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.
Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is a public health problem and many studies support the link between kidney dysfunction and cardiovascular events. Aldosterone has been shown for decades that a plasma aldosterone concentration is elevated in CKD. Whilst, Osteoprotegerin (OPG), after its capacity to protect bone, also osteoprotegerin is elevated in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), where it could predict the deterioration of kidney function, cardiovascular, vascular events and all-cause mortality. On the other hand, fibroblast growth factors (FGFs), in patients with CKD, its levels seem to increase progressively as kidney function worsens. The aim of the present study is to assess the correlations between serum osteoprotegerin
... Show MoreThis paper applies the Modified Adomian Decomposition Method (MADM) for solving Integro-Differential Inequality, this method is one of effective to construct analytic approximate solutions for linear and nonlinear integro-differential inequalities without solving many integrals and transformed or discretization. Several examples are presented, the analytic results show that this method is a promising and powerful for solving these problems.
model is derived, and the methodology is given in detail. The model is constructed depending on some measurement criteria, Akaike and Bayesian information criterion. For the new time series model, a new algorithm has been generated. The forecasting process, one and two steps ahead, is discussed in detail. Some exploratory data analysis is given in the beginning. The best model is selected based on some criteria; it is compared with some naïve models. The modified model is applied to a monthly chemical sales dataset (January 1992 to Dec 2019), where the dataset in this work has been downloaded from the United States of America census (www.census.gov). Ultimately, the forecasted sales
Modified optical fiber sensors received increasing attention because of their superior properties over electrical sensors. These properties include their immunity towards electromagnetic interference and the ability to be deployed in corrosive and volatile environment. Several optical fiber platforms have been developed for chemical sensing applications based on modifying optical fiber cladding layer such as etched, tapered, D-shaped and etched-tapered. The modifications purpose is to extend the evanescent wave propagating out of the core physical dimensions. Thus, evanescent wave interaction with analyte is enhanced. Modified optical transducing platforms are integrated in gas sensing applications, such as ammonia. Modified optical
... Show MoreFinancial fraud remains an ever-increasing problem in the financial industry with numerous consequences. The detection of fraudulent online transactions via credit cards has always been done using data mining (DM) techniques. However, fraud detection on credit card transactions (CCTs), which on its own, is a DM problem, has become a serious challenge because of two major reasons, (i) the frequent changes in the pattern of normal and fraudulent online activities, and (ii) the skewed nature of credit card fraud datasets. The detection of fraudulent CCTs mainly depends on the data sampling approach. This paper proposes a combined SVM- MPSO-MMPSO technique for credit card fraud detection. The dataset of CCTs which co
... Show MoreCopper oxide (CuO) nanoparticles were synthesized through the thermal decomposition of a copper(II) Schiff-base complex. The complex was formed by reacting cupric acetate with a Schiff base in a 2:1 metal-to-ligand ratio. The Schiff base itself was synthesized via the condensation of benzidine and 2-hydroxybenzaldehyde in the presence of glacial acetic acid. This newly synthesized symmetric Schiff base served as the ligand for the Cu(II) metal ion complex. The ligand and its complex were characterized using several spectroscopic methods, including FTIR, UV-vis, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, CHNS, and AAS, along with TGA, molar conductivity and magnetic susceptibility measurements. The CuO nanoparticles were produced by thermally decomposing the
... Show MoreThis study deals with air pollution tolerance index (APTI) and anatomical variation in leaves of two species of terrestrial plants Ficus sp. and Conocarpus sp. that have bee commonly the separated along roadsides in many stations within Babylon province. APTI values of both species were less than 10 during study period which represented sensitivity of these plants to air pollution. There are Anatomical responses to pollution in the leaves of both studied species. Main adaptations included increased thickness of parenchyma cell walls with clear dark deposits in sections of Ficus sp. from sections of stations 2 and 4 which represent polluted stations. Conocarpus sp. main adaptation included stomata increased in density and decreased in size w
... Show MoreThe seed propagation is the predominant method of Echinacea propagation, which has been criticized for its time-consuming control over the separation factor and the uncertainty of pathogen-free plants produced by this method. The technology of tissue culture has provided multiple opportunities for the production of secondary metabolites continuously without being restricted to a specific season, due to the possibility of controlling the environmental conditions and the components of the nutrient medium needed by the plant. This study was conducted to investigate the effects of salicylic acid as elicitor and tyrosine as precursor on propagation and some secondary compounds production in coneflower in vitro. The result showed the superiori
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