Client-server-based LBS architecture: A novel positioning module for improved positioning performance

Permission to distribute obtained from publisher.This work presents a new efficient positioning module that operates over client-server LBS architectures. The aim of the proposed module is to fulfil the position information requirements for LBS pedestrian applications by ensuring the availability of reliable, highly accurate and precise position solutions based on GPS single frequency (L1) positioning service. The positioning module operates at both LBS architecture sides; the client (mobile device), and the server (positioning server). At the server side, the positioning module is responsible for correcting user’s location information based on WADGPS corrections. In addition, at the mobile side, the positioning module is continually in charge for monitoring the integrity and available of the position solutions as well as managing the communication with the server. The integrity monitoring was based on EGNOS integrity methods. A prototype of the proposed module was developed and used in experimental trials to evaluate the efficiency of the module in terms of the achieved positioning performance. The positioning module was capable of achieving a horizontal accuracy of less than 2 meters with a 95% confidence level with integrity improvement of more than 30% from existing GPS/EGNOS services

First record of Aequorea globosa Eschscholtz, 1829 (Cnidaria: Hydrozoa) in the coast of Syria

The Indo-Pacific jellyfish Aequorea globosa Eschscholtz, 1829 was reported last year for the first time in the Mediterranean Sea from Iskenderun Bay (S. Turkey). This jellyfish was observed in the coast of Syria, on 8 January 2012, during a regular monthly sampling program

A pilot Citizens' Assembly on Electricity and Energy Justice in Hamra, Lebanon

The Citizens’ Assembly Pilot (CA) on energy justice and electricity was a conceptual and a methodological experiment conducted over five sessions over three days in the neighborhood of Hamra and Beirut in October and November 2020. The CA aimed at exploring meanings, dimensions, priorities of energy justice in a deliberative democratic setting. The CA tackled five main questions: How did we get to where we are? What is energy justice to us? What is the energy-mix we would like to have? What do we need to be doing as individuals and communities to achieve a better energy future? How should we move forward with our decisions on the above questions? The responses produced interesting findings for researchers and international stakeholders to consider further; such as skepticism over renewable energy targets, the interest in circular solutions to solve multiple intersecting service sectors like waste and water in particular. It also raised questions over decentralization as well as privatization at different scales of governance

Telling Stories of Pain: Women Writing Gender, Sexuality and Violence in the Novel of the Lebanese Civil War.

Lebanese Civil War narratives by women writers received considerable attention in studies by Western scholars such as Miriam Cooke and Evelyne Accad. However, through my focus on three novels in this dissertation, Hanan al-Shaykh’s The Story of Zahra (1980), Najwa Barakat’s Ya Salaam (1999) and Alawiyya Subuh’s Maryam of Stories (2002), that are concerned with the pre- and post-war environments, I hope to contribute a more holistic understanding of Lebanese society as presented by women writers. I concentrate on the development of patriarchal structures of oppression as well as creative means of resistance by its victims through the study of representations of gender, sexuality and violence. Ya Salaam and Maryam of Stories, it should be noted, have not been studied, and scholarship on The Story of Zahra has focused on its second part, neglecting the first part that treats Zahra’s psychosexual development and provides important insight into prewar Beirut. I approach the explicit discussion of sex and violence in these novels as evidence of their focus on the body, a contested site. I also discuss their interest in the relationships between women, a link explored through the centralization of female characters in the texts. My dissertation further explores traditional patriarchal structures and patterns of gendered oppression that demonstrate remarkable temporal and spatial mobility. I complicate my study by revealing the diversity among these three novels, evidenced by their varied treatment of gender, sexuality and violence. The Story of Zahra is concerned primarily with characters’ negotiation of gender, and it uses these processes to explore themes of sexuality and violence. In contrast, Ya Salaam utilizes violence as a lens, and Maryam of Stories approaches gender and violence through sexuality. Rather than employing a unifying theoretical framework in this dissertation, I link the novels thematically, utilizing psychoanalysis, and Feminist, literary and gender theory throughout, including the work of Freud, Jung, Cixous, Connell, Flax, Foucault and others.Ph.D.Near Eastern StudiesUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/77893/1/kalmasr_1.pd

Issues of self-representation in Islamic community centers in America

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1993.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 147-153).by Wael M. Al-Masri.M.S

Trichoderma harzianum in combination with sheep manure amendment enhances soil suppressiveness of Fusarium wilt of tomato

The effect that the biocontrol agent Trichoderma harzianum (isolate Jn14) in combination with an amendment of sheep manure has on the soil suppressiveness of Fusarium wilt of tomato was investigated over a 28-month period. A combination of T. harzianum and organic amendment at concentrations (w:w) of 6 and 10% reduced tomato wilt by 21–36 % and 29–36% respectively, after 0–28 months of soil incubation. When the amendment was added at concentration of 2%, the wilt was suppressed only after 18–28 months. A combination of T. harzianum and the amendment at 6% also increased tomato plant fresh weights by 52% after 28 months, and the 10% amendment increased fresh weights by 56, 40, and 63%, after 18, 24, and 28 months respectively, compared to the experimental controls. Organic amendment at the higher concentrations further stimulated T. harzianum populations, enhanced microbial activity against Fusarium oxysporum in the soil and reduced pathogen populations. Without T. harzianum, the organic amendment at a concentration of 10% reduced disease by only 22, 24, and 23% and only after 18, 24 and 28 months of soil incubation respectively, compared with the controls. However, tomato wilt was not reduced at a 2% manure concentration in less than 12 months of incubation. Organic amendment alone at 6 and 10% reduced the pathogen population by 25% and 37% respectively after 28 months of soil incubation compared with the control. T. harzianum produced fungitoxic metabolites that reduced mycelial growth of Fusarium by 37% and conidium germination by 55% when the pathogen was grown on potato dextrose agar amended with a T. harzianum culture filtrate

Structure and age-dependent development of the turkey liver: a comparative study of a highly selected meat-type and a wild-type turkey line

In this study the macroscopic and microscopic structure of the liver of a fast growing, meat-type turkey line (British United turkeys BUT Big 6, n = 25) and a wild-type turkey line (Wild Canadian turkey, n = 48) were compared at the age of 4, 8, 12, 16, and 20 wk. Because the growth plates of long bones were still detectable in the 20-week-old wild-type turkeys, indicating immaturity, a group of 8 wild-type turkeys at the age of 24 wk was included in the original scope of the study. Over the term of the study, the body and liver weights of birds from the meat-type turkey line increased at a faster rate than those of the wild-type turkey line. However, the relative liver weight of the meat-type turkeys declined (from 2.7 to 0.9%) to a greater extent than that of the wild-type turkeys (from 2.8 to 1.9%), suggesting a mismatch in development between muscle weights and liver weights of the meat-type turkeys. Signs of high levels of fat storage in the liver were detected in both lines but were greater in the wild-type turkey line, suggesting a better feed conversion by the extreme-genotype birds i.e., meat-type birds. For the first time, this study presents morphologic data on the structure and arrangement of the lymphatic tissue within the healthy turkey liver, describing two different types of lymphatic aggregations within the liver parenchyma, i.e., aggregations with and without fibrous capsules. Despite differences during development, both adult meat-type and adult wild-type turkeys had similar numbers of lymphatic aggregations

Biological control of Egyptian broomrape (Orobanche aegyptiaca) using Fusarium spp.

The broomrape (Orobanche spp.) is an obligate holoparasitic weed that causes severe damage to many important vegetable crops. Many broomrape control strategies have been tested over the years. In this investigation, 125 Fusarium spp. isolates were recovered from diseased broomrape spikes collected from fields in agricultural areas near Hebron. The pathogenicity of isolates on broomrape was evaluated using an inoculum suspension containing mycelia and conidia. The most effective Fusarium isolates significantly increased the dead spikes of broomrape by 33.6–72.7% compared to the control; there was no obvious pathogenic effect on the tomato plants. Fusarium spp. isolates Fu 20, 25 and 119 were identified as F. solani, while Fu 30, 52, 59, 87 and 12-04 were F. oxysporum. In addition, the two previously known Fusarium strains, F. oxysporum strain EId (CNCM-I-1622) (Foxy) and F. arthrosporioides strain E4a (CNCM-I-1621) (Farth) were equally effective in controlling broomrape parasitizing tomato plants grown in pots, where the dead spikes of broomrape increased by 50.0 and 51.6%, respectively

Combined Implant and Tooth Support: An Up-to-Date Comprehensive Overview

Objectives. This article presents a review on the concerned topics and some considerations related to the concept of splinting teeth and implants in the rehabilitation of partial edentulism. Study Selection. An electronic PubMed/MEDLINE and manual search of identified articles and reviews as well as clinical, laboratory, and finite element studies was performed in this project. Due to the shortage in within-subject, long term, randomized, controlled clinical trials regarding the subject a meta-analysis was not possible. Results. Although surrounded with some controversy, joining teeth and implants during the rehabilitation of partial edentulism provides the clinicians with more treatment options where proprioception and bone volume are maintained and distal cantilevers and free end saddles are eliminated. It makes the treatment less complex, of less cost, and more acceptable for the patient. Conclusions. Whenever suitable and justified, combining implant and tooth support might be recommended as an alternative during rehabilitation of partial edentulism. Based on the literature, clinical tips and suggestions were recommended to increase the success of this treatment