bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Public Art Development
Authors: Ismail Hassan Ahmed
Published: March 2019

Please allow me to express my interest in participating in the event; the agenda and objective are of high significance for discussing the maturity and development of a sustainable "cultural and creative infrastructure" powered by cultural policies and practices. Involvement and lobbying for such topics is essential for the cultural and creative dynamics where creative cities attract creative people.While navigating through a search engine and typing a name of a city, the first images to appear visualize the built environment of the city. For instance when you type Cairo into Google, you will be mainly looking at the Pyramids and built environment around the Nile in addition to the Old City of Cairo. If you type in New York you will find images of skyscrapers positioned around the natural landscape of the city, and so on and so forth.Thus tourism depends a lot on the built environment and the touristic standard is subject to the built environment, type and quality of tenants attracting the general public and of course the natural landscape.Arts and architecture play an important role among the built environment having both tangible and intangible economic impacts resulting from touristic attractions as well as other means; Cairo was once described as the most beautiful city in the world with the rich urban fabric and prosperity of the arts and architecture.In a country like Egypt where segmentation between the different social levels is becoming a real threat for future generations, it is crucial to work with all stakeholders including the authorities, civil society and the general public with objectives that would aim to serve all interests and gain a positive public opinion.
Ethnomusical Study on the Ancestral Sound Produced by Capolin
Authors: Viteri Maria Fernanda , Quinde Maria Cristina Paez , Del Salto Victor Hernandez , Mayorga Ana del Rocio Silva , Infante Ruth Elizabeth
Published: March 2019

The spontaneous and traditional art represents one of the most important aspects in the culture of a town because it is the worldview manifestation that shows cultural reality in areas that are considered socially subaltern. This is the case of the Ecuadorian Andean region, where the ancestral sound of capolin leaves shows a historical experience and a particular sensitivity. Capolin is a leafy tree native from America. It has simple, alternate, oblongo laceolate leaves that are 6 to 14cm long by 2 to 4 cm wide. It has 3 to 5 prominent nerves from the base of the leaf. This musical technique is part of the Ecuadorian culture and has been inherited and transmitted from a remote past and at the same time is a resource with high cultural vulnerability. When talking about the research work it is worth adding that a descriptive study was carried out. It encompasses the representative cultural features of the plant in the population and the fundamental dendrolgical characteristics. The study also goes through the frecuency and the decibels created by the sound of the plant, the intonation and the human effect caused by this sound. The research concludes that the transversal axis of music is creativity and that boosting this type of manifestations can be a motivation for the dynamization of the touristic activity because it is part of the intangible heritage of a town.
Designing an Ontology to Describe Ecological Cycling Routes within the Province of Tungurahua
Authors: Quinde Cristina Páez , Peña Efrén R. Narváez , Narváez Ríos Margarita , Viteri Toro Fernanda , Oñate Francisco Torres , Paredes Ruth Infante
Published: March 2019

Tourism, a significant industry worldwide, has allowed for economic, social, and cultural development in rural areas because of all the advantages it offers to tourists. Ecuador is a country that presents a wide range of alternatives in the tourist field allowing a massive tourist influx to many of its destinations such as indigenous communities, natural reserves, and tourist, ecological, and volcanic routes. Most importantly, Ecuador encourages the conservation of the diversity resulting from such influx. The objective of this research is to design an ontology which facilitates a description of the bicycle tourist routes in the province of Tungurahua, and specifically in the city of Ambato. Apart from route descriptions, this ontology gives information about the flora and fauna and places of interest such as inns, hotels, and restaurants that can be found along this route. This ontology was developed based on the application and enforcement of semantic web technologies. That being said, all the described information is attached to an RDF vocabulary and it can be accessed using SPARQL. Therefore, information that is semantically described in an organized and standardized manner is available in order to allow for interoperability with other existing data sources. As for the development of the ontology, the methodology used was an open code software known as “protégé”. The OWL (Ontology Web Language) was also used as marked language and RDFS for the description of the employed vocabulary.
KITOPARTS: A Virtual Playground To Explore Form, Space, & Order
Authors: Ham Derek A.
Published: March 2019

Architecture students use both analog and digital tools throughout their design process. Ideally, the affordances of each tool complement each other. Our goal with Kitoparts is to move beyond two-dimensional screen based computer modeling environments to create a system that feels analog but harnesses all the affordances of digital modeling environments. With the usage of VR and haptic controllers, we hope to provide a rich and flexible methodology for investigating forms and space. In educational settings, Kitoparts aims to solve three major problems with traditional beginning design exercises. First, it solves the scaling problem, allowing design students to see their designs visualized at full scale and in real-time. Second, it overcomes the combinatorial nature of physical building blocks by allowing 3D shapes to overlap and embed into each other in ways they could not within the physical world. Finally, we include the designer’s “hands” in the creative process. Virtual hands prove to be much more intuitive to use than the traditional mouse and keyboards commonly utilized in most CAD and modeling software. With Kitoparts, the computer model is no longer just a tool for representation; it becomes the user interface for design. Kitoparts allows both seasoned designers and novices to simply play, build, and explore.
The Challenge of Greening the Existing Residential Buildings in the Egyptian Market Base Case
Authors: ElGohary Amr Soliman , Khashaba Shereen Omar
Published: March 2019

Existing buildings are the massive percentage of the building stock, and therefore, are the key to improving efficiency; buildings account for an enormous share of the climate change crisis, and approximately 40% of the world total energy consumption (McArthur & Jofeh, 2015). The Egyptian stock of buildings includes about 12 million buildings. 60% of these buildings are residential. The final electricity consumption of the residential buildings in 2010 was 51370 GWh and increased in 2014 to reach 62441 GWh. Thus the share of total energy consumption was 18.8% in 2010 and increased to reach 21.55% in 2014 ("Technology Roadmap - Energy efficient building envelopes.", 2013). Therefore, the residential sector plays an important role in the mitigation of energy consumption crisis, which is expected to increase. The research field and initiatives in Egypt on the green buildings and green buildings retrofits are rare and, if existing, are weakly applied. Unlike in developed countries, there is a large research on building retrofits, e.g., the Residential Property Assessed Clean Energy (R-PACE) program and the weatherization assistance program (WAP) of the department of energy (DOE). Both are examples of the incentives to green building initiatives globally. This paper discusses the challenge of greening the existing residential buildings in Egypt by demonstrating an analysis of the motives and the barriers to applying green measures in the Egyptian market. The research methodology comprises the analytical-comparative method. In the analytical part; the paper identifies the current situation of the residential sector energy consumption in Egypt, and the benefits of greening existing buildings for tenants, investors, and owners. In the comparative part, the current situation of Egypt's Green Market Business Case is compared with the international one, discussing the challenge of greening the residential buildings. The paper summarizes the opportunities to improve the building energy efficiency, incentives, and policies that are developed to address significant financial and technical awareness to building efficiency. These policies will help enable critical market actors to make decisions to promote energy efficiency in existing buildings.
The Construction of Economic Green Buildings in Sinai and Suez Canal Zone Using Compressed Stabilized Earth Technique
Authors: Abdel-latif Wael Mohamed Adel Tawfik
Published: March 2019

Currently, there are several technologies applied in many societies to improve the use of the environmental resources such as the use of soil with some binders in the construction of buildings, and the usage of the stabilized earth architecture technique by new urban communities. One of the advantages of these buildings is that they make good use of the environment and save energy and expenditure. This project deals with the use of the sandy soil which resulted from the excavation of the buildings. It also targets the design and building of whole low energy, ecological, and low-cost green building/villages in the future projects in Sinai and Suez Canal zone, using stabilized earth architecture. The sandy soil under study is that of the sand on the east side of the Suez Canal in Sinai which is a by-product of the dry excavation and wet drilling of the canal. This paper showed that passive and energy efficient techniques incorporated in building designs can reduce the electricity requirements. The most effective parameter is the thermal efficiency of building envelope and blocking sun rays. The available renewable energy systems can meet parts of building loads. Thermal bridges are not so common in the bearing wall construction method. Herein in this paper, several specimens were collected from different sites in Elferdan and Serapum in Sinai (Suez canal zone) along the east side of the Suez Canal to investigate the suitability of stabilizing this soil for the production of compressed earth blocks for low-cost ecologic building construction. Several tests, e.g., sieve analysis and the proctor test, were made of the specimens. The results showed that the ratio of salts, chlorides and sulfates were low. In addition, the specimens collected sieve analysis ranged from coarse to fine sand. Stabilizing the materials resulted from the by-production in the industry can be used for minimizing the coast of compressed stabilized earth buildings with high engineering properties. Experiments on the produced compressed stabilized earth bricks (CSEB) with different level of stabilizing agent (by-product materials) were made using one of the specimens collected from Elferdan zone. The results showed that the 35% CKD ratio of sand weight can be considered as the optimum CKD content; which provides the best properties for the admixture as long as the percentages of cement (OPC) and the fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) are 5% and 0.07% of sand weight, respectively. The rest of this research will be completed in the next parts, which includes finding more mechanical, engineering, and thermal properties of the produced CSEB.
The Impact of Societal Transformations on the Urban Spaces During the Local Festivals
Authors: Moussa Rasha A.
Published: March 2019

Urban Spaces had played an important role in the individuals’ psychological life and in their integration with their environment as it’s considered as the mediator through which the interactions between people with each other and with their natural environment, they can exchange their cultures and spread activities. Despite its importance, many communities suffer from the absence of positive communication between individuals and place they belong to or lack of happiness while being in it. The reason for that is the ignorance of some urban designer to the role of the humanity in the process of the design and its impact on the formation of the urban spaces, though through urban design the complexities of the place can be managed and a general framework for change can be created by designing a compatible and sustainable space for users depending on the events and activities located in it that show political, social and economic transformations that occurs to the communities and affect the social development for individuals. Although there are social diversity among members of the same community but it was observed that there is a similarity in their behaviors towards certain positions, which expresses their culture. Social celebrations (Festivals) are considered the most effective patronize for social formats impact on the spatial formation, as it helps in supporting the idea of individuals’ belonging to the place since the human there is the main sponsor for forming the spaces that contain all the activities and events that may be specific or temporary with a time or an event, and thus it was essential to show physical and non-physical components for space formation in order to gain access to identify the reciprocal relationship between the individual and the place and highlight the most important and successful spatial expressions that help boost the spirit of communication between individuals and develop a sense of belonging to the place. The paper examines how the dynamics of social life at the local scale are shaped by the special spatial arrangements created for urban festival events by the observation of the social changes impact on the resulting urban transformations during festival and its role in individuals’ sense of belonging substation.
Case Study on Fuzzy Blitz Quality Function Deployment
Authors: Nawar Eslam A. , Backar Soheir H. , El-Dardiry Mohamed A.
Published: March 2019

Organizations strive to develop their products in a way that fulfils customers’ requirements and increases their satisfaction. The traditional Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is a popular technique for that purpose but it has some drawbacks. To tackle these drawbacks, the researchers will implement Blitz QFD a modern model of the traditional one and integrate it with fuzzy logic through a case study on the development of a cargo tricycle. This model provides a leaner approach that captures the most critical requirements of customers in order to implement them and provides more reasonable values as a result of using fuzzy logic.
Factors affecting the calculations of Return on Investment (ROI) in Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) projects In Egypt
Authors: Abdel Rashid Ibrahim , El-Mikawi Mohamed , Baha Hossam El-Din Mohamed
Published: March 2019

Public authorities and governments in many countries tended to allocate to the private sector the operations management of existing PPP projects and for financing new projects. There are a lot of benefits from following this approach for all parties. These benefits included risk mitigation, cost savings in governmental expendures, service improvement, employment opportunities, and enhancement in economic indices. This approach was called public-private partnership (PPP). This term was defined as “a cooperative venture between the public and private sectors, built on the expertise of each partner that best meets clearly defined public needs through the appropriate allocation of resources, risks and rewards.” (World Bank, 2016) Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) projects become an important methodology for governments of both developed and developing countries, as a result from crucial role and their worldwide use. The PPP methodology enables public authorities and governments to allocate risks to different parties especially the private sector. According to the World Bank report the private financial participation in Egypt has accounted $219,229.82 Million in the period from 1990 to 2000. This figure has increased to $998,667.36 Million in 2015. (World Bank, 2016) PPP projects are usually more difficult to implement than other traditional procurement models because of their complexity and that their nature and their long duration. Previous research studies on several PPP projects showed that a number of problems exist in the project returns. Additionally these researches show that there is a need for an objective, reliable and practical return assessment model for PPP projects. This required model will help decision makers to assess the profitability of PPP projects at their early stages. To apply PPP projects in Egypt successfully, one of the fundamental requirements is to perform and implement a comprehensive analysis of Return on Investment (ROI). To do that analysis, it should include the factors affecting the ROI relating the projects’ influences such as ; financial, legal, political ,social, etc.
Utilization of Saline Water on the Mechanical Properties for Unbounded Granular Materials
Authors: El Sharkawy Sherif Adel
Published: March 2019

It is well known that three quarters of the world contain saline water. The saline water contains amounts of salt dissolved in water to a concentration of parts in per millions (ppm) includes sodium chloride, Sodium sulfate and magnesium sulfate. Compaction of Base coarse layer is usually done by water which is considered tap water. Cites near shores often need coastal roads to act as service roads parallel to shore lines. For this matter, the use of saline water in compaction is considered a main objective in this situation due to the decrease in transportation cost of Tap water used in hauling and compaction of base coarse layer. This research studies the effect of saline water on the mechanical properties of the unbounded granular material used in base coarse layer. The study compares the results between the use of saline water and standard tap water by subjecting both samples to different lab tests such as California baring ratio (CBR) and modified proctor. The results showed that saline water could be used successfully in the operation of constructing base coarse layer with good results concerning the amount of absorbed water content and maximum dry density of the base coarse layer which will result in good compaction. In addition, the CBR test results showed high evaluation of strength for samples contained saline water. The study used Dolomite material for base coarse layer from Jabal Ataqa as one of the most used aggregate types in Egypt through construction.
Properties of PMMA Bone Cement Modified with Nano-hydroxyapatite and Acetone
Authors: Zaza Amin , Habib Mohamed , Fatahalla Nabil
Published: March 2019

Fracture in the adjacent levels is one of the consequences to the use of commercial poly methylmethacrylate (PMMA) bone cement. Modified PMMA with a reduced Young’s modulus was found to be safer for cancellous bone augmentation procedures. The aim of this research was to study the effect of adding hydroxyapatite (HA) nano-particles and acetone on different properties of PMMA cement. A commercial PMMA cement was used as a model for bone cement. Three groups of modified PMMA/nano-HA were investigated by adding 2, 4 and 6 wt. % of HA. Acetone as a porogen mixed with distilled water in different amounts (A/W: 1:1, 2:1.5 and 2:1g) was used to produce porous PMMA cement. The residual monomer, polymerization and mechanical properties under tension and compression tests were investigated. Young’s modulus detected from compression test decreased from 826.5±10 to 728±66 MPa by adding 6wt.% HA. Adding acetone to PMMA with 2:1.5g (A/W) has decreased the compressive Young’s modulus to 753±38 MPa. High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) measurements were carried out with intervals of 2 hours, 6 hours and 24 hours to evaluate the residual monomer for all groups. The amount of residual monomer has decreased after 24 hours of curing by adding acetone and nano-HA. Modifying PMMA by HA and acetone have inconsistent effect on the polymerization temperature. It was concluded that HA and acetone can be used to reduce the stiffness and residual monomer with enhanced biocompatibility of the commercial PMMA bone cement.
Sustainable Neighborhoods in Arab world; a Path Towards Sustainability
Authors: El-khateeb Samah M.
Published: March 2019

In the last years, the world has jumped rapidly towards more urbanisation, and for the first time in the history in 2008 urban population exceeded the rural population. By 2050, it is expected that two-thirds of the world population will live in urban areas. As a result of this rapid urbanisation worldwide, Sustainable Neighbourhoods SN emerged as a significant formation of cities that help in achieving sustainable development. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development included this sustainability aim through the Sustainable Development Goal 11. This goal aims to “make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.”The Sustainable City in Dubai is located in the United Arab Emirates, the development and construction started in 2014, and 95% of the site was completed in mid of 2016. The development of the Sustainable City shows that the occupation residents will have many incentives to buy a villa and live in the city such as free rooftop solar systems, open landscaped gardens, free Green Star rated home appliances, zero net maintenance fees, and zero net service charges. Additionally, the sustainable city in Dubai is an educational hub for sustainable design. It sponsored many students through its agreements with different universities and research labs. This research aims to understand the case of the sustainable city in Dubai as an Example of SN in the Arab world. The research will start with a literature review that identifies all related terminologies to SN, besides a comprehensive analysis of some fundamental principles of SN design. A case study analysis will be done including; site visit, and applying one of the principles of SN on the sustainable city in Dubai to understand and explore the sustainability principles in it.
Sustainable Urban Regeneration of Public Realm in Historical Cities Centers
Authors: Aouf Yasmine Kamal
Published: March 2019

Sustainable development presents one of the most complex challenges in Egypt in particular of keeping up with the global march. According to what Egypt possesses of original cultural spatial components, the need has necessitated taking care of the investments, but in a sustainable way in the historical cities centers where its possession of cultural spatial elements with high economic importance. However, Egyptian historical centers have suffered from Degradation and dissipation of energies and capabilities resulting from the negligence of urban conservation projects, and its incompatibility with the ongoing social changes. The pathway taken by urban development have been considered as incomprehensive methods for all the levels of effect of the historical centers.These levels are the international, national and local levels with the Totalitarian goals for the city and the national economy which has been aimed at the methods of conservation of the urban in the domain of the historical area only. That narrow perspective hasn’t achieved an increase in economical and job opportunities, without relying on the attracting the investments and tourism that can achieve a change of the value of the targeted area from the actual value towards the highest probable value. The historic core is considered as an attraction for the tourism activities but in the centers of the Egyptian cities, the public realms are the outcomes of the undersigned remaining realms. Therefore, they cannot perform their function as public spaces expressing the local character, as they are the center of social relations and cultural product. The research paper has dealt with the Urban Regeneration of the public realm and analytical applied survey study on the heritage core of the city Rashid. The research ends with a number of recommendations related to dealing with the basis of urban regeneration of the public realm. Which have been applied on the historic core of Rasheed city.
Design and Implementation of Water Desalination System (RO) Using Renewable Energy Source
Authors: Al-Addous Mohammad , Alawneh Firas , Dalalah Zakariya , Class Christina B. , Al-Taani Hussein
Published: March 2019

The shortage of sufficient available fresh water resources in Jordan to meet water needs forces the nation to look for new water supply sources also to meet the increasing demand for fresh water. In this manuscript, a case study for designing, optimizing and implementing an off-grid water desalination system using photovoltaic (PV) power generation system is introduced. The system is installed on a farm in Southern Ghore of Jordan valley where the access to the grid is not reliable enough to guarantee the desalination of the amount of water for the farm’s irrigation needs. The study offers a framework to aid in designing similar pilot plants where the classic power generation prediction is greatly affected by the environmental conditions. An off-grid PV system with a total nominal power of 10.4 kWp was designed, procured and installed in the southern part of Jordan Valley near Karma town. The system operates the pumping system as well as the reverse osmosis based desalination unit. A measurement system has been collection relevant data like temperature, radiation, voltage, current, water quality, pressure, etc. continuously for the last 4 years. In this paper we will present the sizing procedure used, the system design and evaluate the design using the collected data of the run-time of 4 years. Data about the water quality and amount of desalinated water will equally be used to evaluate the system. The paper will end with recommendations to adapt the system design in different part of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
Overall Framework of the Foundations and Pillars of Sustainable Development for Local Communities
Authors: Ali Randa Galal Hussein
Published: March 2019

Egypt as a developing country aims to promote sustainability among its various sectors. Noticing the need for promoting better life among local communities, as the corner stone for promoting sustainable development, the government has initiated a number of private and public attempts that aimed for utilizing the local communities as a catalyst for promoting sustainability. After 3 decades of real attempts for promoting local sustainability approaches most of the attempts has failed to achieve its objectives. The research aims to introduce an innovative practical approach that would have the ability to overcome the defined deficiencies of the existing approaches and to practically promote sustainability among local communities. The research methodology will depend on an analytical comparative analysis of the existing sustainability local communities frameworks based on which the deficiency and contributions of the current situation can be defined. Then based on theoretical analysis the research is to innovate and introduce a new approach for promoting local sustainable communities, ’Foundation and Pillars for Sustainable local communities’ (FPSLC). The developed framework was then applied to Damietta Governorate as a case study where it was tested and proven. The research developed frame work is requested by the development agencies in Egypt to enable the achievement outputs and result of this research can be summarized in the formulation of the conceptual framework for sustainable development and mechanisms leading to realizing self sufficiency within the competitive industries through the introduced pillars of development.
Optimization Study of Parametric Thermal Bimetal Material Module for Green Building in Tropical Humid Climate
Authors: Al Athas Syarifah Ismailiyah
Published: March 2019

The largest energy consumption that we use is the consumption of electrical energy in terms of meeting the lighting needs and building air conditioning requirements (World Energy Consumption, 2016). According to the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (2017), Indonesia’s largest energy use in commercial buildings is for flight systems (63%), lighting systems (20%), vertical transportation (7%) electronic devices (10%). The use of energy in the fulfillment of excessive needs result in worsening conditions on earth. Data can be a reflection of how the condition of the earth that we live at this time. Energy savings should be made to reduce the damage already occurring on this earth such as electricity usage savings, optimization of use of materials, the use of motor vehicles that cause air pollution, and others. The way that can be used to reduce artificial energy use is to utilize the existing passive building design such as the use of solar energy that can be maximized during the day, so that the use of electrical energy for lamps and artificial air conditioning. reduced. In addition, it can also be considered the optimal use of wind direction and speed that can suppress the use of Air Conditioner (AC) in excess. Building envelope with bimetal thermal material module application is part of kinetic architecture via biomimicry approach. Kinetic architecture is a concept where buildings are designed to allow parts of buildings to move without compromising the unity of the structural system. Approaches that can be applied in green building design is by optimizing bimetal material module that utilizes the thermal coefficient of a material. With this approach, building envelopes are improvised so that they can adapt to the existing environment. This research take location of case study in Kampung Juminahan, Yogyakarta, Indonesia which has characters of comunal housing.
Re-Appropriation of Urban Heritage Buildings and Their Role in the Conservation of Historic Sites
Authors: Zenati Djelloul , Zeroual Ibrahim
Published: March 2019

The importance of historical sites containing archaeological and architectural fabrics has many physical, economic and social; they differ depending on the form and structure in different areas of the city. The historic environment of the urban content for historic buildings and heritage guides the manager to the preservation of the entities. Research shows that there is a large gap between the classroom buildings and the development process of the surrounding urban environment. By focusing on sustainable development of the historical heritage areas, it is necessary to operate a reallocation of buildings for better preservation. The study covers the following: the attempt to link the new features for creating activities of the heritage of the population of the surrounding environment, to increase the degree of attention of the living environment around the building. Factors that affect the process of maintenance, and reuse of heritage buildings in the choice of assignment. It is proposed to try to find a general concept for the development of heritage areas within the public sphere. The role of community participation as a means of awareness and the definition of ordinary citizens of the importance of the environment and heritage content. It also discusses the mapping methods to study and treat to represent the heritage buildings through reallocation as one of the important conservation measures through the example of the Casbah of Belamech. This research also presents a set of conclusions and recommendations in the form of a model with an information system on the environment (SIE) to develop the most important features in the development of heritage buildings, to ensure the sustainability of its environment.
Redefining: Cultural Impression in Princely States During Colonial Period
Authors: Sasi Ashwini
Published: March 2019

India is well diverse with a variety of cultural and traditional practices. Impact of age-old practices redefined the idea of culture and tradition, not only as a hereditary system, but also as part of art and architecture. Factors such as the cultural changes between North and South India, impact of the British, changes in spatial organization and patriarchy and matrilineal system drew an impact on cultural impression of India through time.
Palaces (04th —18th century) and the lifestyle of the heirs, being a soul example to exhibit the Indian uniqueness, gradually inclined towards British culture and morals. This influence brought a change in the architectural design of palaces, which is the core study area in the thesis.
Comparing the architectural planning of palaces from the 13th to the 18th century showed a clear change on how British influenced Indian palace design. This became one of the finest reasons to identify cities with palaces based on their culture and tradition, and on art and architecture. In addition to finding how it has brought the influential change and what is the present scenario of the same palaces.
The architectures that were adopted in India was a form of true traditional architecture which is been followed through a very long time and hence it was collaborated with Italian, French, Indo Sarcenic or European style.
“Governance and Public Awareness” Dilemma in the Conservation of Heritage and Cultural Parks in Egypt
Authors: Tawfik Mennatallah Said , Ali Sara Essam
Published: March 2019

Dealing with heritage in all of its forms is a complex process and comprises many dimensions. Heritage’s scope is wide and folds more than one layer. At the national level, it was found that sharing of interest to heritage is not widely alarmed, especially for historical parks as it faces many challenges related to policies and regulations,
management and evaluation systems, and the operation process. In spite of working as both, open urban areas, historical and valuable cultural spaces; and accordingly the appearances of neglecting the historical and cultural parks are varied, even though it could strongly reflect the community quality of perception and level of interaction
with these urban spaces, which is represented as one of the most important and essential public-spirited aspects.
The paper is tackling the argumentation of urban conservation’s objectives and principles; thinking of public perception
and observations, in relation to public and governance awareness can be considered as two sides of the same coin. The research methodology is focusing on public awareness concern; monitoring and measuring public awareness remains a challenge as it is an intangible phenomenon, and to be raised is vital in heritage conservation plans as it ensures the continuity and sustainability of the urban conservation process.
Public awareness is hypothesized as non-physical vicious loop phenomena, which interacts and is influenced by both tangible and intangible aspects elements. Therefore, the public awareness to be measured and evaluated can be used as a tool to assess the success of current policies – if exist- in dealing with the current condition of heritage
parks and to indicate the variables that could be used to measure, and affect the public and governance awareness with priorities management. Finally, a multi-dimensional assessment method for urban planners, landscaping architects, historical conservation experts, and decision makers could benefit from the outcomes of this study in controlling and defining the management systems and policies to move headed for the conservation of the valuable historic and culture parks in Egypt.
Introducing the Rehabilitation Policy in Order to Safeguard the Built Heritage
Authors: Abdelhamid Mona M. , Elfakharany Mohamed M.
Published: March 2019

In order to maintain the old historical image of the city, it is necessary to look back into the past and identify the iconic buildings that have been existing during the last decades. By recognizing those valuable structures, architects together with the help of decision makers should take actions to revitalize the uses of those valuable buildings in order to prevent building’s decay or destruction.
Old historical Arabic public bathhouses (Hammam) were chosen as distinctive buildings that have been used frequently during the 19th century in Alexandria city. The main objective of this paper is to highlight the importance of applying the rehabilitation policies for the revitalization of those heritage buildings that have shaped for a long time the character of the old town in Alexandria. This paper will first discuss the beneficial use of the rehabilitation scheme that helps in safeguarding the social, cultural and economical value of the built heritage. The concept of rehabilitation mainly focuses that no historic building should be pulled down until serious effort has been made. Then, El Masry Arabic public bathhouse (hammam) located at Minet El Basal district in Alexandria old town has been selected as a case study on which the rehabilitation process has been applied through field surveying study and a literature background as well. Finally the study has proved that the rehabilitation process for the historical structures can lead to a great social contribution that help in preserving the original identity of the historical town.
Tombs of the Valley of the Kings in Luxor Ecological Consideration
Authors: Yasseen Adel
Published: March 2019

By the eighteenth dynasty in the Egyptian Old History, funerary architecture was oriented towards a new direction in perceiving space and form, meaning and symbolizing, and pride and festivity.
As being a great city by that time, Luxor (Thebes) looked for a site that offered a similar dignified place as it was with the pyramid plateau in Giza, in the north, close to the previous Capital ”IUNU”. As much as the Giza plateau was worked out to receive the edifices on, the place in Thebes was chosen of highly qualified natural properties.
The place was on the sacred western side of the capital of the kingdom, in a huge valley formed through millions of years where its morphology could offer the dignity that we still feel, the geological formation was much easier to work through, tombs architecture within it offered the possibilities to preserve the traditions and the bodies of the great kings safe.
The paper aims at declaring the environmental capabilities of the architecture form of tombs of the Kings Valley of the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties of the Old Egypt History.
Evaluation of the Material-Protection Sustainability Relationship on the Identity of Traditional Settlements
Authors: Karatosun Müjgan Bahtiyar , Olğun Tuba Nur
Published: March 2019

Settlements are important units that contain different features in their structure. In addition to elements such as topography, climate, vegetation, and socio-cultural structure, the character and identity of these settlements are shaped by structural characteristics, spatial fiction and building materials within the settlement.
Particularly in the traditional settlement textures, material as stone, wood or adobe is an important parameter that influences the characteristics and identity of these areas. In this context, material is undoubtedly one of the most defining features of the identity of the settlement which is with structures built using adobe.
Adobe is effective on many different issues in traditional settlements. In this context, adobe, a local material, is a decisive factor in the character and identity of traditional settlements, especially as it reflects traditional construction practices and is unique.
The aim of this study is to examine the role of adobe in the formation of the characteristic of the settlements and to develop suggestions for the sustainability of this characteristic. In the scope of the study, as first, the definitions of protection and sustainability concepts and their place in the literature will be covered. Then the concepts will be considered as material-oriented. Following these reviews, material-focused conservation and sustainability will be detailed in the sample settlement. In this context, adobe settlements in Malatya / Turkey region will be discussed. It is believed that the study will contribute to the protection of these settlements by examining the qualifications of material, which is an important characteristic of traditional settlements.
Regeneration of Amman Center - Social Acceptance of Syrian Migrants in Downtown Amman
Authors: Al-Homoud Majd , Ghanem Hala
Published: March 2019

Several studies discussed attitudes towards migrants; some of the issues pointed out are integration that requires interaction between migrants and the host society.  Homogenous social groupings produce stronger communities.  As the conflict in Syria entered its fifth year, Jordan hosted about 1.4 million registered Syrians, of whom 646,700 are informal refugees.  Eighty-five percent of the refugees live outside camps in some of the poorest areas of Jordan.  Consequently, new household’s typologies pressured the supply side.  Such non-camp refugees’ migration patterns and housing market conditions formed ethnic homogeneous enclaves in different locations in Amman.  Accordingly, non-camp refugees occupied and rented the upper floors of mixed used commercial buildings in downtown Amman.The present study investigated social acceptance of Syrian migrants residing in upper floors of commercial mixed used buildings located in the city center of Amman.  The primary purpose of this research is to study how social acceptance of Syrian migrants is influenced by social gating.  The hypothesis of the present study states that social acceptance of Syrian migrants in downtown Amman is influenced by sense of merchants’ sense of social gating.  The significance of the study stems from that the development of downtown Amman with such rich social context can be informative and useful for strategic planners, local governments, NGO’s, social workers, and psychologists.  This paper offers such an opportunity to reflect on an unfolding crisis that is of major social concern with changing urban demographics.The study was conducted using a quantitative and qualitative research strategy; an embedded research design was used.  The quantitative method was conducted using a survey with downtown merchants, in addition to supportive qualitative methods of face-to-face interviews.  The study was conducted in the central part of Amman, known locally as Wast Al-balad, which is considered the old commercial area that dates back to the second quarter of the twentieth century.  Some of these secondary residential units became spaces (enclaves) for migrants that formed ethnic low-income enclaves.  In the last five years, low-income Syrian migrants started to rent these units in Amman’s urban center.  Outcomes indicated that social cohesion is the strongest motivator for acceptance of outsiders by the local merchants to reside in the upper floors of the commercial buildings of Downtown Amman area.
On the relationship between virtual water network and crops intra-trade among Nile basin countries
Authors: Selim Kamal S. , Abdalbaki Salsabil M.
Published: March 2019

This paper aims to investigate the relationship between virtual water (VW) exports and crop exchange by employing the methodology of social network analysis (SNA). This descriptive analysis gives prudence for policy-makers about both central importers and influential exporters of VW using the degree and eigenvector centrality measures. In addition, to facilitate the communications between trading partners, each of them should reach the others with the fewest number of links, so, the small world network properties could be examined. This approach is applied on the yearly average VW exports of the Nile basin countries over the period 2000–2013, and some insights for VW exchange structure are investigated. The empirical results show that all Nile basin countries do not suffer from vulnerable VW export structure. They have a stable and balanced crop export structure. Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania are identified as the most influential and effective countries in exporting VW of crops. The presence of these countries is unavoidable in drawing trade policy and water management plans. While Kenya succeeded in saving a significant amount from VW export network, Tanzania, Uganda, and Ethiopia are gaining losses. Furthermore, VW export network of crops among Nile basin countries satisfies the conditions of small world effect.
The Effects of Vitamin D Supplementation on Glycemic Control, Lipid Profiles and C-Reactive Protein Among Patients with Cardiovascular Disease: a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials
Authors: Ostadmohammadi Vahidreza , Milajerdi Alireza , Ghayour-Mobarhan Majid , Ferns Gordon , Taghizadeh Mohsen , Badehnoosh Bita , Mirzaei Hamed , Asemi Zatollah
Published: March 2019

Background:

Insulin resistance, dyslipidemia and chronic inflammation are important risk factors for cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Hence, vitamin D supplementation might be an appropriate approach to decrease the complications of CVD. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to determine the effects of vitamin D supplementation on glycemic control, lipid profiles, and C-reactive protein among patients with coronary artery disease.

Methods:

Two independent authors systematically searched online databases including EMBASE, Scopus, Pub- Med, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science until 20th September 2018. Cochrane Collaboration risk of bias tool was applied to assess the methodological quality of included trials. The heterogeneity among the included studies was assessed using Cochran’s Q test and I-square (I2) statistic. Data were pooled using a random-effects model and weighted mean difference (WMD) was considered as the overall effect size.

Results:

A total of eight trials (305 participants in the intervention group and 325 in placebo group) were included in the current meta-analysis. Pooling effect sizes from studies revealed a significant reduction in fasting glucose (WMD): -15.67; 95% CI: -29.32, -2.03), insulin concentrations (WMD: -3.53; 95% CI: -4.59, -2.46) and homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (WMD: -1.07; 95% CI: -1.49, -0.66), and significant increase in the quantitative insulin-sensitivity check index (WMD: 0.02; 95% CI: 0.01, 0.03) following the administration of vitamin D. In addition, pooled analysis revealed a significant increase in serum HDL-cholesterol concentrations following vitamin D therapy (WMD: 3.08; 95% CI: 1.42, 4.73). Additionally, vitamin D supplementation significantly reduced C-reactive protein (CRP) levels (WMD: -0.75; 95% CI: -1.28, -0.23).

Conclusion:

This meta-analysis demonstrated the beneficial effects of vitamin D supplementation on improving glycemic control, HDL-cholesterol and CRP levels among patients with CVD, though it did not affect triglycerides, total- and LDL-cholesterol levels.