Digital Commons Network^™

Political Culture And Democracy In The Arab World, Ibtissam Rakha Hassan

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Poverty Reduction, Microcredit, And The Challenges Of Sustainability, Kiros Tadesse Beyene

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Three Dimensional Deformable Modeling Of The Spine, Rania Atef

Archived Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this work is the development of a 3D deformable model of the spinal lumbar region. The data for the spine comes from the National Library of Medicine website (NLM). The 3D model uses several NURBS patches as modeling primitives. This work is part of a larger system aimed at building a 3D surgical simulator coupled with a force - feedback.PHANToM robot in a virtual reality CA VE system.

The input to this system is a set of two-dimensional CT images. They are processed and edge detected to produce a set of contoured images containing the vertebral data. …

Building General Indicator Cost Indexes For The Construction Industry Price Movement In The Egyptian Market, Bahaee Nabil Labib Khalil

Archived Theses and Dissertations

This thesis (The "Thesis") is submitted to the Department of Engineering at the American University in Cairo in partial :fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. The aim of the Thesis is Building General Indicator Cost Indexes for the Construction Industry Price Movement in the Egyptian Market. It is prepared by Bahaee N. L. Khalil under the supervision of Dr. Amr A. G. Hassanein (Associate Professor, Construction Engineering Department, the American University in Cairo). Construction cost indexes is mainly utilized in planning estimates required at an early stage of a project conception to assist with the …

Interaction Of Silica Fume And Polypropylene Fibers In High Performance Concrete, May Tarek Massoud

Archived Theses and Dissertations

The use of mineral admixtures and fibers is becoming essential in the new generation of high performance concrete since they introduce enhancement in mechanical properties as well as several durability aspects. Some of the advantages gained when properly employing high performance concrete are significant improvements in strength, drastically reduced permeability, better resistance to a wide spectrum of chemicals, superior performance in freezing and thawing conditions and enhanced thermal resistance. Although silica fume and polypropylene fibers are increasingly used in high performance concrete, yet, relatively little work has focused on the interaction of both ingredients in such concretes. The main aim …

Dimension And Shape Invariant Programming: The Implementation And Application, Manal Ezzat Helal

Archived Theses and Dissertations

This thesis implements a model for the shape and dimension invariant programming based on the notation of the Mathematics of Arrays (MOA) algebra. It focuses on dimension and shape invariance implementation, and their effect in parallel computing. A new design for the MOA notation is implemented that eliminates the need for another PSI-compiler, or a language extension to functional programming languages. The MOA notation is designed as a library of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), contains object oriented classes implemented in C++. The library executes array operations correctly, and is expected to enhance the performance invariant of dimension and shape. To …

Enhancing Image Classification And Content Query Using Perception-Based Models, Ahmed Badr El-Din

Archived Theses and Dissertations

Searching a digital image library, having large number of digital images or video sequences turned to be more and more important in this multimedia age. As time passes, a growing number of people are using the Internet for searching and browsing through different multimedia databases. To make such searching practical, effective image coding and searching based on image semantics is becoming increasingly important. In current real-world image databases, the prevalent retrieval techniques involve human-supplied text annotations to describe image semantics. These text annotations are then used as the basis for searching, using mature text search algorithms that are available as …

Participation And Resistance: Project Success In Telal Zinhom, Maysa Abbas Ayoub

Archived Theses and Dissertations

The main concern of this thesis is the different strategies that the government adopts in the process of upgrading or redeveloping squatter areas. The thesis studies two projects: a redevelopment project that applied a top­down approach and an upgrading project that applied a participatory approach. This thesis focuses on the relation between the project and the people arguing that there is a negative correlation between participation and resistance. The thesis shows the ways in which the adoption of an un-participatory approach in a development projects creates resistance on the part of the beneficiaries, which consequently negatively affects the success of …

Marketing Characteristics Of The Service Of Project Management In Egypt, Mohamed Ali Alhadidi

Archived Theses and Dissertations

The Project Management profession has been facing, since its introduction, a serious impediment establishing a significant and well-defined role among the Egyptian construction community. In an attempt to uncover the reasons behind this impediment, a problem identification research was conducted with service-provider firms of different sizes, origins, and backgrounds. The research confirmed the observation. It also arrived at the main obstacle hampering the development of Project Management in Egypt. This obstacle was the poor communication of the service and its benefits to the market. A barrier, built of mismarketing, has therefore parted between Project Management professionals and their clients. This …

Construction Delays Of High Investment Projects In Egypt, Nora Mohamed El-Gohary

Archived Theses and Dissertations

In evaluating the overall performance and success of construction projects, time is usually used as a major factor in such evaluation. Unsatisfactory time performance shows up as delays. Construction delays are very critical to the owner and contractor, because they suffer due to lost profit, additional overhead costs, increased costs of financing, and payment of liquidated or actual damages. Despite that, delays in completion of projects are repetitive in the Egyptian construction industry. Current Egyptian statistics and studies did not provide sufficient information and analysis of the delay phenomenon. Studying and analyzing the problem is a step towards its solution …

A Water And Wastewater Sector Performance Assessment: A Comparative Study, Reham Khalifa

Archived Theses and Dissertations

The water and wastewater sector has been one of the infrastructure sectors gaining increasing importance recently. Governments have been focusing major efforts and significant volumes of their budgets towards the improvement of this sector and the increase of water and wastewater coverage. The key problem in most of the water_and wastewater utilities is the absence of performance assessment tools.

This research utilizes the calculation of a group of financial and operational indicators for a sample size of 234 utilities from countries across the world as a mean of comparison of their performance. Egypt is represented in the sample size by …

A Legal Evalution Of Article 12(2) Of The Rome Statute Of The International Criminal Court, Ahmed Lotfy Abdel Fattah Mohsen

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Nasserist Work Ethic And The Spirit Of State Capitalism, Willa Newton Thayer

Archived Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines Egyptian state discourse about and directed at labor during the years 1952-1967, focusing on elements that could be said to comprise a "work ethic" promoted by the state to workers. A work ethic is conceptualized as comprising the individual's approach to their job, the way they interact with management/capitalists and the role of labor within the nation. Speeches by Gama! Abdel-Nasser, articles from the daily newspaper Al­Ahram and Al- 'Umaal, a monthly magazine of the Federation of Labor Syndicates are the sources of discourse used. Samples comprising material relevant to the three aforementioned categories were culled from …

3d Finite Element Modeling Of The Welding Process, Ihab Fanous Zakaria

Archived Theses and Dissertations

The modeling and simulation of the welding process has been of main concern for different fields of applications. It is used mainly to check for the residual stresses generated due to welding. These stresses may reach a value near the yielding level and may cause several failure types in the welded strnctures. Several attempts have been clone in analyzing the welding process using different approaches. Analytical methods have been developed with many approximations and assumptions to handle the highly non-linear behavior of the problem. On the other hand, experimental methods in monitoring the residual stresses in a welded structure may …

Impact Of Lignin From Non-Wood Pulping Processes On Kraft Wastewater Treatment And Receiving Water Quality, Mohamed Hamdy Nour

Archived Theses and Dissertations

The Kraft process is typically used for pulping non-wood raw materials, I ike rice straw, in order to dissolve the non cellulose organic fraction, essentially lignin, and leave behind the fibrous residual as pulp for paper production. Rice straw, however, also contains a high percentage of silica that dissolves in the process. The wastewater derived from vacuum filtration of the pulp solution is referred to as black liquor, owing to its dark color and complex makeup with high BOD, caustic, silica, and TDS. The high silica concentration in the black liquor prohibits conventional chemical recovery due to scaling of the …

Implementation Of Iso 9000 Standards In The Egyptian Construction Contracting Companies: A Quality Managers' View, Mohamed El-Sayed Mohamed El-Bassuni

Archived Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the status of the ISO 9000 standard in the Egyptian construction contracting companies. It investigates the opinion of the quality managers of the cun-ently ISO 9000 certified construction contracting companies in regard to the reasons for implementing ISO 9000 standard and the associated problems. In addition it addresses their views about the benefits that return to contracting companies as a result of implementing the ISO 9000 standards. Furthermore, the items that might prevent the construction contracting companies from becoming certified for the new standard ISO 900 l :2000 are identified, along with the recommended methods to resolve …

Secular Women Activism And Neo-Patriachy: The Case Of Egypt, Rasha S Mansour

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Child Labor In Egypt, Dina Ismail El Shafei

Theses and Dissertations

Child labor is a complex worldwide problem, especially in LDCs where poverty and low educational standards are persistent. A survey of child labor worldwide finds that children are working in considerable numbers throughout many regions of the world. Each region differs in the extent of child labor and the specific sectors where children may be found working. However, the main reasons behind the work of children namely poverty and education, were common in all areas. Egypt represents a typical case where child labor exists in most of its forms, except for prostitution, traficking and child bondage, and is mainly caused …

Classification Of Risks For International Construction Joint Ventures Projects, Yasser Abd El Ghany Azmy Elshabassy

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Three-Dimensional Modeling Of The Lumbar Spine For Simulation Purposes, Ayman Hamdy Mohamed Kassem

Archived Theses and Dissertations

Human spine modeling started gaining its popularity in world war II for military purposes as a result of studying the phenomenon of pilot spine cracking during ejection. It started with simple beam modeling and continued to get more complicated and realistic. Modeling the spine is a challenging problem because of its detailed anatomical structure, the motion of soft and bone tissues and the deformations that occur during different loads. Realistic spine modeling is expected to have a significant impact in a world where spinal injuries and deformities account for a large percentage of all injuries. In this research, a spinal …

An Optimal Production Plan In A Make-To-Stock Manufacturing Environment Using Mixed Integer Programming, Amr Mohamed Nofal

Archived Theses and Dissertations

The main aim of this thesis is to develop an optimization model that provides an optimal production plan for a make-to-stock (MTS) manufacturing environment that includes the production of multi products on multiple machines over a definite number of planning periods. While optimizing the production plan and inventory levels for this general problem under study, a set of constraints will be kept throughout the planning horizon. These constraints include maximum production capacity, maxrmum storage capacity, minimum and maximum coverage, minimum production quantities and others. Mixed integer programming (MIP) will be used as a tool to optimize the total cost involved …

The Relationship Between The Government And Developmental Ngos, Nevine Ellia Mikhael Bishai

Archived Theses and Dissertations

This thesis discusses the relationship between the government and developmental NGOs in Egypt with a close study of the level of coordination between NGOs and the Ministry of Social Affairs. The thesis is submitted to the Management Department at the American University in Cairo by Nevine Ellia Mikhael Bishai under the supervision of Dr. E. H. Valsan, Director of the Public Administration Program. The research tries to examine the inter-organizational relations in terms of coordination between the government and NGOs and how this kind of coordination can be improved. Five main aspects are tackled, these include:

I.Establishment and registration

2. …

The Music Tv In The Arab World Overview And Analysis, Moataz Abdul Aziz Ben Taleb

Archived Theses and Dissertations

The Arab world experienced a major change in TV production within the last decade. Furthermore, Arab music is a cornerstone of the Arab entertainment industry. Therefore, there is a demand to study the phenomenon of Arabic music channels that are mainly dependent on video clips and music shows. Likewise, these new trends of Arab music channels have an impact on Arab youth. The integration between modern Arab music and TV production resulted in forming a link between social consumption and new trends in Arabic music. Th.is link was one of the corners of this research. The research depend on several …

A Collection Of Sufi Rules Of Conduct: A Translation Of The Jawami Adab Al Sufiyya By Abu Abdal Rahman Al Sulami With Critical Introduction And A Concordance, Elena Biagi

Archived Theses and Dissertations

This work has been carried out by Elena Biagi in the Department of Arabic Studies at the American University in Cairo, under the supervision of Dr. E. Satiain, and bears the following title: A Collection of Sufi rules of conduct: A translation of the Gawiimi' A.dab al-$iifiyya by Ab11 'ibd a/-Ra!Jmlin al-Sulami (d 412/1021) with a critical introduction and a Concordance. After an introduction which places the author in his historical, literary and religious context, the research focuses on the translation of a book which bas not been translated so far into any European languages. Through the translation I have …

Do Remittances Change Household Spending?, Dalia Hammam El Sherbiny

Archived Theses and Dissertations

The impact of remittances on household spending has been a debatable issue. A I arge body of literature has been concerned about remittances in Egypt as well as other developing countries. However, there are conflicting views regarding the way remittances are circulated. Some believe that remittances negatively the economy of the recipient country by increasing personal consumption. On the other hand, others supported that remittances enhance productive asset accumulations and increased savings and investments. This thesis uses 1997 Egypt Integrated Household Survey (EIHS) to empirically assess whether remittances change household spending. For understanding of the way remittances affect spending decision, …

A Study Of Code-Switching Among Educated Lebanese As Reflected In Television Talk Shows, Mona El Sayed El Samaty

Archived Theses and Dissertations

In sociolinguistics, code-switching (CS), refers to the alternative use by bilinguals of two or more languages in the san1e conversation. This exploratory study aims to investigate the CS phenomenon in Lebanon. It aims to find out the reasons/functions of CS, as well as to know the extent to which the code-switches observe or violate six universal syntactic constraints: the size of the constituent constraint, the conjunction constraint, the adjectival phrase constraint, the free morpheme constraint, the equivalence constraint, and the dual structure principle. The literature on research pe1taining to both aims of the study is reviewed. Moreover, in order to …

Us/Them: A Comparative Study Of Relations Of Cultural Difference Within The Context Of Britain's Imperialism In The Middle And Far East As Presented In Al-Tayyib Salih's "The Season Of Migration To The North" And E.M. Forester's "A Passage To India", Rasha Muhammad Wagdy Muhammad Elleithy

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Excitation And Propagation Of X-Wave Pulse Trains In Wave-Guides, Ahmed Mohamed Dia Eldin Hassanein

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Mamluk Female Patronage, Nanis Nabil Hanna

Archived Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is discussing the topic of Mamliik Female Patronage in Egypt and how it differed from its contemporaries in Jerusalem, Seljuq Anatolia, and Timurid Iran. This subject, however, has not attracted the attention of many scholars, probably, because the information provided by the chronicles and biographers oqhe Mamliik period is scattered and incidental. This is also related to the age-long assumption that women had neither the economic resources nor the legal standing to commission works of art or buildings. The scholars who approached this topic were dealing with the subject from an architectural point of view and not in …

Does Microfinance Really Offer A Win-Win Solution?, Samar Maziad

Archived Theses and Dissertations

The 'win-win' solution put forward by the donor community as a prominent tool for poverty reduction, claims that microfinance institutions (MFls) can achieve financial sustainability without compromising their outreach to the poorest clients. MFis can become self-sustainable either by raising interest rates and/or by raising the minimum loan size. Thereore, the main hypothesis behind the 'win-win' solution is that the poor are not risk averseand that they are willing to pay high interest rates and/or take out large loans.