Tall Buildings in Dubai—Converting Architecture into Reality

In just over two decades, Dubai has transformed from a desert served by a single port to a flourishing metropolis. Dubai alone is the home to 20% of the world’s tallest 50 buildings. This transformation brings new challenges to the city during construction and post completion. The surrounding areas will be affected by these skyscrapers from transportation, traffic constraints, parking, power and water consumption and other factors. The cost of building a skyscraper remains the major obstacle with the need to source out new materials other than steel and concrete. Also, moving people around efficiently in super tall buildings is another challenge for engineers keeping in mind the unique designs that architects are looking after. Once all design aspects are concluded and approved by different stakeholders, it will move on to the next phase which is construction, that is called: Reality.Construction realization is the focus of this paper. It will discuss the actual facts and surprises which will be encountered during the transformation of the design into shop drawings and tangible concrete. A physical case study from a busy district in the city of Dubai is the main focus of this study along with the core challenges and obstacles faced the team during the execution phase. Also, this review will debate couple of design elements that were considered as a design feature then developed to be a real construction challenge.Originality/value: the paper will focus on a case study of a high-end skyscrapers designed and built in the city of Dubai in a dense area and the challenges faced by the team during construction. These challenges are beneficial to understand since they will help architects and designers to take into consideration during their studies

MACRO READING SKILLS INCORPORATED IN GAZA PREPARATORY STAGE ENGLISH TEXTBOOKS AND TEACHERS' PROBLEMS WITH INSTRUCTING THEM

The final goal of any reading activity is to extract the macro-level meaning (Sadeghi, 2021). The study aimed to examine macro-reading skills incorporated in Gaza preparatory stage English textbooks. The study also aimed at investigating the preparatory stage teachers' problems with instructing such skills. The researcher employed an evaluation checklist to examine macro-reading skills included in Palestinian preparatory stage English textbooks. Then, she conducted semi-structured interviews with 18 teachers teaching English to preparatory school students (seventh, eighth, and ninth graders) in Gaza so as to identify their problems with teaching macro-reading skills. Results indicated that the three English textbooks neglected many important macro skills of reading (e.g., identifying implied meaning in a passage, recognizing a sequence, making comparisons, and identifying the rhetorical form of the text). Additionally, the interview data revealed the participants' problems with teaching macro skills of reading (e.g., teachers' focus on micro skills at the expense of macro skills of reading and teachers' lack of knowledge about macro-reading skills).  Article visualizations

Common Fixed Point Theorems for Weak Contraction Conditions of Integral Type

In this paper we shall establish two common fixed point theorems for a contractive condition and A-contraction mappings of integral type which improve and extend the results of P.B. Prajapati, R. Bhardwaj, M. O. Olatinwo and many others.Keywords: Common fixed point, general contractive mapps of integral type, weak contraction, metric spaces

Towards Sustainable Production Processes Reengineering: Case Study at INCOM Egypt

INCOM Egypt has undergone automation in some processes where critical aspects of its operations are transformed and automated. This paper presents an overview of INCOM Egypt processes using Ould Riva and analyses the process of ‘handling a product’. It aims to demonstrate effective automation of the production of wires and cables process accompanied to Industry 4.0 while considering environmental and economic sustainability goals that were inhibited by COVID-19 restrictions. Ould’s Riva method is used to analyse the production process of wires and cables to propose improvements for automating the process. Business process modelling is utilised to study the processes for clearer understating. The flow of information within the process is also analysed to integrate the production process with other processes and supply chains, which helps to identify which production activities can be automated and mainstreamed into the information flow to achieve environmental and economic sustainability. The context of INCOM Egypt, as a case study, is presented along with the Riva model of its operations. The paper identifies the before, i.e., As-Is process, and after, i.e., To-Be Process, automation of the ‘handle a product’ process using the Role Activity Diagram (RAD). The process involved redesigning and improving different activities to increase resource-use efficiency to participate in achieving the goals of sustainability. The focus of this paper is to investigate the negative impact of COVID-19 on sustainability and to examine the accomplishments of process automation of wire production towards environmental and economic sustainability. The results of the research reveal a relationship between business process modelling and sustainability. Moreover, automation of processes (Industry 4.0) is found to reduce the negative effect of COVID-19 on production. A triangulation between process modelling, process automation (Industry 4.0), and sustainability was determined. Each one is reinforcing and impacting one another. The RAD model demonstrates that automation of the activities in the process reduces waste, time, cost, and redundant processes as factors of sustainability, which may also help to lessen the unfavorable effects of the pandemic. The results proved generalisation on other organisations in the same line of business

Characterizing Visual Programming Approaches for End-User Developers: A Systematic Review

Recently many researches have explored the potential of visual programming in robotics, the Internet of Things (IoT), and education. However, there is a lack of studies that analyze the recent evidence-based visual programming approaches that are applied in several domains. This study presents a systematic review to understand, compare, and reflect on recent visual programming approaches using twelve dimensions: visual programming classification, interaction style, target users, domain, platform, empirical evaluation type, test participants’ type, number of test participants, test participants’ programming skills, evaluation methods, evaluation measures, and accessibility of visual programming tools. The results show that most of the selected articles discussed tools that target IoT and education, while other fields such as data science, robotics are emerging. Further, most tools use abstractions to hide implementation details and use similar interaction styles. The predominant platforms for the tools are web and mobile, while desktop-based tools are on the decline. Only a few tools were evaluated with a formal experiment, whilst the remaining ones were evaluated with evaluation studies or informal feedback. Most tools were evaluated with students with little to no programming skills. There is a lack of emphasis on usability principles in the design stage of the tools. Additionally, only one of the tools was evaluated for expressiveness. Other areas for exploration include supporting end users throughout the life cycle of applications created with the tools, studying the impact of tutorials on improving learnability, and exploring the potential of machine learning to improve debugging solutions developed with visual programming

Toward an Understanding of Data Literacy

As the interest in data grows, much attention has been paid to data literacy, and multiple perspectives and understandings to define data literacy have emerged from varying conceptual contexts. However, there remains a lack of agreement regarding the scope of data literacy across disciplines. This study attempts to define data literacy holistically through a meta-synthesis approach. The study found three distinct themes for data literacy: as skills required for data-driven decision making, as activities for research data services, and a set of practices for data lifecycle

miR-27a-3p regulates expression of intercellular junctions at the brain endothelium and controls the endothelial barrier permeability

Background The brain endothelial barrier permeability is governed by tight and adherens junction protein complexes that restrict paracellular permeability at the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Dysfunction of the inter-endothelial junctions has been implicated in neurological disorders such as multiple sclerosis, stroke and Alzheimer’s disease. The molecular mechanisms underlying junctional dysfunction during BBB impairment remain elusive. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have emerged as versatile regulators of the BBB function under physiological and pathological conditions, and altered levels of BBB-associated microRNAs were demonstrated in a number of brain pathologies including neurodegeneration and neuroinflammatory diseases. Among the altered micro-RNAs, miR-27a-3p was found to be downregulated in a number of neurological diseases characterized by loss of inter-endothelial junctions and disruption of the barrier integrity. However, the relationship between miR-27a-3p and tight and adherens junctions at the brain endothelium remains unexplored. Whether miR-27a-3p is involved in regulation of the junctions at the brain endothelium remains to be determined. Methods Using a gain-and-loss of function approach, we modulated levels of miR-27a-3p in an in-vitro model of the brain endothelium, key component of the BBB, and examined the resultant effect on the barrier paracellular permeability and on the expression of essential tight and adherens junctions. The mechanisms governing the regulation of junctional proteins by miR-27a-3p were also explored. Results Our results showed that miR-27a-3p inhibitor increases the barrier permeability and causes reduction of claudin-5 and occludin, two proteins highly enriched at the tight junction, while miR-27a-3p mimic reduced the paracellular leakage and increased claudin-5 and occludin protein levels. Interestingly, we found that miR-27-3p induces expression of claudin-5 and occludin by downregulating Glycogen Synthase Kinase 3 beta (GSK3ß) and activating Wnt/ ß-catenin signaling, a key pathway required for the BBB maintenance. Conclusion For the first time, we showed that miR-27a-3p is a positive regulator of key tight junction proteins, claudin-5 and occludin, at the brain endothelium through targeting GSK3ß gene and activating Wnt/ß-catenin signaling. Thus, miR-27a-3p may constitute a novel therapeutic target that could be exploited to prevent BBB dysfunction and preserves its integrity in neurological disorders characterized by impairment of the barrier’s function