Objectives Bromelain is a potent proteolytic enzyme that has a unique functionality makes it valuable for various therapeutic purposes. This study aimed to develop three novel formulations based on bromelain to be used as chemomechanical caries removal agents. Methods The novel agents were prepared using different concentrations of bromelain (10–40 wt. %), with and without 0.1–0.3 wt. % chloramine T or 0.5–1.5 wt. % chlorhexidine (CHX). Based on the enzymatic activity test, three formulations were selected; 30 % bromelain (F1), 30 % bromelain-0.1 % chloramine (F2) and 30 % bromelain-1.5 % CHX (F3). The assessments included molecular docking, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), viscosity and pH measurements. The efficiency of caries removal was assessed by DIAGNOdent pen, measuring the excavation time and number of applications, followed by a morphological evaluation of the remaining dentine using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results were compared to Brix 3000 as a control. Results The chloramine and chlorhexidine were chemically compatible with bromelain without compromising the enzyme activity. All experimental formulations showed higher viscosity and pH in comparison to Brix 3000. The DIAGNOdent readings were <20 in all groups, and the lowest readings were observed in F2. The excavation time and number of applications were lowest in F2 and F1. Both F2 and F3 produced smooth dentine surfaces with less tissue debris, but more patent dentine tubules were observed in F1 and F2. Conclusions The bromelain-contained formulations showed a potential to be used as chemomechanical caries removal agents in vitro. Further laboratory and clinical studies are needed to validate this claim.
Voting is one of the most fundamental components of a democratic society. In 2021 Iraq held the Council of Representatives (CoR) elections in 83 electoral constituencies in 19 governorates. Nonetheless, several significant issues arose during this election, including the problem of logistics distribution, the excessively long period of ballot counting, voters can't know if their votes were counted or if their ballots were tampered with, and the inconsistent regulation of vote counting. Blockchain technology, which was just invented, may offer a solution to these problems. This paper introduces an electronic voting system for the Iraq Council of Representatives elections that is based on a prototype of the permission hyperledger fabr
... Show MoreIn modern technology, the ownership of electronic data is the key to securing their privacy and identity from any trace or interference. Therefore, a new identity management system called Digital Identity Management, implemented throughout recent years, acts as a holder of the identity data to maintain the holder’s privacy and prevent identity theft. Therefore, an overwhelming number of users have two major problems, users who own data and third-party applications will handle it, and users who have no ownership of their data. Maintaining these identities will be a challenge these days. This paper proposes a system that solves the problem using blockchain technology for Digital Identity Management systems. Blockchain is a powerful techniqu
... Show MoreThe development of Web 2.0 has improved people's ability to share their opinions. These opinions serve as an important piece of knowledge for other reviewers. To figure out what the opinions is all about, an automatic system of analysis is needed. Aspect-based sentiment analysis is the most important research topic conducted to extract reviewers-opinions about certain attribute, for instance opinion-target (aspect). In aspect-based tasks, the identification of the implicit aspect such as aspects implicitly implied in a review, is the most challenging task to accomplish. However, this paper strives to identify the implicit aspects based on hierarchical algorithm incorporated with common-sense knowledge by means of dimensionality reduction.
Copula modeling is widely used in modern statistics. The boundary bias problem is one of the problems faced when estimating by nonparametric methods, as kernel estimators are the most common in nonparametric estimation. In this paper, the copula density function was estimated using the probit transformation nonparametric method in order to get rid of the boundary bias problem that the kernel estimators suffer from. Using simulation for three nonparametric methods to estimate the copula density function and we proposed a new method that is better than the rest of the methods by five types of copulas with different sample sizes and different levels of correlation between the copula variables and the different parameters for the function. The
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The objective of image fusion is to merge multiple sources of images together in such a way that the final representation contains higher amount of useful information than any input one.. In this paper, a weighted average fusion method is proposed. It depends on using weights that are extracted from source images using counterlet transform. The extraction method is done by making the approximated transformed coefficients equal to zero, then taking the inverse counterlet transform to get the details of the images to be fused. The performance of the proposed algorithm has been verified on several grey scale and color test images, and compared with some present methods.
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Locally natural occurring Iraqi rocks of Bauxite and Porcelanite (after pre calcinations at 1000oC for 1hr) were used, with the addition of different proportions of MgO and Al2O3, to prepare refractory materials. The effects of these additives on the physical and thermal properties of the prepared refractories were investigated.
Many batches of Bauxite/MgO, Bauxite/Al2O3, Bauxite/MgO/Al2O3, and Porcelanite/ MgO/Al2O3 were prepared. The mixture is milled and classified into different size fractions; fine (less than 45μm) 40%, middle (45-75μm) 40%, and coarse (75-106μm) 20% .
... Show MoreA simple all optical fiber sensor based on multimode interference (MMI) for chemical liquids sensing was designed and fabricated. A segment of coreless fiber (CF) was spliced between two single mode fibers to buildup single mode-coreless-single mode (SCS) structure. Broadband source and optical signal analyzer were connected to the ends of SCS structure. De-ionized water, acetone, and n-hexane were used to test the performance of the sensor. Two influence factors on the sensitivity namely the length and the diameter of the CF were investigated. The obtained maximum sensitivity was at n-hexane at 340.89 nm/RIU (at a wavelength resolution of the optical spectrum analyzer of 0.02 nm) when the diameter of the CF reduced from 125 μm to 60 μ
... Show MoreIn this paper, a modified derivation has been introduced to analyze the construction of C-space. The profit from using C-space is to make the process of path planning more safety and easer. After getting the C-space construction and map for two-link planar robot arm, which include all the possible situations of collision between robot parts and obstacle(s), the A* algorithm, which is usually used to find a heuristic path on Cartesian W-space, has been used to find a heuristic path on C-space map. Several modifications are needed to apply the methodology for a manipulator with degrees of freedom more than two. The results of C-space map, which are derived by the modified analysis, prove the accuracy of the overall C-space mapping and cons
... Show MoreAn intelligent software defined network (ISDN) based on an intelligent controller can manage and control the network in a remarkable way. In this article, a methodology is proposed to estimate the packet flow at the sensing plane in the software defined network-Internet of Things based on a partial recurrent spike neural network (PRSNN) congestion controller, to predict the next step ahead of packet flow and thus, reduce the congestion that may occur. That is, the proposed model (spike ISDN-IoT) is enhanced with a congestion controller. This controller works as a proactive controller in the proposed model. In addition, we propose another intelligent clustering controller based on an artificial neural network, which operates as a reactive co
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