical fluid of nonlinear plastic material estimated to be 14 which was closest to the 12 obtained experimentally by Mashiri et al. In addition to that, face split technique outperformed the slicing in terms of result accuracy and solving time. Solving the face split model elapsed 254 s only which is dramatically less than the minimum time (1605 s) of sliced models. This is because any slicing process will lead to the formation of the contact elements at interfaces and uncomfortable meshing which may in turn adversely effect on the simulation efficiency
Design and Performance of Microstrip Diplexers: A Review
Get PDFThe radiofrequency microstrip diplexers are widely demanded nowadays by modern wireless communication systems. Hence, several types of previously reported microstrip diplexers are reviewed and investigated in this work. Microstrip diplexers are three ports devices used for separating desired signals and delivering them through two (or more) different channels. The diplexers are investigated in three categories of dual-channel bandpass-bandpass diplexers, multichannel diplexers, and lowpassbandpass diplexers. The investigated multi-channel diplexers include a number of four-channel, six-channel, and eight-channel diplexers. Due to the hard design process, the number of reported diplexers with more than four channels is limited. The layout structures and theory design methods of the previously reported diplexers are studied. Moreover, their size and performance are compared while some explanations about their advantages and disadvantages are presented. This comparison includes insertion loss, return loss, fractional bandwidths, isolation, selectivity, and gaps between channels
Spectrophotometric Indirect Determination of Captopril through Redox Reaction with n-bromosuccinimide and RB dye in Pharmaceutical Products
Get PDFA simple, accurate, and sensitive method for the spectrophotometric determination of captopril in bulk and dosage forms is reported. The method is based on the bromination of captopril with excess solution of n-bromosuccinimide (NBS) in HCl acid medium. The excess NBS is pursued by the assessment of the residual NBS based on its ability to bleach the rhodamine B dye and measuring the absorbance at 555 nm. The amount of NBS reacted coincides to the drug content. The different experimental parameters influencing the development and stability of the color are precisely studied and optimized. Beer’s law is valid within a concentration range of 0.3–1.0 μg/mL with a correlation coefficient R2 = 0.991. The limit of detection 0.169 μg/mL is attained and relative standard deviation values for five replicated measurements of 0.3, 0.7, and 1.0 μg/mL captopril were between 0.53% and 2.03%. No interference is detected from prevalent additives found in pharmaceutical preparations. The proposed method is profitably put on to the determination of captopril in the tablet formulations with mean recoveries 98.91–101.27% and the results were statistically confronted with those of a reference method by applying Student’s t-and F-test