ABSTRACTBackground: cochlear implants are electronic devices that convert sound energy into electrical signals to stimulate ganglion cells and cochlear nerve fibers. These devices are indicated for patients with severe to profound sensorineural hearing losses who receive little or no benefit from hearing aids. The implant basically takes over the function of the cochlear hair cells. The implant consists of external components (microphone, speech processor and transmitting coil) and internal components (receiver stimulator and electrode array). The implant is inserted via a trans mastoid facial recess approach to the round window and scala tympani.Objectives: to determine the effectiveness and safety of non fixation method in cochlear implantation.Methods: a prospective study carried out from September 2009 to September 2012 in Gazi Hariri Hospital. Eighty patients with congenital severe –profound sensorineural hearing loss prepared for cochlear implantation involved in the study and divided into 2 groups. Group A includes 40 patients in whom the internal device was fixed to the skull by nylon suture materials through small burr holes on both sides of the well. Group B includes 40 patients in whom the internal device placed in a tight sub pericranial pocket without nylon fixation to the skull. All patients followed postoperatively for 6 months observing wound healing and local complications (hematoma, infection, wound dehiscence, device extrusion and migration).Results: mean age 4.2 years and male-female ratio was 1.3:1.Group A: 1 patient (2.5%) developed minor wound infection treated conservatively. Three patients (7.5%) developedsevere wound infection with wound breakdown and device extrusion despite the use of antibiotics and local rotational flaps, the device was explanted in those 3 patients. Two patients (5%) developed hematoma without history of trauma and treated conservatively. One patient (2.5%) had device migration without affection of its function.Group B: 2 patients developed minor wound infection treated conservatively. One patient (2.5%) had severe wound infection ends up with wound dehiscence and device extrusion despite the use of antibiotics and local rotational flaps. Explantation of the device was done for this patient. Hematoma occurred in one patient (2.5%) without history of trauma and treated conservatively. Another one patient (2.5%) developed device migration without impairment of its function.Conclusion: creation of sub pericranial pocket without internal device fixation by nylon materials is an effective and reliable method in cochlear implantation without compromising the patient safety or device performance.Key words: cochlear implantation, non- fixation, sub pericranial pocket
A coin has two sides. Steganography although conceals the existence of a message but is not completely secure. It is not meant to supersede cryptography but to supplement it. The main goal of this method is to minimize the number of LSBs that are changed when substituting them with the bits of characters in the secret message. This will lead to decrease the distortion (noise) that is occurred in the pixels of the stego-image and as a result increase the immunity of the stego-image against the visual attack. The experiment shows that the proposed method gives good enhancement to the steganoraphy technique and there is no difference between the cover-image and the stego-image that can be seen by the human vision system (HVS), so this method c
... Show MoreWe propose a new method for detecting the abnormality in cerebral tissues present within Magnetic Resonance Images (MRI). Present classifier is comprised of cerebral tissue extraction, image division into angular and distance span vectors, acquirement of four features for each portion and classification to ascertain the abnormality location. The threshold value and region of interest are discerned using operator input and Otsu algorithm. Novel brain slices image division is introduced via angular and distance span vectors of sizes 24˚ with 15 pixels. Rotation invariance of the angular span vector is determined. An automatic image categorization into normal and abnormal brain tissues is performed using Support Vector Machine (SVM). St
... Show MoreLoanwords are the words transferred from one language to another, which become essential part of the borrowing language. The loanwords have come from the source language to the recipient language because of many reasons. Detecting these loanwords is complicated task due to that there are no standard specifications for transferring words between languages and hence low accuracy. This work tries to enhance this accuracy of detecting loanwords between Turkish and Arabic language as a case study. In this paper, the proposed system contributes to find all possible loanwords using any set of characters either alphabetically or randomly arranged. Then, it processes the distortion in the pronunciation, and solves the problem of the missing lette
... Show MoreThe main objective of this paper is to study the behavior of Non-Prismatic Reinforced Concrete (NPRC) beams with and without rectangular openings either when exposed to fire or not. The experimental program involves casting and testing 9 NPRC beams divided into 3 main groups. These groups were categorized according to heating temperature (ambient temperature, 400°C, and 700°C), with each group containing 3 NPRC beams (solid beams and beams with 6 and 8 trapezoidal openings). For beams with similar geometry, increasing the burning temperature results in their deterioration as reflected in their increasing mid-span deflection throughout the fire exposure period and their residual deflection after cooling. Meanwhile, the existing ope
... Show MoreThe main objective of this paper is to study the behavior of Non-Prismatic Reinforced Concrete (NPRC) beams with and without rectangular openings either when exposed to fire or not. The experimental program involves casting and testing 9 NPRC beams divided into 3 main groups. These groups were categorized according to heating temperature (ambient temperature, 400°C, and 700°C), with each group containing 3 NPRC beams (solid beams and beams with 6 and 8 trapezoidal openings). For beams with similar geometry, increasing the burning temperature results in their deterioration as reflected in their increasing mid-span deflection throughout the fire exposure period and their residual deflection after cooling. Meanwhile, the existing ope
... Show MoreNon-prismatic reinforced concrete (RC) beams are widely used for various practical purposes, including enhancing architectural aesthetics and increasing the overall thickness in the support area above the column, which gives high assurance to services that this will not result in the distortion of construction features and can reduce heights. The hollow sections (recess) can also be used for the maintenance of large structural sections and the safe passage of utility lines of water, gas, telecommunications, electricity, etc. They are generally used in large and complex civil engineering works like bridges. This study conducted a numerical study using the commercial finite element software ANSYS version 15 for analysing RC beams, hol
... Show MoreBackground: Diabetes mellitus is a major risk factor for chronic periodontitis (CP) and hyperglycemia has an important role in the enhancement of the severity of the periodontitis. It has been reported that the progression of CP causes shifting of the balance between bone formation and resorption toward osteoclastic resorption, and this will lead to the release of collagenous bone breakdown products into the local tissues and the systemic circulation. Cross-linked N-telopeptide of type I collagen (NTx) is the amino-terminal peptides of type I collagen which is released during the process of bone resorption. This study was conducted to determine the effects of nonsurgical periodontal therapy on serum level of NTx in type 2 diabetic patients
... Show MoreThis research deals with the risks of non-compliance and its impact on the profitability of Islamic banks. Research variables were measured and analyzed as the risk of non-compliance as an independent variableand profitability as a dependent variable. The profitability was measured by three indicators ((rate of return on assets, rate of return on equity and rate of return on Total deposits)) The results of the research showed a significant relationship between the risk of non-compliance and the rate of return on assets and rate of return on total deposits, while there was no relationship between the risk of non-compliance and rate of return on ownership. The research recommended that the senior management of the Islamic Investment Bank s
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