Sustaining the population growth of desert settlements, case study: North Sinai, Egypt

Egypt faces ongoing problems in its population distribution. While heavily populated areas of the Nile Valley continue to attract migrants, depopulated areas remain largely empty. In North Sinai, in spite of governmental support represented in new infrastructure and many urban and investment projects, there exists a tremendous under- population problem. In the meantime the urban centres of Egypt are suffering worsening social, economic, infrastructural and environmental problems exacerbated by overpopulation. This thesis addresses the concept of sustaining population growth of desert settlements. It argues that the socio-economic needs of desert settlements are to a large part overlooked, thus contributing to their failure to attract and retain large numbers of people. Discussion of this subject is structured into three parts, followed by the conclusion and recommendations. Part One uses extensive literature references to give a comprehensive background to the different features of desert settlements and their social, economic and environmental dimensions. Part Two covers the theoretical approach of sustaining the population growth of desert settlements, especially in peripheral areas. This part ends with a comparative analysis between three desert development experiences; in Egypt, the USA and Israel. These first two parts are targeted to address the indicators of sustaining population growth. These investigations into the subject area support a view that it is not sufficient for governments only to use economic, employment and infrastructural means to attract people to desert settlements. These do not tackle the problem of public attitudes towards living in remote communities, nor do they provide settlements that are adaptive to the desert environment, which would invite settlers to remain and bring up their families there. These insights construct the analytical background to the field study in Part Three, which outlines the research techniques and the case study, field survey and questionnaire conducted with the assistance of residents of five chosen desert settlements in North Sinai. This analysis examines the attitudes among `local' and `new comer' households looking at their residential mobility, the relocation process, and the consequences of the community and prospects for the future. The findings lead to the conclusion that much of the deviation from achieving national and regional population dispersal policies can be explained through studying the socio-economic and socio-cultural dimensions of desert settlements. They highlight significant differences in values, motivations and interests of both `local' and `newcomer' households and explain that these forces should have a major influence in formulating and implementing effective population redistribution policies. Although the research limits itself to the context of the desert environment, the author suggest that its findings may offer valuable insights to other parts of the world, where national policies are seeking to counter the global problems of rural -urban migration

General classical solutions in the noncommutative CP^(N-1) model

We give an explicit construction of general classical solutions for the noncommutative CP^(N-1) model in two dimensions, showing that they correspond to integer values for the action and topological charge. We also give explicit solutions for the Dirac equation in the background of these general solutions and show that the index theorem is satisfied.Comment: 11 pages, Harvmac. Typos corrected, references adde

Implementation of adaptive coding and modulation for satellite communication links in heavy rain region: an operators perspective

This contribution presents an implementation of adaptive modulation and coding (ACM) for the real operating satellite- based internet protocol (IP) communication system from the Nigeria communication satellite (NigComSat-1R) very small aperture terminal (VSAT) network. Specifically, different modulation schemes are chosen according to the weather conditions in order to achieve the highest available data rate and preserve the link availability. The experimental results indicate that at least a 24% bandwidth reduction can be achieved with the same data rate by implementing the ACM technique. Further work should focus on the ACM selection strategy based on the peculiarities of the meteorological characteristics in a specific area so that ACM implementation will lead to maximum efficiency in terms of radio resource management and exploitation

Assessment on Hybrid E-Learning Instrument

This study aims to improve Hybrid e-Learning 9.3. A total of 233 students of International Islamic University Malaysia, Gombak who have the experience in hybrid teaching and learning were involved as respondents. Rasch Measurement Model was used for this study. Validity analyses conducted were on (i) the compatibility of the items, (ii) mapping of items and respondents, (iii) scaling of instruments, and (iv) unidimentional items. The findings of the study show that (i) the items developed correspond with the construct they represent, (ii) items are evenly distributed on the mean of the respondents, (iii) the scale of instruments to be improved, and (iv) the instrument is multidimensional. Therefore, it shows that Hybrid e-Learning instrument has the items that measure the construct it represents as well as the compatibility with the capability of the respondents of the study

Ultrafast all-optical switching via coherent modulation of metamaterial absorption

We report on the demonstration of a femtosecond all-optical modulator providing, without nonlinearity and therefore at arbitrarily low intensity, ultrafast light-by-light control. The device engages the coherent interaction of optical waves on a metamaterial nanostructure only 30 nm thick to efficiently control absorption of near-infrared (750-1040 nm) femtosecond pulses, providing switching contrast ratios approaching 3:1 with a modulation bandwidth in excess of 2 THz. The functional paradigm illustrated here opens the path to a family of novel meta-devices for ultra-fast optical data processing in coherent networks.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Interference and electromagnetic compatibility challenges in 5G wireless network deployments

5G wireless network technology is going operate within the environment of other electrical, electronic and electromagnetic devices, components and systems, with capability of high speed data connectivity acting as network transceiver stations with Massive MIMO for Internet of Things (IoT). Considering the level of interoperability, electromagnetic Interference and electromagnetic compatibility to avoid electromagnetic pulse effects (EMP) which is capable of not only causing network malfunctions but total devices and equipments failure in mission critical operations, like hospital MRI scan machines, security profiling and data handling or even personal healthcare devices like heart pacemaker. Electromagnetic energy coupling in PCB due to: radiation, reflection and Crosstalk generates reliability challenges affecting Signal Integrity between traces of multilayer boards stalks, power bus and packaging creating Electromagnetic interference (EMI) in PCB leading false clock response to system failure. Above were considered very essential when deploying 5G wireless network facility as presented in this paper

IDENTIFICATION AND FUNCTIONAL CHARACTERIZATION OF GENES CONTROLLING REPRODUCTIVE MERISTEMS DEVELOPMENT IN THE MODEL SPECIES RICE (ORYZA SAT/VA)

Meristems are groups of pluripotent cells that contribute to plant growth and the development of its organs. In rice the inflorescence architecture, which determines the grain yield is established at early stages of reproductive development. Activity of the different types of reproductive meristem and the timing of transition between them shape the branching pattern and the number of spikelets on the inflorescence. A few genes that specify the identity of these meristems and regulate the transitions have been reported but the molecular mechanisms, underlying this process are still not clear. To gain a better understanding we used a precise laser microdissection and RNA-sequencing approach in Oryza sativa ssp. japonica cv. Nipponbare to elucidate the landscape of gene expression in four reproductive meristem types: the rachis meristem (RM), the primary branch meristem (PBM), the elongating primary branch meristem (including axillary meristems) (ePBM/AM), and the spikelet meristem (SM). We found that genes could be grouped based on specific expression behavior in these meristem types. The bioinformatics analysis of the datasets resulted in the identification of several genes potentially involved in branching. We generated loss of function mutants using a genome editing CRISPR/Cas9 approach, for two promising candidate genes, namely G1L1 and G1L2, both belonging to the ALOG family encoding a conserved domain: \u201cDomain of Unknown Function 640\u201d (DUF640). The knock-outs revealed an interesting branching phenotype that is consistent with the expression profile of these genes. Future research of our datasets combined with mutant analysis are expected to provide important new insights into the molecular mechanism that control rice inflorescence development, which has as an ultimate scope the improvement of grain yield, a trait that has without any doubt top priority for a sustainable agriculture of the future

Variational Iteration Method for Solving Telegraph Equations

In this paper, we apply the variational iteration method (VIM) for solving telegraph equations, which arise in the propagation of electrical signals along a telegraph line. The suggested algorithm is more efficient and easier to handle as compare to the decomposition method. Numerical results show the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed VIM

I Can See Clearly Now: Clairvoyant Assertions for Deadlock Checking

Under embargo until: 2023-07-04Static analysers are traditionally used to check various correctness properties of software. In the face of refactorings that can have adverse effects on correctness, developers need to analyse the code after refactoring and possibly revert their changes. Here, we take a different approach: we capture the effect of the Hide Delegate refactoring on programs in the ABS modelling language in terms of the base program, which allows us to predict the correctness of the refactored program. In particular, we focus on deadlock-detection. The actual check is encoded with the help of an additional data structure and assertions. Developers can then attempt to discharge assertions as vacuous with the help of a theorem prover such as KeY. On the one hand, this means that we do not require a specific static analyser nor theorem prover, but rather profit from the strength and advances of modern tool support. On the other hand, developers can choose to rely on existing tests to confirm that no assertion is triggered before executing the actual refactoring. Finally, we argue the correctness of our over-approximation.acceptedVersio