Background. Bone healing is a complex and dynamic process that represents a well-orchestrated series of biological events of cellular recruitment, proliferation, and differentiation. The use of medicinal plants in bone healing has attracted increasing interest because of their lower side effects. Punica granatum seed oil (PSO) contains high levels of phenolic compounds, promotes osteoblast function, and plays an important role in bone remodeling. A gelatin sponge (Spongostan) is a hemostatic agent that is extensively applied as scaffolds in engineering and as drug carriers in the medical field. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of PSO for bone healing enhancement. Twenty adult male New Zealand rabbits, weighing an average of 1.5–2 kg, were used in this study. Three intrabony holes were created in the tibiae of each animal, which were filled with a gelatin sponge (GS group) and combined gelatin sponge and PSO (GS/PSO group). Holes without material application were designated as the control group (C group). The animals were sacrificed at the healing duration (2–4 weeks) to prepare bone specimens for histological and histomorphometric analyses. Results. Histological findings indicated that the bone defects in the GS/PSO group showed more bone formation, mineralization, and maturation compared with the C and GS groups. Multiple group differences for bone cells showed a highly significant difference among all groups in the 2- and 4-week healing periods except for the C/GS and GS/GS/PSO groups at 4-weeks duration. Furthermore, highly significant results were obtained between both durations regarding the trabecular area, trabecular number, and bone marrow area. Conclusion. The study revealed that the combined application of GS and PSO was more effective in enhancing bone regeneration and accelerating bone healing compared with the other groups.
Jet grouting is one of the most widely applied soil improvement techniques. It is suitable for most geotechnical problems, including improving bearing capacity, decreasing settlement, forming seals, and stabilizing slopes. One of the difficulties faced by designers is determining the strength and geometry of elements created using this method. Jet grouted soil-cement columns in soil are a complicated issue because they are dependent on a number of parameters such as soil type, grout and water flow rate, rotation and lifting speed of monitor, nozzle jetting force, and water to cement ratio of slurry. This paper discusses the effect of the water-cement ratio on the physical and mechanical characteristics of soilcrete. In t
... Show MoreIn this research, a study is introduced on the effect of several environmental factors on the performance of an already constructed quality inspection system, which was designed using a transfer learning approach based on convolutional neural networks. The system comprised two sets of layers, transferred layers set from an already trained model (DenseNet121) and a custom classification layers set. It was designed to discriminate between damaged and undamaged helical gears according to the configuration of the gear regardless to its dimensions, and the model showed good performance discriminating between the two products at ideal conditions of high-resolution images. So, this study aimed at testing the system performance at poo
... Show MoreIn this research, a study is introduced on the effect of several environmental factors on the performance of an already constructed quality inspection system, which was designed using a transfer learning approach based on convolutional neural networks. The system comprised two sets of layers, transferred layers set from an already trained model (DenseNet121) and a custom classification layers set. It was designed to discriminate between damaged and undamaged helical gears according to the configuration of the gear regardless to its dimensions, and the model showed good performance discriminating between the two products at ideal conditions of high-resolution images.
So, this study aimed at testing the system performance at poor s
... Show MoreThe consumption of fresh fruits has increased nowadays due to the lifestyle of the consumers. Maintaining the quality and nutritional value of cut fruits during storage is difficult compared to whole fruits. Deterioration of internal and external quality usually occurs in freshly harvested fruits. It is necessary to use different techniques to maintain the quality and increase the shelf life of the freshly cut product. This research studied the effect of treating apple slices with cold plasma once and with filtered water again on quality characteristics (hardness, moisture content, sugar content, carbohydrate content, and color) after being stored for five days. The best treatment was determined using two different pressures of the plasma j
... Show MorePsoriasis is a long-lasting autoimmune disease that is characterized by swollen skin patches. Normally, these skin patches are dark, swollen, itchy and scaly. The single application of the innate TLR7/8 ligand Imiquimod (IMQ) in mice easily induces a dermatitis that closely resembles human psoriasis, critically dependent on the axis of IL-23/IL-17. Artemisia dracunculus prepared as an ointment and has been used topically to mice before imiquimod application. The results of the current study showed that A. dracunculus ointment can significantly reduce psoriasis area and severity index in (A. dracunculus ointment + imiquimod group as compared with both control group and (vehicle ointment + imiquimod) group.
This work is concerned with the design and performance evaluation of a shell and double concentric tubes heat exchanger using Solid Works and ANSY (Computational Fluid Dynamics).
Computational fluid dynamics technique which is a computer-based analysis is used to simulate the heat exchanger involving fluid flow, heat transfer. CFD resolve the entire heat exchanger in discrete elements to find: (1) the temperature gradients, (2) pressure distribution, and (3) velocity vectors. The RNG k-ε model of turbulence is used to determining the accurate results from CFD.
The heat exchanger design for this work consisted of a shell and eight double concentric tubes. The number of inlets are three and that of o
... Show MoreAny software application can be divided into four distinct interconnected domains namely, problem domain, usage domain, development domain and system domain. A methodology for assistive technology software development is presented here that seeks to provide a framework for requirements elicitation studies together with their subsequent mapping implementing use-case driven object-oriented analysis for component based software architectures. Early feedback on user interface components effectiveness is adopted through process usability evaluation. A model is suggested that consists of the three environments; problem, conceptual, and representational environments or worlds. This model aims to emphasize on the relationship between the objects
... Show MoreThis research deals with the financial reporting for non-current assets impairment from the viewpoint of international accounting standards, particularly IAS 36 "Impairment of non-current assets." The research problems focus on the presence of internal and external indicators on impairment of non-current assets in many of companies listed in Iraqi stock exchange. So it is required to apply IAS 36 to reporting for the impairment loss of assets since this impairment impact certain financial indicators. These indicators help users in their decision-making and forecasting future financial situation and the ability of the company to achieve future profits or maintain current profits. The research aims to shedding lig
... Show MoreA rapid and sensitive method for analysis of amino acid hydrolysates of nigella sativa L seed has been developed using O-phthaldialehyde(OPA ) as a pre-column derivatizing agent. OPA reagents in the presence of mercaptoethanol react rapidly with primary amino acids ( less than 60 sec.) to form isindole derivatives which easily separated with good selectivity on ODS column. Resolution of amino acid derivatives is carried out with a methanol gradient in 0.01 maqueous sodium acetate. pH 7.1 . The quantitation of amino acid derivatives is reproducible within an average relative deviation of + 1.4% the linearity for most amino acids were more than 0.9993 with detection limit of 0.2 ppm. 15 amino acid were detected in the analysis of
... Show MoreThe optimum conditions for the production of neutral protease from local strain Aspergillus niger var carbonarius by solid – state fermentation system (Wheat bran) moisted with 0.2 M phosphate buffer (PH7.0) . the hydration ratio was 1:5 (V:W) . the concentration of inoculum was 1×106 spores per 10 gram of solid materials , initial P H 6.5 and 96 hours of incubation period at 30? C .the enzyme activity was 1300 unit / ml and specific activity was 1550 unit / mg protein .