Background: pregnancy as a systemic condition causes changes in the functioning of human body as a whole and specifically in the oral cavity and it also is considered as a stressful condition. These changes may favor the increase of oxidative stress. Aim: The aim of this study was to estimate the level of marker of oxidative stress (malondialdehyde) and antioxidant (uric acid) in saliva of pregnant compared to non-pregnant women and to assess the gingival health condition in both groups. Additionally, unstimulated salivary flow rate was determined in both groups. Subjects, materials and methods: The study group consisted of sixty pregnant women, they were divided into three equal groups according to trimester (20 pregnant women for each trimester), and they were selected randomly from the Maternal and Child Health Care Centers in Baghdad city, their age range was 20-25 years. In addition to 60 newly married non-pregnant women as a control group and matched with age. Collection of unstimulated salivary samples was carried out under standardized conditions. Dental plaque and gingival indices were used for recording the oral hygiene and gingival health respectively. Salivary flow rate was measured then salivary samples were analyzed to determine the level of salivary antioxidant (uric acid) and lipid peroxidation biomarker of oxidative stress (malondialdehyde). Result: The data analysis of the present study found that the level of salivary malondialdehyde was higher among pregnant women compared to non-pregnant controls with statistically significant difference (p<0.05), while salivary uric acid was statistically significantly lower among the pregnant women compared to non-pregnant controls (p<0.05). Salivary analysis demonstrated that the salivary flow rate was statistically significantly lower among the pregnant women compared to non-pregnant controls (p<0.05). The values of plaque and gingival indices were higher among pregnant women compared to non-pregnant controls with statistically significant difference (p<0.05). The correlation of gingival index with plaque index in study and control group was significant (p<0.05), while with others variables were non-significant (p>0.05). Conclusion: The current study showed an increase in oxidative status in saliva during pregnancy that could affect gingival health which was also affected by oral hygiene.
Advancing the multi-scale performance of asphalt pavements requires innovative binder modifications that address limitations in rutting resistance, fatigue resistance, and durability across the binder, mixture, and structural levels. This study evaluates the performance of asphalt cement, mixtures, and pavement systems modified with a combination of polyethylene (PE) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The binder was modified using 4% PE and varying CNT contents (0.5%, 1%, 1.5%, and 2% by weight of the modified binder). Binder performance was assessed through conventional and rheological tests, including penetration, softening point, viscosity, performance grade (PG) evaluation, and master curve analysis. Mixture-level performance was eval
... Show MoreThis paper presents a nonlinear finite element modeling and analysis of steel fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC) deep beams with and without openings in web subjected to two- point loading. In this study, the beams were modeled using ANSYS nonlinear finite element
software. The percentage of steel fiber was varied from 0 to 1.0%.The influence of fiber content in the concrete deep beams has been studied by measuring the deflection of the deep beams at mid- span and marking the cracking patterns, compute the failure loads for each deep beam, and also study the shearing and first principal stresses for the deep beams with and without openings and with different steel fiber ratios. The above study indicates that the location of openings an
Due to severe scouring, many bridges failed worldwide. Therefore, the safety of the existing bridge (after contrition) mainly depends on the continuous monitoring of local scour at the substructure. However, the bridge's safety before construction mainly depends on the consideration of local scour estimation at the bridge substructure. Estimating the local scour at the bridge piers is usually done using the available formulae. Almost all the formulae used in estimating local scour at the bridge piers were derived from laboratory data. It is essential to test the performance of proposed local scour formulae using field data. In this study, the performance of selected bridge scours estimation formulae was validated and sta
... Show MoreExcessive intake of fluoride, mainly through drinking water is a serious health hazard affecting humans worldwide. In this study, the defluoridation capacities of locally available raw waste beef bones have been estimated. Several experimental parameters including contact time, pH, bone dose, fluoride initial concentration, bone grains size, agitation rate, and the effect of co-existence of anions in actual samples of wastewater were studied for fluoride removal from aqueous solutions. Results indicated excellent fluoride removal effeciency up to 99.7% at fluoride initial concentration of 10 mg F/L and 120 min contact time. Maximum fluoride uptake was obtained at neutral pH range 6-7. Fluoride removal kinetic was well described by the ps
... Show MoreWellbore stability is considered as one of the most challenges during drilling wells due to the
reactivity of shale with drilling fluids. During drilling wells in North Rumaila, Tanuma shale is
represented as one of the most abnormal formations. Sloughing, caving, and cementing problems
as a result of the drilling fluid interaction with the formation are considered as the most important
problem during drilling wells. In this study, an attempt to solve this problem was done, by
improving the shale stability by adding additives to the drilling fluid. Water-based mud (WBM)
and polymer mud were used with different additives. Three concentrations 0.5, 1, 5 and 10 wt. %
for five types of additives (CaCl2, NaCl, Na2S
The paper uses the Direct Synthesis (DS) method for tuning the Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) controller for controlling the DC servo motor. Two algorithms are presented for enhancing the performance of the suggested PID controller. These algorithms are Back-Propagation Neural Network and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). The performance and characteristics of DC servo motor are explained. The simulation results that obtained by using Matlab program show that the steady state error is eliminated with shorter adjusted time when using these algorithms with PID controller. A comparative between the two algorithms are described in this paper to show their effectiveness, which is found that the PSO algorithm gives be
... Show MoreA time series analysis can help to observe the behavior of the system and specify the system faults. In addition, it also helps to explain the various energy flows in the system and further aid in reducing the thermodynamic losses. The intelligent supervisory LabVIEW software can monitor the incoming data from the system by using Arduino microcontroller and calculates the important parameters. Energy, exergy, and anergy analysis present in this paper to investigate the system performance as well as its components. To accomplish this, a 4-ton vertical split air conditioner based on vapor compression refrigeration cycle charged with refrigerant R-22 was modified for experimental analysis. The results showed that during 540
... Show MoreSymmetric cryptography forms the backbone of secure data communication and storage by relying on the strength and randomness of cryptographic keys. This increases complexity, enhances cryptographic systems' overall robustness, and is immune to various attacks. The present work proposes a hybrid model based on the Latin square matrix (LSM) and subtractive random number generator (SRNG) algorithms for producing random keys. The hybrid model enhances the security of the cipher key against different attacks and increases the degree of diffusion. Different key lengths can also be generated based on the algorithm without compromising security. It comprises two phases. The first phase generates a seed value that depends on producing a rand
... Show MoreWater pollution as a result of contamination with dye-contaminating effluents is a severe issue for water reservoirs, which instigated the study of biodegradation of Reactive Red 195 and Reactive Blue dyes by E. coli and Bacillus sp. The effects of occupation time, solution pH, initial dyes concentrations, biomass loading, and temperature were investigated via batch-system experiments by using the Design of Experiment (DOE) for 2 levels and 5 factors response surface methodology (RSM). The operational conditions used for these factors were optimized using quadratic techniques by reducing the number of experiments. The results revealed that the two types of bacteria had a powerful effect on biodegradable dyes. The regression analysis reveale
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