Introduction The Hybrid Gamma Camera (HGC) is being developed to enhance the localisation of radiopharmaceutical uptake in targeted tissues during surgical procedures such as sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy. Purpose To assess the capability of the HGC, a lymph-node-contrast (LNC) phantom was constructed for an evaluative study simulating medical scenarios of varying radioactivity concentration and SLN size. Materials and methods The phantom was constructed using two methyl methacrylate PMMA plates (8 mm thick). The SLNs were simulated by drilling circular wells of diameters ranging between 10 mm and 2.5 mm (16 wells in total) in one plate. These simulated SLNs were placed underneath scattering material with thicknesses ranging between 5 mm and 40 mm. The second plate contains four rectangular wells to simulate background activity uptake surrounding the SLNs. The activity used ranged between 4 MBq and 0.025 MBq for the SLNs. The background activity was 1/10 of the SLNs activity. The collimator to source distance was 120 mm. Results Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) analysis and spatial resolution measurements of the simulated SLN were used to compare the imaging sets over acquisition times ranging between 60s and 240s. The HGC successfully detected 87.5% to 100% of the SLNs through 20mm of scattering material, and it could detect 75% to 93.75% of the SLNs through 40mm of scattering material. Measurement of Full-Width-at-Half-Maximum (FWHM) for the detected SLNs ranged between 9.5 mm and 12 mm. Conclusion The HGC is capable of detecting low activity uptake in small SLNs indicating its usefulness as an intraoperative imaging system during surgical SLN procedures.
Delays occur commonly in construction projects. Assessing the impact of delay is sometimes a contentious
issue. Several delay analysis methods are available but no one method can be universally used over another in
all situations. The selection of the proper analysis method depends upon a variety of factors including
information available, time of analysis, capabilities of the methodology, and time, funds and effort allocated to the analysis. This paper presents computerized schedule analysis programmed that use daily windows analysis method as it recognized one of the most credible methods, and it is one of the few techniques much more likely to be accepted by courts than any other method. A simple case study has been implement
According to different types of democracy Indexes, hybrid regimes or those in the gray zone, make up the majority of regime transformations in the third wave of democracy. However, after nearly three decades, conceptual confusion about hybrid regimes persists and grows, while obstructing the accumulation of knowledge about the nature of hybrid regimes. This leads to significant political repercussions for democratization. This Paper attempts to provide a clearer view of different and overlapping concepts and classifications in this complex field, and sustain development in literature on democratic transformation. To achieve this, we followed an approach based on the classification of concepts and terms in three distinct categories, b
... Show MoreAfamin, which is a human plasma glycoprotein, a putative multifunctional transporter of hydrophobic molecules and a marker for metabolic syndrome. Afamin concentration have been proposed to have a significant role as a predictor of metabolic disorders. Since NAFLD is associated with metabolic risk factors, e.g., dyslipidemia, insulin resistance and visceral obesity, it is considered as the hepatic manifestation of the metabolic syndrome. The objective of this study is to determine Afamin levels in hypothyroid patients with and without fatty liver disease and compare the results with controls. Also to study the relationship of Afamin level with the Anthropometric and Clinical Features (Age, Gender, BMI and Duration of Hypothyroidism) , Serum
... Show MoreThe effects of T-shaped fins on the improvement of phase change materials (PCM) melting are numerically investigated in vertical triple-tube storage containment. The PCM is held in the middle pipe of a triple-pipe heat exchanger while the heat transfer fluid flows through the internal and external pipes. The dimension effects of the T-shaped fins on the melting process of the PCM are investigated to determine the optimum case. Results indicate that while using T-shaped fins improves the melting performance of the PCM, the improvement potential is mainly governed by the fin’s body rather than the head. Hence, the proposed T-shaped fin did not noticeably improve melting at the bottom of the PCM domain; additionally, a flat fin is ad
... Show MoreThis study included the isolation and identification of Aspergillus flavus isolates associated with imported American rice grains and local corn grains which collected from local markets, using UV light with 365 nm wave length and different media (PDA, YEA, COA, and CDA ). One hundred and seven fungal isolates were identified in rice and 147 isolates in corn.4 genera and 7 species were associated with grains, the genera were Aspergillus ,Fusarium ,Neurospora ,Penicillium . Aspergillus was dominant with occurrence of 0.47% and frequency of 11.75% in rice grains whereas in corn grains the genus Neurospora was dominant with occurrence of 1.09% and frequency 27.25% ,results revealed that 20 isolates out of 50 A. flavus isolates were able
... Show MoreThe goal of this work is to check the presence of PNS (photon number splitting) attack in quantum cryptography system based on BB84 protocol, and to get a maximum secure key length as possible. This was achieved by randomly interleaving decoy states with mean photon numbers of 5.38, 1.588 and 0.48 between the signal states with mean photon numbers of 2.69, 0.794 and 0.24. The average length for a secure key obtained from our system discarding the cases with Eavesdropping was equal to 125 with 20 % decoy states and 82 with 50% decoy states for mean photon number of 0.794 for signal states and 1.588 for decoy states.