Introduction: Salivary melatonin is a critical antioxidant that contributes to oral health by mitigating oxidative stress. Psychological stress linked to thumb sucking may disrupt oral homeostasis, leading to conditions such as dental caries and fungal infections. Aim: This study explores the relationships between thumb sucking, salivary melatonin levels, dental caries, and the presence of Candida albicans (CA) in children. Materials and methods: A case-control study was conducted with 60 children aged 4-5 years at the University of Baghdad’s College of Dentistry. Participants were divided into thumb-sucking (n=30) and non-thumb-sucking (n=30) groups. Salivary melatonin levels were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA), dental caries were assessed via the dmfs index, and CA counts were quantified on Sabouraud dextrose agar (SDA). Statistical analyses were performed, including t-tests, ANOVA, and correlation assessments. Results: Thumb-sucking children exhibited significantly lower salivary melatonin levels (28.620±2.278 pg/mL) compared to controls (34.525±2.142 pg/mL; p=0.044). The thumb-sucking group also had higher dmfs scores (15.033±1.449 vs. 8.667±0.899; p=0.000) and greater CA counts (18.900±1.048 vs. 13.583±0.549; p=0.000). Negative correlations were observed between salivary melatonin levels and the severity of dental caries, while positive correlations linked CA with dental caries. Conclusions: Thumb sucking adversely affects pediatric oral health by reducing salivary melatonin, increasing dental caries risk, and promoting fungal overgrowth. Early intervention to curb thumb-sucking behaviors may mitigate these risks and improve oral health outcomes.
The present work includes a design and characteristics study of a controlling the wavelength of high power diode laser by thermoelectric cooler [TEC] . The work includes the operation of the [TEC] to control the temperature of the diode laser between ( 0- +30) °C by changing the resistance of thermistor. We can control a limited temperature of a diode laser by changing the phase cooling between hot and cold faces of the diode, this process can be attempted by comparator type [LM –311] .The theoretical results give a model for controlling the temperature with, the suitable wavelength.
The purpose of this interview study was to explore teachers’ perceptions of Response to Intervention (RtI) implementation in their school. Particularly, the study explored teachers’ knowledge of RtI, teachers’ perceptions of RtI their intervention/instruction in school, and teachers’ suggestions of RtI implementation in their school. The study design was a qualitative interview in nature and data were collected from face-to-face interviews with four teachers in one school. The findings revealed that RtI means to identify students’ problems; the positive teachers’ perceptions of their implementation included: (a) students who demonstrate progress through RtI are those who receive private education services, (b) progress monito
... Show MoreIn this study, aluminum nanoparticles (Al NPs) were prepared using explosive strips method in double-distilled deionized water (DDDW), where the effect of five different currents (25, 50, 75, 100 and 125 A) on particle size and distribution was studied. Also, the explosive strips method was used to decorate zinc oxide particles with Al particles, where Al particles were prepared in suspended from zinc oxide with DDDW. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), UV-visible absorption spectroscopy, and x-ray diffraction are used to characterize the nanoparticles. XRD pattern were examined for three samples of aluminum particles and DDDW prepared with three current values (25, 75 and 125 A) and three samples prepared with the same currents for zin
... Show More)/ Cellulose (CELL) blend solutions were prepared by solution blending followed by preparing of polymer metal complexes with Ag (I), Cu (II), Ni (II) and Co(II). Antibacterial properties were evaluated by dilute method against five pathogenic bacteria (Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumonae , Pseudomonas aeruginasa,, Staphylococcus aureus , Staphylococcus Albus ) . Polymer metal complexes showed different activities against the various microbial isolates. The polymer blend metal complexes showed higher activity than the free polymer blends.
This paper presents designing an adaptive state feedback controller (ASFC) for a magnetic levitation system (MLS), which is an unstable system and has high nonlinearity and represents a challenging control problem. First, a nonadaptive state feedback controller (SFC) is designed by linearization about a selected equilibrium point and designing a SFC by pole-placement method to achieve maximum overshoot of 1.5% and settling time of 1s (5% criterion). When the operating point changes, the designed controller can no longer achieve the design specifications, since it is designed based on a linearization about a different operating point. This gives rise to utilizing the adaptive control scheme to parameterize the state feedback controll
... Show MoreIn this review of literature, the light will be concentrated on the role of stem cells as an approach in periodontal regeneration.
The tentative list of the biodiversity (plants and vertebrates) of Bahr Al-Najaf depression is found to comprise 104 vertebrate species including 2 fishes, 14 reptiles, 73 resident and migratory birds and 15 mammals. The flora consists of 31 species, mainly of plants well adapted to desert conditions that dominate the area, besides few examples of water plants. The salinity was found, through chemical analysis of the lake water, to be of high value which reduces the diversity of aquatic animal and plant diversity.
Aggregate production planning (APP) is one of the most significant and complicated problems in production planning and aim to set overall production levels for each product category to meet fluctuating or uncertain demand in future. and to set decision concerning hiring, firing, overtime, subcontract, carrying inventory level. In this paper, we present a simulated annealing (SA) for multi-objective linear programming to solve APP. SA is considered to be a good tool for imprecise optimization problems. The proposed model minimizes total production and workforce costs. In this study, the proposed SA is compared with particle swarm optimization (PSO). The results show that the proposed SA is effective in reducing total production costs and req
... Show MoreAneurysms of the cortical branches of the middle cerebral artery (MCA) are rare. They usually are secondary to traumatic or infectious etiologies and are rarely idiopathic. The specific characteristics of idiopathic aneurysms in such location are not well defined in the literature. The authors report a rare case of a ruptured giant idiopathic cortical MCA aneurysm with review of the available literature on this clinical entity.
A 24-year-old female presented with headache, disturbed level of consciousness, and right-sided weakness. Imaging studies showed a left frontoparietal intracer