Moringa oleifera L. and red pomegranate extracts have been reported to inhibit gram-positive facultative anaerobe growth and inhibit the formation of biofilm on tooth surfaces. The current study aimed to assess the antibacterial effect of M. oleifera L. and red pomegranate extracts and their combinations against Porphyromonas gingivalis. The antimicrobial sensitivity, minimum inhibition concentrations (MIC), and minimum bactericidal concentrations after treatment with the aqueous extracts of M. oleifera L. and red pomegranate as well as their combination against clinically isolated P. gingivalis were determined using agar well diffusion and two-fold serial dilution. The anti-biofilm activity of the extracts and their combination was evaluated using the tube adhesion method. The phytochemical analysis was carried out using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. It was found that P. gingivalis was sensitive to aqueous extract of M. oleifera L. seeds and red pomegranate albedo, however, not to M. oleifera L. leaves and red pomegranate seeds. The MIC value of M. oleifera L. seeds, red pomegranate albedo, and their combination were obtained at 12.5 mg/ml, 6.25 mg/ml, and 3.12 mg/ml against P. gingivalis, respectively. The extract combination had the highest anti-biofilm effect than M. oleifera L. seeds and red pomegranate albedo aqueous extracts at the minimum concentrations of 6.25 mg/ml, 25 mg/ml, and 12.5 mg/ml, respectively. The combination of red pomegranate albedo and M. oleifera L. seeds showed superior antibacterial and anti-biofilm effects against P. gingivalis, followed by red pomegranate albedo and M. oleifera L. seeds. This may highlight a promising alternative to the traditional chemicals that can be used as an adjunct in the treatment of periodontal diseases.
Pharmaceuticals have been widely remaining contaminants in wastewater, and diclofenac is the most common pharmaceutical pollutant. Therefore, the removal of diclofenac from aqueous solutions using activated carbon produced by pyrocarbonic acid and microwaves was investigated in this research. Apricot seed powder and pyrophosphoric acid (45 wt%) were selected as raw material and activator respectively, and microwave irradiation technique was used to prepare the activated carbon. The raw material was impregnated in pyrophosphoric acid at 80◦C with an impregnation ratio of 1: 3 (apricot seeds to phosphoric acid), the impregnation time was 4 h, whereas the power of the microwave was 700 watts with a radiation time of 20 min. A series o
... Show MoreBackground. Implant insertion in regions with poor bone quantity, such as the posterior maxilla, is potentially associated with an increased rate of implant failure. Calcium sulfate can be used as the coating material for commercially pure titanium (CpTi) and as the bone graft material around implants when bound to eggshell powder to enhance the bone quality and quantity of bone defect regions. This study performed a torque removal test to evaluate the effectiveness of eggshell powder as a bone substitute for filling bone defects around CpTi-coated implants coated with nanocrystalline calcium sulfate. Materials and Methods. Eighty screw implant designs were used in the tibiae of 20 white New Zealand rabbits. A total of uncoated 20 s
... Show MoreThis research investigates manganese (Mn) extraction from Electric Arc Furnace Steel Slag (EAFS) by using the Liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) method. The chemical analysis was done on the slag using X-ray fluorescence, X-ray diffraction, and atomic absorption spectroscopy. This work consisted of two parts: the first was an extensive study of the effect of variables that can affect the leaching process rate for Mn element from slag (reaction time, nitric acid concentration, solid to liquid ratio, and stirring speed), and the second part evaluates the extraction of Mn element from leached solution. The results showed the possibility of leaching 83.5 % of Mn element from the slag at a temperature of 25°C, nitric acid co
... Show MoreThe improvement in Direction of Arrival (DOA) estimation when the received signals impinge on Active-Parasitic Antenna (APA) arrays will be studied in this work. An APA array consists of several active antennas; others are parasitic antennas. The responses to the received signals are measured at the loaded terminals of the active element. The terminals of the parasitic element are shorted. The effect of the received signals on the parasites, i.e., the induced short-circuit current, is mutually coupled to the active elements. Eigen decomposition of the covariance matrix of the measurements of the APA array generates a third subspace in addition to the traditional signal and noise subspaces generated by the all-active ante
... Show MoreThe complexity and partially defined nature of jet grouting make it hard to predict the performance of grouted piles. So the trials of cement injection at a location with similar soil properties as the erecting site are necessary to assess the performance of the grouted piles. Nevertheless, instead of executing trial-injected piles at the pilot site, which wastes money, time, and effort, the laboratory cement injection devices are essential alternatives for evaluating soil injection ability. This study assesses the performance of a low-pressure laboratory grouting device by improving loose sandy soil injected using binders formed of Silica Fume (SF) as a chemical admixture (10% of Ordinary Portland Cement OPC mass) to di
... Show MoreWater quality planning relies on Biochemical Oxygen Demand BOD. BOD testing takes five days. The Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is increasingly used for water resource forecasting. This work designed a PSO technique for estimating everyday BOD at Al-Rustumiya wastewater treatment facility inlet. Al-Rustumiya wastewater treatment plant provided 702 plant-scale data sets during 2012-2022. The PSO model uses the daily data of the water quality parameters, including chemical oxygen demand (COD), chloride (Cl-), suspended solid (SS), total dissolved solids (TDS), and pH, to determine how each variable affects the daily incoming BOD. PSO and multiple linear regression (MLR) findings are compared, and their perfor
... Show MoreIn this study, the flexural performance of a new composite beam–slab system filled with concrete material was investigated, where this system was mainly prepared from lightweight cold-formed steel sections of a beam and a deck slab for carrying heavy floor loads as another concept of a conventional composite system with a lower cost impact. For this purpose, seven samples of a profile steel sheet–dry board deck slab (PSSDB/PDS) carried by a steel cold-formed C-purlins beam (CB) were prepared and named “composite CBPDS specimen”, which were tested under a static bending load. Specifically, the effects of the profile steel sheet (PSS) direction (parallel or perpendicular to the span of the specimen) using different C-purlins c
... Show MoreGundelia, a genus of flowering plants native to the Mediterranean region, particularly in Iraq, holds promise as a sustainable adsorbent for the treatment of dye-polluted water. This study explores the potential of Gundelia seeds (GS) waste as a biobased adsorbent for removing methylene blue dye from synthesized wastewater. Utilizing various analytical techniques, including scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), we assessed GS as an active adsorbent with performance comparable to fabricated and expensive composites. Key parameters such as pH (3-11), pH at the point of zero charge, temperature (298-328 K), dose (0.02-0.1 g), dye concentration (10-50 ppm), and
... Show MoreReal Time Extended (RTX) technology works to take advantage of real-time data comes from the global network of tracking stations together with inventor locating and compression algorithms to calculate and relaying the orbit of satellite, satellite atomic clock, and any other systems corrections to the receivers, which lead to real-time correction with high accuracy. These corrections will be transferred to the receiver antenna by satellite (where coverage is available) and by IP (Internet Protocol) for the rest of world to provide the accurate location on the screen of smartphone or tablet by using specific software. The purpose of this study was to assess the accuracy of Global Navig