Background: Saliva is a specific bio-fluid with important biomarkers. Analyzing any alternation in these markers could give valuable information, in relation to oral health status parameters. The aim of this study was to investigate the level of α -amylase in unstimulated whole saliva of healthy, primary school children in relation to some oral health parameters. Materials and Methods: A questionnaires consisted of demography and medical histories of participants were filled by children families. Saliva samples were collected for 5- minutes between 9:00 -11:00 AM from 114 healthy students aged 6-13 years, divided into four age groups. Flow- rate, Plaque and Gingival Index were assessed and dentition status was investigated by DMFT/dmft using WHO criteria. Salivary amylase was analyzed in unite per litter, using quantitative colorimetric amylase determination at 585nm. Results: A significant positive correlation was found between age and salivary flow-rate, (r=0.362, P < 0.001). Salivary α-amylase concentration increased significantly with age (P< 0.001). For each one year there is an increase in age, amylase level is expected to increase by 5.2 U/L. A male gender is expected to reduce salivary α -amylase level by 10.6 U/L compared to female, however the effect was not significant. Gingival index was positively, although non-significantly associated with salivary α -amylase concentration. DMFT showed a significant weak positive linear correlation with salivary amylase level (r=0.309, P<0.001), while deciduous teeth decay experience and plaque index were significantly and negatively associated with salivary amylase. Conclusion: Results emphasize the importance of salivary amylase, as a non-invasive biomarker in regulating oral and dental health status in children.
The nigra scale, Parasaissetia nigra (Nietner, 1861) (Hemiptera, Coccidae) recorded as a new insect pest attacking fig trees, Ficus carica (Moraceae) in Iraq. It was observed during April 2014 in residential garden at Al-Hurriyah district in Baghdad.
Immunization is one of the most cost-effective and successful public health applications. The results of immunization are difficult to see as the incidence of disease occurrence is low while adverse effects following the immunization are noticeable, particularly if the vaccine was given to apparently healthy person. High safety expectations of population regarding the vaccines so they are more prone to hesitancy regarding presence of even small risk of adverse events which may lead to loss of pub
... Show MoreThe purpose of this study was to measure serum levels of insulin-like growth factor-binding protein (IGFBP7), Insulin-like Growth Factor 1 (IGF-1), Growth Hormone (GH), Interleukin 6 (IL-6) and insulin in acromegaly patients and healthy controls. The acromegaly group had 60 patients, while the population group had 30 people who had never had acromegaly before. The concentration of IGFBP7, IGF-1, GH, IL-6, and insulin were determined. The results of the present study indicate that IGFBP7 level in the acromegaly group was significantly lower (1.690.07 ng/mL vs. 2.740.12 ng/mL, respectively, p = 0.001). IGF-1, GH, IL-6, and insulin concentrations were also significantly higher in acromegaly patients. The diagnostic accuracy (2.194) was exce
... Show MoreThe aim of this paper is to derive a posteriori error estimates for semilinear parabolic interface problems. More specifically, optimal order a posteriori error analysis in the - norm for semidiscrete semilinear parabolic interface problems is derived by using elliptic reconstruction technique introduced by Makridakis and Nochetto in (2003). A key idea for this technique is the use of error estimators derived for elliptic interface problems to obtain parabolic estimators that are of optimal order in space and time.
A simple setup of random number generator is proposed. The random number generation is based on the shot-noise fluctuations in a p-i-n photodiode. These fluctuations that are defined as shot noise are based on a stationary random process whose statistical properties reflect Poisson statistics associated with photon streams. It has its origin in the quantum nature of light and it is related to vacuum fluctuations. Two photodiodes were used and their shot noise fluctuations were subtracted. The difference was applied to a comparator to obtain the random sequence.
There are many animal models for polycystic ovary (PCO); using exogenous testosterone enanthate is one of the methods of induction of these models. However, induction of insulin resistance should also be studied in the modeling technics. Therefore, the present study aims to investigate the expression of insulin receptor substrate (Irs)-2 mRNA in the liver tissue of rat PCO model. Nineteen Wistar rats were divided into three groups; (1) PCO modeling group (N =7) received daily 1.0 mg/100g testosterone enanthate solved in olive oil along with free access dextrose water 5%, (2) vehicle group (N =6), which handled like the PCO group, but did not receive testosterone enanthate, (3) control group (N =6) with standard care. Al
... Show MoreSensibly highlighting the hidden structures of many real-world networks has attracted growing interest and triggered a vast array of techniques on what is called nowadays community detection (CD) problem. Non-deterministic metaheuristics are proved to competitively transcending the limits of the counterpart deterministic heuristics in solving community detection problem. Despite the increasing interest, most of the existing metaheuristic based community detection (MCD) algorithms reflect one traditional language. Generally, they tend to explicitly project some features of real communities into different definitions of single or multi-objective optimization functions. The design of other operators, however, remains canonical lacking any inte
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