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.
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The searching process using a binary codebook of combined Block Truncation Coding (BTC) method and Vector Quantization (VQ), i.e. a full codebook search for each input image vector to find the best matched code word in the codebook, requires a long time. Therefore, in this paper, after designing a small binary codebook, we adopted a new method by rotating each binary code word in this codebook into 900 to 2700 step 900 directions. Then, we systematized each code word depending on its angle to involve four types of binary code books (i.e. Pour when , Flat when , Vertical when, or Zigzag). The proposed scheme was used for decreasing the time of the coding procedure, with very small distortion per block, by designing s
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The aim of this research is to examine the relationship between entrepreneurial mindset and aspiration and small business performance Baghdad, Iraq. This study proposed a quantitative analysis in which entrepreneurial mindset and aspiration is a critical success factor of small business in Iraq. The method employed in the collection of data was by the means of self-administered questionnaire which was filled and completed by small business owners randomly selected from a sampling frame of registered small businesses. The questionnaire was adapted from the study of Davis, Halls & Mayer (2015) and Abdel-Maksoud, Asada & Nakagawa (2008) which was used to measure entrepreneurial mindset and aspiration using a ten items scale and small business
... Show MoreExperimental investigation for small horizontal portable wind turbine (SHPWT) of NACA-44, BP-44, and NACA-63, BP-63 profiles under laboratory conditions at different wind velocity range of (3.7-5.8 m/s) achieved in present work. Experimental data tabulated for 2, 3, 4, and 6- bladed rotor of both profiles within range of blade pitch angles . A mathematical model formulated and computer Code for MATLAB software developed. The least-squares regression is used to fit experimental data. As the majority of previous works have been presented for large scale wind turbines, the aims were to present the performance of (SHPWT) and also to make a comparisons between both profiles to conclude which is the best performance. The overall efficiency and el
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A mathematical model has been formulated to predict the influence of high outdoor air temperature on the performance of small scale air - conditioning system using R22 and alternative refrigerants R290, R407C, R410A. All refrigerants were investigated in the cooling mode operation. The mathematical model results have been validated with experimental data extracted from split type air conditioner of 2 TR capacity. This entailed the construction of an experimental test rig which consists of four main parts. They are, the refrigeration system, psychrometric test facility, measuring instrumentation, and auxiliary systems. The conditioned air was maintained at 25 0C dry bulb and 19 0C wet bulb for all tests. The outdoor ambient air temperatur
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The paper presents an overview of theoretical aspects of small radio telescope antenna parameters. The basic parameters include antenna beamwidth, antenna gain, aperture efficiency, and antenna temperature. These parameters should be carefully studied since they have vital effects on astronomical radio observations. The simulations of antenna parameters were carried out to assess the capability and the efficiency of small radio telescopes to observe a point source at a specific frequency. Two-dimensional numerical simulations of a uniform circular aperture antenna are implemented at different radii. The small diameter values are chosen to be varied between (1-10) m. This study focuses on a small radio telescope with a diameter of 3 m sin
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Wind energy is one of the most common and natural resources that play a huge role in energy sector, and due to the increasing demand to improve the efficiency of wind turbines and the development of the energy field, improvements have been made to design a suitable wind turbine and obtain the most energy efficiency possible from wind. In this paper, a horizontal wind turbine blade operating under low wind speed was designed using the (BEM) theory, where the design of the turbine rotor blade is a difficult task due to the calculations involved in the design process. To understand the behavior of the turbine blade, the QBlade program was used to design and simulate the turbine rotor blade during working conditions. The design variables suc
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LO Hamza, NA Al-Mansor, J. Entomol. Zool. Studies, 2017 - Cited by 14
A genetic algorithm model coupled with artificial neural network model was developed to find the optimal values of upstream, downstream cutoff lengths, length of floor and length of downstream protection required for a hydraulic structure. These were obtained for a given maximum difference head, depth of impervious layer and degree of anisotropy. The objective function to be minimized was the cost function with relative cost coefficients for the different dimensions obtained. Constraints used were those that satisfy a factor of safety of 2 against uplift pressure failure and 3 against piping failure.
Different cases reaching 1200 were modeled and analyzed using geo-studio modeling, with different values of input variables. The soil wa
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