Abstract Background: The daily usage of maxillofacial prostheses causes them to mechanically deteriorate with time. This study was aimed to evaluate the reinforcement of VST50F maxillofacial silicone by using yttrium oxide (Y2O3) nanoparticles (NPs) to resist aging and mechanical deterioration. Materials and Method: Y2O3 NPs (30–45nm) were loaded into VST50F maxillofacial silicone in two weight percentages (1 and 1.5 wt%), which were predetermined in a pilot study as the best rates for improving tear strength with minimum increase in hardness values. A total of 120 specimens were prepared and divided into the control and experimental groups (with 1 and 1.5 wt% Y2O3 addition). Each group included 40 specimens, 10 specimens for each parameter tested (i.e., tear strength, surface roughness, hardness, tensile strength and elongation percentage). Specimens were artificially aged in a weathering chamber for 150 h and then tested. Data were analyzed by ANOVA and Tukey’s honestly significant difference (HSD). Statistical significance was set to P ≤ 0.05. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy were also conducted. Results and Discussion: SEM results showed that Y2O3 NPs were distributed well within the silicon matrix. FTIR results indicated that the NPs were physically dispersed within VST50F silicone without chemical interaction. After 150 h of accelerated artificial aging, adding Y2O3 NPs significantly increased the tear strength, hardness, surface roughness, and elongation percentage. Tensile strength increased non significantly. Conclusion: Adding Y2O3 NPs as fillers improved the mechanical properties of artificially aged maxillofacial silicone elastomer. Keywords: maxillofacial silicone, Y2O3, nanoparticles, fillers, artificial aging.
Films of CdSe have been prepared by evaporation technique with thickness 1µm. Doping with Cu was achieved using annealing under argon atmosphere . The Structure properties of these films are investigated by X-ray diffraction analysis. The effect of Cu doping on the orientation , relative intensity, grain size and the lattice constant has been studied. The pure CdSe films have been found consist of amorphous structure with very small peak at (002) plane. The films were polycrystalline for doped CdSe with (1&2wt%) Cu contents and with lattice constant (a=3.741,c=7.096)A°, and it has better crystallinty as the Cu contents increased to (3&5wt%) Cu. The reflections from [(002), (102). (110), (112), and (201)]planes are more prominen
... Show MoreArtificial lift techniques are a highly effective solution to aid the deterioration of the production especially for mature oil fields, gas lift is one of the oldest and most applied artificial lift methods especially for large oil fields, the gas that is required for injection is quite scarce and expensive resource, optimally allocating the injection rate in each well is a high importance task and not easily applicable. Conventional methods faced some major problems in solving this problem in a network with large number of wells, multi-constrains, multi-objectives, and limited amount of gas. This paper focuses on utilizing the Genetic Algorithm (GA) as a gas lift optimization algorit
Reservoir permeability plays a crucial role in characterizing reservoirs and predicting the present and future production of hydrocarbon reservoirs. Data logging is a good tool for assessing the entire oil well section's continuous permeability curve. Nuclear magnetic resonance logging measurements are minimally influenced by lithology and offer significant benefits in interpreting permeability. The Schlumberger-Doll-Research model utilizes nuclear magnetic resonance logging, which accurately estimates permeability values. The approach of this investigation is to apply artificial neural networks and core data to predict permeability in wells without a nuclear magnetic resonance log. The Schlumberger-Doll-Research permeability is use
... Show MoreAs population growth increases the demand for crops increases and their quality improves, and it becomes necessary to find innovative and modern solutions to enhance production. In this context, artificial intelligence plays a pivotal role in developing new technologies to improve crop sorting and increase agricultural yields. The present review discusses the main differences between manual and mechanical potato harvesting, explaining the advantages and disadvantages of each method. Manual harvesting is highlighted as a traditional method that allows for greater precision in handling the crop, but it requires more time and effort. In contrast, mechanical harvesting provides greater efficiency and speed in the process, but it may damage some
... Show MoreANN modeling is used here to predict missing monthly precipitation data in one station of the eight weather stations network in Sulaimani Governorate. Eight models were developed, one for each station as for prediction. The accuracy of prediction obtain is excellent with correlation coefficients between the predicted and the measured values of monthly precipitation ranged from (90% to 97.2%). The eight ANN models are found after many trials for each station and those with the highest correlation coefficient were selected. All the ANN models are found to have a hyperbolic tangent and identity activation functions for the hidden and output layers respectively, with learning rate of (0.4) and momentum term of (0.9), but with different data
... Show MoreThe electrical activity of the heart and the electrocardiogram (ECG) signal are fundamentally related. In the study that has been published, the ECG signal has been examined and used for a number of applications. The monitoring of heart rate and the analysis of heart rhythm patterns, the detection and diagnosis of cardiac diseases, the identification of emotional states, and the use of biometric identification methods are a few examples of applications in the field. Several various phases may be involved in the analysis of electrocardiogram (ECG) data, depending on the type of study being done. Preprocessing, feature extraction, feature selection, feature modification, and classification are frequently included in these stages. Ever
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