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.
Heavy metals especially lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr) and copper (Cu) are noxious pollutants with immense health hazards on living organisms, these pollutants enter aquatic environment in Iraq mainly Tigris and Euphrates rivers via waste water came from different anthropological activities, This study investigated capacity of dried and ground root of water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) in removing the heavy metals from their aqueous solutions. Effects of initial concentrations of the heavy metals and pH of their aqueous solutions were studied. Results of this study revealed excellent biosorption capacity of water hyacinth root in general, removal of Pb was the highest and Cr was lowest. The results showed that the Pb, Cu and C
... Show MoreBackground: The repair of bone defects remains a major clinical orthopaedic challenge. Bone is a highly vascularised tissue reliant on the close spatial and temporal connection between blood vessels and bone cells to maintain skeletal integrity. This study aimed to study the efficacy of Panax ginseng as a osteoinducer in tibia of rat and as a stimulator for bone healing and to study the immunohistochemical expression of osteonectin as bone formation markers in experimental and control groups during bone healing. Material and method: : In this study thirty albino male rats , weighting (200-300) gram ,aged (2-3) months ,will be used under control conditions of temperature ,drinking and food consumption. The animals will subject for an
... Show MoreIn this work, optical system with different aperture shapes (circular, square, elliptical and triangle aperture) has been used for efficiency evaluation when the system involved moving factor in ideal case (aberration free). The optical system evaluate far moving object, therefore the image forming at image plane due to point spread function (image formula of incoherently illuminated point object). A mathematical treatment has been used to getting results by Gaussian numerical calculations method. The results show priority of circular aperture when optical system that submits of moving factor.
Heavy metal contamination comprises a great concern in the environment. A magnetic study combined with heavy metal analyses was performed in the Sawa Lake in Al-Muthanna governorate (southern Iraq). Concentrations of selected heavy metals (Cr, Fe, Ni, As and Pb) have been measured and magnetic susceptibility (χ) of sediment samples collected from the lake bottom was calculated.
The results confirmed that a cement plant, which is located less than two kilometers away from the lake has no contamination levels on the lake’s sediments. No enhancement in the magnetic susceptibility was observed. X-ray florescence (XRF) was performed for heavy metal analyses.
Spatial variations of χ with the mean value of 4.58 x
... Show MoreBackground: The study aimed to investigate the effect of different techniques of en masse retraction on the vertical and sagittal position, axial inclination, rate of space closure, and type of movement of maxillary central incisor. Materials and methods: A typodont simulation system was used (CL II division 2 malocclusion). Three groups were used group 1(N=10, T-loop), group 2(N=10, Time-Saving loop), and group 3(N=10, Microimplant). Photographs were taken before and after retraction and measurements were made using Autodesk AutoCAD© software 2010. Kruskal-Wallis one-way analyses of variance and Mann-Whitney U test (p?0.05) were used. Results: The rate of space closure showed no significant difference among the three groups (p?0.05), whi
... Show MoreThe objective of this research work is to evaluate the quality of central concrete plant of Al-Rasheed Company by using Six Sigma approach which is a measure of quality that strives for near elimination of defects using the statistical methods to improve outputs that are critical to customers. The fundamental objective of Six Sigma methodology is the implementation of a measurement-based strategy that focuses on process improvement and variation reduction to reach delighting customers, and then suggesting an improvement system to improve the production of concrete in Al-Rasheed State Contracting Construction Company.
A field survey includes two parts (open and close questionnaire) that aimed to get the data and information required f
The transition from low Earth orbit 200-1500 (km) to geostationary Earth orbit 42162 (km) was studied in this work by many methods of transfer. The delta-v requirement (Δv), the time of flight (Δt), the mass ratio of propellant consume (Δm/m) and total mass was calculated for many values altitude in the same plane also when the plane is change. The results from work show that (Δv) that required for transfer when the plane of orbit change is large than (Δv) required when the transfer in coplanar maneuvers while the bi-elliptical transfer method need time of transfer longer than a Hohmann transfer method. The most energy efficiency was determined when the transfer in coaxial between elliptical orbits
... Show MoreThis study was conducted to determining the variable effects on water quality of Greater Zab River in Erbil province, Iraq, using multivariate statistical analysis. Seventeen variables were monitored in four sampling sites during one year (from May 2012 to April 2013). The dataset were treated using principal component analysis (PCA)/ factor analysis (FA), cluster analysis (CA) to the most important factors affecting water quality, sources of pollution and suitability of water for drinking consumption and irrigation. Six factors were identified as responsible for the data structure explaining 73.5% of the total variance in the dataset and are conditionally named, hydrochemical from weathering, mineral salts and domestic wastes. CA showed
... Show MoreThe current study presents the simulative study and evaluation of MANET mobility models over UDP traffic pattern to determine the effects of this traffic pattern on mobility models in MANET which is implemented in NS-2.35 according to various performance metri (Throughput, AED (Average End-2-end Delay), drop packets, NRL (Normalize Routing Load) and PDF (Packet Delivery Fraction)) with various parameters such as different velocities, different environment areas, different number of nodes, different traffic rates, different traffic sources, different pause times and different simulation times . A routing protocol.…was exploited AODV(Adhoc On demand Distance Vector) and RWP (Random Waypoint), GMM (Gauss Markov Model), RPGM (Refere
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