The effect of water-silica slurry impacts on PolyLactic Acid (PLA) processed by Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) under different conditions were investigated. The studied factors were building orientation, layer thickness, and slurry impact angle, where Taguchi design was used. The results showed an increase in the specimens’ weights after the slurry erosion tests. This weight gain was eventually attributed to the synergistic effect of water absorption and the embedment of solid particles within the specimens. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) test was conducted and concluded that the layer thickness and impact angle are the significant factors influencing the weight gain resulting from absorbed water. Moreover, impact angle was the most significant factor for the weight gain resulting from embedded slurry particles.

The effect of water-silica slurry impacts on PolyLactic Acid (PLA) processed by Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) under different conditions were investigated. The studied factors were building orientation, layer thickness, and slurry impact angle, where Taguchi design was used. The results showed an increase in the specimens’ weights after the slurry erosion tests. This weight gain was eventually attributed to the synergistic effect of water absorption and the embedment of solid particles within the specimens. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) test was conducted and concluded that the layer thickness and impact angle are the significant factors influencing the weight gain resulting from absorbed water. Moreover, impact angle was the most significant factor for the weight gain resulting from embedded slurry particles.

Increasing number of cancer survivors besides effective medications increase the demand for cancer care services. Therefore, managers have to investigate new ways to enhance the operational performance of the outpatient chemotherapy clinics (OCCs). However, the management process is complex due to significant variability in treatment times as a result of the different cancer types and accordingly different chemotherapy protocols and scarce resources such as nurses, chemotherapy chairs/beds, and pharmacists. In this paper, we address two problems in OCCs. First, in the planning problem, the objective is assigning the optimum first day to start the treatment for a set of new patients, and computing the required number of nurses and pharmacists given the limited resources. Second, the operational problem of scheduling the patients’ appointments. In this problem, the objective is to set the best appointment schedules for all patients, new and existing to improve the operational performance of the clinic. As the two problems are highly interrelated, we propose a two-phase solution approach starting by a mixed integer programming model that assigns the starting day of treatment for new patients and finds the optimum number of needed nurses and pharmacists to fulfill two objectives. Then, in the second phase, a discrete event simulation model is used to generate patient appointment schedules that minimise the treatment delay for patients and the total completion times of treatments in each day under resources availability constraints, including two new constraints covering the drug availability and pharmacists working-hours. Finally, the proposed simulation model is applied for evaluating the operations performance of a current case study and finding the best scheduling rule for patient appointment times to achieve a minimum wait time in the OCC.

The aim of this study is to evaluate and improve student thermal sensation in the open spaces of the Faculty of Engineering, Assiut University, Egypt using different shading strategies. Firstly, the thermal conditions of outdoor spaces were evaluated based on field measurements in different locations of shaded outdoor spaces between educational buildings within the Faculty of Engineering. Then, the microclimate model ENVI-met was applied to evaluate the impact of different shading scenarios on improving student thermal comfort. Also, the Thermal Sensation Vote (TSV) of the was studied by a questionnaire survey using the 118 effective questionnaire responses of the student sitting in the spaces between buildings. Hence, the results concluded that high air temperature is found in most outdoor open spaces, especially in the sitting area with low trees density and high Sky View Factor (SVF). Similar results were obtained by the TSV analysis. In addition, a significant reduction in the Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) values resulted from the ENVI-met simulation model with an average temperature difference of 0.7 °C due to increasing tree density for the main open space. Thus, it is recommended to increase greenery and tree density, to reduce heat stress and create student thermal comfort in outdoor.

The aim of this study is to evaluate and improve student thermal sensation in the open spaces of the Faculty of Engineering, Assiut University, Egypt using different shading strategies. Firstly, the thermal conditions of outdoor spaces were evaluated based on field measurements in different locations of shaded outdoor spaces between educational buildings within the Faculty of Engineering. Then, the microclimate model ENVI-met was applied to evaluate the impact of different shading scenarios on improving student thermal comfort. Also, the Thermal Sensation Vote (TSV) of the was studied by a questionnaire survey using the 118 effective questionnaire responses of the student sitting in the spaces between buildings. Hence, the results concluded that high air temperature is found in most outdoor open spaces, especially in the sitting area with low trees density and high Sky View Factor (SVF). Similar results were obtained by the TSV analysis. In addition, a significant reduction in the Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) values resulted from the ENVI-met simulation model with an average temperature difference of 0.7 °C due to increasing tree density for the main open space. Thus, it is recommended to increase greenery and tree density, to reduce heat stress and create student thermal comfort in outdoor.

The aim of this study is to evaluate and improve student thermal sensation in the open spaces of the Faculty of Engineering, Assiut University, Egypt using different shading strategies. Firstly, the thermal conditions of outdoor spaces were evaluated based on field measurements in different locations of shaded outdoor spaces between educational buildings within the Faculty of Engineering. Then, the microclimate model ENVI-met was applied to evaluate the impact of different shading scenarios on improving student thermal comfort. Also, the Thermal Sensation Vote (TSV) of the was studied by a questionnaire survey using the 118 effective questionnaire responses of the student sitting in the spaces between buildings. Hence, the results concluded that high air temperature is found in most outdoor open spaces, especially in the sitting area with low trees density and high Sky View Factor (SVF). Similar results were obtained by the TSV analysis. In addition, a significant reduction in the Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) values resulted from the ENVI-met simulation model with an average temperature difference of 0.7 °C due to increasing tree density for the main open space. Thus, it is recommended to increase greenery and tree density, to reduce heat stress and create student thermal comfort in outdoor.

We present a microfluidic method for electrical lysis and RNA extraction from single fixed cells leveraging reversible cross-linker dithiobis(succinimidyl propionate) (DSP). Our microfluidic system captures a single DSP-fixed cell at a hydrodynamic trap, reverse-cross-links the DSP molecules on a chip with dithiothreitol, lyses the plasma membrane via electrical field, and extracts cytoplasmic RNA with isotachophoresis-aided nucleic acids extraction. All of the on-chip processes complete in less than 5 min. We demonstrated the method using K562 leukemia cells and benchmarked the performance of RNA extraction with reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction. We also demonstrated the integration of our method with single-cell RNA sequencing.

We report a microfluidic system that physically separates nuclear RNA (nucRNA) and cytoplasmic RNA (cytRNA) from a single cell and enables single-cell integrated nucRNA and cytRNA-sequencing (SINC-seq). SINC-seq constructs two individual RNA-seq libraries, nucRNA and cytRNA, per cell, quantifies gene expression in the subcellular compartments, and combines them to create novel single-cell RNA-seq data. Leveraging SINC-seq, we discover distinct natures of correlation among cytRNA and nucRNA that reflect the transient physiological state of single cells. These data provide unique insights into the regulatory network of messenger RNA from the nucleus toward the cytoplasm at the single-cell level.

The physical fractionation of cytoplasmic versus nuclear components of cells is a key step for studying the subcellular localization of molecules. The application of an electric field is an emerging method for subcellular fractionation of proteins and nucleic acids from single cells. However, the multibiophysical process that involves electrical lysis of cytoplasmic membranes, electrophoresis, and diffusion of charged molecules remains unclear. Here we study RNA dynamics in single cells during the electrophoretic extraction via a microfluidic system that enables stringent fractionation of the subcellular components leveraging a focused electric field. We identified two distinct kinetics in the extraction of RNA molecules, which were respectively associated with soluble RNA and mitochondrial RNA. We show that the extraction kinetics of soluble RNA is dominated by electrophoresis over diffusion and has a time constant of 0.15 s. Interestingly, the extraction of mitochondrial RNA showed unexpected heterogeneity in the extraction with slower kinetics (3.8 s), while reproducibly resulting in the extraction of 98.9% ± 2% after 40 s. Together, we uncover that the microfluidic system uniquely offers length bias-free fractionation of RNA molecules for quantitative analysis of correlations among subcellular compartments by exploiting the homogeneous electrophoretic properties of RNA.

In-place analysis for offshore platforms is essentially required to make proper design for new structures and true assessment for existing structures, in addition to the structural integrity of platforms components under the maximum and minimum operating loads when subjected to the environmental conditions. In-place analysis have been executed to check that the structural member with all appurtenance´s robustness have the capability to support the applied loads in either storm or operating conditions. A nonlinear finite element analysis is adopted for the platform structure above the seabed and pile-soil interaction to estimate the in-place behavior of a typical fixed offshore platform. The SACS software is utilized to calculate the dynamic characteristics of the platform model and the response of platform joints then the stresses at selected members, as well as their nodal displacements. The directions of environmental loads and water depth variations have significant effects in the results of the in-place analysis behavior. The most of bending moment responses of the piles are in the first fourth of pile penetration depth from pile head level. The axial deformations of piles in all load combinations cases of all piles are inversely proportional with penetration depth. The largest values of axial soil reaction are shown at the pile tips levels (the maximum penetration level). The most of lateral soil reactions resultant are in the first third of pile penetration depth from pile head level and approximately vanished after that penetration. The influence of the soil-structure interaction on the response of the jacket foundation predicts that the flexible foundation model is necessary to estimate the force responses demands of the offshore platform with a piled jacket-support