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.
The increasing requirement and use of dental implant treatments has rendered dental implantology indispensable in dentistry. The aim of this study is to determine the optimum concentration of calcium silicate to be incorporated into a polyetherketoneketone (PEKK) matrix used as an implant material to enhance the bioactivity and mechanical properties of the composite compared with unmodified PEKK. In this study, different weight percentage (wt%) of micro-calcium silicate (m-CS) is incorporated into PEKK with ethanol as a binder. Subsequently, the mixture is dried in a forced convection oven at 120°C and poured into customized molds to fabricate a bioactive composite via compression molding (310°C, 15 MPa, and 20 min holding time
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In this study an experimental work was done to study the possibility of using aluminum rubbish material as a coagulant to remove the colloidal particles from oily wastewater by dissolving this rubbish in sodium hydroxide solution. The experiments were carried out on simulated oily wastewater that was prepared at different oil concentrations and hardness levels (50, 250, 500, and 1000) ppm oil for (2000, 2500, 3000, and 3500) ppm CaCo3 respectively. The initial turbidity values were (203, 290, 770, and 1306) NTU, while the minimum values of turbidity that have been gained from the experiments in NTU units were (1.67, 1.95, 2.10, and 4.01) at best sodium aluminate dosages in milliliters (12, 20, 24, and 28) for
... Show MoreGraph is a tool that can be used to simplify and solve network problems. Domination is a typical network problem that graph theory is well suited for. A subset of nodes in any network is called dominating if every node is contained in this subset, or is connected to a node in it via an edge. Because of the importance of domination in different areas, variant types of domination have been introduced according to the purpose they are used for. In this paper, two domination parameters the first is the restrained and the second is secure domination have been chosn. The secure domination, and some types of restrained domination in one type of trees is called complete ary tree are determined.
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Nowadays, it is quite usual to transmit data through the internet, making safe online communication essential and transmitting data over internet channels requires maintaining its confidentiality and ensuring the integrity of the transmitted data from unauthorized individuals. The two most common techniques for supplying security are cryptography and steganography. Data is converted from a readable format into an unreadable one using cryptography. Steganography is the technique of hiding sensitive information in digital media including image, audio, and video. In our proposed system, both encryption and hiding techniques will be utilized. This study presents encryption using the S-DES algorithm, which generates a new key in each cyc
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There is no access to basic sanitation for half the world's population, leading to Socioeconomic issues, such as scarcity of drinking water and the spread of diseases. In this way, it is of vital importance to develop water management technologies relevant to the target population. In addition, in the separation form of water treatment, the compound often used as a coagulant in water treatment is aluminum sulfate, which provides good results for raw water turbidity and color removal. Studies show, however, that its deposition in the human body, even Alzheimer's disease, can cause serious harm to health and disease development. The study aims to improve the coagulation/flocculation stage related to the amount of flakes, i
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Implementation 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.
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Cloud computing is a newly developed concept that aims to provide computing resources in the most effective and economical manner. The fundamental idea of cloud computing is to share computing resources among a user group. Cloud computing security is a collection of control-based techniques and strategies that intends to comply with regulatory compliance rules and protect cloud computing-related information, data apps, and infrastructure. On the other hand, data integrity is a guarantee that the digital data are not corrupted, and that only those authorized people can access or modify them (i.e., maintain data consistency, accuracy, and confidence). This review presents an overview of cloud computing concepts, its importance in many
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In light of accelerating environmental degradation, the transition to a green economy is an imperative for achieving sustainable development. This study provides a critical analysis of the international legal and institutional framework governing this transition, revealing a significant gap between normative developments and the institutional framework on one hand, and their practical implementation on the other. The transition faces legal obstacles, including reliance on non-binding voluntary commitments and conflicts between environmental obligations and global trade and investment rules. It also reveals a significant financing gap, as financial flows to developing countries continue to lag behind commitments, in add
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