A biconical antenna has been developed for ultra-wideband sensing. A wide impedance bandwidth of around 115% at bandwidth 3.73-14 GHz is achieved which shows that the proposed antenna exhibits a fairly sensitive sensor for microwave medical imaging applications. The sensor and instrumentation is used together with an improved version of delay and sum image reconstruction algorithm on both fatty and glandular breast phantoms. The relatively new imaging set-up provides robust reconstruction of complex permittivity profiles especially in glandular phantoms, producing results that are well matched to the geometries and composition of the tissues. Respectively, the signal-to-clutter and the signal-to-mean ratios of the improved method are consis

Background: Laparoscopic cholecystectomy has many difficulties which include port Insertion, Dissectionof the Calot’s Triangle , Grasping of the Gallbladder , Wall thickness, Adhesion and extraction of theGallbladder. Aim of the Study: To predict how difficult cholecystectomy will be from assessing the patientpreoperatively which, in turn, help in decreasing the risks on the patients and preventing post-operativecomplications. Patients and Methods: A prospective study conducted in the department of General Surgeryat Al-Ramadi Teaching Hospital for the period of nine months from 15th of May 2018 till the 15th of February2019. It included 60 patients, all of them were undergone laparoscopic cholecystectomy for Gallstone. Patientswit

Salmonellosis in poultry is one of the most significant bacterial infections causing mortality, reduced production, and serious economic losses. This study aimed to study the molecular diversity among Salmonella isolates and investigate the epidemiological spread of these bacteria in broiler and layer chicken flocks in five different farms in Karbala, Iraq, using random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) polymerase chain reaction (PCR). In total, 217 cloac a swabs were collected from the farms, out of which 129 and 88 swabs were taken from broiler and layer chickens. The samples were screened by PCR for S. enterica subsp. enterica using primers specific for the invA gene. Afterward, RAPD-PCR with uniplex or multiplex octamer primers was appli

We wanted to find out how selenium (Se) affects broiler chicken performance, meat physicochemical properties, and selenium deposition in the tissues of broilers. Each of the 96 experimental pens had 30 chickens and included a total of 2,880 one-day-old broilers (Cobb 500 strain). A factorial design of four-by-three (SY + SS) and eight replicates (SY + SS) was used for the 12 experimental treatments, with selenium levels ranging from 0.15 to 0.60 ppm and organic (SY) or inorganic (SS) sources of selenium and their relationship (SY + SS). There were no differences in performance (P > 0.05) across Se levels or sources. 106 g/day of ADFI, 63 g/day of ADG, and 1.6844 kg/kg of FCR were found to be the averaging values for these three parameters:

Background Psoriasis is one of the most prevalent chronic inflammatory skin conditions; its prevalence ranges from 1 to 3%. Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), a cytokine that enhances inflammation, is overexpressed in synovium and skin plaques in psoriasis. TNF-α plays a critical role in the pathogenesis of psoriasis. IL-10 is the most crucial cytokine for reducing excessive immune responses and decreasing pro-inflammatory reactions in all autoimmune disorders.   Objective To evaluate the effect of Apremilast on ILـ10, TNFـα, and BMI in obese psoriatic patients.   Methods Thirty patients included in this investigative study to measure the concentrations of TNFـα, ILـ10 and BMI, before and after receiving Apremilast. TNFـα and

In this study, derivatives of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) grafted with phthalic anhydride (PhA) and dyes were prepared to produce polymeric materials of PVA-g-PhA, PVA-g-PhA-anthocyanin, PVA-g-PhA-bromophenol blue, and PVA-g-PhAthymol blue. The materials were characterised by FTIR and 1 H NMR spectroscopies. The crystallinity of the polymers was evaluated with powder X-ray difraction, and the thermal stability by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The synthetic procedure for the polymeric materials entailed the formation of esters. The FTIR spectra of the polymers confrmed their formation since the ester carbonyl group stretch was observed at approximately 1691–1716  cm−1 in each material. NMR spectroscopy confrmed the addition of t

In this investigation , borax (B) (additive I) and chlorinated paraffin (CP.) (additive II) ,were used as flame retardants for each of epoxy and unsaturated polyester resins in the weight ratios of 2,4,6, & 8% by preparing films of (130×130×3) mm dimensions. Also films of these resins with a mixture of [50%(B.)+50%(CP.)] (additive III) in the same weight ratios were prepared in order to study the synergistic effect of these additives on the flammability of the two resins . Three standard test methods were used to measure the flame retardation which are : 1-ASTM : D-2863 2-ASTM : D-635 3-ASTM : D-3014