Objectives: Small field of view gamma detection and imaging technologies for monitoring in vivo tracer uptake are rapidly expanding and being introduced for bed-side imaging and image guided surgical procedures. The Hybrid Gamma Camera (HGC) has been developed to enhance the localization of targeted radiopharmaceuticals during surgical procedures; for example in sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsies and for bed-side imaging in procedures such as lacrimal drainage imaging and thyroid scanning. In this study, a prototype anthropomorphic head and neck phantom has been designed, constructed, and evaluated using representative modelled medical scenarios to study the capability of the HGC to detect SLNs and image small organs. Methods: An anthropomorphic head and neck phantom has been designed to mimic the adult head and neck including some internal organs and tissues of interest, such as the thyroid gland and sentinel lymph nodes. The design of the head and neck phantom included an adjustable inner jig holding the simulated SLNs and thyroid gland. The simulated thyroid gland was designed and 3D printed taking into consideration the size and the shape of a healthy adult thyroid gland. The inner sealed space of the thyroid was filled with 15MBq of 99mTc through two upper filling valves. Sealed micro-tubes (0.2ml) have been employed to simulate SLNs containing various 99mTc activity concentrations ranging between 0.1MBq and 1MBq, and can be positioned at any desired place in the head and neck region. An active background was simulated through mixing 10MBq of 99mTc solution with the water used to fill the outer shell of the head and neck phantom. Results: The head and neck phantom was employed to simulate a situation where there are four SLNs distributed at two different vertical levels and at two depths within the neck. Contrast to noise ratio (CNR) calculations were performed for the detected SLNs at an 80mm distance between both pinhole collimators (i.e. 0.5mm and 1.0mm diameters) and the surface of the head and neck phantom with a 100s acquisition time. The recorded CNR values for the simulated SLNs are higher when the HGC was fitted with the 1.0mm diameter pinhole collimator. For instance, the recorded CNR values for the superficially simulated SLN containing 0.1MBq of 99mTc using 0.5mm and 1.0mm diameter pinhole collimators are 6.48 and 16.42, respectively (~87% difference). The anatomical context provided by the hybrid imaging aided the localization process of radioactivity accumulation in simulated SLNs. Gamma and hybrid optical images were acquired using the HGC with both available pinhole collimators for the simulated thyroid gland. The thyroid images produced varied in terms of spatial resolution and detectability. The count profiles through the middle of the simulated thyroid gland images provided by both pinhole collimators were obtained. The HGC could clearly differentiate the individual peaks of both thyroid lobes in the gamma image produced by the 0.5mm pinhole collimator. In contrast, the recorded count profile for the acquired image using the 1.0mm diameter pinhole collimator showed broader peaks for both lobes, reflecting the degradation of the spatial resolution with increasing the diameter of the pinhole collimator. Conclusion: The capability of the HGC has been evaluated utilizing a prototype anthropomorphic head and neck phantom, and the gamma and hybrid images obtained demonstrate that it is ideally suited for intraoperative SLNs detection and small organ imaging. The standardization of test phantoms and protocols for SFOV portable gamma systems will provide an opportunity to collect data across various medical centers and research groups. Moreover, it will provide a technical baseline for researchers and clinical practitioners to consider when assessing their SFOV gamma imaging systems. The anthropomorphic head and neck phantom described is cost effective, reproducible, flexible and anatomically representative.
Advancements and modernizations introduced into the educational and pedagogical systems have significantly impacted teaching processes and how subjects are presented and explained to students. The focus has shifted to how learners interact with the material they need to learn, providing sufficient opportunities for learning and granting them freedom and self-confidence to achieve learning objectives. The research problem stems from the researcher's experience as a lecturer in the College of Physical Education and Sports Science, particularly in teaching basketball. She observed that some instructors were deficient in using the most effective teaching methods. The researcher formulated her research question based on these observations: "What
... Show MoreObjective: impact of the education program for nurses' knowledge toward children under mechanical
ventilation, and to find out the relationships between nurses' knowledge and their general information.
Methodology: Quasi experimental study was carried out at the respiratory care units of Baghdad
Pediatric Teaching Hospitals started from February15th, until September 26th, 2011, A purposive (nonprobability)
sample of (23) nurses working in the respiratory care units, were selected from Children
Welfare and Pediatric Central Teaching Hospitals. The data were gathered through using of the
constructed multiple choice questionnaire using to evaluate the nurses knowledge using checklist, The
questionnaire consists of two p
The beginning of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China in late December 2019 and its worldwide transmission has led the World Health Organization to formally address the pandemic. The pandemic has imposed influential impacts on different environmental, economic, social, health, and living aspects. Publishing in scholastic journals was not immune from these impacts.
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Experimental programs based test results has been used as a means to find out the response of individual elements of structure. In the present study involves investigated behavior of five reinforced concrete deep beams of dimension (length 1200 x height 300 x width150mm) under two points concentrated load with shear span to depth ratio of (1.52), four of these beams with hallow core and
retrofit with carbon fiber reinforced polymer CFRP (with single or double or sides Strips). Two shapes of hallow are investigated (circle and square section) to evaluated the response of beams in case experimental behavior. Test on simply supported beam was performed in the laboratory & loaddeflection, strain of concrete data and crack pattern of
Composite materials are widely used in the engineered assets as aerospace structures, marine and air navigation owing to their high strength/weight ratios. Detection and identification of damage in the composite structures are considered as an important part of monitoring and repairing of structural systems during the service to avoid instantaneous failure. Effective cost and reliability are essential during the process of detecting. The Lamb wave method is an effective and sensitive technique to tiny damage and can be applied for structural health monitoring using low energy sensors; it can provide good information about the condition of the structure during its operation by analyzing the propagation of the wave in the
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Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, inflammatory, immune mediated disease of the central nervous system, mostly affecting young adults with mean age of 30 years, twice as high in women compared to men. The etiology of MS is not fully elucidated. MS symptoms are directly related to demyelination and axonal loss, along with other psychological symptoms, can result in functional limitations, disability and reduced quality of life (QoL). The QoL assessments in patients with a chronic disease may contribute to improving treatment and could even be of prognostic value. The goals of this study were to compare the QoL of Iraqi patients with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS),using three different diseas
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Background: The best material for dental implants is polyetherketoneketone (PEKK). However, this substance is neither osteoinductive nor osteoconductive, preventing direct bone apposition. Modifying the PEKK with bioactive elements like strontium hydroxyapatite is one method to overcome this (Sr-HA). Due to the technique's capacity to provide better control over the coating's properties, RF magnetron sputtering has been found to be a particularly useful technique for deposition. Materials and methods : With specific sputtering conditions, the RF magnetron technique was employed to provide a homogeneous and thin coating on Polyetherketoneketone substrates.. the coatings were characterized by Contact angle, adhesion test, X-ray
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The current study aims to develop a teaching design in accordance with cluster thinking strategies and explore the effect of this teaching design on students’ achievement in science. To this end, the null hypothesis was adopted: there is no statistically significant difference at the level of (0, 05) between experimental group who adopted the teaching design in learning science and control group who follow the traditional method in learning the same subject. To test the null hypothesis, total of (74) students from Al-Alaama Hussain Mahfooth intermediate school were selected intentionally for the academic year 2016-2017. The sample divided into two equal groups when all the variables (age, prior achievement of science,
... Show MoreThe present work included qualitative study of epiphytic algae on dead and living stems, leaves of the aquatic plant Phragmitesaustralis Trin ex Stand, in Tigris River in AL- Jadria Site in Baghdad during Autumn 2014, Winter 2015, Spring 2015, and Summer 2015. The physical and chemical parameters of River’s water were studied (water temperature, pH, electric conductivity, Salinity, TSS, TDS, turbidity, light intensity, dissolve oxygen, BOD5, alkalinity, total hardness, calcium, magnesium and plant nutrient). A total of 142 isolates of epiphytic algae were identified. Diatoms were dominant by 117 isolates followed by Cyanobacteria (13isolates), Chlorophyta (11 isolates) and Rhodophyta (1 isolate), Variations in the isolates number were rec
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