Background: This in vitro study compares a novel calcium-phosphate etchant paste to conventional 37% phosphoric acid gel for bonding metal and ceramic brackets by evaluating the shear bond strength, remnant adhesive and enamel damage following water storage, acid challenge and fatigue loading. Material and Methods: Metal and ceramic brackets were bonded to 240 extracted human premolars using two enamel conditioning protocols: conventional 37% phosphoric acid (PA) gel (control), and an acidic calcium-phosphate (CaP) paste. The CaP paste was prepared from β-tricalcium phosphate and monocalcium phosphate monohydrate powders mixed with 37% phosphoric acid solution, and the resulting phase was confirmed using FTIR. The bonded premolars were exposed to four artificial ageing models to examine the shear bond strength (SBS), adhesive remnant index (ARI score), with stereomicroscopic evaluation of enamel damage. Results: Metal and ceramic control subgroups yielded significantly higher (p ˂ 0.05) SBS (17.1-31.8 MPa) than the CaP subgroups (11.4-23.8 MPa) post all artificial ageing protocols, coupled with higher ARI scores and evidence of enamel damage. In contrast, the CaP subgroups survived all artificial ageing tests by maintaining adequate SBS for clinical performance, with the advantages of leaving unblemished enamel surface and bracket failures at the enamel-adhesive interface. Conclusions: Enamel conditioning with acidic CaP pastes attained adequate bond strengths with no or minimal adhesive residue and enamel damage, suggesting a suitable alternative to the conventional PA gel for orthodontic bonding.
Reducing global warming potential (GWP) of refrigerants is needed to the decrease of ozone-depleting of refrigeration systems leakages. Refrigerant R1234yf is now used to substitute R134a inside mobile air conditioning systems. Thermodynamic properties of R1234yf are similar to R134a. Also, it has a very low GWP of 4, compared to 1430 for R134a, making it a proper choice for future automobile refrigerants. The purpose of this research is to represent the main operating and performance differences between R1234yf and R134a. Experimental analysis was carried out on the automotive air conditioning system (AACS) with 3 kW nominal capacity, to test and compare the performance of R134a with R1234yf. Experiments were accomplish
... Show MoreBackground: The menopause is physiological changes in women that give rise to adaptive changes at both systemic and oral level. During menopause, ovarian function declines and the production of sex steroid hormones reduces significantly affecting the oral tissues and periodontal structures leading to chronic inflammation of the gingiva, increased risk of tooth loss. Aim of study: The present study was designed to estimate the oral hygiene status in relation to salivary estradiol level among pre and post-menopausal women. Materials and Methods: Ninety women aged 48-52 years old, the control group consisted of 45 pre-menopausal women and the study group consisted of 45 post-menopause were examined for gingival index, plaque index and calcu
... Show MoreBackground: The need of the patient for a more reasonable esthetic orthodontic intervention has risen nowadays. Thus, orthodontists make use of esthetic orthodontic materials like brackets, ligature elastics, and arch wires. The esthetic brackets come as different forms of materials, such as ceramic brackets, which have their stainability remaining as the most important consideration for the patients and the orthodontists. This study aimed to compare the staining effects of various staining materials, including black tea, cigarette smoke and Pepsi, as well as the time effect on the color stability of sapphire ceramic brackets bonded with three kinds of light cure orthodontic adhesives: Transbond, Resilience and Enlight. Materials and Met
... Show MoreABSTRACT : Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is one of the most common inflammatory neurodegenerative diseases linked with dementia, it is characterized by the deposition of amyloid beta-peptide (Ab) in the brain. The present study aims to innovate a biochemical relationship between AD and interleukin 38 (IL-38) as an anti-inflammatory cytokine, expose novel mechanisms and concepts regarding other biochemical parameters studied previously or recently in AD patients and also examine the biochemical action of memantine (10 mg daily) on AD patients. Sixty (60) diagnosed AD patients participated in the present study and classified into four (4) groups: G3 were composed of (15) newly diagnosed males (52-78) years / without treatment, G4 composed of (15
... Show MoreThe main focus of research is on the nature of applications in the fields of science and technology, particularly nanotechnology. In this paper, a simple, non-toxic, inexpensive, and environmentally friendly green method was used to synthesize TiO2 nanoparticles using the extraction of portulacaria afra plant leaves and TiCl4 as a precursor. The synthesized titanium dioxide nanoparticles were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, X-ray diffraction patterns, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller analysis. The SEM image of TiO2 nanoparticles showed a few spherical, non-agglomerated particles. The average diameter of the nanoparticles, ac
... Show MoreThe increasing demand for energy has encouraged the development of renewable resources and environmentally benign fuel such as biodiesel. In this study, ethyl fatty esters (EFEs), a major component of biodiesel fuel, were synthesized from soybean oil using sodium ethoxide as a catalyst. By-products were glycerol and difatty acyl urea (DFAU), which has biological characteristics, as antibiotics and antifungal medications. Both EFEs and DFAU have been characterized using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, and 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technique. The optimum conditions were studied as a function of reaction time, reactant molar ratios, catalyst percentage and the effect of organic solvents. The conversion ratio of soybea
... Show MoreRetained soft tissue foreign bodies following injuries are frequently seen in the Emergency and Plastic Surgery practice. The patients with such presentations require a watchful and detailed clinical as- sessment to overcome the anticipant possibility of missing them. However, the diagnosis based on the clinical evaluation is usually challenging and needs to be supported by imaging modalities that are suboptimal and may fail in identifying some types of foreign bodies. Owing to that, serious complications such as chronic pain, infection, and delayed wound healing can be faced that necessitate a prompt intervention to halt those detrimental consequences. The classical method of removal is a surgical exploration which is not free of risks.
... Show MoreA novel demountable shear connector is proposed to link a concrete slab to steel sections in a way that resulting steel-concrete composite floor is demountable, i.e. it can be easily dismantled at the end of its service life. The proposed connectors consist of two parts: the first part is a hollow steel tube with internal threads at its lower end. The second part is a compatible partially threaded bolted stud. After linking the stud to the steel section, the hollow steel tube can be fastened over the threaded stud, which create a complete demountable shear connector. The connector is suitable for use in both composite bridges and buildings, and using cast in-situ slabs, precast solid slabs, or hollow-core precast slabs. A series of push-off
... Show MoreThe dynamic development of computer and software technology in recent years was accompanied by the expansion and widespread implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) based methods in many aspects of human life. A prominent field where rapid progress was observed are high‐throughput methods in biology that generate big amounts of data that need to be processed and analyzed. Therefore, AI methods are more and more applied in the biomedical field, among others for RNA‐protein binding sites prediction, DNA sequence function prediction, protein‐protein interaction prediction, or biomedical image classification. Stem cells are widely used in biomedical research, e.g., leukemia or other disease studies. Our proposed approach of
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