Facing the growing problem of the electric power consumption in Egyptian residential building using building performance simulation program

Egypt has been experiencing recurrent power cuts especially at the summer, with the problem being made worse by the extra demands placed on the electrical grid by the advent of the holy month of Ramadan. Electricity shortages are now a problem in Cairo, Alexandria, Sohag, Qena, Luxor, Aswan, and Nubia, as well as in the Nile Delta governorates of Beheira and Qalioubiya. The aim of this study is to develop a model for the Egyptian residential building using Building Performance Simulation Program and make sensitivity analysis on some variables effecting the electric power consumption in order to help faceting the growing problem in Egypt. The model was created using the IES-VE 2012 (Integrated Environmental Solution ). The simulation model was verified against the survey data for the Egyptian apartment and same model simulated using energy Plus simulation tool. The results of the program describing different situations for energy using profile for the air conditions, lighting and equipments in respect to building layout and construction climate and pattern of use. This model can be used in the future to help in reducing the electric power consumption in the residential building

Arabic Spelling Correction using Supervised Learning

In this work, we address the problem of spelling correction in the Arabic language utilizing the new corpus provided by QALB (Qatar Arabic Language Bank) project which is an annotated corpus of sentences with errors and their corrections. The corpus contains edit, add before, split, merge, add after, move and other error types. We are concerned with the first four error types as they contribute more than 90% of the spelling errors in the corpus. The proposed system has many models to address each error type on its own and then integrating all the models to provide an efficient and robust system that achieves an overall recall of 0.59, precision of 0.58 and F1 score of 0.58 including all the error types on the development set. Our system participated in the QALB 2014 shared task "Automatic Arabic Error Correction" and achieved an F1 score of 0.6, earning the sixth place out of nine participants.Comment: System description paper that is submitted in the EMNLP 2014 conference shared task "Automatic Arabic Error Correction" (Mohit et al., 2014) in the Arabic NLP workshop. 6 page

On the calculation of the linear complexity of periodic sequences

Based on a result of Hao Chen in 2006 we present a general procedure how to reduce the determination of the linear complexity of a sequence over a finite field \F_q of period $un$ to the determination of the linear complexities of $u$ sequences over \F_q of period $n$. We apply this procedure to some classes of periodic sequences over a finite field \F_q obtaining efficient algorithms to determine the linear complexity

On the k-error linear complexity of cyclotomic sequences

Exact values and bounds on the k-error linear complexity of p-periodic sequences which are constant on the cyclotomic classes are determined. This family of sequences includes sequences of discrete logarithms, Legendre sequences and Hall's sextic residue sequence

ORDER PICKING AND STORAGE USING STACKABLE PALLETS IN A WAREHOUSE

Quarter Billion dollars could be saved annually by double stacking pallets. A forklift storing 100 double stacked pallets saves 2.5 working hours versus single pallets. More than one billion pallets and cases handled between Wal-Mart distribution centers according to BEA White Paper (2006) [1], assume only 500 million were stackable pallets. This translates to 12.5 million working hours. If a forklift driver earns $20 per hour, then$250 million can be saved. Moreover, handling double stacked pallets takes up to 46 % of total time to pick and store. This is a significant element that was ignored in literature. All previous research focused only on travel time that is just part of the total time. In this dissertation we model dual command operations to find optimal path with minimum travel time. Combination of both picking and storage activities is also known as dual command. Our environment is a manual warehouse where full pallets can be double stacked. Accordingly, three time-based models were developed as 123 steps to reach dual command model; order picking model, storage model and combined storage and order picking model. The mathematical models find the optimal sequence of storing and picking pallets that leads to the minimum travel time. Using those models allow double stacking pallets, therefore around half of material handling time, labor cost, and equipment cost will be saved compared to single stacked pallet operations. Two heuristics were also developed that gave sub optimal but quicker solutions that can also be used by the warehouse management and reduce the travel time significantly as well

The efficacy of ultrasonographic morphological index using Depriest score in ovarian cancer prediction

Background: Ovarian cancer is the second most common cancer after cancer breast and the most lethal gynecologic malignancy in developed countries.The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of ultrasonographic morphological index using Depriest score et al in identifying ovarian cancer and to calculate its specificity, sensitivity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value in ovarian cancer prediction.Methods: Preoperative estimation of morphological index by Depriest score using vaginal ultrasound examination for 130 cases with ovarian masses, followed by laparotomy, and histopathological examination of the masses. Correlation of the cases morphological index score was done for histopathological nature of masses whether it is benign or malignant. Calculation of the Depriest index score was done using 3 parameters which are tumor volume, cyst wall structure and thickness and Septal structure.Results: A significant difference were found between mean Depriest score (p=0.001) of malignant cases (mean score 8.27±1.77) and benign cases (mean score 4.38±1.61) while the mean volume showed no significant difference (p=0.101) between malignant (mean volume 3.24±0.69) and benign cases (mean volume 3.00±0.91). In relation to CA125 there was a significant difference (p=0.001) between malignant (mean CA125 86.34±73.87) and benign cases (mean CA125 31.48±12.83).Conclusions: Depriest et al morphological index is an effective and cost efficient method for malignant ovarian masses prediction and differentiation from benign masses

Assessment of Training Programs for Elementary Mathematics Teachers on Developed Curricula and Attitudes towards Teaching in Najran-Saudi Arabia

This study aimed at assessing the training programs for Mathematics teachers at elementary stage on developed Curricula and attitudes toward teaching at Najran educational administration in Saudi Arabia. To achieve this objective, two instruments were developed, one of them measures the opinions of Mathematics teachers about the training programs and the other one measures their attitudes toward teaching the developed Curricula, which were distributed to (72) male and female Mathematics teachers at elementary stage. The results showed that training programs for Mathematics teachers are highly efficient in covering the theoretical background of the project of Mathematics development, content, methods of teaching, activities and educational aids, evaluation, and quality of training. The results also showed Math teachers have positive attitudes towards teaching the developed Curricula, and further concluded that there are no statistically significant differences due to teacher's experience, while there are statistically significant differences attributed to gender in favor of female teachers. Keywords: evaluation of training programs – developed Curricula - attitudes towards teaching – mathematics teachers – elementary stage

Comparison between Pap smear and visual inspection with acetic acid in screening of premalignant cervical intraepithelial lesion and subclinical early cancer cervix

Background: The objective of the study was to compare the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of VIA and Pap smear in screening of premalignant cervical intraepithelial lesion and subclinical early cancer cervix.Methods: An observational prospective study was done for 350 patients attending the gynecology outpatient clinic of the shatby maternity university hospital for any reasons, VIA and Pap test were done for all patients, then colposcopic guided biopsy from cases with positive colposcopic findings. Histopathological examination was done for collected biopsy. Collected data was statistically analyzed to compare between both tests (PAP and VIA).Results: Our results showed that the sensitivity of PAP test was 83.3%, specificity was 90.7%, positive predictive value was 50.8%, negative predictive value was 97.9% and accuracy was 90% while the VIA test had a sensitivity of 66.7%, specificity was 91%, positive predictive value was 46.1%, negative predictive value was 95.9% and accuracy was 88.5%.Conclusions: Via test has comparable results to Pap test regarding its sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and accuracy and can be used as an alternative primary test to screen premalignant cervical intraepithelial lesion and subclinical early cancer cervix

Management of cystic lymphangioma: experience of two referral centers

Introduction/aim Cystic lymphangioma is a benign rare malformation of the lymphatic system consisting of masses of abnormal lymphatic channels, occurring in one out of 2000–4000 live births. Conventional surgical excision remains the most popular method of treatment in many developing countries. Recent advances in sclerotherapy have expanded contemporary management options, particularly when complete surgical resection is difficult because of the presence of multiple loculi and extensive lesions. This study aims to present our experience in the management of these cases.Material and methods Records of all cases of lymphangioma seen at the Pediatric Surgical Unit from Mansoura and Tanta University hospitals in the period from January 2007 to November 2010 were reviewed. Special charts were designed to retrieve the following data from records: age at presentation, sex, site of the pathology, clinical presentation, investigations, management modality, and outcome of treatment.Results There were 93 children; 40 (43%) were males and 53 (57%) were females. Surgery was the line of treatment in 89 cases (one stage in 56 cases and two stages in 33 cases). Four patients underwent injection sclerotherapy as the primary treatment. Recurrence occurred in 16 cases. Other complications included a disfiguring scar in nine patients, seroma in seven patients, skin disruption, hematoma, and hypoglossal nerve palsy in two patients, facial nerve palsy in one patient, and cellulitis following a sclerosant injection in one case.Conclusion A staged operative procedure may be necessary in order to reduce mortality, and sclerotherapy has almost the same efficacy as the first line of management as surgery, although it is not widely practiced in developing countries. There is a high postoperative complication associated with surgical excision, especially with head and neck cystic lymphangiomas. Anesthesia in these patients requires careful monitoring. Long-term follow-up is desirable after excision because of the possibility of recurrence. Keywords: cystic lymphangioma, management, sclerotherap