This study aimed to compare the safety and efficacy of laser lithotripsy and pneumatic lithotripsy, the two most commonly used transurethral lithotripsy methods for treating bladder stones in children in Iraq. Between January 2013 and December 2016, 64 children with bladder stones were included in this prospective randomized study, after ethical committee approval and written consent from the children’s parents or caregivers were obtained. Patients were assigned randomly by computer software to two groups treated with either pneumatic cystolithotripsy or laser lithotripsy. A 9 Fr. semirigid ureteroscope was used to pass the lithotripter through and fragment the stone. A catheter of 8–12 Fr. was then introduced and kept in place for 24 h. All children were hospitalized for 24 h, and the catheter was removed the next morning. Outpatient follow-up was maintained for 6–12 months. In terms of operation outcomes and complications, the laser lithotripsy group had a significantly longer duration of operation (74.5 ± 26.6 min vs. 51.5 ± 17.2 min, p = 0.001), whereas the number of patients requiring an extended hospital stay was significantly higher in the pneumatic lithotripsy group (48.5% vs. 16.1%, p = 0.006). Moreover, pneumatic lithotripsy was associated with a significantly greater risk of having at least one adverse effect (64% greater than that in the laser group). Stone clearance rates did not significantly differ between treatment groups. In conclusion, both pneumatic and laser lithotripters can be used to treat children with bladder stones with high efficacy and safety.
Disease diagnosis with computer-aided methods has been extensively studied and applied in diagnosing and monitoring of several chronic diseases. Early detection and risk assessment of breast diseases based on clinical data is helpful for doctors to make early diagnosis and monitor the disease progression. The purpose of this study is to exploit the Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) in discriminating breast MRI scans into pathological and healthy. In this study, a fully automated and efficient deep features extraction algorithm that exploits the spatial information obtained from both T2W-TSE and STIR MRI sequences to discriminate between pathological and healthy breast MRI scans. The breast MRI scans are preprocessed prior to the feature
... Show MoreSeveral previous investigations and studies utilized silica fume (SF) or (micro silica) particles as supplementary cementitious material added as a substitute to cement-based mortars and their effect on the overall properties, especially on physical properties, strength properties, and mechanical properties. This study investigated the impact of the inclusion of silica fume (SF) particles on the residual compressive strengths and microstructure properties of cement-based mortars exposed to severe conditions of elevated temperatures. The prepared specimens were tested and subjected to 25, 250, 450, 600, and 900 °C. Their residual compressive strengths and microstructure were evaluated and compared with control samples (C
... Show MoreConcerns about the environment, the cost of energy, and safety mean that low-energy cold-mix asphalt materials are very interesting as a potential replacement for present-day hot mix asphalt. The main disadvantage of cold bituminous emulsion mixtures is their poor early life strength, meaning they require a long time to achieve mature strength. This research work aims to study the protentional utilization of waste and by-product materials as a filler in cold emulsion mixtures with mechanical properties comparable to those of traditional hot mix asphalt. Accordingly, cold mix asphalt was prepared to utilize paper sludge ash (PSA) and cement kiln dust (CKD) as a substitution for conventional mineral filler with percentages ranging fro
... Show MoreThe risk of significant concern is resistance to antibiotics for public health. The alternative treatment of metallic nanoparticles (NPs), such as heavy metals, effects on antibiotic resistance bacteria with different types of antibiotics of - impossible to treat using noval eco-friendly synthesis technique nanoparticles copper oxide (CuO NPs) preparation from S. epidermidis showed remarkable antimicrobial activity against S.aureus Minimum inhibitory concentra range (16,32,64,256,512) µg/ml via well diffusion method in vitro, discover those concentrations effected in those bacteria and the best concentration is 64 µg/ml, characterization CuO NPs to prove this included atomic force microscope, UV, X-ray Diffraction and TEM, and ant
... Show MoreProtecting information sent through insecure internet channels is a significant challenge facing researchers. In this paper, we present a novel method for image data encryption that combines chaotic maps with linear feedback shift registers in two stages. In the first stage, the image is divided into two parts. Then, the locations of the pixels of each part are redistributed through the random numbers key, which is generated using linear feedback shift registers. The second stage includes segmenting the image into the three primary colors red, green, and blue (RGB); then, the data for each color is encrypted through one of three keys that are generated using three-dimensional chaotic maps. Many statistical tests (entropy, peak signa
... Show MoreThe rapid development of telemedicine services and the requirements for exchanging medical information between physicians, consultants, and health institutions have made the protection of patients’ information an important priority for any future e-health system. The protection of medical information, including the cover (i.e. medical image), has a specificity that slightly differs from the requirements for protecting other information. It is necessary to preserve the cover greatly due to its importance on the reception side as medical staff use this information to provide a diagnosis to save a patient's life. If the cover is tampered with, this leads to failure in achieving the goal of telemedicine. Therefore, this work provides an in
... Show MoreCrime is a threat to any nation’s security administration and jurisdiction. Therefore, crime analysis becomes increasingly important because it assigns the time and place based on the collected spatial and temporal data. However, old techniques, such as paperwork, investigative judges, and statistical analysis, are not efficient enough to predict the accurate time and location where the crime had taken place. But when machine learning and data mining methods were deployed in crime analysis, crime analysis and predication accuracy increased dramatically. In this study, various types of criminal analysis and prediction using several machine learning and data mining techniques, based o
This research aims to solve the problem of selection using clustering algorithm, in this research optimal portfolio is formation using the single index model, and the real data are consisting from the stocks Iraqi Stock Exchange in the period 1/1/2007 to 31/12/2019. because the data series have missing values ,we used the two-stage missing value compensation method, the knowledge gap was inability the portfolio models to reduce The estimation error , inaccuracy of the cut-off rate and the Treynor ratio combine stocks into the portfolio that caused to decline in their performance, all these problems required employing clustering technic to data mining and regrouping it within clusters with similar characteristics to outperform the portfolio
... Show MoreBabesiosis is a tick-borne disease caused by Babesia microti. We present a case of false positive HIV in the setting of confirmed babesiosis infection. An understanding that patients with babesiosis can have a false positive HIV test result is important in management decisions.