Background This in vitro study compares a novel calcium-phosphate etchant paste to conventional 37% phosphoric acid gel for bonding metal and ceramic brackets by evaluating the shear bond strength, remnant adhesive and enamel damage following water storage, acid challenge and fatigue loading. Material and Methods Metal and ceramic brackets were bonded to 240 extracted human premolars using two enamel conditioning protocols: conventional 37% phosphoric acid (PA) gel (control), and an acidic calcium-phosphate (CaP) paste. The CaP paste was prepared from β-tricalcium phosphate and monocalcium phosphate monohydrate powders mixed with 37% phosphoric acid solution, and the resulting phase was confirmed using FTIR. The bonded premolars were exposed to four artificial ageing models to examine the shear bond strength (SBS), adhesive remnant index (ARI score), with stereomicroscopic evaluation of enamel damage. Results Metal and ceramic control subgroups yielded significantly higher (p < 0.05) SBS (17.1-31.8 MPa) than the CaP subgroups (11.4-23.8 MPa) post all artificial ageing protocols, coupled with higher ARI scores and evidence of enamel damage. In contrast, the CaP subgroups survived all artificial ageing tests by maintaining adequate SBS for clinical performance, with the advantages of leaving unblemished enamel surface and bracket failures at the enamel-adhesive interface. Conclusions Enamel conditioning with acidic CaP pastes attained adequate bond strengths with no or minimal adhesive residue and enamel damage, suggesting a suitable alternative to the conventional PA gel for orthodontic bonding.
Background: Gingivitis is one of the most common and widely spread oral diseases in adolescents after dental caries occur in both developed and developing countries. Dental plaque is the main etiological factor of gingivitis. Another oral problem is enamel defect. The aim of this study was to estimate the oral hygiene (dental plaque), and determine the prevalence and severity of gingivitis and enamel defects among 16-17 years old secondary school female students in urban areas of Kirkuk city/Iraq. Materials and methods: A representative sample included in this study consisted of 750 secondary school female students distributed into 387 for the age sixteen and 363 for the age seventeen, they were selected randomly from different female secon
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The multi-drug resistant efflux pump is a glycoprotein pump whose function is to push foreign substances. The efflux pump is found in humans, animals. It also has wide-ranging properties in bacteria and fungi. They are found in all species of bacteria, and efflux pump genes can be found in bacterial chromosomes or mobile genetic elements, such as plasmids. The most sensitive function that leads to a global problem is its resistance to antibiotics in bacterial cells, which increases the ability to bacteria from becoming strong virulence factors that most or all antibiotics cannot kill. It also has othe
... Show MoreAI in teaching English is reshaping language learning. While interest in AI-supported education is growing worldwide, research in this area is still emerging in Iraq. This review synthesizes empirical AI-based intervention studies to enhance English language learning in Iraqi higher education, and the perceptions of stakeholders regarding AI tools in language instruction. The reviewed intervention studies, comprising studies employed different AI platforms to support grammar instruction, speaking fluency, writing feedback, and pragmatic competence. These interventions yielded improvements in learners’ performance, motivation, and communicative confidence. In parallel, perception-focused studies revealed positive attitudes toward A
... Show MoreBrain Fingerprinting (BF) is one of the modern technologies that rely on artificial intelligence in the field of criminal evidence law. Brain information can be obtained accurately and reliably in criminal procedures without resorting to complex and multiple procedures or questions. It is not embarrassing for a person or even violates his human dignity, as well as gives immediate and accurate results. BF is considered one of the advanced techniques related to neuroscientific evidence that relies heavily on artificial intelligence, through which it is possible to recognize whether the suspect or criminal has information about the crime or not. This is done through Magnetic Resonance Imaging (EEG) of the brain and examining
... Show MoreThis paper presents a novel inverse kinematics solution for robotic arm based on artificial neural network (ANN) architecture. The motion of robotic arm is controlled by the kinematics of ANN. A new artificial neural network approach for inverse kinematics is proposed. The novelty of the proposed ANN is the inclusion of the feedback of current joint angles configuration of robotic arm as well as the desired position and orientation in the input pattern of neural network, while the traditional ANN has only the desired position and orientation of the end effector in the input pattern of neural network. In this paper, a six DOF Denso robotic arm with a gripper is controlled by ANN. The comprehensive experimental results proved the appl
... Show MoreVarious theories have been proposed since in last century to predict the first sighting of a new crescent moon. None of them uses the concept of machine and deep learning to process, interpret and simulate patterns hidden in databases. Many of these theories use interpolation and extrapolation techniques to identify sighting regions through such data. In this study, a pattern recognizer artificial neural network was trained to distinguish between visibility regions. Essential parameters of crescent moon sighting were collected from moon sight datasets and used to build an intelligent system of pattern recognition to predict the crescent sight conditions. The proposed ANN learned the datasets with an accuracy of more than 72% in comp
... Show MoreArtificial lift techniques are a highly effective solution to aid the deterioration of the production especially for mature oil fields, gas lift is one of the oldest and most applied artificial lift methods especially for large oil fields, the gas that is required for injection is quite scarce and expensive resource, optimally allocating the injection rate in each well is a high importance task and not easily applicable. Conventional methods faced some major problems in solving this problem in a network with large number of wells, multi-constrains, multi-objectives, and limited amount of gas. This paper focuses on utilizing the Genetic Algorithm (GA) as a gas lift optimization algorit
In our research, we seek to shed a light on one of the most important and sensitive issues, namely, the Sufi influence in the Iraqi novel through the lame maqam of the novelist Jumaa Al-Lami, the Sufi discourse contains many semantic paradoxes between the text's apparent pronunciation and its interpretation of the format and the context that produced these patterns, and incited them, which concludes different results from the prevailing provisions and fixed ideas from the narrative text.The Arabic and Iraqi novel in particular became inspired by the power of Sufi discourse by talking about several Sufi figures by referring to it openly, or implicitly inspired by unauthorized concealment, in employing some of the ideas, or summoning
... Show MoreThe performance quality and searching speed of Block Matching (BM) algorithm are affected by shapes and sizes of the search patterns used in the algorithm. In this paper, Kite Cross Hexagonal Search (KCHS) is proposed. This algorithm uses different search patterns (kite, cross, and hexagonal) to search for the best Motion Vector (MV). In first step, KCHS uses cross search pattern. In second step, it uses one of kite search patterns (up, down, left, or right depending on the first step). In subsequent steps, it uses large/small Hexagonal Search (HS) patterns. This new algorithm is compared with several known fast block matching algorithms. Comparisons are based on search points and Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR). According to resul
... Show MoreAbstract Candida albicans is a commensal fungal pathogen that grows in yeast and hyphal forms in the human gut. C. albicans causes mucosal and cutaneous diseases that can result in significant mortality following systematic infections and it also exhibits drug resistance. Zebrafish have been an excellent model to investigate C. albicans infections because of their transparency and the availability of many transgenic lines. However, there is a limitation in using zebrafish as a model because the fish embryos cannot survive at 37°C therefore it is not suitable for studying Candida infections at physiological relevant human body temperature. In this thesis, the normal embryonic development of Arabian killifish (A. dispar) is investigated, rev
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