Background: Plaque retention during fixed orthodontic therapy is an important cause of developing enamel demineralization. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of different brackets types on the count of Streptococcus Mutans in orthodontic patients using conventional fluoridated toothpaste. Materials and Methods: Plaque samples were collected from maxillary 1st premolar teeth of twenty right handed patients (using split mouth technique) before bonding, after 48 hrs of bonding using tooth brush only, and after 2 weeks of using fluoridated toothpaste. Stainless steel bracket was bonded on right first premolar while the left one was bonded with sapphire bracket. The calculation of the Streptococcus Mutans count was done using the plate counting method utilizing colony counter. The differences between the two types of brackets were determined using the Wilcoxon signed ranks test. Results: The median bacterial count on the right side was insignificantly higher than the left side; streptococcus mutans in the plaque sample around the sapphire brackets showed insignificantly less counts than around the stainless steel one, when the patients used tooth brush only or fluoridated toothpastes. Fluoridated toothpastes reduced streptococcus mutans insignificantly around both types of brackets. Conclusion: Fluoridated toothpaste acts effectively in reducing streptococcus mutans colony counts around sapphire and stainless steel brackets. Keywords: Streptococcus mutans, Stainless steel brackets, Sapphire brackets.
This study was focused on biotreatment of soil which polluted by petroleum compounds (Diesel) which caused serious environmental problems. One of the most effective and promising ways to treat diesel-contaminated soil is bioremediation. It is a choice that offers the potential to destroy harmful pollutants using biological activity. The capability of mixed bacterial culture was examined to remediate the diesel-contaminated soil in bio piling system. For fast ex-situ treatment of diesel-contaminated soils, the bio pile system was selected. Two pilot scale bio piles (25 kg soil each) were constructed containing soils contaminated with approximately 2140 mg/kg total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs). The amended soil: (contaminated soil with the a
... Show MoreThe exploitation of obsolete recyclable resources including paper waste has the advantages of saving resources and environment protection. This study has been conducted to study utilizing paper waste to adsorb phenol which is one of the harmful organic compound byproducts deposited in the environment. The influence of different agitation methods, pH of the solution (3-11), initial phenol concentration (30-120ppm), adsorbent dose (0.5-2.5 g) and contact time (30-150 min) were studied. The highest phenol removal efficiency obtained was 86% with an adsorption capacity of 5.1 mg /g at optimization conditions (pH of 9, initial phenol concentration of 30 mg/L, an adsorbent dose of 2 g and contact time of 120min and at room temperature).
... Show MoreThe problem of the high peak to average ratio (PAPR) in OFDM signals is investigated with a brief presentation of the various methods used to reduce the PAPR with special attention to the clipping method. An alternative approach of clipping is presented, where the clipping is performed right after the IFFT stage unlike the conventional clipping that is performed in the power amplifier stage, which causes undesirable out of signal band spectral growth. In the proposed method, there is clipping of samples not clipping of wave, therefore, the spectral distortion is avoided. Coding is required to correct the errors introduced by the clipping and the overall system is tested for two types of modulations, the QPSK as a constant amplitude modul
... Show MoreThe present work is devoted to investigate the performance of a homemade Y-shape catalytic microreactor for degradation of dibenzothiophene (DBT), as a model of sulphur compounds including in gas oil, utilizing solar incident energy. The microchannel was coated with TiO2 nanoparticles which were used as a photocatalyst. Performance of the microreactor was investigated using different conditions (e.g., DBT concentration, LHSV, operating temperature, and (H2O2/DBT) ratio). Our experiments show that, in the absence of UV light, no reaction takes place. The results revealed that outlet concentration of DBT decreases as the mean residence time in the microreactor increases. Also, it was noted that operating temperature s
... Show MoreCritical buckling temperature of laminated plate under thermal load varied linearly along the thickness, is developed using a higher-order shape function which depends on a parameter ‘‘m’’, which is improved to obtain results for thin and thick plates. Laminated plates’ equations of motion are obtained using virtual work principle and solved for simply supported boundary conditions. Angle and cross laminates thermal buckled mode shapes with different E1/E2 proportion, number of plies, (α2/α1) proportion, aspect ratios, are investigated. It is observed that this shape function gives thermal buckling for thin and thick plates but with m = 0.05 that agree well with other theories and linear distribution of temperature giv
... Show MoreTwo different oxidative desulfurization strategies based on oxidation/adsorption or oxidation/extraction were evaluated for the desulfurization of AL-Ahdab (AHD) sour crude oil (3.9wt% sulfur content). In the oxidation process, a homogenous oxidizing agent comprising of hydrogen peroxide and formic acid was used. Activated carbons were used as sorbent/catalyst in the oxidation/adsorption process while acetonitrile was used as an extraction solvent in the oxidation/extraction process. For the oxidation/adsorption scheme, the experimental results indicated that the oxidation desulfurization efficiency was enhanced on using activated carbon as catalyst/sorbent. The effects of the operating conditions (contact time, temperat
... Show MoreIndirect electrochemical oxidation of phenol and its derivatives was investigated by using MnO2 rotating cylinder electrode. Taguchi experimental design method was employed to find the best conditions for the removal efficiency of phenol and its derivatives generated during the process. Two main parameters were investigated, current density (C.D.) and electrolysis time. The removal efficiency was considered as a response for the phenol and other organics removal. An orthogonal array L16, the signal to noise (S/N) ratio, and the analysis of variance were used to test the effect of designated process factors and their levels on the performance of phenol and other organics removal efficiency. The results showed that th
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