Introduction: Carrier-based gutta-percha is an effective method of root canal obturation creating a 3-dimensional filling; however, retrieval of the plastic carrier is relatively difficult, particularly with smaller sizes. The purpose of this study was to develop composite carriers consisting of polyethylene (PE), hydroxyapatite (HA), and strontium oxide (SrO) for carrier-based root canal obturation. Methods: Composite fibers of HA, PE, and SrO were fabricated in the shape of a carrier for delivering gutta-percha (GP) using a melt-extrusion process. The fibers were characterized using infrared spectroscopy and the thermal properties determined using differential scanning calorimetry. The elastic modulus and tensile strength tests were determined using a universal testing machine. The radiographic appearance was established using digital periapical radiographs. Results: The composite core carrier exhibited a melting point of 111°C to 112°C, which would facilitate removal by heat application. The elastic modulus and the tensile strength were found to be lower than those of Thermafil carriers (Dentsply Tulsa Dental, Tulsa, OK). The preliminary radiographic evaluation showed that the novel composite core carrier is sufficiently radiopaque and can be distinguished from gutta-percha. Conclusions: The PE-HA-SrO composites were successfully melt processed into composite core carriers for delivering gutta-percha into the root canal space.
The fetal heart rate (FHR) signal processing based on Artificial Neural Networks (ANN),Fuzzy Logic (FL) and frequency domain Discrete Wavelet Transform(DWT) were analysis in order to perform automatic analysis using personal computers. Cardiotocography (CTG) is a primary biophysical method of fetal monitoring. The assessment of the printed CTG traces was based on the visual analysis of patterns that describing the variability of fetal heart rate signal. Fetal heart rate data of pregnant women with pregnancy between 38 and 40 weeks of gestation were studied. The first stage in the system was to convert the cardiotocograghy (CTG) tracing in to digital series so that the system can be analyzed ,while the second stage ,the FHR time series was t
... Show MoreMost below-knee prostheses are manufactured in Iraq without considering the fast progress in smart prostheses, which can offer movements in the desired directions according to the type of control system designed for this purpose. The proposed design appears to have the advantages of simplicity, affordability, better load distribution, suitability for subjects with transtibial amputation, and viability in countries with people having low socio-economic status. The designed prosthetics consisted of foot, ball, and socket joints, two stepper motors, a linkage system, and an EMG shield. All these materials were available in the local markets in Iraq. The experimental results showed t
... Show MoreCurrently voting process is paper based form, by using voting card or paper; thus the counting method is done manually, which exhausts a lot of time. Obsolete votes may be possibly occurring. This paper introduced a system in which voting and counting is done with the help of computer. The election process would be easier, it saves time, avoid errors while counting and obsolete votes are reduced. Electronic voting (E-voting) system is a voting system in which the election related data is stored and handled digitally, it would become the quickest, cheapest, and the most efficient way to administer election and count vote it is considered a means to further enhance and strengthen the democratic processes in modern information societies. Th
... Show MoreArabic text categorization for pattern recognitions is challenging. We propose for the first time a novel holistic method based on clustering for classifying Arabic writer. The categorization is accomplished stage-wise. Firstly, these document images are sectioned into lines, words, and characters. Secondly, their structural and statistical features are obtained from sectioned portions. Thirdly, F-Measure is used to evaluate the performance of the extracted features and their combination in different linkage methods for each distance measures and different numbers of groups. Finally, experiments are conducted on the standard KHATT dataset of Arabic handwritten text comprised of varying samples from 1000 writers. The results in the generatio
... Show MoreHuman action recognition has gained popularity because of its wide applicability, such as in patient monitoring systems, surveillance systems, and a wide diversity of systems that contain interactions between people and electrical devices, including human computer interfaces. The proposed method includes sequential stages of object segmentation, feature extraction, action detection and then action recognition. Effective results of human actions using different features of unconstrained videos was a challenging task due to camera motion, cluttered background, occlusions, complexity of human movements, and variety of same actions performed by distinct subjects. Thus, the proposed method overcomes such problems by using the fusion of featur
... Show MoreIn this paper, a microcontroller-based electronic circuit have been designed and implemented for dental curing system using 8-bit MCS-51 microcontroller. Also a new control card is designed while considering advantages of microcontroller systems the time of curing was controlled automatically by preset values which were input from a push-button switch. An ignition based on PWM technique was used to reduce the high starting current needed for the halogen lamp. This paper and through the test result will show a good performance of the proposed system.