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)
Metal oxide nanoparticles, including iron oxide, are highly considered as one of the most important species of nanomaterials in a varied range of applications due to their optical, magnetic, and electrical properties. Iron oxides are common compounds, extensive in nature, and easily synthesized in the laboratory. In this paper, iron oxide nanoparticles were prepared by co-precipitation of (Fe+2) and (Fe+3) ions, using iron (II and III) sulfate as precursor material and NH4OH solution as solvent at 90°C. After the synthesis of iron oxide particles, it was characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). These tests confirmed the obtaining o
... Show MoreIn IRAQ, the air conditioners are the principal cause of high electrical demand. In summer, the outer temperature sometimes exceeds 500C which significantly effects on the A/C system performance and power consumed. In the present work, the improvement in mechanical and electrical performance of split A/C system is investigated experimentally and analytically. In this paper, performance and energy saving enhancement of a split-A/C system was experimentally investigated to be efficiently compatible with elevated temperature weathers. This improvement is accomplished via Smart Control System integrate with Proportional-Integral- Differential PID algorithm. The PIC16F877A micro-controller has been programmed with the PID and PWM c
... Show MoreFurfural is one of the one of pollutants in refinery industrial wastewaters. In this study advanced oxidation process using UV/H2O2 was investigated for furfural degradation in synthetic wastewater. The results from the experimental work showed that the degradation of furfural decreases as its concentration increases, reaching 100% at 50mg/l furfural concentration and increasing the concentration of H2O2 from 250 to 500 mg/l increased furfural removal from 40 to 60%.The degradation of furfural reached 100% after 90 min exposure time using two UV lamps, where it reached 60% using one lamp after 240 min exposure time. The rate of furfural degradation k increased at the pH and initial concentratio
... Show MoreIn this paper, a fusion of K models of full-rank weighted nonnegative tensor factor two-dimensional deconvolution (K-wNTF2D) is proposed to separate the acoustic sources that have been mixed in an underdetermined reverberant environment. The model is adapted in an unsupervised manner under the hybrid framework of the generalized expectation maximization and multiplicative update algorithms. The derivation of the algorithm and the development of proposed full-rank K-wNTF2D will be shown. The algorithm also encodes a set of variable sparsity parameters derived from Gibbs distribution into the K-wNTF2D model. This optimizes each sub-model in K-wNTF2D with the required sparsity to model the time-varying variances of the sources in the s
... Show MoreConstruction contractors usually undertake multiple construction projects simultaneously. Such a situation involves sharing different types of resources, including monetary, equipment, and manpower, which may become a major challenge in many cases. In this study, the financial aspects of working on multiple projects at a time are addressed and investigated. The study considers dealing with financial shortages by proposing a multi-project scheduling optimization model for profit maximization, while minimizing the total project duration. Optimization genetic algorithm and finance-based scheduling are used to produce feasible schedules that balance the finance of activities at any time w
All-optical canonical logic units at 40 Gb/s using bidirectional four-wave mixing (FWM) in highly nonlinear fiber are proposed and experimentally demonstrated. Clear temporal waveforms and correct pattern streams are successfully observed in the experiment. This scheme can reduce the amount of nonlinear devices and enlarge the computing capacity compared with general ones. The numerical simulations are made to analyze the relationship between the FWM efficiency and the position of two interactional signals. © 2015 Chinese Laser Press