Supporting Energy Transition in the Urban Environment

In this research, a technology-oriented approach is adopted to investigate the urban energy transition. This analysis focuses on envisioning possible energy scenarios and the associated technology portfolio. In order to actually deploy such technologies, social, economic and politic factors are considered without forgetting the active role of final users. The methodology presented to develop scenarios and investigate the urban energy system transition have a strong potential to inform and transform energy strategy development. The attention is paid to the representation of energy and related resource systems to support policy, investment, environmental or development analytics, and preferably aspects of their interaction

Poverty From an Islamic Economics Perspective: Concept, Measurement, and Treatment

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Mineralogical and Geochemical Studies of Tills in South-Western Scotland

Till deposits of the NW Glasgow area and Northern Ayrshire were studied. In Part I, previous research into Quaternary problems in these areas and the nature, origin and classification of till deposits are outlined, followed by a statement of the aims of the project and the techniques used. Part II contains detailed data obtained from grain-size, clay mineralogical and major and trace element analyses of the matrices of three categories of NW Glasgow tills - Red, Weathered Grey and Grey. The Red and Weathered Grey tills have coarser-grained compositions than the Grey till. Mean size and skewness are the most diagnostic grain-size parameters for distinguishing between Red and Weathered Grey till on the one hand and Grey till on the other. All three categories contain kaolinite, illite and vermiculite. Chlorite is present only in the Grey till. The percentage of kaolinite is much lower and the percentage of vermiculite is higher in the Red till than in the Weathered Grey till. Three probable modes of origin of the clay minerals in the tills are proposed: direct inheritance, pre-glacial weathering and pedogenesis since till deposition. All three categories of till have a high SiO2 content, which is consistent with the tills having sources in the local sandstone bedrocks. With the exception of Zr, all the trace elements are preferentially concentrated in the silt and clay fractions. Zr appears to occur both in clay minerals and in the sand fraction as detrital zircon. Sr is concentrated in the calcium minerals and Ba in the K-feldspars. Study of vertical profiles shows that leaching of fine-grained material and weathering of clay minerals are common. Weathering in the Red till is difficult to detect. However, the amount of vermiculite increases upwards in the profile at the expense of illite. In the case of profiles through both Grey, and Weathered Grey till, chlorite disappears, and the amount of vermiculite increases up the profile at the expense of both illite and chlorite. The ratios Ga:Al2O3, MgO:Ni, FeO:Co and Ni:Co can be used to detect weathering trends in both Grey and Red till profiles. Mineralogical and geochemical studies of bedrock in the NW Glasgow area, showing the presence of chlorite in Carboniferous shales and sandstones and its absence in Devonian (O.R.S.) sandstones, indicate that the Grey till was derived largely from Carboniferous shales and sandstones, and the Red till largely from Devonian sandstones. Part III contains detailed data obtained by similar methods applied to the matrices of tills and associated Quaternary deposits in Northern Ayrshire. Marked similarities in the properties of samples of shelly till from five locations suggest similar sources for the shelly till at these locations. The shelly till has a high SiO2 and a low clay content, suggesting that the proportion of shell-bearing marine clay in the shelly till is not nearly as great as previously thought. The high SiO2 content in both the shelly and non-shelly tills of Northern Ayrshire reflects quartz-rich source rocks for these tills. The matrices of the non-shelly tills have higher CaO and CO2 contents than the matrix of the shelly till. This may be due to the presence of finely ground limestone in the non-shelly till matrices. Comparison of the properties of shell-bearing marine clays at Afton Lodge with those of the shelly till of N Ayrshire as a whole and with a shell-bearing deposit at Greenock Mains shows clearly that the last-mentioned is not a shelly till as formerly thought but is a marine sediment similar in composition to the deposit at Afton Lodge. The matrices of Upper and Lower grey tills at Sourlie are similar in composition, indicating similar sources, probably mainly local Carboniferous shales and sandstones. Finally, the thesis applies the results obtained to Quaternary stratigraphy. The properties of the matrices of red and grey facies of the proposed 'Wilderness Till' Formation of the Glasgow area can now be defined. The presence of Weathered Grey till overlain by Red till in the NW Glasgow area suggests at least a short period of exposure of Grey till before deposition of Red till on top of it. In Ayrshire, the discovery of shell-bearing marine deposits (at Greenock Mains) at c. 180m above present sea level and c. 30km inland from the present coast means that recent views regarding the maximum elevation and extent of Quaternary marine incursion in Ayrshire may have to be modified. The presence of these sediments also implies that the shelly till may have been derived from pockets of shell-bearing deposits picked up locally within inland Ayrshire rather than from the Firth, of Clyde. The presence of shelly till at any given location, therefore, may not be indicative of any particular direction of ice movement, as formerly thought

Survival of Microorganisms on Hospital Fabrics and Methods of Treatments (Review)

 Medical fabrics have been used widely in heath care units as well as in other sectors such as hotels restaurants and food industries. The hospital fabrics are considered as the host for bacteria and fungi, which they remain surviving on surface of fabrics for several weeks. This paper cites a review of the literature published on survival of microorganisms on hospital fabrics and methods of treatments applied to inhibit the reproduction of the microorganisms. The review shows that the times of persistence of microorganisms on fabrics were depending on type of microorganism, fabric and method of treatment

Application of Sobolev inequalities for higher order fractional derivatives

in this paper we study the general uncertainty principal , we obtain the best constant as application of Sobolev inequalities for higher order fractional derivatives

Antibiotic resistance and ndvB gene expression among biofilm producing Pseudomonas aeruoginosa isolates

A novel antibiotic resistant mechanism among biofilms is glucan-mediated sequestration in which ndvB gene encodes a glucosyltransferase involved in the formation of this glucans. We studied the biofilm formation and antibiotic susceptibility pattern of P. aeruginosa isolated from clinical samples, and measured the expression of ndvB gene among biofilm forming isolates and their planktonic counterparts. The study was conducted on 92 P. aeruginosa isolates. Biofilm was measured using tissue culture plate method. Antibiotic susceptibility of biofilm positive isolates and planktonic counterparts for ciprofloxacin, tobramycin and gentamycin was tested using tube microdilution method. Expression of ndvB gene was measured using Syper green real time PCR. We found that 44 isolates (47.8%) of P. aeruginosa were biofilm positive. The biofilm formation was high among urine, endotracheal tube aspirate and burn isolates compared to isolates of wound specimens, with statistically nonsignificant differences. None of biofilm forming isolates was susceptible to the 3 antibiotics compared to the presence of susceptible isolates among the planktonic counterpart (18/40.9% for ciprofloxacin, 12/27.3% for tobramycin and 13/29.5% for gentamycin). Expression of ndvB gene was significantly high in biofilm isolates than their corresponding counterpart, with significant correlations with minimal biofilm inhibitory concentration (MBIC) values of cibrofloxacin (r=+ 0.65, p< 0.05 ), tobramycin (r= + 0.54 p< 0.05 ) and gentamycin (r=+ 0.77, p< 0.001 ).From this study we concluded that biofilm formation is an important character of P. aeruginosa that is a main cause of antibiotic resistance especially in isolates from catheterized urine , wound and endotracheal tube aspirate. NdvB gene expression is a mechanism of resistance to antibiotics in P. aeruginosa biofilms.Keywords: P. aeruginosa, biofilm, antibiotic resistance and ndvB gen

The Impact of Herding on the Expected Return in the Egyptian Stock Exchange

This paper examines the impact of herding behaviour on the expected return in the Egyptian Stock Exchange by adding an additional risk factor reflecting herding behaviour to the capital asset pricing model. The study used monthly excess stock returns of 50 stocks listed on the Egyptian Stock Exchange from January 2014 to December 2018. The results do not support the capital asset pricing model before and after adding the herding behaviour factor, therefore there is no effect of herding behaviour on the expected return

Empirical Test of Fama and French Three-Factor Model in the Egyptian Stock Exchange

We test the empirical validity of the three-factor model of Fama and French in the Egyptian Stock Exchange (EGX) using monthly excess stock returns of 50 stocks listed on the EGX from January 2014 to December 2018. Our findings do not support Fama and French three-factor model, where the coefficient of the beta was insignificant. The “SBM” coefficient and the “HML” coefficient were equal to zero and insignificant, which confirms the absence of the small firm effect and book-to-market ratio effect in the market. We conclude that there is no relation between expected return and Fama-French risk factors

The Impact of Herding on the Risk Pricing in the Egyptian Stock Exchange

We test the impact of herding behaviour on the risk pricing in the Egyptian Stock Exchange (EGX) by adding an additional risk factor reflecting herding behaviour to the Fama and French three-factor model. We construct a portfolio to mimic an additional risk factor related to herding behaviour, in addition to the original risk factors in the Fama and French three-factor model. The three-factor model will be tested in its original form and re-tested after adding the herding behaviour factor. The study is based on Hwang and Salmon methodology, in which the state space approach based on Kaman’s filter was used to measure herding behaviour. We used monthly excess stock returns of 50 stocks listed on the EGX from January 2014 to December 2018. The results do not support Fama and French model before and after adding the herding behaviour factor, therefore, there is no effect of herding behaviour on the risk pricing in the Egyptian Stock Exchange