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.
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The issue of increasing the range covered by a wireless sensor network with restricted sensors is addressed utilizing improved CS employing the PSO algorithm and opposition-based learning (ICS-PSO-OBL). At first, the iteration is carried out by updating the old solution dimension by dimension to achieve independent updating across the dimensions in the high-dimensional optimization problem. The PSO operator is then incorporated to lessen the preference random walk stage's imbalance between exploration and exploitation ability. Exceptional individuals are selected from the population using OBL to boost the chance of finding the optimal solution based on the fitness value. The ICS-PSO-OBL is used to maximize coverage in WSN by converting r
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This paper describes a practical study on the impact of learning's partners, Bluetooth Broadcasting system, interactive board, Real – time response system, notepad, free internet access, computer based examination, and interaction classroom, etc, had on undergraduate student performance, achievement and involving with lectures. The goal of this study is to test the hypothesis that the use of such learning techniques, tools, and strategies to improve student learning especially among the poorest performing students. Also, it gives some kind of practical comparison between the traditional way and interactive way of learning in terms of lectures time, number of tests, types of tests, student's scores, and student's involving with lectures
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Background : It has been suggested that pretreatment with a statin agent prior to
myocardial infarction limits myocardial
creatine kinase release, and thus may act to
limit myocardial infarct size in humans.
Objective : To examine the effect of very
early statin initiation for acute myocardial
infarction (AMI), to the extent of
myonecrosis as manifested by peak serum
creatine kinase levels.
Methods : Patients with AMI admitted to AlKindy teaching hospital cardiac care unit
from 1st February 2007 to 28th February
2008, who fulfilled the inclusion criteria
cited in the present study, were randomly
assigned into two study groups. The statin
group patients have received a single oral
dose of 40 mg
AA3003-H14 aluminum alloy plates were welded by friction stir welding and TIG welding.
Fatigue properties of the welded joints were evaluated based on the superior tensile properties for
FSW at 1500 rpm rotational speed and 80 mm/min welding speed. However, there is not much
information available on effect of welding parameters with evolution of fatigue life of friction stir
welds. The present study experimentally analyzed fatigue properties for base, FSW, and TIG welds
of AA 3003-H14 aluminum alloy. Fatigue properties of FSW joints were slightly lower than the
base metal and higher than TIG welding.
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Inelastic longitudinal electron scattering form factors have been calculated for isoscaler transition
T = 0 of the (0+ ®2+ ) and (0+ ®4+ ) transitions for the 20Ne ,24Mg and 28Si nuclei. Model
space wave function defined by the orbits 1d5 2 ,2s1 2 and 1d3 2 can not give reasonable result for
the form factor. The core-polarization effects are evaluated by adopting the shape of the Tassie-
Model, together with the calculated ground Charge Density Distribution CDD for the low mass 2s-1d
shell nuclei using the occupation number of the states where the sub-shell 2s is included with an
occupation number of protons (a ) .
An experimental model is used to simulate the loss of soil lateral confinement due to excavation nearby an individual axially loaded pile. The effects of various parameters, such as the horizontal distance of excavation, depth of excavation and pile slenderness ratios are investigated. The experimental analysis results showed the effect of excavation is more remarkable as the horizontal distance of excavation becomes closer to the pile than half pile length. The effect of excavation diminishes gradually as the horizontal distance increases beyond that distance for all the investigated pile slenderness ratios and depths of excavation. The pile head deflection, settlement and bending moments along pile increase with decreasing horizontal d
... Show MoreIn the present work, the behavior of thick-walled cylinder of elasto-plastic material (polymeric material) has been studied analytically. The study is based on modified Von-Mises yield criterion (for non metallic material). The equations of stress distribution are obtained for the cylinder under general cases of elastic expansion, plastic initiation and elastic-plastic expansion.
A computer program is developed for evaluating the stress distribution. The solution is carried out for worst boundary conditions when the cylinder is subjected to the combination of pressure load, inertia load, and temperature gradient.
The results are presente
... Show MoreAn integrated GIS-VBA (Geographical Information System – Visual Basic for Application), model is developed for selecting an optimum water harvesting dam location among an available locations in a watershed. The proposed model allows quick and precise estimation of an adopted weighted objective function for each selected location. In addition to that for each location, a different dam height is used as a nominee for optimum selection. The VBA model includes an optimization model with a weighted objective function that includes beneficiary items (positive) , such as the available storage , the dam height allowed by the site as an indicator for the potential of hydroelectric power generation , the rainfall rate as a source of water . In a
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The current research aims to adopt production quality decisions as the most important decisions , because they are accompanied by customer satisfaction through monitoring the quality of drinking water in iraq which reach through the pipeline network associated with water treatment projects of Tigris and Euphrates rivers. One of the indicators of quality control was the drawing of the C-chart by specifying the central line and the upper and lower limit of the control and the diagnosis of whether the production system as a whole within the scope of quality control or not and determine the strength and significance of the correlation between the quantities of water And actual needs for customers , the research has reached a number o
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