Salivary peroxidases have biological functions of particular importance to oral health. The aim of this paper is to shed the light on saliva and serum total peroxidases activity as well as the activity of each of salivary peroxidase (SPO) and myeloperoxidase (MPO) in patients with oral tumors. The studied participants were divided into two groups: the first group included 18 oral squamous cell carcinoma patients and 20 age and gender-matched healthy controls while the second group consisted of 20 oral ossifying fibroma patients and 23 age and gender-matched healthy controls. Total peroxidases activity was determined, and its specific activity was calculated in serum and whole mixed saliva as well as in the supernatant and pellet fractions of saliva. Furthermore, the activities of SPO and MPO were determined in each of saliva’s supernatants and saliva’s pellet fractions, and the thiocyanate (SCN-) concentration was measured in the supernatants fraction only. The results indicated the presence of a significant increase in the activity of both total peroxidase and MPO (p = 0.0001) in the salivary supernatants of oral squamous cell carcinoma patients relative to the control group. A significant increase (p = 0.0001) in total peroxidase activity in patients with oral ossifying fibroma was also found in serum compared with healthy individuals. In this study, we have shown that the measurement of total peroxidase and MPO activities in saliva may be used as an adjuvant tool for monitoring patients with oral malignancies
Lying is a controversial issue as it is closely related to one's intended meaning to achieve certain pragmatic functions. The use of lying in literary works is closely related to the characters’ pragmatic functions as in the case of Miller's The Crucible where it is used as a deceptive complex phenomenon that cannot be observed out of context. That is, the use of lying as a deceptive phenomenon represents a violation to Grices's Maxims. Thus, the study aims to qualitatively examine the kinds of maxims being violated, the kinds of violations conducted, the strategies followed in the violations, and the pragmatic functions behind such violations across the different categories of lies. To this end, the (30) extracts fou
... Show MoreVarious theories have been proposed since in last century to predict the first sighting of a new crescent moon. None of them uses the concept of machine and deep learning to process, interpret and simulate patterns hidden in databases. Many of these theories use interpolation and extrapolation techniques to identify sighting regions through such data. In this study, a pattern recognizer artificial neural network was trained to distinguish between visibility regions. Essential parameters of crescent moon sighting were collected from moon sight datasets and used to build an intelligent system of pattern recognition to predict the crescent sight conditions. The proposed ANN learned the datasets with an accuracy of more than 72% in comp
... Show MoreHumor is an interesting phenomenon that has been studied widely, yet it is considered a universal trait that cannot be an old subject for a study. This study is conducted to investigate humor from a universal pragmatic lens in a stand-up comedy show, namely, You Wanna Hear Something Crazy?. It aims to study humor as a coin with two sides, the production side and the understanding side. To achieve the aim of the study, the researchers use an eclectic contains Grice’s CP model (1975) and Habermas’s UP model (1979, 1984, 1987, 1998). The study has noted that while using the observance and the non-observance of the cooperative maxims to produce humor, the universal validity claims of truth, sincerity, and normative rightness for rea
... Show MoreThe study aimed to identify the perceptions of social studies teachers in the Governorate of Muscat about the importance of employing the skills of the twenty-first century in teaching. The study employed a qualitative approach. The two researchers used an analytical approach based on the Grounded Theory, the data was gathered through semi-structured interviews with (15) male and female teachers. The results indicated that social studies teachers relate the twenty-first-century skills more to improving students’ achievement level in the subject, while they see that these skills have less influence in developing students’ communication skills and cooperation with their peers. In light of the results of the study, the two researchers r
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