Design, development, manufacturing and biomechanical testing of Stand-alone cage for posterior lumbar interbody fusion

Introduction: The most common method of spinal fusion includes pedicle screws instrumentation, either with or without interbody cage fusion. This thesis aimed to develop and test a novel stand-alone intervertebral device that eliminates the need for pedicle screws and rods. Method: The stand-alone cage was designed in collaboration with spinal surgeons and engineers using computer assisting drawings, and manufactured in titanium by 3D printing. Biomechanical testing comparing the stand-alone cage with standard posterior lumbar interbody fusion (PLIF) in sawbones (n=6) and cadavers (n=8). Result: Compared to PLIF, the stand-alone cage demonstrated no significant difference in range of flexion, lateral bend or axial rotation in sawbones; however, significant increase in range of extension was observed. Among cadavers, the stand-alone cage demonstrated a significant increase in range of motion (ROM) for flexion, extension, lateral bending to the right and total lateral bend ROM; but no significant increase to ROM in axial rotation. Conclusion: Due to the increased ROM associated with the stand-alone cage, this devise is not advisable to use as a fusion implant. Keywords Lumbar spine, anatomy, biomechanics, Posterior lumbar fusion, interbody fusion

Comparison of Retention between Milled and Conventional Denture Bases: A Clinical Study

The advancement in dental material technology led to the improvement in the fabrication method of PMMA denture bases. Denture base adaptation can be influenced by the amount of polymerization shrinkage that occurs during the processing method of fabrication. CAD/CAM dentures milled from prepolymerized PMMA acrylic resin blocks theoretically have reduced or no polymerization shrinkage. There have been no clinical studies, to date, that have compared retention values between milled and conventionally processed denture bases. Therefore, the purpose of this study clinical study was to compare the retention values between conventional heat polymerized and digital milled maxillary denture bases. Twenty patients (n=20) with completely edentulous maxillary arches participated in this study. At the first visit, a preliminary impression was made and poured in type III dental stone. A custom tray was constructed from Triad light cure material. At the second visit a heavy body PVS impression material was used to border mold the trays and a final impression was made with light body PVS impression material. The final impression was scanned and the STL files were sent to Global Dental Science for the fabrication of a CAD/CAM milled denture base (AvaDent) (group A). Then the final PVS impression was poured in type III dental stone. The master cast was used to fabricate a heat polymerized acrylic denture base resin (group B). A unique testing device was used to measure denture retention in lbs. The testing device was composed of three parts; DAFG (attached to a motorized test stand), customized FTD and a Panadent earbow ( modified and mounted to a customized wooden stand). The FTD consisted of a hollow brass rod with a pulley at each end used to transfer the force through a nylon thread. A snap hook attachment was attached to the denture base at the center with autopolymerizing resin. The nylon thread was tied securely to the snap hook. At the other end the nylon thread was attached to the DAFG through a secure grip attachment. Each denture base was subjected to a vertical pulling force three times at 10-minute intervals. The statistical analysis showed significant (α\u3e.05) increase in retention for milled denture base method of fabrication over the conventional polymerizing method with a mean (N) difference of 4.47 lbs (P\u3c0.001). Average retention for the milled denture bases was 16.66 ± 7.32 lbs and average retention for the conventional heat polymerized denture bases was 12.19 ± 6.15 lbs. Based on analysis of results, it was concluded that the retention of digitally designed and milled complete denture bases from prepolymerized PMMA acrylic resin blocks offer significantly higher retention than the denture bases fabricated by a conventional heat polymerized method

Sodium and Potassium Nutrition Studies of Halogeton glomeratus (M. Bieb) C.A. Mey

Halogeton glomeratus (M. Bieb) C.A. Mey when grown in nutrient solution, caused the solution pH to decrease very rapidly as plants increased in size, especially during the fifth week of growth. This might be attributed to hydrogen ion exchange for cations. Also, the cation uptake, especially K and Na, may exceed that of the major anions. The control of pH is effective in increasing shoot weights markedly. In general there was no difference between plants grown at the same NaCl concentration at low and high relative humidity. An increase in plant size, shoot weights, leaf length and diameter was detected for plants receiving NaCl at both levels of relative humidity. The highest shoot weights were obtained at the highest NaCl concentrations used in this experiment; 0.3 and 0.2 M NaCl at low and high relative humidity, respectively. When both K and Na were varied at low relative humidity, and normal K concentration was 0.006 moles/1, an increase of 0.016 moles K/1 with no NaCl was as effective in increasing most plant measurements as was the corresponding concentration of 0.01 moles Na/1 at normal 1 K concentration. The shoot fresh weight was maximum at 0.1 M NaCl and 0.006 moles K/1 and was significantly different at 95% confidence from all the other treatments. Sodium was inhibitory for plant growth at 0.5 moles/1, while K was moderately inhibitory at 0.106 moles/1 and this inhibition was reduced by the addition of low or medium concentrations of sodium up to 0. 1 M NaCl. Chlorophyll content expressed on leaf fresh weight basis decreased with increased salinization. Values were lower with Na at 0. l moles/1 than the corresponding K concentration of 0.106 moles/1. The decrease in chlorophyll content can be attributed to the greater increase in size and number of nonchlorophyll containing cells with salinization than those containing chlorophyll, and no increase in chloroplasts per cell. On a dry weight basis there was no decrease of chlorophyll with salinization, and no significant differences were noted. Water utilized by plants, as expressed on shoot fresh weight basis, decreased markedly by increasing Na, and slightly by increasing K with no or low Na. The results suggest but does not confirm that inadequate sodium may promote excessive transpiration leading to decreased leaf water potentials, reduced photosynthesis and reduced growth

Physiological and molecular responses in the pulp associated with early inflammatory process

PhD ThesisTherapies to promote pulp repair and regeneration after injury should be underpinned by a deep understanding of normal tissue behaviour, cellular cross-talk and regulation. The objectives of this study were to investigate the expression of cyclooxygenases (COX1 and COX2), prostanoid receptors (EP1 and EP2) and nitric oxide synthase 1 (NOS1) within the normal dental pulp. The effect of experimental inflammatory conditions on these elements at mRNA level (both normal and experimentally inflamed) were investigated to explore the possibility of a nitric oxide (NO)/prostaglandin (PG) signalling pathway interaction in the rat mandibular incisor (normal and experimentally inflamed). Rodent mandibular incisors were utilised as a model throughout this thesis with structural and functional investigations on demineralised teeth, non-demineralised freshly extracted pulp tissues and tissue explants. The work described in this thesis used immunohistochemical, ELISA and quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (q-RT-PCR) techniques. Cellular heterogeneity was observed both in the odontoblasts population and in the interstitial cells forming the bulk of the pulp. Cellular processes were also observed in addition to the observation of cellular processes extending from interstitial cells in the cell-rich zone to odontoblasts. The presence and localisation of immunoreactivity to the above mentioned targets (COX1, COX2, NOS1 and prostanoid receptors) are novel and confirmed with q-RT-PCR. Isolated pulp tissues exposed to LPS were found to release an increased amount of PGE2, which was found to be inhibited by other factors like the presence of NO and ATP. Functional cross-talk between PG and NO was investigated by the ELISA technique, with experimentally-induced inflammation increasing PG release, whereas NO and ATP caused inhibition of PGE2 release. The effects of carefully selected pro-inflammatory agents (LPS, NO and ATP) on PG pathway were examined at the mRNA level by q-RT-PCR. Exposure to LPS was found to cause upregulation of all target genes, whereas variable reactions were observed in response to incubation with NO, ATP and PGE2.Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education and Babylon Universit

Energy Efficient Cluster Based Routing Protocol for Dynamic and Static Nodes in Wireless Sensor Network

Power consumption is considered one of the most significant challenges in the wireless network sensors (WSNs). In this paper, an investigation of the power consumption is done by making a comparison between static and dynamic WSNs. We have compared the results of the static network with the results of the dynamic network. Static and dynamic wireless Sensor networks have the same architecture (Homogenous) and proposed protocol. Depending on the suggested protocol, the simulation results show that the energy consumption in the static wireless sensor network was less than the dynamic wireless sensor network. However, moving the sensors in the dynamic WSN present real improvement in delivering packets to the base station. In the proposed routing protocol, transmitting data process is done in a hierarchal way. Cheap sensors are introduced and deploy them intensively to improve the QoS in the network. The final results and the conclusion are reported

Detection of brain stroke in the MRI image using FPGA

One of the most important difficulties which doctors face in diagnosing is the analysis and diagnosis of brain stroke in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) images. Brain stroke is the interruption of blood flow to parts of the brain that causes cell death. To make the diagnosis easier for doctors, many researchers have treated MRI images with some filters by using Matlab program to improve the images and make them more obvious to facilitate diagnosis by doctors. This paper introduces a digital system using hardware concepts to clarify the brain stroke in MRI image. Field programmable gate arrays (FPGA) is used to implement the system which is divided into four phases: preprocessing, adjust image, median filter, and morphological filters alternately. The entire system has been implemented based on Zynq FPGA evaluation board. The design has been tested on two MRI images and the results are compared with the Matlab to determine the efficiency of the proposed system. The proposed hardware system has achieved an overall good accuracy compared to Matlab where it ranged between 90.00% and 99.48%

EFFECT OF ADDING RESVERATROL TO SOYBEAN-LECITHIN EXTENDER ON SOME SEMEN ATTRIBUTES OF BUFFALO BULLS

This study was conducted to explain the effect of adding different resveratrol (Res) concentrations to soybean-lecithin extender on some post-cryopreserved (PC) semen characteristics of the Iraqi buffalo bulls for different preservation periods. Eight mature bulls were used, and polled semen was equally divided into four groups within one trial. Three Res concentrations (100, 150, and 200 μM) were added to the soybean-lecithin extender, and comparisons in the response were made with the control group (soybean-lecithin extender, Res-0). The differences among groups in sperm cell individual motility percentages at different preservation periods lacked significance. Greater (P≤0.01) sperm acrosome integrity percentage was noticed for the Res-150 group compared with the C and Res-200 groups at cooling, 48 hrs., and 2 months PC. Lesser (P≤0.01) malondialdehyde concentrations and sperm DNA damage percentage were observed for the Res-150 group as compared with the other groups, 2 months PC. Higher (P≤0.01) total antioxidant activity was shown in Res-150 and Res-200 groups as compared with the control and Res-100 groups, 2 months PC. In conclusion, adding Res to the soybean-lecithin extender enhanced some of the PC semen characteristics of Iraqi buffalo bulls at different preservation periods

AMELIORATING POST-THAWED SEMEN OF BUFFALO BULLS USING A MILK-BASED EXTENDER SUPPLEMENTED WITH RESVERATROL

The objective of the current study was to investigate the influence of adding resveratrol (Res) to a milk-based extender on some post-thawed semen quality of Iraqi buffalo bulls for different preservation periods (cooling at 5˚C, 48 h, 1, and 2 months post-cryopreservation; PC). Four bulls, 3.5 to 4 years old, were used from 11th November 2020 to 1st June 2021. Semen samples were collected, pooled, and divided into four groups using different Res concentrations (0, 100, 150, and 200 μM) added to the milk extender. The Res-150 μM group exhibited higher (P≤0.01) plasma membrane, acrosome integrity percentages, and total antioxidants concentration (TAC) compared to the other groups. Sperm abnormalities and DNA damage percentages, as well as malondialdehyde (MDA) concentration, were lesser (P≤0.01) in the Res-150 μM group. Finally, Res-150 μM added to a milk-based extender increased the percentage of post-thawed live sperm and TAC in seminal plasma and minimized abnormal sperm percentage, DNA damage percentage, and MDA concentration in the seminal plasma of Iraqi buffalo bulls