A semi-automated method for integrating textural and material data into as-built BIM using TIS

Zabin, Asem,Khalil, Baha,Ali, Tarig,Abdalla, Jamal A.,Elaksher, Ahmed Techno-Press 2020 Advances in computational design Vol.5 No.2

Building Information Modeling (BIM) is increasingly used throughout the facility's life cycle for various applications, such as design, construction, facility management, and maintenance. For existing buildings, the geometry of as-built BIM is often constructed using dense, three dimensional (3D) point clouds data obtained with laser scanners. Traditionally, as-built BIM systems do not contain the material and textural information of the buildings' elements. This paper presents a semi-automatic method for generation of material and texture rich as-built BIM. The method captures and integrates material and textural information of building elements into as-built BIM using thermal infrared sensing (TIS). The proposed method uses TIS to capture thermal images of the interior walls of an existing building. These images are then processed to extract the interior walls using a segmentation algorithm. The digital numbers in the resulted images are then transformed into radiance values that represent the emitted thermal infrared radiation. Machine learning techniques are then applied to build a correlation between the radiance values and the material type in each image. The radiance values were used to extract textural information from the images. The extracted textural and material information are then robustly integrated into the as-built BIM providing the data needed for the assessment of building conditions in general including energy efficiency, among others.

Fate of Asymptomatic Limb after Kissing Stents in Aortoiliac Occlusive Disease

Faheem Asem Ahmad,Martin Michael Hennessy,Alexander Fredrik Nath 대한혈관외과학회 2022 Vascular Specialist International Vol.38 No.1

Purpose: Kissing stent angioplasty is an established endovascular treatment strategy for stenosis at the aortic bifurcation but not without its detractors. This study aimed to analyze the outcomes of kissing stents with regard to stent occlusion and complications in which an asymptomatic limb was treated. Materials and Methods: A total of 106 patients undergoing aortic bifurcation intervention from January 2015 to November 2020 were retrospectively reviewed. Only patients with at least one common iliac artery (CIA) ostium and undergoing bilateral CIA intervention were included in the study. Results: Patients were followed up for a median period of 26 months (interquartile range, 21-51 months). The TransAtlantic InterSociety Consensus (TASC)-II classification of lesions was as follows: A, 49%; B, 41%; C, 6%; and D, 5%. The treatment indication was limited to one side in 53% of patients. Technical and procedural success rates were 99% and 90%, respectively. Ischemic events in an asymptomatic limb occurred in 6% of cases, 3% due to late stent thrombosis >30 days, and 3% due to progression of downstream infrainguinal disease. Primary and secondary patency rates at 1, 3, and 5 years were 98%, 87%, and 85%, and 99%, 94%, and 94%, respectively. Periprocedural mortality developed in two patients with no amputation. Conclusion: Kissing stent deployment is a safe and effective strategy for the treatment of aortoiliac bifurcation disease. Unfavorable outcomes due to stenting in the asymptomatic iliac artery are very rare. Long-term surveillance is necessary due to the risk of late thrombosis or downstream disease progression.

Liquid chromatography at the critical condition: Thermodynamic significance and influence of pore size

Abdulahad, Asem I.,Ryu, Chang Y. Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company 2009 Journal of polymer science. Part B, Polymer physic Vol.47 No.24

<P>Liquid chromatography at the critical condition (LCCC) is a high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) technique that lies between size exclusion chromatography and adsorption-based interaction chromatography, where the elution of polymers becomes independent of polymer molecular weight. At LCCC, the balance between the entropic exclusion and the enthalpic adsorption interactions between polymers and stationary phases results in the simultaneous HPLC elution of polymers regardless of molecular weight. Using C18-bonded silica chromatographic columns with 5 μm particle size and different average pore size (diameter = 300 Å, 120 Å, 100 Å, and 50 Å), we report (1) the thermodynamic significance of LCCC conditions and (2) the influence of column pore size on the determination of critical conditions for linear polymer chains. Specifically, we used mixtures of monodisperse polystyrene samples ranging in molecular weight from 162 to 371,100 g/mol and controlled the temperature of the HPLC columns at a fixed composition of a mobile phase consisting of 57(v/v)% methylene chloride and 43(v/v)% acetonitrile. It was found that, at the fixed mobile phase composition, the temperature of LCCC (T<SUB>LCCC</SUB>) is higher for C18-bonded chromatographic columns with larger average pore size. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 47: 2533–2540, 2009</P>

Bactericidal and wound disinfection efficacy of nanostructured titania

Azad, Abdul-Majeed,Aboelzahab, Asem,Goel, Vijay Techno-Press 2012 Advances in materials research Vol.1 No.4

Infections are caused due to the infiltration of tissue or organ space by infectious bacterial agents, among which Staphylococcus aureus bacteria are clinically most relevant. While current treatment modalities are in general quite effective, several bacterial strains exhibit high resistance to them, leading to complications and additional surgeries, thereby increasing the patient morbidity rates. Titanium dioxide is a celebrated photoactive material and has been utilized extensively in antibacterial functions, making it a leading infection mitigating agent. In view of the property amelioration in materials via nanofication, free-standing titania nanofibers (pure and nominally doped) and nanocoatings (on Ti and Ti6Al4V implants) were fabricated and evaluated to assess their efficacy to mitigate the viability and growth of S. aureus upon brief (30 s) activation by a portable hand-held infrared laser. In order to gauge the effect of exposure and its correlation with the antibacterial activities, both isolated (only titania substrate) and simultaneous (substrate submerged in the bacterial suspension) activations were performed. The bactericidal efficacy of the IR-activated $TiO_2$ nanocoatings was also tested against E. coli biofilms. Toxicity study was conducted to assess any potential harm to the tissue cells in the presence of photoactivated materials. These investigations showed that the photoactivated titania nanofibers caused greater than 97% bacterial necrosis of S. aureus. In the case of titania-coated Ti-implant surrogates, the bactericidal efficacy exceeded 90% in the case of pre-activation and was 100% in the case of simultaneous-activation. In addition to their high bactericidal efficacy against S. aureus, the benignity of titania nanofibers and nanocoatings towards tissue cells during in-vivo exposure was also demonstrated, making them safe for use in implant devices.

Evaluation of Risk Factors for Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma in a High-risk Area of India, the Northeastern Region

Lourembam, Deepak Singh,Singh, Asem Robinson,Sharma, T. Dhaneshor,Singh, Th Sudheeranjan,Singh, Thiyam Ramsing,Singh, Lisam Shanjukumar Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2015 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.16 No.12

Northeastern India is a major nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) high risk-area although the rest of the country has very low incidence. A case-control study of 105 NPC cases and 115 controls was conducted to identify the potential risk factors for NPC development in this region. Information was collected by interviewer about socio-demographic characteristics, cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, dietary history, occupational history, and a family history of cancer. Epstein-Barr viral load was assayed from the blood DNA by real time PCR. Associations between GSTs genotypes, cytochrome P450 family including CYP1A1, CYP2E1 and CYP2A6 polymorphisms and susceptibility to relationship between the diseases were studied using PCR-RFLP assay. Results indicate that Epstein-Barr virus load was significantly higher in patients compared to controls (p<0.0001). Furthermore, concentration of blood EBV-DNA was significantly higher in advanced stage disease (Stage III and IV) than in early stage disease (Stage I and II) (p<0.05). Presence of CYP2A6 variants that reduced the enzyme activity was significantly less frequent in cases than controls. Smoked meat consumption, exposure to smoke, living in poorly ventilated house and alcohol consumption were associated with NPC development among the population of Northeastern India. Thus, overall our study revealed that EBV viral load and genetic polymorphism of CYP2A6 along with living practices which include smoked meat consumption, exposure to smoke, living in poorly ventilated houses and alcohol consumption are the potential risk factors of NPC in north eastern region of India. Understanding of the risk factors and their role in the etiology of NPC are helpful forpreventive measures and screening.

Improving Online Quality Control in the Six Sigma Methodology Using a Multiobjective Optimization Approach

Emad Hashiem Abualsauod,Asem Majed Othman 대한산업공학회 2019 Industrial Engineeering & Management Systems Vol.18 No.2

The aim of this study is to propose a Six Sigma multiobjective optimization (SSMO) framework to improve online process control when multiple objectives are present. The proposed framework is divided into three steps: an improvement phase, online process control, and online optimization for multiple objectives. It integrates a process optimization routine with a DMAIC Six Sigma framework to provide the decision-maker with a set of compromise solutions that can be used to balance the set of process performance objectives simultaneously and maintain process stability. For a proof of concept, the approach was applied to an inventory problem to correct the differences between demand and on-hand and/or received replenishment inventory. It delivers a simultaneous response to maintain two conflicting objectives to be statistically in control. These conflicting objectives are to minimize inventory and ordering costs The results reveal that the integration of multiobjective optimization with the Six Sigma methodology reduces the defects per million opportunities by more than 50%.

Surface treatment of sol-gel bioglass using dielectric barrier discharge plasma to enhance growth of hydroxyapatite

Islam El-Sayed Soliman,Asem El-Sayed Metawa,Mohamed Abdel Hameed Aboelnasr,Khairy Tohamy Eraba 한국화학공학회 2018 Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering Vol.35 No.12

Surface treatment of sol-gel bioglass is required to increase its biomedical applications. In this study, a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma treatment in atmospheric pressure was performed on the surface of [SiO2- CaO-P2O5-B2O3] sol-gel derived glass. The obtained bioglass was treated by plasma using discharge current 12mA with an exposure period for 30 min. The type of discharge can be characterized by measuring the discharge current and applied potential waveform and the power dissipation. Apatite formation on the surface of the DBD-treated and untreated samples after soaking in simulated body fluid (SBF) at 37 oC is characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-Ray diffraction (XRD), inductively coupled plasma (ICP-OES) and scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM/EDS). We observed a marked increase in the amount of apatite deposited on the surface of the treated plasma samples than those of the untreated ones, indicating that DBD plasma treatment is an efficient method and capable of modifying the surface of glass beside effectively transforming it into highly bioactive materials.

Trends in Automation and Robotics in Protected Horticulture

( Uyeh Daniel Dooyum ),( Senorpe Asem-hiablie ),( Tusan Park ),( Seungmin Woo ),( Hoseo Lee ),( Junhee Kim ),( Yushin Ha ) 한국농업기계학회 2018 한국농업기계학회 학술발표논문집 Vol.23 No.2

Changes in climate and associated negative impacts on production agriculture have increased the focus on adaptation strategies including protected cultivation systems. Incorporation of automation and robotics in such systems provide additional benefits such as reduced exposures to chemicals that are harmful to human operators in these enclosed structures. Also, environmentally-friendly practices such as precision weed control which reduce the use of chemicals are made possible by machine vision. Moreover, automation provides opportunities for improved positioning in the global market through increased production. In addition to a review of published reports on automation and control in production systems, five state-of-the-art greenhouses and a major international industry exhibition were visited in order to examine trends in protected cultivation. Data on automation systems and production outputs were collected and analyzed. Our findings show that important gains have been made recently including substantial progress in the development of robots for protected cultivation in greenhouses. For example, 5,000 kg/ha of paprika with 1,500,000 growth lines was cultivated in a state-of-the-art greenhouse using a workforce of 50 personnel compared to 2500 kg/ha in the open field with a considerably higher labor force. This represented a 50% increase in production per square meter and indicates some of the opportunities presented by protected cultivation in meeting growing demands without increasing areas under cultivation. Greenhouse cultivation could be a major driver in attaining food security especially in countries most susceptible to changes in climate. There is a need therefore for improvements in systems as well as the development of relatively affordable technology to facilitate automation.

LTE-Based Passive Bistatic Radar System for Detection of Ground-Moving Targets

Raja Syamsul Azmir Raja Abdullah,Asem Ahmad Salah,Alyani Ismail,Fazirulhisyam Hashim,Nur Emileen Abdul Rashid,Noor Hafizah Abdul Aziz 한국전자통신연구원 2016 ETRI Journal Vol.38 No.2

Use of a passive bistatic radar (PBR) system in the surveillance or monitoring of an area has its advantages. For example, a PBR system is able to utilize any available signal of opportunity (for example, broadcasting, communication, or radio navigation signals) for the purposes of surveillance. With this in mind, there are potentially many research areas to be explored; in particular, the capability of signals from existing and future communication systems, such as 4G and 5G. Long-Term Evolution (LTE) is the world’s most current communication system. Given this fact, this paper presents the latest feasibility studies and experimental results from using LTE signals in PBR applications. Details are provided about aspects such as signal characteristics, experimental configurations, and SNR studies. Six experimental scenarios are carried out to investigate the detection performance of our proposed system on ground-moving targets. The ability to detect is demonstrated through use of the cross-ambiguity function. The detection results suggest that LTE signals are suitable as a source signal for PBR.

The Security and Privacy Issues of Fog Computing

Sultan Algarni,Khalid Almarhabi,Ahmed M. Alghamdi,Asem Alradadi International Journal of Computer ScienceNetwork S 2023 International journal of computer science and netw Vol.23 No.4

Fog computing diversifies cloud computing by using edge devices to provide computing, data storage, communication, management, and control services. As it has a decentralised infrastructure that is capable of amalgamating with cloud computing as well as providing real-time data analysis, it is an emerging method of using multidisciplinary domains for a variety of applications; such as the IoT, Big Data, and smart cities. This present study provides an overview of the security and privacy concerns of fog computing. It also examines its fundamentals and architecture as well as the current trends, challenges, and potential methods of overcoming issues in fog computing.