A Hybrid Deep Learning Approach for Texture Analysis

Texture classification is a problem that has various applications such as remote sensing and forest species recognition. Solutions tend to be custom fit to the dataset used but fails to generalize. The Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) in combination with Support Vector Machine (SVM) form a robust selection between powerful invariant feature extractor and accurate classifier. The fusion of experts provides stability in classification rates among different datasets

A novel truss formwork made from Casuarina wood

Wood is classified as one of the most common building materials due to its diverse nature. In Egypt, most of the wood used in different industries are imported from several places such as North America and Australia. Nowadays, Casuarina is considered one of the fast-growing trees in relatively arid countries like Egypt. The thesis aims to test the mechanical properties for the most two common species of Casuarina in Egypt, which are “Glauca” and “Cunninghamiana”. The thesis focused on testing both species for compression parallel to the grain, compression perpendicular to the grain, static bending tests while the tension parallel to the grain, tension perpendicular to the grain and cleavage tests were only tested on Glauca because Cunninghamiana was excluded after the first three tests due to the high variability in its results. The results of the mechanical tests showed that Casuarina Glauca was promising because it has the sufficient strength that could enable it to be used in construction applications. A secondary scope in this thesis is to investigate the moisture content effect on the mechanical properties of both Casuarina species through testing both Casuarina species in three different moisture contents. Similar to the most types of wood reducing the moisture content improved the strength and the modulus of elasticity for all the mechanical tests. The thesis also aims to design, manufacture and test a formwork truss made of Casuarina Glauca. Three trusses made of Casuarina Glauca were manufactured and tested under bending as structural application for a formwork beam and the results were promising and may achieve structural and economic gain for the wood industry in Egypt. A cost study comparing the Casuarina Glauca truss to the GT 24 truss produced by PERI company. The comparison was done by applying both trusses on a slab and calculating the number of units, the total weight and the total cost of each system. The results of the cost study have proven that the designed Casuarina truss to be a cost effective when compared to the GT 24 PERI formwork system

Linear-time Online Action Detection From 3D Skeletal Data Using Bags of Gesturelets

Sliding window is one direct way to extend a successful recognition system to handle the more challenging detection problem. While action recognition decides only whether or not an action is present in a pre-segmented video sequence, action detection identifies the time interval where the action occurred in an unsegmented video stream. Sliding window approaches for action detection can however be slow as they maximize a classifier score over all possible sub-intervals. Even though new schemes utilize dynamic programming to speed up the search for the optimal sub-interval, they require offline processing on the whole video sequence. In this paper, we propose a novel approach for online action detection based on 3D skeleton sequences extracted from depth data. It identifies the sub-interval with the maximum classifier score in linear time. Furthermore, it is invariant to temporal scale variations and is suitable for real-time applications with low latency

Performance analysis of modified asymmetrically-clipped optical orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing systems

A modification to the Asymmetrically-Clipped Optical Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (ACO-OFDM) technique is proposed through unipolar encoding. A performance analysis of the Bit Error Rate (BER) is developed and Monte Carlo simulations are carried out to verify the analysis. Results are compared to that of the corresponding ACO-OFDM system under the same bit energy and transmission rate; an improvement of 1 dB is obtained at a BER of 10-4. In addition, the performance of the proposed system in the presence of atmospheric turbulence is investigated using single-input multiple-output (SIMO) configuration and its performance under that environment is compared to that of ACO-OFDM. Energy improvements of 4 dB and 2.2 dB are obtained at a BER of 10-4 for SIMO systems of 1 and 2 photodetectors at the receiver for the case of strong turbulence, respectively

Visible Light Communications Illuminates the Future

The use of Internet, video and audio calls at a very low cost is now common for all people around the world. This implies a tremendous carrying capacity for the carrier wave. The credit gets back to the use of light as a carrier wave, leading to Optical Communications.</p

Investigating the Gas Dispersion from Subsea Gas Releases in Shallow Waters

Although the repetitive subsea gas releases incidents occurring in the offshore oil and gas industry, the attention is limited to a case-by-case study; leading to quantitative risk assessment approaches that are limited to similar cases. A subsea gas release can result from a range of different causes including drilling operations; failures in flow lines, gas export lines, and subsea equipment. Such releases can have catastrophic impacts on the environment, offshore platforms, and human lives. Natural gas, in general, and in the Middle East, covers a large portion of the world supply and, consequently, this type of incidents could pose a significant risk for the related and nearby facilities, like Hydrogen Sulfide (Hv2S). For example, 40% of the natural gas reserves in the world are sour gas fields in which the Middle East holds the highest reserves of sour gas. While many approaches have been proposed for the description of underwater/subsea releases, these are not universal and still include deficiencies concerning plume turbulence, hydrates formation, and high flowrates water bodies. According to Olsen, 2015, experimental data for underwater releases exist but are also limited to small and medium scale (compared to the actual depth and flow rate). In this study, we investigated the available computational methods to model subsea gas releases cases applicable to the ones of the offshore facilities at the State of Qatar. An Eulerian based computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was configured in order to study representative gas release scenarios. Earlier, the CFD model was validated successfully against experimental data from SINTEF and Statoil. It also demonstrated the required sensitivity for critical parameters such as the centerline distribution of velocities and void-fraction. Finally, the model was applied for conditions specific to Qatar’s offshore industry as a representation of shallow water and a sensitivity analysis was conducted against parameters of local interest such as high-flowrates and Hv2S presence. Finally, a discussion on the potential risk level is given concerning fire & explosion and toxicity hazards like Hv2S

From Peshawar to Kabul: Preserving Afghanistan's Cultural Heritage during Wartime

This article profiles the Afghanistan Center at Kabul University (ACKU) as an example of an organization that has successfully engaged in preserving a nation’s cultural heritage during a time of war. The ACKU has emerged from, and been engaged in, efforts to preserve Afghanistan’s cultural heritage from the time of the Soviet occupation until today.Ope

Comparison of Glomerular Filtration Rate Measurement Methods between Radionuclide in vivo Scintigraphic Gates’ and Plasma Sampling

AIM: To correlate between the radionuclide in vitro plasma sampling method (using single and dual blood samples) and Gates’ GFR measurement using Tc-99m diethylene triamine penta-acetic acid (Tc-99m DTPA) renal scintigraphy (in vivo method). METHODS: This study included 40 renal donors (group 1) and 40 patients with obstructive uropathy (group 2). Group 1 included 22 males and 18 females with an age range from 22 to 65 years, while group 2 included 24 males and 16 females with age range 27 to 64 years. Both groups subjected to renal Scintigraphy after administration of 5 mCi 99m-Tc DTPA, GFR was calculated using Gates’ method (in vivo method), then plasma sampling was acquired at 60 mins and 180 mins post-injection of the tracer, samples were counted in well counter and GFR was calculated using in vitro technique either using single plasma sample (SPSM 60 mins) or dual sample (DPSM 60 &amp; 180 min). Additionally, GFR was measured by estimated equations based on serum creatinine. RESULTS: In group 1, the mean GFR using in vivo Gates’ method was 115.7 ± 29 ml/min, while using the SPSM was 100.1 ± 16.1 ml/min, and the DPSM was 100.3 ± 20.1 ml/min. In group 2, mean GFR using in vivo method was 74.1 ± 14.5 ml/min, while using in vitro SPSM it was 77.5 ± 24.9 ml/min and DPSM was 76.8 ± 24.8 ml/min. There was no significant difference between mean GFR values using in vivo and in vitro methods (single or dual samples) in group 1 and 2 (p &gt; 0.05). There is high significant correlation between SPSM and DPSM in groups 1 and 2 (r = 0.90, r = 0.91 respectively), moderate significant correlation was found between in vivo Gates’ method and in vitro SPSM in group 1 and 2 (r = 0.46 and 0.57 respectively) and moderate correlation was evident between in vivo and in vitro DPSM in both groups (r = 0.42 and 0.68 respectively). By using the DPSM as the reference standard significant high correlation was found with SPSM and significant-high moderate correlation with in vivo Gates’ scintigraphic method. Conclusion: In vitro plasma sampling considered as a reliable, accurate |method for GFR calculation yet it considered relatively complex, both single and dual sample in vitro techniques showed a very high correlation, and hence SPSM can replace DPSM. CONCLUSION: Renal scintigraphy and GFR estimation using Gates’ in vivo method is considered inaccurate, yet given its simplicity in performance it can still be used if corrected GFR is standardised for Egyptian population-based on studies with large numbers of patients from multiple centres

The Effect of a Training Program on Developing Some Orientation and Mobility Skills of Blind Students Integrated in Grade 10

Abstract The current study aimed to identify the effectiveness of a training program on developing some orientation and mobility skills for blind students integrated in grade 10. The study sample consisted of 8 blind students integrated into the tenth grade at Al-Dhamma School for Secondary Education. Students responded to the orientation and mobility skills scale prepared by the researcher and a training program prepared by the researcher. A quasi-experimental approach was used for the study, and statistical methods included Cronbach’s alpha, Spearman-Brown correlation coefficient, and Wilcoxon test. The overall results indicated the effectiveness of the training program on developing some orientation and mobility skills among blind students who were integrated into the tenth grade. Considering these results, the study recommended using the training program in developing some orientation and mobility skills of blind students who are integrated in the tenth grade. Keywords: Training program; orientation and movement skills; blind

Changes of serum omentin-1 levels and relationship between omentin-1 and insulin resistance in chronic hepatitis C patients

Omentin-1 is a novel adipokine that has a pivotal role in modulating the insulin sensitivity, immunity and inflammation. The current study was conducted to evaluate the serum omentin-1 level in hepatitis C virus (HCV) infected patients, with or without type 2 diabetes, and to investigate its correlation with liver function parameters and insulin resistance. Methods: Eighty subjects were enrolled in this study divided into four groups: chronic HCV infected patients (n=20), chronic hepatitis C patients with concomitant type 2 diabetes (n=18), type 2 diabetic patients (n=22) and 20 healthy controls. Serum omentin-1 levels were assessed using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Fasting blood glucose, insulin levels, and liver parameters including aminotrans ferases (ALT and AST) were determined. Results: Serum omentin-1 levels were significantly elevated in HCV infected patients compared to all other groups. Omentin-1 levels were positively correlated with AST and ALT levels (r =0.43, p< 0.001; r =0.423, p<0.001, respectively). Additionally, a significant negative correlation was found between omentin-1 and both fasting insulin levels and homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) (r = -0.238, p< 0.05; r = -0.277, p<0.05, respectively). Furthermore, fasting blood glucose, HbA1c and HOMA-β were negatively correlated to serum omentin-1 levels however these correlations were not statistically significant. Conclusion: Serum omentin-1 level is elevated in HCV infected patients and is positively associated with liver enzymes AST and ALT. This suggested that omentin-1 may be implicated in the pathogenesis of hepatitis C and its metabolic complications. However its role needs to be elucidated by further studies