Predicting Performance Measurement of Residential Buildings Using an Artificial Neural Network

Application Earned Value Management (EVM) as a construction project control technique is not very common in the Republic of Iraq, in spite of the benefit from EVA to the schedule control and cost control of construction projects. One of the goals of the present study is the employment machine intelligence techniques in the estimation of earned value; also this study contributes to extend the cognitive content of study fields associated with the earned value, and the results of this study are considered a robust incentive to try and do complementary studies, or to simulate a similar study in alternative new technologies. This paper is aiming at introducing a novel and alternative method of applying Artificial Intelligence Techniques (AIT) for earned value management of the construction projects through using Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) to build mathematical models to be used to estimate the Schedule Performance Index (SPI), Cost Performance Index (CPI) and to Complete Cost Performance Indicator (TCPI) in Iraqi residential buildings before and at execution stage through using web-based software to perform the calculations in the estimation quickly, accurately and without effort. ANN technique was utilized to produce new prediction models by applying the Backpropagation algorithm through Neuframe software. Finally, the results showed that the ANN technique shows excellent results of estimation when it is compared with MLR techniques. The results were interpreted in terms of Average Accuracy (AA%) equal to 83.09, 90.83, and 82.88%, also, correlation coefficient (R) equal to 90.95, 93.00, and 92.30% for SPI, CPI and TCPI respectively. Doi: 10.28991/cej-2021-03091666 Full Text: PD

Refractive Errors among Primary Schools Children in Assiut District, Egypt

BACKGROUND: Uncorrected refractive errors are a public health problem especially among school children. It has a direct effect on learning and academic performance. AIMS OF THE STUDY: This study aims to assess the refractive errors among a representative sample of school children under ten in Assiut City, Egypt and to manage the discovered cases early. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Descriptive cross sectional study design was used. The students of primary schools in the first, second and third grades under ten years old were the focus of the study and they were selected by stratified random sampling technique.  The calculated sample size was 196. Two tools were used in the study; the first one was a self administered questionnaire to collect sociodemographic data as child age, birth order, father's and mother's education and occupation, family history of wearing glasses, watching TV or using computer etc. The second tool was the eye examination by a Portable Auto-refractometer which has the advantages of accuracy, easy examination, being movable everywhere and provide printable eye status report. An eye examination record was used to register data about student's name, age. Data collection started from the first of March 2012 until the end of April 2012. Data were analyzed using SPSS soft program version 16. RESULTS: 241 students (107 males and 134 females) participated in the study but 142 only agreed to perform eye examination with 59% response rate. Ninety-five children (66.9%) had a significant refractive error of ±0.50 or worse in one or both eyes. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS: Significant refractive errors occur among primary school children aged 6 to 10 years. Therefore, there is a need to have regular and simple vision testing in primary school children to screen for refractive errors. This will enable to start corrective measures at the early stage and decrease visual disability. Key words: refractive errors- children- primary schools- Egypt

Comparison of behaviour, performance and mortality in restricted and ad libitum-fed growing rabbits

The objective of this study was to determine whether rabbits fed in a restricted regimen (75%) showed increased competition for feeding, drinking and use of specific areas of the cages as compared with those provided feed ad libitum. This evaluation was carried out by measuring their space utilisation in the cage, the incidence of agonistic behaviour and rates of mortality. In total, 504 rabbits between 31 and 66 days of age were used in this study. A total of 200 heavy-weight rabbits and 56 light-weight rabbits were randomly housed in 32 cages, each cage containing eight rabbits: 25 cages housing heavy rabbits and seven cages housing the light-weight ones. They were all fed ad libitum (AD). In addition, a total of 208 heavy-weight rabbits and 40 lightweight rabbits were randomly housed in 31 cages, each of them containing eight rabbits: 26 cages housing heavy weight rabbits and five cages housing light-weight ones. They were all fed a restricted diet (R) regimen. The restriction was calculated to be 75% of the feed consumed by the AD group. The total space available in the cage was 3252 cm2, with a stocking density of 24.6 animals/m2. Animals between 32 and 60 days of age from 20 different cages were observed nine times per week (morning or afternoon) by means of scan and focal sampling by one observer. During each period, cages were assessed for 5 min, registering every minute the position of all the animals in relation to Area A (feeder), Area B (central part) or Area C (back and drinker area). The incidence of agonistic behaviour such as displacement, biting and jumping on each other was also assessed. Performance variables such as daily gain and feed conversion ratio, in addition to general health status and mortality rates, were recorded for all rabbits. When the rabbits were under restricted feeding, the competition for feed and drink increased with clear signs of agonistic behaviour such as biting, displacement and animals jumping on top of each other. Although this competition was maintained during the entire growing period, the BW homogeneity between animals in the same cage was similar in both cases, suggesting that all animals could consume similar quantities of feed. The possible advantages of a restricted diet, such as better feed conversion ratio, were observed in this study only in the last few weeks of the growing period.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

New Algorithm for Drawings of 3-Planar Graphs

Graphs arise in a natural way in many applications, together with the need to be drawn. Except for very small instances, drawing a graph by hand becomes a very complex task, which must be performed by automatic tools. The field of graph drawing is concerned with finding algorithms to draw graph in an aesthetically pleasant way, based upon a certain number of aesthetic criteria that define what a good drawing, (synonyms: diagrams, pictures, layouts), of a graph should be. This problem can be found in many such as in the computer networks, data networks, class inter-relationship diagrams in object oriented databases and object oriented programs, visual programming interfaces, database design systems, software engineering…etc. Given a plane graph G, we wish to find a drawing of G in the plane such that the vertices of G are represented as grid points, and the edges are represented as straight-line segments between their endpoints without any edge-intersection. Such drawings are called planar straight-line drawings of G. An additional objective is to minimize the area of the rectangular grid in which G is drawn. In this paper we introduce a new algorithms that finds an embedding of 3-planar graph. Keywords: 3- Planar Graph; Graph Drawing; drawing on grid

Inner-sphere oxidation of ternary iminodiacetatochromium(III) complexes involving DL-valine and L-arginine as secondary ligands. Isokinetic relationship for the oxidation of ternary iminodiacetato-chromium(III) complexes by periodate

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In this paper, the kinetics of oxidation of [Cr^III(HIDA)(Val)(H₂O)₂]⁺and [Cr^III(HIDA)(Arg)(H₂O)₂]⁺(HIDA = iminodiacetic acid, Val = DL-valine and Arg = L-arginine) were studied. The choice of ternary complexes was attributed to two considerations. Firstly, in order to study the effect of the secondary ligands DL-valine and L-arginine on the stability of binary complex [Cr^III(HIDA)(IDA)(H₂O)] towards oxidation. Secondly, transition metal ternary complexes have received particular focus and have been employed in mapping protein surfaces as probes for biological redox centers and in protein capture for both purification and study.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The results have shown that the reaction is first order with respect to both [IO₄^-] and the complex concentration, and the rate increases over the pH range 2.62 – 3.68 in both cases. The experimental rate law is consistent with a mechanism in which both the deprotonated forms of the complexes [Cr^III(IDA)(Val)(H₂O)₂] and [Cr^III(IDA)(Arg)(H₂O)₂] are significantly more reactive than the conjugate acids. The value of the intramolecular electron transfer rate constant for the oxidation of [Cr^III(HIDA)(Arg)(H₂O)₂]⁺, <it>k</it>₃(1.82 × 10^-3s^-1), is greater than the value of <it>k</it>₁(1.22 × 10^-3s^-1) for the oxidation of [Cr^III(HIDA)(Val)(H₂O)₂]⁺at 45.0°C and <it>I </it>= 0.20 mol dm^-3. It is proposed that electron transfer proceeds through an inner-sphere mechanism <it>via </it>coordination of IO₄^-to chromium(III).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The oxidation of [Cr^III(HIDA)(Val)(H₂O)₂]⁺and [Cr^III(HIDA)(Arg)(H₂O)₂]⁺by periodate may proceed through an inner-sphere mechanism via two electron transfer giving chromium(VI). The value of the intramolecular electron transfer rate constant for the oxidation of [Cr^III(HIDA)(Arg)(H₂O)₂]⁺, <it>k</it>₃, is greater than the value of <it>k</it>₁for the oxidation of [Cr^III(HIDA)(Val)(H₂O)₂]⁺. A common mechanism for the oxidation of ternary iminodiacetatochromium(III) complexes by periodate is proposed, and this is supported by an excellent isokinetic relationship between ΔH* and ΔS* values for these reactions.</p

Spatial Structures in a Generalized Ginzburg-Landau Free Energy

Searching for characteristic signatures of a higher order phase transition (specifically of order three or four), we have calculated the spatial profiles and the energies of a spatially varying order parameter in one dimension. In the case of a $p^{th}$ order phase transition to a superconducting ground state, the free energy density depends on temperature as $a^p$, where $a = a_o(1-T/T_c)$ is the reduced temperature. The energy of a domain wall between two degenerate ground states is $\epsilon_p \simeq a^{p-1/2}$. We have also investigated the effects of a supercurrent in a narrow wire. These effects are limited by a critical current which has a temperature dependence $J_c(T) \simeq a^{(2p-1)/2}$. The phase slip center profiles and their energies are also calculated. Given the suggestion that the superconducting transtion in \bkbox, for $x = 0.4$, may be of order four, these predictions have relevance for future experiments.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

Religious faith and psychosocial adaptation among stroke patients in Kuwait: A mixed method study

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ 2012 Springer Science+Business Media.Religious faith is central to life for Muslim patients in Kuwait, so it may influence adaptation and rehabilitation. This study explored quantitative associations among religious faith, self-efficacy, and life satisfaction in 40 female stroke patients and explored the influence of religion within stroke rehabilitation through qualitative interviews with 12 health professionals. The quantitative measure of religious faith did not relate to life satisfaction or self-efficacy in stroke patients. However, the health professionals described religious coping as influencing adaptation post-stroke. Fatalistic beliefs were thought to have mixed influences on rehabilitation. Measuring religious faith among Muslims through a standardized scale is debated. The qualitative accounts suggest that religious beliefs need to be acknowledged in stroke rehabilitation in Kuwait

On a novel hybrid Manta ray foraging optimizer and its application on parameters estimation of lithium-ion battery

In this paper, we propose a hybrid meta-heuristic algorithm called MRFO-PSO that hybridizes the Manta ray foraging optimization (MRFO) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) with the aim to balance the exploration and exploitation abilities. In the MRFO-PSO, the concept of velocity of the PSO is incorporated to guide the searching process of the MRFO, where the velocity is updated by the first best and the second-best solutions. By this integration, the balancing issue between the exploration phase and exploitation ability has been further improved. To illustrate the robustness and effectiveness of the MRFO-PSO, it is tested on 23 benchmark equations and it is applied to estimate the parameters of Tremblay's model with three different commercial lithium-ion batteries including the Samsung Cylindrical ICR18650-22 lithium-ion rechargeable battery, Tenergy 30209 prismatic cell, Ultralife UBBL03 (type LI-7) rechargeable battery. The study contribution exclusively utilizes hybrid machine learning-based tuning for Tremblay's model parameters to overcome the disadvantages of human-based tuning. In addition, the comparisons of the MRFO-PSO with six recent meta-heuristic methods are performed in terms of some statistical metrics and Wilcoxon's test-based non-parametric test. As a result, the conducted performance measures have confirmed the competitive results as well as the superiority of the proposed MRFO-PSO.Web of Science151art. no. 6

Profile of subjective quality of life and its correlates in a nation-wide sample of high school students in an Arab setting using the WHOQOL-Bref

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The upsurge of interest in the quality of life (QOL) of children is in line with the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, which stressed the child's right to adequate circumstances for physical, mental, and social development. The study's objectives were to: (i) highlight how satisfied Kuwaiti high school students were with life circumstances as in the WHOQOL-Bref; (ii) assess the prevalence of at risk status for impaired QOL and establish the QOL domain normative values; and (iii) examine the relationship of QOL with personal, parental, and socio-environmental factors.</p> <p>Method</p> <p>A nation-wide sample of students in senior classes in government high schools (N = 4467, 48.6% boys; aged 14-23 years) completed questionnaires that included the WHOQOL-Bref.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Using Cummins' norm of 70% - 80%, we found that, as a group, they barely achieved the well-being threshold score for physical health (70%), social relations (72.8%), environment (70.8%) and general facet (70.2%), but not for psychological health (61.9%). These scores were lower than those reported from other countries. Using the recommended cut-off of <1<it>SD </it>of population mean, the prevalence of at risk status for impaired QOL was 12.9% - 18.8% (population age-adjusted: 15.9% - 21.1%). In all domains, boys had significantly higher QOL than girls, mediated by anxiety/depression; while the younger ones had significantly higher QOL (<it>p </it>< 0.001), mediated by difficulty with studies and social relations. Although poorer QOL was significantly associated with parental divorce and father's low socio-economic status, the most important predictors of poorer QOL were perception of poor emotional relationship between the parents, poor self-esteem and difficulty with studies.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Poorer QOL seemed to reflect a circumstance of social disadvantage and poor psychosocial well-being in which girls fared worse than boys. The findings indicate that programs that address parental harmony and school programs that promote study-friendly atmospheres could help to improve psychosocial well-being. The application of QOL as a school population health measure may facilitate risk assessment and the tracking of health status.</p