Breast cancer constitutes about one fourth of the registered cancer cases among the Iraqi population (1)
and it is the leading cause of death among Iraqi women (2)
. Each year more women are exposed to the vicious
ramifications of this disease which include death if left unmanaged or the negative sequels that they would
experience, cosmetically and psychologically, after exposure to radical mastectomy.
The World Health Organization (WHO) documented that early detection and screening, when coped
with adequate therapy, could offer a reduction in breast cancer mortality; displaying that the low survival rates
in less developed countries, including Iraq, is mainly attributed to the lack of early detection programs coupled
with inadequate diagnostic and treatment facilities (3)
. Although mammography machines, as main screening
tools for breast cancer, are available in the major hospitals in each province in Iraq, yet those are mainly used
for diagnostic purposes in patients who present with palpable breast lumps. Obviously, due to cost effective
measures, lack of resources and the economical challenges that Iraq is facing, it is not expected that the
authorities could provide mammography devices across every health care centre in the country to be used for
screening of all Iraqi women.
Accordingly, promoting other feasible tools could support in solving that dilemma. Clinical Breast
Examination (CBE) for women, by highly trained health care providers in Primary Health Care Centers, along
with diagnostic mammography in the major hospitals for referred cases, could offer cost effective approaches
for early detection of breast cancer in Iraq. The resources required to provide these services are within the
reach of all countries with limited resources
(4)
.
The issue of raising awareness on breast cancer and its early detection measures needs to be addressed.
Observations reported in Iraqi studies obviously reflect the the limited knowledge of the general population
about the disease, its preventive measures and their ignorance regarding the significance of CBE and early
medical consultation (5, 6)
. Public health awareness campaigns should be endorsed by policy makers to encourage every Iraqi women to look for abnormal signs and symptoms in their breasts and to seek medical
advice promptly.
Gas hydrate formation poses a significant threat to the production, processing, and transportation of natural gas. Accurate predictions of gas hydrate equilibrium conditions are essential for designing the gas production systems at safe operating conditions and mitigating the problems caused by hydrates formation. A new hydrate correlation for predicting gas hydrate equilibrium conditions was obtained for different gas mixtures containing methane, nitrogen and carbon dioxide. The new correlation is proposed for a pressure range of 1.7-330 MPa, a temperature range of 273-320 K, and for gas mixtures with specific gravity range of 0.553 to 1. The nonlinear regression technique was applie
Active Magnetic Bearings (AMBs) are progressively being implemented in a wide variety of applications. Their exclusive appealing features make them suitable for solving traditional rotor-bearing problems using novel design approaches for rotating machinery. In this paper, a linearized uncertain model of AMBs is utilized to develop a nonlinear sliding mode controller based on Lyapunov function for the electromechanical system. The controller requires measurements of the rotor displacements and their derivatives. Since the control law is discontinuous, the proposed controller can achieve a finite time regulation but with the drawback of the chattering problem. To reduce the effect of this problem, the gain of the uni
... Show MoreThis paper addresses the use of adaptive sliding mode control for the servo actuator system with friction. The adaptive sliding mode control has several advantages over traditional sliding mode control method. Firstly, the magnitude of control effort is reduced to the minimal admissible level defined by the conditions for the sliding mode to exist. Secondly, the upper bounds of uncertainties are not required to be known in advance. Therefore, adaptive sliding mode control method can be effectively implemented. The numerical simulation via MATLAB 2014a for servo actuator system with friction is investigated to confirm the effectiveness of the proposed robust adaptive sliding mode control scheme. The results clarify, after
... Show MorePPSU hollow fiber nanofiltration membranes are prepared by applying two concentrations and various extrusion pressures according to the phase inversion method. Cross-sectional area and outer structures were characterized by using scanning electron microscope (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). In additional to the pore size distribution, either the mean roughness or the mean pore size of the PPSU hollow fiber surfaces was evaluated by AFM. It was found that the morphology of the PPSU fibers had both sponge-like and finger-like structures through different extrusion pressures and PPSU concentrations. The mean pore size and mean roughness for inner and outer surfaces were seen to be decreased with the increase of extrusion pressure at
... Show MoreIn this article, we recalled different types of iterations as Mann, Ishikawa, Noor, CR-iteration and, Modified SP_iteration of quasi δ-contraction mappings, and we proved that all these iterations equivalent to approximate fixed points of δ-contraction mappings in Banach spaces.
This paper presents a new transform method to solve partial differential equations, for finding suitable accurate solutions in a wider domain. It can be used to solve the problems without resorting to the frequency domain. The new transform is combined with the homotopy perturbation method in order to solve three dimensional second order partial differential equations with initial condition, and the convergence of the solution to the exact form is proved. The implementation of the suggested method demonstrates the usefulness in finding exact solutions. The practical implications show the effectiveness of approach and it is easily implemented in finding exact solutions.
Finally, all algori
... Show MoreBrachytherapy treatment is primarily used for the certain handling kinds of cancerous tumors. Using radionuclides for the study of tumors has been studied for a very long time, but the introduction of mathematical models or radiobiological models has made treatment planning easy. Using mathematical models helps to compute the survival probabilities of irradiated tissues and cancer cells. With the expansion of using HDR-High dose rate Brachytherapy and LDR-low dose rate Brachytherapy for the treatment of cancer, it requires fractionated does treatment plan to irradiate the tumor. In this paper, authors have discussed dose calculation algorithms that are used in Brachytherapy treatment planning. Precise and less time-consuming calculations
... Show MoreThe alluvial fan of Mandali located between latitude 30˚45’00” N longitude 45˚30’00” E in east of Diyala Governorate, Iraq. Thirty-five wells were identified in the study area with average depth of 84 m and estimated area of 21550 ha. A three-dimensional conceptual model was prepared by using GMS program. From wells cross sections, four geological layers have been identified. The hydraulic conductivity of these layers was calculated for steady state condition, where the water levels for nine wells distributed over the study area were observed at same time. Afterward, PEST facility in the GMS was used to estimate the aquifer hydraulic characteristics. Other characteristics such as storage coefficient and specific yield have
... Show MoreThis paper describes the use of microcomputer as a laboratory instrument system. The system is focused on three weather variables measurement, are temperature, wind speed, and wind direction. This instrument is a type of data acquisition system; in this paper we deal with the design and implementation of data acquisition system based on personal computer (Pentium) using Industry Standard Architecture (ISA)bus. The design of this system involves mainly a hardware implementation, and the software programs that are used for testing, measuring and control. The system can be used to display the required information that can be transferred and processed from the external field to the system. A visual basic language with Microsoft foundation cl
... Show MoreThe state and partial level densities were calculated using the corresponding formulas that are obtained in the frame work of the exciton model with equidistant spacing model (ESM) and non-ESM (NESM). Different corrections have been considered, which are obtained from other nuclear principles or models. These corrections are Pauli Exclusion Principle, surface effect, pairing effect, back shift due to shell effect and bound state effect . They are combined together in a composite formula with the intention to reach the final formula. One-component system at energies less than 100 MeV and mass number range (50-200) is assumed in the present work. It was found that Williams, plus spin formula is the most effective approach to the composite
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