Towards An Achieving A Smart Environmental City: A Case Study from Aqaba- Jordan

There is a global trend towards transforming cities into a "smart city" where many countries and governments have begun to implement smart city strategies in their cities due to the many urban challenges and problems facing cities these days, and traditional methods are no longer able to address these problems, so the need arose a new comprehensive system capable of making the city flexible and resilient to challenges through the use of a comprehensive "smart city curriculum" curriculum. In this context, the city of Aqaba was chosen as a study area and we noticed that it obviously suffers from the effects of climate change on it. We then tried to concentrate on developing a methodology aimed at achieving an environmentally smart city and making it more capable of making the city of high quality with a best use of natural resources. The paper also aims to identify the indicators of smart city in the urban environment of Aqaba city that have an impact on smart city factors through a qualitative questionnaire and interviews with specialists working in urban planning sectors in Aqaba. Therefore, the paper comes out with the applications and programs for the environment dimension that must be achieved in Aqaba in order to become a smart city environmentally. The paper presents a set of strategies that come out from the problems which are inferenced from the below study to be used by planners, urban designers and architects in the planning process in Aqaba in order to achieve the environmental dimension, therefore promote the smartness and quality of life for citizens. Keywords: Smart City, Sustainable, Smart Environment, Aqaba City. DOI: 10.7176/JETP/12-4-04 Publication date:October 31st 202

Classification and Separation of Audio and Music Signals

This chapter addresses the topic of classification and separation of audio and music signals. It is a very important and a challenging research area. The importance of classification process of a stream of sounds come up for the sake of building two different libraries: speech library and music library. However, the separation process is needed sometimes in a cocktail-party problem to separate speech from music and remove the undesired one. In this chapter, some existed algorithms for the classification process and the separation process are presented and discussed thoroughly. The classification algorithms will be divided into three categories. The first category includes most of the real time approaches. The second category includes most of the frequency domain approaches. However, the third category introduces some of the approaches in the time-frequency distribution. The approaches of time domain discussed in this chapter are the short-time energy (STE), the zero-crossing rate (ZCR), modified version of the ZCR and the STE with positive derivative, the neural networks, and the roll-off variance. The approaches of the frequency spectrum are specifically the roll-off of the spectrum, the spectral centroid and the variance of the spectral centroid, the spectral flux and the variance of the spectral flux, the cepstral residual, and the delta pitch. The time-frequency domain approaches have not been yet tested thoroughly in the process of classification and separation of audio and music signals. Therefore, the spectrogram and the evolutionary spectrum will be introduced and discussed. In addition, some algorithms for separation and segregation of music and audio signals, like the independent Component Analysis, the pitch cancelation and the artificial neural networks will be introduced

Dietary factors and Type 2 diabetes in the Middle East : what is the evidence for an association? - A systematic review.

This review aims to search and summarise the available evidence on the association between dietary factors and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in Middle Eastern populations, where diabetes prevalence is among the highest in the world. Electronic databases were searched; authors, libraries, and research centres in the Middle East were contacted for further studies and unpublished literature. Included studies assessed potential dietary factors for T2DM in Middle Eastern adults. Two reviewers assessed studies independently. Extensive searching yielded 17 studies which met the inclusion criteria for this review. The findings showed that whole-grain intake reduces the risk of T2DM, and potato consumption was positively correlated with T2DM. Vegetables and vegetable oil may play a protective role against T2DM. Dietary patterns that are associated with diabetes were identified, such as Fast Food and Refined Grains patterns. Two studies demonstrated that lifestyle interventions decreased the risk of T2DM. In summary, the identified studies support an association between some dietary factors and T2DM; however, many of the included studies were of poor methodological quality so the findings should be interpreted with caution. The review draws attention to major gaps in current evidence and the need for well-designed studies in this area

Patronage and the Idea of an Urban Bourgeoisie

From the reports of travelers and historians, people learn of the crafting of beautiful rock crystal and metalwork objects in the Cairo bazaar and, during the later Mamluk period, of beautiful gilded and enameled glass being produced in commercial areas of Aleppo and Damascus. Given the diverse subject matter of the manuscripts, people may speak of a patronage base allying the intelligentsia to the merchant class within a more broadly conceived bourgeoisie, one whose interests and aesthetic preferences, as compared with those of the court, might be productively investigated through such illustrated manuscripts. One of the frontispieces of a wonderful illustrated manuscript contains clearly Christian iconographical elements, and among the Christian community of Iraq and Syria, people encounter ample evidence for the patronage and production of metalwork, ceramics, and gilded and enameled glass as well as manuscripts

Secondary meningioma in a long-term survivor of atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumour with a germline INI1 mutation

OBJECTIVE: We report on a patient who developed a meningioma more than two decades after removal at a young age of an atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumour (AT/RT), which was due to a germline INI1 mutation, and radio- and chemotherapy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We present genetic evidence that the meningioma is not a recurrence or metastasis of the AT/RT and not due to the INI1 mutation, but is a radiation-induced tumour. CONCLUSION: This is the first case illustrating that improved survival of young patients with an AT/RT after aggressive treatment may be gained at the cost of an increased risk for the development of radiation-induced, non-INI1-related tumours

Preserving Insulin Secretion in Diabetes by Inhibiting VDAC1 Overexpression and Surface Translocation in beta Cells

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) develops after years of prediabetes during which high glucose (glucotoxicity) impairs insulin secretion. We report that the ATP-conducting mitochondrial outer membrane voltage-dependent anion channel-1 (VDAC1) is upregulated in islets from T2D and non-diabetic organ donors under glucotoxic conditions. This is caused by a glucotoxicity-induced transcriptional program, triggered during years of prediabetes with suboptimal blood glucose control. Metformin counteracts VDAC1 induction. VDAC1 overexpression causes its mistargeting to the plasma membrane of the insulinsecreting beta cells with loss of the crucial metabolic coupling factor ATP. VDAC1 antibodies and inhibitors prevent ATP loss. Through direct inhibition of VDAC1 conductance, metformin, like specific VDAC1 inhibitors and antibodies, restores the impaired generation of ATP and glucose-stimulated insulin secretion in T2D islets. Treatment of db/db mice with VDAC1 inhibitor prevents hyperglycemia, and maintains normal glucose tolerance and physiological regulation of insulin secretion. Thus, beta cell function is preserved by targeting the novel diabetes executer protein VDAC1.Peer reviewe

The Nile: its role in the fortunes and misfortunes of the Fatimid dynasty during its rule of Egypt (969-1171)

The epoch spanning the years 935-1094 constitutes - on the whole - the longest and driest period on record in the history of the Nile. A stretch of relatively normal discharge followed this phase, only for dryness to return. The reasons of this dry-wet-dry phenomenon have been recently appraised in the context of global climatic changes – the so-called “Medieval Warm Period” - that affected most of the known world between the 11th and the 13th centuries. It was in this period of Egyptian history that the Shi‘i Isma‘ili Fatimids replaced the Sunni Ikhshidids as rulers in 358/969 and, with alternating fortunes, continued to reign until 567/1171. In this paper, I examine how, faced with the convergence of extraordinary geo-climatic factors, the Fatimids managed (and mismanaged) the Nile and its valley. I contend that the imperial aspirations of the Fatimids in Cairo and beyond were in many ways subject to the typical unpredictability of the natural cycles of the river, hence the Fatimids’ success and failure in managing the varied economic, political and trading activities that took place along the Egyptian section of the Nile valley. A case in point highlighted here will be the Fatimids’ privileging of flax cultivation over wheat

Assessing exclusive breastfeeding practices, dietary intakes and body mass index (BMI) of nursing mothers in Ekiti State of Nigeria

Breastfeeding is an unequalled way of providing ideal food for the infants. The benefits of breastfeeding practices to infants and mothers are well documented. However, information on breastfeeding practices and its effect on body mass index (BMI) of mothers are scarce, particularly in Ekiti State of Nigeria. Therefore, the present study is designed to assess breastfeeding practices and its association with BMI of mothers. A descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted among breastfeeding mothers that attended postnatal clinic of the state specialist hospitals and maternity centers in the study location. The specialist hospital and two-third of the nine maternity centers were purposively selected because of their health facilities and personnel. The mother-child pairs (200 respondents) were randomly selected from the study locations. Information on demographic characteristic, socio-economic parameters, nutritional knowledge of breastfeeding and dietary intakes of mothers were collected using questionnaires. BMI of mothers was determined as described by World Health Organization. Age distribution of mothers was between 25-34 years; and almost half of respondents had good educational background and were engaged in different occupations. The respondent monthly income ranged between = N = 3500 - 26000 ($26.92 -$200); and their dietary intakes varied between starchy and protein-based food. The result also showed that the respondent consumed enough nutrients to meet up the recommended daily allowance for protein, carbohydrate, fat, zinc, magnesium, sodium and phosphorous requirements. The BMI classifications showed that over three-fifth of respondents were normal, while the remaining were underweight (6%) and overweight/obese (26.5%). Also, large proportion of respondents engaged in exclusive breastfeeding and with good knowledge of breastfeeding practices. Statistically, exclusive breastfeeding practices had no correlation between the BMI and frequency of breastfeeding. The study, therefore, concluded that mothers had good knowledge of breastfeeding practice; and that there was no association between breastfeeding practices and BMI