Background: Use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to calculate skeletal age is a novel idea. MRI provides excellent soft-tissue contrast and multiplanar cross-sectional imaging capability. It could be used as an alternative method of skeletal age determination.
Objectives: To study the value of MRI in estimating the age of healthy Iraqi adolescent males and to compare the obtained results with other countries records.
Population and methods: This cross sectional study was applied on 179 healthy adolescent males between the ages of 13 to18 years in MRI unit at radiology institute in medical city, Baghdad – Iraq. This study was carried out from November 2011 to December 2012. Magnetic resonance imaging of the left wrist was perfo

This work aimed to study the effect of laser surface treatment on the mechanical characteristics and corrosion behaviour of grey cast iron type A159. Many technical applications used conventional surface treatment, but laser surface hardening has recently been used to enhance the surface properties of many alloys. The mechanical characteristics, including microstructure, microhardness, and wear resistance of A159 grey cast iron, were studied, in addition to corrosion behaviour. The experimental laser parameters in this work were 0.9, 1.2, and 1.5 KW power with continuous wave carbon dioxide lasers with scanning speeds of 10 and 12 mm/s were used. The results found that phase-transitional alterations in microstructure were influenced by lase

The influence of sensing element length of no-core fiber strain sensor has been studied and experimentally demonstrated, four different lengths of 125 μm diameter no-core fiber is fused between two standard single-mode fibers and bi-directionally strained, the highest obtained sensitivity was around 16.37 pm με -1 which was exhibited in the shortest no-core fiber segment, to the best of our knowledge this is the first study of the influence of no-core fiber strain sensors length on sensor sensitivity. The proposed sensor can be used in many opto-mechanical applications such as, structural health monitoring, aerospace vehicles and airplane components monitoring.

The proposal of this study is demonstrating a simple vapor sensor for chloroform (CHCI₃) utilitizing air gap region of the Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) by using a single mode optical fiber coupler (3 dB) structure. In the last few decades, flammable liquids such as chloroform have been highly used. This chemical liquid has some degrees of carcinogenic effects in humans in addition to acute and chronic exposure results like blurred vision and nausea.  The two arms of MZI contain a free space gap utilized to serve the sensing mechanism by adding chemical liquid volumes (0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, and 1) ml and to set the phase difference with air-gap distance 0.5 mm. The small variation in the effective refractive index of ch

Background: Heat-cured poly (methyl methacrylate) the principal material for the fabrication of denture base have a relatively poor mechanical properties. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of glass flakes used as reinforcement on the surface hardness and surface roughness of the heat-processed acrylic resin material. Material and method: Glass flakes (product code: GF002) pretreated with silane coupling agent were added to Triplex® denture base powder using different concentrations. A total of 100 specimens of similar dimensions (65 x 10 x 2.5) mm were prepared, subdivided into 2 main groups of 50 specimens for each of the study tests. Ten specimens for the control group and 40 specimens for each of the experimental gro

Background: Hemorrhoids are one of the most
common surgical conditions .Conventional
haemorrhoidectomy was the traditional operation for
the treatment of hemorrhoids. Other modalities of
treatment had been used as an alternative operations
including CO2 laser haemorrhoidectomy.
Objectives: To determine the outcome of treatment
of hemorrhoids by using CO2 laser
haemorrhoidectomy and its advantages over
conventional surgery
Methods: This is a retrospective comparative
interventional study of 1024 case of third degree
haemorhoids selected out of 1300 case of
hemorrhoids of different degrees, admitted to
ALKINDY, ALYERMOUK teaching hospitals and
ABD ALMAGEED private hospital, from May 1998
to J

Background: The present study was carried out to compare shear bond strength of sapphire bracket bonded to zirconium surface after using different methods of surface conditioning and assessment of the adhesive remnant index. Materials and methods: The sample composed of 40 zirconium specimens divided into four groups; the first group was the control, the second group was conditioned by sandblast with aluminum oxide particle 50 μm, the third and fourth group was treated by (Nd: YAG) laser (1064nm)(0.888 Watt for 5 seconds) for the 1st laser group and (0.444 Watt for 10 seconds) for the 2nd laser group. All samples were coated by z-prime plus primer. A central incisor sapphire bracket was bonded to all samples with light cure adhesive res