The effect of planning design on thermal comfort in outdoor spaces

Urban outdoor spaces are considered essential elements of cities, where the greatest amount of human contact and interaction takes place. That is the reason why there is increasing public interest in the quality of open urban spaces as they can contribute to the quality of life within cities, or contrarily increase isolation and social exclusion. There are a lot of factors influencing the success of the outdoor spaces; one of the principal factors is the microclimatic comfort. In the hot areas, the outdoor thermal comfort conditions during the daytime are often far above acceptable comfort standards due to intense solar radiation and high solar elevations. The variation of the urban spaces\u27 configuration can generate significant modifications of the microclimatic parameters. Design decisions such as street and sidewalk widths, shading structures, materials, landscaping, building heights, and inducing air flow have a significant impact on the pedestrian thermal comfort and subsequently on the use of the urban environment. Although it has been established that the vegetation elements should be considered as one of the main tools that can be used in improving the thermal comfort in outdoor spaces, the integration of the climate dimension in the planting design process in urban spaces is lacking because of insufficient interdisciplinary work between urban climatology, urban design and landscape architecture. The primary aim of this research is to study the influence of some of the design decision for the plantation elements in outdoor spaces on the thermal comfort of its users. This will provide landscape designers and decision makers with the appropriate tools for effectively assessing the development of urban environment while considering the microclimate of outdoor spaces. A special emphasis is put on summertime conditions in Egypt. Findings of this research will contribute to sustainable urban design of outdoor spaces.<br /

Correlation of texture feature analysis with bone marrow infiltration in initial staging of patients with lymphoma using 18F−fluorodeoxyglucose^{18}F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography combined with computed tomography

Purpose: To explore whether radiomic features of fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose ($^{18}F-FDG$) positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET/CT) has association with bone marrow infiltration (BMI) in comparison to other conventional PET metrics. Material and methods: Forty-four patients (with pathologically proven lymphoma disease) underwent staging $^{18}F-FDG PET/CT$ scan. Primary tumour was semi-automatically or manually segmented with a threshold standardised uptake value (SUV) of 3. A total of 73 features were extracted from eight different textures. Spearman correlation was used to test the correlation of features with conventional quantitative metrics such as SUV, metabolic tumour volume, and total lesion glycolysis. Specificity and sensitivity (including 95% confidence intervals [CI]) for each of the studied parameters were derived using receiver operative characteristic (ROC) curves. Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to identify independent predictors associated with BMI. Results: Correlation between conventional PET metrics and features ranged between 0.50 and 0.97 for positive correlation (33 significant association features) and ranged from -0.52 to -0.97 for inverse correlation (three significant association features) for both strong and moderate correlations. Analysis of ROC curves showed that high-intensity long-run emphasis 4 bin, high-intensity large zone emphasis 64 bin, long-run emphasis (LRE) 64 bin, large-zone emphasis 64 bin, max spectrum 8 bin, busyness 64 bin, and code similarity 32 and 64 bin were significant discriminators of BMI among other features (area under curve > 0.682, p < 0.05). Univariate analyses of texture features showed that code similarity and long-run emphasis (both 64 bin) were significant predictors of bone marrow involvement. Multivariate analyses revealed that LRE (64 bin, p = 0.031) with an odds ratio of 1.022 and 95% CI of (1.002-1.043) were independent variables for bone marrow involvement. Conclusions: $^{18}F-FDG PET/CT$ radiomic features are synergistic to visual assessment of BMI in patients diagnosed with lymphoma using $^{18}F-FDG PET/CT$. Further assessment of long-run emphasis is highly warranted

Laryngeal ultrasound versus cuff leak test in prediction of post-extubation stridor

Background: Cuff leak test (CLT) has been proposed as a simple method of predicting post-extubation stridor (PES), however due to different cut-off point of cuff-leak volume between previous studies, the laryngeal ultrasonography (US) including measurement of air column width was used to predict PES. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the value of laryngeal US versus cuff leak test in predicting PES. Methods: The study included fifty patients admitted to the Critical Care Department, Cairo University Hospitals from the period of November 2014 to January 2016, intubated for at least 24 h and examined prior to extubation using CLT and laryngeal ultrasound. Results: Four cases developed PES. CLT identified PES patients with a sensitivity of 75%, with PPV of 50% for leakage volume of 132.5 ml. Laryngeal ultrasound showed a sensitivity of 50% for those patients with air column width before deflation less than 10.955 mm and air column width difference (ACWD) of 0.905 mm with PPV of 11.8% and 14.3% for both respectively. Conclusion: Both CLT and laryngeal US might have low sensitivity and PPV in predicting PES and should be used with caution in prediction of PES

Predicting Gross Domestic Product (GDP) using a PC-LSTM-RNN model in urban profiling areas

Abstract Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is significant for measuring the strength of national and global economies in urban profiling areas. GDP is significant because it provides information on the size and performance of an economy. The real GDP growth rate is frequently used to indicate the economy’s health. This paper proposes a new model called Pearson Correlation-Long Short-Term Memory-Recurrent Neural Network (PC-LSTM-RNN) for predicting GDP in urban profiling areas. Pearson correlation is used to select the important features strongly correlated with the target feature. This study employs two separate datasets, denoted as Dataset A and Dataset B. Dataset A comprises 227 instances and 20 features, with 70% utilized for training and 30% for testing purposes. On the other hand, Dataset B consists of 61 instances and 4 features, encompassing historical GDP growth data for India from 1961 to 2021. To enhance GDP prediction performance, we implement a parameter transfer approach, fine-tuning the parameters learned from Dataset A on Dataset B. Moreover, in this study, a preprocessing stage that includes median imputation and data normalization is performed. Mean Square Error, Mean Absolute Error, Root Mean Square Error, Mean Absolute Percentage Error, Median Absolute Error, and determination coefficient (R2) evaluation metrics are utilized in this study to demonstrate the performance of the proposed model. The experimental results demonstrated that the proposed model gave better results than other regression models used in this study. Also, the results show that the proposed model achieved the highest results for R2, with 99.99%. This paper addresses a critical research gap in the domain of GDP prediction through artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms. While acknowledging the widespread application of such algorithms in forecasting GDP, the proposed model introduces distinctive advantages over existing approaches. Using PC-LSTM-RNN which achieves high R2 with minimum error rates

Mapping the global potential distributions of two arboviral vectors Aedes aegypti and Ae. albopictus under changing climate.

BackgroundAedes aegypti and Ae. albopictus are the primary vectors that transmit several arboviral diseases, including dengue, chikungunya, and Zika. The world is presently experiencing a series of outbreaks of these diseases, so, we still require to better understand the current distributions and possible future shifts of their vectors for successful surveillance and control programs. Few studies assessed the influences of climate change on the spatial distributional patterns and abundance of these important vectors, particularly using the most recent climatic scenarios. Here, we updated the current potential distributions of both vectors and assessed their distributional changes under future climate conditions.MethodsWe used ecological niche modeling approach to estimate the potential distributions of Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus under present-day and future climate conditions. This approach fits ecological niche model from occurrence records of each species and environmental variables. For each species, future projections were based on climatic data from 9 general circulation models (GCMs) for each representative concentration pathway (RCP) in each time period, with a total of 72 combinations in four RCPs in 2050 and 2070. All ENMs were tested using the partial receiver operating characteristic (pROC) and a set of 2,048 and 2,003 additional independent records for Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus, respectively. Finally, we used background similarity test to assess the similarity between the ENMs of Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus.ResultsThe predicted potential distribution of Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus coincided with the current and historical known distributions of both species. Aedes aegypti showed a markedly broader distributional potential across tropical and subtropical regions than Ae. albopictus. Interestingly, Ae. albopictus was markedly broader in distributional potential across temperate Europe and the United States. All ecological niche models (ENMs) were statistically robust (P 0.05).ConclusionThese updated maps provided details to better guide surveillance and control programs of Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus. They have also significant public health importance as a baseline for predicting the emergence of arboviral diseases transmitted by both vectors in new areas across the world

Evaluation of BCL-2 and transforming growth factor alpha oncoproteins in patients with chronic hepatitis C infection: impact on hepatocellular carcinoma

No Abstract. The Egyptian Journal of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Vol. 23(1) 2005: 21-3

Possible association of primary open-angle glaucoma with thyroid dysfunction and oxidative stress

Background Primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) is a leading cause of blindness worldwide. Thyroid dysfunction and oxidative stress can be associated with POAG. Purpose The aim of this study was to determine whether thyroid dysfunction (hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism) is associated with glaucoma in Egyptian patients and to evaluate the level of oxidative stress (OS) markers in the serum of POAG patients. It also aimed to investigate the relationship between the OS markers and thyroid hormones in those patients. Patients and methods The study included 60 patients with POAG who were compared with 20 normal controls. Serum samples from the POAG patients and controls were examined for thyroid hormones [triiodothyronine (T3), thyroxine (T4), and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH)] using the ELISA technique. The OS markers [hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), nitric oxide (NO), malondialdehyde (MDA), and reduced glutathione (GSH)] were also determined using colorimetric methods. Results There were no significant differences in the levels of T4 and TSH in the patients (3.14±2.25 ng/dl and 2.43±1.37 u/l, respectively) compared with the controls (3.35±1.88 ng/dl and 1.76±0.99 u/l, respectively) (P=0.245 and 0.064, respectively). However, there was a significant decrease in the T3 level in the POAG patients (2.88±0.54 pg/ml) compared with the controls (3.35±0.6 pg/ml) (P=0.029). In addition, there was a significant increase in the levels of H2O2 (2.83±1.66 mM/l), NO (54.64±29.21 umol/l), and MDA (164.12±96.5 nmol/ml) in the patients compared with the controls (0.83±0.55 mMol/l, 22.49±6.37 umol/l, and 44.36±12.59 nmol/ml, respectively) (P<0.001). There was also a significant decrease in the level of GSH in patients (54.32±32.1 mg/dl) compared with controls (103.99±45.52 mg/dl), (P<0.001). A significant negative correlation was detected between TSH and T4 (r=−0.41, P= 0.001), TSH and MDA (r=−0.27, P=0.04), T3 and H2O2 (r=−0.05, P=0.05), and T4 and NO (r=−0.35, P=0.01). Conclusion There was no association between POAG and thyroid dysfunction. However, the POAG patients are susceptible to OS and damage, as they had elevated serum levels of H2O2, NO, and MDA and reduced levels of GSH. Since the thyroid hormone level was associated with the OS markers, antioxidant therapy may be beneficial and may help to regulate the intraocular pressure and protect the trabecular meshwork cells from OS in those patients