Objectives The strategies of tissue-engineering led to the development of living cell-based therapies to repair lost or damaged tissues, including periodontal ligament and to construct biohybrid implant. This work aimed to isolate human periodontal ligament stem cells (hPDLSCs) and implant them on fabricated polycaprolactone (PCL) for the regeneration of natural periodontal ligament (PDL) tissues. Methods hPDLSCs were harvested from extracted human premolars, cultured, and expanded to obtain PDL cells. A PDL-specific marker (periostin) was detected using an immunofluorescent assay. Electrospinning was applied to fabricate PCL at three concentrations (13%, 16%, and 20% weight/volume) in two forms, which were examined through field emission

Distribution of light intensity in the flat photobioreactor for microalgae cultivation as a step design for production of bio-renewable energy was addressed in the current study. Five sizes of bioreactors with specific distances from the main light source were adopted as independent variables in experiential design model. The results showed that the bioreactor’s location according to the light source, determines the nature of light intensity distribution in the reactor body. However, the cross-section area plays an important role in determining the suitable location of reactor to achieve required light homogeneity. This area could change even the expected response of the light passing through the reactor if Beer-Lambert's law is adopted.

         The issue of penalized regression model has received considerable critical attention to variable selection. It plays an essential role in dealing with high dimensional data. Arctangent denoted by the Atan penalty has been used in both estimation and variable selection as an efficient method recently. However, the Atan penalty is very sensitive to outliers in response to variables or heavy-tailed error distribution. While the least absolute deviation is a good method to get robustness in regression estimation. The specific objective of this research is to propose a robust Atan estimator from combining these two ideas at once. Simulation experiments and real data applications show that the p

The increasing anti-bacterial drug resistance is one of the biggest challenges facing doctors around the globe, so finding alternative treatments is one of the ideal options to overcome this problem. The cruciferous family is one of the wealthiest plants worldwide because it contains the most important secondary metabolites, glucosinolates, known for their anti-microbial properties. The present study aimed to evaluate the anti-bacterial effect of glucosinolates (Sinigrin) against eight bacterial isolates (Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus faecalis, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Actinomyces, Proteus mirabilis and Streptococcus pneumoniae). The current study investigated six concentrations of pure

Environmental pollution is regarded as a major problem, and traditional strategies such as chemical or physical remediation are not sufficient to overcome the problems of pollution. Petroleum-contaminated soil results in ecological problems, representing a danger to human health. Bioremediation has received remarkable attention, and it is a procedure that uses a biological agent to remove toxic waste from contaminated soil. This approach is easy to handle, inexpensive, and environmentally friendly; its results are highly satisfactory. Bioremediation is a biodegradation process in which the organic contaminants are completely mineralized to inorganic compounds, carbon dioxide, and water. This review discusses the bioremediation of petroleum-

As one type of heating furnaces, the electric heating furnace (EHF) typically suffers from time delay, non-linearity, time-varying parameters, system uncertainties, and harsh en-vironment of the furnace, which significantly deteriorate the temperature control process of the EHF system. In order to achieve accurate and robust temperature tracking performance, an integration of robust state feedback control (RSFC) and a novel sliding mode-based disturbance observer (SMDO) is proposed in this paper, where modeling errors and external disturbances are lumped as a lumped disturbance. To describe the characteristics of the EHF, by using convection laws, an integrated dynamic model is established and identified as an uncertain nonlinear second ord

Crohn’s disease (CD) is a chronic inflammatory disorder. Ustekinumab (UST) is an effective treatment for CD. Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) enhances clinical efficacy while minimizing side effects. This study aimed to evaluate the UST trough level (TL) and anti-drug antibodies (ADAs) and to assess the response of patients with CD to optimize UST treatment. This single-center, cross-sectional study included 76 adult patients with CD receiving maintenance UST for at least 24 weeks. The serum TL of UST and clinical remission were assessed at the same visit, immediately before the next dose. Patients were categorized into two groups: Group A, patients reaching the UST target TL (≥1 µg/mL), and Group B, patie

The purpose of the study is to identify the most effective methods for early diagnosis of pinworms in children, particularly girls. General Urine Examination was applied in the current study on 100 samples of urine from girls who suffered from pain and itching in the vagina and anus; For one age group (11-14 years), to detect pinworm eggs in urine. This test was applied for the first time in Iraq through this study. Two methods have been used to detect pinworm eggs in 70 cases: the first is the Flotation method, which involves treating stool samples with a saturated salt solution. Second: Scotch tape test, which is characterized by sticking a transparent tape directly to the anal area for 30 seconds. Of the 62 positive urinary inflammation