Background: This study aims to investigate the effect of fixed orthodontic appliances and/or antihypertensive drugs on the weight of experimental rats. Materials and Methods: Thir-ty-six male Wistar albino rats were subjected to a split-mouth design study, in which an orthodontic appliance was inserted in one side to move the first molar mesially for 2 weeks while the other side acted as a control to tooth movement. The rats were allocated into three groups: group A (n = 12), without any pharmacological treatment; group B (n = 12), subcu-taneous injection of bisoprolol fumarate (5 mg/kg) daily; and group C (n = 12), subcutaneous injection of valsartan (10 mg/kg) daily. A fixed orthodontic appliance with a closing coil spring delivering 5

              In light of the general inadequacy in the performance of the economic units operating in Iraq, and the contemporary developments in all the various sciences, Iraqi economic units have become obligated to use modern technologies applied around the world. Keeping abreast of these developments is done by moving away from traditional methods of evaluating performance and applying approved and accepted methods of evaluating performance. This will lead to an increase in the efficiency and effectiveness of the activities of economic units. In addition, this drives to reduce production costs. Accordingly, this study aims to clarify the application of the balanced scor

Background: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of in vitro long-term simulation of oral conditions on the bond strength of PEEK CAD/CAM lingual retainers.

Material and methods: The sample consisted of 12 PEEK CAD/CAM retainers each composed of 2 centrally perforated 3x4mm pads joined by a connector. They were treated by 98% sulfuric acid for 1 minute and then conditioned with Single Bond Universal and bonded to the lingual surface of premolar teeth by 3M Transbond TM System. Half of the retainers were artificially aged using a 30-day water storage and 5000 thermocycling protocol before bond strength testing to compare with the non-aged specimens.

Results: The artificially aged retainers showed a marginally

We consider the problem of calibrating range measurements of a Light Detection and Ranging (lidar) sensor that is dealing with the sensor nonlinearity and heteroskedastic, range-dependent, measurement error. We solved the calibration problem without using additional hardware, but rather exploiting assumptions on the environment surrounding the sensor during the calibration procedure. More specifically we consider the assumption of calibrating the sensor by placing it in an environment so that its measurements lie in a 2D plane that is parallel to the ground. Then, its measurements come from fixed objects that develop orthogonally w.r.t. the ground, so that they may be considered as fixed points in an inertial reference frame. Moreov

Choosing antimicrobials is a common dilemma when the expected rate of bacterial resistance is high. The observed resistance values in unequal groups of isolates tested for different antimicrobials can be misleading. This can affect the decision to recommend one antibiotic over the other. We analyzed recalled data with the statistical consideration of unequal sample groups. Data was collected concerning children suspected to have typhoid fever at Al Alwyia Pediatric Teaching Hospital in Baghdad, Iraq. The study period extended from September 2021 to September 2022. A novel algorithm was developed to compare the drug sensitivity among unequal numbers of Salmonella typhi (S. Typhi) isolates tested with different antibacterials.

A new modified differential evolution algorithm DE-BEA, is proposed to improve the reliability of the standard DE/current-to-rand/1/bin by implementing a new mutation scheme inspired by the bacterial evolutionary algorithm (BEA). The crossover and the selection schemes of the DE method are also modified to fit the new DE-BEA mechanism. The new scheme diversifies the population by applying to all the individuals a segment based scheme that generates multiple copies (clones) from each individual one-by-one and applies the BEA segment-wise mechanism. These new steps are embedded in the DE/current-to-rand/bin scheme. The performance of the new algorithm has been compared with several DE variants over eighteen benchmark functions including sever

planning is among the most significant in the field of robotics research.  As it is linked to finding a safe and efficient route in a cluttered environment for wheeled mobile robots and is considered a significant prerequisite for any such mobile robot project to be a success. This paper proposes the optimal path planning of the wheeled mobile robot with collision avoidance by using an algorithm called grey wolf optimization (GWO) as a method for finding the shortest and safe. The research goals in this study for identify the best path while taking into account the effect of the number of obstacles and design parameters on performance for the algorithm to find the best path. The simulations are run in the MATLAB environment to test the

The need for quick airborne transportation is critical, especially in emergencies. Drones with suspended payloads might be used to accomplish quick airborne transportation. Due to the environment or the drone's motion, the slung load may oscillate and lead the drone to fall. The altitude and attitude controls are the backbones of the drone's stability, and they must be adequately designed. Because of their symmetrical and simple structure, quadrotor helicopters are one of the most popular drone classes. In this work, a genetic algorithm with two weighted terms fitness function is used to adjust a Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controller to compensate for the altitude and attitude controllers in a quadrotor drone with a slun