Objectives: Recently, there have been important advances in the clinical application of targeted hybrid near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent-radioactive tracers. ICG-99mTc-nanocolloid, for example, is already being used by some centres for sentinel lymph node biopsy in head and neck cancer. The radioactive component allows imaging at depths which would not be possible with NIR alone and, once exposed, the NIR fluorescence reporter can be imaged at very high resolution. Gamma detection is currently carried out with a separate hand-held gamma camera or with a non-imaging probe. Visualisation of NIR fluorescence during surgery requires a dedicated NIR camera, several of which are available commercially. We describe a novel hand-held hybrid NIR-gamma small field of view camera, capable of displaying co-aligned images from both modalities, which can be fused into one image or viewed separately. This study is a preliminary investigation of the performance of the fluorescence component of this camera, including phantom studies and first images from a preclinical pilot study. Methods: The hybrid camera consists of a 1500 µm thick thallium doped caesium iodide columnar (CsI:Tl) scintillator coupled to an electron multiplying charged coupled device (EMCCD). A 1.0mm diameter tungsten pinhole collimator gives a 40mm x 40mm nominal field of view for an 8mm x 8mm CCD detection area. A fluorescence camera was aligned to provide the same field of view as the gamma camera with an LED ring as the excitation source. The performance of the fluorescence imaging was quantified in this study for the fluorophores ICG and IRDye800CW (CW800) using a range of bespoke phantom experiments. In vivo images were also obtained from a preclinical study of a targeted hybrid tracer (cRGD-CW800-TCO + TCO-DOTA-111In) in mice with HT29 colorectal cancer xenografts. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The portable hybrid camera prototype has been shown to successfully image dual NIR-gamma tracers using both in vitro and in vivo experimental models. With further development, this camera could be used intraoperatively, offering the benefits of gamma imaging at depth in tissues and high resolution surface NIR fluorescence imaging in a single imaging system.
CNC machines are widely used in production fields since they produce similar parts in a minimum time, at higher speed and with possibly minimum error. A control system is designed, implemented and tested to control the operation of a laboratory CNC milling machine having three axes that are moved by using a stepper motor attached to each axis. The control system includes two parts, hardware part and software part, the hardware part used a PC (works as controller) connected to the CNC machine through its parallel port by using designed interface circuit. The software part includes the algorithms needed to control the CNC. The sample needs to be machined is drawn by using one of the drawing software like AUTOCAD or 3D MAX and is saved in a we
... Show MoreThere are many studies dealt with handoff management in mobile communication systems and some of these studies presented handoff schemes to manage this important process in cellular network. All previous schemes used relative signal strength (RSS) measurements. In this work, a new proposed handoff scheme had been presented depending not only on the RSS measurements but also used the threshold distance and neighboring BSS power margins in order to improve the handoff management process. We submitted here a threshold RSS as a condition to make a handoff when a mobile station moves from one cell to another this at first, then we submitted also a specified margin between the current received signal and the ongoing BS's received signal must be s
... Show MoreThe present work describes guggul as a novel carrier for some anti-inflammatory drugs. Guggulusomes containing different concentration of guggul with aceclofenac were prepared by sonication method and characterized for vesicle shape, size, size-distribution, pH, viscosity, spread ability, homogeneity, and accelerated stability in-vitro drug permeation through mouse skin. The vesicles exhibited an entrapment efficiency of 93.2 ± 12%, vesicle size of 0.769 ± 3μm and a zeta potential of - 6.21mV. In vitro drug release was analyzed using Franz’s diffusion cells. The cumulative release of the guggulusomes gel (G2) was 75.8% in 18 hrs, which is greater than that all the gel formulation. The stability profile of prepare
... Show MoreBackground: Swine influenza (also Called pig influenza, swine flu, hog flu and pig flu) is an infection by any one of several types of swine influenza virus (SIV) or S-OIV (Swine-Origin influenza virus) is any strain of the influenza family of viruses that is endemic in pigs. Patients and Methods:- Ninety patients with there families suspected of swine flu who were admitted to Central Teaching Hospital of Pediatric in Baghdad seventy one from Baghdad Al-Kerkh, twelve from Baghdad Al-Rasafa and seven other Iraqi Governorate (1 in Suleimaniya, 2 in Baquba, 4 in Anbar) they were included in a prospective study started from the 1st October till the 30 th of November 2009. Results:- The study revealed from )90( suspected cases the H1N1 Virus Pos
... Show MoreThe state did not witness the emergence of independent bodies because of the nature of the ruling regimes that were characterized by political tyranny represented by the king at the time, as is the case with Greece and the Greeks and Persia and the Romans and others. As for the Islamic state, which emerged later, it saw the emergence of what looks like independent bodies that we see today, There was the so-called Diwan Al-Hesba and the Ombudsman's Office as an independent body from the Islamic State, which operated independently to support the oppressed and the equitable distribution of financial resources, even though it was headed by well-known governors of justice and honesty. A state in the modern era, many countries, especially in E
... Show MoreDavid Hare (b.1947) is one of the most critically acclaimed, contemporary British dramatists. A playwright, director and filmmaker, he has written more than thirty plays for the stage and seven original screen plays for cinema and TV (Susan Emerling, p.1). He began his dramatic career in the late sixties. Along with such dramatists as Howard Brenton and Trevor Griffiths, he writes in the aftermath of the "Angry Young Men" tradition of John Osborne. It is a well-known fact that the element of anger continued in the drama of the 1960s and became even more radicalized after the social, cultural and political unrests of 1968 by the dramatists of the "second wave" to whom Hare belongs (John Russell Taylor, p.14). Setting his plays in a variet
... Show MoreAn excellent reputation earned by initiating and practicing sustainable business practices has additional benefits, of which are reducing environmental incidents and an improvement in operational efficiency as this has the potential to help firms improve on productivity and bring down operating costs. Taken further, with ever-increasing socially and environmentally-conscious investors and the public alike, this act of natural resources management could have a significant implication on market value and income of the practicing firms.
The above proposition has been supported by sustainable business practices literature that is continuously conversing and deliberating upon the impact of efficient resource d
... Show MoreImplementation of TSFS (Transposition, Substitution, Folding, and Shifting) algorithm as an encryption algorithm in database security had limitations in character set and the number of keys used. The proposed cryptosystem is based on making some enhancements on the phases of TSFS encryption algorithm by computing the determinant of the keys matrices which affects the implementation of the algorithm phases. These changes showed high security to the database against different types of security attacks by achieving both goals of confusion and diffusion.