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.
We conducted an experiment in a greenhouse at the research station belonging to the Department of Plant Protection / Ministry of Agriculture, in Abu Ghraib area during the spring and autumn season 2022-2023, to study the population density of the whitefly on two varieties of sweet pepper plant (Charisma and Sierra Nevada). The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design “RCBD” with three replicates for each variety. The results showed that in spring season the population density of
Reciprocal Teaching is an interactive method that is used to improve reading comprehension. Using this teaching strategy, teachers and students take turns leading discussions regarding sections of text using the four strategies: predicting, questioning, clarifying and summarizing. This study is an attempt to investigate the effect of using reciprocal teaching on improving female college students' achievement in reading comprehension. To fulfill the aim of the study, the researcher has adopted two null hypotheses: first, there is no significant difference between the achievement of students' who practice the reciprocal teaching technique and that of students who do not practice it. Second, there is no statistically significant difference
... Show MoreThis paper aims at studying the illocutionary speech acts: direct and indirect to show the most dominant ones in a presidential speech delivered by the USA president. The speech is about the most critical health issue in the world, COVID-19 outbreak. A descriptive qualitative study was conducted by observing the first speech delivered by president Trump concerning coronavirus outbreak and surveying the illocutionary acts: directive, declarative, commissive, expressive, and representative. Searle's (1985) classification of illocutionary speech acts is adopted in the analysis.
What are the main types of the illocutionary speech acts performed by Trump in his speech?; Why does
... Show MoreIntrusion detection system is an imperative role in increasing security and decreasing the harm of the computer security system and information system when using of network. It observes different events in a network or system to decide occurring an intrusion or not and it is used to make strategic decision, security purposes and analyzing directions. This paper describes host based intrusion detection system architecture for DDoS attack, which intelligently detects the intrusion periodically and dynamically by evaluating the intruder group respective to the present node with its neighbors. We analyze a dependable dataset named CICIDS 2017 that contains benign and DDoS attack network flows, which meets certifiable criteria and is ope
... Show MoreDue to the great losses caused by weeds to the crop, it is necessary to continue testing new herbicides that may be more efficient than the herbicides used that can reduce competition between weeds and crops, Therefore, a field experiment was carried out in the experimental field of the Department of Field Crops, College of Agricultural Engineering Sciences, University of Baghdad (Al-Jadriya) during the winter season of 2021-22 in order to evaluate the efficiency of the herbicide H-199 and compare it with some herbicides used in controlling companion weed to three cultivars of wheat and its effect in the yield and its components. The experiment was applied according to the randomized complete block design with split-plot arrangement
... Show MoreSpent catalysts for sulfuric acid production have large amount of vanadium and due to environmental authority it is required to reduce the vanadium contain of the spent catalyst. Experimental investigation was conducted to study the vanadium recovery from spent catalyst via leaching process using sodium hydroxide to study the effect of process variables (temperatures, sodium hydroxide molarities, leaching time and particle size) on vanadium recovery. The effect of process variables (temperature, particle size,molarities of sodium hydroxide and leaching time) on the percentages of vanadium recovery were investigated and discussed .It was found that the percentage of vanadium recovery increased with increasing temperature up to 100 , incre
... Show MoreBackground: This study aimed to assess the effect of tooth shape ratio on mandibular incisor arrangement. Materials and methods: The sample included dental casts of some dental students and orthodontic patients having Class I dental and skeletal patterns with normal occlusion and severe crowding. The sample was divided into two groups according to the severity of crowding into: group I had Class I normal occlusion with mild or no crowded mandibular dentition and group II had Class I malocclusion with severe crowded mandibular dentition. Each group comprising of 40 subjects (20 males and 20 females). The mesio-distal and facio-lingual crown diameters were measured manually for each cast using modified vernier caliper gauge. Descriptive sta
... Show MoreThis study aims to determine the extent to which Palestinian elites use digital diplomacy to confront the Israeli narrative by exploring the motives for usage, patterns, essential digital diplomatic tools, and achieved satisfactions. The study adopted a survey methodology and employed a questionnaire distributed to a sample of 110 Palestinian political and media elites.
The study arrived at several key findings, including: Palestinian elites allocate a substantial (%67) of their efforts towards employing digital diplomacy as a response to the Israeli narrative. The foremost platforms employed for this purpose are Facebook and Twitter. The primary motivation for utilizing these digital platforms is to present
The research aims to measure the impact of the quality of the audit on the Earnings Quality, for a sample of private joint stock companies listed on the Iraq Stock Exchange, as the research sample included (14) private and listed joint stock companies in issuing their financial statements for the period from (2010-2018), as well as companies The audit offices in charge of auditing these companies, which number (18) companies or an audit office, and the research relied on two main models for measurement, as the first model reflects the assumed relationship between independent variables represented in the characteristics of external audit quality and measuring the extent of its impact on the dependent variable represented in the Ea
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