Search results for: Faisal E. Ahmed

Authors: Mahmoud Y. M. Ahmed, Ahmed Konsowa, Mostafa Sami, Ayman Mosallam

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Fukushima nuclear accident (Japan 2011) has drawn attention to the issue of gas leakage from hazardous facilities through building boundaries. The rapidly increasing investments in nuclear stations have made the ability to predict, and prevent, gas leakage a rather crucial issue both environmentally and economically. Leakage monitoring for underground facilities is rather complicated due to the combination of Reinforced Concrete Shear Wall (RCSW) and soil. In the framework of a recent research conducted by the authors, the gas insulation capabilities of RCSW-soil combination have been investigated via a lab-scale experimental work. Despite their accuracy, experimental investigations are expensive, time-consuming, hazardous, and lack for flexibility. Numerically simulating the gas leakage as a fluid flow problem based on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling approach can provide a potential alternative. This novel implementation of CFD approach is the topic of the present paper. The paper discusses the aspects of modeling the gas flow through porous media that resemble the RCSW both isolated and combined with the normal soil. A commercial CFD package is utilized in simulating this fluid flow problem. A fixed RCSW layer thickness is proposed, air is taken as the leaking gas, whereas the soil layer is represented as clean sand with variable properties. The variable sand properties include sand layer thickness, fine fraction ratio, and moisture content. The CFD simulation results almost demonstrate what has been found experimentally. A soil layer attached next to a cracked reinforced concrete section plays a significant role in reducing the gas leakage from that cracked section. This role is found to be strongly dependent on the soil specifications.

Keywords: RCSW, gas leakage, Pressure Decay Method, hazardous underground facilities, CFD

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Authors: Mayada Mazher, Ahmed Moustafa, Ahmed Abdellatif

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Background: Autophagy is a eukaryotic, highly conserved catabolic process implicated in many pathophysiologies such as wound healing. Autophagy-associated genes serve as a scaffolding platform for signal transduction of macrophage polarization during the inflammatory phase of wound healing and tissue repair process. In the current study, we report a model for the interplay between autophagy-associated genes and macrophages polarization associated genes. Methods: In silico analysis was performed on 249 autophagy-related genes retrieved from the public autophagy database and gene expression data retrieved from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO); GSE81922 and GSE69607 microarray data macrophages polarization 199 DEGS. An integrated protein-protein interaction network was constructed for autophagy and macrophage gene sets. The gene sets were then used for GO terms pathway enrichment analysis. Common transcription factors for autophagy and macrophages' polarization were identified. Finally, microRNAs enriched in both autophagy and macrophages were predicated. Results: In silico prediction of common transcription factors in DEGs macrophages and autophagy gene sets revealed a new role for the transcription factors, HOMEZ, GABPA, ELK1 and REL, that commonly regulate macrophages associated genes: IL6,IL1M, IL1B, NOS1, SOC3 and autophagy-related genes: Atg12, Rictor, Rb1cc1, Gaparab1, Atg16l1. Conclusions: Autophagy and macrophages' polarization are interdependent cellular processes, and both autophagy-related proteins and macrophages' polarization related proteins coordinate in tissue remodelling via transcription factors and microRNAs regulatory network. The current work highlights a potential new role for transcription factors HOMEZ, GABPA, ELK1 and REL in wound healing.

Keywords: autophagy related proteins, integrated network analysis, macrophages polarization M1 and M2, tissue remodelling

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Authors: R. Tajau, R. Rohani, M. S. Alias, N. H. Mudri, K. A. Abdul Halim, M. H. Harun, N. Mat Isa, R. Che Ismail, S. Muhammad Faisal, M. Talib, M. R. Mohamed Zin

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Bio-based polymeric materials are increasingly used for a variety of applications, including surface coating, drug delivery systems, and tissue engineering. These polymeric materials are ideal for the aforementioned applications because they are derived from natural resources, non-toxic, low-cost, biocompatible, and biodegradable, and have promising thermal and mechanical properties. The nature of hydrocarbon chains, carbon double bonds, and ester bonds allows various sources of oil (edible), such as soy, sunflower, olive, and oil palm, to fine-tune their particular structures in the development of innovative materials. Palm oil can be the most eminent raw material used for manufacturing new and advanced natural polymeric materials involving radiation techniques, such as coating resins, nanoparticles, scaffold, nanotubes, nanocomposites, and lithography for different branches of the industry in countries where oil palm is abundant. The radiation technique is among the most versatile, cost-effective, simple, and effective methods. Crosslinking, reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT), polymerisation, grafting, and degradation are among the radiation mechanisms. Exposure to gamma, EB, UV, or laser irradiation, which are commonly used in the development of polymeric materials, is used in these mechanisms. Therefore, this review focuses on current radiation processing technologies for the development of various radiation-curable bio-based polymeric materials with a promising future in biomedical and industrial applications. The key focus of this review is on radiation curable palm oil-based products, which have been published frequently in recent studies.

Keywords: palm oil, radiation processing, surface coatings, VOC

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Authors: Ahmed E. Hodaib, Mohamed A. Hashem

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Dissimilar to pneumatic tyres, airless tyres or flat-proof tyres (also known as tweel) is designed to have poly-composite compound treaded around a hub of flexible spokes. The main advantage of this design is its robustness as airless tyres are impossible to deflate or to blowout at highway speeds like conventional tyres so the driver does not have to be restless about having a spare tire. A summary of the study on manufacturing of airless tyres’ mold is given. Moreover, we have proposed some advantages and disadvantages of using tweel tyres.

Keywords: airless tyres, tweel, non-pneumatic tyres, manufacturing

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Authors: Almas Athif Fathin Wiyantoro, Fransiskus Xaverius Ivan Budiman, Fithra Faisal Hastiadi

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The growth of clothing and technology as a marketing tool has a great influence on online business owners to know how much the characteristics and psychology of consumers in influencing purchasing decisions made by Indonesian women consumers. One of the most important issues faced by Indonesian women consumers is the suitability of clothing. The suitability of clothing can affect the body cathexis, identity, and confidence. So the thematic analysis of clothing fitness and body cathexis of women consumers when and after using virtual fitting room technology to purchase decision is important to do. This research using group method of pre-post treatment and considers how the recruitment technique of snowball sampling, which uses interpersonal relations and connections between people, both includes and excludes individuals into 39 participants' social networks to access specific populations. The results obtained from the study that the results of body scans and photos of virtual fitting room results can be made an intervention in women consumers in assessing their body cathexis objectively in the process of making purchasing decisions. The study also obtained a regression equation Y = 0.830 + 0.290X1 + 0.292X2, showing a positive relationship between suitability of clothing and body cathexis which influenced purchasing decisions on women consumers and after (personal and psychological factors) using virtual fitting room, meaning that all independent variables influence Positive towards the purchasing decision of the women consumers.

Keywords: body cathexis, clothing fitness, purchasing decision making and virtual fitting room

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Authors: Duaa Mughal, Syeda Areeba Nadeem, Shakil Ahmed, Ishtiaq Ahmed Khan

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The identification of porcine DNA in Halal food items is critical to ensuring compliance with dietary restrictions and religious beliefs. In Islam, Porcine is prohibited as clearly mentioned in Quran (Surah Al-Baqrah, Ayat 173). The purpose of this study was to compare two DNA extraction procedures for detecting 0.001% of porcine DNA in processed Halal food sample mixtures containing chicken, camel, veal, turkey and goat meat using the TaqMan Real-Time PCR technology. In this research, two different commercial kit protocols were compared. The processed sample mixtures were prepared by spiking known concentration of porcine DNA to non-porcine food matrices. Afterwards, TaqMan Real-Time PCR technique was used to target a particular porcine gene from the extracted DNA samples, which was quantified after extraction. The results of the amplification were evaluated for sensitivity, specificity, and reproducibility. The results of the study demonstrated that two DNA extraction techniques can detect 0.01% of porcine DNA in mixture of Halal food samples. However, as compared to the alternative approach, Eurofins| GeneScan GeneSpin DNA Isolation kit showed more effective sensitivity and specificity. Furthermore, the commercial kit-based approach showed great repeatability with minimal variance across repeats. Quantification of DNA was done by using fluorometric assay. In conclusion, the comparison of DNA extraction methods for detecting porcine DNA in Halal food sample mixes using the TaqMan Real-Time PCR technology reveals that the commercial kit-based approach outperforms the other methods in terms of sensitivity, specificity, and repeatability. This research helps to promote the development of reliable and standardized techniques for detecting porcine DNA in Halal food items, religious conformity and assuring nutritional.

Keywords: real time PCR (qPCR), DNA extraction, porcine DNA, halal food authentication, religious conformity

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Authors: Wade Ghribi, Abdelmoty M. Ahmed, Ahmed Said Badawy, Belgacem Bouallegue

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In higher education institutions, the most pressing priority is to improve student performance and retention. Large volumes of student data are used in Educational Data Mining techniques to find new hidden information from students' learning behavior, particularly to uncover the early symptom of at-risk pupils. On the other hand, data with noise, outliers, and irrelevant information may provide incorrect conclusions. By identifying features of students' data that have the potential to improve performance prediction results, comparing and identifying the most appropriate ensemble learning technique after preprocessing the data, and optimizing the hyperparameters, this paper aims to develop a reliable students' performance prediction model for Higher Education Institutions. Data was gathered from two different systems: a student information system and an e-learning system for undergraduate students in the College of Computer Science of a Saudi Arabian State University. The cases of 4413 students were used in this article. The process includes data collection, data integration, data preprocessing (such as cleaning, normalization, and transformation), feature selection, pattern extraction, and, finally, model optimization and assessment. Random Forest, Bagging, Stacking, Majority Vote, and two types of Boosting techniques, AdaBoost and XGBoost, are ensemble learning approaches, whereas Decision Tree, Support Vector Machine, and Artificial Neural Network are supervised learning techniques. Hyperparameters for ensemble learning systems will be fine-tuned to provide enhanced performance and optimal output. The findings imply that combining features of students' behavior from e-learning and students' information systems using Majority Vote produced better outcomes than the other ensemble techniques.

Keywords: educational data mining, student performance prediction, e-learning, classification, ensemble learning, higher education

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Authors: Osama Ahmed Ibrahim Masoud, Mohamed Ibrahim Mohamed Abdelhadi, Ahmed Mohamed Seddik Hassan

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The problem of study focuses on thermal comfort realization in a residential building during hot and dry climate periods consumes a major electrical energy for air conditioning operation. Thermal comfort realization in a residential building during such climate becomes more difficult regarding the phenomena of climate change, and the use of building and construction materials which have the feature of heat conduction as (bricks-reinforced concrete) and the global energy crises. For that, this study aims to how to realize internal thermal comfort through how to make the best use of building services (temporarily used service spaces) for reducing the electrical energy transfer and saving self-shading. In addition, the possibility of reduction traditional energy (fossil fuel) consumed in cooling through the use of building services for reducing the internal thermal comfort and the relationship between them. This study is based on measuring the consumed electrical energy rate in cooling (by using Design-Builder program) for a residential building (the place of study is: Egypt- Suez Canal- Suez City), this design model has lots of alternatives designs for the place of building services (center of building- the eastern front- southeastern front- the southern front- the south-west front, the western front). The building services are placed on the fronts with different rates for determining the best rate on fronts which realizes thermal comfort with the lowest of energy consumption used in cooling. Findings of the study indicate to that the best position for building services is on the west front then the south-west front, and the more the building services increase, the more energy consumption used in cooling of residential building decreases. Recommendations indicate to the need to study the building services positions in the new projects progress to select the best alternatives to realize ‘Energy conservation’ used in cooling or heating into the buildings in general, residential buildings particularly.

Keywords: residential buildings, energy conservation, thermal comfort, building services, temporary used service spaces, DesignBuilder

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Authors: Ali H.Alyami, Hussam Darraj, Faisal Hakami, Mohammed Awaf, Sulaiman Hamdi, Nawaf Bakri, Abdulaziz Saber, Khalid Hakami, Almuhanad Alyami, Mohammed khashab

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Introduction: Adolescents frequently self-report pain, according to epidemiological research. The knee is one of the sites where the pain is most common. One of the main factors contributing to the number of years people spend disabled and having substantial personal, societal, and economic burdens globally are musculoskeletal disorders. Adolescents may have knee pain due to an abrupt, traumatic injury or an insidious, slowly building onset that neither the adolescent nor the parent is aware of. Objectives: The present study’s authors aimed to estimate the prevalence of knee pain in Saudi adolescents. Methods: This cross-sectional survey, carried out from June to November 2022, included 676 adolescents ages 10 to 18. Data are presented as frequencies and percentages for categorical variables. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to compare means between groups, while the chi-square test was used for the comparison of categorical variables. Statistical significance was set at P< 0.05.Result: Adolescents were invited to take part in the study. 57.5% were girls, and 42.5% were males,68.8% were 676 aged between 15 and 18. The prevalence of knee pain was considerably high among females (26%), while it was 19.2% among males. Moreover, age was a significant predictor for knee pain; also BMI was significant for knee pain. Conclusion: Our study noted a high rate of knee pain among adolescents, so we need to raise awareness about risk factors. Adolescent knee pain can be prevented with conservative methods and some minor lifestyle/activity modifications.

Keywords: knee pain, prevalence of knee pain, exercise training, physical activity

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Authors: Malika El Kyal, Ahmed Machmoum

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We prove the superlinear convergence of asynchronous multi-splitting methods applied to differential equations. This study is based on the technique of nested sets. It permits to specify kind of the convergence in the asynchronous mode.The main characteristic of an asynchronous mode is that the local algorithm not have to wait at predetermined messages to become available. We allow some processors to communicate more frequently than others, and we allow the communication delays to be substantial and unpredictable. Note that synchronous algorithms in the computer science sense are particular cases of our formulation of asynchronous one.

Keywords: parallel methods, asynchronous mode, multisplitting, ODE

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Authors: Sharfi Dirar, Shihab Elhaj, Ahmed El Fatih

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Computational fluid dynamics were used to simulate and study the heated water boiler tube for both normal and rifled tube with a refinement of the mesh to check the convergence. The operation condition was taken from GARRI power station and used in a boundary condition accordingly. The result indicates the rifled tube has higher heat transfer efficiency than the normal tube.

Keywords: boiler tube, convergence check, normal tube, rifled tube

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Authors: Ahmed Abdullah Ahmed

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The task of recognizing the writer of a handwritten text has been an attractive research problem in the document analysis and recognition community with applications in handwriting forensics, paleography, document examination and handwriting recognition. This research presents an automatic method for writer recognition from digitized images of unconstrained writings. Although a great effort has been made by previous studies to come out with various methods, their performances, especially in terms of accuracy, are fallen short, and room for improvements is still wide open. The proposed technique employs optimal codebook based writer characterization where each writing sample is represented by a set of features computed from two codebooks, beginning and ending. Unlike most of the classical codebook based approaches which segment the writing into graphemes, this study is based on fragmenting a particular area of writing which are beginning and ending strokes. The proposed method starting with contour detection to extract significant information from the handwriting and the curve fragmentation is then employed to categorize the handwriting into Beginning and Ending zones into small fragments. The similar fragments of beginning strokes are grouped together to create Beginning cluster, and similarly, the ending strokes are grouped to create the ending cluster. These two clusters lead to the development of two codebooks (beginning and ending) by choosing the center of every similar fragments group. Writings under study are then represented by computing the probability of occurrence of codebook patterns. The probability distribution is used to characterize each writer. Two writings are then compared by computing distances between their respective probability distribution. The evaluations carried out on ICFHR standard dataset of 206 writers using Beginning and Ending codebooks separately. Finally, the Ending codebook achieved the highest identification rate of 98.23%, which is the best result so far on ICFHR dataset.

Keywords: off-line text-independent writer identification, feature extraction, codebook, fragments

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Authors: Mahmoud A. Amin, Essam Taman, Ahmed Omran, Mahmoud Shawky, Ahmed Mekawy, Abdallah M. Kotkat, Saber Younes, Nehad N. Ghonemy, Amin Saad, Ezz-Aleslam, Abdullah M. Elosh

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Introduction: TMJ is a one-of-a-kind, complicated synovial joint that helps with masticatory function by allowing the mandible to open and close the mouth. True ankylosis is a situation in which condylar movement is limited by a mechanical defect in the joint, whereas false ankylosis is a condition in which there is a restriction in mandibular movement due to muscular spasm myositis ossificans, and coronoid process hyperplasia. Ankylosis is characterized by the inability to open the mouth due to fusion of the TMJ condyle to the base of the skull as a result of trauma, infection, or systemic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (the most common) and psoraisis. Ankylosis causes facial asymmetry and affects the patient psychologically as well as speech, difficult mastication, poor oral hygiene, malocclusion, and other factors. TMJ is a technically challenging joint; hence TMJ ankylosis management is complicated. Case presentation: this case is a male patient 25 years old reported to our maxillofacial clinic in Damietta faculty of medicine, Al-Azhar University with the inability to open the mouth at all, with a history of difficulty of mouth breathing and eating foods, there was a history of falling from height at 2006, and the patient underwent corrective surgery before with no improvement because the ankylosis was relapsed short period after the previous operations with that done out of our hospital inter-incisor distant ZERO so, this condition need mandatory management. Clinical examination and radiological investigations were done after complete approval from the patient and his brother; tracheostomy was done for our patient before the operation. The patient entered the operation in our hospital and drastic improvement in mouth opening was noticed, helping to restore the physical psychological health of the patient.

Keywords: temporomandibular joint, TMJ, Ankylosis, mouth opening, physiotherapy, condylar plate

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Authors: Mostafa Ahmed Shokshok

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Libyan industrial companies face many challenges in today's competitive market. Quality management culture approaches is one of these challenges which may furnish the road to the Libyan industrial companies to effectively empower their employees and improve their ability to respond to the international competition. The primary objective of this paper is to design a practical approach to guide Libyan industrial companies toward successful quality culture implementation.

Keywords: TQM, quality culture, Libyan manufacturing industries, quality framework

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Authors: Faisal AlShammari, Abdulmajid Addali, Mosab Alrashed

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It is widely acknowledged that bearing failures are the primary reason for breakdowns in rotating machinery. These failures are extremely costly, particularly in terms of lost production. Roller bearings are widely used in industrial machinery and need to be maintained in good condition to ensure the continuing efficiency, effectiveness, and profitability of the production process. The research presented here is an investigation of the use of acoustic emission (AE) to monitor bearing conditions at low speeds. Many machines, particularly large, expensive machines operate at speeds below 100 rpm, and such machines are important to the industry. However, the overwhelming proportion of studies have investigated the use of AE techniques for condition monitoring of higher-speed machines (typically several hundred rpm, or even higher). Few researchers have investigated the application of these techniques to low-speed machines ( < 100 rpm). This paper addressed this omission and has established which, of the available, AE techniques are suitable for the detection of incipient faults and measurement of fault growth in low-speed bearings. The first objective of this paper program was to assess the applicability of AE techniques to monitor low-speed bearings. It was found that the measured statistical parameters successfully monitored bearing conditions at low speeds (10-100 rpm). The second objective was to identify which commonly used statistical parameters derived from the AE signal (RMS, kurtosis, amplitude and counts) could identify the onset of a fault in the out race. It was found that these parameters effectually identify the presence of a small fault seeded into the outer races. Also, it is concluded that rotational speed has a strong influence on the measured AE parameters but that they are entirely independent of the load under such load and speed conditions.

Keywords: acoustic emission, condition monitoring, NDT, statistical analysis

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Authors: Shoeb Ahmed Adeel, Vivek Paul, K. Prajwal, Michael Fenelon

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Techniques have been used to tether and stabilize a multi-rotor MAV but carrying out the same process to a fixed wing MAV is a novel method which can be utilized in order to reduce damage occurring to the fixed wing MAVs while conducting flight test trials and PID tuning. A few sensors and on board controller is required to carry out this experiment in horizontal and vertical plane of the vehicle. Here we will be discussing issues such as sensitivity of the air vehicle, endurance and external load of the string acting on the vehicle.

Keywords: MAV, PID tuning, tethered flight, UAV

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Authors: Rian Diana, Naufal Muharam Nurdin, Faisal Anwar, Hadi Riyadi, Ali Khomsan

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The use of traditional medicine (herbs and medicinal plants) are common among Indonesian people especially the elderly. Few study explore the use of medicinal plants in middle aged people. This study aims to collect information on the use of medicinal plants in middle aged people in rural areas. This cross sectional study included 224 subjects aged 45-59 years old and conducted in Cianjur District, West Java in 2014. Semi-structured questionnaires were used to collect information about preference in treatment of illness, the use of medicinal plants, and their purposes. Information also recorded plant names, parts used, mode of preparation, and dosage. Buying drugs in stall (83.9%) is the first preference in treatment of illness, followed by modern treatment 19.2% (doctors) and traditional treatment 17.0% (herbs/medicinal plants). 87 subjects (38.8%) were using herbs and medicinal plants for curative (66.7%), preventive (31.2%), and rehabilitative (2.1%) purposes. In this study, 48 species are used by the subjects. Physalis minima L. 'cecenet', Orthosiphon aristatus Mic. 'kumis kucing', and Annona muricata 'sirsak' are commonly used for the treatment of hypertension and stiffness. Leaves (64.6%) are the most common part used. Medicinal plants were washed and boiled in a hot water. Subject drinks the herbs with a different dosage. One in three middle aged people used herbal and medicinal plants for curative and preventive treatment particularly hypertension and stiffness. Increasing knowledge about herbal or medicinal plants dosage and their interaction with medical drugs are important to do.Doses vary between 1-3 glasses/day for treatment and 1-2 glasses/months for prevention of diseases.

Keywords: herbs, hypertension, medicinal plants, middle age, rural

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Authors: Faisal Islam, J. Ramkumar

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The applications of composite materials in aerospace, sporting and automotive industries need high quality machined surfaces and dimensional accuracy. Some studies have been done to understand the fiber failure mechanisms encountered during milling machining of CFRP composites but none are capable of explaining the exact nature of the orientation-based fiber failure mechanisms encountered in the milling machining process. The objective of this work is to gain a better understanding of the orientation-based fiber failure mechanisms occurring on the slot edges during CFRP milling machining processes. The occurrence of damage is predicted by a schematic explanation based on the mechanisms of material removal which in turn depends upon fiber cutting angles. A geometric model based on fiber cutting angle and fiber orientation angle is proposed that defines the critical and safe zone during machining and predicts the occurrence of delamination. Milling machining experiments were performed on composite samples of varying fiber orientations to verify the proposed theory. Mean fiber pulled out length was measured from the microscopic images of the damaged area to quantify the amount of damage produced. By observing the damage occurring for different fiber orientation angles and fiber cutting angles for up-milling and down-milling edges and correlating it with the material removal mechanisms as described earlier, it can be concluded that the damage/delamination mainly depends on the portion of the fiber cutting angles that lies within the critical cutting angle zone.

Keywords: unidirectional composites, milling, machining damage, delamination, carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRPs)

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Authors: Muhammad Faisal, Zai-Jin You, Muhammad Naeem

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Concerns about the environment, public health, and the economy are raised by the fact that the world produces around 6 trillion cigarettes annually. Arguably the most pervasive forms of environmental litter, this dangerous trash must be eliminated. The researchers wanted to get an idea of how much pollution is seeping out of cigarette butts in metropolitan areas by studying their distribution and concentration. In order to accomplish this goal, the cigarette butt pollution indicator was applied in 29 different areas. The locations were monitored monthly for a full calendar year. The conditions for conducting the investigation of the venues were the same on both weekends and during the weekdays. By averaging the metal leakage ratio in various climates and the average weight of cigarette butts, we were able to estimate the total amount of heavy metal leakage. The findings revealed that the annual average value of the index for the areas that were investigated ranged from 1.38 to 10.4. According to these numbers, just 27.5% of the areas had a low pollution rating, while 43.5% had a major pollution status or worse. Weekends witnessed the largest fall (31% on average) in all locations' indices, while spring and summer saw the largest increase (26% on average) compared to autumn and winter. It was calculated that the average amount of heavy metals such as Cr, Cu, Cd, Zn, and Pb that seep into the environment from discarded cigarette butts in commercial, residential, and park areas, respectively, is 0.25 µg/m2, 0.078 µg/m2, and 0.18 µg/m2. Butt from cigarettes is one of the most prevalent forms of litter in the area that was examined. This litter is the origin of a wide variety of contaminants, including heavy metals. This toxic garbage poses a significant risk to the city.

Keywords: heavy metal, hazardous waste, waste management, litter

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Authors: Ahmed Elhussein, Hossam El-Zomor, Adel Alieldin, Mahmoud A. Afifi, Abdullah Elhusseiny, Hala Taha, Amal Refaat, Soha Ahmed, Mohamed S. Zagloul

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Background: A majority of children with retinoblastoma (60%) have a disease in one eye only (unilateral disease). This is a retrospective study to evaluate two different treatment modalities in those patients for saving their lives and vision. Methods: Four hundred and four patients were diagnosed with unilateral intraocular retinoblastoma at Children’s Cancer, Hospital Egypt (CCHE) through the period of July/2007 until December/2017. Management strategies included primary enucleation versus ocular salvage treatment. Results: Patients presented with mean age 24.5 months with range (1.2-154.3 months). According to the international retinoblastoma classification, Group D (n=172, 42%) was the most common, followed by group E (n=142, 35%), group C (n=63, 16%), and group B (n=27, 7%). All patients were alive at the end of the study except four patients who died, with 5-years overall survival 98.3% [CI, (96.5-100%)]. Patients presented with advanced disease and poor visual prognosis (n=241, 59.6%) underwent primary enucleation with 6 cycles adjuvant chemotherapy if they had high-risk features in the enucleated eye; only four patients out of 241 ended-up either with extraocular metastasis (n=3) or death (n=1). While systemic chemotherapy and focal therapy were the primary treatment for those who presented with favorable disease status and good visual prognosis (n=163, 40.4%); seventy-seven patients of them (47%) ended up with a pre-defined event (enucleation, EBRT, off protocol chemotherapy or 2ry malignancy). Ocular survival for patients received primary chemotherapy + focal therapy was [50.9% (CI, 43.5-59.6%)] at 3 years and [46.9% (CI,39.3-56%)] at 5 years. Comparison between upfront enucleation and primary chemotherapy for occurrence of extraocular metastasis revealed that there was no statistical difference between them except in group D (p value). While for occurrence of death, no statistical difference in all classification groups. Conclusion: In retinoblastoma, primary chemotherapy is a reasonable option and has a good probability for ocular salvage without increasing the risk of metastasis in comparison to upfront enucleation except in group D.

Keywords: CCHE, chemotherapy, enucleation, retinoblastoma

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Authors: Faisal Muhibuddin, Ani Dijah Rahajoe

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This in-depth exploration, through a systematic literature review, scrutinizes the nuanced role of data mining in the classification of criminal activities. The research focuses on investigating various methodological aspects and recent developments in leveraging data mining techniques to enhance the effectiveness and precision of crime categorization. Commencing with an exposition of the foundational concepts of crime classification and its evolutionary dynamics, this study details the paradigm shift from conventional methods towards approaches supported by data mining, addressing the challenges and complexities inherent in the modern crime landscape. Specifically, the research delves into various data mining techniques, including K-means clustering, Naïve Bayes, K-nearest neighbour, and clustering methods. A comprehensive review of the strengths and limitations of each technique provides insights into their respective contributions to improving crime classification models. The integration of diverse data sources takes centre stage in this research. A detailed analysis explores how the amalgamation of structured data (such as criminal records) and unstructured data (such as social media) can offer a holistic understanding of crime, enriching classification models with more profound insights. Furthermore, the study explores the temporal implications in crime classification, emphasizing the significance of considering temporal factors to comprehend long-term trends and seasonality. The availability of real-time data is also elucidated as a crucial element in enhancing responsiveness and accuracy in crime classification.

Keywords: data mining, classification algorithm, naïve bayes, k-means clustering, k-nearest neigbhor, crime, data analysis, sistematic literature review

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Authors: Seham Samir Soliman, Ahmed A.Suliman, Khaled Fathy, Ahmed A. Sedik

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Cyclophosphamide (CP), an antineoplastic drug, has been found to induce reproductive damage. It is essential to develop approaches aimed at safeguarding ovarian tissue integrity in women experiencing reproductive toxicity as a result of chemotherapy. The current study was conducted to assess the impact of an extract derived from Moringa oleifera (M. oleifera) leaves on ovarian damage produced by CP. A total of 32 female Wistar Albino rats, which were in a healthy cycling state, were randomly separated into 4 groups, with every group contains 8 rats. The first group was administered intraperitoneal (i.p.) saline. The second group was administered a solitary intraperitoneal dosage of cyclophosphamide (200 mg/kg). The third one received M. oleifera extract (150 mg/kg orally) for 20 days, followed by i.p. of CP on the last day of the experiment. The fourth group received M. oleifera extract (250 mg/kg orally) for 20 days, followed by i.p. of CP on the last day of the experiment. Hormonal assessments, including luteinizing hormone (LH), estrogen (ES), and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), were performed 24 hours after CP administration. In addition, evaluating the antioxidant status and inflammatory response against CP. Moreover, conducting detailed histopathological and ultra-structural pictures of the ovary. Our findings reported that rats intoxicated with CP exhibited elevated levels of FSH, LH, malondialdehyde (MDA), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), and a decrease in E₂, and glutathione (GSH) levels. Pre-treatment with M. oleifera extract (250 mg/kg orally) ameliorated the disturbance in hormonal changes, oxidative stress indices, and the levels of pro-inflammatory mediators. Also, the histopathological and ultra-structural pictures of the ovaries were improved significantly in rats. In conclusion, M. oleifera extract possesses a significant protective role against CP-induced acute reproductive toxicity via modulating the values of FSH, LH, E₂ and quenching the release of reactive oxygen species and inflammatory mediators in female rats.

Keywords: cyclophosphamide, Moringa oleifera, ovarian function, oxidative stress, pro-inflammatory mediators

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Authors: Omer Farooq, Salman Ahmed Khan, Sadaf Khalid

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Modern day stock markets have almost entirely became automated. Even though it means increased profits for the investors by algorithms acting upon the slightest price change in order of microseconds, it also has given birth to many ethical dilemmas in the sense that slightest mistake can cause people to lose all of their livelihoods. This paper reviews one such event that happened on May 06, 2010 in which $1 trillion dollars disappeared from the Dow Jones Industrial Average. We are going to discuss its various aspects and the ethical dilemmas that have arisen due to it.

Keywords: flash crash, market crash, stock market, stock market crash

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Authors: Faisal Nouroz, Mukaramin Mukaramin

Abstract:

Of the transposable elements (TEs), the retrotransposons are the most copious elements identified from many sequenced genomes. They have played a major role in genome evolution, rearrangement, and expansions based on their copy and paste mode of proliferation. They are further divided into LTR and Non-LTR retrotransposons. The purpose of the current study was to identify the LTR REs in sequenced Phoenix dactylifera genome and to study their structural diversity. A total of 150 P. dactylifera BAC sequences with > 60kb sizes were randomly retrieved from National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) database and screened for the presence of LTR retrotransposons. Seven bacterial artificial chromosomes (BAC) sequences showed full-length LTR Retrotransposons with 4 Copia and 3 Gypsy families having variable copy numbers in respective families. Reverse transcriptase (RT) domain was found as the most conserved domain among Copia and Gypsy superfamilies and was used to deduce evolutionary analysis. The amino acid residues among various RT sequences showed variability in their percentages indicating post divergence evolution. Amino acid Leucine was found in highest proportions followed by Lysine, while Methionine and Tryptophan were in lowest percentages. The phylogenetic analysis based on RT domains confirmed that although having most conserved RT regions, several evolutionary events occurred causing nucleotide polymorphisms and hence clustering of Gypsy and Copia superfamilies into their respective lineages. The study will be helpful in identification and annotation of these elements in other species and genera and their distribution patterns on chromosomes by fluorescent in situ hybridization techniques.

Keywords: transposable elements, Phoenix dactylifera, retrotransposons, phylogenetic analysis

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Authors: Mansur Ahmed Kazaure

Abstract:

The emergence of sponsorship as a new marketing communication tool and a source of competitive advantage in the marketplace has changed the entire marketing communication process. Sponsorship has overtaken other marketing communication tools in terms of growth and expenditure. This paper seeks to evaluate the role of sponsorship in marketing communication tools. The study recommends that proper measures be taken before the company embarks into sponsorship programs. This is necessary because investment in sponsorship does not always guarantee sustainable competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Keywords: sponsorship, marketing communication theories, marketing communication tools

Procedia PDF Downloads 395

Authors: Ahmed Nouainia, Mohamed Hajji, Taoufik Aguili

Abstract:

In this paper, an electromagnetic analysis is presented for describing the influence of shielding in a rectangular waveguide. A hybridization based on the method of moments combined to the generalized equivalent circuit MoM-GEC is used to model the problem. This is validated by applying the MoM-GEC hybridization to investigate a diffraction structure. It consists of electromagnetic diffraction by an iris in a rectangular waveguide. Numerical results are shown and discussed and a comparison with FEM and Marcuvitz methods is achieved.

Keywords: method MoM-GEC, waveguide, shielding, equivalent circuit

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Authors: Salim Ahmed

Abstract:

The aim of this study was to recover a natural residue in the form of activated carbon prepared from Moroccan "argan pits and date pits" plant waste. After preparing the raw material for manufacture, the carbon was carbonised at 300°C and chemically activated with phosphoric acid of purity 85. The various characterisation results (moisture and ash content, specific surface area, pore volume, etc.) showed that the carbons obtained are comparable to those manufactured industrially and could therefore be tested, for example, in water treatment processes and especially for the depollution of effluents used in the agri-food and textile industries.

Keywords: activated carbon, water treatment, adsorption, argan

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Authors: Ahmed Usman Egye, Hamza Muhammad

Abstract:

Poverty alleviation is one of the most difficult challenges facing third world countries in their development efforts. Evidences in Nigeria showed that the number of those in poverty has continued to increase. This paper is aimed at analyzing the performance of poverty alleviation measures undertaken by successive administrations in Nigeria with a view to addressing the quagmire. The study identified the whole gamut of factors that served as stumbling blocks to the implementation of each of the strategies and recommended the involvement of local people in the identification and design of projects so that sufficient participation could be achieved.

Keywords: poverty, development, strategies, Nigeria

Procedia PDF Downloads 395

Authors: Emad A. Ahmed

Abstract:

Computer software to calculate electron mobility with respect to different scattering mechanism has been developed. This software is adopted completely Graphical User Interface (GUI) technique and its interface has been designed by Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0. As a case study the electron mobility of n-GaN was performed using this software. The behaviour of the mobility for n-GaN due to elastic scattering processes and its relation to temperature and doping concentration were discussed. The results agree with other available theoretical and experimental data.

Keywords: electron mobility, relaxation time, GaN, scattering, computer software, computation physics

Procedia PDF Downloads 627

Authors: Fadil Elmenfi, Ahmed Gaibani

Abstract:

This study investigates the role of gender in influencing public speaking anxiety. Questionnaire survey was administered to the samples of the study. Technique of correlation and descriptive analysis will be further applied to the data collected to determine the relationship between gender and public speaking anxiety. This study could serve as a guide to identify the effects of gender differences on public speaking anxiety and provide necessary advice on how to design a way of coping with or overcoming public speaking anxiety.

Keywords: across culture, communication, English language competence, gender, postgraduate students, speaking anxiety

Procedia PDF Downloads 517