Objectives: During the COVID-19 pandemic, dentists have had to work under stressful conditions due to the nature of their work. Personal protection equipment (PPE) has become mandatory for work in the dentistry field. This study aimed to examine dentists' practices and attitudes regarding the use of PPE and the associated drawbacks and cost implications during the pandemic.

Methods: A questionnaire-based survey was used and was divided into five sections dedicated to collect demographic variables and to examine the dentists' practices, attitudes toward PPE, drawbacks, and cost of using PPE. Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to compare different sections of

The osseodensification (OD) drilling technique was suggested as an alveolar ridge expansion technique, so the aim of this prospective clinical study was to evaluate the amount of bone expansion obtained by the OD drilling technique and its effect on implant stability in patients with narrow alveolar ridges. The width of the alveolar ridge was measured at the crest before and after implant site preparation, whereas the implant stability was measured using Osstell Beacon implant stability quotient (ISQ). The ISQ values were recorded immediately postoperatively and after 16 weeks. Twenty-three patients were included; they received 40 implants. The mean (± standard deviation [SD]) amount of expansion was 1.29 (± 0.41) mm, and the difference b

Objective: Comprehending microbial diversity and antibiotic resistance patterns is essential for efficient treatment protocols. This study sought to determine the incidence of bacterial and fungal pathogens responsible for burn and wound infections and their antibiotic susceptibility profiles. Methods: This cross-sectional study involved 140 patients with burn or wound infections. Sterile swabs and pus aspiration were employed to collect samples, which were subsequently processed using standard microbiological procedures. Antibiotic resistance was determined using the Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method, following Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) guidelines. Data was analysed using IBM SPSS version 25.0, and the Chi-

A novel metal-organic framework (MOF) sorbent based on tannic acid/copper (TA/Cu) was synthesized and characterized for the application of the anticancer drug imatinib (IMA) from biological samples. The TA/Cu MOF was prepared via a facile coordination reaction and thoroughly characterized by SEM, XRD, and FTIR techniques. Critical parameters influencing the extraction efficiency of imatinib mesylate (IMAM), including pH, ionic strength, desorption solvent, and adsorption-desorption time were optimized. With acetonitrile as the desorption solvent, the method demonstrated a broad linear range of 0.55-300 μg L-1 under ideal conditions. Limits of detection and quantification were found to be 0.16 μg L-1 and 0.55 μg L-1, respectively.

Gas compressibility factor or z-factor plays an important role in many engineering applications related to oil and gas exploration and production, such as gas production, gas metering, pipeline design, estimation of gas initially in place (GIIP), and ultimate recovery (UR) of gas from a reservoir. There are many z-factor correlations which are either derived from Equation of State or empirically based on certain observation through regression analysis. However, the results of the z-factor obtained from different correlations have high level of variance for the same gas sample under the same pressure and temperature. It is quite challenging to determine the most accurate correlation which provides accurate estimate for a range of pressures,

GFRP was employed in constructions as an alternative to steel, which has many advantages like lightweight, large tensile strength and resist corrosion. Existing researches are insufficient in studying the influence of hybrid reinforced concrete composite columns encased by GFRP I-section (RCCCEG) and I-section steel (RCCCES). In this study twenty one (RC) specimens of a cross-section of 130 mm × 160 mm, with different length (long 1600 mm and short 750 mm) were encased by using I-section (steel and GFRP) and tested under various loading (concentric, eccentric and flexural loads). The test was focused on the influence of many parameters; load-carrying capacity, mode of failure, deformation and drawing an interaction diagram (N-

Flexible pavements are subjected to three main distress types: fatigue crack, thermal crack, and permanent deformation. Under severe climate conditions, thermal cracking particularly contributes largely to a considerable scale of premature deterioration of pavement infrastructure worldwide. This challenge is especially relevant for Europe, as weather conditions vary significantly throughout the year. Hydrated lime (HL) has been recognized as an effective additive to improve the mechanical properties of asphalt concrete for pavement applications. Previous research has found that a replacement of conventional limestone dust filler using hydrated lime at 2.5% of the total weight of aggregates generated an optimum improvement in the mec

This study was conducted on Lake Hamrin situated in Diyala governorate, focal Iraq, between latitudes 44^º 53ʹ 26.16 '- 45º 07 ʹ 28.03^ʺ and 34º 04ʹ 24.75^ʺ ــ 34º 19ʹ 12.74^ʺ . As in this study, the surface area of Hamrin Lake was calculated from satellite images during the period from October 2019 to September 2020, with an average satellite image for each month, furthermore,by utilizing the Normalized Differences Water Index (NDWI), the largest surface area was 264,617 km² for October and the lowest surface area 140.202 km² for September. The surface temperature of the lake water was also calculated from satellite images of the Landsat 8 satellite, based on ban

Gas 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