Background: Nutritional status during childhood is very important for individual development and growth. Nutrition has local and systemic effect on the oral health by affecting dental health and salivary composition. This study was aimed to determine effect of iron, sodium and potassium ions in saliva on the nutritional status and to determine the effect of nutritional status on caries severity among preschool children. Material and Methods: The sample consists of 90 children aged 4 and 5 years of both genders, selected from 6 kindergartens in Al-Resafa aspect of Baghdad province. Children classified according to their nutritional status into three groups (normalweight, underweight and overweight). Nutritional status was determined by using body mass index BMI that achieved from height and weight (weight (Kg)/height (m)2). Assessment and recording of caries experience was done by the application of decayed, missing, filled index (dmfs for primary teeth). The diagnosis of dental caries was done according to (d1-4 mfs) criteria for primary teeth. Stimulated saliva was collected from children between 9-11 AM under standardized conditions and chemically analyzed to determine the concentration of iron, sodium and potassium calorimetrically by using ready-made kits and spectrophotometer machine. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 19. Results: Concentration of sodium, potassium and iron ions were (46.64 mg/dl ± 18.00, 31.22 mg/dl ± 9.84, 17.76µg/dl ± 3.17) respectively. From the elements measured in saliva only sodium ions recorded statistically significant difference among the three groups of nutritional status. By application of LSD, the significant difference was found to be between normal weight and overweight groups (46.33 mg/dl ± 17.18, 40.64 mg/dl ± 14.79) respectively (P<0.05). Furthermore, positive and statistically significant correlations were recorded between sodium ions with BMI mean of overweight group on one hand (r=- 0.125, P<0.05) and iron ions and normal weight group on other hand (r=0.362, P<0.05). Recording and diagnosis of dental caries showed that means of ds, ms, dmfs, d2s and d4s were significantly higher among children aged 5 years than those aged 4 years. In addition to that means of ds, ms, dmfs and d2s were significantly differ among the three groups of nutrition. Application of LSD test showed that those means were higher among underweight group than others. Conclusion: Concentration of sodium ions in saliva changed according to nutritional status. On the other hand nutritional status may affect caries severity, where underweight children suffering from dental caries more than normalweight and overweight children. Key words: Nutritional status, concentration of iron, sodium and potassium in saliva, Severity of caries.
Background: Due to the complicated and time-consuming physiological procedure of bone healing, certain graft materials have been frequently used to enhance the reconstruction of the normal bone architecture. However, owing to the limitations of these graft materials, some pharmaceutical alternatives are considered instead. Chitosan is a biopolymer with many distinguishing characteristics that make it one of the best materials to be used as a drug delivery system for simvastatin. Simvastatin is a cholesterol lowering drug, and an influencer in bone formation process, because it stimulates osteoblasts differentiation, bone morphogenic protein 2, and vascular endothelial growth factor. Objectives: histological, histochemical and histomorp
... Show MoreA novel demountable shear connector for precast steel-concrete composite bridges is presented. The connector uses high-strength steel bolts, which are fastened to the top flange of the steel beam with the aid of a special locking nut configuration that prevents bolts from slipping within their holes. Moreover, the connector promotes accelerated construction and overcomes the typical construction tolerance issues of precast structures. Most importantly, the connector allows bridge disassembly. Therefore, it can address different bridge deterioration scenarios with minimum disturbance to traffic flow including the following: (1) precast deck panels can be rapidly uplifted and replaced; (2) connectors can be rapidly removed and replaced; and (
... Show MoreZinc Oxide nanoparticles were prepared using pulsed laser ablation process from a pure zinc metal placed inside a liquid environment. The latter is composed of acetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) of 10−3 molarity and distilled water. A Ti:Sapphire laser of 800 nm wavelength, 1 kHz pulse repetition rate, 130 fs pulse duration is used at three values of pulse energies of 0.05 mJ, 1.11 mJ and 1.15 mJ. The evaluation of the optical properties for the obtained suspension was applied through ultraviolet–visible absorption spectroscopy test (UV/VIS). The result showed peak wavelengths at 210 nm, 211 nm and 213 nm for the three used pulse energies 0.05 mJ, 1.11 mJ and 1.15 mJ respectively. This indicates a blue shift,
... Show MoreThe temperature control process of electric heating furnace (EHF) systems is a quite difficult and changeable task owing to non-linearity, time delay, time-varying parameters, and the harsh environment of the furnace. In this paper, a robust temperature control scheme for an EHF system is developed using an adaptive active disturbance rejection control (AADRC) technique with a continuous sliding-mode based component. First, a comprehensive dynamic model is established by using convection laws, in which the EHF systems can be characterized as an uncertain second order system. Second, an adaptive extended state observer (AESO) is utilized to estimate the states of the EHF system and total disturbances, in which the observer gains are updated
... Show MoreThe approach of green synthesis of bio-sorbent has become simple alternatives to chemical synths as they use for example plant extracts, plus green synthesis outperforms chemical methods because it is environmentally friendly besides has wide applications in environmental remediation. This paper investigates the removal of ciprofloxacin (CIP) using green tea nano zero-valent iron (GT-NZVI) in an aqueous solution. The synthesized GT-NZVI was categorized using SEM, AFM, BET, FTIR, and Zeta potentials techniques. The spherical nanoparticles were found to be nano zero-valent, with an average size of 85 nm and a surface area of 2.19m2/g. The results showed that the removal efficiency of ciprofloxacin depends on the initial pH (2.5-10),
... Show MoreBiologically active natural compounds are molecules produced by plants or plant-related microbes, such as endophytes. Many of these metabolites have a wide range of antimicrobial activities and other pharmaceutical properties. This study aimed to evaluate (in vitro) the antifungal activities of the secondary metabolites obtained from Paecilomyces sp. against the pathogenic fungus Rhizoctonia solani. The endophytic fungus Paecilomyces was isolated from Moringa oleifera leaves and cultured on potato dextrose broth for the production of the fungal metabolites. The activity of Paecilomyces filtrate against the radial growth of Rhizoctonia solani was tested by mixing the filtrate with potato dextrose agar medium at concentrations of 15%,
... Show MoreThe current research aims to find out the extent to which students of the Faculty of Education for Pure Sciences\/Ibn al-Haitham have owned laboratory academic skills, the researcher adopted a descriptive research approach to conform to the goal of the research, the research sample the consisted of 140 students from the Department of Chemistry Phase II, The research tool, which consisted of a measure of laboratory academic skills, which consisted of seven skills and consisted of 28 paragraphs (four paragraphs per field), was prepared and the pent-up scale was chosen because the selected sample were university students, and the results showed the ownership of students' skills of laboratory academic skills other than skill The use of the libr
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