Objectives: Recently, there have been important advances in the clinical application of targeted hybrid near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent-radioactive tracers. ICG-99mTc-nanocolloid, for example, is already being used by some centres for sentinel lymph node biopsy in head and neck cancer. The radioactive component allows imaging at depths which would not be possible with NIR alone and, once exposed, the NIR fluorescence reporter can be imaged at very high resolution. Gamma detection is currently carried out with a separate hand-held gamma camera or with a non-imaging probe. Visualisation of NIR fluorescence during surgery requires a dedicated NIR camera, several of which are available commercially. We describe a novel hand-held hybrid NIR-gamma small field of view camera, capable of displaying co-aligned images from both modalities, which can be fused into one image or viewed separately. This study is a preliminary investigation of the performance of the fluorescence component of this camera, including phantom studies and first images from a preclinical pilot study. Methods: The hybrid camera consists of a 1500 µm thick thallium doped caesium iodide columnar (CsI:Tl) scintillator coupled to an electron multiplying charged coupled device (EMCCD). A 1.0mm diameter tungsten pinhole collimator gives a 40mm x 40mm nominal field of view for an 8mm x 8mm CCD detection area. A fluorescence camera was aligned to provide the same field of view as the gamma camera with an LED ring as the excitation source. The performance of the fluorescence imaging was quantified in this study for the fluorophores ICG and IRDye800CW (CW800) using a range of bespoke phantom experiments. In vivo images were also obtained from a preclinical study of a targeted hybrid tracer (cRGD-CW800-TCO + TCO-DOTA-111In) in mice with HT29 colorectal cancer xenografts. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The portable hybrid camera prototype has been shown to successfully image dual NIR-gamma tracers using both in vitro and in vivo experimental models. With further development, this camera could be used intraoperatively, offering the benefits of gamma imaging at depth in tissues and high resolution surface NIR fluorescence imaging in a single imaging system.
The present study aims at analyzing the polysemy of the English preposition in from the cognitive linguistic (CL) point of view using Evans' and Tyler's approach (2003). The perplexity faced by Iraqi second language learners (L2) due to the multi-usages of this preposition has motivated the researcher to conduct this study. Seventy-six second year university students participated in this experimental study. The data of the pre-test and post-test were analyzed by SPSS statistical editor. The results have shown the following: First, a progress of more than (0.05≤) has been detected as far as students' understanding of the multiple usages of the preposition in is concerned. Second, the results of the questionnaire have s
... Show MoreThis study aims to focus on the Motives behind volunteer work among a sample of volunteers working in civil society organizations and check if there are statistical differences with those variables according to (gender, age, job, period of volunteer work, and residence. The sample consists of (220 )volunteers,(189) male and(31) female from southern, northern and central governorate .The Volunteer Functions Inventory(VFI)(Clary & et al,1989)was applied, It consisting of(30) items with six fields( Values, Understanding, Social motives, Career, Protective, Enhancement).
The results show that the most common and important motivations are (Values, Understanding, and social motivations), there are differenc
... Show MoreA Multiple System Biometric System Based on ECG Data
OpenStreetMap (OSM), recognised for its current and readily accessible spatial database, frequently serves regions lacking precise data at the necessary granularity. Global collaboration among OSM contributors presents challenges to data quality and uniformity, exacerbated by the sheer volume of input and indistinct data annotation protocols. This study presents a methodological improvement in the spatial accuracy of OSM datasets centred over Baghdad, Iraq, utilising data derived from OSM services and satellite imagery. An analytical focus was placed on two geometric correction methods: a two-dimensional polynomial affine transformation and a two-dimensional polynomial conformal transformation. The former involves twelve coefficients for ad
... Show MoreThis paper designed a fault tolerance for soft real time distributed system (FTRTDS). This system is designed to be independently on specific mechanisms and facilities of the underlying real time distributed system. It is designed to be distributed on all the computers in the distributed system and controlled by a central unit.
Besides gathering information about a target program spontaneously, it provides information about the target operating system and the target hardware in order to diagnose the fault before occurring, so it can handle the situation before it comes on. And it provides a distributed system with the reactive capability of reconfiguring and reinitializing after the occurrence of a failure.
KE Sharquie, AA Noaimi, WK Al-Janabi, Journal of Cosmetics, Dermatological Sciences and Applications, 2013
Given a matrix, the Consecutive Ones Submatrix (C1S) problem which aims to find the permutation of columns that maximizes the number of columns having together only one block of consecutive ones in each row is considered here. A heuristic approach will be suggested to solve the problem. Also, the Consecutive Blocks Minimization (CBM) problem which is related to the consecutive ones submatrix will be considered. The new procedure is proposed to improve the column insertion approach. Then real world and random matrices from the set covering problem will be evaluated and computational results will be highlighted.