Objectives: Maxillofacial silicone is used to restore abnormalities due to congenital or acquired causes. However, the quality of silicone is far from ideal. This study was aimed at assessing the influence of the addition of cellulose nanofibers (CNFs; several nanometers wide and 2-5 micro m long) on the physical and mechanical characteristics of maxillofacial silicone elastomers. Methods: Two CNF weight percentages (0.5% and 1%) were tested, and 180 specimens were divided into one control and two experimental groups. Each group was subdivided into six subgroups. In each subgroup, ten specimens subjected to each of the following tests: tearing strength, Shore-A hardness, tensile strength, elongation percentage, surface roughness, and color

Blood samples were collected from (31) pregnant women infected with cytomegalovirus , also (15) blood samples were collected from congenitally infected infants, and (20),(15),(15) blood samples were collected from pregnant women ,non pregnant and infants, respectively, all of them were as control groups. CMV infection identified by using ELISA assay to detect specific CMV IgM & IgG in sera. The results of lymphocyte transformation showed a significant decrease when phytoheamagglutinin (PHA) used as stimulator, lymphocytes response in infected pregnant women was lower than that of non infected pregnant women as well as non pregnant women. Result also showed a significant decrease in the ability of lymphocyte division in healthy pregnant w

To ensure fault tolerance and distributed management, distributed protocols are employed as one of the major architectural concepts underlying the Internet. However, inefficiency, instability and fragility could be potentially overcome with the help of the novel networking architecture called software-defined networking (SDN). The main property of this architecture is the separation of the control and data planes. To reduce congestion and thus improve latency and throughput, there must be homogeneous distribution of the traffic load over the different network paths. This paper presents a smart flow steering agent (SFSA) for data flow routing based on current network conditions. To enhance throughput and minimize latency, the SFSA distrib

Liquid-side mass-transfer coefficients (K_La) were measured in air-suction type fermentors using physical absorption of oxygen.  A fermentor of 0. 5 m i.d. was used with a working capacity of 60 liters of liquid. Tap water was used as the liquid phase, and air was used as the gas phase. The bioreactor mixing system consists of shrouded-disk/curved-blade turbine with six evacuated bending blades. The effect of liquid submergence (S) was investigated. Further, the effects of the ratio of the impeller diameter (D) to the tank diameter (T), and the clearance of the impeller from the tank bottom(C) were also studied.  The agitation speed (N) was varied in the range of 50-800 rpm. It was found that the value of  K

Non thermal argon plasma needle at atmospheric pressure was constructed. The experimental set up was based on simple and low cost electric components that generate electrical field sufficiently high at the electrodes to ionize various gases which flow at atmospheric pressure. A high AC power supply was used with 9.6kV peak to peak and 33kHz frequency. The plasma was generated using two electrodes. The voltage and current discharge waveform were measured. The temperature of Ar gas plasma jet at different gas flow rate and distances from the plasma electrode was also recorded. It was found that the temperature increased with increasing frequency to reach the maximum value at 15 kHz, and that the current leading the voltage, which demonstra

Human health can be negatively impacted by exposure to loud noise, which can harm the auditory system. Traffic noise is the leading cause of noise pollution. This paper studies the problem of noise pollution on the roads in Baghdad, Iraq. Due to the increase in vehicle numbers and road network modifications in Baghdad, noise levels became a serious topic to be studied. The aim of the paper was thus to study traffic noise levels and the effect of the traffic stream on noise levels and to formulate a prediction model that identified the guidelines used for designing or developing future roads in the city. Then, the noise levels were measured based on five variables: the functional classification of roads, traffic flow, vehicle speed,