Background: Multiple sclerosis is a chronic autoimmune inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system of unknown etiology. Different techniques and magnetic resonance image sequences are widely used and compared to each other to improve the detection of multiple sclerosis lesions in the spinal cord. Objective: To evaluate the ability of MRI short tau inversion recovery sequences in improvementof multiple sclerosis spinal cord lesion detection when compared to T2 weighted image sequences. Type of the study: A retrospective study. Methods: this study conducted from 15thAugust 2013 to 30thJune 2014 at Baghdad teaching hospital. 22 clinically definite MS patients with clinical features suggestive of spinal cord involvement, patients were imaged with sagittal short tau inversion recovery sequences and sagittal T2 weighted. Results: The mean age of the patients was 32.5 ± 6.7years; female to male ratio was 2.7:1. The total number of spinal cord MS lesions was 44 of them 86.4% in the cervical spine, 68.2%of the lesions had less than one vertebra extension,79.6% of the lesions did not show changes in the spinal cord morphology. There was a significant upgrading in the lesions conspicuity at short tau inversion recovery sequence comparing to T2 weighted image, P<0.001. A significant difference had been found in artifact grading between both sequences; P<0.001. Conclusions: short tau inversion recovery magnetic resonance image sequences improve detection of MS spinal cord plaques compared with T2 weighted image and itincreasesthe conspicuity of the visualized T2weighted image lesions, but also it accentuates theartifacts more than T2weighted image.
In this research, Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) technique was applied in an attempt to predict the water levels and some of the water quality parameters at Tigris River in Wasit Government for five different sites. These predictions are useful in the planning, management, evaluation of the water resources in the area. Spatial data along a river system or area at different locations in a catchment area usually have missing measurements, hence an accurate prediction. model to fill these missing values is essential.
The selected sites for water quality data prediction were Sewera, Numania , Kut u/s, Kut d/s, Garaf observation sites. In these five sites models were built for prediction of the water level and water quality parameters.
Background: Mouth breathing can lead to introduce cold, dry unprepared air that insults the tissue of oral cavity, nasopharynx and lung, leading in turn to pathological changes in oronasal cavity, nasopharyngeal and other respiratory tissue, mouth breathing associated with nasal obstruction may lead to many health problems, in particular oral health problems such as inflammation of gingiva, oral dryness, change in oral environment that may decrease pH, salivary flow rate and increase bacteria and dental caries.Aims of the present study were to assess the oral health condition among mouth breather associated with nasal obstruction, including dental caries, oral cleanliness and gingival health condition as well as to evaluate the changes in s
... Show MoreTriticale is a hybrid of wheat and rye grown for use as animal feed. In Florida, due to its soft coat, triticale is highly vulnerable to Sitophilus oryzae L. (rice weevil) and there is interest in development of methods to detect early-instar larvae so that infestations can be targeted before they become economically damaging. The objective of this study was to develop prediction models of the infestation degree for triticale seed infested with rice weevils of different growth stages. Spectral signatures were tested as a method to detect rice weevils in triticale seed. Groups of seeds at 11 different levels (degrees) of infestation, 0–62%, were obtained by combining different ratios of infested and uninfested seeds. A spectrophotometer wa
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The problem of missing data represents a major obstacle before researchers in the process of data analysis in different fields since , this problem is a recurrent one in all fields of study including social , medical , astronomical and clinical experiments .
The presence of such a problem within the data to be studied may influence negatively on the analysis and it may lead to misleading conclusions , together with the fact that these conclusions that result from a great bias caused by that problem in spite of the efficiency of wavelet methods but they are also affected by the missing of data , in addition to the impact of the problem of miss of accuracy estimation
... Show MoreThe interest of application of liquid membrane (pertraction) processes for recovery of medicinal compounds from dilute ammoniacal leach solutions is demonstrated. Selectivity of the liquid membrane ensures a preferential transport of the desired solute from the native extract into the strip solution, vinblastine was successfully extracted from basic media (pH 9.2) and stripped by acidic media of sulfuric acid (pH= 1.3) applying continuous pertraction in a rotating discs contactor and using n-decane as liquid membrane. Transport of vinblastine in three-liquid-phase system was studied and performed by means of a kinetic model involving two consecutive irreversible first-order reactions. The kinetic parameters (apparent rate constants of th
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Magnetic abrasive finishing (MAF) process is one of non-traditional or advanced finishing methods which is suitable for different materials and produces high quality level of surface finish where it uses magnetic force as a machining pressure. A set of experimental tests was planned according to Taguchi orthogonal array (OA) L27 (36) with three levels and six input parameters. Experimental estimation and optimization of input parameters for MAF process for stainless steel type 316 plate work piece, six input parameters including amplitude of tooth pole, and number of cycle between teeth, current, cutting speed, working gap, and finishing time, were performed by design of experiment
... Show MoreThis study detects the presence of cholesterol in an Iraqi plant named Suaeda baccata Forsk of the family Chenopodiacae, wildly and widely grown in Iraq. The absence of any publication concerning the sterol content of this Suaeda specie, and the industrial importance of cholesterol depending on its role as a precursor in the synthesis of some hormones, like progesterone, acquired this study its value. The investigations revealed the presence of cholesterol that was proved by TLC together with the standard compound cholesterol, and anisaldehyde spray reagent using three different solvent systems, then authenticated by HPLC, in which the reten
... Show MoreThe Present investigation includes the isolation and identification of Pseudomonas aeruginosa for different cases of hospital contamination from 1/ 6/2003 to 30/9/2004, the identification of bacteria depended on morphological , cultural and biochemical characters, 37 of isolates were diagnosed from 70 smears from wounds and burns beside 25 isolates were identified from 200 smears taken from operation theater and hospital wards including the floors , walls , sources of light and operation equipment the sensitivity of all isolates to antibiotic were done , which exhibited complete sensitivity to Ciprofloxacin , Ceftraixon, Tobromycin and Gentamysin ,while they were complete resist to Amoxcillin , Tetracyclin , Nitrofurantion , Clindamycin C
... Show MoreRespiratory tract infections in sheep are among the important health problems that affect all sheep ages around the world. Nine bacterial isolates obtained from sheep with respiratory tract infections were selected to be used in the current study. The isolates included 3 Staphylococcus aureus, 4 Klebsiella pneumoniae, and 2 Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Following the primers design by the Primer3Plus software tool and optimization of the conventional polymerase chain reaction (PCR), the primers were validated for their use in the multiplex PCR experiments. The MFEprimer program was used to check the suitability of the primer set combinations for multiplex PCR. The MFEprimer software was successful in designing the multiplex-PCR experiments and de
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