The influences of user generated ‘Big data’ on urban development

Cities are the nucleus for creativity and ideas, as it has all the potentials for people to work, explore and live. People always come to cities because they want to be part of something, this magnet in the cities created the problem of population (Ericsson: Thinking Cities in the Networked Society, 2012). Approximately 50% of world’s population lives in urban areas, a number which is expected to increase to nearly 60% by 2030. (Mutizwa-Mangiza ND, Arimah B C, Jensen I, Yemeru EA, Kinyanjui MK, 2011). According to the rapid change in cities’ population there exists a need to utilize intelligent prediction tools to deliver a better way of living. Smart cities provide an opportunity to connect people and places using innovative technologies that help in better city planning and management ( Khan, Anjum, Soomro, & Tahir, 2015). Data is never a new thing, but data sources are always in change. The internet made everything easier and more reachable. This wide range of technologies such as IOT (internet of things) and M2M (machine to machine) (Gartner, 2015), is believed to offer a new potential to deliver an analytical framework for urban optimization. The real value of such data is gained by new knowledge acquired by performing data analytics using various data mining, machine learning or statistical methods. According to this technologically mutated, data comes from weather channels, street security cameras, Facebook, Twitter, sensor networks, in-car devices, location-based smartphone apps, RFID tags, smart meters, among other sources (Hinssen, 2012). This massive amount of information that comes from real-time based tools, made the world in front of a new era of data called ‘Big Data’. However, turning an ocean of messy data into knowledge and wisdom is an extremely challenging task. The proposed paper will discuss the IOT developed frameworks which are used to improve cities infrastructure and their vital systems. Analyzing these frameworks will help developing a conceptual proposal of data visualizing software; with the aim of helping urban planners get a better and easier way to comprehend the usage of multi-data sources for city planning and management. The full control of data is an open challenge, however proposing the fundamental bases of framework with the ability to extend and having an application layer above would be very helpful for urban process shifting. The Egyptian case is our main scope to have a smarter city that provides an opportunity to connect people and places using innovative technologies

TikTok Battlefield: Comparative Analysis of English and Arabic Language Representations of The 2022 Russian Ukrainian Conflict On TikTok

This study extends the growing political communication research on TikTok platform through studying the representation of a major political conflict in modern history; the 2022 Russian Ukrainian conflict. The study is providing a cross cultural comparison by studying the perspectives of English and Arabic speakers about the conflict. The study is based on the analysis of the 500 most liked TikTok videos - in one month duration that starts with the day of the Russian invasion - with top hashtags about the conflict in order to find the common message themes. The study uses a multi-dimensional analysis approach of connective action, collective action, and issue-specific frames to understand how TikTok was used as a social mobilization tool in reference to the conflict and how the users\u27 languages affected these frames. The study also looked at the use of technology affordances to create memetic dimensions of content, form, and stance. As each political conflict represents its own circumstances and dynamics, unlike TikTok’s nature, this study found that the artistic / humorous message theme did not represent the most prominent theme in both Arabic and English language videos. Also, message themes of victims and activists’ reference were more prevalent in English language videos in comparison to Arabic language videos. The results also revealed that connective action frames (personal experiences and emotional commentary) and collective action frames (perceived injustice and agency) were widely utilized in English language videos. However, issue-specific frames (problem definition) were widely found in Arabic language videos. Additionally, the most prominent tone of communication was found to be “serious” in both English and Arabic language videos, and the most prominent communicative function was “referential communication”. The most important finding of this study was the change in TikTok usual usage of playful communication in favor of serious and informative content. Moreover, TikTok unique affordances of association “Duets and stitches” were rarely used in the examined videos. The practical implication of this study is to understand TikTok’s position on the map of social media political expression, given the application’s unique affordances. The present research coming from the MENA region and comparing it with the other world aims at crossing the gap in comparative research by examining how the playful platform is used among English and Arabic speakers posting about a political conflict of a global impact

Effect of Teaching Sessions Implementation on Performance of Internship Nursing Students Regarding Intra Osseous Access

Context: Intraosseous (IO) access is an emergency vascular access for providing venous administration of drugs and fluids in emergencies. Nurses are responsible for preparing and administering fluids and medications through IO access so that nurses should be aware of IO indications, contraindications, complications, and also practicing Intraosseous (IO) access insertion.Aim: The current study was conducted to assess the effect of teaching sessions implementation on the performance of internship nursing students regarding intraosseous access. Methods: A quasi-experimental (pre/post-test) design was unitized to conduct this study. The study recruited a convenient sample of fifty (50) internship nursing students. The Critical care lab at the Faculty of Nursing Ain Shams University was used to conduct the teaching sessions. The study used two tools to achieve the aim of this study; Intraosseous Access Self-Administered Questionnaire and Internship Nurses' Practice Observational Checklist regarding intraosseous access. Results: After teaching session implementation regarding intraosseous access, there were statistically significant improvements in the level of performance of internship nursing students at P >0.05.Conclusion: Teaching session implementation had a statistically significant positive effect on internship nursing students' performance regarding intraosseous access. Repetitive training regarding IO access is recommended to be integrated as a part of the nursing faculty's clinical skills to ensure the highest standard of care in emergencies and to maximize skill retention

Design for Sustainability with Biodegradable Composites

Many of the petroleum-based materials and products are causing problems with sustainability of resources and disposal at the end of their lives. Such problems can be solved if biodegradable materials from renewable resources are used in product design. For a material to be fully biodegradable, all its constituents must be biodegradable and should come from renewable resources if it is to be sustainable. Starch-plant fiber composites satisfy both conditions. In addition to their environmental benefits, materials from renewable resources can also be economically advantageous in certain applications, such as motorcar and packaging industries. This chapter starts with a review of the characteristics of biodegradable materials and uses case studies to illustrate their use in the design of sustainable products. The concept of design for a life (DFL), in which the material used in making a given product that will biodegrade at the end of its useful life, will also be explored

Functional Outcomes of Surgical Management for Spinal Epidural Masses in an Egyptian Tertiary Hospital

BACKGROUND: The spinal epidural space, covering the dural sac, is located along the posterior longitudinal ligament anteriorly, the ligamentum flavum and the periosteum of laminae posteriorly, and the pedicles of the spinal column by the intervertebral foramina containing their neural elements laterally. It could be affected variably by different types of diseases, either as primary lesions or as an extension from a disease process in the nearby tissues and organs. AIM: We aimed to present clinically and surgically patients with spinal epidural masses operated in the Neurosurgery Department of Cairo University Hospitals, Cairo, Egypt, along a time interval of one year. METHODS: In this prospective cohort study, we analysed motor deficits, sensory deficits, and bowel and bladder dysfunction. We have performed decompressive laminectomy on 19 patients with spinal epidural masses together with mass excision as long as the tumour was accessible, with or without fixation. RESULTS: All patients were radiologically assessed by MRI over the affected side of the spine. D10 was the commonest site in our study to be affected in 10 cases of our participants (23%), followed by D5, D7, and D12 each of them was affected in 6 cases (14%), in another word spinal segments by order of frequency to be affected were dorsal followed by lumbar spine. All patients included in this study (100%) showed an obvious improvement as regard pain and tenderness. CONCLUSION: Surgical interventions have improved the quality of life for our patients with spinal epidural masses

Mechanistic studies of APR-246 in leukemia

PRIMA-1and its analog APR-246 are novel drugs that restore the active conformation of mutated and unfolded p53 protein and induce apoptosis and cell death in various tumors in pre-clinical models. We first aimed to explore the effects of APR-246 alone and in combination with other drugs in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in vitro. APR-246 induced dose-dependent apoptosis and increased active caspase-3 and p53 protein levels as well as the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio independently of TP53 mutational status. AML patient cells with TP53 mutations and complex karyotype were more resistant to conventional chemotherapeutic drugs but retained their sensitivity to APR-246. Pronounced synergism was found when combining APR-246 with DNR in AML patient cells and pre-incubation with APR-246 induced more synergistic effects compared to other treatment schedules in the AML cell line KMB3. As APR-246 was shown to induce expression of genes protective of oxidative stress in global gene expression profiling, we furthermore aimed to study the effects of APR-246 on the redox status of AML cells. We confirmed that APR-246 increased ROS formation and depleted cells from glutathione. HO-1; a gene protecting from oxidative stress, was one of the most upregulated genes in response to APR-246. Both HO-1 and its transcriptional regulator NFE2L2 (Nrf2) were up-regulated as detected by q-RT-PCR. APR-246 treatment induced Nrf2 activation by translocation of the Nrf2 protein from the cytosol to the nucleus. Transient knockdown of Nrf2 in KMB3 cells obliterated APR-246-induced upregulation of HO-1 and increased its antitumoral effects. The PI3K inhibitor wortmannin and the mTOR inhibitor rapamycin; both up-stream regulators of Nrf2, inhibited APR-246-induced nuclear translocation of Nrf2 and induced synergism with APR-246. A phase I first-in-man study including 22 patients with hematologic malignancies and prostate cancer was conducted. Dose escalations from 2 mg/kg to 90 mg/kg revealed a maximum tolerated dose (MTD) of 60 mg/kg and a half-life of 4-5 hours. The most common adverse effects were fatigue, dizziness, headache, and confusion. Dose limiting toxicities (DLTs) were increased ALT/AST (n=1), dizziness, confusion, and sensory disturbances (n=2). Tumor cells showed cell cycle arrest, increased apoptosis, and up-regulation of p53 target genes. We finally showed that miR-34b/c is epigenetically silenced by DNA methylation in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). As being down-stream regulators of p53, miR-34b/c expression levels were induced by PRIMA-1 as well as by doxorubicin and decitabine. Over-expression of miR-34b/c in CLL cells increased apoptosis which suggest a tumor suppressor function for these microRNAs. In conclusion, AML cells are sensitive to APR-246 in vitro irrespectively of TP53 mutational status. The substance induces oxidative stress and activates the Nrf2/HO-1 protective pathway. In a first-in-man study, APR-246 was shown to be to have a favorable pharmacokinetic profile and to induce p53-dependent biologic effects in vivo. Either in combination with conventional chemotherapeutic drugs or PI3K inhibitors, synergistic antileukemic effects can be obtained which holds a promise for further combination studies in vivo

An Energy Efficient Sleep/Wake up Routing Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks

In recent years, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have a rapid development and they take a lot of research attention because of their wide-range applications. A WSN consists of a large number of distributed sensor nodes. These nodes are often deployed in remote or hostile areas to monitor physical or environmental conditions where they send this data to a main location. The most critical parameter in WSNs is network lifetime, so an efficient routing protocol is essential to reduce the energy consumption and to increase the network lifetime. This paper proposes an energy-efficient chain-based cooperative routing protocol based on node sleep/wake-up mechanism for WSNs. We compare this protocol with two efficient protocols; LEACH and CBCCP using MATLAB. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm achieves better performance and conserves more energy than the other two protocols

The Effect of Recombinant Human Bone Morphogenetic Protein-7 on the Osteoblast-like Cells Cultured on Implant

AIM: The aim of the study was to study the effect of recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein-7 (rhBMP-7) on the osteoblast-like cells cultured on implant. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The osteoblast-like osteo-1 cell line was used in this experiment and derived from the parietal bone tissue of newborn albino rats. The cells were incubated in a humid atmosphere of 95% air and 5% carbon dioxide at 37°C. The medium was changed every 2 days. Four groups were conducted as follows osteoclast-like cell (machined), implanted osteoclast-like cell on titanium (Ti) (modified), osteoclast-like cell supplemented with BMP-7 (Machined + BMP-7), and implanted osteoclast-like cell on Ti and supplemented with BMP-7 (Modified + BMP-7). RESULTS: Cell proliferation was influenced by rhBMP-7, as demonstrated by a significant increase in collagen content after 7 and 21 days of culture (p = 0.005) and a significant increase in alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity after 7 days (p < 0.001). The addition of rhBMP-7 influenced ALP activity, and a significant increase was observed after 21 days (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Within the limitations of the study, we concluded that the presence of rhBMP-7 did not influence cell adhesion to chemically modified Ti surfaces but provided an additional stimulus during the differentiation of rat osteo-1 cells cultured on this type of surface

Control of MNC\u27s Environmental Performance and the Challenges of Subsidiary Network Dimensions

The trend of green consumerism and increased standardization of environmental regulations has driven multinational corporations (MNCs) to seek standardization of environmental practices or at least seek to be associated with such behavior. In fact, many firms are seeking to free ride on this global green movement, without having the actual ecological footprint to substantiate their environmental claims. While scholars have articulated the benefits from such optimization of uniform global green operations, the challenges for MNCs to control and implement such operations are understudied. For firms to translate environmental commitment to actual performance, the obstacles are substantial, particularly for the MNC. This is attributed to headquarters’ (HQ) control challenges (1) in managing core elements of the corporate environmental management (CEM) process and specifically matching verbal commitment and policy with ecological performance and by (2) the fact that the MNC operates in multiple markets and the HQ is required to implement policy across complex subsidiary networks consisting of diverse and distant units. Drawing from the literature on HQ challenges of MNC management and control, this study examines (1) how core components of the CEM process impact optimization of global environmental performance (GEP) and then uses network theory to examine how (2) a subsidiary network’s dimensions can present challenges to the implementation of green management policies. It presents a framework for CEM which includes (1) MNCs’ Verbal environmental commitment, (2) green policy Management which guides standards for operations, (3) actual environmental Performance reflected in a firm’s ecological footprint and (4) corporate environmental Reputation (VMPR). Then it explains how an MNC’s key subsidiary network dimensions (density, diversity, and dispersion) create challenges that hinder the relationship between green policy management and actual environmental performance. It combines content analysis, multiple regression, and post-hoc hierarchal cluster analysis to study US manufacturing MNCs. The findings support a positive significant effect of verbal environmental commitment and green policy management on actual global environmental performance and environmental reputation, as well as a direct impact of verbal environmental commitment on green policy management. Unexpectedly, network dimensions were not found to moderate the relationship between green management policy and GEP