GROUND PENETRATING RADAR INVESTIGATIONS FOR ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE PRESERVATION OF THE HABIB SAKAKINI PALACE, CAIRO, EGYPT

The modern architectural heritage of Egypt is both varied and vast. It covers all nonecclesiastical buildings, important monumental structures (mansions, municipal buildings) in the history of architecture, as well as more common buildings. They include houses (from mansions to simple dwellings), public buildings (schools, administrative buildings, hospitals), industrial buildings (factories, warehouses, mills), bridges, monastic dependencies (drinking foundations, gardens) and any other modern structures that fall within the category of monuments and comprise the Egyptian cultural heritage. We present herein a comprehensive Ground Penetration Radar (GPR) investigation and hazard assessment for the rehabilitation and strengthening of Habib Sakakini’s Palace, in Cairo, considered one of the most significant architectural heritage sites in Egypt. The palace is located on an ancient water pond at the eastern side of the Egyptian gulf, beside the Sultan Bebris Al-Bondoqdary mosque, a place also called “Prince Qraja al-Turkumany pond”. That pond was drained by Habib Sakakini in 1892, to construct his famous palace in 1897. Eight hundred meters of Ground Penetration Radar (GPR) profiling were conducted, to monitor the subsurface conditions. 600 meters were made in the surrounding area of the Palace and 200 m at the basement. The aim was to monitor the soil conditions beneath and around the Palace and to identify potential geological discontinuities, or the presence of faults and cavities. A suitable single and dual antenna were used (500-100 MHZ) to penetrate to the desired depth of 7 meters (ASTM D6432). The GPR was also used to detect the underground water. At the building basement the GPR was used to identify the foundation thickness and the soil - basement interface, as well as for the inspection of cracks in some supporting columns, piers and masonry walls. All the results, together with the seismic hazard analysis, will be used for a complete analysis of the palace in the framework of the rehabilitation and strengthening works planned for a second stage

Linear and Quadratic GUP, Liouville Theorem, Cosmological Constant, and Brick Wall Entropy

Motivated by the works on Equivalence Principle in the context of linear Generalized Uncertainty Principle and, independently, in the context of quadratic Generalized Uncertainty Principle, we expand these endeavors in the context of Generalized Uncertainty Principle when both linear and quadratic terms in momentum are include. We demonstrate how the definitions of equations of motion change upon that expansion. We also show how to obtain an analogue of Liouville theorem in the presence of linear and quadratic Generalized Uncertainty Principle. We employ the corresponding modified invariant unit volume of phase space to discuss the resulting density of states, the problem of cosmological constant, the black body radiation in curved spacetime, the concurrent energy and consequent no Brick Wall entropy.Comment: v1: 10 pages, RevTex, 7 figures; v2: references updated, one footnote added; v3: two footnotes and references added, no change in physics, to appear in EPJ

Positive susceptibility vessel sign on SWI-MRI sequence imaging might differentiate patients had silent brain ischemia among apparently neurologically-free patients

Background: The susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI) is an essential MRI sequence in the assessment of acute ischemic stroke. Silent cerebrovascular disease is five times more prevalent than symptomatic brain infarcts and is associated with future risk for stroke and dementia.Objectives: Evaluation of the diagnostic performance of susceptibility-weighted magnetic resonance sequence imaging (SWI) for early diagnosis of silent brain infarction (SBI) in apparently neurologically-free patients presented by transient neurological manifestations.Patients and Methods: The study included 218 patients who were clinically evaluated for demographic, clinical data concerning presence of chronic medical diseases, presenting symptoms and its frequency and severity. Routine lab investigations and lipid profile were performed and the plasma atherogenic index (PAI) for oncoming cardiovascular insults was calculated. MRI scan was performed using 1.5 T MRI scanner (Toshiba Vantage) with a head coil. Results: 102 patients (46.8%) had chronic medical diseases and hypertension (HTN) and diabetes mellitus (DM) are the most common. The commonest complaint was occasional amnesia, slurred speech and weak handgrip. PAI defined 53 patients at high, 101 patients at intermediate and 64 patients at low risk of cardiovascular insults. Susceptibility vein sign (SVS)+ were detected in 78 SWI scans and showed positive significant correlation with smoking, multiple co-morbidities, presence of chronic kidney disease, DM, hypertension and with PAI.Conclusion: The presence of SVS in SWI during MRI examination is pathognomonic sign for the presence of SBI. The incidence of SBI on SWI scans of apparently neurologically free patients who presented by transient neurological manifestations is high and was found to be associated with the presence of chronic medical diseases especially in obese dyslipidemic patients

Effect of corn variety, mechanical damage, and drying temperature on electronic moisture meters

In the grain trade, electronic moisture meters are used for most moisture content determinations. These meters provide a fast indication of moisture content by measurement of certain electrical properties of grain, most often dielectric constant;The objective of this study was to quantify the effect of corn variety, harvest damage, and drying temperature on the accuracy and precision of electronic moisture meters;Four moisture meters were compared to the official air-oven method on 243 samples of corn. The moisture meters used were Steinlite SS250, Burrows 700, Motomco 919, and Dickeyjohn GACII. Three corn varieties studied for meter accuracy and variability were Iowa State Hybrid M110, Martinson SX440, and Pioneer 3541. Three shelling methods used in this study were hand, normal, and severe combine shelling. The corn samples were initially tested wet, then dried to about 15% moisture by both natural air (at about 20 C) and heated air (at 832 C);Corn variety and shelling methods had significant effects on the relative accuracy of the meters with respect to the oven. Drying air temperature did not affect the moisture meter accuracy;In dry corn, the meters tested higher relative to the oven with the variety Iowa State Hybrid M110 than the other two varieties. There was no significant difference in performance between Martinson and Pioneer. The Iowa State was the highest in test weight, the lowest in dye index, and the lowest in Stein breakage percentage (in both dry and wet corn) and the lowest in BCFM and large broken percentage;Shelling methods contributed significantly to meter errors. Hand-shelled corn tested highest relative to the oven, followed by normal combine and then severe combine. Test weight followed the same pattern as meter errors with hand-shelled the highest and severe combine the lowest. Percent BCFM, dye index, and Stein breakage were in reverse order;Meter calibrations were consistent with respect to each other. The Motomco moisture meter had the least susceptibility to the effect of the three treatments studied

Seismic Hazard and Geophysical Investigations for Architectural Heritage Preservation in Egypt: The Case of Habib Sakakini Palace

The modern architectural heritage of Egypt is rich, and extensively variable. It covers all kinds of monumental structures from palaces, public buildings, residential and industrial buildings, to bridges, springs, gardens and any other modern structure, which falls within the definition of a monument and belongs to the Egyptian cultural heritage. We present herein a comprhensive geophysical survey and seismic hazard assesment for the rehabilitation and strengthening of Habib Sakakini’s Palace in Cairo, which is considered one of the most significant architectural heritage sites in Egypt. The palace located on an ancient water pond at the eastern side of Egyptian gulf close to Sultan Bebris Al-Bondoqdary mosque, a place also called “Prince Qraja al-Turkumany pond”. That pond had been filled down by Habib Sakakini at 1892 to construct his famous palace in 1897. Various survey campaigns have been performed comprising geotechnical and geophysical field and laboratory tests, aiming to define the physical, mechanical and dynamic properties of the building and the soil materials of the site where the palace is founded. All these results together with the seismic hazard analysis will be used for the seismic analysis of the palace response in the framework of the rehabilitation and strengthening works foreseen in a second stage. We present herein the most important results of the field campaign and the definition of the design input motion

Polyacrylate adsorbents for the selective adsorption of cholesterol-rich lipoproteins from plasma or blood

Polyacrylate (PAA) adsorbents selectively bind low density lipoproteins (LDL) from human plasma and blood, whereas very low density lipoproteins (VLDL) are only minimally adsorbed. The adsorption of cholesterol-rich lipoproteins to PAA adsorbents is related to the molecular weight (mw) of the polyanion ligand. Ca++ and Mg++ inhibit the binding of LDL to PAA adsorbents. The chemical composition of the organic hardgels of the adsorbents does not have an influence on adsorption. The selective adsorption of LDL to PAA adsorbents can be explained to result from their low negative surface charge density and the specific colloid-chemical properties of the surface-bound PAA, which do not prevent LDL from binding to charge-like domains of the ligand. By contrast, VLDL and high density lipoproteins (HDL) are repelled from the adsorbents due to their higher negative surface charge density

Evaluation of Biological Control Potential for Different Trichoderma Strains Against Root-Knot Nematode Meloidogyne Javanica

Twenty strains of four Trichoderma species (Trichoderma harzianum, Trichoderma viride, Trichoderma koningii and Trichoderma asperellum) were evaluated for its potential to control the root-knot nematode Meloidogyne javanica. Culture filtrates from Trichoderma strains were tested in 24-well tissue culture plates for effects on Meloidogyne javanica. Chitwood egg hatch and mobility of hatched second-stage juveniles (J2) were evaluated, all the twenty Trichoderma strains showed the ability to colonize M. javanica separated eggs and second-stage juveniles (J2) in sterile in vitro assays. T. asperellum possess the strongest egg-parasitic ability and very effective against 2nd stage larvae of M. javanica. In this investigation, randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers was used to estimate the genetic variations between four strains of Trichoderma asperellum (KC898190, KC898191, KC898192 and KC898193) which were previously isolated from the rhizospheres of different plants growing in Fayoum Governorate, Egypt as a new strain of T. asperellum in Egypt. RAPD assay using 6 random primers identified T. asperellum strains with 5 specific unique markers

The Odd Inverse Rayleigh Family of Distributions: Simulation & Application to Real Data

A new family of inverse probability distributions named inverse Rayleigh family is introduced to generate many continuous distributions. The shapes of probability density and hazard rate functions are investigated. Some Statistical measures of the new generator including moments, quantile and generating functions, entropy measures and order statistics are derived. The Estimation of the model parameters is performed by the maximum likelihood estimation method. Furthermore, a simulation study is used to estimate the parameters of one of the members of the new family. The data application shows that the new family models can be useful to provide better fits than other lifetime models