The Contrivance of New Mud Bricks for Restoring and Preserving the Edfa Ancient Granary - Sohag, Egypt

A mud brick functions as an element of masonry structures. Being an integral part of a wall mass, it must be understood structurally and chemically. The susceptibility of a mud brick to be affected by decay agents depends on the type of raw materials used, the methods of construction, location, the microclimatic conditions, the mechanical and microstructural characteristics of the mud brick itself. In this research, mineralogical composition and granulometric distribution of ancient mud bricks were studied by using some scientific techniques such as XRD, SEM and electrical mechanical sieves, to determine the main components and characteristics, which will serve as reference for the contrivance of new mud bricks. In addition, special knowledge of the physical properties of historic mud bricks were defined by some scientific techniques to get some information about their properties, such as density, porosity, water absorption and shrinkage. Furthermore, all of those characteristics were studied in two groups of new mud bricks, to determine their properties. Finally, ourresults proved that the 6th category in the 1st group and the 10th category in the 2nd group are the most appropriate types for restoring and preserving the studied monument, due to their good physical properties, morphological appearances and their suitable characteristics

Transverse testicular ectopia with persistent Mullerian duct syndrome

The aim of the study was to report on three patients who had transverse testicular ectopia (TTE) with persistent Mullerian duct syndrome (PMDS). Three cases of transverse testicular ectopia and persistent Mullerian duct syndrome were managed at our institution between 2000 and 2009. They presented with right-sided inguinal hernia and left nonpalpable testes. The diagnosis was established during diagnostic laparoscopy. The Mullerian structure was divided in the midline laparoscopically in two patients and by open technique in the third. Good length could be obtained to bring the crossed ectopic testis into the ipsilateral scrotal sac in all cases. Awareness of this anomaly and understanding of the embryological process of testicular descent and its associated aberration are prerequisites for the proper management of this rare anomaly. These findings highlight the importance of diagnostic laparoscopy in all patients presented with nonpalpable testes.Keywords: crossed testicular ectopia, persistent Mullerian duct syndrome, transverse testicular ectopi

International EIA Guidelines and the Nile Basin Countries EIA Experience

The environmental impact assessment (EIA) was first required by the U.S. National Environmental Policy Act, which require environmental impact assessment of all major development projects to determine their potential for adverse effects on the environment. The environmental outlook for the Nile basin remains quite hazy. In the future there will be new environmental challenge stemming from population growth, increasing demands on agriculture, and climate change. This will put a huge burden on the environment. This research initiated to compare the international EIA guidelines in order to enhance the Nile Basin Countries experience to improve its practice in managing the environmental resources. This is due to the fact that Nile Basin Countries experiences face many challenges such as lack of capacity, data, proper guidelines, enforcement, and most importantly awareness of the environment protection sector or its effectiveness. Moreover; it requires reviewing and tools improvements to produce effective environmental management of development and engineering projects. Therefore, provision of detailed guidelines for EIA can help to improve the practice in the management of environmental resources. This paper reviews the EIA legislation in the Nile Basin Countries in comparison with international legislation and guidelines with emphasis on the EIA practice. The paper also intends to present selected international EIA guidelines in a comparative form and this is expected to raise awareness, professional experience of EIA issues, enhance EIA carrying capacity, and lead, ultimately, to improvements in available EIA legislations and guidelines and increase compatibility among them

Absent testis: does it exist in 46,XY males?

Aim To challenge the concept of genetically absent testis in normal 46,XY males.Background The term absent testes has been used in the literature to denote vanishing testis, atrophied testis, nubbin of testicular tissue, or genetically absent testes. When no testicular tissues are found during diagnostic laparoscopy, the vas and testicular vessels are traced as leading pointsfor testicular localization, and if both endblindly at a closed ring, vanishing testis is diagnosed. When the vas and vessels are seen entering the canal, a testicular nubbin may be present at the end of the epididymis.Methods Both Mullerian inhibitory factor and testosterone act locally as paracrine hormones. Unilateral absent testis should be associated with an ipsilateral persistent of Mullerian tissues. Individuals with bilateral testicular agenesis will develop into a phenotypic female with persistent Mullerian structures.Results The absence of Mullerian structures in patients with impalpable testis means that there has been a functional testis that survived well beyond the ninth week of gestation. We have encountered testicles at the subrenal position after an initial laparoscopic finding of an absent.Conclusion Based on embryological process of testicular development and testicular descent, agentic absent testis cannot exist. Therefore we strongly recommend to re-scope all patients who were initially diagnosed as absent testis to look for a hidden testis at the initial site of development and along the line of descent. Keywords: absent testis, undescended testis, vanishing testi

Treatment of domestic wastewater in an up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor followed by moving bed biofilm reactor

The performance of a laboratory-scale sewage treatment system composed of an up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor and a moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) at a temperature of (22-35 A degrees C) was evaluated. The entire treatment system was operated at different hydraulic retention times (HRT's) of 13.3, 10 and 5.0 h. An overall reduction of 80-86% for CODtotal; 51-73% for CODcolloidal and 20-55% for CODsoluble was found at a total HRT of 5-10 h, respectively. By prolonging the HRT to 13.3 h, the removal efficiencies of CODtotal, CODcolloidal and CODsoluble increased up to 92, 89 and 80%, respectively. However, the removal efficiency of CODsuspended in the combined system remained unaffected when increasing the total HRT from 5 to 10 h and from 10 to 13.3 h. This indicates that, the removal of CODsuspended was independent on the imposed HRT. Ammonia-nitrogen removal in MBBR treating UASB reactor effluent was significantly influenced by organic loading rate (OLR). 62% of ammonia was eliminated at OLR of 4.6 g COD m(-2) day(-1). The removal efficiency was decreased by a value of 34 and 43% at a higher OLR's of 7.4 and 17.8 g COD m(-2) day(-1), respectively. The mean overall residual counts of faecal coliform in the final effluent were 8.9 x 10(4) MPN per 100 ml at a HRT of 13.3 h, 4.9 x 10(5) MPN per 100 ml at a HRT of 10 h and 9.4 x 10(5) MPN per 100 ml at a HRT of 5.0 h, corresponding to overall log(10) reduction of 2.3, 1.4 and 0.7, respectively. The discharged sludge from UASB-MBBR exerts an excellent settling property. Moreover, the mean value of the net sludge yield was only 6% in UASB reactor and 7% in the MBBR of the total influent COD at a total HRT of 13.3 h. Accordingly, the use of the combined UASB-MBBR system for sewage treatment is recommended at a total HRT of 13.3 h

SMART BUILDING ENERGY MODEL USING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

This paper presents a Smart Building Energy Model of Residential Building using Artificial Neural Network model (ANN) to assist architects and engineers in selecting the optimum alternative design of building envelope parameters such that external wall and roof insulation material types and window types that minimizes the cost of energy consumption of a residential building to transform it to a green building. Up to 1540 Simulations using different material thickness and conductivity values of material insulation properties and windows types are carried out in eQuest software for simulation.. The simulations results are implemented to create an artificial neural network inverse model (ANN) with Matlab/Simulink and the performance is investigated. The results from the artificial neural network outputs and the corresponding eQuest simulation outputs were found very close. In addition, the Mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) is equal to 0.49% , demonstrating a best correlation between outputs and target value, the results show a great solution with good accuracy to predict the energy consumption of residential building for several other building envelope optimization parameters.

Economical analysis of combined fuel cell generators and absorption chillers

AbstractThis paper presents a co-generation system based on combined heat and power for commercial units. For installation of a co-generation system, certain estimates for this site should be performed through making assessments of electrical loads, domestic water, and thermal demand. This includes domestic hot water, selection of the type of power generator, fuel cell, and the type of air conditioning system, and absorption chillers. As a matter of fact, the co-generation system has demonstrated good results for both major aspects, economic and environmental. From the environmental point of view, this can be considered as an ideal solution for problems concerned with the usage of Chlorofluoro carbons. On the other hand, from the economic point of view, the cost analysis has revealed that the proposed system saves 4% of total cost through using the co-generation system