Managing Educational Information Technology (IT) Transformation

Private universities are emerging rapidly in Egypt and are facing a number of critical challenges. Educational Information Technology (IT) is considered one of the most important factors for competition, survival, and sustainability in the education industry. Any change in technology consecutively affects other factors and vice versa. With the move of the American University in Cairo (AUC) from the downtown strategic location to one of the suburbs, many constraints and challenges were imposed coupled with the implications associated with Egypt’s uprising. To guarantee sustainability, there is a need to manage properly educational IT performance. However, as Hoerner (2008) stated, “indicators are needed for sustainability because you cannot manage what you do not measure”. To identify the indicators of sustainability and the factors that affect them, satisfaction was used as surrogate measure for educational IT performance. This paper demonstrates the experience of the American University in Cairo in deploying IT in education while going through school and university transformation and a nations’ uprising with a number of lessons learned, and opportunities created for different stakeholders in the national educational ecosystem

Transforming the Software Industry into a Platform for Development: Case of Egypt

During the 1960s, computing was introduced to Egypt. Its use and applications was limited to the government and the public sector throughout the 1970s. During the 1980s, the introduction and diffusion of information technology (IT) was diffused following the global personal computer evolution. Personal computers effectively affected business and organizational development and growth due to the continuous developments in the IT industry and caused by increasing hardware penetration, software innovations and creativity, research and development and the build-up of the telecommunications and information infrastructures. This paper assesses the recent developments in the software industry in Egypt. The focus is on the iterative and dynamic nature of the software industry with the evolving trends of outsourcing and offshoring and their growing active role as a contributor to development through a strong and much needed export-oriented software industry

Validity of the survival and transformation of Islamic art in the interior design across time and place

Islamic art is considered as a cultural platform which has many ingredients and values able to make him an artistic , heritage and humanly reference . It is a source at which the artist and designer derives visions of innovative, cope and evolve with the changes across time and place . That is due to his great geographic breadth, arose from his integration into a variety of cultures and different nationalities which had an impact that leaves us , an artistic and delicate heritage of long survival and continuity. One who meditate Islamic art , notes it's reflection on most of the fields of art and design across different eras . Besides , its influence extended on contemporary design  and Western arts trends , which confirms the uniqueness of  Islamic civilization and its creativity across different civilizations.   The field of interior design and furniture considered one of the most important areas that affected by the ideology, philosophy, foundations and Islamic art standards, since ancient times . Some try to emulate it's formality with the use of materials and innovative ways of manufacture. Others trying to short it's  vocabulary and employ them in innovative formats depending on their creative vision to reach contemporary interior design holds an Islamic identity. So, we make sure that the concept of modernity in thought, art and design will only be achieved through the harmonization of the historical sides and recent trends .  Because, if modernity was not relevant to roots , it should not be called modernity . That Modernity and originality gathering together with dialectical coherent relationship. This paper seeks to prove that there is a close relationship between the foundation and the aesthetics of Islamic art and contemporary interior design trends .  It also aims to confirm the potential of Islamic art to be used across different eras  and melting it's cultural origins with contemporary technologies. The two major issues which the paper contains : The first axis : deals with the concept and philosophy of Islamic Art and the most important foundations and design operations upon which Islamic thought and contemporary design thoughts build up in the field of interior design .  As well as , the impact of Islamic Art on the previous historical civilizations. The second axis: includes contemporary design trends in the light of Islamic Art. Also addresses the entrances of the revival of Islamic art in the contemporary interior design. Finally concludes with the application of Islamic Art philosophy on one of the residential spaces with a contemporary vision

Graphical Analysis and Revamping of Crude Distillation Units under Variable Operational Scenarios

Energy Cost Represents a Significant Part of the Total Operating Costs of Many Processing Units. Crude Distillation is an Energy Intensive Process. Energy Integration is a Typical Solution to Reduce Heating and Cooling Utilities through Maximizing the Target Temperature of Crude Oil Streams Before Entering the Furnace. over the Past Few Decades, Significant Progress Has Been Made in Energy Integration Methods Including Pinch Technology and Mathematical Programming Approaches. Very Recently, Graphical Techniques Have Been Developed for Revamping Studies and Energy Analysis. Such Diagrams Are Valuable in Energy Targeting to Identity Energy Inefficiencies and Are Key to Potential Modifications for Maximum Energy Integration. the Current Research Applies the Recent Graphical Revamping Methodology on an Existing Crude Atmospheric Distillation Unit. the Unit is Located in North of Egypt (Suez Region) and is Operated under Two Different Operational Modes; (1) Without Naphtha Stabilizer; the Process Reformer is in Operation to Reform All Naphtha Streams Without Stabilization and (2) with Naphtha Stabilizer; LPG is Separated from Naphtha Stream. a Graphical-Based Revamping Methodology is Applied to Retrofit the Existing Preheat Train. the Revamping Procedure Starts by Simulating the Existing HEN Data, Followed by Validation Against the Real Data. the Current Performance of the HEN is Analyzed using the Graphical Axes of Thot-Tcold Diagrams. the Graphical Method is Then Used to Identify Exchangers Across the Pinch and Recognize the Potential Modifications to Improve the Energy Performance and Reduce Fuel Consumption. Implementing the Graphical Identified Modifications on the Plant Resulted in the Following Benefits: (1) When Stabilizer is in Operation, Energy Savings Are Achieved by 21.1% with Additional Capital Investment of 0.81 MM$and Annual Energy Savings of 0.82 MM$, with a Payback Period of One Year. (2) When Reformer is in Operation, the Energy Savings Are 0.42 MM$with Capital Investment of 0.33 MM$. the Methodology Results Provide a Flexibility in Refineries Operations

Graphical Revamping Of A Crude Distillation Unit Under Two Variable Operational Scenarios - Naphtha Stabilizer And Reformer Operated

Energy costs represent significant parts of the total operating costs of crude refining industries. Energy integration is a typical solution to reduce heating and cooling utilities in crude refining plants through maximizing the target temperature of crude oil streams before entering the furnace. Over the past few decades, a significant progress has been made in energy integration methods including Pinch technology and mathematical programming approaches. Example of these is a graphical technique which plots Thot versus Tcold for energy analysis and revamping studies. The current research employs the Thot - Tcold diagrams in an algorithm to retrofit an existing crude atmospheric distillation unit (CDU) located in north of Egypt (Suez region). This real CDU unit is operated under two different operational modes: (i) without naphtha stabilizer; the process reformer is in operation to reform all naphtha streams without stabilization, and (ii) with naphtha stabilizer; LPG is separated from naphtha stream. The performance of the current HEN is analyzed using the graphical axes of Thot - Tcold diagrams. The graphical method is used to identify exchangers across the Pinch and recognize the potential modifications to improve the energy performance and reduce fuel consumption. Implementing the graphical identified modifications on the existing plant resulted in: (1) stabilizer scenario; energy savings are achieved by 21.1% with additional capital investment of 0.81 MM$and annual energy savings of 0.82 M$, (2) reformer scenario; the energy savings are 0.42 MM$with capital investment of 0.33 M$

Does the type and size of Amplatzer vascular plug affect the occlusion time of pulmonary arteriovenous malformations?

PURPOSE:Occlusion time (OT) is an important factor in the treatment of pulmonary arteriovenous malformations (PAVMs) since it can lead to serious complications. The purpose of our study is to calculate the OT of Amplatzer vascular plug (AVP, St Jude Medical), and correlate it to the type of the device used (AVP or AVP 2) and the percent of device oversizing. Technical success rates and complications were also recorded.METHODS:We retrospectively studied a total of 19 patients with 47 PAVMs who received percutaneous transcatheter embolization therapy using either AVP or AVP 2. We recorded the location, type, feeding artery diameter, AVP device used, and OT of each PAVM. We correlated the percent of device oversizing and the type of AVP with the OT. We also studied the rate of persistence of PAVM for both devices.RESULTS:Forty-six (98%) of the PAVMs were simple. Device diameters ranged from 4.0–16.0 mm with device oversizing ranging between 14% and 120%. There was a statistically significant difference in the OT of AVP and AVP 2 (3 min 54 s vs. 5 min 30 s, P = 0.030). There was a weak positive correlation between OT and device oversizing for AVP (r=0.246, P = 0.324) and AVP 2 (r=0.261, P = 0.240). No major complications were identified. Immediate technical success rate was 100%CONCLUSION:The use of AVP 2, and increase in device oversizing were not associated with reduction in the OT of PAVMs. There was no reported difference in safety between the two devices, and no major complications were noted

Transesterification of salmon oil to produce biofuel:Experimental design and process simulation

Waste oils are considered a promising and sustainable source of raw materials in the biofuel industry. In recent years, research has been focused on the conversion of free fatty acids (FFAs) in fish oil to fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) mainly through the transesterification reaction. The biodiesel produced from salmon wastes provides an alternative source of raw material for sustainable energy production, meeting the growing energy demand without damaging the environment. The aim of this work is to investigate biodiesel production from salmon oil through a complete experimental design of the transesterification process. The biodiesel production was carried out by a homogeneous alkaline transesterification process using methanol and potassium methylate as a catalyst. The salmon oil was transesterified and then the FAMEs content was estimated using the peak areas of several FAMEs peaks observed in the chromatogram using GC-MS/FID analysis. The experimental results were modelled through Aspen Plus software, where the salmon oil was reacted with methanol in the presence of a catalyst and the results were validated against the experimental data. This study demonstrated that the oil produced from salmon wastes showed suitable characteristics and is a promising source for sustainable biofuel production

When Bad News Become Good News Towards Usable Instances of Learning with Physical Errors

Hard physical learning problems have been introduced as an alternative option to implement cryptosystems based on hard learning problems. Their high-level idea is to use inexact computing to generate erroneous computations directly, rather than to first compute correctly and add errors afterwards. Previous works focused on the applicability of this idea to the Learning Parity with Noise (LPN) problem as a first step, and formalized it as Learning Parity with Physical Noise (LPPN). In this work, we generalize it to the Learning With Errors (LWE) problem, formalized as Learning With Physical Errors (LWPE). We first show that the direct application of the design ideas used for LPPN prototypes leads to a new source of (mathematical) data dependencies in the error distributions that can reduce the security of the underlying problem. We then show that design tweaks can be used to avoid this issue, making LWPE samples natively robust against such data dependencies. We additionally put forward that these ideas open a quite wide design space that could make hard physical learning problems relevant in various applications. And we conclude by presenting a first prototype FPGA design confirming our claims

The impact of the proposed “cybercrime act” on the press freedom from the perspective of the media practitioners in Jordan

The aim of this study is to highlight the issue of human rights information affecting everyone working or involved in the media sector in Jordan and show the strengths and weaknesses of electronic crime bill from the viewpoint of information providers, and display electronic crimes Act general contents 21017/2018 especially (Hate speech) and (article 11), which was considered controversial, and view the status of media freedoms in Jordan before the adoption of the draft cyber crime. The study used qualitative analysis and relied on the interview as a tool for data collection where it was taking a sample from the article on media, major results were as following: The laws governing the work of journalists in general have a direct impact on, the Government took from electronic crimes act to other countries. The Government has formulated legal amendments based on laws does not suit the culture of our society. The government\u27s subsequent amendments to the definition of hate speech are copies of Article 150 of the Jordanian Penal Code. The study recommends enacting a special law to keep pace with technological developments and cyber crime

When Bad News Become Good News

Hard physical learning problems have been introduced as an alternative option to implement cryptosystems based on hard learning problems. Their high-level idea is to use inexact computing to generate erroneous computations directly, rather than to first compute correctly and add errors afterwards. Previous works focused on the applicability of this idea to the Learning Parity with Noise (LPN) problem as a first step, and formalized it as Learning Parity with Physical Noise (LPPN). In this work, we generalize it to the Learning With Errors (LWE) problem, formalized as Learning With Physical Errors (LWPE). We first show that the direct application of the design ideas used for LPPN prototypes leads to a new source of (mathematical) data dependencies in the error distributions that can reduce the security of the underlying problem. We then show that design tweaks can be used to avoid this issue, making LWPE samples natively robust against such data dependencies. We additionally put forward that these ideas open a quite wide design space that could make hard physical learning problems relevant in various applications. And we conclude by presenting a first prototype FPGA design confirming our claims