This study aimed to determine the nickel (Ni), and chromium (Cr) ions amounts and investigate their potential effects on thyroid hormones in patients' saliva who were receiving treatment with fixed orthodontic appliances (FOA). In this study, 42 FOA volunteers participated, and all samples were obtained from a specialized center for manufacturing and orthodontics in Bab Al-Moadham, Baghdad, Iraq. According to the findings, individuals with fixed orthodontics have significantly higher levels of the thyroid hormones (P<0.05) FT3 and FT4 than those who did not have orthodontic treatment, whereas there were no significant changes in TSH (P=0.599). Additionally, the amounts of Ni⁺² and Cr⁺³

The theory of Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) was introduced in the second half of the twentieth century and aids the decision maker to resolve problems when interacting criteria are involved and need to be evaluated.  In this paper, we apply MCDM on the problem of the best drug for rheumatoid arthritis disease. Then, we solve the MCDM problem via -Sugeno measure and the Choquet integral to provide realistic values in the process of selecting the most appropriate drug. The approach confirms the proper interpretation of multi-criteria decision making in the drug ranking for rheumatoid arthritis.

     The searching process using a binary codebook of combined Block Truncation Coding (BTC) method and Vector Quantization (VQ), i.e. a full codebook search for each input image vector to find the best matched code word in the codebook, requires a long time.   Therefore, in this paper, after designing a small binary codebook, we adopted a new method by rotating each binary code word in this codebook into 90⁰ to 270⁰ step 90⁰ directions. Then, we systematized each code word depending on its angle  to involve four types of binary code books (i.e. Pour when , Flat when  , Vertical when, or Zigzag). The proposed scheme was used for decreasing the time of the coding pro

Suicidal ideation is one of the most severe mental health issues faced by people all over the world. There are various risk factors involved that can lead to suicide. The most common & critical risk factors among them are depression, anxiety, social isolation and hopelessness. Early detection of these risk factors can help in preventing or reducing the number of suicides. Online social networking platforms like Twitter, Redditt and Facebook are becoming a new way for the people to express themselves freely without worrying about social stigma. This paper presents a methodology and experimentation using social media as a tool to analyse the suicidal ideation in a better way, thus helping in preventing the chances of being the victim o

     Poly ethylene oxide PEO / Poly vinyl alcohol PVA  blends were prepared by cast method at different ratios of (25%PEO/75%PVA, 30%PEO/70%PVA, 35%PEO/65%PVA, 40%PEO/60%PVA, and 50%PEO/505PVA). Samples miscibility ,and thermal stability were studied  by using differential scanning calorimetry(DSC),and thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA) analysis. The results proved that there was one glass transition temperature (Tg=160°C) at 25%PEO\PVA ratio
)that was attributed to its miscibility. This miscibility associated with (Hydrogen  bonds) between (Hydroxyl group) in PVA, and PEO, whereas there were two glass transition temperature for the blends ratio more than 30%PEO,that was due its immisc

A thin film of (SnSe) and SnSe:Cu with various Cu ratio (0,3,5 and 7)% have been prepared by thermal evaporation technique with thickness 400±20 nm on glass substrate at (R.T). The effect of Cu dopants concentration on the structural, morphological, optical and electrical properties of (SnSe) Nano crystalline thin films was explored by using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), UV–Vis absorption spectroscopy and Hall Effect measurement respectively. X-ray diffraction analysis reveal the polycrystalline nature of the all films deposited with orthorhombic structure which possess a preferred orientation along the (111) plane. The crystalline sizes o

In this paper, construction microwaves induced plasma jet(MIPJ) system. This system was used to produce a non-thermal plasma jet at atmospheric pressure, at standard frequency of 2.45 GHz and microwave power of 800 W. The working gas Argon (Ar) was supplied to flow through the torch with adjustable flow rate by using flow meter, to diagnose microwave plasma optical emission spectroscopy(OES) was used to measure the important plasma parameters such as electron temperature (Te), residence time (Rt), plasma frequency (?pe), collisional skin depth (?), plasma conductivity (?dc), Debye length(?D). Also, the density of the plasma electron is calculated with the use of Stark broadened profiles

Compression of speech signal is an essential field in signal processing. Speech compression is very important in today’s world, due to the limited bandwidth transmission and storage capacity. This paper explores a Contourlet transformation based methodology for the compression of the speech signal. In this methodology, the speech signal is analysed using Contourlet transformation coefficients with statistic methods as threshold values, such as Interquartile Filter (IQR), Average Absolute Deviation (AAD), Median Absolute Deviation (MAD) and standard deviation (STD), followed by the application of (Run length encoding) They are exploited for recording speech in different times (5, 30, and 120 seconds). A comparative study of performance

In this research, the effect of electrode material on the parameters of the produced DBD plasma was investigated. First, a non-thermal plasma was created by applying a 15 kV AC voltage between two electrodes and using a glass plate as a dielectric barrier in the design Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD) plasma system. The obtained plasma spectrum was analyzed using optical emission spectroscopy to calculate plasma parameters by the Boltzmann plot method. Electrodes made of copper, aluminium, and stainless steel were employed in this research. Electron temperature ( ) for copper, aluminium, and stainless steel was found to be (1.398 eV), (1.093 eV) and (1.009 eV), respectively.

Background: Manuka honey (MH) is a mono-floral honey derived from the Manuka tree (Leptospermum scoparium). MH is a highly recognized for its non-peroxide antibacterial activities, which are mostly related to its unique methylglyoxal content (MGO) in MH. The beneficial phytochemicals in MH is directly related to their favorable health effects, which include wound healing, anticancer, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory properties. Aims: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of MH on pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-8 and TNF-α) in patients with gingivitis and compare it with chlorhexidine (CHX) and distilled water (DW). Materials and Methods: This study was a randomized, double blinded, and parallel clinical trial. Forty-fiv