Background: Multiple sclerosis is a chronic autoimmune inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system of unknown etiology. Different techniques and magnetic resonance image sequences are widely used and compared to each other to improve the detection of multiple sclerosis lesions in the spinal cord. Objective: To evaluate the ability of MRI short tau inversion recovery sequences in improvementof multiple sclerosis spinal cord lesion detection when compared to T2 weighted image sequences. Type of the study: A retrospective study. Methods: this study conducted from 15thAugust 2013 to 30thJune 2014 at Baghdad teaching hospital. 22 clinically definite MS patients with clinical features suggestive of spinal cord involvement,

Otitis media with effusion (OME) is a common disease especially among young children (before school age) and it is one of the common causes of acquired hearing loss in childhood. Pediatric patients with OME are usually undernourished. The purpose of this study is to determine whether the serum levels of trace elements (zinc, copper, magnesium, iron) have a role in the development of OME in children. This study carried out on 55 children and subdivided them into two groups. Group 1 (patient group) consist of 30 children suffering from OME and group 2 (control group) included 25 apparently healthy children. Serum levels of zinc, copper, magnesium and iron were measured for both groups. Comparison the results between the two groups showed t

This study deals with the elimination of methyl orange (MO) from an aqueous solution by utilizing the 3D electroFenton process in a batch reactor with an anode of porous graphite and a cathode of copper foam in the presence of granular activated carbon (GAC) as a third pole, besides, employing response surface methodology (RSM) in combination with Box-Behnk Design (BBD) for studying the effects of operational conditions, such as current density (3–8 mA/cm2), electrolysis time (10–20 min), and the amount of GAC (1–3 g) on the removal efficiency beside to their interaction. The model was veiled since the value of R2 was high (>0.98) and the current density had the greatest influence on the response. The best removal efficiency (MO Re%)

Abstract:  Two different shapes of offset optical fiber was studied based on coreless fiber for refractive index (RI)/concentration (con.) measurement, and compare them. These shapes are U and S-shapes, both shapes structures were formed by one segment of coreless fiber (CF) was joined between two single mode (SMF) lead in /lead out with the same displacement (12.268µm) at both sides, the results shows the high sensitive was achieved in a novel S-shape equal 98.768nm/RIU, to our knowledge, no one has ever mentioned or experienced it, it’s the best shape rather than the U-shape which equal 85.628nm/RIU. In this research, it was proved that the offset form has a significant effect on the sensitivity of the sensor. Addi

In wide range of chemical, petrochemical and energy processes, it is not possible to manage without slurry bubble column reactors. In this investigation, time average local gas holdup was recorded for three different height to diameter (H/D) ratios 3, 4 and 5 in 18" diameter slurry bubble column. Air-water-glass beads system was used with superficial velocity up to 0.24 m/s. the gas holdup was measured using 4-tips optical fiber probe technique. The results show that the axial gas holdup increases almost linearly with the superficial gas velocity in 0.08 m/s and levels off with a further increase of velocity. A comparison of the present data with those reported for other slurry bubble column having diameters larger than

Background: Poly propylene fibers with and without silane treatment have been used to reinforce heat cure denture base acrylic but, some mechanical properties like transverse strength, impact strength, tensile strength, hardness, wear resistance and wettability. Which are related to the clinical use of the prosthesis are not evaluated yet. The aim of the study is to identify the influence of incorporation of treated and untreated fibers on these properties Materials and methods: Eighty four heat cure acrylic specimens were constructed by conventional flasking technique. They were divided into six groups according to the tests and each group was subdivided into two subgroups control and experimental groups (seven samples for each subgroup

This study expands the state of the art in studies that assess torsional retrofit of reinforced concrete (RC) multi-cell box girders with carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) strips. The torsional behavior of non-damaged and pre-damaged RC multi-cell box girder specimens externally retrofitted by CFRP strips was investigated through a series of laboratory experiments. It was found that retrofitting the pre-damaged specimens with CFRP strips increased the ultimate torsional capacity by more than 50% as compared to the un-damaged specimens subjected to equivalent retrofitting. This indicated that the retrofit has been less effective for the girder specimen that did not develop distortion beforehand as a result of pre-loading. From

This study expands the state of the art in studies that assess torsional retrofit of reinforced concrete (RC) multi-cell box girders with carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) strips. The torsional behavior of non-damaged and pre-damaged RC multi-cell box girder specimens externally retrofitted by CFRP strips was investigated through a series of laboratory experiments. It was found that retrofitting the pre-damaged specimens with CFRP strips increased the ultimate torsional capacity by more than 50% as compared to the un-damaged specimens subjected to equivalent retrofitting. This indicated that the retrofit has been less effective for the girder specimen that did not develop distortion beforehand as a result of pre-loading. From

This study aimed to detect of contamination of milk and local soft cheese with Staphylococcus aureus and their enterotoxins with attempt to detect the enterotoxin genes in some isolates of this bacteria. A total of 120 samples, 76 of raw milk and 44 of soft cheese were collected from different markets of Baghdad city. Enterotoxins in these samples were detected by VIDAS Set 2 system and it was found that enterotoxin A is present in a rate of 44.74% in milk samples and in a rate 54.50% in cheese samples. While other enterotoxins B, C, D, E were not found in any rate in any samples.
Through the study 60 isolates obtained from milk and cheeses were identified as Staphylococcus aureus by cultural, morphological and biochemical test by u