Background: Decreased taste acuity to the four basic tastes is closely related to health problems (diseases & medications), aging, and smoking. This study aimed to determine taste detection and recognition thresholds to the four basic tastes in some physiological and pathological conditions, determine saliva flow rate, serum and saliva zinc levels in these groups.
Objective and Methods: The study includes 218 individuals (35–80) years old divided into six groups; the control, aging (subjects over 60 years), smokers, diabetics, haemodialysis patients and hypertensive patients on chronic use of captopril.The taste detection and recognition thresholds of sweet, salty, sour and bitter tastes, saliva flo

In This paper, CuO thin films having different thickness (250, 300 , 350 and 400) nm were deposited on glass substrates by thermal vacuum evaporator. The thermal oxidation of this evaporated film was done in heated glass at temperature (300 in air at one hour. The study of X-ray diffraction investigated all the exhibit polycrystalline nature with monoclinic crystal structure include uniformly grains. Thin film’s internal structure topographical and optical properties. Furthermore, the crystallization directions of CuO (35.54 , 38.70 ) can be clearly observed through an X-ray diffraction analysis XRD, Atomic Force Microscope AFM (topographic image) showed that the surface Characteristics , thin films crystals grew with increases in either

In this paper, Al and Cu Plasmas that produced by pulsed Nd:YAG laser with fundamental wave length with a pulse duration of 6 nS focused onto Al and Cu targets in atmospheric air are investigated spectroscopically. The influence of pulse laser energy on the some Al and Cu plasmas characteristics was diagnosed by using optical emission spectroscopy for the wavelength range 320-740 nm. The results observed that the increase of pulse laser energy causes to increase all plasma characteristics of both plasmas under study and shown increasing of the emission line intensity. The appearance of the atomic and ionic emission lines of an element in the emission spectrum depends on the ionization energy of target atoms. The plasma characteristics ar

Different thicknesseses of polycrystalline ZnTe films have been deposited on to glass substrates by vacuum evaporation technique under vacuum 2.1x10-5 mbar. The structural characteristics studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD) showed that the films are polycrystalline and have a cubic (zinc blende ) structure. The calculated microstructure parameters revealed that the crystallite size increases with increasing film thicknesses. The optical measurements on the deposited films were performed in different thicknesseses [ 400 , 450 and 500]nm, to determine the transmission spectrum and the absorption spectra as a function of incident wavelength. The optical absorption coefficient (α) of the films was determined from transmittance spectra in t

   In this work, thin films of undoped and Al-doped CdO with (0.5, 1 and 2) wt.%  were prepared by using thermal vacuum evaporation on glass substrate at room  temperature. The optical absorption coefficient (α) of the films was determined from transmittance spectra in the range of wavelength (400-1100) nm. The spectral transmission and the optical energy band gap decrease from 75% and 2.24 eV to 20%  and 2.1 eV respectively depending upon the Al content in the films, also our studies include the calculation of  the optical constants (refractive index, extinction coefficient, real and imaginary part of dielectric constant) as a function of photon energy.  It is evaluated that the optical band gap of

The purpose of this study was to develop poloxamer-based in-situ gel of chloramphenicol aiming to increase bioavailability and prolong corneal contact time, controlling drug release, and enhancing ocular bioavailability. The in-situ gel was prepared using different concentrations of poloxamer 407 combined with hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose (HPMC) or carbapol 940 to achieve gelation temperature about physiological temperature and improve rheological behavior and gelling properties of poloxamer gel. The prepared formulations were evaluated for their appearance, pH, and sol-gel transition temperature. The formulations F₂, F₃, and F₅ have a gelation temperature within the accepted range 35-37⁰C an

A transdermal drug delivery system (TDDS) is characterized by the application of medications onto the skin's surface to deliver drugs at a controlled and predefined rate through the skin. Spanlastics, an elastic nanovesicle capable of transporting various pharmacological substances, shows promise as a drug delivery carrier. It offers numerous advantages over traditional vesicular systems applied topically, including enhanced stability, flexibility in penetration, and improved targeting capabilities. This study aims to develop meloxicam (MX)-loaded spanlastics gel as skin delivery carriers and to look into the effects of formulation factors like Tween80, Brij 35, and carbopol concentration on the properties of spanlastics gel, like pH, drug

Background: Bilastine is a non-sedating, second-generation antihistamine used to treat urticaria and allergic conjunctivitis. Objective: to formulate and test bilastine as a mucoadhesive ophthalmic in situ gel in order to extend its presence at site for longer time and help treat conjunctivitis and allergic rhinitis. Methods: We prepared formulations using different concentrations of poloxamers (Poloxamer 407 (P407) and Poloxamer 188 (P188)) in combination with hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose (HPMC). The prepared formulas were evaluated for their physicochemical properties, sol-gel transition temperature, viscosity, mucoadhesive strength, drug release, and kinetic modeling. Results: The prepared in situ gels were clear and transparen

Groundwater modelling is particularly challenging in arid regions where limited water recharge is available. A fault zone will add a significant challenge to the modelling process. The Western Desert in Iraq has been chosen to implement the modelling concept and calculate the model sensitivity to the changes in aquifer hydraulic properties and calibration by researching 102 observations and irrigation wells. MODFLOW-NWT, which is a Newtonian formulation for MODFLOW-2005 approaches, have been used in this study. Further, the simulation run has been implemented using the Upstream-Weighting package (UPW) to treat the dry cells. The results show sensitivity to the change of the Kx value for the major groundwater discharge flow. Only abo