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.
In current study a computation fluid dynamic (CFD) technique was used to investigate the effect of groynes shape and spacing on the scour pattern and the maximum scour depth in open channel flow. CFD model have been validated throughout comparing the numerical results with three previous experimental studies for a single groyne located in open channel with three different shapes (L, quadrant, and parabola shapes). The comparison revealed very good agreement between numerical results of the maximum scour depth with the results of all experimental models. Moreover, investigations of the effect of multi-groynes (three groynes and four groynes) arranged in parallel with constant spacing and also with variable spacing have been done, the
... Show MoreBackground: Pain is one of the most postoperative complications of surgical wound especially within first 24 hrs. leading to delay hospital discharge, stress gastritis and increasing blood pressure. As wound infiltration with long acting local anesthetic (bupivacaine) has been proved to be effective after orthopedic surgeries especially total hip and knee replacements.Objective: our study was designed to determine theeffectiveness of local infiltration of 0.5% of bupivacainebefore closure of surgical wounds in controllingpostoperative pain and improve patient’s outcome after totalhip and knee replacement surgeries in first 24hrspostoperative period.Methods: Twenty patients from class I (healthy patients) and class II (patients mild sys
... Show MoreDyslexia is a learning disability in which people face difficulty reading though they are intelligent and have motivation for reading. Therefore; it impacts the portion of the brain responsible for processing language. Such a condition compromises the learning efficiency of the affected person, which generally gets unnoticed. Even affected children are unaware of their state. The study investigates the knowledge and awareness of dyslexia among teachers of English in Iraqi primary schools. this study has three objectives: (i) To investigate the amount of awareness and knowledge among the primary school teachers of English in Baghdad City about dyslexia.; (ii) To examine how English teachers’ awareness of dyslexia is affected by the
... Show MoreAbstract:
The aim of the research is to demonstrate the impact of the salary localization service in enhancing banking competitive advantage. In order to achieve this goal, salary localization was chosen as an independent variable and its impact was studied on the dependent variable, which is the competitive advantage. The research problem lies in the fluctuation of the salary localization service from one bank to another and the impact of this on the competitive advantage. The study sample included five private Iraqi banks, namely (the National Bank of Iraq, the International Development Bank, Assyria International Bank, Al Khaleej Commercial Ban
... Show MoreHumanoids or bipedal robots are other kinds of robots that have legs. The balance of humanoids is the general problem in these types when the other in the support phase and the leg in the swing phase. In this work, the walking pattern generation is studied by MATLAB for two types of degrees of freedom, 10 and 17 degrees of freedom. Besides, the KHR-2HV simulation model is used to simulate the experimental results by Webots. Similarly, Arduino and LOBOT LSC microcontrollers are used to program the bipedal robot. After the several methods for programming the bipedal robot by Arduino microcontroller, LOBOT LSC-32 driver model is the better than PCA 96685 Driver-16 channel servo driver for programming the bipedal walking rob
... Show MoreThe research dealt with a study of economic diversification indicators in Iraq and an indication of the extent to which economic diversification events are desirable in its sectors because desirable diversification events are truly the best means of targeting a fair distribution of income. The research included studying the experiences of selected countries for Norway and Chile, and studying economic indicators and policies for each of them in order to benefit From these two experiences, the research has concluded that the Iraqi economy suffers from a large concentration of the oil sector, which made the Iraqi economy unilateral in which oil represents 90% according to the Herfindel-Hirschman Index, either for Norway and Chile, i
... Show MoreBackground: ?-L-Fucose is a methyl pentose sugar, had the ability to kill bacteria, controlling infection and normalize immune function. The objective of this study is to determine the effect of sulcular injection of fucose on rabbits periodontium , throughout measuring the level of some proinflammatory cytokine ; interlukine 1beta ( IL-1beta) and tumor necrosis factor ( TNF-alpha) in sera of rabbits before fucose injection and at 3 days after fucose injection. Materials and Methods: The study was carried on using ( 20 ) male rabbits of the same species weighted (1-1.5 kg ) , the blood samples were collected from hearts of 20 rabbits before fucose injection and consider as( non injected group) , and after 3 days of fucose injection and con
... Show More Fusobacterium are compulsory anaerobic gram-negative bacteria, long thin with pointed ends, it causes several illnesses to humans like pocket lesion gingivitis and periodontal disease; therefore our study is constructed on molecular identification and detection of the fadA gene which is responsible for bacterial biofilm formation. In this study, 10.2% Fusobacterium spp. were isolated from pocket lesion gingivitis. The isolates underwent identification depending on several tests under anaerobic conditions and biochemical reactions. All isolates were sensitive to Imipenem (IPM10) 42.7mm/disk, Ciprofloxacin (CIP10) 27.2mm/disk and Erythromycin (E15) 25mm/disk, respectively. 100% of