SAVING THE MEMORIES IN THE FRAMEWORK OF SOCIAL HERITAGE CONSERVATION IN EGYPTIAN VILLAGES

Social memories is a part of our heritage. One of the complex challenges which facing our intangible heritage is how to deal to various forms of social meaning, special memories that form a distinguished culture in our community. Social heritage is heavily related to three factors; time, place and human. The research takes a case study Al-Shakluba village that focuses on the non-materialistic aspects of social and culture heritage that increases recognition with intangible values and plays an important role that how people interact with social and cultural environments and the importance of these values that impact on the ways in which people respond to conservation needs. So the paper records some social practices that depends on intangible memories, experiences and time depth in relation to people connecting to a place or a culture landscape through making a social survey for selected sites and make a questionnaire to recognize the intangible social needs of inhabitants and what their places carry a special memories for them ... So the research submits a strategy to preserve and revive these places and seeking to proposed an action plan for managing the continuously dialogue of social heritage conservation between present and past, memories preservation, identity and sense of place within a balance framework between authenticity and contemporary. The research also submits a strategy to build a critical link between tangible fabric of geography of places and the meanings, memories, cultural traditions and social practices that form part of the suite of associated intangible heritage values and carries the special memories and conserve of social practices in their living during a specific period of history

SICK BUILDINGS, POOR DESIGN AND PUBLIC HEATH

There is no doubt that there is a close relationship between health problems and housing conditions. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates in developing countries those 2 million early and unexpected deaths, with close to half occurring among children less than 5 years old die from indoor air pollution and bad housing. Housing is an important determinant of health, and substandard housing is a major public health issue. Designing and bad orientation of housing are found to have significant effects on poor respiratory health especially in children, and increase an infectious disease thereby putting them at higher risk of life-threatening diseases. The rate of spreading the diseases among children is increasing in developing countries in last years which form serious threats to public health and natural growth of children and inturn reflect on average of long life especially in Poor Urban Region and low socio-economic families. The research examined the relationship between housing and health using longitudinal data collecting and analyzing data from Chest Hospital records and giving a questionnaire to inhabitants who suffered from respiratory illness as a result of bad design and inadequate orientation…etc. For many children this means losing sleep, restricted physical activity, slow growth, and missing school. The research submits a criterion to redesign public housing especially the low incoming housing and employ the internal and external determinants as ventilation rates, percentages of voids, orientation, finishing materials and physical infrastructure…. etc. and many other factors which affect public health to improve environmental quality, assessing housing conditions and affordable housing. Now, it is the time to create healthier homes by confronting substandard housing for creating a healthy generation

Myelodysplasia in a psoriasis patient receiving etanercept : Cause or coincidence?

Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Impact of Acceleration Aggressiveness on Fuel Consumption Using Comprehensive Power Based Fuel Consumption Model

Changes in vehicle fuel-consumption and emission rates are associated with changes in vehicle cruise speeds and acceleration. Higher levels of speed is believed to be one of the most prevalent factors contributing to fuel consumption. As a result, the relationship between fuel consumption and driving speed behaviour has been the subject of investigation by several research. The main objective of this paper is to investigate the fuel consumption during different acceleration degrees namely: aggressive, normal and mild. The test vehicle was examined on a 2 km section of Cairo - El Ain El Sokhna Road. The three levels of acceleration were determined based on pre-developed drive scenarios. In addition, fuel consumption was estimated based on a Virginia Tech Power Based Fuel Consumption Model (VT-CPFM). This model is a simple and rapid method for investigating fuel consumption rates. The study demonstrated that the fuel consumed to accelerate an initially stationary vehicle was not related to the target speed as to driving behaviour. It was also observed that the fuel consumed per maneuvers decreased as the degree of aggressiveness increased due to the fact that the vehicle time spent during acceleration was less.Keywords: Fuel consumption, VT-CPFM, Acceleration levels

Influence of Carriageway Width and Horizontal Curve Radius on Passenger Car Unit Values of Two-lane Two-way Rural Roads

Capacity is a central concept in design and operation of roadways. Studying roadway capacity and factors affecting this capacity is an important issue when transportation facilities are designed or upgraded. One of the main components for the estimation of roadway capacity is the passenger car unit (PCU). The main objective of this paper is to study the influence of different geometric features of tangent and curved elements on PCU values on two-lane two-way rural roads. Geometry and traffic data were collected from six sites located on Benisuif-Assiut Agricultural Road, Egypt. Each site was composed of two elements; a straight element (tangent) and a succeeding horizontal curve. PCU values were estimated using the speed-area method. Using regression analysis, different models were developed to model the influences of different geometric features on PCU values. The results show that the PCU values for different vehicle categories increase linearly with increase of carriageway width and horizontal curve radius. This increase is clearly observed in case of heavy vehicles rather than light vehicles. The resulting models are useful in optimizing geometric design on two-lane two-way highways from the capacity point of view in the preliminary design stage. Keywords: Passenger car unit, passenger car equivalent, capacity, two-lane two-way rural highway

Priority-based human-swarm interaction applied to a foraging application

A robot swarm employs a large number of robots to facilitate sophisticated problem-solving as well as improved load-balancing and time efficiency compared to single robot systems. Swarm Intelligence is based on the local interactions between agents of the swarm that enables the emergence of a desired global behaviour, thus allowing the swarm to be autonomous. While autonomy is efficient for straightforward applications, in complex problems and environments human intervention may be more efficient. Human control of a swarm remains an open problem with multiple approaches proposed, each designed for a specific type of application. This work suggests a priority-based approach inspired by well known Human-Swarm Interaction techniques. The approach aims to serve as a high-level guide for the agents of a swarm, allowing them to use Swarm Intelligence on a low level. It also allows the division of the swarm into subswarms that can be easily controlled separately. Before experiments could be carried out to validate the proposed approach, the robots used in our experiments had to be put together, and their software needed to be designed to put to use their various components. A vision system upon which their sensing is dependent needed to be established, with defined visual markers and obstacle detection. This thesis tests the proposed priority-based Human-Swarm Interaction system by implementing a simple foraging application, using simulated and real robots, and studying the effects of introducing such a system to a group of robots that use simple Swarm Intelligence. Results show that the proposed approach does succeed in dividing the swarm into subswarms and increasing the efficiency of the foraging solution, however, some drawbacks manifested themselves throughout the process. We discuss these advantages and issues as well as future work

TRA-941: EFFECTIVENESS OF VARIABLE MESSAGE SIGNS IN IMPROVING THE ROAD NETWORK THROUGH ROUTE GUIDANCE

Variable Message Signs (VMS) are a means of providing valuable information to roadway users and enhancing the performance of the road network. The main objective of this research was to analyze the effectiveness of the use of VMS in improving the efficiency of the road network. This was implemented through a number of case studies under different conditions and different designs of the VMS. As this is a unique traffic guidance method to Egypt, the different factors that may affect the effectiveness of the sign to divert drivers was studied to fully understand the benefits of implementing VMS in Egypt. Traffic data was collected from five sites which are located in Giza Governorate, Egypt. At each location, the driver had the choice of two alternative routes leading to the same destination. The VMS informed the drivers that one of these routes was congested and to use an alternative route. Three different sign types were applied to identify the most effective type of VMS on drivers in Egypt. The most effective sign type was identified during the pilot study and used in the remaining sites. For each site, Traffic counts for each route was recorded for twenty minutes without the VMS and twenty minutes with the VMS applied to obtain the diversion rate of drivers Average travel times for 30 vehicles and queue lengths were also recorded before and after the application of the VMS and Queue lengths were also recorded before and after applying the VMS

Corneal nerves in health and disease

The cornea is the most sensitive structure in the human body. Corneal nerves adapt to maintain transparency and contribute to corneal health by mediating tear secretion and protective reflexes and provide trophic support to epithelial and stromal cells. The nerves destined for the cornea travel from the trigeminal ganglion in a complex and coordinated manner to terminate between and within corneal epithelial cells with which they are intricately integrated in a relationship of mutual support involving neurotrophins and neuromediators. The nerve terminals/receptors carry sensory impulses generated by mechanical, pain, cold and chemical stimuli. Modern imaging modalities have revealed a range of structural abnormalities such as attrition of nerves in neurotrophic keratopathy and post-penetrating keratoplasty; hyper-regeneration in keratoconus; decrease of sub-basal plexus with increased stromal nerves in bullous keratopathy and changes such as thickening, tortuosity, coiling and looping in a host of conditions including post corneal surgery. Functionally, symptoms of hyperaesthesia, pain, hypoaesthesia and anaesthesia dominate. Morphology and function do not always correlate. Symptoms can dominate in the absence of any visible nerve pathology and vice-versa. Sensory and trophic functions too can be dissociated with pre-ganglionic lesions causing sensory loss despite preservation of the sub-basal nerve plexus and minimal neurotrophic keratopathy. Structural and/or functional nerve anomalies can be induced by corneal pathology and conversely, nerve pathology can drive inflammation and corneal pathology. Improvements in accuracy of assessing sensory function and imaging nerves in vivo will reveal more information on the cause and effect relationship between corneal nerves and corneal diseases

Human antimicrobial peptides in ocular surface defense

Sight depends on the passage of light through the transparent cornea and being focused on the fovea. Its exposed position renders it vulnerable to microbial infection. The cornea has developed a wide array of defense mechanisms against infection, of which endogenous antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are key. AMPs are essentially small molecular weight cationic peptides with a wide range of activity against virus, bacteria, fungi and parasites. Some proteins such as RNases and S100As are also included in this group. Several AMPs act synergistically allowing low expression of multiple AMPs to act efficiently. AMPs also have a range of non-microbicidal functions and serve as signaling molecules, immunomodulators; show anti-tumour activity, and influence vascularization and wound healing. Different toll-like receptors (TLR) have been implicated in the preferential induction of specific AMPs. A range of bacteria, including mycobacteria tuberculosis, viruses including herpes virus, fungi and parasites including acanthamoeba, that cause ocular infections have been shown to induce specific AMPs via TLR activation. Non-TLR mediated induction of AMP expression can occur and several molecules such as L-isoleucine, sodium butyrate, vitamin D3, phenylbutyrate, vasoactive intestinal peptide, and etinostat have been identified in this regard. Given the rising microbe resistance to antibiotics, the slow rate of development of new antibiotics and the limited access to effective antibiotics by patients living in the developing world, an ideal solution would be to find AMPs that are effective singly or in combination with each other or other antimicrobial proteins to reduce, if possible eliminate reliance on antibiotics alone

Epidemiology of bronchial asthma among preparatory school children in Assiut district

Background: The prevalence of asthma and allergies is increasing in both Western and developing countries. Few studies evaluated asthma prevalence in Egypt . Objectives: Determination of the prevalence and risk factors of asthma among preparatory school children in Assiut district, in Upper Egypt. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted among preparatory school students in Assiut city and two rural areas in Assiut district in Upper Egypt. Twelve schools were selected randomly from different regions in Assiut city and two rural areas one to the North and the other to the South of Assiut city. The total coverage of the students included was 1048 (482 boys and 566 girls). Data were collected by self-administered questionnaire (in Arabic Language) which was filled by the participants. Results: Of the 1048 positively responding subjects, 65 fitted the diagnosis of asthma with over all prevalence of 6.2%. No significant difference was found between urban and rural areas (P = 0.075). Using logistic regression analysis: a positive family history of allergy and the presence of other one or more allergic diseases were significantly associated risk factors for asthma. Exposure to dust, cigarette smoke, playing and physical activity, common cold attacks, and special food or drinks were the most common triggering factors for asthma exacerbations . Conclusion: Bronchial asthma is a significant health problem among children and adolescents in Assiut district and needs special medical care. Wider scale multi-center studies in upper Egypt and other localities of Egypt are needed to outline the profile of bronchial asthma among children and adolescents in the whole country. Keywords: prevalence of asthma, preparatory school children, Assiut districtEgypt J Pediatr Allergy Immunol 2012;10(2):109-11