Objectives: Small field of view gamma detection and imaging technologies for monitoring in vivo tracer uptake are rapidly expanding and being introduced for bed-side imaging and image guided surgical procedures. The Hybrid Gamma Camera (HGC) has been developed to enhance the localization of targeted radiopharmaceuticals during surgical procedures; for example in sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsies and for bed-side imaging in procedures such as lacrimal drainage imaging and thyroid scanning. In this study, a prototype anthropomorphic head and neck phantom has been designed, constructed, and evaluated using representative modelled medical scenarios to study the capability of the HGC to detect SLNs and image small organs. Methods: An anthropomorphic head and neck phantom has been designed to mimic the adult head and neck including some internal organs and tissues of interest, such as the thyroid gland and sentinel lymph nodes. The design of the head and neck phantom included an adjustable inner jig holding the simulated SLNs and thyroid gland. The simulated thyroid gland was designed and 3D printed taking into consideration the size and the shape of a healthy adult thyroid gland. The inner sealed space of the thyroid was filled with 15MBq of 99mTc through two upper filling valves. Sealed micro-tubes (0.2ml) have been employed to simulate SLNs containing various 99mTc activity concentrations ranging between 0.1MBq and 1MBq, and can be positioned at any desired place in the head and neck region. An active background was simulated through mixing 10MBq of 99mTc solution with the water used to fill the outer shell of the head and neck phantom. Results: The head and neck phantom was employed to simulate a situation where there are four SLNs distributed at two different vertical levels and at two depths within the neck. Contrast to noise ratio (CNR) calculations were performed for the detected SLNs at an 80mm distance between both pinhole collimators (i.e. 0.5mm and 1.0mm diameters) and the surface of the head and neck phantom with a 100s acquisition time. The recorded CNR values for the simulated SLNs are higher when the HGC was fitted with the 1.0mm diameter pinhole collimator. For instance, the recorded CNR values for the superficially simulated SLN containing 0.1MBq of 99mTc using 0.5mm and 1.0mm diameter pinhole collimators are 6.48 and 16.42, respectively (~87% difference). The anatomical context provided by the hybrid imaging aided the localization process of radioactivity accumulation in simulated SLNs. Gamma and hybrid optical images were acquired using the HGC with both available pinhole collimators for the simulated thyroid gland. The thyroid images produced varied in terms of spatial resolution and detectability. The count profiles through the middle of the simulated thyroid gland images provided by both pinhole collimators were obtained. The HGC could clearly differentiate the individual peaks of both thyroid lobes in the gamma image produced by the 0.5mm pinhole collimator. In contrast, the recorded count profile for the acquired image using the 1.0mm diameter pinhole collimator showed broader peaks for both lobes, reflecting the degradation of the spatial resolution with increasing the diameter of the pinhole collimator. Conclusion: The capability of the HGC has been evaluated utilizing a prototype anthropomorphic head and neck phantom, and the gamma and hybrid images obtained demonstrate that it is ideally suited for intraoperative SLNs detection and small organ imaging. The standardization of test phantoms and protocols for SFOV portable gamma systems will provide an opportunity to collect data across various medical centers and research groups. Moreover, it will provide a technical baseline for researchers and clinical practitioners to consider when assessing their SFOV gamma imaging systems. The anthropomorphic head and neck phantom described is cost effective, reproducible, flexible and anatomically representative.
The research aims to study the effect of knowledge upgrade on business continuity in private colleges and universities in Baghdad. The research problem is summarized in the main question (were the academic leaders able to employ knowledge upgrading to enhance business continuity). The most important of this sector were the universities and the private college in the city of Baghdad as a field for this research, the researchers conducted a field visit to (10) universities or private colleges, the research sample consisted of (177) individuals from the deans of colleges and their assistants, as well as heads of scientific and administrative departments. The data was analyzed and the hypotheses were tested using the appropriate statistical
... Show MoreThe Aaliji Formation in wells (BH.52, BH.90, BH.138, and BH.188) in Bai Hassan Oil Field in Low Folded Zone northern Iraq has been studied to recognize the palaeoenvironment and sequence stratigraphic development. The formation is bounded unconformably with the underlain Shiranish Formation and the overlain Jaddala Formation. The microfacies analysis and the nature of accumulation of both planktonic and benthonic foraminifera indicate the two microfacies associations; where the first one represents deep shelf environment, which is responsible for the deposition of the Planktonic Foraminiferal Lime Wackestone Microfacies and Planktonic Foraminiferal Lime Packstone Microfacies, while the second association represents the deep-sea environme
... Show MoreBecause of the new political stage that Iraq is living in, which called on researchers to choose the subject of political marketing and increase its effectiveness through strategic intuition. The problem of research was reflected in the following question: How can strategic intuition be used to achieve efficiency in marketing marketing to achieve voter acceptance and achieve political success later on? ).
The research derives its importance from the fact that it is related to the developments in the concepts and areas of marketing in various fields, and it has a role in identifying the gain of new markets, where it is specialized to provide a political product and identify the mechanism of marketing the p
... Show MoreThis study has taken into consideration two vital variables (leadership, leadership styles and intellectual capital). The research aim through the relations between the leadership styles and intellectual capital, to building conceptual frame for the variables of study and exploring the nature of correlation relations between these variables and their effects in enhancing intellectual capital.
The research was conducted at the Ministry of foreign in Iraq, and included a sample of leaders and subordinates amounted to (186), has been using the questionnaire as a key tool to collect data on the sample.
For the dealing with
... Show MoreWe propose a novel strategy to optimize the test suite required for testing both hardware and software in a production line. Here, the strategy is based on two processes: Quality Signing Process and Quality Verification Process, respectively. Unlike earlier work, the proposed strategy is based on integration of black box and white box techniques in order to derive an optimum test suite during the Quality Signing Process. In this case, the generated optimal test suite significantly improves the Quality Verification Process. Considering both processes, the novelty of the proposed strategy is the fact that the optimization and reduction of test suite is performed by selecting only mutant killing test cases from cumulating t-way test ca
... Show MoreThere have been many negative phenomena in Iraqi society, especially after the political crises over the last years, such as the spread of violence, the deterioration of the economic situation, the spread of unemployment and poverty, and the disintegration of social ties, divorce, and the entry of the scourge of drugs. Among the most dangerous of these emergent phenomena, the phenomenon of suicide among young people of both sex, which has grown and increased in an unprecedented manner, surpassing all known social norms in Iraqi society and the prevailing religious values. Suicide in Iraqi society has transformed from a simple case to a visible presence in all Iraqi provinces. Suicides cases have registered in all cities of Iraq and of bo
... Show MoreThe research aims to shed light on the concept of Visibal management and its reflection on the organizational culture of the organization. The visual administration is a modern administrative method that contributes to the renewal and development of the organization's reality through surveying the opinions of a sample of 61 employees in the R & D / Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research. (130) individuals. The questionnaire was used as a main tool for collecting data and information, and their answers were analyzed using the SPSS program in data entry and analysis. The most important tools are computational circles, standard deviations, method of analysis and regression equation. There is a possibility to apply
... Show MoreThis paper aims to propose a hybrid approach of two powerful methods, namely the differential transform and finite difference methods, to obtain the solution of the coupled Whitham-Broer-Kaup-Like equations which arises in shallow-water wave theory. The capability of the method to such problems is verified by taking different parameters and initial conditions. The numerical simulations are depicted in 2D and 3D graphs. It is shown that the used approach returns accurate solutions for this type of problems in comparison with the analytic ones.