BACKGROUND: Three-dimensional (3D) printing is an evolving technology that has been used recently in a wide spectrum of applications. AIM: The objective is to evaluate the application of 3D printing in various neurosurgical practice. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This pilot study was conducted in the neurosurgical hospital in Baghdad/Iraq between July 2018 and July 2019. An X, Y, and Z printer was used. The working team included neurosurgeons, biomedical engineers, and bio-technicians. The procedure starts with obtaining Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or computed tomography (CT) scan in particular protocols. The MRI, and CT or angiography images were imported into a 3D programmer for DICOM images called 3D slice where these files converted into a 3D pictures. Next, the neurosurgeon determines the cut section he needs to print. The final required object is exported to the X, Y, Z printing software where the technician starts to print it out. The final prototype delivered to the neurosurgeon. He uses it intraoperatively to have an apparent actual size 3D representation of the actual lesion with nearby healthy tissues to have a good idea about the case they manages. RESULTS: This pilot study was applied in three major projects: brain tumors (ten cases), cerebral aneurysms (nine cases), and spine surgery (14 cases). CONCLUSION: Three-dimensional printing has excellent advantages in neurosurgical practice. It can replace many other recent modalities. It enables the neurosurgeon works with more precision, less time-consuming, less cost, and less radiation exposure.
The novel heterocyclic organozinc compounds were prepared from the reaction of diazonum salt cytosine zinc chloride with thymol and vanilin as coupler components. The prepared compounds were characterized by elemental analysis and UV-Vis, FTIR and 1HMNR spectroscopic techniques. The biological activity was also studied for all prepared compounds.
Background: Whey protein is the green-yellow colored, liquid portion of the milk, and it is also called the cheese serum, it is obtained after the separation of curd, during the coagulation of the milk. It contains a considerable amount of α-helix pattern with an evenly distributed hydrophobic and hydrophilic as well as basic and acidic amino acids along with their polypeptide chain. The major whey protein constituents include β-lactoglobulin (β-LG),α-lactalbumin (α-LA), immunoglobulins (IG), bovine serum albumin (BSA), bovine lactoperoxidase (LP), bovine lactoferrin (BLF) and minor amounts of a glycol macro peptide (GMP). Osseointegration can be defined as a process that is immune driven which leads to the formatio
... Show MoreExperimental and numerical studies have been conducted on the effects of bed roughness elements such as cubic and T-section elements that are regularly half-channel arrayed on one side of the river on turbulent flow characteristics and bed erosion downstream of the roughness elements. The experimental study has been done for two types of bed roughness elements (cubic and T-section shape) to study the effect of these elements on the velocity profile downstream the elements with respect to different water flow discharges and water depths. A comparison between the cubic and T-section artificial bed roughness showed that the velocity profile downstream the T-section increased in smooth side from the river and decrease in the rough side
... Show MoreThe complexes of Schiff base (6-[Hydroxy - benzylidene)-amino]-pyrimidine-2,4-diol ) (L) with Mn(II), Fe(II), Co(II) and Ni(II) were prepared. The Schiff base and complexes have been characterized by FT-IR, 1H-NMR, UV-Vis, LC-mass spectra, magnetic moment, elemental microanalyses (C.H.N.), chloride containing, atomic absorption and molar conductance.
The Schiff base, metal salts and complexes were also screened for their bioactivity such as antibacterial and antifungal.
NeighShrink is an efficient image denoising algorithm based on the discrete wavelet
transform (DWT). Its disadvantage is to use a suboptimal universal threshold and identical
neighbouring window size in all wavelet subbands. Dengwen and Wengang proposed an
improved method, which can determine an optimal threshold and neighbouring window size
for every subband by the Stein’s unbiased risk estimate (SURE). Its denoising performance is
considerably superior to NeighShrink and also outperforms SURE-LET, which is an up-todate
denoising algorithm based on the SURE. In this paper different wavelet transform
families are used with this improved method, the results show that Haar wavelet has the
lowest performance among
This investigation was conducted to examine some physical and chemical properties of sand dunes collected from Basrah (1 '2 and 3) 'Nassiriya (4 and 5) and Amara (6) provinces that situated in lower Mesopotamia plain.
The results indicate clearly that the dominant particles in the samples were sand that were ranging from (81) % to (97) %, however the aggregated size of (0.1 - 0.25) mm were predominates in the investigated sand dunes of the region . Also the study shows that the content of the organic matter and potassium ions were very low (0.1- 0.4% '0.02 -0.22 meq I 100 gm soil. Further more the current result shows high a percentage of calcium carbonate (20.3 - 42.5%). In addition, the study has found a
... Show MoreThe effect of doping by methyl red and methyl blue on the absorption spectra and the optical energy gap of poly (methyl methacrylat) PMMA film have been studied. The optical transmission (T%) in the wavelength range 190-900 nm for films deposited by using solvent casting method were measured. The Absorptance data reveals that the doping affected the absorption edge as a red and blue shift in its values. The films show indirect allowed interband transitions that influenced by the doping. Optical constants; refractive index, extinction coefficient and real and imaginary part of dielectric constant were calculated and correlated with doping.
A particulate polymer composite material was prepared by reinforcing with the Aluminum Oxide (Al2O3) or Aluminum (Al) metallic particles with a particle size of (30) µm to an unsaturated Polyester Resin with a weight fraction of (5%, 10%, 15%, 20%).
Tensile test results showed the maximum value of elastic modulus reached (2400MPa.) in the case of reinforcing with (Al) particles with weight fraction (20%) and (1500 MPa.) in the case of reinforcing with (Al2O3) particles of the same weight fraction.
When the impact and the flexural strength tests were done, the results showed that flexural strength (F.S), maximum shear stress (τmax), impact strength
... Show MoreThis research was conducted to determine the effect of different concentrations of (milkthistle) Silbum marianum leaves extracts on some plant pathogenic fungi included: Fusarium oxysporum, Alternaria sp., and Botrytis cinerea. Results showed the high antifungal activity of milk thistle leaves extract; this was evident at high concentration of extract (80) mg\ml, which completely inhibited the radial growth on solid media (PDA) for pathogens Fusarium oxysporum and Botrytis cinerea. While the spores of pathogen Alternaria sp. was able to grow in all concentration which used in this study. &n
... Show MoreIn the present study a new synthesis method has been introduced for the decoration of platinum(Pt) on the functionalized graphene nanoplatelet (GNP) and also highlighted the preparation method of nanofluids. GNP–Pt uniform nanocomposite was produced from a simple chemical reaction procedure, which included acid treatment for functionalization of GNP. The surface characterization was performed by various techniques such as XRD, FESEMand TEM. The effective thermal conductivity, density, viscosity, specific heat capacity and stability of functionalized GNP–Pt water based nanofluids were investigated in different instruments. The GNP–Pt hybrid nanofluids were prepared by dispersing the nanocomposite in base fluid without adding any surfac
... Show More