414 research outputs found
THE HORIZON OF DEVELOPINGTHE EGYPTIAN MARKETING TOURISM IN EU
Egypt made a tremendous effort during the last few years to enhance its tourism sectors. This was reflected in the number of tourists who visited Egypt, especially form E.U. and also in the revenue from the tourists who jumped in the recent years.tourism, E.U., Egypt, hotel, history
RECYCLING LOCAL INDUSTRIAL WASTES FOR PRODUCTION OF GREEN CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS
Industrial waste is one of the most important sources of environmental pollution in the world and Egypt. Providing economic opportunities for recycling these wastes represent an essential solution to this problem to encourage waste producers to dispose it safely and to provide an added value for these wastes. This research work will study the feasibility of recycling certain industrial wastes for production low-cost building materials and improving the soil compaction characteristics. In this research work, the efficiency of recycling some common local industrial wastes in production of construction materials was explored. The selected wastes include cement kiln dust (i.e. bypass) and ceramics powder. Previous researches and the chemical analysis showed that both wastes are promising as cement replacement materials. However, this exploratory phase is an initial investigation targeting the chemical properties of theses wastes for efficient use of both wastes to replace cement –partially- in mortar and plain concrete elements as well as bricks. The advantage of replacing part of the cement content with waste materials has double environmental action, by which reducing cement use leading to less carbon dioxide emission in addition to the safe recycling of the industrial wastes. Based on the selected condition of the cement bypass and ceramic powder, no significant enhancement was recorded in the mortar and concrete mixes had various ratios of cement replacement. However, the main physical and mechanical properties of some of the tested mixes provided promising values for using these mixes for production of more green plain concrete, mortar and bricks. For the soil enhancement application, addition of cement bypass to soil -commonly found in delta region- increased the California Bearing Ratio (CBR) value of this soil by 300%. Currently more comprehensive investigation is running to cover more than cement and ceramic factories in order to have a reliable data base of the properties of these types of industrial wastes and the efficient recycling of these wastes in construction materials and soil improvement applications
The microbiome of The Egyptian Red Sea proper and Gulf of Aqaba
The Red Sea is one of the most unique environments worldwide. It possesses a unique geography, physical, chemical and biological characteristics. It encounters several ecosystems articulating with each other, these include, corals, mangroves, algae, fisheries, invertebrates and microbiota of each one of these along with microbiota of the Red Sea waters and sediments. Studying the collective microbial communities of the Egyptian Red Sea coastal sediments have not been reported before. In regards to the severe pollution impacting the different Red Sea ecosystems, sediments samples have been collected from different impacted sites. The selected sites included 1- four ports for shipping aluminum, ilmenite and phosphate, 2-a site previously reported to have suffered extensive oil spills, 3-a reported tourism impacted site 4- two mangrove sites and 5-two lakes. Bacterial communities for each site have been studied through two different approaches, Culture-Dependent and Culture-Independent approaches. Pyrosequencing of V6-V4 hypervariable regions of 16S rDNA, isolated through the two approaches, has been used to assess the microbial community of each site. Physical parameters, Chemical analysis for 29 elements, selected semi-volatile oil contents, along with Carbon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen and Sulfur (CHNS) contents have been measured for each site. 131,402 and 136,314 significant reads have been generated through the Culture-Dependent and Independent approaches, respectively. Generally, Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, Actinobateria, Fusobacteria, Gemmatimonadetes and Bacteriodetes are the major bacterial groups detected through the two approaches. The Culture-Dependent datasets distinctive analysis revealed three main patterns (1) marine Vibrio spp.-suggesting a marine Vibrio phenomenon ; (2) potential human pathogens; and (3) oil-degrading bacteria. While the Culture-Independent datasets analysis reported (1) an Egyptian Red Sea Coastal Microbiome, taxa detected in all the sites and (2) Hydrocarbon biodegrading bacteria predominance to the majority of the sites; particularly in two ports. On the other hand, the two lakes, through the two approaches, showed unique bacterial patterns, which generally grouped into anaerobic, halophilic and sulfur metabolizing bacteria. Individually, sites showed unique evolution of their microbial communities based on minor intrinsic and imposed variation per sites. Our results draw attention to the effects of different sources of pollution on the Red Sea and suggest the need for further analysis to overcome the hazardous effects observed at the impacted sites
Unique biodiversity of the Red Sea brine floor revealed by comparative taxonomic analysis of Atlantis II and Discovery Deep brine sediments
The sea floor is a unique and diverse ecosystem to investigate how geochemical processes affect the diversity of biological life. Red Sea brine pools are water bodies characterized by a unique multitude of extreme conditions, including high temperature, high salinity, and unusual high concentration of heavy metals. We performed a comparative metagenomic analysis of the microbial communities in the sea floor of the Atlantis II (2168 m; 68oC), Discovery Deep (2166 m; 48oC) brine pools and two non-brinesites (1,856 m; 21.93°C and 1,937 m; 31.87°C) in the Red Sea. Each brine core wasvertically dissected into seven distinct subsections. CHN&S profiles showed significant fluctuations in sulfur and nitrogen levels in two of the brine pool subsections. A comprehensive 16S rDNA analysis of about one million 16S rDNA reads, allowed the identification of an exclusive assemblage of microbial communities in the sulfur rich Atlantis II and the nitrogen rich Discovery Deep brine pool subsections when compared to adjacent brine and non-brine sediments. Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Cyanobacteria,and Deferribacteres were the most abundant bacterial phyla. Interestingly, the S-rich Atlantis II subsection showed distinctive abundance of the recently identified Chloroflexiorder Anaerolineales, Fusobacteria and OP1. Crenarchaeota dominated all the sediment samples with the exception to the S-rich Atlantis II and the N-rich Discovery Deep sample that was dominated by Euryarchaeota. Our study illustrates a distinct stratification of the microbial communities in both the nitrogen rich and the sulfur rich brine subsections. However, the lack of apparent stratification in the remaining layers of the brine and non-brine sediments despite variations in metals and CHN&S profiles implies that sulfur and nitrogen are the major players that dictate the microbial assemblage in the Red Sea
New forms of electronic media and their impact on public policy making: three cases from Egypt
There is an increasing rise in the popularity of electronic media, especially Facebook and YouTube in the Arab world, and in Egypt in particular. This reflects an important indication of the growing influence of Facebook and YouTube on the Egyptian society and on Egypt\u27s political stream. The purpose of this study is to answer the main research question, which is to what extent does electronic media affect public policy making in Egypt, with regards to three cases studies. They include the Egyptian/Algerian football conflict, as a result of a soccer match qualifying the winning team to the World Cup 2010, the face-veil controversy, banning women wearing the face-veil to enter public university examinations, and the Fair Access Policy limiting Internet download for DSL and ADSL subscribers. The objective is to determine whether electronic media has the power to mobilize public opinion towards a certain cause, which may then affect government action. This would allow us to realize first the power and influence of mainstream media, followed by electronic media, and the factors that affect Egypt\u27s policy making decisions. The methodology adopted in this study include a review of literature, a qualitative study, that includes interviews with media and political science experts, and a quantitative study surveying 238 students from The American University in Cairo and Cairo University. Respondents for the in-depth interviews were selected based on their professional expertise, and the respondents for the survey were based on a non-probability convenient sample from The American University in Cairo and Cairo University students, which represent a sample of Egyptian youth coming from different socio-economic backgrounds. The study findings indicate that electronic media affects public policy making decisions to a certain extent and on a case by case basis. Although Egypt is a non-democratic country, whose policies do not get affected easily by public opinion, the mobilization of educated youth through online social networks, such as Facebook and YouTube, are growing in influence and are having an impact on Egypt\u27s political stream. The findings of the study reveal that the government is paying attention to online social networks, which is indicated from the arrests of online political activists and bloggers, and its response to the public outcry on the Egyptian/Algerian football conflict. There is also evidence that the mobilization of Internet users through Facebook groups is linked to the government\u27s decision to reverse the Fair Access Policy two weeks after it was announced. As for the face-veil controversy, online discussions are affecting public opinion and public debate, however, there is no direct link on the court decision to ban or allow women wearing the face-veil to enter public university examinations
Ant Colony Optimization approaches for the Sequential Ordering Problem
We present two algorithms within the framework of the Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) metaheuristic. The rst algorithm seeks to increase the exploration bias of Gambardella et al.\u27s (2012) Enhanced Ant Colony System (EACS) model, a model which heavily increases the exploitation bias of the already highly exploitative ACS model in order to gain the bene t of increased speed. Our algorithm aims to strike a balance between these two models. The second is also an extension of EACS, based on Jayadeva et al.\u27s (2013) EigenAnt algorithm. EigenAnt aims to avoid the problem of stagnation found in ACO algorithms by, among other unique properties, utilizing a selective rather than global pheromone evaporation model, and by discarding heuristics in the solution construction phase. A performance comparison between our two models, the legacy ACS model, and the EACS model is presented. The Sequential Ordering Problem (SOP), one of the main problems used to demonstrate EACS, and one still actively studied to this day, was utilized to conduct the comparison
Interpretation of Drill Log Data: DLOG3D - A Probabilistic Tool for Analyzing Subsurface Soil Variability
Groundwater contamination potential is directly related to the location of zones of high hydraulic conductivity. Sedimentary depositional environments can be quite complex. Pockets of sand of varying thickness and orientation may be scattered over the aquifer. A contaminant pathway can esist where these pockets or lenses are interconnected. Aquifer pump tests do not provide useful information on the occurrence of such lenses. Drill log data directly sample the soil, but may represent very local sections of the aquifer, and are of relatively poor quality. Here we present a methodology (DLOG3D) that allows a probabilistic interpretation of drill log data that accounts for these uncertainties. DLOG3D output can be used to assess the likelihood that a zone of high conductivity exists in a location, and/or to map such zones in the vertical and the horizontal
Testing of leakage current failure in ASIC devices exposed to total ionizing dose environment using design for testability techniques
Due to the advancements in technology, electronic devices have been relied upon to operate under harsh conditions. Radiation is one of the main causes of different failures of the electronics devices. According to the operation environment, the sources of the radiation can be terrestrial or extra-terrestrial. For terrestrial the devices can be used in nuclear reactors or biomedical devices where the radiation is man-made. While for the extra- terrestrial, the devices can be used in satellites, the international space station or spaceships, where the radiation comes from various sources like the Sun. According to the operation environment the effects of radiation differ. These effects falls under two categories, total ionizing dose effect (TID) and single event effects (SEEs). TID effects can be affect the delay and leakage current of CMOS circuits negatively. The affects can therefore hinder the integrated circuits\u27 operation. Before the circuits are used, particularly in critical radiation heavy applications like military and space, testing under radiation must be done to avoid any failures during operation. The standard in testing electronic devices is generating worst case test vectors (WCTVs) and under radiation using these vectors the circuits are tested. However, the generation of these WCTVs have been very challenging so this approach is rarely used for TIDs effects. Design for testability (DFT) have been widely used in the industry for digital circuits testing applications. DFT is usually used with automatic test patterns generation software to generate test vectors against fault models of manufacturer defects for application specific integrated circuit (ASIC.) However, it was never used to generate test vectors for leakage current testing induced in ASICs exposed to TID radiation environment. The purpose of the thesis is to use DFT to identify WCTVs for leakage current failures in sequential circuits for ASIC devices exposed to TID. A novel methodology was devised to identify these test vectors. The methodology is validated and compared to previous non DFT methods. The methodology is proven to overcome the limitation of previous methodologies
Influence of rice straw and calcium cyanamide on microbiological activity in two portuguese alluvial soils
Usaram-se dois aluviossolos portugueses (um arenoso outro franco) em experiências destinadas a estudar a influência da cianamida cálcica na actividade microbiológica, sob condições controladas. Ensaiaram-se modalidades com palha de arroz, palha de trigo e sem palha. Em algumas experiências utilizou-se para comparação um solo de loess colhido na Alemanha. A aplicação de palha conduziu a um aumento nítido da activi- dade da dehidrogenase nos dois solos, tendo-se verificado a superioridade da palha de trigo no solo arenoso. A influência da cianamida foi pequenainfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
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