This research aims to improve the radiation shielding properties of polymer-based materials by mixing PVC with locally available building materials. Specifically, two key parameters of fast neutron attenuation (removal cross-section and half-value layer) were studied for composite materials comprising PVC reinforced with common building materials (cement, sand, gypsum and marble) in different proportions (10%, 30% and 50% by weight). To assess their effectiveness as protection against fast neutrons, the macroscopic neutron cross-section was calculated for each composite. Results show that neutron cross-section values are significantly affected by the reinforcement ratios, and that the composite material PVC + 50% gypsum is an effect

ABSTRACT Background: Cortical bone thickness is important for the stability of mini implants. Placing mini implants in sites of favorable cortical bone thickness would guarantee better initial stability and long-term success. The aim of this study was to investigate gender, side and jaw differences of the buccal cortical bone thickness as a guide for orthodontic mini screw placement. Materials and Methods: The sample was selected from the patients attending the Specialized Health Center in Al-Sadr City / 3D department. Thirty patients (15 males and 15 females) were selected and cone beam computerized tomographic images were done. Then the buccal cortical bone thickness was measured at thirteen inter radicular sites in the maxilla and mandib

This paper presents a combination of enhancement techniques for fingerprint images affected by different type of noise. These techniques were applied to improve image quality and come up with an acceptable image contrast. The proposed method included five different enhancement techniques: Normalization, Histogram Equalization, Binarization, Skeletonization and Fusion. The Normalization process standardized the pixel intensity which facilitated the processing of subsequent image enhancement stages. Subsequently, the Histogram Equalization technique increased the contrast of the images. Furthermore, the Binarization and Skeletonization techniques were implemented to differentiate between the ridge and valley structures and to obtain one

The detection of diseases affecting wheat is very important as it relates to the issue of food security, which poses a serious threat to human life. Recently, farmers have heavily relied on modern systems and techniques for the control of the vast agricultural areas. Computer vision and data processing play a key role in detecting diseases that affect plants, depending on the images of their leaves. In this article, Fuzzy- logic based Histogram Equalization (FHE) is proposed to enhance the contrast of images. The fuzzy histogram is applied to divide the histograms into two subparts of histograms, based on the average value of the original image, then equalize them freely and independently to conserve the brightness of the image. The prop

Disease diagnosis with computer-aided methods has been extensively studied and applied in diagnosing and monitoring of several chronic diseases. Early detection and risk assessment of breast diseases based on clinical data is helpful for doctors to make early diagnosis and monitor the disease progression. The purpose of this study is to exploit the Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) in discriminating breast MRI scans into pathological and healthy. In this study, a fully automated and efficient deep features extraction algorithm that exploits the spatial information obtained from both T2W-TSE and STIR MRI sequences to discriminate between pathological and healthy breast MRI scans. The breast MRI scans are preprocessed prior to the feature

    Manufacturing high-efficiency polymeric materials to moderate fast neutrons by converting them into slow or thermal neutrons. These materials absorb thermal neutrons as well as gamma rays associated with neutrons. Materials of small mass number are used to slow down fast neutrons because neutrons have a high cross-section when they interact with these materials. Materials of high mass number absorb gamma rays. Polyurethane and epoxy were mixed in various ratios to create a blend to serve as neutrons shield, lead (Pb) was then added to the blend at weight percentages of 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, and 70% to produce a polymer composite.

    Polymeric materials reinforced with lead in various ratios were tested to select the best

The performance quality and searching speed of Block Matching (BM) algorithm are affected by shapes and sizes of the search patterns used in the algorithm. In this paper, Kite Cross Hexagonal Search (KCHS) is proposed. This algorithm uses different search patterns (kite, cross, and hexagonal) to search for the best Motion Vector (MV). In first step, KCHS uses cross search pattern. In second step, it uses one of kite search patterns (up, down, left, or right depending on the first step). In subsequent steps, it uses large/small Hexagonal Search (HS) patterns. This new algorithm is compared with several known fast block matching algorithms. Comparisons are based on search points and Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR). According to resul