Introduction: Salivary melatonin is a critical antioxidant that contributes to oral health by mitigating oxidative stress. Psychological stress linked to thumb sucking may disrupt oral homeostasis, leading to conditions such as dental caries and fungal infections. Aim: This study explores the relationships between thumb sucking, salivary melatonin levels, dental caries, and the presence of Candida albicans (CA) in children. Materials and methods: A case-control study was conducted with 60 children aged 4-5 years at the University of Baghdad’s College of Dentistry. Participants were divided into thumb-sucking (n=30) and non-thumb-sucking (n=30) groups. Salivary melatonin levels were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA), dental caries were assessed via the dmfs index, and CA counts were quantified on Sabouraud dextrose agar (SDA). Statistical analyses were performed, including t-tests, ANOVA, and correlation assessments. Results: Thumb-sucking children exhibited significantly lower salivary melatonin levels (28.620±2.278 pg/mL) compared to controls (34.525±2.142 pg/mL; p=0.044). The thumb-sucking group also had higher dmfs scores (15.033±1.449 vs. 8.667±0.899; p=0.000) and greater CA counts (18.900±1.048 vs. 13.583±0.549; p=0.000). Negative correlations were observed between salivary melatonin levels and the severity of dental caries, while positive correlations linked CA with dental caries. Conclusions: Thumb sucking adversely affects pediatric oral health by reducing salivary melatonin, increasing dental caries risk, and promoting fungal overgrowth. Early intervention to curb thumb-sucking behaviors may mitigate these risks and improve oral health outcomes.
Nitinol (NiTi) is used in many medical applications, including hard tissue replacements, because of its suitable characteristics, including a close elastic modulus to that of bones. Due to the great importance of the mechanical properties of this material in tissue replacements, this work aims to study the hysteresis response in an attempt to explore the ability of the material to remember its previous mechanical state in addition to its ability to withstand stress and to obtain the optimal dimensions and specifications for the manufacturer of NiTi actuators. Stress-strain examination is done in a computational way using a mutable Lagoudas MATLAB code for various coil radii, environment temperatures, and coil lengths. The computational m
... Show MoreIron–phthalocyanine (FePc) organic photoconductive detector was fabricated using pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique to work in ultraviolet (UV) and visible regions. The organic semiconductor material (iron phthalocyanine) was deposited on n-type silicon wafer (Si) substrates at different thicknesses (100, 200 and 300) nm. FePc organic photoconductive detector has been improved by two methods: the first is to manufacture the detector on PSi substrates, and the second is by coating the detector with polyamide–nylon polymer to enhance the photoconductivity of the FePc detector. The current–voltage (I–V) characteristics, responsivity, photocurrent gain, response time and the quantum efficiency of the fabricated photoconduc
... Show MorePolymer electrolytes systems compose of (PEO+KI+I2) and (PEO+RbI+I2) with different concentration, and a fixed amount of ethylene carbonate (EC) and propylene carbonate (PC) over temperatures range 293-343 K prepared by solution cast me
... Show MoreJudaism followed the approach of monotheism after God Almighty sent Moses (peace be upon him) to convey to them the messages of their Lord, so that they might be on a right guidance and path, but the people did not follow that path.” Love of matter and faith in what is witnessed, so they portrayed the Lord in several images in line with what their souls drew upon them.
Data steganography is a technique used to hide data, secret message, within another data, cover carrier. It is considered as a part of information security. Audio steganography is a type of data steganography, where the secret message is hidden in audio carrier. This paper proposes an efficient audio steganography method that uses LSB technique. The proposed method enhances steganography performance by exploiting all carrier samples and balancing between hiding capacity and distortion ratio. It suggests an adaptive number of hiding bits for each audio sample depending on the secret message size, the cover carrier size, and the signal to noise ratio (SNR). Comparison results show that the proposed method outperforms state of the art methods
... Show MoreThe holmium plasma induced by a 1064-nmQ-switched Nd:YAG laser in air was investigated. This work was done theoretically and experimentally. Cowan code was used to get the emission spectra for different transition of the holmium target. In the experimental work, the evolution of the plasma was studied by acquiring spectral images at different laser pulse energies (600,650,700, 750, and 800 mJ). The repetition rates of (1Hz and 10Hz) in the UV region (200-400 nm). The results indicate that, the emission line intensities increase with increasing of the laser pulse energy and repetition rate. The strongest emission spectra appeared when the laser pulse energy is 800mJ and 10 Hz repetition rate at λ= 345.64nm, with the maximum intensi
... Show MoreThe effect of annealing on the structural and optical properties of Antimony trisulfide (Sb2S3) is investigated. Sb2S3 powder is vaporized on clean glass substrates at room temperature under high vacuum pressure to form thin films. The structural research was done with the aid of X-ray diffraction (XRD) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The amorphous to the polycrystalline transformation of these thin films was shown by X-ray diffraction analysis after thermal annealing. These films' morphology is explained. The absorption coefficient and optical energy gap of the investigated films are calculated using transmission spectra. Both samples have strong absorption in the visible spectrum, according to UV-visible absorption spectra. The optical
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