This study aimed to compare the safety and efficacy of laser lithotripsy and pneumatic lithotripsy, the two most commonly used transurethral lithotripsy methods for treating bladder stones in children in Iraq. Between January 2013 and December 2016, 64 children with bladder stones were included in this prospective randomized study, after ethical committee approval and written consent from the children’s parents or caregivers were obtained. Patients were assigned randomly by computer software to two groups treated with either pneumatic cystolithotripsy or laser lithotripsy. A 9 Fr. semirigid ureteroscope was used to pass the lithotripter through and fragment the stone. A catheter of 8–12 Fr. was then introduced and kept in place

Labrotary experiment was conducted to study the effect of different levels of nematode population densities of Meloidogyne spp on seed germination percentage and seedling characteristics of Vigna sinensis, Ahelmoschus esculentus, Cicer arietinum, Helianthus annuus and Rap-hanus sativus. Four different levels of nematode populat-ion densities ranged from 1 to 4 prepared from radish in-fected roots and used as inoculating agent to infect all seed types in the experiment Seed germination percentage of Vigna sinensis and Ablemoschus eseulentus were highly reduced (at 0.01 level of significance) with increased nematode population level from 1 to 4. Seedling length of the remaining seed types were significantly reduced (at 0.01 level of signif

          The present study includes the effect of the ethanolic and aqueous extract of Piper nigrum against the third instar of Culex pipiens molestus (Diptera:Culicidae) in different concentrations: 1, 1.5 ppm of ethanolic extracts of Piper nigrum causing 100% mortality of larvae in the second day of treatment, while the concentrations 5% of aqueous extracts of Piper nigrum caused 100% mortality of larvae in the second day of treatment. The concentration 2.5% caused 100% mortality of larvae after four days of treatment. The current study also detected the effect of 0.1% concentration of Piper nigrum aqueous extract. The effect of this concentratio

Background: This study was formulated to compare the effect of 5%hydrofluoric acid in comparison to 37%phosphoric acid with and without the application of silane on bond strength of composite to porcelain. Materials and Methods: Specimen preparation was divided in to two phases, metal-disks fabrication (8mm-diameter and 4mm-thickness) and ceramic veneering. Thirty two specimens were prepared, sandblasted with 50 μm aluminum oxide, and divided into four groups of eight samples. Groups I and III were etched with 37%phosphoric acid while groups II and IV were etched with 5%hydrofluoric acid; and groups I and II were silaneted while groups III and IV were not. Heliobond, and resin composite were applied to each specimen using a plastic transpa

In the last few years, the use of artificial neural network analysis has increased, particularly, in geotechnical engineering problems and has demonstrated some success. In this research, artificial neural network analysis endeavors to predict the relationship between physical and mechanical properties of Baghdad soil by making different trials between standard penetration test, liquid limit, plastic limit, plasticity index, cohesion, angle of internal friction, and bearing capacity. The analysis revealed that the changes in natural water content and plastic limit have a great effect on the cohesion of soil and the angle of internal friction, respectively. . On the other hand, the liquid limit has a great impact on the bearing capacity and

Background: Psoriasis is an immune-mediated inflammatory disease with unknown aetiology that may be associated with the defect in proliferation and differentiation of the keratinocytes related to inflammatory cell infiltration. According to published reports, it is universal in occurrence; its prevalence in different populations varies from 0.1% to 11.8%. Receiving Apremilast resulted in a strong reduction in interleukin 17 and interleukin 23, as well as reduced expression of other inflammatory cytokines and improvement of psoriatic lesions. Objectives: This study aimed to assess the impact of Apremilast on levels of IL-17, IL-23, and lipids in obese psoriatic patients. Methods: Thirty obese patients with psoriasis were included in

Four local hemolysin producer bacterial isolates were selected, tow of them gram negative bacteria (Escherichia coli ,Pseudomonas aeruginosa ) and the other two were gram positive bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus , Bacillus cereus ). Minimum inhibitory concentration of the aqueous and alcoholic extracts of Punica granatum L. pericarp were determined towards the four bacterial isolates ,results obtaind showed that MICs of the aqueous extract were 200 mg/ml for E .coli and P. aeruginosa isolates while were 5 mg/ml and 2 mg/ml for B. cereus, S. aureus , respectively The MICs for the ethanolic extract were 50 mg/ml , 20 mg/ml ,1 mg/ml ,0.5 mg/ml for E. coli ,P. aeruginosa ,B. cereus ,S. aureus , respectively. The effect of Sub-MICs o

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