Background: Hypertension is a chronic medical condition in which the blood pressure in the arteries is elevated, it's classified as either primary (essential) hypertension or secondary hypertension, and it increases the risk of ischemic heart disease, peripheral vascular disease and other cardiovascular diseases. Several classes of medications collectively referred to as antihypertensive drugs like beta blockers, calcium channel blockers, angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, angiotensin receptor blockers, renin inhibitors and statins (HMG-CoA) reductase inhibitor. Statin medication may have some beneficial effects when subjects have dental plaque or signs of periodontitis as gingival bleeding. The purpose of this study were to assess the oral health in hypertensive patients are treated with statins in terms of salivary flow rate, pH and oral health indices. Materials and Methods: Ninety saliva specimens collected from three groups of subjects (thirty healthy patients "control" Group I), thirty hypertensive patients treated with anti-hypertensive medications without taking statins (Group II) and thirty hypertensive patients treated with anti-hypertensive medications with statins (Group III). Unstimulated saliva was collected from each patients and participants for assessment of salivary flow rate and salivary pH. Results: Salivary flow rate is reduced in Group II and III patients compared with Group I. Significant low salivary flow rate observed in Group III patients (hypertensive treated with statins) compared with Group II (hypertensive untreated with statins) and Group I (healthy subjects); The median value of gingival index is significantly higher in Group II compared with corresponding value in Group I, while it attended a significant low value in Group III patients; There is no significant difference in DMF score between Group I and Group III, while a significant high score observed in Group II compared with Group I ; The percent of carries restoration in patients of Group II is significantly low compared with corresponding value of Group I . Although the percent of carries restoration in patients of Group III is less than corresponding value of Group I but it does not reach significant level. Conclusions: Patients using statins therapy are more likely have an improvement in gingival index, DMF score and carries restoration. The salivary flow rate is reduced in patients treated with statins medications, statins therapy have a beneficial effect on the oral cavity.
A thin film of AgInSe2 and Ag1-xCuxInSe2 as well as n-Ag1-xCuxInSe2 /p-Si heterojunction with different Cu ratios (0, 0.1, 0.2) has been successfully fabricated by thermal evaporation method as absorbent layer with thickness about 700 nm and ZnTe as window layer with thickness about 100 nm. We made a multi-layer of p-ZnTe/n-AgCuInSe2/p-Si structures, In the present work, the conversion efficiency (η) increased when added the Cu and when used p-ZnTe as a window layer (WL) the bandgap energy of the direct transition decreases from 1.75 eV (Cu=0.0) to 1.48 eV (Cu=0.2 nm) and the bandgap energy for ZnTe=2.35 eV. The measurements of the electrical properties for prepared films showed that the D.C electrical conductivity (σd.c) increase
... Show MoreAcinetobacter baumannii (A. baumannii ) is considered a critical healthcare problem for patients in intensive care units due to its high ability to be multidrug-resistant to most commercially available antibiotics. The aim of this study is to develop a colorimetric assay to quantitatively detect the target DNA of A. baumannii based on unmodified gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) from different clinical samples (burns, surgical wounds, sputum, blood and urine). A total of thirty-six A. baumannii clinical isolates were collected from five Iraqi hospitals in Erbil and Mosul provinces within the period from September 2020 to January 2021. Bacterial isolation and biochemical identification of isolates
... Show MoreThe study highlights the critical need to focus on the physical, motor, and technical abilities of female fencing players by developing and testing modern, scientifically-based training methodologies tailored to the specific demands of the sport. The study's objective was to assess the effectiveness of targeted three-dimensional training in enhancing the participants' motor skills and technical performance. Utilizing an experimental design, the study involved forming both experimental and control groups. The sample comprised 16 female fencers from the College of Physical Education and Sports Sciences for Girls. After excluding two players during the exploratory phase, the remaining 14 were evenly divided into experimental and contro
... Show MoreThis study focuses on producing wood-plastic composites using unsaturated polyester resin reinforced with Pistacia vera shell particles and wood industry waste powder. Composites with reinforcement ratios of 0%, 20%, 30%, and 40% were prepared and tested for thermal conductivity, impact strength, hardness, and compressive strength. The results revealed that thermal conductivity increases with reinforcement, while maintaining good thermal insulation, reaching a peak value of 0.633453 W/m·K. Hardness decreased with increased reinforcement, reaching a minimum nominal hardness value of 0.9479. Meanwhile, impact strength and compressive strength improved, with peak values of 14.103 k/m² and 57.3864568 MPa, respectively. The main aim is to manu
... Show MoreAccurate land use and land cover (LU/LC) classification is essential for various geospatial applications. This research applied a Spectral Angle Mapper (SAM) classifier on the Landsat 7 (ETM+ 2010) & 8 (OLI 2020) satellite scenes to identify the land cover materials of the Shatt al-Arab region which is located in the east of Basra province during ten years with an estimate of the spectral signature using ENVI 5.6 software of each cover with the proportion of its area to the area of the study region and produce maps of the classified region. The bands of these datasets were analyzed using the Optimum Index Factor (OIF) statistic. The highest OIF represents the best and most appropr
Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) create imitation photosynthesis by using chemical reactions to produce electricity from sunlight. DSSC has been pursued in numerous studies due to its capability to achieve efficiencies of up to 15% with artificial photosensitizer in diffuse light. However, artificial photosensitizers present a limitation because of the complex processing of metal compound. Therefore, various types of sensitizers were developed and synthesized to surpass the artificial sensitizer performances such as natural sensitizers from bio-based materials including plants, due to simple processing techniques and low environmental impact. Thus, this study examines the potential and properties of natural sensitizers from the was
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