Girder distribution factors for steel bridges subjected to permit truck or super load

Sami W. Tabsh,Muna M. Mitchell 국제구조공학회 2016 Structural Engineering and Mechanics, An Int'l Jou Vol.60 No.2

There are constraints on truck weight, axle configurations and size imposed by departments of transportation around the globe due to structural capacity limitations of highway pavements and bridges. In spite of that, freight movers demand some vehicles that surpass the maximum size and legal weight limits to use the transportation network. Oversized trucks serve the purpose of spreading the load on the bridge; thus, reducing the load effect on the superstructure. For such vehicles, often a quick structural analysis of the existing bridges along the traveled route is needed to ensure that the structural capacity is not exceeded. For a wide vehicle having wheel gage larger than the standard 1830 mm, the girder distribution factors in the design specifications cannot be directly used to estimate the live load in the supporting girders. In this study, a simple approach that is based on finite element analysis is developed by modifying the AASHTO LRFD’s girder distribution factors for slab-on-steel-girder bridges to overcome this problem. The proposed factors allow for determining the oversized vehicle bending moment and shear force effect in the individual girders as a function of the gage width characteristics. Findings of the study showed that the relationship between the girder distribution factor and gage width is more nonlinear in shear than in flexure. The proposed factors yield reasonable results compared with the finite element analysis with adequate level of conservatism.

Le réseau Doustourna ou la constitution 2.0: Un défi pour la démocratie participative

Sami Zlitni 고려대학교 응용문화연구소 2013 에피스테메 Vol.0 No.9

With over 1,500 candidate lists that ran for the election for a Constituent Assembly held on 23 November 2011, it was difficult for independent registered lists to distinguish themselves from political parties as the latter were more rooted in the Tunisian political landscape. Whereas most candidates resorted to, among others, traditional approaches to canvass the country, the “Doustourna” network pinned all his hopes on the Net to promote its program. With a view to participatory democracy “Doustourna” put forward a draft constitution for online assessment. The aim was to make citizens actively participate in public affairs. Due to lack of funds and marginalization on the part of traditional media, “Doustourna” mainly campaigned on social networks to be heard and mobilize public opinion. En vue de l’élection de la l’Assemblée constituante du 23 novembre 2011, plus de 1 500 listes ont été acceptées. Il était difficile aux listes indépendantes de se démarquer des partis politiques plus enracinés dans le paysage politique tunisien. Alors que la plupart des candidats ont eu recours, entre autres, aux modes d’action classiques pour faire campagne aux quatre coins du pays, le réseau Doustourna a tout misé sur la toile pour faire connaitre son programme. Dans une perspective de démocratie participative, il a mis en ligne un projet de constitution soumis à l’évaluation des internautes afin de faire participer les citoyens aux affaires publiques. Par ailleurs, étant marginalisé par les médias classiques et faute de moyens, Doustourna a mené sa campagne électorale principalement sur les réseaux sociaux pour faire entendre sa voix et mobiliser l’opinion publique.

Predicting Student Performance Using Artificial Neural Network : in the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology

Samy Abu Naser,Ihab Zaqout,Mahmoud Abu Ghosh,Rasha Atallah,Eman Alajrami 보안공학연구지원센터 2015 International Journal of Hybrid Information Techno Vol.8 No.2

In this paper an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model, for predicting the performance of a sophomore student enrolled in engineering majors in the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology in Al- Azhar University of Gaza was developed and tested. A number of factors that may possibly influence the performance of a student were outlined. Such factors as high school score, score of subject such as Math I, Math II, Electrical Circuit I, and Electronics I taken during the student freshman year, number of credits passed, student cumulative grade point average of freshman year, types of high school attended and gender, among others, were then used as input variables for the ANN model. A model based on the Multilayer Perceptron Topology was developed and trained using data spanning five generations of graduates from the Engineering Department of the Al- Azhar University, Gaza. Test data evaluation shows that the ANN model is able to correctly predict the performance of more than 80% of prospective students.

Performance analysis of Centralized, Distributed and Hybrid Demand Load Control architecture forSmart power Grid

Sami S. Al-Wakeel,Musaed Al-Hussein,Muhammad Ammad-uddin 한국산학기술학회 2012 SmartCR Vol.2 No.5

Demand Response (DR) technology makes it possible to have two-way communication between service providers and home appliances inside the customer premise. This state-of-art technology equipped with smart meters, load control devices (smart devices), smart thermostats, smart switches and home energy consoles. DR technology can help us to modernize our electricity system and provide customers with new information and options for managing their electricity use. Customers can reduce or shift their power usage during peak demand periods in response to timebased rates or other forms of financial incentives. Demand response solutions play a key role in several areas: pricing, emergency response, grid reliability, infrastructure planning and design, operations, and deferral. In previous studies Demand Load for smart power grid is a mostly centralized approach. The worth of this study is we are proposing DR as a fully distributed and hybrid approach. We are investigating performance of DR in context of fully centralize, Fully Distributed and Hybrid fashion.

External Debt and Economic Growth: The Case of Emerging Economy

Sami Al Kharusi,Mbah Stella Ada 세종대학교 경제통합연구소 2018 Journal of Economic Integration Vol.33 No.1

This study investigated the relationship between government external borrowing and economic growth, prompted by continuous increases in Oman’s external debt to finance its annual budget. Time series data for the period 1990~2015 were collected from the World Bank and the Central Bank of Oman. The study employed the Autoregressive Distributed Lag cointegration approach explain the error correction mechanism to ascertain the short-run dynamic nature of external debt and economic growth. Consistent with some existing empirical evidence, the study reveals a negative and significant influence of external debt on economic growth in Oman. Further, gross fixed capital was found to be positively significant in determining growth performance in Oman. The study, therefore, recommends a more productive use of the external debt fund in order to affect positive growth.

Structural and magnetic properties of Ga-substituted Co2−W hexaferrites

Sami H. Mahmood,Qusai Al Sheyab,Ibrahim Bsoul,Osama Mohsen,Ahmad Awadallah 한국물리학회 2018 Current Applied Physics Vol.18 No.5

Precursor powders of BaCo2Fe16-xGaxO27 with 0.0 ≤ x ≤ 0.8 were prepared using high-energy ball milling, and the effects of chemical composition on the structural and magnetic properties of the powders sintered at 1300 °C were investigated using x-ray diffractometer (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM). XRD patterns of all samples indicated crystallization of pure BaCo2−W (BaCo2Fe16O27) hexaferrite phase. SEM measurements revealed large step-like formations with hexagonal crystallites. The magnetic data revealed small fluctuations of the saturation magnetization below the value 72.56 emu/g corresponding to the unsubstituted sample. The coercive field Hc of all samples ranged between 70 Oe and 130 Oe, indicating soft magnetic phase. Curie temperature determined from the thermomagnetic curves of the samples decreased from 485 °C at x = 0.0 down to 451 °C at x = 0.6. Also, the thermomagnetic curves revealed the presence of a minority magnetic phase with enhanced superexchange interaction, and the occurrence of complex magnetic phase transitions associated with spin reorientation transitions above room temperature.

Idiopathic Polymorphic Ventricular Tachycardia: a “Benign Disease” with a Touch of Bad Luck?

Sami Viskin 대한심장학회 2017 Korean Circulation Journal Vol.47 No.3

Ventricular extrasystole originating from the right ventricular outflow tract or the left ventricular outflow tract are the most commonly encountered ventricular arrhythmias recorded in ostensibly healthy individuals with no evidence of heart disease. These ventricular arrhythmias have a distinctive electrocardiographic morphology. The morphology is so distinctive that it is common practice to accept the diagnosis of “idiopathic benign ventricular arrhythmias from the outflow tract” based on this unique morphology when the electrocardiogram during sinus rhythm and the echocardiogram are normal, sometimes removing the need to perform invasive tests in patients. Even if the outflow ventricular extrasystole ultimately triggers sustained ventricular arrhythmia, the resulting ventricular tachycardia (VT) will be a monomorphic VT originating from the outflow tract, which is known to be hemodynamically well tolerated. Thus, idiopathic ventricular arrhythmias originating from outflow tracts are universally considered benign. In 2005, we described a rare form of malignant polymorphic VT resulting in syncope or cardiac arrest. Here, we review the literature on this topic since the emergence of initial descriptions of this intriguing phenomenon.

Multi-Obfuscation Approach for Preserving Privacy in Smart Transportation

Sami S. Albouq,Adnan Ani Sen,Nabile Almoshfi,Mohammad Bin Sedeq,Nour Bahbouth International Journal of Computer ScienceNetwork S 2023 International journal of computer science and netw Vol.23 No.4

These days, protecting location privacy has become essential and really challenging, especially protecting it from smart applications and services that rely on Location-Based Services (LBS). As the technology and the services that are based on it are developed, the capability and the experience of the attackers are increased. Therefore, the traditional protection ways cannot be enough and are unable to fully ensure and preserve privacy. Previously, a hybrid approach to privacy has been introduced. It used an obfuscation technique, called Double-Obfuscation Approach (DOA), to improve the privacy level. However, this approach has some weaknesses. The most important ones are the fog nodes that have been overloaded due to the number of communications. It is also unable to prevent the Tracking and Identification attacks in the Mix-Zone technique. For these reasons, this paper introduces a developed and enhanced approach, called Multi-Obfuscation Approach (MOA that mainly depends on the communication between neighboring fog nodes to overcome the drawbacks of the previous approach. As a result, this will increase the resistance to new kinds of attacks and enhance processing. Meanwhile, this approach will increase the level of the users' privacy and their locations protection. To do so, a big enough memory is needed on the users' sides, which already is available these days on their devices. The simulation and the comparison prove that the new approach (MOA) exceeds the DOA in many Standards for privacy protection approaches.

Certificate Revocation in Connected Vehicles

Sami S. Albouq International Journal of Computer ScienceNetwork S 2023 International journal of computer science and netw Vol.23 No.5

In connected vehicles, drivers are exposed to attacks when they communicate with unauthenticated peers. This occurs when a vehicle relies on outdated information resulting in interactions with vehicles that have expired or revoked certificates claiming to be legitimate nodes. Vehicles must frequently receive or query an updated revoked certificate list to avoid communicating with suspicious vehicles to protect themselves. In this paper, we propose a scheme that works on a highway divided into clusters and managed by roadside units (RSUs) to ensure authenticity and preserve hidden identities of vehicles. The proposed scheme includes four main components each of which plays a major role. In the top hierarchy, we have the authority that is responsible for issuing long-term certificates and managing and controlling all descending intermediate authorities, which cover specific regions (e.g., RSUs) and provide vehicles with short-term pseudonyms certificates to hide their identity and avoid traceability. Every certificate-related operation is recorded in a blockchain storage to ensure integrity and transparency. To regulate communication among nodes, security managers were introduced to enable authorization and access right during communications. Together, these components provide vehicles with an immediately revoked certificate list through RSUs, which are provided with publish/subscribe brokers that enable a controlled messaging infrastructure. We validate our work in a simulated smart highway environment comprising interconnected RSUs to demonstrate our technique's effectiveness.

SOME NEW COMMON FIXED POINTS OF GENERALIZED RATIONAL CONTRACTIVE MAPPINGS IN DISLOCATED METRIC SPACES WITH APPLICATION

( Sami Ullah Khan ),( Muhammad Arshad ),( Tahair Rasham ),( Abdullah Shoaib ) 호남수학회 2017 호남수학학술지 Vol.39 No.2

The objective of this manuscript is to continue the study of fixed point theory in dislocated metric spaces, introduced by Hitzler et al. [12]. Concretely, we apply the concept of dislocated metric spaces and obtain theorems asserting the existence of common fixed points for a pair of mappings satisfying new generalized rational contractions in such spaces.