Design and analysis of a new brake-by-wire system using machine learning

One of the main aims of the recent research on brake-by-wire systems is to decrease mechanical components. In this paper, we propose replacing the brake pedal with a driving wheel that is fully covered by pressure braking batch sensors. The new mechanism for braking translates pressure exerted through the driver’s hands on the driving wheel to a corresponding electrical signal. A proposed design for the pressure braking batch (PBB) is made out of a mesh of conducting threads separated by a resistive sheet. To the best of our knowledge, this idea has not been raised before in other research papers. Different people have different muscle strengths and so the problem of identifying the intention of the user when pressing the PBB is tackled. For this aim, a new dataset of its kind is created by several volunteers. From each volunteer, age, gender, body mass index (BMI), and maximum pressure exerted on the driving wheel are collected. Using Weka software, the detection accuracy is calculated for a new volunteer to know the intention of his/her pressure on PBB. Among the three algorithms tried, the regression tree gives the best results in predicting the class of the pressure exerted by the volunteers

Urban Nexus: An Approach for Regenerative Urban Environments (Public Spaces Located in the Urban Fringe)

The built environment is the main habitat for human beings, this makes it act as a driver for climate and biodiversity changes, with multiple potential opportunities for alteration and transition. Therefore, it may be essential for the built environment to go beyond ordinary actions not only to limit the negative impacts, but instead aim for benificial outcomes. Analysing and desigining the urban built environment from the perspective of ecosystems functions and services could help in creating cities where positive restoration of and integration with local ecosystems could be recognised. Urban regeneration could be useful in this regard as it is defined as a comprehensive integration of vision and action aimed at resolving the multi-faceted problems of urban areas in order to improve their quality of life. However, the rapid urbanisation - especially with the exploding urbanism of some cities - controlled sustainable development and carefully considered urban regeneration have not always been achieved. It is also argued that one of the strategies for successful urban regeneration is “High-Quality Architectural Design and Public Space as a Catalyst for a Better City”. At a more local perspective, new urban expansions in Egypt lack one of the relavant quality-of-life pillars. Public spaces are currently losing their role in the new communities located in the urban fringe of Cairo. In such context, new urban nucleii are expanding disregarding the necessity of collective public spaces (a continuum of public realm) due to the privatization, disconnection, and introversion. Thus, the aim of this research is to introduce the Urban Nexus, a new approach merging the contemporary trends and emerging theories to design sustainable urban development solutions. The nexus approach seeks to understand risks, engage decision-makers, and enable action with the aim of attaining knowledge integration, efficiency, synergy and ‘win-win’ solutions. This could be achieved through bridging/ integratng Ecosystem services preserved through Nature Based Solutions (NBS), Human Centred Design (HCD) and the Star Approach, in order to reform public spaces acting as a catalyst for the urban regeneration. Ultimately the study would contribute in improving the built environment and in providing a better quality of life in new urban expansions

Knowledge, attitude, and perception of public about participation in COVID-19 clinical trials: A study from Egypt and Saudi Arabia

Background Pharmaceutical firms are striving to find potential treatments to prevent and treat COVID-19. One of the gold standards to evaluate treatment is a clinical trial; however, the difficulty in patient recruitment could act as a determinant. It is evident from the registry data that very few studies have been conducted involving the population of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Aim To document knowledge, perception, and attitude of the public from Two large countries in the MENA region (Egypt and Saudi Arabia) towards participation in clinical trials focused on evaluating potential COVID-19 treatments. Method A cross-sectional study was conducted that used a snowball sampling strategy for recruitment. General population 18 years old or older, who lived in Saudi Arabia or Egypt were invited. The survey was adopted from literature and was approved by an ethics committee. Results Out of 800 participants in the survey, 407 participants were from Egypt, and 393 were from Saudi Arabia. Most participants (48%) had moderate knowledge, i.e., >60% <80%. The results revealed poor attitude (88.5%) and poor perceptions (45.8%) regarding participation in COVID-19 clinical trials. Education and residence were identified as determinants of participants’ knowledge, attitude, and perceptions. Participants' knowledge and understanding of COVID-19 trials did not impact their willingness to participate. This coupled with a poor attitude and perception among the masses drastically affects any potential for participation in future clinical trials. Conclusion A relatively small proportion of participants were interested in enrolling in COVID-19 studies. Increased collective engagement through social media and healthcare professionals can help improve attitudes and perceptions toward trial participation

Optimizing the Performance of Public Open Spaces by Enhancing the Human Thermal Comfort

Outdoor human comfort is a key parameter in the evaluation of city's liveability. In addition, it helps in promoting people’s health and well-being, leading to the improvement of quality of life. Egyptian cities are impacted by urban heat island due to the dense urban fabric causing an obvious deterioration in the quality of their public spaces. Open public spaces provide various benefits to citizens; as they may intensify the economic, social and environmental aspects of the urban environment. Unfortunately, some cities' open public spaces are unattractive to human activity due to the challenges they face. The enhancement of microclimatic conditions in urban spaces can enable people to spend more time outdoors, with the potential to influence the social cohesion of a space and increase in the economic activity. Therefore, the wider aim of this research is to develop a better understanding of the complex relationship between the microclimate and human behaviour. The study focuses on the open public spaces in Alexandria city's hot arid climate, It is intended to study the effects of socio-economic and cultural diversity on thermal comfort, behaviour and use of space. Field surveys are carried out during the summer of 2019 (19th of August). All of the surveys include, observations of human activities and clothing, along with microclimatic monitoring. The analysis consists of; microclimatic influence on thermal sensation, people attendance; and investigation of socio-economic and sociocultural characteristics for each space. The process is carried out in order to propose a set of recommendations and mitigation strategies, suitable to deal with public spaces. This set is driven by studying the prospects of successfully designed public spaces and mapping the variations in the environmental conditions using ENVI-met and RayMan software in two selected public spaces in Alexandria as a case study

Effect of Various Disinfectants on E. coli Isolated from Water Pipes in Broiler Farms at Giza and Dakahlia Governorates, Egypt

In poultry, Escherichia coli infections lead to substantial deaths and financial losses for producers each year. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of E. coli from water pipes and drinkers in broiler farms, to characterize the isolated E. coli strains in terms of serotypes, biofilm production degree, presence of the adrA gene. The gene "adrA" encodes for the adhesion regulating protein A. adrA is a protein that plays a role in regulating the adhesion and biofilm formation of E. coli bacteria., and the efficacy of various disinfectants on E. coli biofilms. A total of 100 swab samples were collected from drinking water pipes and drinkers from different broiler farms in Giza and Dakahlia governorates in Egypt. Out of them, 18 E. coli serogroups were identified in 50 positive samples, and the most predominant serogroup was O91, which showed the highest incidence (20%), followed by serotypes O78 (18%), and O26 (8%). Microtiter-plate test for determination of biofilm production for 50 E. coli isolates were performed. PCR was done for the detection of the virulence gene adrA in the 13 strong biofilm E. coli isolates, and the results revealed that 100% were positive for the virulence gene. The effect of disinfectants on E. coli was studied by using ZnO nanoparticles, acidifiers, and quaternary ammonium dioxide. This study found a high prevalence of E. coli in water samples, identified various E. coli serotypes, observed biofilm production, and determined the effectiveness of different disinfectants on E. coli isolates

Effect of Various Disinfectants on E. coli Isolated from Water Pipes in Broiler Farms at Giza and Dakahlia Governorates, Egypt

In poultry, Escherichia coli infections lead to substantial deaths and financial losses for producers each year. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of E. coli from water pipes and drinkers in broiler farms, to characterize the isolated E. coli strains in terms of serotypes, biofilm production degree, presence of the adrA gene. The gene "adrA" encodes for the adhesion regulating protein A. adrA is a protein that plays a role in regulating the adhesion and biofilm formation of E. coli bacteria., and the efficacy of various disinfectants on E. coli biofilms. A total of 100 swab samples were collected from drinking water pipes and drinkers from different broiler farms in Giza and Dakahlia governorates in Egypt. Out of them, 18 E. coli serogroups were identified in 50 positive samples, and the most predominant serogroup was O91, which showed the highest incidence (20%), followed by serotypes O78 (18%), and O26 (8%). Microtiter-plate test for determination of biofilm production for 50 E. coli isolates were performed. PCR was done for the detection of the virulence gene adrA in the 13 strong biofilm E. coli isolates, and the results revealed that 100% were positive for the virulence gene. The effect of disinfectants on E. coli was studied by using ZnO nanoparticles, acidifiers, and quaternary ammonium dioxide. This study found a high prevalence of E. coli in water samples, identified various E. coli serotypes, observed biofilm production, and determined the effectiveness of different disinfectants on E. coli isolates

Molecular docking studies of Meso-tartrate and Diiodophenylpyruvate enzymes

Oxidoreductases are enzymes that catalyze the oxidation of one molecule to another using NAD+ and NADP as co-factors. In this study, homology modeling and/or molecular docking are done for two selected homosapian enzymes Malate dehydrogenase (Uniprot ID: MDH1) and Homosapian alcohol dehydrogenase (1U3U). The homology modeling for Malate dehydrogenase was built in comparison with its porcine analog (5MDH) using SWISS-MODEL. Its active site was determined by aligning with the 5MDH template using PyMol. Homosapian alcohol dehydrogenase (1U3U) was selected as target crystal structure based on its specific criteria (resolution 1.60 Å, Rfree value 0.186, Ramachandran outliers value 0), and prepared with AutoDock. Its active site was determined using AutoDock grid tool. The co-crystallized ligand was prepared using open babel. Molecular docking was done for both enzymes, and five ligands from 89 ligands are the best results obtained based on their binding configuration and binding affinity using Autodock Vina

Haplotype diversity in the mitochondrial genome of the Egyptian river buffalo (Bubalus bubalis)

Here, we sequenced the complete mitochondrial genome of 29 Egyptian river buffaloes collected in two breeding stations of Egypt. The genome is 16,357–16,359 base pairs in length and contains the 37 genes found in a typical mammalian genome. The overall base composition is A: 33.1%, C: 26.6%, G: 13.9%, and T: 26.4%. Our analyses confirm that the mitochondrial genomes of swamp and river buffaloes are divergent (mean nucleotide distance = 2.3%), and show that Indian river buffalo haplotypes cluster into three haplogroups, named RB1, RB2, and RB3 (mean distance = 0.25–0.26%) and that the 24 Egyptian buffalo haplotypes fall into RB1 (with the Bangladeshi, Chinese and Italian buffalo haplotypes) and RB2

Method for producing a memory cell having a porous dielectric and use of the memory cell

A method for producing a memory cell includes providing a non-conductive substrate, mounting a first conductor track made of conductive material on the non-conductive substrate, mounting a porous dielectric with or without redox-active molecules in a form of points on the first conductor track, and mounting a second conductor track orthogonally to the first conductor track, wherein the first and second conductor tracks have an electrode function at their intersection point, and wherein the porous dielectric is arranged between the electrodes. The method further includes mounting a passivation layer on the substrate, the first conductor track, the dielectric, and the second conductor track, so that the conductor track remains contactable. The first and the second conductor track form a memory at their intersection point with the dielectric arranged between them, in which the redox reaction of the redox-active molecules is configured to be driven by a voltage

Renal Doppler sonography as a non-invasive technique for early detection of reno-vascular changes in sickle cell disease in children

Abstract Objective Early identification of sickle renovascular changes via renal Doppler sonography among sickle cell disease patients to help in early diagnosis and interventions to prevent progression to end-stage renal disease. Methods Forty-five SCD children were included along with 45 healthy control children. Renal Doppler sonography (PI and RI) was performed on all subjects. Laboratory investigations were done: Hb electrophoresis, complete blood picture with blood indices, reticulocyte count, liver enzymes (ALT and AST), HCV serology, serum ferritin, and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH). Urine analysis and albumin/creatinine ratio in urine were done for all patients as well. Results The study group consisted of 45 SCD patients, 27 (60%) males with a mean age of 12 years (± 3 years). By performing renal Doppler sonography, it was found that all study groups had significantly higher Doppler indices (resistivity index and pulsatility index) compared to the control group. Results of renal Doppler sonography revealed that the main renal pulsatility index was positively correlated with the main renal resistance index (r = 0.454, p = 0.002). Conclusion Doppler indices (resistance index and pulsatility index) were of value to assess reno-vascular changes in SCD, Thus, renal Doppler indices could be an early technique in the assessment of sickle renovascular changes, so treatment can be started at an early stage before progressive affection of renal function