Background: One common undesirable side effect of orthodontic treatment with fixed appliances is the development of incipient caries lesions around brackets, particularly in patients with poor oral hygiene. Different methods have been used to prevent demineralization; the recent effort to improve the resistance against the demineralization is by the application of lasers. Materials and method: Thirty human premolars extracted for orthodontic purposes were used to test the effect of two energy level of ER-YAG laser on enamel resistance to demineralization. The brackets were bonded on the teeth and all the labial surface excluding 2 mm area gingival to the brackets were painted with acid resistance varnish. Three groups were generated. The first group was the control group (A), with no treatment was performed. In group II (B)and groups III (C); teeth were irradiated by ER-YAG laser of 200, 60 mj energy respectively. All the teeth were individually subjected to acid challenge cycle for 30 days. After debonding longitudinal sections were taken and examined under stereomicroscope. The enamel demineralization evaluation was done by taking the average of three depths at the centre of the artificial lesion. Also the enamel surface was classified by an experienced investigator according to acid etch pattern. Comparisons of the average depth values of the groups were performed with ANOVA and LSD tests. The statistical significance level was set at p ≤ 0.05. Results: The results revealed that average lesion depth was significantly deeper at the control group than the laser groups, and its significantly deeper in group (B) 200 mj than in group (C) 60 mj, enamel surfaces showed deeper pits and craters than in control group. Conclusions: the decrease in artificial caries lesion depth associated with use of the two laser energy level support the ER-YAG laser as a tool to increase enamel resistance to demineralization and white spot lesion prevention. Key words: Demineralization, ER-YAG, laser.
In the present study, magnet silica-coated Ag2WO4/Ag2S nanocomposites (FOSOAWAS) were fabricated via a multistep method to address the drawbacks related to single photocatalysts (pure Ag2WO4 and pure Ag2S) and to clarify the significant influence of semiconductor heterojunction on the enhancement of visible-light-driven organic degradation. Different techniques were performed to investigate the elemental composition, morphology, magnetic and photoelectrochemical properties of the fabricated FOSOAWAS photocatalyst. The FOSOAWAS photocatalyst (1 g/L) exhibited excellent photodegradation efficiency (99.5%) against Congo red dye (CR = 20 ppm) after 140 min of visible-light illumination. This result confirmed the ability of the heterojunction be
... Show MorePurpose Heavy metals are toxic pollutants released into the environment as a result of different industrial activities. Biosorption of heavy metals from aqueous solutions is a new technology for the treatment of industrial wastewater. The aim of the present research is to highlight the basic biosorption theory to heavy metal removal. Materials and methods Heterogeneous cultures mostly dried anaerobic bacteria, yeast (fungi), and protozoa were used as low-cost material to remove metallic cations Pb(II), Cr(III), and Cd(II) from synthetic wastewater. Competitive biosorption of these metals was studied. Results The main biosorption mechanisms were complexation and physical adsorption onto natural active functional groups. It is observed that
... Show MoreBacteriocin is an important antimicrobial peptide that can be used in industrial and medical fields due to its characteristics of antibacterial, food preservation and anticancer activities. Fifty isolates of Bacillus sp were collected from different soil samples which were already recognized via morphological and biochemical identification process. The isolates were screened for bacteriocin production effective against Staphylococcus spp in order to select the highest producing isolate. The isolate NK16 showed the maximum bacteriocin production (80 AU/ml) which was further characterized as Bacillus subtilis NK 16 through using API identification system (API 20E and API 50CHB). Then, next step was to detect the optimal conditions for maximum
... Show MoreThis study expands the state of the art in studies that assess torsional retrofit of reinforced concrete (RC) multi-cell box girders with carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) strips. The torsional behavior of non-damaged and pre-damaged RC multi-cell box girder specimens externally retrofitted by CFRP strips was investigated through a series of laboratory experiments. It was found that retrofitting the pre-damaged specimens with CFRP strips increased the ultimate torsional capacity by more than 50% as compared to the un-damaged specimens subjected to equivalent retrofitting. This indicated that the retrofit has been less effective for the girder specimen that did not develop distortion beforehand as a result of pre-loading. From
... Show MoreIn this study, NAC-capped CdTe/CdS/ZnS core/double shell QDs were synthesized in an aqueous medium to investigate their utility in distinguishing normal DNA from mutated DNA extracted from biological samples. Following the interaction between the synthesized QDs with DNA extracted from leukemia cases (represents damaged DNA) and that of healthy donors (represents undamaged DNA), differential fluorescent emission maxima and intensities were observed. It was found that damaged DNA from leukemic cells DNA-QDs conjugates at 585 nm while intact DNA (from healthy subjects) DNA–QDs conjugates at 574 nm. The obtained results from the optical analyses indicate that the prepared QDs could be utilized as probe for detecting disrupted DNA th
... Show MoreThis study analyses six political cartoons selected based on their relevance to current Iraqi political issues, specifically the period between 2005 and 2015, from American online newspapers (calgecartooms.com). The selection criteria included the cartoons' satirical elements, visual rhetoric, and their ability to engage with themes such as power dynamics, social issues, and public opinion. It sheds light on how these cartoons can function as mediators of meanings between the cartoonists and the readers. The data is examined using multimodal discourse analysis (MDA), which combines language study with the analysis of other visual elements, like colors, gestures, and images, to understand meaning (O’Halloran et al., 2011). The Visual Socia
... Show MoreThis study aimed to identify and describe one of the bacterial feeder nematode Acrobeloides varius Kim, Kim and Park, 2017 (Rhabditida, Cephalobidae), which was isolated from soil samples that were collected from Baghdad, central of Iraq, and was classified using both morphological and molecular criteria. All specimens of A. varius were cultured, identified and described using morphometric criteria. Selected specimens (Zah. IRQ3 OR994579.1 isolate) of this species were characterized by having the body length of the male ranging from (184.94 – 221.72 μm), the body length of the female ranging (507.38 – 521.92 μm) and the body length of the juvenile ranging from (355.53 – 490.35 μm). Selected specimens of this species were m
... Show MoreThe ligand 2-[1-(1H-indol-3-yl)ethylimino) methyl]naphthalene-1-ol, derived from 1-hydroxy-2-naphthaldehyde and 2-(1H-indol-3-yl)ethylamine, was used to produce a new sequence of metal ions complexes. Thus ligand reactions with NiCl2.6H2O, PdCl2, FeCl3.6H2O and H2PtCl6.6H2O were sequentially made to collect mono-nuclear Ni(II), Pd(II), Fe (III), and Pt(IV). (IR or FTIR), Ultraviolet Reflective (UV–visible), Mass Spectra analysis, Bohr-magnetic (B.M.), metal content, chloride content and molar conductivity have been the defining features of the composites. The Fe(III) and Pt(IV) complexes have octahedral geometries, while the Ni(II) complex has tetra
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