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.
Lymphoma is a cancer arising from B or T lymphocytes that are central immune system components. It is one of the three most common cancers encountered in the canine; lymphoma affects middle-aged to older dogs and usually stems from lymphatic tissues, such as lymph nodes, lymphoid tissue, or spleen. Despite the advance in the management of canine lymphoma, a better understanding of the subtype and tumor aggressiveness is still crucial for improved clinical diagnosis to differentiate malignancy from hyperplastic conditions and to improve decision-making around treating and what treatment type to use. This study aimed to evaluate a potential novel biomarker related to iron metabolism,
... Show MoreEnhancement of the performance for hybrid solar air conditioning system was presented in this paper. The refrigerant temperature leaving the condenser was controlled using three-way valve, this valve was installed after the compressor to regulate refrigerant flow rate towards the solar system. A control system using data logger, sensors and computer was proposed to set the opening valve ratio. The function of control program using LabVIEW software is to obtain a minimum refrigerant temperature from the condenser outlet to enhance the overall COP of the unit by increasing the degree of subcooled refrigerant. A variable load electrical heater with coiled pipe was used instead of the solar collector and the storage tank to simulate the sola
... Show MoreThe aim of the current research is to study a topic from the Qur’anic topics, few have researched it and realized its content, so people knew it in one name in the Qur’an in another name, and due to the ancientity of the topic and its contemporaneity, I wanted to write about it. The research has an introduction, three demands, and a conclusion with the most important results of the research:
As for the introduction: It was to indicate the importance of the topic and an optional reason for it.
As for the first requirement: it included the definition of reasoning, its divisions, and its characteristics.
As for the second requirement, it was to indicate the meaning, types, and methods of labeling it.
As for the third require
Zinc Oxide (ZnO) is considered as one of the best materials already used as a window layer in solar cells due to its antireflective capability. The ZnO/MgF2 bilayer thin film is more efficient as antireflective coating. In this work, ZnO and ZnO/MgF2 thin films were deposited on glass substrate using pulsed laser deposition and thermal evaporation deposition methods. The optical measurements indicated that ZnO thin layer has an energy gap of (3.02 eV) while ZnO/MgF2 bilayer gives rise to an increase in the energy gap. ZnO/MgF2 bilayer shows a high energy gap (3.77 eV) with low reflectance (1.1-10 %) and refractive index (1.9) leading to high transmittance, this bilayer could be a good candidate optical material to improve the performance
... Show MoreThe semiotic trend of recent monetary trends task that took a wide range of attention of critics and readers alike, especially after the deployment, which accompanied him after widespread acts critic Grimas and powers applicable to the literary texts and is thus expanded its care circle, hence the choice of the novel (absent) woman Iraqi novelist (Mahdi ‘Issa falcon) model to be applied to the study chose to be a semiotic approach through the use of procedural mechanisms for its critical tool (Paris School of semiotics), cash and views of its founder critic Grimas.The research in the introduction and pave came we made it a vision for literary semiotic and its impact trend in cash and cash is and what it desire to clarify some poked suc
... Show MoreIn this paper, a novel flow control strategy which is the inlet throttled pump was used to design an angular velocity control system for rotary actuator. Inlet throttled systems have good performance in addition to their high efficiency compared to traditional valve controlled systems. The flow in the proposed system is adjusted by a valve that is positioned at the pump inlet with the purpose of reducing the energy loses across the valve. This regulated flow is used then to control the actuator angular velocity. The system was modeled and the open loop stability and performance were studied. In order to improve the system performance, Robust-Proportional-Integral-Derivative (RPID) and structured singular value (M@#@) controllers have been d
... Show MorePID (proportional-integral-derivative) and Mu controllers are widely used in electro-hydraulic servo systems due to their effectiveness and ease of implementation. This paper explores using particle swarm optimization (PSO) for tuning traditional and robust PID controllers, along with D-K iteration for Mu controller tuning. Three controller types: conventional PID (CPID), robust PID (RPID), and structured singular value controllers are developed, while analyzing multiplicative uncertainty with six uncertain coefficients. Their findings indicated that both PID (CPID and RPID) and Mu controllers maintained system stability. Notably, the Mu controller can handle coefficient uncertainty without a pure integral term, while the RPID controller de
... Show MoreA revised checklist of the robber fly genera (Diptera, Asilidae) was given during this study in Iraq. The investigation showed (21) genera belonging to seven subfamilies, two genera new recorded to entomofauna of Iraq (Promachus Loew, 1848 and Genus: Dysmacus Loew, 1860). Eight genera showed in this investigation and eleven genera were recorded previously to Iraq.
The aim for this research is to investigate the effect of inclusion of crack incidence into the 2D numerical model of the masonry units and bonding mortar on the behavior of unreinforced masonry walls supporting a loaded reinforced concrete slab. The finite element method was implemented for the modeling and analysis of unreinforced masonry walls. In this paper, ABAQUS, FE software with implicit solver was used to model and analyze unreinforced masonry walls which are subjected to a vertical load. Detailed Micro Modeling technique was used to model the masonry units, mortar and unit-mortar interface separately. It was found that considering potential pure tensional cracks located vertically in the middle of the mortar and units show
... Show MoreAlumina thin films have significant applications in the areas of optoelectronics, optics, electrical insulators, sensors and tribology. The novel aspect of this work is that the homogeneous alumina thin films were prepared in several stages to generate a plasma jet. In this paper, aluminium nanoparticles suspended in vinyl alcohol were prepared using exploding wire plasma. TEM analysis was used to determine the size and shape of particles in aluminium and vinyl alcohol suspensions; the TEM images showed that the particle size is 17.2 nm. Aluminium/poly vinyl alcohol (Al/PVA) thin films were prepared using this suspension on quartz substrate by plasma jet technique at room temperature with an argon gas flow rate of 1 L/min. The Al/PV
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