The Antimicrobial Effect of Miswak Drenched with Listerine Mouthwash used for Orthodontic Patients

Objective: This study was aimed to estimate the antimicrobial effect of miswak drenched used as mouthwash for orthodontic patients and compare this effect with Listerine mouthwash. Materials and method: Thirty two patients wearing fixed orthodontic appliance and have good oral health were haphazardly separated into: group Ι used miswak drenched and  group ΙΙ used Listerine mouthwash. The first samples were taken  3 weeks after bonding of fixed appliance (pre-using the mouthrinces). The second samples were taken 4 weeks (post-using the mouthrinces). The colonies forming units were compared between the groups and within the same group (pre and post-using mouthrinces).  Results: The result showed highly significant difference between group Ι pre and post-using miswak drenched with p value=0.000.  Also, there was highly significant difference between group ΙΙ pre and post-using of Listerine mouthwash with p value=0.000.  The comparison between group Ι and group ΙΙ pre and post-using of mouthrinces showed no significant difference. Conclusion: The miswak drenched greatly effective in reducing microbial growth when used for orthodontic patients under treatment with fixed appliance and this effect appear to be similar to  antimicrobial effect of Listerine mouthwash. Keywords: Miswak drenched, Listerine, Antimicrobial, Orthodontic

Gait termination on declined compared to level surface; contribution of terminating and trailing limb work in arresting centre of mass velocity

YesTo terminate gait, the mechanical work-done by the lower-limbs is likely to be predominantly negative but how such work is produced/completed has not previously been investigated. The aim of this study was to determine the amount of negative mechanical (external) work-done by the lower-limbs, along with the associated joints (muscle) work, to terminate gait and how these work contributions were affected by a change in surface angle. Eight males completed terminations on the level floor and a declined ramp. Negative mechanical limb-work (limbW(−ve)) was computed (each orthogonal direction) as the dot-product of the ground-reaction-force and centre-of-mass (CoM) velocity. Inverse dynamics was used to calculate ankle, knee and hip negative joints (muscle) work (Wj(−ve)). Measures were determined for each limb for the two-locomotor steps of gait termination. The trailing-limb did 67% (−0.386 J/kg) of the overall limbW(−ve) to terminate gait on the level; and this increased to 74% (−0.451 J/kg) for ramp trials. Wj(−ve) was greater for the trailing- (ankle −0.315; knee −0.357; hip −0.054 J/kg) compared to terminating- limb (ankle, −0.063; knee −0.051; hip −0.014 J/kg), with the increases in ankle Wj(−ve) being temporally associated with increases in perpendicular limbW(−ve). Wj(−ve) increased on both limbs for declined compared to level surface, particularly at the knee (declined −0.357, level −0.096 J/kg), with such increases being temporally associated with increases in parallel limbW(−ve). These findings provide new perspectives on how the limbs do work on the CoM to terminate gait, and may be helpful in designing prosthetic limbs to facilitate walking on ramps.ZA was funded by the Higher Committee of Education Development in IRAQ (HCED)

Gait termination on declined compared to level surface; contribution of terminating and trailing limb work in arresting centre of mass velocity

YesTo terminate gait, the mechanical work-done by the lower-limbs is likely to be predominantly negative but how such work is produced/completed has not previously been investigated. The aim of this study was to determine the amount of negative mechanical (external) work-done by the lower-limbs, along with the associated joints (muscle) work, to terminate gait and how these work contributions were affected by a change in surface angle. Eight males completed terminations on the level floor and a declined ramp. Negative mechanical limb-work (limbW(−ve)) was computed (each orthogonal direction) as the dot-product of the ground-reaction-force and centre-of-mass (CoM) velocity. Inverse dynamics was used to calculate ankle, knee and hip negative joints (muscle) work (Wj(−ve)). Measures were determined for each limb for the two-locomotor steps of gait termination. The trailing-limb did 67% (−0.386 J/kg) of the overall limbW(−ve) to terminate gait on the level; and this increased to 74% (−0.451 J/kg) for ramp trials. Wj(−ve) was greater for the trailing- (ankle −0.315; knee −0.357; hip −0.054 J/kg) compared to terminating- limb (ankle, −0.063; knee −0.051; hip −0.014 J/kg), with the increases in ankle Wj(−ve) being temporally associated with increases in perpendicular limbW(−ve). Wj(−ve) increased on both limbs for declined compared to level surface, particularly at the knee (declined −0.357, level −0.096 J/kg), with such increases being temporally associated with increases in parallel limbW(−ve). These findings provide new perspectives on how the limbs do work on the CoM to terminate gait, and may be helpful in designing prosthetic limbs to facilitate walking on ramps.ZA was funded by the Higher Committee of Education Development in IRAQ (HCED)

DIAGNOSE EYES DISEASES USING VARIOUS FEATURES EXTRACTION APPROACHES AND MACHINE LEARNING ALGORITHMS

Ophthalmic diseases like glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, and cataracts are the main cause of visual impairment worldwide. With the use of the fundus images, it could be difficult for a clinician to detect eye diseases early enough. By other hand, the diagnoses of eye disease are prone to errors, challenging and labor-intensive. Thus, for the purpose of identifying various eye problems with the use of the fundus images, a system of automated ocular disease detection with computer-assisted tools is needed. Due to machine learning (ML) algorithms' advanced skills for image classification, this kind of system is feasible. An essential area of artificial intelligence)AI (is machine learning. Ophthalmologists will soon be able to deliver accurate diagnoses and support individualized healthcare thanks to the general capacity of machine learning to automatically identify, find, and grade pathological aspects in ocular disorders. This work presents a ML-based method for targeted ocular detection. The Ocular Disease Intelligent Recognition (ODIR) dataset, which includes 5,000 images of 8 different fundus types, was classified using machine learning methods. Various ocular diseases are represented by these classes. In this study, the dataset was divided into 70% training data and 30% test data, and preprocessing operations were performed on all images starting from color image conversion to grayscale, histogram equalization, BLUR, and resizing operation. The feature extraction represents the next phase in this study ,two algorithms are applied to perform the extraction of features which includes: SIFT(Scale-invariant feature transform) and GLCM(Gray Level Co-occurrence Matrix), ODIR dataset is then subjected to the classification techniques Naïve Bayes, Decision Tree, Random Forest, and K-nearest Neighbor. This study achieved the highest accuracy for binary classification (abnormal and normal) which is 75% (NB algorithm), 62% (RF algorithm), 53% (KNN algorithm), 51% (DT algorithm) and achieved the highest accuracy for multiclass classification (types of eye diseases) which is 88% (RF algorithm), 61% (KNN algorithm) 42% (NB algorithm), and 39% (DT algorithm)

A neural network model for estimation soil temperature bases on limited meteorological parameters in selected provinces in Iraq

Soil temperature is an important meteorological variable which plays a significant role in hydrological cycle. In present study, artificial intelligence technique employed for estimating for 3 daysa head soil temperature estimation at 10 and 20 cm depth. Soil temperature daily data for the period 1 January 2012 to 31 December 2013 measured in three stations namely (Mosul, Baghdad and Muthanna) in Iraq. The training data set includes 616 days and the testing data includes 109 days. The Levenberg-Marquardt, Scaled Conjugate Gradient and Bayesian regularization algorithms. To evaluate the ANN models, Root mean square error (RMSE), Mean absolute error (MAE), Mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) and Correlation Coefficient (r) were determined. According to the four statistical indices were calculated of the optimum ANN model, it was ANN model (3) in Muthanaa station for the depth 10 cm and ANN model (3) in Baghdad station for the depth 20 were (RMSE=0.959oC, MAE=0.725, MAPE=4.293, R=0.988) and (RMSE=0.887OC, MAE=0.704, MAPE=4.239, R=0.993) respectively, theses statistical criteria shown the efficiency of artificial neural network for soil temperature estimation

Impact of combined microprocessor control of the prosthetic knee and ankle on gait termination in unilateral trans-femoral amputees. Limb mechanical work performed on centre of mass to terminate gait on a declined surface using linx prosthetic device

The major objective of this thesis was to investigate how the use of a recently developed microprocessor-controlled limb system altered the negative mechanical work done by the intact and prosthetic limb when trans-femoral amputees terminated gait. Participants terminated gait on a level surface from their self-selected walking speed and on declined surface from slow and customary speeds, using limb system prosthesis with microprocessor active or inactive. Limb negative work, determined as the integral of the negative mechanical (external) limb power during the braking phase, was compared across surface, speed and microprocessor conditions. Halting gait was achieved predominantly from negative work done by the trailing/intact. Trailing versus leading limb mechanical work imbalance was similar to how able body individuals halted gait. Importantly, the negative limb work performed on the prosthetic side when terminating gait on declined surface was increased when the microprocessor was active for both slow and customary speeds (no difference on level surface) but no change on intact limb. This indicates the limb system’s ‘ramp-descent mode’ effectively/dynamically altered the hydraulic resistances at the respective joints with evidence indicating changes at the ankle were the key factor for increasing the prosthetic limb negative work contribution. Findings suggest that trans-femoral amputees became more assured using their prosthetic limb to arrest body centre of mass velocity when the limb system’s microprocessor was active. More generally findings suggest, trans-femoral amputees should obtain clinically significant biomechanical benefits from using a limb system prosthesis for locomotion involving adapting to their everyday walking where adaptations to an endlessly changing environment are required.Higher Committee of Education Development in IRAQ (HCED

Beamforming Array Antenna Technique Based on Partial Update Adaptive Algorithms

The most important issues for improving the performance of modern wireless communication systems are interference cancellation, efficient use of energy, improved spectral efficiency and increased system security. Beamforming Array Antenna (BAA) is one of the efficient methods used for this purpose. Full band BAA, on the other hand, will suffer from a large number of controllable elements, a long convergence time and the complexity of the beamforming network. Since no attempt had previously been made to use Partial Update (PU) for BAA, the main novelty and contribution of this paper was to use PU instead of full band adaptive algorithms. PU algorithms will connect to a subset of the array elements rather than all of them. As a result, a common number of working antennas for the system\u27s entire cells can be reduced to achieve overall energy efficiency and high cost-effectiveness. In this paper, we propose a new architectural model that employs PU adaptive algorithms to control and minimize the number of phase shifters, thereby reducing the number of base station antennas. We will concentrate on PU LMS (Least Mean Square) algorithms such as sequential-LMS, M-max LMS, periodic-LMS, and stochastic-LMS. According to simulation results using a Uniform Linear Array (ULA) and three communications channels, the M-max-LMS, periodic LMS, and stochastic LMS algorithms perform similarly to the full band LMS algorithm in terms of square error, tracking weight coefficients, and estimation input signal, with a quick convergence time, low level of error signal at steady state and keeping null steering\u27s interference-suppression capability intact

The Immunological Effectiveness of Some Common Plants

Three plant species were picked randomly and their alcoholic extracts have been screened to know their effects on the phagocytic capability and intracellular killing of yeast by human peripheral macrophages. Macrophage cultures were incubated with different concentration of each plant extract: for 15 min., 30 min .and 45 min. The phagocytes activity in Iresine herbstii extract was significantly (p?0.05) increased with increasing dose and time of incubation. In Mentha piperita extract, increasing in dose and time of incubation leads to elevate phagocytic capbility, especially in the dose of 20% and 25% of plant extract, perhaps because the antimicrobial and antiviral activities of this plant, as well as strong antioxidant and antitumor actions. While in Elettaria cardamomum, a significant elevation has been observed in phagocytic efficiency when the dose of extract increase to 15%, then decreased in the subsequent doses (20% and 25%), in three periods of time. These findings may suggest that cardamom exert immunomodulatory roles