Examining and comparing the image quality of degenerative cervical spine diseases through the application of three MRI sequences; the Two-Dimension T2 Weighed Turbo Spin Echo (2D T2W TSE), the Three-Dimension T2 Weighted Turbo Spin Echo (3D T2W TSE), and the T2 Turbo Field Echo (T2_TFE). Thirty-three patients who were diagnosed as having degenerative cervical spine diseases were involved in this study. Their age range was 40-60 years old. The images were produced via a 1.5 Tesla MRI device using (2D T2W TSE, 3D T2W TSE, and T2_TFE) sequences in the sagittal plane. The image quality was examined by objective and subjective assessments. The MRI image characteristics of the cervical spines (C4-C5, C5-C6, C6-C7) showed significant differences among the three sequences used P˂0.05 with the exception of the contrast P˃ 0.05. For the cervical spines (C4-C5), the minimum CNR was noticed with the T2_TFE sequence. For the cervical spines (C5-C6), the CNR and SNR were higher when they were assessed by the 2D T2W TSE sequence as compared to the other sequences. The same findings were observed with the cervical spines (C6-C7). The subjective assessment of the degenerative cervical spine diseases showed that the T2_TFE sequence is excellent in terms of viewing the central stenosis and foraminal stenosis. The best MRI diagnostic imaging can be obtained using the Turbo Field Echo (T2_TFE) and the Three-Dimension T2 Weighted Turbo Spin Echo (3D T2W TSE) sequences to gain detailed diagnostic information regarding the central stenosis and foraminal stenosis of the cervical spines (C4-C5, C5-C6, C6-C7)
Seepage through earth dams is one of the most popular causes for earth dam collapse due to internal granule movement and seepage transfer. In earthen dams, the core plays a vital function in decreasing seepage through the dam body and lowering the phreatic line. In this research, an alternative soil to the clay soil used in the dam core has been proposed by conducting multiple experiments to test the permeability of silty and sandy soil with different additives materials. Then the selected sandy soil model was used to represent the dam experimentally, employing a permeability device to measure the amount of water that seeps through the dam's body and to represent the seepage line. A numerical model was adopted using Geo-Studio software i
... Show MoreAs one type of resistance furnace, the electrical tube furnace (ETF) typically experiences input noise, measurement noise, system uncertainties, unmodeled dynamics and external disturbances, which significantly degrade its temperature control performance. To provide precise, and robust temperature tracking performance for the ETF, a robust composite control (RCC) method is proposed in this paper. The overall RCC method consists of four elements: First, the mathematical model of the ETF system is deduced, then a state feedback control (SFC) is constructed. Third, a novel disturbance observer (DO) is designed to estimate the lumped disturbance with one observer parameter. Moreover, the stability of the closed loop system including controller
... Show MoreMeloxicam (MLX) is non-steroidal anti -inflammatory, poorly water soluble, highly permeable drug and the rate of its oral absorption is often controlled by the dissolution rate in the gastrointestinal tract. Solid dispersion (SD) is an effective technique for enhancing the solubility and dissolution rate of such drug.
The present study aims to enhance the solubility and the dissolution rate of MLX by SD technique by solvent evaporation method using sodium alginate (SA), hyaluronic acid (HA), collagen and xyloglucan (XG) as gastro-protective hydrophilic natural polymers.
Twelve formulas were prepared in different drug: polymer ratios and evaluated for their, percentage yield, drug content, water so
... Show MoreThis research is carried out to investigate the externally post-tensioning technique for strengthening RC beams. In this research, four T-section RC beams having the same dimensions and material properties were casted and tested up to failure by applying two mid-third concentrated loads. Three of these beams are strengthened by using external tendons, while the remaining beam is kept without strengthening as a control beam. Two external strands of 12 mm diameter were fixed at each side of the web of the strengthened beams and located at depth of 200 mm from top fiber of the section (dps). So that the depth of strands to overall depth of the section ratio (dps
... Show MoreThe ability of using aluminum filings which is locally solid waste was tested as a mono media in gravity rapid filter. The present study was conducted to evaluate the effect of variation of influent water turbidity (10, 20and 30 NTU); flow rate(30, 40, and 60 l/hr) and bed height (30and60)cm on the performance of aluminum filings filter media for 5 hours run time and compare it with the conventional sand filter. The results indicated that aluminum filings filter showed better performance than sand filter in the removal of turbidity and in the reduction of head loss. Results showed that the statistical model developed by the multiple linear regression was proved to be
valid, and it could be used to predict head loss in aluminum filings
Atorvastatin (ATR) is a poorly water-soluble anti-hyperlipidemic drug. The drug belongs to the class II group according to the biopharmaceutical classification system (BCS) with low bioavailability due to its low solubility. Solid dispersion is an effective technique for enhancing the solubility and dissolution of drugs. Phospholipid solid dispersion (PSD) using phosphatidylcholine (PC) as a carrier with or without adsorbent (magnesium aluminum silicate, silicon dioxide 15nm, silicon dioxide 30nm, calcium silicate) was used to prepare ATR PSD using different drug: PC: adsorbent ratios by solvent evaporation method. The resulted PSD was evaluated for its percentage yield, drug content, solubility, dissolution rate, Fourier transforma
... Show MoreThis study focuses on CFD analysis in the field of the shell and double concentric tube heat exchanger. A commercial CFD package was used to resolve the flow and temperature fields inside the shell and tubes of the heat exchanger used. Simulations by CFD are performed for the single shell and double concentric tube.
This heat exchanger included 16 tubes and 20 baffles. The shell had a length of 1.18 m and its diameter was 220 mm. Solid Works 2014, ANSYS 15.0 software was used to analyze the fields of flow and temperature inside the shell and the tubes. The RNG k-ε model was used and it provided good results. Coarse and fine meshes were investigated, showing that aspect ratio has no significant effect. 14 million
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