Background: The daily cleaning routine of the silicone maxillofacial prostheses by the patient may cause some alteration in the materials properties. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of different disinfection procedures on some properties of silicon dioxide reinforced Cosmesil M511 HTV maxillofacial silicone. Materials and Methods: One hundred and sixty (160) specimens were prepared by mixing 5% SiO2 nano particles and 0.5% intrinsic cream color into the silicone polymer according to manufacturer's instructions. Specimens were divided into 4 groups according to the performed test (tear strength, surface hardness, surface roughness and color) with 40 specimens each. Each group was further subdivided according to the disinfection procedure conducted (control, microwave exposure, neutral soap and 4% chlorhexidine gluconate). Measurements for tear strength were done using universal testing machine. Surface hardness test was carried out with a Shore A Durometer. Surface roughness was analyzed with a portable digital Profilometer. Color change was established with a Spectrophotometer. After the initial testing, all specimens were submitted to disinfection procedure 3 times a week for 60 days. Measurements were repeated and data were statistically analyzed using one-way ANOVA followed by Fisher's LSD or Games-Howell test. Results: Spectrophotometer results showed non-significant decrease in the light absorbance of all experimental groups after disinfection, indicating a strong integration between the nano filler and the polymeric chains, which was not broken during the disinfection procedure. Highly-significant increase in Shore A hardness was recorded, while the decrease in surface roughness was highly significant in all experimental groups. Tear strength reduced significantly after disinfection in all experimental groups. Conclusion: Disinfection seemed to cause different amount of alteration in all of the tested properties of silicone. High color stability is expected in this type of maxillofacial silicone after disinfection.Although microwave exposure had increased the hardness of the material, it is considered a satisfactory disinfection procedure since it caused the least effect on the tear strength and surface roughness of the material. Therefore, microwave exposure is recommended for the disinfection of maxillofacial silicone prostheses.
Abstract
The research aims to determine the nature of the Iraqi market in terms of banking financial stability and the extent impact of the operational efficiency on it, Accordingly, chosen 15 relational banks were chosen as an intentional sample that could represent the Iraqi banking system for the period 2010-2020. The operational efficiency variable was measured according to the data envelope model, and banking financial stability used CAMELS model which includes five indicators (capital adequacy, asset quality, management quality, profitability, and liquidity), so for testing the research hypotheses used the random regression model by adopting the S
... Show MoreWhen the flange of a reinforced concrete spandrel beam is in tension, current design codes and specifications enable a portion of the bonded flexure tension reinforcement to be distributed over an effective flange width. The flexural behavior of the RC L-shaped spandrel beam when reinforcement is laterally displaced in the tension flange is investigated experimentally and numerically in this work. Numerical analysis utilizing the finite element method is performed on discretized flanged beam models validated using experimentally verified L-shaped beam specimens to achieve study objectives. A parametric study was carried out to evaluate the influence of various factors on the beam’s flexure behavior. Results showed that
... Show MoreThis paper demonstrates an experimental and numerical study aimed at comparing the influence of openings of different configurations on the flexural behavior of reinforced concrete gable roof beams. The experimental program consisted of testing six simply supported gable beams subjected to mid-point concentrated load. The variable which has been investigated in this work was opening's configuration (quadrilateral or circular) with the same upper and lower chords depth. The results indicate improvement in the beams’ flexural behavior when circular openings were used compared with that of quadrilateral openings, represented by an increase in ultimate load capacity and a decrease in deflection at the service limit. Also, there was an
... Show MoreThe present paper is an experimental study to improve the productivity of the conventional solar still. This done by modifying conventional still in a way that the distilled basin is larger than distillation basin, thus providing an increase in the condensation surface and speeding up the condensation process. Moreover, increase in the dimensions of the distilled base helps coupling reflective panels to the distilled base to reflect incident solar radiation to the distillation basin. For this purpose , two solar stills were made, one conventional designand another made according to the proposed design. The two solar stills were tested during the period from February to July 2009 under varying weather conditions of Basra, Iraq (latitude o
... Show More
ABSTRACT
A field experiment was carried out in the fields of the college of agricultural engineering sciences, university of Baghdad during the fall season of 2021, in order to find out which of the cultivated genotypes of maize are efficient under nitrogen fertilization. The experiment was applied according to a RCBD (split plot design with three replications). The genotypes of experiment (Baghdad, 5018 and Sarah) and supplying three levels of nitrogen fertilizer, which are N1 (100 kg/ha), N2 (200 kg/ha) and N3 (300 kg/ha), the results of the statistical analysis are showed the superiority of the cultivar Sarah in the trait of number of days until 50% silking, chlorophyll
... Show MoreFailure in asphalt mixture and distress in pavement are major issues to roads infrastructure. Selecting an appropriate chemical composition of asphalt cement is a key component in avoiding these issues. This work aimed to investigate the effect of the chemical composition of different polar fractions on the rheological and physical properties of asphalt cement. Four types of asphalt cement with penetration grades of 20/30, 40/50, 60/70 and 85/100 were divided into four fractions. Complex shear modules, rutting resistance and rotational viscosity of the asphalt cement were determined by using a Dynamic Shear Rheometer and a Rotation Viscometer, respectively. The results show that an increase in the asphaltene content and Gastel index resulte
... Show MoreA 3D geological model is an essential step to reveal reservoir heterogeneity and reservoir properties distribution. In the present study, a three-dimensional geological model for the Mishrif reservoir was built based on data obtained from seven wells and core data. The methodology includes building a 3D grid and populating it with petrophysical properties such as (facies, porosity, water saturation, and net to gross ratio). The structural model was built based on a base contour map obtained from 2D seismic interpretation along with well tops from seven wells. A simple grid method was used to build the structural framework with 234x278x91 grid cells in the X, Y, and Z directions, respectively, with lengths equal to 150 meters. The to
... Show MoreThis research studied the effects of modified BaTiO3 (BT) nanoparticles with coupling agent γ-APS (0.5wt. %) on the tensile and thermal conductivity of epoxy nanocomposites with respect to content (0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1, 3 and 5wt. %). Multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) at different concentration (0.2, 0.4, 0.8 and 1 wt. %) were added to the BaTiO3/epoxy nanocomposites. The influence of MWCNTs on the tensile properties and thermal conductivity was investigated. The tensile strength and Young’s modulus of BaTiO3/epoxy nanocomposites film were increased at up to 3 wt. % of added BT, but adding BT at more than 3 wt.% decreased the strength of epoxy. The tensile strength was increased with incre
... Show MoreIn this research, the structural and optical properties were studied for Bi2O3 and Bi2O3: Al thin films with different doping ratios ( 1, 2, 3 ) % , which were prepared by thermal evaporation technique under vacuum , with thickness ( 450 ± 20 ) nm deposited on glass substrates at room temperature ( 300 ) K , Structural measurements by ( XRD) techniques demonstrated that all samples prepared have polycrystalline structure with tetragonal structure and a preferred orientation [ 201 ] the &n
... Show More