Background: Deterioration of maxillofacial silicone properties due to microbial colonization is a common problem and leads to the replacement of the prosthesis. Incorporation of the antimicrobial agent into the silicone could be a solution. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of silver-zinc zeolite addition on some mechanical properties of a maxillofacial silicone (VST-50). Materials and methods: Total 120 specimens were fabricated and divided into 3 groups: 40 specimens for tear strength test, 40 specimens for tensile and percentage of elongation tests and 40 specimens for Shore A hardness and surface roughness. Each group was divided into 4 subgroups according to the amount of zeolite added (0% “control”, 0.5%, 1% and 1.5%). One-way ANOVA and Tukey’s HSD tests were used to analyze the study data. FTIR revealed a chemical interaction between zeolite and silicone. Results: Study results revealed a highly significant increase in tear strength (p<0.01) in all experimental subgroups. The tensile strength of 1% filler was significantly higher than the control group (p<0.01) while 0.5% and 1.5% showed a non-significant increase. All experimental groups demonstrated a highly significant decrease in the percentage of elongation and a highly significant increase in roughness (p<0.01). The subgroup with 1.5% zeolite showed a highly significant increase in hardness, other subgroups showed a non-significant increase. Conclusion: The addition of 1% Ag-Zn zeolite improved some mechanical properties of VST-50 maxillofacial silicone.
In this work, spinel ferrites (NiCoFe2O4) were prepared as thin films by dc reactive dual-magnetron co-sputtering technique. Effects of some operation parameters, such as inter-electrode distance, and preparation conditions such as mixing ratio of argon and oxygen in the gas mixture, on the structural and spectroscopic characteristics of the prepared samples were studied. For samples prepared at inter-electrode distance of 5 cm, only one functional group of OH- was observed in the FTIR spectra as all bands belonging to the metal-oxygen vibration were observed. Similarly, the XRD results showed that decreasing the pressure of oxygen in the gas mixture lead to grow more crystal planes in the samples prepare
... Show MoreHigh intraocular pressure (IOP) is a recognized risk factor for glaucoma and optic nerve injury, and it is one of the primary causes of vision loss globally. Anabasis articulata (AA) is a desert plant found in Iraq. The extract of AA is used to cure diabetes, fever, eczema, and kidney infections. The aim of the study is to evaluate the antioxidant effect of methanol extract of AA on intraocular pressure in the glaucoma rat model. Forty-two rats were allocated into seven groups, each with six animals:: group 1 (normal), group 2 (control), in which animals were induced to have elevated IOP by betamethasone suspension injection, groups 3,4 and 5 for evaluating the effect of 50,100 and 150 mg/kg/day of the tested extract, respective
... Show MoreThe present study aims at empirically investigating the effect of vocabulary learning strategies on Iraqi intermediate school students’vocabulary performance and reading comprehension. The population of the present study includes all the 1st year male students of Al-Wark’a intermediate school of Al-Risafa 1/ General Directorate of Education for the first course of the academic year (2015-2016). To achieve the aim of the study ,a pre-test and post-test after (5) weeks of experiment are administrated .The sample of the present study consists of (100) subjects :(50) students as an experimental group and other (50) students as a control group . The subj
... Show MoreThis study illustrates effect of cold plasma CAP on the mineral blood components in vivo. the mineral blood component (Ca, Na, Cl, K and Fe) are used. Floating Electrode-Dielectric Barrier Discharge (FE-DBD) system of probe diameter 4cm is used for this purpose, and variable voltage (0-20) kV and variable frequency (0-30) kHz, the output power was ranged from (10 - 70) W. the effect of cold atmospheric plasma on mineral blood is studied with different exposure durations (30,45,60) sec. As the plasma exposure duration increases, the calcium, potassium and iron components in the blood increased, while The sodium and chlorine elements decreased. These results give an indication of the cold plasma receptor to be used to treat many disea
... Show MoreInflammatory control is essential to diminish injury and make renal injury treatment simpler. Proposed therapeutics have primarily targeted pro-inflammatory variables. Juniperus oxycedrus was frequently used to treat a variety of infectious disorders, hyperglycemia, obesity, TB, bronchitis, inflammation, and pneumonia. Juniperus oxycedrus twigs and leaves were defatted with n-hexane using Soxhlet apparatus then the residue of plant material dried and re-extracted sequentially by two different solvents Ethylacetate and methanol. The pro-inflammatory markers IL-1 and iNOS, as well as the potential kidney biomarker KIM-1, TNF-α, and transcription factor NF-KB were measured using the RealTime Quantitative qPCR method. The results showed that J
... Show MoreThe current, research, aims, to, verify, the relationship between talent development practices and organizational performance through a mediating role of creative organizational climate at the Institution of Industrial Development and Research- the Iraqi Industry Ministry. The descriptive and analytic approach was adopted as a research design. The research sample was represented by a number of managers and employees who work at the middle management level. The researchers used the questionnaire as the main method for collecting data to achieve the main research objective. It was distributed 162 questionnaires, of which 146 received; and then all of those were used on the final statistical analysis. The sample response-rate rate w
... Show MoreDental caries (tooth decay) is one of the most prevalent infectious disease and although of multifactorial origin, Streptococcus mutans is considered the principal pathogen in its development (i.e. bacterial processes damage hard tooth structure (enamel, dentine and cementum), producing dental cavities (holes in the teeth). The bactericidal properties of the Nd:YAG laser has been researched analyzing its use in caries prevention and bacterial reduction. One hundred twenty five samples were collected from carious teeth and isolated bacteria were diagnosed using microscopic examination, culture, biochemical tests, and Api 20 strep system. The results of this study showed that a noticeable decrease in the viability of Streptococcus mutans w
... Show MoreWhen optimizing the performance of neural network-based chatbots, determining the optimizer is one of the most important aspects. Optimizers primarily control the adjustment of model parameters such as weight and bias to minimize a loss function during training. Adaptive optimizers such as ADAM have become a standard choice and are widely used for their invariant parameter updates' magnitudes concerning gradient scale variations, but often pose generalization problems. Alternatively, Stochastic Gradient Descent (SGD) with Momentum and the extension of ADAM, the ADAMW, offers several advantages. This study aims to compare and examine the effects of these optimizers on the chatbot CST dataset. The effectiveness of each optimizer is evaluat
... Show MoreBackground: One common undesirable side effect of orthodontic treatment with fixed appliances is the development of incipient caries lesions around brackets, particularly in patients with poor oral hygiene. Different methods have been used to prevent demineralization; the recent effort to improve the resistance against the demineralization is by the application of lasers. Materials and method: Thirty human premolars extracted for orthodontic purposes were used to test the effect of two energy level of ER-YAG laser on enamel resistance to demineralization. The brackets were bonded on the teeth and all the labial surface excluding 2 mm area gingival to the brackets were painted with acid resistance varnish. Three groups were generated. The fi
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