Search results for: Rabia Khalil

Authors: Imane Khalil, Quinn Pratt

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In a nuclear reactor, an array of fuel rods containing stacked uranium dioxide pellets clad with zircalloy is the heat source for a thermodynamic cycle of energy conversion from heat to electricity. After fuel is used in a nuclear reactor, the assemblies are stored underwater in a spent nuclear fuel pool at the nuclear power plant while heat generation and radioactive decay rates decrease before it is placed in packages for dry storage or transportation. A computational model of a Boiling Water Reactor spent fuel assembly is modeled using FLUENT, the computational fluid dynamics package. Heat transfer simulations were performed on the two-dimensional 9x9 spent fuel assembly to predict the maximum cladding temperature for different input to the FLUENT model. Uncertainty quantification is used to predict the heat transfer and the maximum temperature profile inside the assembly.

Keywords: spent nuclear fuel, conduction, heat transfer, uncertainty quantification

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Authors: Mohamed Haffar, Khalil Al-Hyari, Mohammed Khair Abu Zaid, Ramadane Djbarni, Mohammed Hamdan

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While employee readiness for change (ERFC) is recognised as critical for total quality management (TQM) implementation, there is a lack of systematic and empirical studies regarding the relationship between ERFC dimensions and TQM. Therefore, this study proposes to fill this gap by providing empirical evidence leading to advancement in the understanding of the influences of ERFC components on TQM implementation. The empirical data for this study was drawn from a survey of 400 middle and senior managers of Jordanian firms. The analysis of the collected data, which was conducted using Structural Equation Modeling technique, revealed that three of the ERFC components, namely personally beneficial, change self-efficacy and management support are the most supportive ERFC dimensions for TQM implementation. Therefore, this paper makes a novel contribution by providing a refined and deeper comprehension of the relationships between ERFCs and TQM implementation.

Keywords: total quality management, employee readiness for change, manufacturing organisations, Jordan

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Authors: Maria Komal, Zaineb Khalil, Mehreen Sirshar

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Due to the recent technological advancements, Games have become one of the most demanding applications. Gaming industry is rapidly growing and the key to success in this industry is the development of good quality games, which is a highly competitive issue. The ultimate goal of game developers is to provide player’s satisfaction by developing high-quality games. This research is the comprehensive survey of techniques followed by game industries to ensure games quality. After analysis of various techniques, it has been found that quality simulation according to ISO standards and play test methods are used to ensure games quality. Because game development requires cross-disciplined team, an increasing trend towards distributed game development has been observed. This paper evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of current methodologies used in game industry and draws a conclusion. We have also proposed quality parameters which can be used as a heuristic framework to identify those attributes which have high testing priorities.

Keywords: game development, computer games, video games, gaming industry, quality assurance, playability, user experience

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Authors: Khalil Bachiri, Ali Yahyaouy, Nicoleta Rogovschi

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Improved user experience is a goal of contemporary recommender systems. Recommender systems are starting to incorporate reinforcement learning since it easily satisfies this goal of increasing a user’s reward every session. In this paper, we examine the most effective Reinforcement Learning agent tactics on the Movielens (1M) dataset, balancing precision and a variety of recommendations. The absence of variability in final predictions makes simplistic techniques, although able to optimize ranking quality criteria, worthless for consumers of the recommendation system. Utilizing the stochasticity of Leonard-Ornstein processes, our suggested strategy encourages the agent to investigate its surroundings. Research demonstrates that raising the NDCG (Discounted Cumulative Gain) and HR (HitRate) criterion without lowering the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process drift coefficient enhances the diversity of suggestions.

Keywords: recommender systems, reinforcement learning, deep learning, DDPG, Leonard-Ornstein process

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Authors: Salma Aboussalam, Karima Khalil, Khalid Elkalay

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An Ecopath model was employed to investigate the trophic structure, function, and current state of the Moroccan Mediterranean Sea ecosystem. The model incorporated 31 functional groups, including 21 fish species, 7 invertebrates, 2 primary producers, and a detritus group. The trophic interactions among these groups were analyzed, revealing an average trophic transfer efficiency of 23%. The results indicated that the ecosystem produced more energy than it consumed, with high respiration and consumption rates. Indicators of stability and development were low for the Finn cycle index (13.97), system omnivory index (0.18), and average Finn path length (3.09), indicating a disturbed ecosystem with a linear trophic structure. Keystone species were identified through the use of the keystone index and mixed trophic impact analysis, with demersal invertebrates, zooplankton, and cephalopods found to have a significant impact on other groups.

Keywords: Ecopath, food web, trophic flux, Moroccan Mediterranean Sea

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Authors: Rabia Khaliala, Adi Vitman-Schorr

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Background: The increase in longevity of people on one hand, and on the other hand the fact that the social networks in later life become increasingly narrower, highlight the importance of Internet use to enhance quality of life (QoL). However, whether Internet use increases or decreases social networks, loneliness and quality of life is not clear-cut. Purposes: To explore the direct and/or indirect effects of Internet use on QoL, and to examine whether ethnicity and time the elderly spent with family moderate the mediation effect of Internet use on quality of life throughout loneliness. Methods: This descriptive-correlational study was carried out in 2016 by structured interviews with a convenience sample of 502 respondents aged 50 and older, living in northern Israel. Bootstrapping with resampling strategies was used for testing mediation a model. Results: Use of the Internet was found to be positively associated with QoL. However, this relationship was mediated by loneliness, and moderated by the time the elderly spent with family members. In addition, respondents' ethnicity significantly moderated the mediation effect between Internet use and loneliness. Conclusions: Internet use can enhance QoL of older adults directly or indirectly by reducing loneliness. However, these effects are conditional on other variables. The indirect effect moderated by ethnicity, and the direct effect moderated by the time the elderly spend with their families. Researchers and practitioners should be aware of these interactions which can impact loneliness and quality of life of older persons differently.

Keywords: internet use, loneliness, quality of life, social contacts

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Authors: P. Saleh, G. Challita, R. Hazimeh, K. Khalil

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In this paper 3D FEM analysis was carried out on double lap bonded joint with composite adherents subjected to dynamic shear. The adherents are made of Carbon/Epoxy while the adhesive is epoxy Araldite 2031. The maximum average shear stress and the stress homogeneity in the adhesive layer were examined. Three fibers textures were considered: UD; 2.5D and 3D with same volume fiber then a parametric study based on changing the thickness and the type of fibers texture in 2.5D was accomplished. Moreover, adherents’ dissimilarity was also investigated. It was found that the main parameter influencing the behavior is the longitudinal stiffness of the adherents. An increase in the adherents’ longitudinal stiffness induces an increase in the maximum average shear stress in the adhesive layer and an improvement in the shear stress homogeneity within the joint. No remarkable improvement was observed for dissimilar adherents.

Keywords: adhesive, composite adherents, impact shear, finite element

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Authors: Hokuma Isgandarova, Khalil Aryanfar

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The patient's rights include all care items that the patient has the right to receive. Considering the growing importance of this important issue and its effect on improving treatment results and customer satisfaction, the present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the level of respect for patient rights in the physiotherapy clinic of the Faculty of Medicine University of Medical Sciences in 2023. In this study, the patients or companions who were referred to the clinic answered questions about the performance status of the clinic with respect to various aspects of the patient's rights. The aspects that were studied: choosing the service provider, having authority, respect, safety, prevention and access were found to have inappropriate performance scores. However, communication and interaction, continuity of service, quality of basic facilities and facilities, timely and immediate attention and trust had appropriate performance. Also, the results of the data analysis showed that there is no significant relationship between the total performance score and any of the demographic variables.

Keywords: compliance, patients' rights, physiotherapy clinic, performance level

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Authors: Roslina Ibrahim, Azizah Jaafar, Khalili Khalil

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Educational games (EG) are regarded as a promising teaching and learning tool for the new generation. Growing number of studies and literatures can be found in EG studies. Both academic researchers and commercial developers come out with various educational games prototypes and titles. Despite that, acceptance of educational games still lacks among the students. It is important to understanding students’ perceptions of EG, since they are the main stakeholder of the technology. Thus, this study seeks to understand perceptions of undergraduates’ students using a framework originated from user acceptance theory. The framework consists of six constructs with twenty-eight items. Data collection was done on 180 undergraduate students of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur using self-developed online EG called ROBO-C. Data analysis was done using descriptive, factor analysis and correlations. Performance expectancy, effort expectancy, attitude, and enjoyment factors were found significantly correlated with the intention to use EG. This study provides more understanding towards the use of educational games among students.

Keywords: educational games, perceptions, acceptance, UTAUT

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Authors: Saad Chahba, Rabia Sehab, Ahmad Akrad, Cristina Morel

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Nowadays, the electric machines used in urban electric vehicles are, in most cases, three-phase electric machines with or without a magnet in the rotor. Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machine (PMSM) and Induction Machine (IM) are the main components of drive trains of electric and hybrid vehicles. These machines have very good performance in healthy operation mode, but they are not redundant to ensure safety in faulty operation mode. Faced with the continued growth in the demand for electric vehicles in the automotive market, improving the reliability of electric vehicles is necessary over the lifecycle of the electric vehicle. Multiphase electric machines respond well to this constraint because, on the one hand, they have better robustness in the event of a breakdown (opening of a phase, opening of an arm of the power stage, intern-turn short circuit) and, on the other hand, better power density. In this work, a diagnosis approach using a neural network for an open circuit fault or more of a five-phase induction machine is developed. Validation on the simulator of the vehicle drivetrain, at reduced power, is carried out, creating one and more open circuit stator phases showing the efficiency and the reliability of the new approach to detect and to locate on-line one or more open phases of a five-induction machine.

Keywords: electric vehicle drivetrain, multiphase drives, induction machine, control, open circuit (OC) fault diagnosis, artificial neural network

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Authors: Samira Khalil, Adib Saad, Malek Ali

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The aim of this research is to determine fish species belonging to the order Pleuronectiforme fish found in Syrian marine water confirm or deny the continuity of the previously registered species, and record the unregistered species that appeared during this research for the first time. The research was carried out in the Laboratory of Marine Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture (Tishreen University); fish samples were collected periodically (bi-monthly) from fishermen in landing areas along the Syrian coast caught from depths (3m to 700m), using various mediums. An appropriate hand is available to fishermen on the Syrian coast (cliff bottom, fixed nets, enclosure nets, shelf nest, and manual disposal network; 451 individuals were captured and studied during the research period. During this study, it was found that the Syrian water includes 15 species, including one species recorded for the first time. On the eastern coast of the Mediterranean, it is Pegusa impar.

Keywords: pleuronectiformes, Syrian coast, flatfish, mediterranean

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Authors: M. Khallaf, R. Khalil, H. Ghetas

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In the present study, V. harveyi and V. alginolyticus were isolated from cultured seabass and seabream at Damietta Governorate, Egypt, during summer season. Isolates were biochemically and molecularly identified using primers for Vhh and Collagenase genes. The most prominent clinical observations of diseased fish were exophthalmia, abdominal distension, and multifocal cutaneous hemorrhagic ulceration on the dorsal musculature and caudal peduncle. Physicochemical characteristics of water samples indicated that the unionized ammonia, nitrate, and hydrogen sulphate concentrations were higher than the acceptable limits. Heavy metals concentrations in water samples exhibited higher concentrations than the permissible levels for fish culture, which was considered as chemical stressors that increase the prevalence of these bacterial diseases. Immune parameters were lower in diseased seabass and seabream than apparently healthy fish. Lesions of different fish organs were identified histopathologically.

Keywords: seabass, seabream, Vibrio alginolyticus, Vibrio harveyi

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Authors: Ilef Ketata, Mohamed Khalil Baazaoui, Robert Fromm, Ahmad Fakhfakh, Faouzi Derbel

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The integration of wireless communication, e. g. in real-or quasi-real-time applications, is related to many challenges such as energy consumption, communication range, latency, quality of service, and reliability. To minimize the latency without increasing energy consumption, wake-up receiver (WuRx) nodes have been introduced in recent works. Low-noise amplifiers (LNAs) are introduced to improve the WuRx sensitivity but increase the supply current severely. Different WuRx approaches exist with always-on, power-gated, or duty-cycled receiver designs. This paper presents a comparative study for improving communication range and decreasing the energy consumption of wireless sensor nodes.

Keywords: wireless sensor network, wake-up receiver, duty-cycled, low-noise amplifier, envelope detector, range study

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Authors: Tarek M. Alguhane, Ayman H. Khalil, Nour M. Fayed, Ayman M. Ismail

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Early, pre-code, reinforced concrete structures present undetermined resistance to earthquakes. This situation is particularly unacceptable in the case of essential structures, such as healthcare structures and pilgrims' houses. Among these, existing old RC building in Madinah is seismically evaluated with and without infill wall and their dynamic characteristics are compared with measured values in the field using ambient vibration measurements (AVM). After, updating the mathematical models for this building with the experimental results, three dimensional pushover analysis (Nonlinear static analysis) was carried out using SAP 2000 software incorporating inelastic material properties for concrete, infill and steel. The purpose of this analysis is to evaluate the expected performance of structural systems by estimating, strength and deformation demands in design, and comparing these demands to available capacities at the performance levels of interest. The results are summarized and discussed.

Keywords: seismic assessment, pushover analysis ambient vibration, modal update

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Authors: Mahwish Rabia, Najma Najam

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The present study was conducted to identify emotional and behavioral disturbances among earthquake survived children and the perceived coping strategies of affected children. In the present study, a sample of 50 children (6-16 years) belonging to badly affected areas (earthquake) was selected from different camps in Islamabad. Child Behavioral Checklist (CBCL) and Rotter Incomplete Sentence Blank (RISB) interpretations were used to assess variety of emotional and behavioral patterns, and Child Coping Strategies Checklist (CCSC) was used to assess the perceived coping strategies of affected children. Results showed that some of the frequent emotional/behavioral reactions exhibited by children like withdrawal, anxiety\depression, aggression and attention seeking behavior. Whereas gender-based comparisons indicated that female children showed more internalizing behavioral patterns (withdrawn, somatic complaints) as compared to male children who exhibited more externalizing emotions (aggression, delinquent behavior).Coping strategies in which male children tried to adopt Positive Cognitive Restructuring and for distracting attention they used distraction strategies of coping. It is concluded that significant negative emotional and behavioral reactions are exhibited by the earthquake affected children. Male children adopt coping strategies more as compared to female children. The study identifies the negative emotional and behavioral reactions towards trauma, which can be helpful for identifying the problematic area for counseling and therapeutic interventions for these children.

Keywords: behavioural disturbances, emotional disturbances, coping strategies, earthquake, children

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Authors: Imad Eddine Rezouani, Khalil Draidi, Badis bakhouche, Selman Anes Chabani

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The Algerian coast is an important site for wintering and migratory birds. Four species of shorebirds were surveyed, including Kentish plover Charadrius alexandrinus, Little ringed plover Charadrius dubius, Common ringed plover Charadrius hiaticula, and black-winged stilt Himantopus hilarious in three different sites, two important wetlands: Reghaia lake and Macta and a small area Sublette promenade to provide a new data about time activity budget. The study found a higher frequency of abundance in April during the study period (February to May), with a mean of 49. Estimating the temporal activity budget of these coastal birds, it was found that there were three main activities in different proportions between males and females: Pecking (29.51 ％) for males, (26.59％) for females, Looking above (28.01％) for males, (19.54 ％) for females And Away (9.95％) for males, (11.75％), contrarily the two previous one. Differences between study areas revealed differences in species behavior and distribution.

Keywords: wetland, behavioral, algerian coast, shorebirds, time budget activity

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Authors: Sajjad Akbar, Rabia Bashir

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With the growth of the number of users, the Internet usage has evolved. Due to its key design principle, there is an incredible expansion in its size. This tremendous growth of the Internet has brought new applications (mobile video and cloud computing) as well as new user’s requirements i.e. content distribution environment, mobility, ubiquity, security and trust etc. The users are more interested in contents rather than their communicating peer nodes. The current Internet architecture is a host-centric networking approach, which is not suitable for the specific type of applications. With the growing use of multiple interactive applications, the host centric approach is considered to be less efficient as it depends on the physical location, for this, Information Centric Networking (ICN) is considered as the potential future Internet architecture. It is an approach that introduces uniquely named data as a core Internet principle. It uses the receiver oriented approach rather than sender oriented. It introduces the naming base information system at the network layer. Although ICN is considered as future Internet architecture but there are lot of criticism on it which mainly concerns that how ICN will manage the most relevant content. For this Web Content Mining(WCM) approaches can help in appropriate data management of ICN. To address this issue, this paper contributes by (i) discussing multiple ICN approaches (ii) analyzing different Web Content Mining approaches (iii) creating a new Internet architecture by merging ICN and WCM to solve the data management issues of ICN. From ICN, Content-Centric Networking (CCN) is selected for the new architecture, whereas, Agent-based approach from Web Content Mining is selected to find most appropriate data.

Keywords: agent based web content mining, content centric networking, information centric networking

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Authors: Keivan Saeb, Azade Kakouei, Razieh Jafari Hajati, Khalil Pourshamsian, Babak Babakhani

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Urtica Diocia L. from the Urticaceae family is a plant of herbal value and of a noticeable distribution in the north of Iran. The growth of different plants in various natural environments and ecosystems seems to be affected by factors such as the height (from sea surface).To investigate the effect of height on Urtica Diocia L. medicine compounds in its natural environment, three areas with the height of zero, 800 and 1800m were selected.The samples were randomly gathered three times and were dried; also, their compounds was extracted using the Clivenger with the water-distilling method. To determine the medicine compounds, the GC-MS as well as the GC machines were used. The analysis of variance was done in the form of the random-full-block design. The results indicated that there was a significant difference between the percent of EOs in the selected heights; however, such difference was not significant within each height. From among the eight flavors of the study, the phytol compound was more in terms of percentage. By increasing the height the percent of EOs would decrease. lower heights could be considered most appropriate for producing the studied effective materials despite of the moistened climate and soil there.

Keywords: Urtica diocia L., height, EOs, medicine

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Authors: Murad Almadani, Khalil Abu-Hantash, Xinyu Wang, Herbert Jelinek, Kinda Khalaf

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Gait analysis is used by healthcare professionals as a tool to gain a better understanding of the movement impairment and track progress. In most circumstances, monitoring patients in their real-life environments with low-cost equipment such as cameras and wearable sensors is more important. Inertial sensors, on the other hand, cannot provide enough information on angular dynamics. This research offers a method for tracking 2D joint coordinates using cutting-edge vision algorithms and a single RGB camera. We provide an end-to-end comprehensive deep learning pipeline for marker-less gait parameter estimation, which, to our knowledge, has never been done before. To make our pipeline function in real-time for real-world applications, we leverage the AlphaPose human posture prediction model and a deep learning transformer. We tested our approach on the well-known GPJATK dataset, which produces promising results.

Keywords: gait analysis, human pose estimation, deep learning, real time gait estimation, AlphaPose, transformer

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Authors: Ahmed Khalil

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The discoveries in material sciences create an impulse in renewable energy transmission. Application techniques become more accessible by applied sciences. Variety of materials, application methods, and performance analyzing techniques can convert daily life functions to energy sources. These functions not only include natural sources like sun, wind, or water but also comprise the motion of tools used by human beings. In line with this, vehicles' motion, speed and weights come to the scene as energy sources together with piezoelectric nano-generators beneath the roads. Numerous application examples are put forward with repeated average performance, versus the differentiating challenges depending on geography and project conditions. Such holistic approach provides way for feed backs on research and improvement process of nano-generators beneath asphalt roads. This paper introduces the specific application methods of piezoelectric nano-generator beneath asphalt roads of Ahmadi Township in Kuwait.

Keywords: nano-generator pavements, piezoelectric, renewable energy, transducer

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Authors: Zizouni Khaled, Fali Leyla, Sadek Younes, Bousserhane Ismail Khalil

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In structural vibration caused principally by an earthquake excitation, the most vibration’s attenuation system used recently is the semi active control with a Magneto Rheological Damper device. This control was a subject of many researches and works in the last years. The big challenges of searchers in this case is to propose an adequate controller with a robust algorithm of current or tension adjustment. In this present paper, a linear controller is proposed to control the MR damper using to reduce a vibrations of three story structure exposed to El Centro’s 1940 and Boumerdès 2003 earthquakes. In this example, the MR damper is installed in the first floor of the structure. The numerical simulations results of the proposed linear control with a feedback law based on clipped optimal algorithm showed the feasibility of the semi active control to protecting civil structures. The comparison of the controlled structure and uncontrolled structures responses illustrate clearly the performance and the effectiveness of the simple proposed approach.

Keywords: MR damper, seismic vibration, semi-active control

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Authors: Ahmed H. El-Masry, Mohamed A. Dabaon, Tarek F. El-Shafiey, Abd El-Hakim A. Khalil

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An experimental study was performed to investigate the behavior and strength of proposed technique to connect reinforced concrete (RC) beam to steel or composite columns. This approach can practically be used in several types of building construction. In this technique, the main beam of the frame consists of a transfer part (part of beam; Tr.P) and a common reinforcement concrete beam. The transfer part of the beam is connected to the column, whereas the rest of the beam is connected to the transfer part from each side. Four full-scale beam-column connections were tested under static loading. The test parameters were the length of the transfer part and the column properties. The test results show that using of the transfer part technique leads to modify the deformation capabilities for the RC beam and hence it increases its resistance against failure. Increase in length of the transfer part did not necessarily indicate an enhanced behavior. The test results contribute to the characterization of the connection behavior between RC beam - steel column and can be used to calibrate numerical models for the simulation of this type of connection.

Keywords: composite column, reinforced concrete beam, steel column, transfer part

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Authors: Khalil Khanafer

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This study emphasizes on analyzing the effect of flow conditions and the geometric variation of the microcantilever’s bluff body on the microcantilever detection capabilities within a fluidic device using a finite element fluid-structure interaction model. Such parameters include inlet velocity, flow direction, and height of the microcantilever’s supporting system within the fluidic cell. The transport equations are solved using a finite element formulation based on the Galerkin method of weighted residuals. For a flexible microcantilever, a fully coupled fluid-structure interaction (FSI) analysis is utilized and the fluid domain is described by an Arbitrary-Lagrangian–Eulerian (ALE) formulation that is fully coupled to the structure domain. The results of this study showed a profound effect on the magnitude and direction of the inlet velocity and the height of the bluff body on the deflection of the microcantilever. The vibration characteristics were also investigated in this study. This work paves the road for researchers to design efficient microcantilevers that display least errors in the measurements.

Keywords: fluidic cell, FSI, microcantilever, flow direction

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Authors: Aptin Rahnavard, Ghavamaldin Asadian, Khalil Pourshamsian, Mariamalsadat Taghavi

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Dog rose is one of the important rose species in Iran that the distant past had been considered due to nutritional value and medicinal. Despite its long history of use, due to poor information on the genetic modification of plants has been done resources inheritance. In this study was to assess the genetic diversity. Total of 30 genotypes Dog rose from areas of northern Iran in the Caspian region (provinces of Guilan and Mazandaran) were evaluated using 25 RAPD primers. The number of bands produced total of 202 and for each primer were measured in a bands with an average 8-band .The number of polymorphic bands per primer ranged from 1 to 13 and the bands were in the range of 300 to 3000 bp. Based on the results OPA-04 primer with 13 bands and PRA-1, E-09 and A-04 with 5-band were created maximum and minimum number of amplified fragments. Molecular marker genotypes showed a high degree of polymorphism. Studied genotypes based on RAPD results were divided into 2 groups and 2 subgroups. Most similar in subgroups A2 and B group was the lowest.

Keywords: rosa canina spp., RAPD marker, genetic variation, caspian climate

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Authors: Tarek M. Alguhane, Ayman H. Khalil, Nour M. Fayed, Ayman M. Ismail

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An existing RC building in Madinah is seismically evaluated with and without infill wall. Four model systems have been considered i. e. model I (no infill), model IIA (strut infill-update from field test), model IIB (strut infill- ASCE/SEI 41) and model IIC (strut infill-Soft storey-ASCE/SEI 41). Three dimensional pushover analyses have been carried out using SAP 2000 software incorporating inelastic material behavior for concrete, steel and infill walls. Infill wall has been modeled as equivalent strut according to suggested equation matching field test measurements and to the ASCE/SEI 41 equation. The effect of building modeling on the performance point as well as capacity and demand spectra due to EQ design spectrum function in Madinah area has been investigated. The response modification factor (R) for the 5 story RC building is evaluated from capacity and demand spectra (ATC-40) for the studied models. The results are summarized and discussed.

Keywords: infill wall, pushover analysis, response modification factor, seismic assessment

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Authors: Salma Aboussalam, Karima Khalil, Khalid Elkalay

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To describe the structure, functioning, and state of the Moroccan Mediterranean Sea ecosystem, an Ecopath mass balance model has been applied. The model is based on 31 functional groups, containing 21 fishes, 7 invertebrates, 2 primary producers, and one dead group (detritus), which are considered in this work to explore the trophic interaction. The system's average trophic transfer efficiency was 23%. Both the total primary production and total respiration were calculated to be >1, suggesting that more energy is produced than respired in the system. The structure of our system is based on high respiration and consumption flows. Indicators of ecosystem stability and development showed low values of the Finn cycle index (13.97), system omnivory index (0.18), and average Finn path length (3.09), suggesting that our system is disturbed and has a more linear than web-like trophic structure. The keystone index and mixed trophic impact analysis indicated that other demersal invertebrates, zooplankton, and cephalopods had a tremendous impact on other groups and were recognized as keystone species.

Keywords: Ecopath, food web, trophic flux, Moroccan Mediterranean Sea

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Authors: Rabia Ashfaq, Saeed Iqbal, Atiq ur Rehman, Irfanullah Khan

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An extensive series of radiopharmaceuticals have been explored in order to discover a better brain tumour diagnostic agent. Tc99m labelling with cysteine and its derivatives in liposomes shows effective tagging of about 70% to 80 %. Due to microscopic size it successfully crossed the brain barrier in 2 minutes which gradually decreases in 5 to 15 minutes. HMPAO labelled with Tc99m is another important radiopharmaceutical used to study brain perfusion but it comes with a flaw that it’s only functional during epilepsy. 1, 1 ECD is purely used in Tc99m ECD formulation; because it not only tends to cross the blood brain barrier but it can be metabolized which can be easily entrapped in human brain. Radio labelling of Cysteine with Tc99m at room temperature was performed which yielded no good results. Hence cysteine derivatives with salicylaldehyde were prepared that produced about 75 % yield for ligand. In order to perform it’s radio labelling a suitable solvent DMSO was selected and physical parameters were performed. Elemental analyser produced remarkably similar results for ligand as reported in literature. IR spectra of Ligand in DMSO concluded in the absence of SH stretch and presence of N-H vibration. Thermal analysis of the ligand further suggested its decomposition pattern with no distinct curve for a melting point. Radio labelling of ligand was performed which produced excellent results giving up to 88% labelling at pH 5.0. Clinical trials using Rabbit were performed after validating the products reproducibility. The radiopharmaceutical prepared was injected into the rabbit. Dynamic as well as static study was performed under the SPECT. It showed considerable uptake in the kidneys and liver considering it suitable for the Hypatobilliary study.

Keywords: marcapto compounds, 99mTc - radiolabeling, salicylaldicysteine, thiozolidine

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Authors: Ayed Mouris Gad Elsayed Khalil

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This research focuses on historical techniques associated with the Lajevardin and Haft-Rangi production methods in tile production, with particular attention to identifying techniques for applying gold leaf to the surface of these historical glazed tiles. In this context, the history of the production of glazed, gilded and glazed Lajevardin ceramics from the Khwarizmanshahid and Mongol periods (11th to 13th centuries) was first evaluated in order to better understand the context and history of the methods of historical enameling. After a historical overview of glazed ceramic production techniques and the adoption of these techniques by civilizations, we focused on the niche production methods of glazes and Lajevardin glazes, two categories of decoration commonly found on tiles. A general method for classifying the different types of gold tiles was then introduced, applicable to tiles from to the Safavid period (16th-17th centuries). These categories include gold glazed Lajevardina tiles, haft rangi gold tiles, gold glazed monolithic tiles and gold mosaic tiles.

Keywords: ethnicity, multi-cultural, jewelry, craft techniquemycenaean, ceramic, provenance, pigmentAmorium, glass bracelets, image, Byzantine empire

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Authors: Malik Shahzad Shabbir, Muhammad Saarim Ghazi, Amir Khalil ur Rehman

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This study examines the factors which influence and contribute towards the financial viability of Islamic finance and its impact on global financial stability. However, the purpose of this paper is to differentiate the practical implications of both Islamic and conventional finance on global financial stability. The Islamic finance is asset backed financing which creates wealth through trade, commerce and believes in risk and return sharing. Islamic banking is asset driven as against to conventional banking which is liability driven. In order to introduce new financial products for market, financial innovation in Islamic finance must be within the Shari’ah parameters that are tested against the ‘Maqasid al-Shari’ah’. Interest-based system leads to income and wealth inequalities and mis-allocation of resources. Moreover, this system has absence of just and equitable aspect of distribution that may exploit either the debt holder or the financier. Such implications are reached to a tipping point that leaves only one choice: change or face continued decline and misery.

Keywords: viability, global financial stability, practical implications, asset driven, tipping point

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Authors: P. Kumar, D. Eisenhauer, M. M. K. Yousef, Q. Shi, A. S. G. Khalil, M. R. Saber, C. Becker, T. Pullerits, K. J. Karki

Abstract:

In impedance spectroscopy (IS) the response of a photo-active device is analysed as a function of ac bias. It is widely applied in a broad class of material systems and devices. It gives access to fundamental mechanisms of operation of solar cells. We have implemented a method of IS where we modulate the light instead of the bias. This scheme allows us to analyze not only carrier dynamics but also impedance of device locally. Here, using this scheme, we have measured the frequency-dependent photocurrent response of the thin-film planar and nano-textured Si solar cells using this method. Photocurrent response is measured in range of 50 Hz to 50 kHz. Bode and Nyquist plots are used to determine characteristic lifetime of both the cells. Interestingly, the carrier lifetime of both planar and nano-textured solar cells depend on back and front contact positions. This is due to either heterogeneity of device or contacts are not optimized. The estimated average lifetime is found to be shorter for the nano-textured cell, which could be due to the influence of the textured interface on the carrier relaxation dynamics.

Keywords: carrier lifetime, impedance, nano-textured, photocurrent

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