Background: Plaque retention during fixed orthodontic therapy is an important cause of developing enamel demineralization. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of different brackets types on the count of Streptococcus Mutans in orthodontic patients using conventional fluoridated toothpaste. Materials and Methods: Plaque samples were collected from maxillary 1st premolar teeth of twenty right handed patients (using split mouth technique) before bonding, after 48 hrs of bonding using tooth brush only, and after 2 weeks of using fluoridated toothpaste. Stainless steel bracket was bonded on right first premolar while the left one was bonded with sapphire bracket. The calculation of the Streptococcus Mutans count was done usin

The growing demand for sustainable and high-performance asphalt binders has prompted the exploration of waste-derived modifiers. This study investigates the performance enhancement of Natural Asphalt (NA) using Sugarcane Molasses (SM) and Waste Engine Oil (WEO). The modified blends were prepared by partially replacing 50 % NA with varying proportions of SM and WEO ranging from 10 % to 40 % of the total weight of NA. Comprehensive testing was conducted, including penetration, softening point, ductility, viscosity, Bending Beam Rheometer (BBR), Multiple Stress Creep Recovery (MSCR), Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDX), Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The results demonstrated that

This study investigates the implementation of Taguchi design in the estimation of minimum corrosion rate of mild-steel in cooling tower that uses saline solution of different concentration. The experiments were set on the basis of Taguchi’s L16 orthogonal array. The runs were carried out under different condition such as inlet concentration of saline solution, temperature, and flowrate. The Signal-to- Noise ratio and ANOVA analysis were used to define the impact of cooling tower working conditions on the corrosion rate. A regression had been modelled and optimized to identify the optimum level for the working parameters that had been founded to be 13%NaCl, 35ᴼC, and 1 l/min. Also a confirmation run to establish the p

Near-ideal p-CdS/n-Si heterojunction band edge lineup has been investigated for the first time with aid of I-V and C-V measurements. The heterojunction was manufactured by deposition of CdS films prepared by chemical spray pyrolysis technique (CSP) on monocrystalline n-type silicon. The experimental data of the conduction band offset Ec and valence band offset Ec were compared with theoretical values. The band offset Ec=530meV and Ev=770meV obtained at 300K. The energy band diagram of p-CdS/n-Si HJ was constructed. C-V measurements depict that the junction was an abrupt type and the built-in voltage was determined from C-2-V plot

The research aims to clarify the COBIT5 framework for IT governance and to develop of a criterion based on Balanced Scorecard that contributes in measuring the performance of IT governance. To achieve these goals, the researchers adopted the deductive approach in the design of balanced scorecard to measure the IT governance at the Bank of Baghdad that was chosen because it relied heavily on IT.

The research has reached a number of conclusions, the most important of which is that the performance of IT department in the Bank of Baghdad falls within the good level that requires constant monitoring, the most committed items of Balanced Scorecard by the Bank were customer, internal operation, growth and finally the financial item; IT

Internal curing is a method that has been advised to decrease the primary age cracking, mainly of concrete mixes using low (water to cementitious materials - w/cm) ratios corresponding to the self-compacting concrete-(SCC). This research aims to study the effect of the internal curing using saturated lightweight aggregate- (LWA) on the steel reinforcing corrosion in SCC. In this research, crushed bricks or thermostone were partially replaced by (20%) by the weight of sand and volumetrically measured. The results showed that the steel reinforcement of internally cured concrete showed a slight increase in corrosion up to 300 days of exposure to the saline solution (containing 3.5% NaCl). The ability of using the crushed bricks or thermostone