Background: Quality of life in brain tumor patients is an emerging issue and has prompted neurosurgeons to recon¬sider the need for cognitive assessment in the course of treatment. To date there has been a lack of comprehensive neuropsychological assessment performed preoperatively and in the acute postoperative period in our hospitals.Objectives: to establish the effects of tumors and their surgical treatment, from a neuropsychological perspective, on cognitive functioning in patients with cerebral Gliomas. Methods: This is a prospective study conducted in the Neurosurgical Hospital in Baghdad, Iraq, during the period from January 1999 to January 2001. Any patient admitted during the period of the study with clinical history, signs, symptoms, and contrast enhanced MRI suggesting a cerebral glioma and confirmed by postoperative histopathological results of glioma has been included in this study. While multifocal lesions, long-lasting epilepsy, use of antiepileptic therapy, multiple cranial lesions, previous cranial surgery, any chronic illness, and histopathological result of other tumors were exclusion criteria. All patients were at their first operation for brain tumors. Patients were examined by analyzing several functional domains (intelligence, executive functions, memory, language, praxis, gnosis and mood state) in order to establish the effect of tumor and surgery on cognition.Results: 29 patients who fulfilled the selection criteria were included. Mean duration of clinical history was 5 months (range 1–9 months). At baseline, using test- and domain-based criteria, 79% and 38% of patients, respectively, were impaired, the former related to tumor factors such as edema (P < 0.05), larger size (P < 0.05) and higher grade (P = 0.001). Verbal memory, visuospatial memory and word fluency were the most frequently affected functions, partly associated with depression. Postoperatively, 38% and 55% of patients, respectively, were unchanged, 24% and 21% improved, and 38% and 24% worsened; 24% and 62% of patients were intact, respec-tively.Conclusions: The extent of removal did not influence the outcome. Improvement involved previously impaired functions and was correlated with high-grade tumors. Worsening regar¬ded executive functions was related to tumor size and was partly explained by radiological findings on postoperative MRI. This prospective study, focusing on the effects of tumor and surgery, showed that tumor significantly affects cognitive func¬tions, mainly due to the mass effect and higher grading. Surgical treatment improved the functions most frequently affected preoperatively and caused worsening of execu¬tive functions soon after operation, leaving the overall cognitive burden unchanged and capable of improvement prospectively.
New series of 2-mecapto benzoxazole derivatives (1-20) incorporated into fused to different nitrogen and suphur containing heterocyclic were prepared from 2-meracpto benzoxazole, when treated with hydrazine hydrate to afford 2-hydrazino benzoxazol (1). Compound (1) converted to a variety of pyridazinone andphthalazinone derivatives (2-4) by reaction with different carboxylic anhydride. Also, reaction of (1) with phenyl isothiocyanate and ethyl chloro acetate afforded 3-phenyl-1,3-thiazolidin-2,4-dione-2-(benzoxazole-2-yl-hydrazone) (6). Azomethines (7-10) were prepared through reaction of (1) with aromatic aldehyde, then (7, 8) converted to thaizolidinone derivatives (11, 12). Treatment of (1) with active methylene compounds afforded deriva
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(1)
A cantilevered piezoelectric beam with a tip mass at its free end is a common energy harvester configuration. This paper introduces a new principle of designing such a harvester which increases the generated voltage without changing the natural frequency of the harvester: The attraction force between two permanent magnets is used to add stiffness to the system. This magnetic stiffening counters the effect of the tip mass on the natural frequency. Three setups incorporating piezoelectric bimorph cantilevers of the same type in different mechanical configurations are compared theoretically and experimentally to investigate the feasibility of this principle. Theoretical and experimental results show that magnetically stiffe
... Show MoreCatalytic microwave-assisted pyrolysis of biomass is gaining popularity as an alternative to fossil fuels due to health, environmental, climate, and economic issues. This study conducted a catalytic pyrolysis process of the Albizia plant's branches using an Iraqi clay catalyst (bentonite) focusing on the variables including the biomass-particle size, experimental time, microwave power level, and the catalyst-to-biomass ratio. The physical and chemical properties of the resulting biofuel were analyzed presented by HHV, acidity, density, viscosity, GC-MS, FTIR for bio-oil and SEM, EDX, BET, HHV, FTIR for biochar. The study revealed that addition of bentonite as a catalyst led to enhanced production of biogas produced from 5% to 45% an
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(4)
The elastic transverse electron scattering form factors have been studied for the 11Li nucleus using the Two- Frequency Shell Model (TFSM) approach. The single-particle wave functions of harmonic-oscillator (HO) potential are used with two different oscillator parameters bcore and bhalo. According to this model, the core nucleons of 9Li nucleus are assumed to move in the model space of spsdpf. The outer halo (2-neutron) in 11Li is assumed to move in the pure 1p1/2, 1d5/2, 2s1/2 orbit. The shell model calculations are carried ou
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A microbubble air flotation technique was used to remove chromium ions from simulated wastewater (e.g. water used for electroplating, textiles, paints and pigments, and tanning leather). Experimental parameters were investigated to analyze the flotation process and determine the removal efficiency. These parameters included the location of the sampling port from the bottom of the column, where the diffuser is located to the top of flotation column (30, 60, and 90 cm), the type of surfactant (anionic, SDS, or cationic, CTAB) and its concentration (5, 10, 15, and 20 mg/L), the pH of the initial solution (3, 5, 7, 9, and 11), the initial contaminant concentration (10, 20, 30, and 40 mg/L), the gas flow rate (0.1, 0.2, 0.3, and 0.5 L/mi
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In this paper, 3D simulation of the global coronal magnetic field, which use observed line of sight component of the photosphere magnetic field from (MDI/SOHO) was carried out using potential field model. The obtained results, improved the theoretical models of the coronal magnetic field, which represent a suitable lower boundary conditions (Bx, By, Bz) at the base of the linear force-free and nonlinear force free models, provides a less computationally expensive method than other models. Generally, very high speed computer and special configuration is needed to solve such problem as well as the problem of viewing the streamline of the magnetic field. For high accuracy special mathematical treatment was adopted to solve the computation comp
... Show MoreObjectives: This study aims to assess the knowledge, regarding Swine Flu pandemic among a sample of paramedical
specialty students of Medical Technology Institute (Baghdad).
Methodology: The study sample included (110) male and female students, randomly selected, and data was collected by
previously prepared questionnaire including different questions covering different clinic-epidemiological aspects of the
disease and followed by statistical analysis using simple binomial tests and average percentage of correct answers.
Results: The higher percentage of correct responses regarding causative virus 83%, it is respiratory disease 83%,
transmission among people through the droplets 83%, and by touching contaminated surface
This paper is summarized with one of the applications of adsorption behavior; A UV-Vis method has been applied to survey the isotherm of adsorption. Results for experimental showed the applicability of Langmuir equation. The effect of temperature on the adsorption of cobalt (II) Complex by bentonite surface was studied. The results shown that the amount of adsorption was formed to increase, such as the temperature increase (Endothermic process). Cobalt (II) Complex has adsorption studies by bentonite surface at different pH values (1.6-10); these studies displayed an increase in adsorption with increasing pH. ∆G, ∆H, and ∆S thermodynamic functions of the cobalt (II) Complex for their adsorption have been calculated