Resilient polymeric materials such as silicone elastomers are currently used for maxillofacial prostheses construction but the strength of these materials and their clinical performance need to be optimized with the addition of reinforcing fillers. This study investigates the effect of zirconia nanopowder addition on tear strength, tensile strength, elongation at break, Shore A hardness, surface roughness and cytotoxicity of VST-50 maxillofacial silicone. Silicone base was mixed with different amounts (1%, 2% and 3%) of zirconia nanopowder using a vacuum mixer. Silicone without filler was used as control for comparison. Scanning Electron Microscopy and Atomic Force Microscopy were utilized to assess the efficiency of high-shear vacuum mixing as filler dispersion method and the surface topography, respectively. Both SEM and AFM images showed that the zirconia nanopowder were distributed fairly well within the polymer. Statistically, highly significant increase in tear strength, tensile strength and hardness with non-significant decrease in elongation at break and non-significant increase in surface roughness were seen with 1% and 2% groups. Whereas with 3% group, there was significant improvement in tear strength, tensile strength and hardness but there was significant undesirable decrease in elongation and increase in roughness. Cytotoxicity test revealed that the addition of zirconia nanopowder was nontoxic to Rat Embryonic Fibroblast (REF) cells and there was non-significant change in the cell viability of all study groups after 24- and 72-hours incubation periods. In conclusion, the addition of 2% by weight nano zirconia to VST-50 maxillofacial silicone could be beneficial in enhancing its performance.
Background: Immune thrombocytopenia is an immune-related disorder that causes an impairment in platelet production and stimulates platelet destruction, causing variable bleeding symptoms. Objective: This study focuses on refractory immune thrombocytopenic purpura patients on romiplostim treatment and their level of illness perception related to treatment response. Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted from May 1st, 2025, to August 1st, 2025. Brief Illness Perception Questionnaires were administered to 84 patients with ITP to collect the data. The study took place at the Hematology and Bone Marrow Transplant Center, Medical City, Baghdad, Iraq. Results: The romiplostim response rate is 21 (25.0%), while the partial response rate is 4
... Show MoreThe language that consists of only twenty-eight letters, but it is so broad that we are unable to understand it from all sides and this expansion is mainly caused by imagination, so Arab imagination, whose language goes in all directions And as it always responds to our ears, ancient critics divide imagination into holistic and partial But the language is not limited to these parts only. Do we wonder, where is the structural method of wishing, hope, questions and other methods of all this? In this paper, we try to show the importance of the method of writing in moving imagination in an interactive way, and what is related to human feelings in most, if not all, of its methods By studying the poetry of the believers in the Ahl al-Bayt, pea
... Show Moreأدى التغير السريع في البيئة الخارجية للمنظمة إلى ظهور حالة من التنافس الشديد مما زاد تخوف الشركات من فقدان الحصة السوقية والخسارة . مما حدا بالمنظمات إلى الاهتمام بوجود مدير يحمل صفات وخصائص قيادية لما فيه من ميزات في تنظيم الإنتاج ومقابلة الطلب وتقليل التكاليف وتطوير الأداء للحصول على ميزة تنافسية تحافظ او تزيد من حصتها السوقية وإرباحها .
تسعى الدراسة الى تحديد عدد من الاهداف كان اهمها معرفة الع
... Show MoreGas and downhole water sink-assisted gravity drainage (GDWS-AGD) is a new process of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) in oil reservoirs underlain by large bottom aquifers. The process is capital intensive as it requires the construction of dual-completed wells for oil production and water drainage and additional multiple vertical gas-injection wells. The costs could be substantially reduced by eliminating the gas-injection wells and using triple-completed multi-functional wells. These wells are dubbed triple-completion-GDWS-AGD (TC-GDWS-AGD). In this work, we design and optimize the TC-GDWS-AGD oil recovery process in a fictitious oil reservoir (Punq-S3) that emulates a real North Sea oil field. The design aims at maximum oil recovery us
... Show MoreThis paper deals with one of the most important issues in a foreign language teaching and learning, i.e. speaking test assessment. After giving a survey of literature written on the meaning and definition of a speaking test assessment, two sections have been devoted to tackle the most important issues in this topic. Section one, which is the theoretical part of this paper, sheds light on the basic definitions of the term ‘speaking assessment’ which are, according to the researcher’s point of view, sufficient to cover the area of the study. This section based on applied linguistic theories and researches in order to enhance our understanding of the what is meant by «a speaking test assessment«In addition,it explains the most importan
... Show MoreГоды, принадлежащие концу XIX – началу XX столетия, вошли в русскую литературу под красивым названием Серебряный век. В это время в стране появился целый ряд выдающихся поэтов, имена которых навсегда останутся в русской и мировой литературе. Это Ахматова, Гумилев, Блок, Маяковский и многие другие. Все эти люди творили в нелегкое для России время. Началом Серебряного века условно считают 189
... Show MoreThe purpose of the study is to identify the need to improve health services in Iraq by determining the efficiency of service in health care centres and working on exploiting limited resources through choosing the most efficient technological art represented by using precast concrete technology to fill the shortfall in the establishment health centres for primary care and to explain the impact of this on saving resources, time, and increasing production efficiency. To achieve this, the quantitative analysis adopted as a methodology in the study by determining the size of the deficit in the infrastructure of health centres for primary care according to the standard of a he
... Show MoreThis research seeks to attempt to reveal the intention of Al-Hafiz Al-Mazi from his market to hadiths from Imam Ahmad’s Musnad in his book “Masterpiece of Supervision in Knowing the Parties”, and researchers know that this book was classified by Al-Mazi to collect the parties to the six books: Sahih Al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, Sunan Abi Dawud, Jamea Al-Tirmidhi and Sunan Al-Nasa’i and Sunan Ibn Majah, in addition to some of the books ’authors’ books, and arranging them according to the Musnad, and it is not Musnad Ahmad from his condition, even if it is close to the arrangement of Mazi’s work, as he was a follower of that to the original owner Abu al-Qasim bin Asaker in his book “Supervising Knowledge of the Parties” in M
... Show MoreAlthough renewable energy systems have become an interesting global issue, it is not continuous either daily or seasonally. Latent heat energy storage (LHES) is one of the suitable solutions for this problem. LHES becomes a basic element in renewable energy systems. LHES compensate for the energy lack when these systems are at low production conditions. The present work considered a shell and tube LHES for numerical investigation of the tube rotation influence on the melting process. The simulation and calculations were carried out using ANSYS Fluent software. Paraffin wax represents the phase change material (PCM) in this work, while water was selected to be the heat transfer fluid (HTF). The calculations were carried o
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