The usefulness of satellite imagery for mapping land cover classes is demonstrated. The study area, Abu Dhabi Emirate/United Arab Emirates, has witnessed considerable growth in population and regional economies during last decades. Greening and agricultural efforts have encouraged farmers to increase their properties hence cultivating more farms especially date palms. To assess and map the amount and extent of these plantations, remote sensing integrated with GIS proved to be a very powerful approach. The aim of the current study is to acquire accurate and reliable map of the most recent and updated land cover classes of the lands of the Emirate mainly date palms. Our focus is on date palm plantations class given that the UAE has the largest number of date palms for any single country in the world. Latest Landsat-8 OLI scenes from 2018 were used and a hybrid classification combining supervised and unsupervised classifications integrated with GIS were applied to achieve our objective. The outcomes of this study are: 1) a database of Landsat-8 OLI imagery of 2018 covering the whole emirate of Abu Dhabi, 2) a medium scale map representing main LULC classes and, 3) a GIS thematic layer of date palm extent in the emirate.
This paper deals with the design and the implementation of an underwater robot. The proposed design is based on a similar one taken from the literature. The developed CAD model is used to 3D print the different parts of the robot. The controller is based on an Arduino board and the actuator used is a servo motor. The prototype is built and tested.
This study explores the appropriateness of different turbulence models in a 2D numerical simulation of an airfoil with a rotating leading-edge cylinder. The validity of the employed turbulence models has been validated with experimental data for symmetric flow over NACA0024 airfoil. All four models are appropriate to model flow over the symmetric airfoil and are capable to match the experimental results. At 5? angle of attack, all turbulence models were able to better match the experimental results at the positive pressure surface than at the negative pressure surface.
As vehicle-to-vehicle communication and autonomous vehicles penetrate the market of smart cities, more techniques to solve the problem of traffic flow optimization become available. This paper addresses a new approach to tackle the problem of traffic flow optimization by simultaneously controlling the speeds and routes of vehicles. Both of these quantities can be controlled accurately in self-driving cars. The objective function is set to minimize the collective fuel consumption and traveling time of all drivers in the network. This solution can potentially improve the smoothness of traffic flow, because vehicles do not stop at intersections. Simulations were performed using MATLAB mixed-integer linear programming solver and were shown to give the optimal paths and speeds for 8 groups of cars in a 16-intersection network with a run time of less than 10 seconds.
Identifying amino acids and investigating protein structures help in isolating and understanding diseases associated with the malfunction in protein folding. The first step in understanding protein structure involves identifying the sequence of amino acids. Most current techniques for detecting amino acids are complex and time-consuming. However, with the advancement of functionalized smart materials, such as graphene and nanoscale semiconductors, the sensitivity could be improved, allowing handheld amino acid sensors. We briefly review the different schemes used in detecting amino acids, based on condensed matter phases along with the importance of studying the interface between amino acids/proteins and solid-state materials.
Third order LCL filter has several advantages over the L filter, but the associated problem of resonance can cause system instability, where resonance damping becomes necessary. Active damping can be provided by designing a state feedback controller. This paper includes the evaluation of our designs of integral linear quadratic regulator (LQR), feedback linearization (FBL) with disturbance observer based control (DOBC) together with full-order observer (FOO), reduced- order observer (ROO), and Kalman filter (KF) in terms of total harmonic distortion (THD) and robustness against changes in the grid impedance.
Study of multiphase systems are very complex and expensive, but with commercial CFD software like ANSYS Fluent, these systems can be simulated with easy and the study can be extended. This paper manly focuses on computing multiphase hydrodynamic problems using two sophisticated approaches- Euler-Euler Granular Model and Macroscopic Particle Model. The Euler- Euler Granular model is powerful for computing 2-D simulations whereas the MPM model is used for 3-D simulations. Various parameters and models are available in ANSYS to compute momentum, energy and continuity equations. The solver uses finite element, fine differential or finite volume to perform extensive calculations on the mesh. A case study on a three-phase turbulent fluidized bed where water is the dispersed phase, air the continuous phase and pp particles the discrete phase was performed to complete the study in hydrodynamics.
The dynamic influences in social and economic development rapidly affect the architecture in UAE in general and mosque architecture in specific, in which creates a matter of the unclear identity of the mosques in UAE. This process creates debates and clashes between tradition and modernity. This paper aims to puts forth the evolution of mosque architecture in UAE in chronological perspective. The paper methodology is a descriptive-analytical method with qualitative results. Basically, based upon two theoretical bases the functional and ritual elements of the Islamic architecture to understand the constant and variable elements in the mosque architecture. Moreover, the influences of the social and economic changes in the UAE on architecture development. In the second part of the paper mosques in UAE will be reviewed in a chronological perspective to create a discussion for the existing mosques in UAE. This review will clarify the situation and allow showing the origin and the evolution of the UAE?s mosque architecture forms and characteristics within a taxonomy chart.
To date, 37 peptides and proteins were found to form amyloid deposits which cause serious human disorders such as Alzheimer?s, Parkinson?s, Type 2 diabetes mellitus and numerous systemic amyloidosis. Since amyloid formation is a shared property of proteins, model proteins can be used to better understand the aggregation mechanism and to devise novel therapies to the numerous disorders that are arising from this phenomenon. In this work, the aggregation kinetics of the model protein, Hen Egg White Lysozyme (HEWL), was investigated under a combination of various in vitro aggregation conditions including two different pH conditions (acidic and physiological), elevated temperature and physiological ionic strength provided by sodium chloride. The results of this preliminary work will be utilized to test the ability of small molecules to inhibit HEWL aggregation pathways. The potential inhibitor(s) could also be effective in other pathological proteins that are associated with serious human disorders.
More than 30 human degenerative diseases, including Alzheimer?s disease (AD), Parkinson?s disease (PD) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) are associated with protein aggregation. Islet amyloid deposits, a hallmark in T2DM, are found in pancreatic islets of more than 90% of T2DM patients. Inhibiting protein aggregation and associated toxicity is a strategy in preventing protein aggregation-related disorders. In this study, we demonstrated that two inhibitors, lipoic acid (LA) and ascorbic acid, significantly inhibited amylin aggregation, which was confirmed by ThT assay, fluorescence and TEM images. Increased cell viability up to 70.3%, is observed for samples incubated with lipoic acid at 10:1 molar ratio (LA: amylin) and up to 63.3% when incubated with ascorbic acid at an equimolar ratio, as compared to only 42.8% with amylin aggregates only. Docking results showed that lipoic acid and ascorbic acid physically interact with amylin amyloidogenic region (Ser20-Ser29) via hydrophobic interactions, thus reducing aggregation levels. Therefore, lipoic acid and ascorbic acid potentially prevented cell toxicity invitro by inhibiting amylin aggregation through hydrophobic interactions.
