The charged lepton mass matrix and non-zero θ13\theta_{13} with TeV scale New Physics

We provide an explicit structure of the charged lepton mass matrix which is 2-3 symmetric except for a single breaking of this symmetry by the muon mass. We identify a flavor symmetric limit for the mass matrices where the first generation is decoupled from the other two in the charged lepton sector while in the neutrino sector the third generation is decoupled from the first two generations. The leptonic mixing in the symmetric limit can be, among other structures, the bi-maximal (BM) or the tri-bimaximal (TBM) mixing. Symmetry breaking effects are included both in the charged lepton and the neutrino sector to produce corrections to the leptonic mixing and explain the recent $\theta_{13}$ measurements. A model that extends the SM by three right handed neutrinos, an extra Higgs doublet, and two singlet scalars is introduced to generate the leptonic mixing.Comment: 28 pages, 24 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1111.307

THE CHALLENGES OF SUSTAINABLE HISTORICAL CENTERS: THE CASE OF ROSETTE, EGYPT

Historical centers of many Egyptian cities managed to survive as living cities in spite of physical decline and economic depression. Their fabric carries out the spiritual and cultural messages that communicate with their present citizens. The heritage of these historic city centers are not only Material character, but much more. Generally, the conservation of historic centers is fundamentally different from conservation of single monument. While a single monument can be kept on a chosen state of evolution, the historic centers cannot be preserved in particular state \u201cwith exception of the small areas conserved for tourist purposes\u201d. The historic centers, as living cities must meet the varying needs of citizens with sustainable transformations. The challenge is not how to preserve, but how to create dynamic living spaces and places that produce rich in cultural traditions that lead organically from the past to the future. The research will study and analyze the historical center of \u201cRosetta\u201d, which is one of the intermediate cities in northern Egypt that has a particular architectural heritage and many urban problems. The city of Rosetta (Rashid in Arabic) is located on the west bank of the Rosetta branch of the Nile, approximately 65km east of Alexandria on the Mediterranean coast. Today it is best known for the Rosetta stone, which was discovered in the Qayitbay castle in 1799. The city history passed over many periods of increase and decrease in its importance due to economical and political reasons. Its architectural heritage reveals the influence of various ages, but the most unique are merchant houses and mosques from the ottoman period. The city also has a particular suburban landscape of agricultural land and palm groves that are of great importance. Although Rosetta is no longer a leading commercial center, its citizens are employed in various typical activities, which are mainly agriculture, stocking and processing rice from the Delta, fishing and building ships and yachts. The main problem that faces the historic buildings of Rosetta is moisture from the soil, caused by an excess of underground salt water. The historic merchant houses have been the subject of many restoration projects over the past 20 years, but many of them have regularly been re-damaged by water and humidity and are currently under re-restoration. Unfortunately, some have even collapsed or were demolished. However, there are a number of activities that may take place in the historic buildings no longer used, maintaining the characteristics, such as crafts centers, libraries and cultural places that serve the local communities. Rosetta's historic center future must include renovation and modernization of basic infrastructure and development of traditional production sectors, based on the exploitation of this natural and cultural heritage to promote tourism locally and internationally. Physical restoration of the buildings is not enough to keep the historic center of the city alive, but a project for rehabilitation based on sustainability should be initiated. Not only to preserve and restore the outer shell, but inside the shell should insert some activities, social and economic dynamics that can make best use of resources and potential. The revitalization of Rosetta provides a mix of cultural, social, economic, technical and institutional that needs coordinated investments by the government. Must involve residents, landowners and all those have interest to ensure the careful maintenance and replacement of the elements of the built environment. This does not only depend on the availability of funding but also the specific technical and social skills that make up the traditional know-how. Unfortunately, many historical cities, especially the intermediate cities in Egypt suffer from lack of funds and local expertise. But the main problem is the lack of cooperation between the authorities who make the decisions

Magnetically geared induction machines

A wound-rotor induction machine is artfully coupled to a magnetic gear to achieve a high-torque-density drive system called magnetically geared induction machine (MaGIM). The high-speed rotor of MaGIM is common to both the machine and gear sides. A rotating diode rectifier electrically links the machine's wound rotor and a dc boost winding on the gear side to increase the torque-transmission capabilities of the overall system. The first investigations on a 100 kW-120 r/min MaGIM are promising, since an increase in torque of ∼ 15% could be obtained by inserting the diode rectifier. For fixed speed applications, this induction-machine-based system can be directly supplied from the main

Heme oxygenase effect on mesenchymal stem cells action on experimental Alzheimer's disease

The objective is to evaluate the effect of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) enzyme inducer and inhibitor on Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) in Alzheimer disease. Materials and Methods: 70 female albino rats were divided equally into 7 groups as follows: group 1: healthy control; group 2: Aluminium chloride induced Alzheimer disease; group 3: induced Alzheimer rats that received intravenous injection of MSCs; group 4: induced Alzheimer rats that received MSCs and HO inducer cobalt protoporphyrin; group 5: induced Alzheimer rats that received MSCs and HO inhibitor zinc protoporphyrin; group 6: induced Alzheimer rats that received HO inducer; group7: induced Alzheimer rats that received HO inhibitor. Brain tissue was collected for HO-1, seladin-1 gene expression by real time polymerase chain reaction, heme oxygenase activity, cholesterol estimation and histopathological examination. Results: MSCs decreased the plaque lesions, heme oxygenase induction with stem cells also decreased plaque lesions however there was hemorrhage in the brain. Both heme oxygenase inducer alone or with stem cells increased seladin-1 expression and decreased cholesterol level. Conclusion: MSCs alone or with HO-1 induction exert a therapeutic effect against the brain lesion in Alzheimer’s disease possibly through decreasing the brain cholesterol level and increasing seladin-1 gene expression

The application of predictive modelling for determining bio-environmental factors affecting the distribution of blackflies (Diptera: Simuliidae) in the Gilgel Gibe watershed in Southwest Ethiopia

Blackflies are important macroinvertebrate groups from a public health as well as ecological point of view. Determining the biological and environmental factors favouring or inhibiting the existence of blackflies could facilitate biomonitoring of rivers as well as control of disease vectors. The combined use of different predictive modelling techniques is known to improve identification of presence/absence and abundance of taxa in a given habitat. This approach enables better identification of the suitable habitat conditions or environmental constraints of a given taxon. Simuliidae larvae are important biological indicators as they are abundant in tropical aquatic ecosystems. Some of the blackfly groups are also important disease vectors in poor tropical countries. Our investigations aim to establish a combination of models able to identify the environmental factors and macroinvertebrate organisms that are favourable or inhibiting blackfly larvae existence in aquatic ecosystems. The models developed using macroinvertebrate predictors showed better performance than those based on environmental predictors. The identified environmental and macroinvertebrate parameters can be used to determine the distribution of blackflies, which in turn can help control river blindness in endemic tropical places. Through a combination of modelling techniques, a reliable method has been developed that explains environmental and biological relationships with the target organism, and, thus, can serve as a decision support tool for ecological management strategies

The impact of Stieltjes' work on continued fractions and orthogonal polynomials

Stieltjes' work on continued fractions and the orthogonal polynomials related to continued fraction expansions is summarized and an attempt is made to describe the influence of Stieltjes' ideas and work in research done after his death, with an emphasis on the theory of orthogonal polynomials

A critical perspective on second-order empathy in understanding psychopathology: phenomenology and ethics

The centenary of Karl Jaspers’ General Psychopathology was recognised in 2013 with the publication of a volume of essays dedicated to his work (edited by Stanghellini and Fuchs). Leading phenomenological-psychopathologists and philosophers of psychiatry examined Jaspers notion of empathic understanding and his declaration that certain schizophrenic phenomena are ‘un-understandable’. The consensus reached by the authors was that Jaspers operated with a narrow conception of phenomenology and empathy and that schizophrenic phenomena can be understood through what they variously called second-order and radical empathy. This article offers a critical examination of the second-order empathic stance along phenomenological and ethical lines. It asks: (1) Is second-order empathy (phenomenologically) possible? (2) Is the second-order empathic stance an ethically acceptable attitude towards persons diagnosed with schizophrenia? I argue that second-order empathy is an incoherent method that cannot be realised. Further, the attitude promoted by this method is ethically problematic insofar as the emphasis placed on radical otherness disinvests persons diagnosed with schizophrenia from a fair chance to participate in the public construction of their identity and, hence, to redress traditional symbolic injustices

Power management and control strategies for off-grid hybrid power systems with renewable energies and storage

This document is the Accepted Manuscript of the following article: Belkacem Belabbas, Tayeb Allaoui, Mohamed Tadjine, and Mouloud Denai, 'Power management and control strategies for off-grid hybrid power systems with renewable energies and storage', Energy Systems, September 2017. Under embargo. Embargo end date: 19 September 2018. The final publication is available at Springer via https://doi.org/10.1007/s12667-017-0251-y.This paper presents a simulation study of standalone hybrid Distributed Generation Systems (DGS) with Battery Energy Storage System (BESS). The DGS consists of Photovoltaic (PV) panels as Renewable Power Source (RPS), a Diesel Generator (DG) for power buck-up and a BESS to accommodate the surplus of energy, which may be employed in times of poor PV generation. While off-grid DGS represent an efficient and cost-effective energy supply solution particularly to rural and remote areas, fluctuations in voltage and frequency due to load variations, weather conditions (temperature, irradiation) and transmission line short-circuits are major challenges. The paper suggests a hierarchical Power Management (PM) and controller structure to improve the reliability and efficiency of the hybrid DGS. The first layer of the overall control scheme includes a Fuzzy Logic Controller (FLC) to adjust the voltage and frequency at the Point of Common Coupling (PCC) and a Clamping Bridge Circuit (CBC) which regulates the DC bus voltage. A maximum power point tracking (MPPT) controller based on FLC is designed to extract the optimum power from the PV. The second control layer coordinates among PV, DG and BESS to ensure reliable and efficient power supply to the load. MATLAB Simulink is used to implement the overall model of the off-grid DGS and to test the performance of the proposed control scheme which is evaluated in a series of simulations scenarios. The results demonstrated the good performance of the proposed control scheme and effective coordination between the DGS for all the simulation scenarios considered.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Synthesis and Catalase Mimic Activity of MnO2 Nano Powder Prepared by Hydrothermal Process

حضرثنائي اوكسيد المنغنيز النانوي بطريقة الضغط الحراري (الاوتوكليف). وتم تلدين ثنائي اوكسيد المنغنيز عند درجات حرارية مختلفة (250،400،550 و700م˚). اخذت القياسات للمساحيق النانوية ولمتغيرات متعددة ومن ثم شخصت البنية التركيبية وطوغرافية الاسطح بوساطة فحص حيود الاشعة السينيه ((XRD, مجهر القوه الذريه ((AFM و المجهر الاكتروني الماسح ((SEM. درست فعالية ثنائي اوكسيد المنغنيز كعامل مقلد لانزيم الكتليز (الفعالية التحفيزية) ضد بيروكسيد الهيدروجين وباستخدام طريقة جديدة ووجد ان التلدين بدرجة حرارة 400˚م هي الافضل.Manganese dioxide (MnO2) nanopowder has been synthesized by hydrothermal method. MnO2 was annealed at different temperatures (250, 400, 550, 700˚C). The crystal structure and surface morphology of these nanostructures were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The catalase mimic activity (catalytic activity) of MnO2 against hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) was studied by using the new method and found that 400˚C is the best annealing temperature