Digital Commons Network^™

Energy Planning Model Design For Forecasting The Final Energy Consumption Using Artificial Neural Networks, Haidy Eissa

Theses and Dissertations

“Energy Trilemma” has recently received an increasing concern among policy makers. The trilemma conceptual framework is based on three main dimensions: environmental sustainability, energy equity, and energy security. Energy security reflects a nation’s capability to meet current and future energy demand. Rational energy planning is thus a fundamental aspect to articulate energy policies. The energy system is huge and complex, accordingly in order to guarantee the availability of energy supply, it is necessary to implement strategies on the consumption side. Energy modeling is a tool that helps policy makers and researchers understand the fluctuations in the energy system. Over the …

Formulation Of Coffee Extract As Polymeric Nanoparticles And Studying Their Potential Biological Activities, Nouran Sharaf

Theses and Dissertations

Coffee extract was prepared and optimized (by solvent extraction) and subsequently entrapped into PLGA nanoparticles using single emulsion-solvent evaporation method (using Design Expert software). Dynamic Light Scattering, Scanning Electron Microscope, Fourier Transform-Infrared Spectroscopy and Folin Ciocalteau assay were used to characterize the NPs and to aid in selecting the optimum formulation conditions. The optimized NPs were in-vitro evaluated for their antimicrobial (by agar-well diffusion method), antioxidant (by DPPH assay) and anticancer (by MTT assay) activities. Finally, the release rate study was conducted for the NP sample showing the highly promising results.

The succeeded NP sample, in terms of the most …

Model For The Automated Generation Of Optimized Work Packages In Results-Based-Finance Mega Sanitation Projects, Amira Mohamed Hasan Shalaby

Theses and Dissertations

The sanitation sector is one of the critical sectors in any country. The lack of proper sanitation systems causes many environmental hazards that threaten people’s health and well-being. In many developing countries, the sanitation sector constitutes a significant part of their strategic plans of reform. However, with the public treasury’s very limited budget, countries opt to major lending institutions for funds. “Results-Based-Finance” is a new funding mechanism used by many lending institutions. The mechanism has proven its efficiency in achieving the necessary reform in sanitation sectors. Due to the complexity of the funding tool, it is crucial to be able …

A Decision Support System For Managing Results-Based Financed Mega Infrastructure Programs, Kareem Zahran

Theses and Dissertations

International Financial Institutions are exploring solutions that can ensure the effectiveness of funds with respect to the achievement of desired results/outputs. Results-Based finance (RBF) considers this goal through linking desired outputs to the disbursement of funds. This may require borrowers to pre-finance programs and then receive their allocated disbursements after results are achieved, which could form cash flow gaps. The management of this type of programs requires the integration of multiple projects management and finance-based scheduling with the financial requirements of results-based funding mechanisms. For proper management of received funds, this research introduces a framework for the simulation and optimization …

Simulation-Based Optimized Production Policy For Hybrid Mts/Mto Glass Tube Manufacturing Systems, Ahmed Ellaban

Theses and Dissertations

Glass Tube is one of the main components for fluorescent lamps as it contains all the other components to generate light. Glass tube industry faces a decline in demand in Egypt. This is attributed to two factors: currency floating and new lighting technologies. In response, glass tube manufacturers decided to diversify their products. This required the integration of Make-to-Stock (MTS), which is used usually for glass tube manufacturing, and Make-to-Order (MTO) which is used to fulfill demands for diversified products. In this thesis, Production policy is proposed to plan for MTS & MTO production. This policy determines when to produce …

Optimized Production And Inventory Decisions For A Mixed Make-To-Order/Make-To-Stock Ready-Made Garment Manufacturer, Aya M. El-Mehany Youssef

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, a production and inventory planning model for mixed make-to-order (MTO) make-to-stock (MTS) production system in garment industry. Where the dominant production is typically for the Make-to-order production and the make-to-stock production is penetrating the mainstream production (MTO) as a way of enhancing the revenues and maintaining a positive cash flow, that are often degraded due to either seasonality of demands or production planning challenges. The model considers capacity planning for the mixed environment when there are predictable fluctuating demands. Due to the nature of the clothing business, it is challenging for a garment manufacturer to cope with …

Optimizing Rehabilitation And Maintenance Of Hospitals, Mohamed Ahmed

Theses and Dissertations

Hospitals are one of the core elements of a health care system that provide medical service to the patients. Hospital facility management is a complex issue as it involves the management of several complex systems that have a direct impact on the delivery of health care issues. This research focuses on two vital aspects of hospital facility management, (1) level of service provided by the hospital and (2) technical aspects of mission critical hospital subsystems. This study proposes two models in order to maintain and improve the level of service delivered to the patients. The first model operates at the …

Parametric Freeform-Based Construction Site Layout Optimization, Ibrahim Abotaleb

Theses and Dissertations

Traditional approaches to the construction site layout problem have been focused mainly on rectilinear facilities where the importance proximity measures are mainly based on Cartesian distances between the centroids of the facilities. This is a fair abstraction of the problem; however it ignores the fact that many facilities on construction sites assume non-rectilinear shapes that allow for better compaction within tight sites. The main focus of this research is to develop a new approach of modeling site facilities to surpass limitations and inefficiencies of previous models and to ensure a more realistic approach to construction site layout problems. A construction …

Integrated Asset Management System For Performance-Based Road Maintenance Contracts, Soliman Abu-Samra

Theses and Dissertations

Performance-based maintenance contracts (PBMC) for highways are increasingly becoming an attractive mechanism for transferring activities traditionally undertaken by the public sector to private entities. Increased financial pressures on governments, demands for improved service levels by highway users, and the operational efficiencies offered by the private sector, all create a strong business case for PBMC. In order to enable government road agencies and private sector investors to engage in the use of PBMC, there is a need for quantitative tools that allow both entities to 1) Properly structure the PBMC in terms of risk allocation, 2) Develop appropriate levels for service …

Time-Cost-Quality Trade-Off Analysis For Construction Projects, Mahmoud Elbassuony

Theses and Dissertations

The main objective of construction projects is to finish the project according to an available budget, within a planned schedule, and achieving a pre-specified extent of quality. Therefore, time, cost, and quality are considered the most important attributes of construction projects. The purpose of this study is to incorporate quality into the traditional two-dimensional time-cost trade-off (TCT) in order to develop an advanced three-dimensional time-cost-quality trade-off (TCQT) approach. Time, cost, and quality of construction projects are interrelated and have impacts on each other. It is a challenging task to strike a balance among these three conflicting objectives of construction projects …