Background: All diseases concerning bone destruction such as osteoporosis and periodontal diseases share common pattern in which the osteoclast cells are absolutely responsible for bone resorption that occurred when osteoclast activity exceeds osteoblast activity. Osteoprotegrin (OPG) considered as novel soluble decoy receptor known as “bone protector†since it prevents extreme bone resorption through inhibition of differentiation and activity of osteoclast by competing for binding site. It binds to receptor activator of nuclear factor kappa-B ligand (RANKL) and prevent its interaction with receptor activator of nuclear factor kappa-B (RANK), thus inhibits osteoclast formation. TNF-α is a pro-inflammatory cytokines having a broad range of important roles in regulation of immune system and bone resorption through the stimulation of osteoclastogenesis. Alendronate (ALN) diminishes the expression of osteoclast activating factors and cytokines such as RANKL and enhances the production of decoy receptor osteoprotegerin in osteoblast cells. Moreover, it decreases the production of proinflammatory cytokines such as TNF-α by macrophage, stimulates apoptosis of monocyte-macrophage cell lines derivative and reduces inflammatory response. Aims of the Study: 1. To assess the effect of alendronate treatment on salivary levels of osteoprotegrin and TNF-α in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis and periodontal disease 2. To find any possible correlation between salivary levels of osteoprotegrin and TNF-α in control and study groups. Materials and Methods: Total sample of 90 female subjects (55-65 years) were divided into 3 groups, (30 subjects in each group): first control group involved systemically healthy subjects with healthy periodontium, second group involved postmenopausal women with osteoporosis under alendronate treatment for(3-6)months (alendronate group), third group involved postmenopausal women with osteoporosis without alendronate treatment(osteoporosis group). The last two groups were sub- divided in- to two sub –groups (15 subjects in each sub-group) of gingivitis and periodontitis subjects respectively. Salivary samples were collected from all subjects and salivary levels of osteoprotegrin and TNF- α were determined by enzyme –linked immune sorbent assay (ELISA). Results: Highest median value of salivary (OPG) was found in alendronate group followed by control group while the lowest value was found in osteoporosis group. Highest median value of TNF- α was found in osteoporosis group followed by control group and alendronate group respectively with highly significant differences between them. Spearman correlation between salivary levels of TNF-α and OPG showed non- significant correlation at all subgroups. Conclusion: Subjects with osteoporosis in this study had greater levels of TNF-α and decrease in the level of OPG comparing with patients under alendronate treatment. Alendronate treatment for women with osteoporosis and periodontal disease may have beneficial outcome.
In this study, oxidative desulfurization of dibenzothiophene (DBT) with H2O2 as an oxidant was studied, whereas the catalyst used was zirconium oxide supported on Activated carbon (AC). Zirconium oxide (ZrO2) was impregnated over prepared activated carbon (AC) and characterized by various techniques such as XRD, FTIR, BET, SEM, and EDX. This composite was used as a heterogeneous catalyst for oxidation desulfurization of simulated oil. The results of this study showed that ZrO2/AC composite exhibited significant catalytic activity and stability, effectively lowering sulfur content under mild conditions. Factors such as reaction temperature (30, 40, 50, 60°C), time (5, 10, 15,20,30,60, 80 100 min), catalyst dose (0.3, 0.5,
... Show MoreAs a result of the entry of multinationals companies in Iraq for investing in the joint projects through conducting agreements and contracts for work on important and strategic projects to get the necessary funds and various experiences which characterize the foreign participant sides that Iraq currently needs them and because of the non-applying the accounting processing stipulated in the unified accounting system in addition to the absence of a local accounting bases as well as the default of the participant contracts on indicating the accounting methods about those projects which are considered one of the bases that enables auditors in the public sector to depend on it, thus the research paper deals with studying an
... Show MoreSix isolates of A. pullulans were collected from many sources including Hibiscus sabdariffa (Roselle), old Roofs of houses and bathroom surface that referred as Ap ros1, Ap or2, 3, 4 and Ap bs5, 6 respectively, all these isolates were identified based on morphological characteristics and nutritional physiology profiles, all were able to utilize various carbon and nitrogen sources such as glucose, xylose, sucrose, maltose, ammonium sulfate, ammonium nitrate and ammonium chloride, also they showed positive test for starch and amylase, while α-cellulose, ethanol, and methanol were could not be ass
... Show MoreThe present paper focuses on studying a rhetorical form often used in Spanish linguistic discourse .It also examines the study two sides (theoretical and practical), the concept of metaphor, the most important modern school that deals with this issue, the development of this technique and its relationship with other intellectual ideologies, and the role metaphor plays in interpreting the meaning of the linguistic discourse especially in conveying political message. The study allows the formulation and the creation of a conceptual picture for the purposes of metaphor in the linguistic discourse used in Spanish press. It investigates discursive models from the Spanish press,
... Show Moresensor sampling rate (SSR) may be an effective and crucial field in networked control systems. Changing sensor sampling period after designing the networked control system is a critical matter for the stability of the system. In this article, a wireless networked control system with multi-rate sensor sampling is proposed to control the temperature of a multi-zone greenhouse. Here, a behavior based Mamdany fuzzy system is used in three approaches, first is to design the fuzzy temperature controller, second is to design a fuzzy gain selector and third is to design a fuzzy error handler. The main approach of the control system design is to control the input gain of the fuzzy temperature controller depending on the cur
... Show MoreIn the present work, the behavior of thick-walled cylinder of elasto-plastic material (polymeric material) has been studied analytically. The study is based on modified Von-Mises yield criterion (for non metallic material). The equations of stress distribution are obtained for the cylinder under general cases of elastic expansion, plastic initiation and elastic-plastic expansion.
A computer program is developed for evaluating the stress distribution. The solution is carried out for worst boundary conditions when the cylinder is subjected to the combination of pressure load, inertia load, and temperature gradient.
The results are presente
... Show MoreObjective: To study the effect of epidural spinal injection over one year in case of spinal stenosis. Methodology: This prospective study included 566 patients with spinal stenosis seen at Al-Kindy Teaching and Al-Sader, Hospitals who were treated by local epidural steroid injection. They were followed up for at least five subsequent visits after seven days, one month, three months, six months, and one year to assess efficacy. Result: Mean age of patients was 49.5 years, with a predominance of females (65%). L4/L5 was the most involved level in the spinal stenosis (70%). Grade II stenosis accounted for (45.4%) of cases. The pairwise comparison revealed that there was significant decrease in proportions of patients with pain in day
... Show MoreBubbled slabs can be exposed to damage or deterioration during its life. Therefore, the solution for strengthening must be provided. For the simulation of this case, the analysis of finite elements was carried out using ABAQUS 2017 software on six simply supported specimens, during which five are voided with 88 bubbles, and the other is solid. The slab specimens with symmetric boundary conditions were of dimensions 3200/570/150 mm. The solid slab and one bubbled slab are deemed references. Each of the other slabs was exposed to; (1) service charge, then unloaded (2) external prestressing and (3) loading to collapse under two line load. The external strengthening was applied using prestressed wire with four approaches, wh
... Show MoreTransmission lines are generally subjected to faults, so it is advantageous to determine these faults as quickly as possible. This study uses an Artificial Neural Network technique to locate a fault as soon as it happens on the Doukan-Erbil of 132kv double Transmission lines network. CYME 7.1-Programming/Simulink utilized simulation to model the suggested network. A multilayer perceptron feed-forward artificial neural network with a back propagation learning algorithm is used for the intelligence locator's training, testing, assessment, and validation. Voltages and currents were applied as inputs during the neural network's training. The pre-fault and post-fault values determined the scaled values. The neural network's p
... Show MoreAn integrated GIS-VBA (Geographical Information System – Visual Basic for Application), model is developed for selecting an optimum water harvesting dam location among an available locations in a watershed. The proposed model allows quick and precise estimation of an adopted weighted objective function for each selected location. In addition to that for each location, a different dam height is used as a nominee for optimum selection. The VBA model includes an optimization model with a weighted objective function that includes beneficiary items (positive) , such as the available storage , the dam height allowed by the site as an indicator for the potential of hydroelectric power generation , the rainfall rate as a source of water . In a
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