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-five young participants aged (20–40) years were randomly selected and allocated into three groups: MH, CHX, and DW mouthwash groups. Each participant was given a random bottle. Five milliliters each of honey-based mouthwash formulation, CHX mouthwashes (0.2%) and DW were used twice daily for 21 days. All the participants were examined twice, once on the zero day (base line) and once after 21 days. Before and after each participant's mouthwash use IL-8 and TNF-α were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results: The results revealed a drop in the level of interleukin-8 in the manuka honey group which was statistically significant, but the decrease in the same biomarker in the chlorhexidine group was insignificant statistically. TNF-α levels were found to be insignificantly reduced in both the MH and CHX groups (P˃0.05). The DW group, on the other hand, obtained the opposite outcome in both biomarkers. Conclusion: Mouthwash containing MH had an anti-inflammatory impact, indicating an immunomodulatory action. These signs may be encouraging and promising for the use of MH in treating gingivitis.
Mixed-effects conditional logistic regression is evidently more effective in the study of qualitative differences in longitudinal pollution data as well as their implications on heterogeneous subgroups. This study seeks that conditional logistic regression is a robust evaluation method for environmental studies, thru the analysis of environment pollution as a function of oil production and environmental factors. Consequently, it has been established theoretically that the primary objective of model selection in this research is to identify the candidate model that is optimal for the conditional design. The candidate model should achieve generalizability, goodness-of-fit, parsimony and establish equilibrium between bias and variab
... Show MoreHeavy metal (HM) pollution has long been a significant source of environmental deterioration and a problem for the safety of food. Iraqis prefer rice over any other food, and since heavy metals have a direct impact on health, their traces in rice have drawn particular attention. Before cooking rice, it is usual in Iraq to wash and soak it. Some 55 varieties of imported and local rice were sampled from Erbil city markets in 2022 with the aim of determining the concentration of As, Cd, Cr, Ni and Pb before and after soaking. Standard procedure of acid digestions was applied on the raw and soaked samples. The solutions were analyzed using ICPE-9820 Shimadzu. The mean concentrations of As, Cd, Cr, Ni and Pb (in mg/kg) in the rice samples bef
... Show MoreThis paper studies the combination fluid viscous dampers in the outrigger system to add supplementary damping into the structure, which purpose to remove the dependability of the structure to lower variable intrinsic damping. It works by connecting the central core, comprising either shear walls or braced frames, to the outer perimeter columns.
The modal considered is a 36 storey square high rise reinforced concrete building. By constructing a discrete lumped mass model, and using frequency-based response function, two systems of dampers, parallel and series systems are studied. The maximum lateral load at the top of the building is calculated, and this load w
... Show MoreWith the premise that effective use of online instructional practices is of vital importance in classrooms, the current study aimed to examine the effects of using Moodle applications to develop instructors’ skills in designing electronic tests at Dhofar University. The sample of this study consisted of (25) instructors participated in the experimental group. The researchers implemented a quasi-experimental design with one group pre- and post-test; in addition, an observation card was implemented to measure the target skills related to test design. The research instruments were subjected to validity and reliability measures to ensure valid and reliable data and results. The study results showed that those instructors who participated i
... Show MoreGlobal warming has a serious impact on the survival of organisms. Very few studies have considered the effect of global warming as a mathematical model. The effect of global warming on the carrying capacity of prey and predators has not been studied before. In this article, an ecological model describing the relationship between prey and predator and the effect of global warming on the carrying capacity of prey was studied. Moreover, the wind speed was considered an influencing factor in the predation process after developing the function that describes it. From a biological perspective, the nonnegativity and uniform bounded of all solutions for the model are proven. The existence of equilibria for the model and its local stability is inves
... Show MoreOsteoarthritis is the most prevalent arthritic disease and a leading cause of disability. The pathogenesis of osteoarthritis involves multiple etiologies, including variable degree of synovial inflammation. Metformin and pioglitazone could potentially reduce the levels and activity of inflammatory mediators. This may consider as a new therapeutic approach added to the current used drugs in an attempt to decrease the pain, inflammation, and improve daily activity and quality of life in patients with knee osteoarthritis.
This study designed to evaluate the clinical utility of using metformin or pioglitazone as anti-inflammatory agents in combination with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) of selective type of cyclooxygen
... Show MoreAbstract
One of the most suitable materials to be used in latent heat thermal energy storage system (LHTES) are Phase change materials, but a problem of slow melting and solidification processes made many researchers focusing on how to improve their thermal properties. This experimental work concerned with the enhancing of thermal conductivity of phase change material. The enhancing method was by the addition of copper Lessing rings in phase change material (paraffin wax). The effect of diameter for the used rings was studied by using two different diameters (0.5 cm and 1cm). Also, three volumetric percentages of rings addition (3%, 6% and 10%) were tested for each diameter. The discharging process was done with
... Show MoreThe nonlinear optical properties for polymeric (PMMA) doping with dye Rhodmine (R3Go) has been studied .The samples are prepared by normal polymerization method with concentrations of 5x10-5mol/l and a thickness of 272.5µm.
Plasma effect was studied on samples prepared before and after exposure to the Nd: YAG laser for three times 5, 10 and 15 minutes. Z-Scan technique is used to determine the nonlinear optical properties such as; refractive index (n2) and the coefficient of nonlinear absorption (β). It was found that the nonlinear properties is change by increasi
... Show MoreThe effect of adding different volume of coumarin dye (5, 15, 25 and 35) ml on optical properties of Poly (Methyl Meth Acrylate) was studied. Films of pure PMMA and PMMA with different volume of coumarin dye (5, 15, 25 and 35) ml were prepared using the casting technique. Transmission and absorption of the films were measured by using UV-VIS spectrometer technique type (100 Conc), in order to assess the type of transmission which was found an indirect transition. An optical energy gap of pure PMMA is (4.95e v) and after adding coumarin with volume (25, 35) ml, the energy gap for PMMA decrease by (0.05) compere to pure PMMA films and addition energy gap appear equal to (4.1 e v). It was found that the absorption coefficient, extinction coeff
... Show More