A cumulative review with a systematic approach aimed to provide a comparison of studies’ investigating the possible impact of the active form of vitamin D3, calcitriol (CTL), on the tooth movement caused by orthodontic forces (OTM) by evaluating the quality of evidence, based on collating current data from animal model studies, in vivo cell culture studies, and human clinical trials. Methods: A strict systematic review protocol was applied following the application of the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO). A structured search strategy, including main keywords, was defined during detailed search with the application of electronic database systems: Medline/Pubmed, EMBASE, Scopus, Web of Science, and PsycINFO. In addition, a search was carried out with the use of ClinicalTrials.gov search in order to include ongoing or recently completed trials. The Oxford Level of Evidence and the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) approach was utilized to critically evaluate the risk of bias and relative quality of studies included. Meta-analysis with the use of RevMan5 software, random effect, and inverted variable method allowed the quantification of cumulative results. Results: Twenty-seven studies were identified which fulfilled inclusion criteria, including two clinical studies. The assessed level of evidence was variable and inconsistent, predominantly being moderate or low due to a significant difference in study design, sample size, and study protocols. Data synthesis rendered from meta-analysis involving various CTL doses demonstrated slight discrepancies in tooth movement between control and experimental groups (mean difference = 0.27; 95% CI: 0.01–0.53, std mean difference = 0.49; 95% CI: 0.09–0.89), as well as relatively moderate heterogenicity. Conclusions: Although it has been suggested that CTL could accelerate OTM in animal studies and clinical context, these scarce data were supported by a low level of evidence and the studies were carried out using inadequate sample size. Well-powered RCT studies would help to overcome the lack of robustness of the research.
There are still areas around the world suffer from severe shortage of freshwater supplies. Desalination technologies are not widely used due to their high energy usage, cost, and environmental damaging effects. In this study, a mathematical model of single-bed adsorption desalination system using silica gel-water as working pair is developed and validated via earlier experiments. A very good match between the model predictions and the experimental results is recorded. The objective is to reveal the factors affecting the productivity of fresh water and cooling effect in the solar adsorption system. The proposed model is setup for solving within the commercially-available software (Engineering Equation Solver). It is implemented to so
... Show MoreWater flow into unsaturated porous media is governed by the Richards’ partial differential equation expressing the mass conservation and Darcy’s laws. The Richards’ equation may be written in three forms,where the dependent variable is pressure head or moisture content, and the constitutive relationships between water content and pressure head allow for conversion of one form into the other. In the present paper, the “moisture-based" form of Richards’ equation is linearized by applying Kirchhoff’s transformation, which
combines the soil water diffusivity and soil water content. Then the similarity method is used to obtain the analytical solution of wetting front position. This exact solution is obtained by means of Lie’s
The present study aims to remove nickel ions from solution of the simulated wastewater using (Laminaria saccharina) algae as a biosorbent material. Effects of experimental parameters such as temperature at (20 - 40) C⁰, pH at (3 - 7) at time (10 - 120) min on the removal efficiency were studied.
Box-Wilson method was adopted to obtain a relationship between the above three experimental parameters and removal percentage of the nickel ions. The experimental data were fitted to second order polynomial model, and the optimum conditions for the removal process of nickel ions were obtained.
The highest removal percentage of nickel ions obtained was 98.8 %, at best operating conditions (Temperature 35 C⁰, pH 5 and Time 10 min).
This paper deals with the determination of stresses and deflections of clamped circular diaphragm strengthened by one or two ring-shaped concentric ribs, under uniform static and dynamic pressures. The simulation has been achieved by using the well-known engineering software finite element package MSC/NASTRAN.
As a design study, the effect of using a clamped ring, and the effect of using a ring-shaped rib on both surfaces of diaphragm instead of one, has been discussed in this work. To show the effectiveness of this study, results of this work have been compared with published data [1].
In the conclusion, the authors underline the validity of the&n
... Show MoreBackground: The use of minerals in treatment of different diseases is as old as man himself. zinc is the most famous trace mineral related to male sexual function. Oligoasthenozoospermic subfertile patients were treated with zinc sulphate for three months.
Objectives: Aim of the research is to investigate the role of Zinc and if it affects the abnormalities of some semen parameters and to study the possible role of pharmaceutical preperations of zinc in amelioration of male subfertility as well as to assess the ability of Zinc to induce changes in the serum and semen zinc levels in addition to the levels of reproductive hormones (FSH and Testosterone).
Type of the study:
... Show MoreLeigh's syndrome, or sub acute necrotizing encephalomyelopathy, is a rare inherited neurometabolic disease of infancy and early childhood with variable course and prognosis. Rarely, it occurs in juveniles and adults. The diagnosis is difficult and still remains to challenge the clinicians on the basis of history; hence the role of imaging is very essential. It is the neuroimaging, chiefly the Magnetic Resonance Imaging showing characteristic symmetrical necrotic lesions in the basal ganglia and/or brain stem that leads to the diagnosis. Late-onset varieties are rare and only few cases were reported all over the world. Here, I report a case of late onset (juvenile) Leigh syndrome presenting with an acute polyneuropathy. Neuroimaging confi
... Show MoreWe present the notion of bipolar fuzzy k-ideals with thresholds (
The aerodynamic characteristics of general three-dimensional rectangular wings are considered using non-linear interaction between two-dimensional viscous-inviscid panel method and vortex ring method. The potential flow of a two-dimensional airfoil by the pioneering Hess & Smith method was used with viscous laminar, transition and turbulent boundary layer to solve flow about complex configuration of airfoils including stalling effect. Viterna method was used to extend the aerodynamic characteristics of the specified airfoil to high angles of attacks. A modified vortex ring method was used to find the circulation values along span wise direction of the wing and then interacted with sectional circulation obtained by Kutta-Joukowsky the
... Show MoreA load-shedding controller suitable for small to medium size loads is designed and implemented based on preprogrammed priorities and power consumption for individual loads. The main controller decides if a particular load can be switched ON or not according to the amount of available power generation, load consumption and loads priorities. When themaximum allowed power consumption is reached and the user want to deliver power to additional load, the controller will decide if this particular load should be denied receiving power if its priority is low. Otherwise, it can be granted to receive power if its priority is high and in this case lower priority loads are automatically switched OFF in order not to overload the power generation. The
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