Background: The desire for an attractive appearing fixed orthodontic appliance fueled the use of ceramic brackets and clear accessories. Elastics are one of the most versatile materials available to orthodontists so studying their effect on the esthetic appearance is important. This an in vivo study, conducted to evaluate the effect of exposing stretched clear elastomeric ligatures to the oral environment from four different companies (OrthoTechnology, Morelli, Ortho Organizer, and Ormco). Materials and Methods: A total of 240 elastomeric modules were examined, 60 modules from each brand. Each of the 60 patients enrolled in the study, received 4 elastomeric modules on the 4 lower incisors, one from each brand. The specimens were placed on t

Football is one of the most important team sports, practiced by men and women, young and old, across various age groups. The physical development in this sport can be attributed to athletic training and modern technology, which have contributed significantly to advancing the sports field in general. Outstanding performance in football requires precise and quick physical abilities, closely tied to the competitive nature of the game. Speed is fundamental in football, making the use of technologies such as GPS tracking devices and heart rate monitors essential in both training and matches. This study aims to develop the speed of Al-Talaba SC players in Baghdad using a scientifically-based approach to improve their performance. The impo

Wastewater recycling for non-potable uses has gained significant attention to mitigate the high pressure on freshwater resources. This requires using a sustainable technique to treat natural municipal wastewater as an alternative to conventional methods, especially in arid and semi-arid rural areas. One of the promising techniques applied to satisfy the objective of wastewater reuse is the constructed wetlands (CWs) which have been used extensively in most countries worldwide through the last decades. The present study introduces a significant review of the definition, classification, and components of CWs, identifying the mechanisms controlling the removal process within such units. Vertical, horizontal, and hybrid CWs

In the present study, multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) with outside diameters of< 8 nm and 20−30 nm were covalently functionalized with β-Alanine using a novel synthesis procedure. The functionalization process was proved successful using Raman spectroscopy, FTIR, and TEM. Utilizing the two-step method with ultrasonication, the MWCNTs treated with β-Alanine (Ala-MWCNTs) with weight concentrations of 0.025%, 0.05%, 0.075%, and 0.1% were dispersed in distilled water to prepare water-based nanofluids. The aqueous colloidal dispersions of pristine MWCNTs were unstable. While for Ala-MWCNTs and after> 50 days from preparation, higher colloidal stability was obtained up to relative concentration of 0.955 and 0.939 for the 0.075-wt% samp

There is a continuous and massive need for newer cephalosporins that should have resistance against β-lactamases and can be used orally. An approach of using cephalexin, as a well-studied and potent antibacterial compound is considered to prepare new designed derivatives.  These derivatives include the incorporation of amino acid moiety linked through an amide bond with the α-amino group of cephalexin. Certain aliphatic amino acids were used, such as glycine, alanine, valine and proline. The chemical structures of these derivatives were confirmed by IR spectroscopy and elemental analyses. All the synthesized compounds were subjected for preliminary evaluation of antimicrobial activity using well diffusion method, against certa

To maintain a sustained competitive position in the contemporary environment of  knowledge  economy,  organizations  as an open social systems must have an ability to learn and know  how to adapt to rapid changes  in a proper fashion so that organizational objectives will be achieved efficiently and effectively.  A multilevel approach is adopted proposing that organizational learning suffers from the lack of interest about the strategic competitive performance of the organization. This remains implicit almost in all models of organizational learning and there is little focus on how learning organizations achieve sustainable competitive advantage . A dynamic model that captures t

     The searching process using a binary codebook of combined Block Truncation Coding (BTC) method and Vector Quantization (VQ), i.e. a full codebook search for each input image vector to find the best matched code word in the codebook, requires a long time.   Therefore, in this paper, after designing a small binary codebook, we adopted a new method by rotating each binary code word in this codebook into 900 to 2700 step 900 directions. Then, we systematized each code word depending on its angle  to involve four types of binary code books (i.e. Pour when , Flat when  , Vertical when, or Zigzag). The proposed scheme was used for decreasing the time of the coding procedure, with very small distortion per block, by designing s

The constructed building in the urban area is subject to wind characteristics due to the influence of surrounding buildings. The residential complexes currently being built in Iraq represent a case study for the subject of this research. Therefore, the objective of this study is to identify the interference effect because of adjacent buildings effects on the mid-rise building. The speed and pressure of the wind have been numerically simulated as well as wind load has been simulated by using a virtual wind tunnel which is available in Autodesk Robot Structural Analysis, RSA, software. Two identical adjacent buildings have been simulated and many coefficients were included in this study such as the spacing, directionality,

A condense study was done to compare between the ordinary estimators. In particular the maximum likelihood estimator and the robust estimator, to estimate the parameters of the mixed model of order one, namely ARMA(1,1) model.

Simulation study was done for a varieties the model.  using: small, moderate and large sample sizes, were some new results were obtained. MAPE was used as a statistical criterion for comparison.