Resilient polymeric materials such as silicone elastomers are currently used for maxillofacial prostheses construction but the strength of these materials and their clinical performance need to be optimized with the addition of reinforcing fillers. This study investigates the effect of zirconia nanopowder addition on tear strength, tensile strength, elongation at break, Shore A hardness, surface roughness and cytotoxicity of VST-50 maxillofacial silicone. Silicone base was mixed with different amounts (1%, 2% and 3%) of zirconia nanopowder using a vacuum mixer. Silicone without filler was used as control for comparison. Scanning Electron Microscopy and Atomic Force Microscopy were utilized to assess the efficiency of high-shear vacuum mixing as filler dispersion method and the surface topography, respectively. Both SEM and AFM images showed that the zirconia nanopowder were distributed fairly well within the polymer. Statistically, highly significant increase in tear strength, tensile strength and hardness with non-significant decrease in elongation at break and non-significant increase in surface roughness were seen with 1% and 2% groups. Whereas with 3% group, there was significant improvement in tear strength, tensile strength and hardness but there was significant undesirable decrease in elongation and increase in roughness. Cytotoxicity test revealed that the addition of zirconia nanopowder was nontoxic to Rat Embryonic Fibroblast (REF) cells and there was non-significant change in the cell viability of all study groups after 24- and 72-hours incubation periods. In conclusion, the addition of 2% by weight nano zirconia to VST-50 maxillofacial silicone could be beneficial in enhancing its performance.
Surface electromyography (sEMG) and accelerometer (Acc) signals play crucial roles in controlling prosthetic and upper limb orthotic devices, as well as in assessing electrical muscle activity for various biomedical engineering and rehabilitation applications. In this study, an advanced discrimination system is proposed for the identification of seven distinct shoulder girdle motions, aimed at improving prosthesis control. Feature extraction from Time-Dependent Power Spectrum Descriptors (TDPSD) is employed to enhance motion recognition. Subsequently, the Spectral Regression (SR) method is utilized to reduce the dimensionality of the extracted features. A comparative analysis is conducted between the Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) class
... Show MoreZeolite Y nanoparticles were synthesized by sol - gel method. Dffirent samples using two silica sources were prepared.
Sodium metasilicate (Na2SiO3) (48% silica) and silicic acid silica (H2SiO3) (75% silica) were employed as silica
source and aluminum nitrate (Al(NO3)3.9H2O) was the aluminum source with tetrapropylammonium hydroxide
(TPAOH) as templating agent.
The synihesized-samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction, showed the requirement of diffirent aging time for
complete crystallization to be achieved. Transmission Electronic Microscope (TEM) images, showed the particles were
in the same range of 30 - 75 nm. FT-IR spectroscory, showed the synthesized samples having the zeolite Y crystal
properties. The i
Abstract
The problem of the study is the main question (Can tourism planning address the phenomenon of unemployment in Iraq ?) , And the importance of the study in the fact that the tourism sector can become an effective development alternative in many countries, especially Iraq, as tourism contributes to diversify sources of income and stimulate other economic sectors , We know how important Iraq's qualifications are in the field of tourism and what it can generate on the public treasury, To confirm the current study on the need to pay attention to tourism planning for its role in providing employment opportunities that reduce the unemployment rate in the future.
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... Show MoreBackground: The size of the nasopharyngeal airway was believed to have an important role in the development of the dentofacial structure. This study was carried out to test the relation between the nasopharyngeal dimensions with some dento-cranial measurements in class I and II jaw relationship. Materials and Methods: This study was done on 60 subjects (30 males and 30 females) at age range 18-25 years. Cephalometric radiograph has been taken to each subject and the measurements were recorded. The sample was divided into two groups, class I skeletal relationship (15 males and 15 females) and class II skeletal relationship (15 males and 15 females). Comparisons between the different study groups were undertaken. Results: In class I skeletal
... Show MoreГоды, принадлежащие концу XIX – началу XX столетия, вошли в русскую литературу под красивым названием Серебряный век. В это время в стране появился целый ряд выдающихся поэтов, имена которых навсегда останутся в русской и мировой литературе. Это Ахматова, Гумилев, Блок, Маяковский и многие другие. Все эти люди творили в нелегкое для России время. Началом Серебряного века условно считают 189
... Show MoreThe aim of this research is to identify the impact of the effectiveness of digital transformation technology in improving the efficiency of the insurance service in the public insurance companies in Iraq through digital transformation technology in the insurance process "promotion of the insurance product, submission of insurance application, underwriting, settlement of losses" and to achieve this goal a questionnaire was designed A survey distributed in the surveyed community Which represents the decision makers in the researched companies under study, and one of the most important results of the research was the existence of a relationship between digital transformation and improving the efficiency of the insurance process, whether thr
... Show MoreAlthough renewable energy systems have become an interesting global issue, it is not continuous either daily or seasonally. Latent heat energy storage (LHES) is one of the suitable solutions for this problem. LHES becomes a basic element in renewable energy systems. LHES compensate for the energy lack when these systems are at low production conditions. The present work considered a shell and tube LHES for numerical investigation of the tube rotation influence on the melting process. The simulation and calculations were carried out using ANSYS Fluent software. Paraffin wax represents the phase change material (PCM) in this work, while water was selected to be the heat transfer fluid (HTF). The calculations were carried o
... Show MoreMedicine is one of the fields where the advancement of computer science is making significant progress. Some diseases require an immediate diagnosis in order to improve patient outcomes. The usage of computers in medicine improves precision and accelerates data processing and diagnosis. In order to categorize biological images, hybrid machine learning, a combination of various deep learning approaches, was utilized, and a meta-heuristic algorithm was provided in this research. In addition, two different medical datasets were introduced, one covering the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of brain tumors and the other dealing with chest X-rays (CXRs) of COVID-19. These datasets were introduced to the combination network that contained deep lea
... Show MoreDenture cleansing is an essential step that can stop cross‑contamination and adds to the health of the patient, denture durability, and the general quality of life. A disinfection technique must be practical and devoid of damaging effects on the material's properties used to construct the denture base. The main aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of three concentrations of electrolyzed water denture cleanser on heat cure acrylic and polyamide after immersion in electrolyzed water. The evaluation is based on their efficacy on surface hardness, wettability, and color stability compared with one submerged in distilled water as a control group. The method consists of eighty samples of heat-cured acrylic and polyamide material.
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