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Papers by mahmoud nasr

2017 13th International Computer Engineering Conference (ICENCO)

Serial liver biopsies are typically the gold standard for diagnosis of liver fibrosis progression... more Serial liver biopsies are typically the gold standard for diagnosis of liver fibrosis progression. However, It is associated with serious complications, inconvenient to patients and expensive, the challenge is to substitute the liver biopsy with non-invasive method. The proposed technique is employed to resolve this issue with average accuracy 99.48% for 5-folds cross validation. This accuracy pave the way to utilize classification models as a clinically non-invasive and reliable method to assess the degree of liver fibrosis.

Journal of Water Process Engineering

IEEE Access, 2021

The significant increase in the number of individuals with chronic ailments (including the elderl... more The significant increase in the number of individuals with chronic ailments (including the elderly and disabled) has dictated an urgent need for an innovative model for healthcare systems. The evolved model will be more personalized and less reliant on traditional brick-and-mortar healthcare institutions such as hospitals, nursing homes, and long-term healthcare centers. The smart healthcare system is a topic of recently growing interest and has become increasingly required due to major developments in modern technologies, especially artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). This paper is aimed to discuss the current state-of-the-art smart healthcare systems highlighting major areas like wearable and smartphone devices for health monitoring, machine learning for disease diagnosis, and the assistive frameworks, including social robots developed for the ambient assisted living environment. Additionally, the paper demonstrates software integration architectures that are very significant to create smart healthcare systems, integrating seamlessly the benefit of data analytics and other tools of AI. The explained developed systems focus on several facets: the contribution of each developed framework, the detailed working procedure, the performance as outcomes, and the comparative merits and limitations. The current research challenges with potential future directions are addressed to highlight the drawbacks of existing systems and the possible methods to introduce novel frameworks, respectively. This review aims at providing comprehensive insights into the recent developments of smart healthcare systems to equip experts to contribute to the field. INDEX TERMS Smart healthcare, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, machine learning, ambient assisted living, social robots, software integration architecture. TABLE 1. Summary of the smart health monitoring systems based on wearable devices.

Journal of Cleaner Production, 2021

Abstract Paper-manufacturing industries utilize rice straw (RS) as raw material, generating huge ... more Abstract Paper-manufacturing industries utilize rice straw (RS) as raw material, generating huge quantity of black liquor (BL), which should be treated before reaching the environment. BL is mainly rich in organic pollutants that can be utilized to obtain valuable by-products and meet sustainable development goals (SDGs). In this investigation, BL from a paper-making industry was efficiently employed as a substrate for bio-H2 generation via dark fermentation at pH value of 7.5 and temperature of 35 °C for 14 days, resulting in a hydrogen yield (HY) of 0.579 mol/molglucose. The HY was substantially increased up to 1.654, 1.908, and 2.187 mol/molglucose with immobilization of anaerobes on Graphene (GN), hydroxyapatite (HN), and Graphene/hydroxyapatite nanoparticles (GHN). Further, the activities of protein- and carbohydrate-degrading enzymes i.e. protease, α-amylase, xylanase, and CM-cellulase was highly improved. Results were validated with respect to the operational taxonomical unit (OUT) richness estimators (ACE and Chao), diversity indices (Shannon and Simpson), and electron-equivalent and mass balances. The H2 productivity data were techno-economically assessed for proposing a bioenergy-based project, revealing a payback period of 5.92 years to recoup the initial investment. The findings of this study would promote interaction in the areas of industrialization, pollution prevention, and clean energy production to attain SDGs keys.

Journal of Molecular Structure, 2021

Abstract A novel series of thiosemicarbazone derivatives having 1,3-dioxoisoindole core were synt... more Abstract A novel series of thiosemicarbazone derivatives having 1,3-dioxoisoindole core were synthesized from the reaction of N-(1,3-dioxoisoindolin-2-yl)aminothiocarbohydrazide (3) with a variety of aldehydes and ketones. Their geometrical and conformational isomers were investigated based on the analysis of their 1HNMR and 13CNMR spectra. The thiosemicarbazones were found to exist in the more stable structure III with an E configuration and a syn, syn disposition of both NH protons around the C=S bond. However, compounds 5b and 9c were existed as a mixture of E (major) and Z (minor) stereoisomers with a syn, syn conformation of both NH protons around the C=S bond as in structure III and VI, respectively. On the other hand, the thiosemicarbazones 9e,f and 15 derived from p-chloro-, p-bromoacetophenone and cyclopropylmethyl ketone 14 showed different behavior. They existed in solution of DMSO-d6 as a mixture of E (major) and Z (minor) geometrical isomers with syn, syn and, anti, anti disposition of both NH protons as in structure III and IV, respectively. Dehydrative cyclization of compounds 5b–g, i, 9a–d and 15 with acetic anhydride afforded only one stereoisomer of the hybrid heterocycles of the dioxoisoindole and thiadiazoline rings 16a–l as confirmed by 1H and 13C NMR spectra. DFT calculations revealed the extrastability of the E isomer relative to the Z one 5b, d and 15 as representative examples. The relative energies are small (5.1–5.8 kcal/mol) which further confirm their coexistence in solution.

Expert Systems with Applications, 2021

Association rule mining is one of the main means in Knowledge discovery and Machine learning. Suc... more Association rule mining is one of the main means in Knowledge discovery and Machine learning. Such kind of rules present knowledge of interrelations among items in a dataset. Class Association Rules (CARs) are a subset of association rules which are always mined using labeled datasets. Simply, a typical CAR has an itemset that is associated to a class label. Mining CARs is vital for construction of pattern or rule-based classification models and has received recently increasing research interest. In this work, a complete efficient but not exhaustive CAR mining algorithm (UniqAR) is introduced. UniqAR generates always and only 100% accurate CARs which are called unique association rules using two rule search hypothesis of Subsumption and Nonsense to find unique itemsets in order to generate the Unique CARs. Unlike alternatives of CAR mining algorithms, UniqAR mined association rules aren't based on itemset frequency or item selectivity. It can generate both frequent and rare association rules. No preferences of support, coverage, or item participant in itemsets are required to be provided for the proposed mining process. The main contribution of this work to CARs' state of the art is describing unique itemsets and class association rules and providing an efficient mining process for them. Unlike the other unique rule mining alternatives in the literature, the proposed novel mining process depends on a complete but not exhaustive search that employs rules interrelations. UniqAR has been modeled with computational analysis and extended evaluation. It is shown that UniqAR can extract all unique itemsets for unique association mining with no need to setup any user preferences, template or any constraints. Moreover, it describes accurately the effects of different dataset criteria like number of attributes/features, feature values, cases, and class labels on UniqAR unique itemset extraction mining process in an efficient way that avoids a huge number of itemsets/cases comparisons. Results have shown that the proposed UniqAR algorithm is feasible and promising.

Superlattices and Microstructures, 2020

This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the ad... more This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the addition of a cover page and metadata, and formatting for readability, but it is not yet the definitive version of record. This version will undergo additional copyediting, typesetting and review before it is published in its final form, but we are providing this version to give early visibility of the article. Please note that, during the production process, errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.

Environmental Technology & Innovation, 2020

Abstract Sludge bulking is an operational hurdle that affects the solid–liquid separation in wast... more Abstract Sludge bulking is an operational hurdle that affects the solid–liquid separation in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) worldwide. In this study, filamentous bulking issues were investigated in seven WWTPs located in South Africa using artificial neural network (ANN) and multivariate statistics. The microbial community belonging to sludge bulking was determined using staining and microscopic methods, with a further confirmed identification of selected species via fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH). Based on a filament index scale from 1 (None filament) to 7 (Excessive filament), the developed ANN could predict the sludge volume index (SVI) using the abundances of ten inputs of filamentous species. Eikelboom Type 0041 attained the highest impact on SVI, followed by Gordonia spp., Nostocoida limicola, and Thiothrix spp. Principal component analysis (PCA) combined with FISH images showed that most WWTPs experienced inadequate sludge settling properties; however, the application of an efficient aeration system (i.e., diffusion) in the three-stage Phoredox process improved the settling characteristics of bio-flocs. Operational conditions that caused filament overgrowth in each WWTP were also determined. The study outputs would provide a scientific basis to control the proliferation of filamentous bacteria in other WWTPs located in similar environmental conditions to South Africa.

International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 2018

This study investigated the utilization of Pistia stratiotes for biohydrogen production via a dar... more This study investigated the utilization of Pistia stratiotes for biohydrogen production via a dark-fermentation process. The aquatic plant was subjected to acid-hydrolysis using H 2 SO 4 : 3.0% (v/v) for 40 min, resulting in sugar yield: 122.2 ± 5.2 mg/g. The optimum culture pH was 5.5, achieving hydrogen yield (HY): 2.46 ± 0.14 mol-H 2 /mol-glucose (3.51 ± 0.20 mg-H 2 /g-dry weight) at fermentation time 8 h, temperature 25 C, and substrate-to-biomass (S/X) ratio 1.0 g-COD/g-VSS. The organic mass balance (92e96%) and electron-equivalent balance (92e98%) indicated the reliability of fermentation data. The dominant species included Planctomycetales, Verrucomicrobiales, Clostridiaceae, and Gammaproteobacteria. The phylogenetic analysis confirmed the abundance of hydrogen-producing bacteria such as Bacillus, Clostridium, and Enterobacter. The hydrogenase gene expression provided the highest activity at pH: 5.5 with a cell number 2.53 Â 10 4 copies/ng-DNA compared to pH: 4.5 (6.95 Â 10 3 copies/ng-DNA) and pH: 8.5 (7.77 Â 10 3 copies/ng-DNA). The total cost of the fermentation system including the amortization cost of investment and operating cost was 0.

Environmental monitoring and assessment, Jan 19, 2018

This study presented a comprehensive analysis of heavy metal contents in foodstuffs and the assoc... more This study presented a comprehensive analysis of heavy metal contents in foodstuffs and the associated health risk for the residential population in Durban, South Africa. The concentrations of elements in fruits and vegetables, respectively, were (in mg kg dry weight) Cu, 0.52-1.47 and 0.27-2.25; Zn, 0.30-3.05 and 0.56-6.24, Fe, 1.70-22.60 and 0.73-44.90; Mn, 0.37-28.50 and 0.67-13.70; Cr, 0.47-1.47 and 0.37-3.06; Ni 0.03-1.14 and 0.11-2.5;, and Pb, 1.52-3.45 and 1.57-4.52. Multivariate analysis revealed that pineapple in fruits and turnip and carrot in vegetables contained remarkable components of trace metals. The target hazard quotient (THQ) values for heavy metals were arranged in the order of Pb > Mn > Cu > Ni > Zn > Cr. No potential health risks were reported for individual elements over a lifetime of exposure, except children's exposure to Mn in pineapple and Pb in banana, orange small, guava, grape green, grape red, yellow-orange, and kiwifruit. The total ...

Environmental science and pollution research international, 2018

In this study, batch biosorption experiments were conducted to determine the removal efficiency o... more In this study, batch biosorption experiments were conducted to determine the removal efficiency of Cd(II) ion from aqueous solutions by Gossypium barbadense waste. The biosorbent was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) connected with energy dispersive X-ray (EDX). The sorption mechanism was described by complexation/chelation of Cd with the functional groups of O-H, C=O, -COO-, and C-O, as well as, cation-exchange with Mg and K. At initial Cd(II) ion concentration (C ), 50 mg/L, the adsorption equilibrium of 89.2% was achieved after 15 min under the optimum experimental factors of pH 6.0, biosorbent dosage 10 g/L, and particle diameter 0.125-0.25 mm. Both Langmuir and Freundlich models fitted well to the sorption data, suggesting the co-existence of monolayer coverage along with heterogenous surface biosorption. Artificial neural network (ANN) with a structure of 5-10-1 was performed to predict the Cd(II) ion removal...

The Egyptian Journal of Aquatic Research, 2016

This study assessed spatial variations in physical and chemical properties of an agricultural dra... more This study assessed spatial variations in physical and chemical properties of an agricultural drain near Borg El-Arab city, Alexandria, Egypt. Pearson's correlation coefficient indicated that salinity had strong correlations with total dissolved solids (TDS) (r 0.999, p < 0.001) and Cl À (r 0.807, p 0.016), whereas, pH was considerably affected by temperature (r 0.674, p 0.067), oxidation reduction potential (ORP) (r 0.866, p 0.006) and NO 3 À (r 0.731, p 0.039). Those results were further confirmed by applying an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system and regression models. Moreover, principal component analysis (PCA) indicated that PC1 explained 41.1% of the total variance, and had high loadings of TDS (0.46), salinity (0.46) and Cl À (0.48). Additionally, PC2 accounted for 35.2% of the total variance, and had high loadings of pH (0.53), temperature (0.48), ORP (0.40) and NO 3 À (0.47). The present study revealed that artificial intelligence and PCA could be used to effectively reduce the number of physicochemical parameters that may assist in the description of drainage water quality. It is recommended that the current status of the drain is suitable for reuse in irrigation purposes except at few locations containing high salinity.

Journal of Bioremediation & Biodegradation, 2016

An electrocoagulation system using bipolar aluminium electrodes was studied for the treatment of ... more An electrocoagulation system using bipolar aluminium electrodes was studied for the treatment of olive mill wastewater (OMW). Response surface methodology and adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) were employed to study the effects of operating parameters on the removal of chemical oxygen demand (COD). At the optimum condition of initial pH 4, current density 83 mA cm-2 and 20 min-electrolysis time, the estimated COD removal efficiency of 40.4% was close to the experimental result (42.7%) with a coefficient of determination r 2 =0.92. Results from ANFIS indicated that the order of operating parameters affecting the COD removal efficiency was pH>current density>electrolysis time. Additionally, the optimal combination of two inputs influencing the COD removal efficiency was current density × pH, since it recorded the least training root mean square error of 5.04. This study demonstrated that ANFIS could be used as a tool to describe the factors influencing electrocoagulation process.

Separation and Purification Technology, 2016

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was used for hydrodynamic modeling of flocculation and sedimen... more Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was used for hydrodynamic modeling of flocculation and sedimentation experiments in a novel spiral hydraulic flocculation/sedimentation system. The experiments were conducted by different flow rates and different internal geometry to obtain different flocculation times and velocity gradients. In all experiments, the velocity gradient was gradually decreased with depth showing very smooth tapered flocculation which is preferred in hydraulic flocculation. The results of velocity gradient that obtained from the CFD simulation were used to investigate the influence of velocity gradient on turbidity and NOM removal in terms of specific ultraviolet absorbance (SUVA) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC). The experimental results revealed high influence of velocity gradient on reduction of NOM and turbidity. Fuzzy inference system (FIS) and response surface methodology (RSM) were used for modelling the influence of initial SUVA, DOC, and turbidity with velocity gradient and flocculation time on the treatment efficiency. Both methods were suitable for *

International Journal of Phytoremediation, 2016

Biomass of Oryza sativa (OS) was tested for the removal of Cd(II) ions from synthetic and real wa... more Biomass of Oryza sativa (OS) was tested for the removal of Cd(II) ions from synthetic and real wastewater samples. Batch experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of operating parameters on Cd(II) biosorption. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy were used to examine the surface characteristics of the Cd(II)-loaded biomass. The maximum removal efficiency of Cd(II) was 89.4% at optimum pH 6.0, biosorbent dose 10.0 g L(-1), initial Cd(II) 50 mg L(-1), and biosorbent particle size 0.5 mm. The applicability of Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms to the sorbent system implied the existence of both monolayer and heterogeneous surface conditions. Kinetic studies revealed that the adsorption process of Cd(II) followed the pseudo-second-order model (r2: 0.99). On the theoretical side, an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) was applied to select the operating parameter that mostly influences the Cd(II) biosorption process. Results from ANFIS indicated that pH was the most influential parameter affecting Cd(II) removal efficiency, indicating that the biomass of OS was strongly pH sensitive. Finally, the biomass was confirmed to adsorb Cd(II) from real wastewater samples with removal efficiency close to 100%. However, feasibility studies of such systems on a large-scale application remain to be investigated.

Microbial Ecology, 2016

Nitrification at a full-scale activated sludge plant treating municipal wastewater was monitored ... more Nitrification at a full-scale activated sludge plant treating municipal wastewater was monitored over a period of 237 days. A combination of fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) were used for identifying and quantifying the dominant nitrifiers in the plant. Adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS), Pearson's correlation coefficient, and quadratic models were employed in evaluating the plant operational conditions that influence the nitrification performance. The ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) abundance was within the range of 1.55 × 10 8-1.65 × 10 10 copies L −1 , while Nitrobacter spp. and Nitrospira spp. were 9.32 × 10 9-1.40 × 10 11 copies L − 1 and 2.39 × 10 9-3.76 × 10 1 0 copies L −1 , respectively. Specific nitrification rate (q N) was significantly affected by temperature (r 0.726, p 0.002), hydraulic retention time (HRT) (r −0.651, p 0.009), and ammonia loading rate (ALR) (r 0.571, p 0.026). Additionally, AOB was considerably influenced by HRT (r −0.741, p 0.002) and temperature (r 0.517, p 0.048), while HRT negatively impacted Nitrospira spp. (r −0.627, p 0.012). A quadratic combination of HRT and food-to-microorganism (F/M) ratio also impacted q N (r 2 0.50), AOB (r 2 0.61), and Nitrospira spp. (r 2 0.72), while Nitrobacter spp. was considerably influenced by a polynomial function of F/M ratio and temperature (r 2 0.49). The study demonstrated that ANFIS could be used as a tool to describe the factors influencing nitrification process at fullscale wastewater treatment plants.

Water science and technology : a journal of the International Association on Water Pollution Research, 2015

We investigated the effect of salinity on the removal of organics and ammonium from agricultural ... more We investigated the effect of salinity on the removal of organics and ammonium from agricultural drainage wastewater (ADW) using moving bed biofilm reactors (MBBRs). Under the typical salinity level of ADW (total dissolved solids (TDS) concentration up to 2.5 g·L(-1)), microorganisms were acclimated for 40 days on plastic carriers and a stable slime layer of attached biofilm was formed. Next, six batch mode MBBRs were set up and run under different salinity conditions (0.2-20 g-TDS·L(-1)). The removal efficiency of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and ammonium-nitrogen (NH4-N) in 6 hours decreased from 98 and 68% to 64 and 21% with increasing salt concentrations from 2.5 to 20 g-TDS·L(-1), respectively. In addition, at decreasing salt levels of 0.2 g-TDS·L(-1), both COD removal and nitrification were slightly lowered. Kinetic analysis indicated that the first-order reaction rate constant (k1) and specific substrate utilization rate (U) with respect to the COD removal remained relatively...

Wastewater treatment processes are difficult to control because of their complex and nonlinear bi... more Wastewater treatment processes are difficult to control because of their complex and nonlinear bio-chemical reactions. This study compared a fuzzy logic control (FLC) to classical (on/off and Proportional-Integral) methods in order to maintain the effluent quality within specified limits, as well as acceptable aeration energy (AE) consumption. Data were collected from the COST Benchmark simulation model.1 that comprises anoxic/aerobic modules for a combined biological carbon and nitrogen removal. Fuzzy logic toolbox in MATLAB was used to develop the fuzzy logic rule based system. The data of variables were implemented into the fuzzy inference system with Mamdani's method. Results showed that, good performance was achieved under dynamic influent characteristics, especially concerning the nitrogen-related species. In the anoxic section (denitrification process), nitrate was utilized by the heterotrophic organisms, and decreased from 4.8 ± 1.2 to 2.8 ± 0.9 mg L-1. In the subsequent...

International Journal of Development Issues

This study investigates the biosorption efficiency of crude and diesel oils using corn stack as a... more This study investigates the biosorption efficiency of crude and diesel oils using corn stack as agriculture wastes. Results showed that, due to its lower viscosity (i.e. 12.8 Cs), the diesel oil achieved sorbed amount of 29.3±5.7 g oil. This result was higher than the optimal capacity of 23.9±4 g for 3 mm film thickness of crude oil via corn stalk sorbent. Furthermore, adding bacterial doses of 1, 3 and 5 mm film thickness of crude to the corn stalk pad increased the average oil elimination to 26.4±4.1, 29.9±4.2 and 33.6±5.0 g, respectively. Additionally, the well-developed structure and distribution of cotton pores enhanced the oil sorbed to be 37.9±2.6 g, compared to 23.9±4.3 g (corn stalk) and 31.3±3.9 g (composting of 1: 1 corn stalk: cotton). This work aims at decreasing the concentration of oil spill contaminants till eliminating using agricultural wastes safely by the use of renewable source of biomass. INTRODUCTION Oil is produced from a broad range of industries such as ste...