Background: The interest in herbal extracts as antimicrobial agents has increased over the past few years in endodontic therapy. Nasturtium officinale (watercress) is a promising plant with great medicinal values. This study aimed to investigate the antifungal activity of watercress oil in combination with calcium hydroxide against Candida albicans as intracanal medicament. Materials and Methods: Candida albicans was isolated from patients with necrotic root canal or failed root canal treatment. The sensitivity of Candida albicans to different concentrations of watercress oil extract was determined by using the agar well diffusion method in comparison with calcium hydroxide paste. The agar plate method was used to determine the minimum fungicidal concentration (MFC) of the tested oil against the fungus. The combination of the oil extract of Nasturtium officinale with calcium hydroxide was evaluated and compared to calcium hydroxide paste with iodoform by using the agar well diffusion method. Results: The oil extract exhibited antifungal activity against Candida albicans, this activity was found to be increased as the concentration of extract increased. The tested combination of watercress oil extract with calcium hydroxide revealed larger inhibition zones than the ones formed by each tested agent individually. Conclusion: The oil extract of Nasturtium officinale is active against Candida albicans suggesting its potential to be used as an intracanal medicament alone or in combination with calcium hydroxide.
Antibiotic resistance is the major growing threat facing the pharmacological treatment of bacterial infections. Therefore, bioprospecting the medicinal plants could provide potential sources for antimicrobial agents. Mimusops, the biggest and widely distributed plant genus of family Sapotaceae, is used in traditional medicines due to its promising pharmacological activities. This study was conducted to elucidate the antimicrobial effect of three unexplored Mimusops spp. (M. kummel, M. laurifolia and M. zeyheri). Furthermore, the mechanisms underlying such antibacterial activity were studied. The Mimusops leaf extracts revealed significant antibacterial activities against the five tested bacter
... Show MoreSolar photovoltaic (PV) has many environmental benefits and it is considered to be a practical alternative to traditional energy generation. The electrical conversion efficiency of such systems is inherently limited due to the relatively high thermal resistance of the PV components. An approach for intensifying electrical and thermal production of air-type photovoltaic thermal (PVT) systems via applying a combination of fins and surface zigzags was proposed in this paper. This research study aims to apply three performance enhancers: case B, including internal fins; case C, back surface zigzags; and case D, combinations of fins and surface zigzags; whereas the baseline smooth duct rep
Oil recovery from carbonate reservoirs is one of the critical challenges in the oil industry due to the strongly oil-wet nature, natural fractures, and the heterogeneity of carbonate rocks. Subsequently, waterflooding can only displace oil from large fractures, leaving the majority of oil trapped in the rock matrix. This work suggests that nanofluid flooding, as a predesigned flooding method, is an alternative to conventional waterflooding. Various concentrations of silica nanofluid at different nanoparticle concentrations were formulated and systematically investigated for their characteristics, stability at reservoir conditions, and their influence on wettability and oil recovery. Silica nanoparticles were sustainably synthesized
... Show MoreBackground: The most crucial mechanism of genetic variation in N. meningitidis is the slipped strand mispairing, this mechanism generates Phase variation using simple sequence repeat (SSR) and is commonly used by the N. meningitidis to escape the immune system despite its function in eradicating the pathogenic and commensal bacteria. Some of simple sequence repeats (SSRs) that located within the genome works as phase variation while other SSRs have no role in generating phase variation mechanisms. Therefore, Aim: the main goal of the current in silico study was to detect the probability of SSR to enroll with phase variation for the entire N. meningitidis genome. Methods: Different criteria were used to judge SSR as
... Show MoreDrug –induced nephrotoxicity is an important cause of renal failure. Aminoglycoside antibiotics, such as amikacin, which causes ototoxicity and nephrtotoxicity as a main side effects, this is focused on the use of natural materials as antioxidants against the toxic oxidative action that exert a cell damaging effect. The most important one of these materials is the honey. The aim of this work is to evaluate the antioxidant effects of honey against amikacin – induced nephrotoxicity.18 albino rats divided into 3 groups (6 rats per each group), group 1 received I.P daily dose of normal saline (control), group 2 received (35 mg/kg/day) I.P dose of amikacin ,and group 3 received (35mg/kg/day) of amikacin I.P dose in combina
... Show MoreDrug-induced acute kidney injury is a serious disorder. Oxidative stress has a key role in its initiation and progression. In this study, the possible ameliorative effect of fimasartan against methotrexate-induced nephrotoxicity was investigated in comparison with α-tocopherol in rats. Wistar rats were allocated into six groups and treated as follows: group Ӏ received water on a daily basis for 8 successive days; group ӀӀ received methotrexate (20 mg/kg) on day 1, followed by water for 7 successive days; group ӀӀӀ received fimasartan (3 mg/kg/day) for 7 successive days; group IV received α-tocopherol (1 g/kg/day) for 7 successive days; group V re
... Show MoreConducted Althilelat chemical models of crude oil back to the reservoir Fertile from the fields of Baghdad and Kut and models of crude oil back to the reservoir ??????? of Haklbe Tikrit and Baghdad were calculated their properties Alvezaúah Kalkthaqh and weight, quality and degree of August j (API) and know the quality Nfothma that was light or heavy and make the comparison between Alinvtin also conducted chemical analyzes of the two models of Almia associated with each of the oil above Almkmnin and measured Ktvthma and Zojithma and concentrations of some dissolved salts in them and clarify the relationship between the oil reservoir and water associated with oil fields...
The study investigates the relationship between the volatility of the Iraqi Stock Exchange Index (ISX), and the volatility of global oil prices benchmarks, Brent and West Intermediate Texas (WTI), in additional to the Iraqi Oil, Basra Crude Light (BSL) which represents the most exported Iraqi oil and the major influential factor on the Iraqi governmental revenues. Using monthly data covering the period: 1/2005-12/1205, econometrical and technical tools represented by Co-incretion, Vector Error Correction Model – VECM, Granger Causality, and Bollinger band were employed in order to explore the relationship between the variables.
The econometric analysis revealed the impact of the oil prices volatility on
... Show MoreThis study aimed at identifying the extent to which the social worker used the techniques of group discussion in the professional practice with the groups of school activity in the schools of Tubas governorate in light of some variables (gender, years of experience, academic qualification). The analytical descriptive method was used due to its suitability for the objectives of the study. A questionnaire was designed to collect data that included (30) items, distributed in three areas .The validity and reliability of the tool were verified and then distributed to the study sample.
The results of the study showed that the highest averages were in the discussion stage domain, where the pre-discussion stage was m
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