In this work proton exchange membranes were prepared by a modified microwave casting solution technique, using the polymers blend (polyethersulfone (PES), polystyrene (PS), polyvinylidenefluride (PVDF)). Modified casting method was used to overcome the poor compatibility between hydrophilic, (PES, PS) and hydrophobic PVDF, by cooling the substrate during the film casting process to (4.5-5.5^oC). Membranes were chemically modified by three reaction types to study the differences between their effects on the required properties for microbial fuel cell application. These methods use blend organic sulfonic acid precasting process and sulfonation by sulfuric acid post-casting process (APS), blending organic

The art of Islamic ceramics is considered one of the main pillars of the art of ceramics in the plastic arts, as his knowledge of what is presented in the Islamic arts intertwined in a special way. And the Islamic ceramics are indications of fertility and the rekindling of religious ties, controversy over them, and interpretation as additions to their vocabulary. Studies in the plastic arts began to empty the knowledge towards this direction, especially its relationship to the Arabic calligraphy and specifically the Islamic decoration, which derived the first aesthetic values from calling the artist Muslim pottery and potters to inviting the Arabic letter and Islamic decoration to indicate within the theory of "displacement" the aestheti

Brain tissues segmentation is usually concerned with the delineation of three types of brain matters Grey Matter (GM), White Matter (WM) and Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF). Because most brain structures are anatomically defined by boundaries of these tissue classes, accurate segmentation of brain tissues into one of these categories is an important step in quantitative morphological study of the brain. As well as the abnormalities regions like tumors are needed to be delineated. The extra-cortical voxels in MR brain images are often removed in order to facilitate accurate analysis of cortical structures. Brain extraction is necessary to avoid the misclassifications of surrounding tissues, skull and scalp as WM, GM or tumor when implementing s

Back ground: Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors (GISTs), although are rare, are the most common mesenchymal tumors of the digestive system. Vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF) is associated with the malignant potential of several types of carcinomas.

Patients, material, and methods: This is a retrospective study including thirty two randomly selected cases of GISTs collected from the pathology laboratory of the gastroenterology and hepatology teaching hospital and from private laboratories from the period January 2010 to December 2013. VEGF immunohistochemical marker was applied to the tumor tissue sections to evaluate its expression and to correlate it with other parameters.Objectives<

The aim of this paper is to design artificial neural network as an alternative accurate tool to estimate concentration of Cadmium in contaminated soils for any depth and time. First, fifty soil samples were harvested from a phytoremediated contaminated site located in Qanat Aljaeesh in Baghdad city in Iraq. Second, a series of measurements were performed on the soil samples. The inputs are the soil depth, the time, and the soil parameters but the output is the concentration of Cu in the soil for depth x and time t. Third, design an ANN and its performance was evaluated using a test data set and then applied to estimate the concentration of Cadmium. The performance of the ANN technique was compared with the traditional laboratory inspecting

The Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) is frequently used in pavement engineering
for road pavement inspection. The main objective of this work is to validate
nondestructive, quick and powerful measurements using GPR for assessment of subgrade
and asphalt /concrete conditions. In the present study, two different antennas
(250, 500 MHz) were used. The case studies are presented was carried in University
of Baghdad over about 100m of paved road. After data acquisition and radar grams
collection, they have been processed using RadExplorer V1.4 software
implementing different filters with the most effective ones (time zero adjustment and
DC removal) in addition to other interpretation tool parameters.
The interpretatio

A thin film of AgInSe2 and Ag1-xCuxInSe2 as well as n-Ag1-xCuxInSe2 /p-Si heterojunction with different Cu ratios (0, 0.1, 0.2) has been successfully fabricated by thermal evaporation method as absorbent layer with thickness about 700 nm and ZnTe as window layer with thickness about 100 nm. We made a multi-layer of p-ZnTe/n-AgCuInSe2/p-Si structures, In the present work, the conversion efficiency (η) increased when added the Cu and when used p-ZnTe as a window layer (WL) the bandgap energy of the direct transition decreases from 1.75 eV (Cu=0.0) to 1.48 eV (Cu=0.2 nm) and the bandgap energy for ZnTe=2.35 eV. The measurements of the electrical properties for prepared films showed that the D.C electrical conductivity (σd.c) increase

Background: Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is inflammation of the sacroiliac joints and spine, associated with clinical symptoms such as pain and stiffness in the vertebral column, after which, in a considerable number of individuals, new bone growth occurs. Objective: The current research study attempted to find out whether the presence of SNPs in TNF receptor [TNFRSF1A (rs767455), TNFRSF1B (rs1061622)] encoding genes could influence patients' outcomes to etanercept in a specimen of Iraqi AS patients. Patients and methods: Sixty patients with established AS receiving only etanercept were selected to be enrolled in this research with a mean age of 40.75 ± 8.67 years, 51 patients of them were males and only 9 patients were females. Patients we