Background: Extracorporeal Shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) is widely used in treating patients with ureteralstones because it is effective, safe, and noninvasive. Based on factors such as size and the location of stones,there is a significant variation in the overall stone-free rate (SFR).Aim of the study: To evaluate the effect of ureteral wall thickness (UWT), stone attenuation, the time fromfirst attack of pain till first session of ESWL and stone/ rib density on the outcome of SWL in the treatmentof upper ureteral stones (UUS).Patient and methods: A prospective study when 127 patients with radio-opaque UUS ranging from 7 to 20mm and treated by ESWL were included in this study. The effect of (stone/ 12th rib) density by KUB, ureteralwall thickness by NCCT and the time from first attack of pain till first ESWL session was studied.Results: The overall successful fragmentation was 75.5%, with the overall success rates in the low density(LD) and high density (HD) groups were 83.8% and 52.94%, respectively. The average number of SWLsessions needed in the two groups for success was 1.9 compared with 2.7 sessions (p<0.05). For stones <10 mm; those with ureteral wall thickness <3.25 mm have success rate about 90.3% VS 69.7% with uretericwall thickness > 3.25 mm which is highly significant. Early ESWL within the first 24 hours of acute attackof first pain has successful fragmentation of 85.45%. With significant effect on number of ESWL sessions.The stone free rate reaches 91.1% for stones <10 mm.Conclusions: The stone free rate is inversely affected by stone /12th rib density ; ureteral wall thickness andthe time from first attack of pain till first session of ESWL, were important predictors of successful ESWL.
Abstract
Social media has thrived recently and public organizations at Thi-Qar governorate across different levels are experimenting with launching government social media (GSM) to facilitating two-way interactions between the government and its citizens. Both scholars and practitioners are focusing on understanding the key success factors related to the create of GSM. This study aimed to identify the key success factors by exploring the formation mechanism of individuals’ continuous usage intention. Through the theoretical perspective of the uses and gratifications theory. We identify the gratification factors that stimulate users’ continuance intention toward GSM. Furthermore, we draw upon the stimulus–organism–
... Show MoreNonlinear regression models are important tools for solving optimization problems. As traditional techniques would fail to reach satisfactory solutions for the parameter estimation problem. Hence, in this paper, the BAT algorithm to estimate the parameters of Nonlinear Regression models is used . The simulation study is considered to investigate the performance of the proposed algorithm with the maximum likelihood (MLE) and Least square (LS) methods. The results show that the Bat algorithm provides accurate estimation and it is satisfactory for the parameter estimation of the nonlinear regression models than MLE and LS methods depend on Mean Square error.
Manual probing and periodontal charting are the gold standard for periodontal diagnosis that have been used in practice over a century. These methods are affordable and reliable but they are associated with some drawbacks that cannot be avoided. Among these issues is their reliance on operator’s skills, time-consuming and tedious procedure, lack sensitivity especially in cases of early bone loss, and causing discomfort to the patient. Availability of a wide range of biomarkers in the oral biofluids, dental biofilm, and tissues that potentially reflect the periodontal health and disease accurately encouraged their use as predictive/diagnostic/monitoring tools. Analysing biomarkers during care-giving to the patient using chairside kits i
... Show MoreIn line with the advancement of hardware technology and increasing consumer demands for new functionalities and innovations, software applications grew tremendously in term of size over the last decade. This sudden increase in size has a profound impact as far as testing is concerned. Here, more and more unwanted interactions among software systems components, hardware, and operating system are to be expected, rendering increased possibility of faults. To address this issue, many useful interaction-based testing techniques (termed t-way strategies) have been developed in the literature. As an effort to promote awareness and encourage its usage, this chapter surveys the current state-of-the-art and reviews the state-of-practices in t
... Show MoreIn line with the advancement of hardware technology and increasing consumer demands for new functionalities and innovations, software applications grew tremendously in term of size over the last decade. This sudden increase in size has a profound impact as far as testing is concerned. Here, more and more unwanted interactions among software systems components, hardware, and operating system are to be expected, rendering increased possibility of faults. To address this issue, many useful interaction-based testing techniques (termed t-way strategies) have been developed in the literature. As an effort to promote awareness and encourage its usage, this chapter surveys the current state-of-the-art and reviews the state-of-practices in t
... Show More- S. Supreme Court plays a very important rule in American legal system, especially in the domain of constitutional interpretation and judicial review. This importance emerges from the precedents of the court which considered as compulsory rules on all the authorities. However, the supreme court can overrule its precedents. This research is about the factors which effect the court’s decision on overruling, dividing them on internal and external factors.
The source of the internal factors is the precedent itself, while the source of the external factors is the circumstances surrounding the precedent.
This research aimed at identifying the factors that affecting in the recruitment of a teaching staff for the Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in university teaching at the University of Khartoum. The descriptive method was followed. The questionnaire was used as a tool for data collection,, which was distributed directly to a sample of (181) respondent of the teaching staff members of the senate at University of Khartoum from those who were attend at the senate meeting No. (409) which was held on 22 August 2016 Of (272). The researcher followed for the distribution the chance method, where each questionnaire was distributed to each of a teaching staff from different faculties at the University of Khartoum, according to his willingness
... Show MoreThe base of the ELWE MPF-1 microcomputer is the Z80 microprocessor. The Z80 programs are written in assembly language. The main advantage of assembly language is that: it is much faster to code and the mnemonics makes it easier for the user to remember the instruction. The purpose of this paper is to improve the monitor process for didactic microcomputer ELWE MPF-1 by appending new powerful commands (MOVE, FILL, SEARCH and COMPARE) to the existing monitor to make it more useful and flexible. 8085 assembly language is used to execute this program. The letters used for abbreviation: M for MOVE, F for FILL, S for SEARCH and C for COMPARE.