Comparison of two approaches for web-based 3D visualization of smart building sensor data

Abstract. This thesis presents a comparative study on two different approaches for visualizing sensor data collected from smart buildings on the web using 3D virtual environments. The sensor data is provided by sensors that are deployed in real buildings to measure several environmental parameters including temperature, humidity, air quality and air pressure. The first approach uses the three.js WebGL framework to create the 3D model of a smart apartment where sensor data is illustrated with point and wall visualizations. Point visualizations show sensor values at the real locations of the sensors using text, icons or a mixture of the two. Wall visualizations display sensor values inside panels placed on the interior walls of the apartment. The second approach uses the Unity game engine to create the 3D model of a 4-floored hospice where sensor data is illustrated with aforementioned point visualizations and floor visualizations, where the sensor values are shown on the floor around the location of the sensors in form of color or other effects. The two approaches are compared with respect to their technical performance in terms of rendering speed, model size and request size, and with respect to the relative advantages and disadvantages of the two development environments as experienced in this thesis

Exploring Perceptions on Financial Reporting Standards in Islamic Financial Institutions

ABSTRACT Islamic finance, emerged in modern times, as a religiously or Shari’ah constructed financial method and institution with the objective of providing religio-ethical financial solutions. Due to its different and unique nature, it is considered by that a special accounting system based on Shari’ah that fulfils the particular requests of Islamic finance instruments is required. For this purpose, the Accounting and Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) have been issuing and developing Islamic accounting standards. Nevertheless, those standards are not adopted by most of the Islamic financial institutions (IFIs) that are still reporting with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), which are issued for conventional financial institutions. It is, on the other hand, claimed that IFRS may be irrelevant to the needs of other cultures and people of the world especially for institutions emerged from Islamic worldview, such as Islamic banks and financial institutions due to the nature and working mechanism of these institutions. This study, hence, aims at exploring and critically investigating the main environmental factors influencing the adoption of IFRS to IFIs. This study also aims to investigate empirically the need for special accounting treatments for Islamic financial institutions that is reliable worldview, and in consistent with the values and socioeconomic formation of Muslim society by harmonising or merging with AAOIFI and IFRS. The identified research questions were responded through primary data collected from a survey questionnaire, which, among other things, mainly attempted to explore IFIs in relation to their position as to whether they would prefer to account under IFRS issued by the IASB or under the Financial Accounting Standards or FAS issued by the AAOIFI. This questionnaire, also aimed at exploring the perceptions of the participants regarding accounting practices employed in different Islamic institutions and the issue of considering adopting a particular accounting system that satisfy their needs if it is available. In addition, the questionnaire also aims to investigate the perceptions of the participants on the nature of Islamic finance and whether IFRS is considering its special needs. Furthermore, particular attempt is made to measure the perceptions on rationalising Islamic accounting as a practice and as a paradigm. The study finds that most of the IFIs participated in this study employed IFRS’ as the main accounting system, which resulted in a number of problematic issues in treating Islamic finance transactions and contracts and endogenising other religious elements, such as the prohibition of riba and paying zakat. The findings also indicate that employing IFRS in the IFIs is not applicable within the normative world and the requirements of Islamic finance as aspired by the foundational axioms developed by Islamic moral economy despite the extensive use of it in current times. Therefore, in order to be authentic IFIs require special accounting standards that are different from the IFRSs, such as AAOIFI accounting standards, which may be considered as rationalising the emergence of Islamic accounting as a practice and field, which was the case in history

Frequency of Glomerular Dysfunction in Children with Beta Thalassaemia Major

Objectives: This study investigated the frequency of glomerular dysfunction in children with beta thalassaemia major (β-TM) by using different markers and correlating them with serum ferritin and iron chelation therapy. Methods: The study, carried out between August 2011 and May 2012, included 100 patients with β-TM, in two groups. Group Ia (n = 62) received chelation therapy (deferoxamine). Group Ib (n = 38) received followup care at the Pediatric Hematology Outpatient Clinic, Minia University Children’s Hospital, Egypt. Group II included 50 apparently healthy controls, age- and sex-matched to Group I. All patients underwent a thorough history-taking, clinical examination and laboratory investigations. Results: Compared to Group II, Groups Ia and Ib had significantly higher levels of cystatin C, serum creatinine and serum ferritin, and a higher albumin/ creatinine ratio in their urine, and a significantly lower estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and creatinine clearance (P <0.05). Moreover, Group Ιa had a significantly lower eGFR and creatinine clearance than Group Ib. Cystatin C had a highly significant strong negative correlation with eGFR and creatinine clearance and a significantly strong positive correlation with serum ferritin, and a higher sensitivity and specificity than serum creatinine and creatinine clearance for small changes in GFR. Conclusion: β-TM patients had a high frequency of glomerular dysfunction—possibly attributable to chronic anaemia, iron overload or chelation therapy. Periodic renal assessment is mandatory to detect renal complications. Cystatin C is a promising marker to monitor glomerular dysfunction, having a higher sensitivity and specificity than serum creatinine and creatinine clearance for small changes in GFR

The Exponentiated Generalized Power Generalized Weibull Distribution: Properties and Applications

This paper introduces a new flexible extension of power generalized Weibull distribution which contains many life-time distributions as sub-models. The hazard rate function of the proposed distribution is useful and suitable for monotone and non-monotone hazard behaviors that are more likely to be observed in real-life situations. Statistical properties of the new model are studied including; quantile, moment generating, reliability, hazard, and reverse hazard functions. Further, the moments, incomplete moments, mean deviations, Bonferroni and Lorenz curves, order statistics densities are derived. The maximum likelihood estimation method is used to estimate the distribution parameters. The effectiveness and usefulness of the new distribution are accomplished through four different real-life applications

Is Helicobacter Pylori Associated with a Migraine?

Objective: To determine whether Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is associated with migraine headache. Design: Case-control study. Settings: Local tertiary Hospitals in Cairo, Egypt and in HaferAlbaten, Saudi Arabia. Participants: A total of 70 patients with migraine who were 7 to 17 years old and who fulfilled the International Headache Society criteria for migraine and a total of 50 controls without migraine who were matched by the country of origin, age, sex, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status to the 70 migraine cases. Main Outcome Measures: Antibody levels to H. pylori (IgG) and H. pylori stool antigens were compared between the two groups. Results: Significant association was found between H. pylori and migraine and of the total of 70 migraineur cases, 55.7% were positive for H. pylori stool antigen testing compared to 20% in control group (P value=0.0002). Joint pain was reported in 44.3% and 18.0% of cases and controls respectively (P value=0.0034). Conclusion: H. pylori is associated with migraine without aura and may be a causative factor. Moreover, H. pylori may induce joint pain in the migraineur patients

ARMAN: A Reconfigurable Monolithic 3D Accelerator Architecture for Convolutional Neural Networks

The Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) has emerged as a powerful and versatile tool for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Conventional computing architectures face challenges in meeting the demanding processing requirements of compute-intensive CNN applications, as they suffer from limited throughput and low utilization. To this end, specialized accelerators have been developed to speed up CNN computations. However, as we demonstrate in this paper via extensive design space exploration, different neural network models have different characteristics, which calls for different accelerator architectures and configurations to match their computing demand. We show that a one-size-fits-all fixed architecture does not guarantee optimal power/energy/performance trade-off. To overcome this challenge, this paper proposes ARMAN, a novel reconfigurable systolic-array-based accelerator architecture based on Monolithic 3D (M3D) technology for CNN inference. The proposed accelerator offers the flexibility to reconfigure among different scale-up or scale-out arrangements depending on the neural network structure, providing the optimal trade-off across power, energy, and performance for various neural network models. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach through evaluations of multiple benchmarks. The results demonstrate that the proposed accelerator exhibits up to 2x, 2.24x, 1.48x, and 2x improvements in terms of execution cycles, power, energy, and EDP respectively, over the non-configurable architecture

Carbetocin versus Oxytocin and Misoprostol in prevention of atonic post-partum hemorrhage in high risk patients planed for cesarean delivery

Background: Post-partum hemorrhage prevention (PPH) is considered a major issue due to its effect on maternal morbidity and mortality. The objective of this study was to compare efficacy of Carbetocin in prevention of atonic post-partum hemorrhage in high risk patients undergoing elective caesarean section in comparison to Oxytocin and Misoprostol.Methods: 150 pregnant women prepared for elective caesarean section were classified into 3 groups; Group I (50 patients received Carbetocin 100 mg I.V infusion), Group II (50 patients received 20 IU of Oxytocin infusion on 1000 ml of normal saline solution) and Group III (50 cases received Misoprostol 400 µg per rectum immediately before induction of anaesthesia). Assessment of PPH and its degree was determined according to amount of blood loss during and for first 24 hours of caesarean delivery, also further need for haemostatic measures were also assessed.Results: There was a statistically significant difference in PPH among the three groups 6, 14 and 12% for group I, II and III respectively (P <0.001), major PPH was 0, 4 and 6% for the same groups respectively (P <0.001). The need for additional uterotonic agents was significantly lesser in Group I compared to Group II and III (2% versus 8 and 12% respectively P = 0.02) also the need for additional surgical measures was significantly lesser among the three groups (P= 0.00). The drop in Hb level and haematocrit value was significantly lesser in group I compared to group II& III (P <0.05). The need for blood transfusion was significantly lesser in Group I compared to group II and III (0% versus 12% p <0.0001)Conclusions: Carbetocin was superior to Oxytocin and Misoprostol in prevention of atonic PPH in high risk patients underwent elective caesarean delivery. Carbetocin should be administered for all cases undergoing elective CS and carry a risk factor for postpartum hemorrhage.

Mitigation of Lightning Hazards at the More Sensitive Points in Wind Farms Using Ant-Colony Optimization Technique

The lightning energy can be very harmfull to the wind turbine farm components. This paper attempts to evaluate the overvoltages at the sensitive points in wind farm, using ATP-EMTP package program. Four cases were performed; a) the transient voltage distribution in the insulating layer of the control line, b) the transient voltage on the control equipment, c) the coupling voltage between the tower and the control, and, d) the transient voltage distribution in the wind turbine WT generator, boast transformers and grid. These cases were performed under different lightning current conditions and at conventional design and proper design of grounding system. The results show that the ground potential rise (GPR) is reduced with using the proper design of wind turbine ground system, but the induced voltage at the control system will not affected. This work determines the optimum location of wind turbine at the areas of maximum lightning incidence. Ant colony optimization (ACO) technique is implemented to find the optimum wind farm location. This work enhances the protection strategy of the wind farms against lightning stroke