We present a case of congenital of flexor pollicis longus agenesis without thenar hypoplasia in a 12-year-old girl with no history of trauma. Two-staged corrective surgery was planned. In the first stage, the flexor pulley was reconstructed using silicone followed by the second stage 3 months later when flexor pollicis longus reconstruction was performed using tendon transfer of the flexor digitorum superficialis. The patient completed post-operative physiotherapy and the result of the surgical treatment in both functional and cosmetic aspects was, in the authors’ opinion, excellent.
This study examines the vibrations produced by hydropower operations to improve embankment dam safety. This study consists of two parts: In the first part, ANSYS-CFX was used to generate a three-dimensional (3-D) finite volume (FV) model to simulate a vertical Francis turbine unit in the Mosul hydropower plant. The pressure pattern result of the turbine model was transformed into the dam body to show how the turbine unit's operation affects the dam's stability. The upstream reservoir conditions, various flow rates, and fully open inlet gates were considered. In the second part of this study, a 3-D FE Mosul dam model was simulated using an ANSYS program. The operational turbine model's water pressure pattern is conveyed t
... Show MoreLand Use / Land Cover (LULC) classification is considered one of the basic tasks that decision makers and map makers rely on to evaluate the infrastructure, using different types of satellite data, despite the large spectral difference or overlap in the spectra in the same land cover in addition to the problem of aberration and the degree of inclination of the images that may be negatively affect rating performance. The main objective of this study is to develop a working method for classifying the land cover using high-resolution satellite images using object based method. Maximum likelihood pixel based supervised as well as object approaches were examined on QuickBird satellite image in Karbala, Iraq. This study illustrated that
... Show MoreBackground: Because of wide use of Functional Endoscopic Sinus Surgery (FESS) technique in the recent years and basic role of coronal computed tomography (CT) scan in demonstrating the normal drainage route of para-nasal sinuses, identifying the major patterns of inflammatory sinonasal disease and accompanied anatomical variations is essential for appropriate preoperative surgical planning. In review of publisthed literature, there is no data on CT patterns of chronic inflammatory sinonasal disease and their accompained anatomical variations of nose and PNS in our local population.Objectives: was to determine the frequency of CT patterns and variations in patients with sinonasal symptoms.Methods: This was a cross sectional descriptive st
... Show MoreThe increasing drinking water demand in many countries leads to an increase in the use of desalination plants, which are considered a great solution for water treatment processes. Reverse osmosis (RO) and electro-dialysis (ED) systems are the most popular membrane processes used to desalinate water at high salinity. Both systems work by separating the ionic contaminates and disposing of them as a brine solution, but ED uses electrical current as a driving force while RO uses osmotic pressure. A direct comparison of reverse osmosis and electro-dialysis systems is needed to highlight process development similarities and variances. This work aims to provide an overview of previous studies on reverse osmosis and electro-dial
... Show MoreSpeech enhancement aims to improve speech quality and intelligibility in noisy environments and is important in applications such as hearing aids, mobile communications and automatic speech recognition (ASR). This paper shows a structured review of speech enhancement techniques, classified depending on the channel configuration and signal processing framework. Both traditional and modern approaches are discussed, including classical signal processing methods, machine learning techniques, and recent deep learning-based models. Furthermore, common noise types, widely used speech datasets, and standard evaluation metrics for evaluating speech quality and intelligibility are reviewed. Key challenges such as non-stationary noise, data li
... Show MoreThe objectives of this study were to review the literature covering the perceptions about influenza vaccines in the Middle East and to determine factors influencing the acceptance of vaccination using Health Belief Model (HBM).
A comprehensive literature search was performed utilizing PubMed and Google Scholar databases. Three keywords were used: Influenza vaccine, perceptions and Middle East. Empirical studies that dealt with people/healthcare worker (HCW) perceptio
The objectives of this study were to review the literature covering the perceptions about influenza vaccines in the Middle East and to determine factors influencing the acceptance of vaccination using Health Belief Model (HBM).
A comprehensive literature search was performed utilizing PubMed and Google Scholar databases. Three keywords were used: Influenza vaccine, perceptions and Middle East. Empirical studies that dealt with people/healthcare worker (HCW) perceptio
Implementing smart community engagement should consider careful planning and collaboration with numerous stakeholders, including the community. The technology and program must be designed to frame its purpose and should link back to specific goals of implementing smart community engagement. Digital services do not guarantee a smart engagement between the community and the local government. This is the case for the Kubang Pasu local government where several online services have been provided in their attempt to implement the smart community concept. However, understanding on the preferences of features and requirements of existing web-based systems and the impact of these systems is lacking. Therefore, a perception study needs to be condu
... Show MoreA major disadvantage of dose reconstruction by means of thermoluminescence (TL) is the fact that during readout of any TL material exposed to ionizing radiation (i.e., during measuring the glow curve), the radiation-induced signal gets lost. Application of the photo-transferred thermoluminescence phenomenon (PTTL) may offer a solution to this problem. In PTTL, the residual signal that is not destroyed by conventional TL readout (because it comes from deeper electron traps) can be readout through simultaneous stimulation by UV light and heating, allowing to obtain information about the absorbed dose in a second run. The present paper describes the application of PTTL for emergency dose assessment. For
Background: Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) and interleukins play important roles in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Genetic research has been employed to find many of the missing connections between genetic risk variations and causal genetic components. Objective: The goal of this study is to look at the genetic variations of TNF-α and interleukins in Iraqi RA patients and see how they relate to disease severity or response to biological therapy. Method: Using specific keywords, the authors conducted a systematic and comprehensive search to identify relevant Iraqi studies examining the genetic variations of TNF-α and interleukins in Iraqi RA patients and how they relate to disease severity or response to biolo
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