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.
This research aims to understand complexity management and its impact on the use of the dynamic capabilities of a sample of private colleges. Private colleges are currently facing many crises, changes, unrest and high competitive pressures. Which is sometimes difficult or even impossible to predict. The recruitment of dynamic capabilities is also one of the challenges facing senior management at private colleges to help them survive and survive. Thus, the problem of research was (there is a clear insufficiency of interest in Complexity Management and trying to employ it in improving the dynamic capabilities of Colleges that have been discussed?). A group of private colleges was selected as a
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Evaluating the behavior of a ring foundation resting on multi-layered soil is one of the important issues facing civil engineers. Many researchers have studied the behavior of ring foundation rests on multi-layered soil with vertical loads acting on the foundation. In real life ring foundation can be subjected to both vertical and horizontal loads at the same time due to wind or the presence of soil. In this research, the behavior of ring footing subjected to inclined load has been studied using PLAXIS software. Furthermore, the effect of multi-layered soil has been simulated in the model. The results showed that both vertical and horizontal stresses are mainly affected when the inclination angle of the load exceeded 45 degrees with a reduc
... Show MoreIn this research, some robust non-parametric methods were used to estimate the semi-parametric regression model, and then these methods were compared using the MSE comparison criterion, different sample sizes, levels of variance, pollution rates, and three different models were used. These methods are S-LLS S-Estimation -local smoothing, (M-LLS)M- Estimation -local smoothing, (S-NW) S-Estimation-NadaryaWatson Smoothing, and (M-NW) M-Estimation-Nadarya-Watson Smoothing.
The results in the first model proved that the (S-LLS) method was the best in the case of large sample sizes, and small sample sizes showed that the
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The high and low water levels in Tigris River threaten the banks of the river. The study area is located on the main stream of Tigris River at Nu’maniyah City and the length of the considered reach is 5.4 km, especially the region from 400 m upstream Nu’maniyah Bridge and downstream of the bridge up to 1250 mwhich increased the risk ofthe problemthat itheading towardsthe streetand causingdanger tonearbyareas.
The aim of this research is to identify the reason of slope collapse and find proper treatments for erosion problem in the river banks with the least cost. The modeling approach consisted of several steps, the first of which is by using “mini” JET (Jet Erosion Test) d
... Show MoreThis paper proposes a new approach, of Clustering Ultrasound images using the Hybrid Filter (CUHF) to determine the gender of the fetus in the early stages. The possible advantage of CUHF, a better result can be achieved when fuzzy c-mean FCM returns incorrect clusters. The proposed approach is conducted in two steps. Firstly, a preprocessing step to decrease the noise presented in ultrasound images by applying the filters: Local Binary Pattern (LBP), median, median and discrete wavelet (DWT),(median, DWT & LBP) and (median & Laplacian) ML. Secondly, implementing Fuzzy C-Mean (FCM) for clustering the resulted images from the first step. Amongst those filters, Median & Laplace has recorded a better accuracy. Our experimental evaluation on re
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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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Zinc sulfide (ZnS) thin films were deposited on glass substrates using pulsed laser deposition technique. The laser used is the Q-switched Nd: YAG laser with 1064nm wavelength and 1Hz pulse repetition rate and varying laser energy 700mJ-1000mJ with 25 pulse. The substrate temperature was kept constant at 100°C. The structural, morphological and optical properties of ZnS thin films were characterized with X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscope (AFM) and UV-VIS spectrophotometer.
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In this work, some mechanical properties of the polymer coating were improved by preparing a hybrid system containing Graphene (GR) of different weight percentages (0.25, 0.5, 1, and 2wt%) with 5wt% carbon fibres (CF) and added to a polymer coating by using casting method. The properties were improved as GR was added with further improvement on adding 5wt% of CF. The impact strength of acrylic polymer with GR increases with increasing weight ratio of GR; maximum value was obtained when the polymer coating was incorporated with 1wt% GR and 5wt% CF. The impact strength of acrylic polymer with GR and GR/CF composites incorporated with GR at 1wt% and CF at 5wt%. Hardness increase with increasing weight ratio of Gr and a significant imp
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Nanostructure of chromium oxide (Cr2O3-NPs) with rhombohedral structure were successfully prepared by spray pyrolysis technique using Aqueous solution of Chromium (III) chloride CrCl3 as solution. The films were deposited on glass substrates heated to 450°C using X-ray diffraction (XRD) shows the nature of polycrystalline samples. The calculated lattice constant value for the grown Cr2O3 nanostructures is a = b = 4.959 Å & c = 13.594 Å and the average crystallize size (46.3-55.6) nm calculated from diffraction peaks, Spectral analysis revealed FTIR peak characteristic vibrations of Cr-O Extended and Two sharp peaks present at 630 and 578 cm-1 attributed to Cr-O “stretching
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This work studies with produce of light fuel fractions of gasoline, kerosene and gas oil from treatment of residual matter that will be obtained from the solvent extraction process as by product from refined lubricate to improve oil viscosity index in any petroleum refinery. The percentage of this byproduct is approximately 10% according to all feed (crude oil) in the petroleum refinery process. The objective of this research is to study the effect of the residence time parameter on the thermal cracking process of the byproduct feed at a constant temperature, (400 °C). The first step of this treatment is the thermal cracking of this byproduct material by a constructed batch reactor occupied with control device at a selective range of re
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