Examination of anticipated chemical shift and shape distortion effect on materials commonly used in prosthetic socket fabrication when measured using MRI: a validation study

The quality of lower-limb prosthetic socket fit is influenced by shape and volume consistency during the residual limb shape-capturing process (i.e., casting). Casting can be quantified with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology. However, chemical shift artifact and image distortion may influence the accuracy of MRI when common socket/casting materials are used. We used a purpose-designed rig to examine seven different materials commonly used in socket fabrication during exposure to MRI. The rig incorporated glass marker tubes filled with water doped with 1 g/L copper sulfate (CS) and 9 plastic sample vials (film containers) to hold the specific material specimens. The specimens were scanned 9 times in different configurations. The absolute mean difference of the glass marker tube length was 1.39 mm (2.98%) (minimum = 0.13 mm [0.30%], maximum = 5.47 mm [14.03%], standard deviation = 0.89 mm). The absolute shift for all materials was <1.7 mm. This was less than the measurement tolerance of +/–2.18 mm based on voxel (three-dimensional pixel) dimensions. The results show that MRI is an accurate and repeatable method for dimensional measurement when using matter containing water. Additionally, silicone and plaster of paris plus 1 g/L CS do not show a significant shape distortion nor do they interfere with the MRI image of the residual limb

Charles Dickens’ A Madman’s Manuscript: Madness and Its Aspects

With the rise and development of psychology and the clinics in the nineteenth century, many psychologists classify madness as a mental disorder or a mental illness. Dickens views madness as a mental illness. But, Dickens alludes to madness as a symbol of pride, power, and greatness in his short story, A Madman’s Manuscript. When the madman says: “It is a grand thing to be mad” (Dickens, 1997, p.14), he considers his madness as a powerful, dominant, and creative tool for achieving his aims and plans. Porter and Foucault give many historical and religious explanations regarding madness and its connection to power, dominance, and pride. For example, madness is seen as a “gift bringer” (Porter, 1987, p.60) that brings benefits and blessings for them; consequently, the madmen would have happiness, intelligence, and creativity. Furthermore, Porter explains the religious meaning of the idea “good madness” (Ibid., p.83) that has a strong association between God and the worshipper, unlike the “bad madness” (Ibid.) that is associated with Satan and evils. For the madman in A Madman’s Manuscript, his madness is considered as a bad one due to his predecessors’ wrongdoings and their sins; hence, he is insulting his race and their sins. Moreover, the idea of madness as power, greatness and pride in Dickens’ A Madman’s Manuscript makes the madman suffers differently from some aspects of madness, melancholia, monomania, schizophrenia, and hysteria. The madman suffers and because of his “sadness and the great fear” (Foucault, 1988, p.120), he becomes fully obsessed with melancholic notions and thoughts. For example, his wife’s dislike to him makes him melancholic and very depressed. Then he decides to kill her rather than to see her with someone else. The complete obsession with killing his spouse makes him monomaniac as well. In addition to the madman’s character as melancholic and monomaniac, he is schizophrenic. The reality distortions are a symptom of schizophrenia that the madman suffers from. The “internal heat” (Ibid., p.139) inside the body makes the madman acts hysterically when he sees the people celebrating on street, and he is not able to join them due to his insanity. Therefore, Dickens’ characterization of the madman in the story is so special and unique. Finally, A Madman’s Manuscript is an expressive short story that illustrates different notions of madness rather than its consideration as a mental disorder or illness.

An Electronic Training Program to Treat Errors of Reading Aloud in the English Language Among Students with Learning Difficulties During The Emerging Covid-19

This study aims at identifying, analyzing, and classifying the mistakes that students make in grades (second, third, and fourth) in the elementary stage in Aseer in reading aloud and developing a proposed program to treat these errors. The study used the experimental approach. The study sample consisted of (72) male and female students from the study population, representing the three grade levels. 24 students (12 males and 12 females) were taken from each grade, and the study sample was taken from seven schools. The results of the study showed that there are no statistically significant differences in students ’reading errors due to the gender variable. The prevalence of reading errors in students’ readings is not related to males or females or vice versa. Despite the difference between the reader's gender and the teacher’s gender, the differences came free of any clear statistical significance. The study revealed statistically significant differences in students’ mastery of some reading skills due to the gender variable. The skills that showed differences are observing punctuation, meaning skills, and reading speed. Females were better than males in these skills, and there were no statistically significant differences in the remaining reading skills between the genders. The study recommended preparing training courses to familiarize male and female teachers with the latest findings of studies related to reading to employ them in educational situations and providing teachers with methods to diagnose students' weakness in reading

Analytical Modeling and Simulation of SiGe MOS Gate HEMT

This thesis presents work on analytical modeling and simulation of SiGe MOS gate HEMT. A modified model for the threshold voltage of the MOS-gate HEMT is presented. An expression to calculate accurately minimum gate voltage VGmin of p-channel MOS-gate HEMT is derived. Using the modified expressions, VTHp and VGmin are calculated. Current-voltage characteristics, transconductance and cutoff frequency are calculated and plotted using the modified model and the results are compared with the results obtained from an existing model. The effects of different device and material parameter variation on VTHp and VGmin are also investigated.An analytical temperature model for the MOS-gate HEMT is proposed. The temperature variation of threshold voltage, current-voltage characteristics and transconductance are simulated using the analytical model.A model for a delta-doped MOS-gate HEMT is proposed which is valid for any width of the delta-doped layer. Effects of different device parameters on VTHp and Vtl have been investigated using this model.In addition, device simulator MediciTM has been used to simulate the delta-doped and regular-doped MOS-gate HEMTs. The results obtained from the MediciTM simulations are compared to some of the results obtained from the analytical model

"CHARACTERIZATION OF SLAUGHTERED AND NON-SLAUGHTERED GOAT MEAT AT LOW FREQUENCIES"

The electrical stimulation of meat has a high potential for use in the quality control of meat tissues during the past two decades. Dielectric spectroscopy is the most used technique to measure the electrical properties of tissues. Open ended coaxial cable or two parallel plates integrated with network analyzer, impedance analyzer or LCZ meter have been used to measure the dielectric properties of meat for different purposes. The purpose of this research is to construct a capacitive device capable of differentiating slaughtered and non-slaughtered goat meats, by determining the dielectric properties of goat meat at various frequencies and storage times. The detector cell has two circular platinum plates assembled on the micrometer barrel encased within a perspex box material to form the capacitor. The test rig is validated to insure it is working well. Two goats were slaughtered in the same environment. One of the goats was slaughtered properly (Islamic method) and the second one was killed by garrote. The measurements were done on the hindlimb muscles. The sizes of samples were 2 em diameter and 5 mm thick. The slaughtered and non-slaughtered meat samples were separately placed between the capacitor plates. The capacitance and dissipation factor were measured across the capacitor device which was connected to a LCR meter. The experiment was repeated for various frequencies (from I 00 Hz to 2 kHz), and at different storage times (at I day after slaughtering to 10 days). Maxwell Garnett mixing rule was applied to obtain the theoretical value of the effective permittivity by using goat muscle and blood permittivity. The results show that the device is able to differentiate slaughtered and non-slaughtered goat meat. At all applied frequencies, the relative permittivity of the non-slaughtered meat were clearly more than the relative permittivity of the slaughtered meat which agrees with the simulation results. The dissipation factor of the non-slaughtered meat was less than the dissipation factor of the slaughtered meat

Financial, Non-Financial Information and the Performance of the Jordian Commercial Banks

Profitability of commercial banks has been widely examined as a performance measure in developed countries but not in developing countries. This study measures the performance of commercial banks in Jordan by using ROA and ROE as profitability indicators affected by a group of financial factors (bank capital ratio, size and loans) and non-financial factors (market capitalization and trading volume) for the period 2005-2009. This study has shown that bank financial factors, which are capital and loans, have a negative and significant influence on profitability indicator ROE but not on ROA, while bank size has no significant impact on both bank profitability measures (ROA and ROE).Bank non-financial factor, market capitalization, has a negative and significant influence on ROA, while it has significant positive influence on ROE in Jordanian commercial banks for the period 2005-2009. Trading volume has strong significant and positive influence on both ROA and ROE. This suggests that trading volume can be considered as the determinant for the commercial banks’ profitability in Jordan for the period 2005-2009. The study also has concluded that the ROE has the superiority to ROA as profitability measure in testing the profitability of commercial banks in Jordan for the observed period

مباني فقهي و حقوقي جواز تغيير جنسيت

چكيده از آنجا كه در سيستم حقوقي اسلام، بخشي از احكام متأثر از جنسيت انسان است و در احكام زيادي همچون ديه، ارث، حضانت، بلوغ، حج، ارتداد و... مي‌توان تمايز بين حقوق دو جنس را مشاهده نمود، لذا شناخت جنسيت و حقوق و تكاليف فردي كه موضوع حق قرار مي‌گيرد در اين سيستم بسيار اهميت مي‌يابد. براي رسيدن به اين شناخت لازم است امكان يا عدم امكان اين تغيير بررسي شود و در صورت صدور جواز آن توسط فقها، ضروري است مباني فقهي اين تغيير مورد تحليل قرار گيرد. با تدقيق در احكام و قواعد فقهي مي‌توان گفت: حق تغيير جنسيت در صورتي براي فرد مكلف ايجاد مي‌شود كه به منظور معالجه باشد و يا در تغيير دادن، مصلحت لزوم‌‌آور و مهم‌تر ديگر وجود داشته باشد. احكام مربوط به شخص تغيير جنسيت داده در فقه و حقوق تابع هويت جنسي اوست و موضوع شناسي در مسأله تغيير جنسيت بر عهدة پزشك است و به دنبال آن فقيه، حكم موضوع مربوطه را صادر مي‌كند. لذا از آنجا كه مسأله «تغيير جنسيت» از امور نوپاي علم پزشكي مي‌باشد، لزوم تصريح به حقوق و تكاليف اين افراد در فقه ما آشكار مي‌شود و فقه شيعي نيز كه عهده دار ادارة امور زندگي بشر است مي‌بايست پاسخ‌هاي متناسب را مرتبط با موضوع مطرح كند و براي فراهم آمدن زمينه پاسخگويي به حقوق و تكاليف اين افراد، ضروري است مباني بحث مورد تدقيق قرار گيرد كه موضوع اين مقاله نيز به بررسي مباني اين مسأله اختصاص پيدا كرده است.در اين مقاله پس از بررسي مفهوم تغيير جنسيت و اقسام آن، خاستگاه اين بحث در اجتهاد شيعي را مورد تحليل وبررسي قرار مي‌دهيم. واژگان كليدي: جنسيت، تغيير جنسيت، دوجنسي، اختلال هويت جنسي، خنثي

Improving The Algorithm To Detect Internet Worms

Worm detection and response systems must act quickly to identify and quarantine scanning worms, as when left unchecked such worms have been able to infect the majority of vulnerable hosts on the Internet in a matter of minutes [53]. Active worm spread in an automated fashion and can flood the internet in a very short time. The aim of this project is to improved algorithm to detect internet worm by two sub algorithm. The first is detecting the internet worm and the second is detecting stealth internet worm. A new equation created for depending on the average failure connection. The study based on the comparison and analysis of many worm detection and containment strategies. The principle of this effective algorithm is an improved two rotation process to detect and contain all types of internet worms

DUAL-SITE PHOTOPLETHYSMOGRAPHY SENSING FOR NONINVASIVE CONTINUOUS-TIME BLOOD PRESSURE MONITORING USING ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORK

Millions of people worldwide struggle from high blood pressure, often known as hypertension, and it is a major health concern that can lead to serious cardiovascular diseases, including heart attacks and many other consequences. Blood pressure monitoring that is reliable and accurate is crucial to the detection and management of hypertension. Although invasive techniques, such arterial catheterization, are considered to be the most accurate means of evaluating blood pressure, they can be painful, time-consuming and carry a risk of complications. This thesis presents the development of a real time non-invasive blood pressure monitoring system based on commercially available microcontroller unit and dual-sited photoplethysmography (PPG) sensors. The system collects PPG signals from two different body sites using two PPG sensors, which are then processed using MATLAB to extract five-time domain features that have a relationship to blood pressure. Using the extracted features, two regression models were built: a linear regression model and a neural network (NN) model to estimate blood pressure values. The experimental results show that the proposed system can estimate blood pressure values with high precision. The models were evaluated on 15 healthy volunteers. The linear regression model had a mean absolute error (MAE) and standard deviation (SD) of 5.86± 1.70 mmHg for SBP and 5.97 ± 4.2 mmHg for DBP, while the NN model had a MAE±SD 0.29 ± 4.49 mmHg for SBP and 0.5±2.4 mmHg for DBP. The proposed dual PPG site ANN model exhibited superior performance and robustness in real-time tests compared to the linear regression and classical ANN single-site PPG models. The proposed system has several advantages in contrast to existing non-invasive blood pressure monitoring techniques. The system\u27s accuracy and endurance are increased by using dual-sited PPG sensors because this allowed us to accurately extract an important feature from the two acquired PPG signals which is pulse wave velocity (PWV) that has a strong correlation to the blood pressure. In addition, the implemented algorithm was able to reduce the effects of motion artifacts and physiological variations which was a major factor that affected the system’s accuracy and reliability; however, the microcontroller unit makes the system suitable for use in a clinical setting by enabling real-time processing and display of blood pressure measurements. Furthermore, the use of machine learning algorithms, such as the NN model, allows for the development of personalized blood pressure monitoring systems that can adapt to individual physiological characteristics. In conclusion the use of dual-sited PPG sensors and microcontroller unit with linear regression and neural networks in the proposed non-invasive blood pressure monitoring system exhibit promising results for accurate and reliable blood pressure measurement. Future research can examine the system\u27s integration with mobile devices and wearable devices for e