Abstract Melanoma is one of the deadliest skin cancer. It can, however, be cured with a high success rate if found in the early stage. With the recent development in Artificial Intelligence (AI), there has been an increase in the research of Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL) models for melanoma detection. However, such deployments are primarily trial-based and still waiting to gain wider acceptance from the practitioners. One of the primary reasons for such lower acceptance lies in the inherent approach and ethical concerns. To this end, our study designs a Deep Learning based recommendation application for the patients to advise whether they need to see a dermatologist based on provided skin lesion image. The traditional AI-based melanoma classifiers tend to be developed based on bulk image training and hence would classify images on an individual level. However, they neglect that a single skin lesion is merely a part of the patient. Thereby this research considers the contextual information between different lesions on the same patient. It produces a personalized patient classification rather than focusing on lesion level prediction. Several models are developed using ML and DL techniques, such as transfer learning and deep neural networks. These models are then tested on a real melanoma dataset with the true label provided. External benchmark is also established from recent similar studies using the same dataset. The best classifier achieves an 81.6% Area Under the Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve (AUROC) score using the patient's unique biological features.

The continuous growth of population in the capital, coupled with increased auto ownership and dependence has worsened traffic conditions on Riyadh's road network. Conventional methods to address this increased demand could be costly and insufficient. There has been greater interest in using alternative measures to improve the performance and safety characteristics on main corridors, particularly those that arrive at signalized intersections. Heavy left turning traffic at these intersections is one of the main causes for delays. Previous research has investigated several types of alternative designs termed "unconventional" arterial intersection designs that could minimize the effect of left turning traffic. This paper provides decision makers with an objective assessment on the efficiency of implementing an unconventional intersection design, the Double Continuous Flow Intersection (DCFI) configuration, to improve the operational and safety characteristics of an existing major signalized arterial intersection in Saudi Arabia. In this study, the Kingdom Hospital Intersection in Riyadh was selected, as it is one of the most congested intersections in Riyadh. Using the collected traffic data, the micro-simulation program VISSIM was used to analyze and compare the efficiency of both configurations. When compared to the existing conventional signalized intersection design, it was found that the proposed Double Continuous Flow Intersection (DCFI) unconventional intersection design decreased the average delay per vehicle by 99 seconds. The proposed Double Continuous Flow Intersection configuration also improved the Level of Service at the intersection from level F (152 sec/veh average delay) to level D (53 sec/veh average delay).

Any increase in the productivity of the SAW process will immensely benefit the welding industry, as this process is widely used. Since the traditional single wire DCEP SAW system is extensively used even today, any enhancement using this system will benefit the industry in a big way, if this traditional SAW system is part of the improvisation process. This paper establishes a relationship between welding current and productivity (deposition rate), for the three common sizes of both solid wires and metal cored tubular wires at different current values over its full range, through bead-on-plate experimentation. At each preset current value, the weld bead was optimized for acceptable visual quality, by adjusting arc travel speed and voltage, then the wire feed rate-making optimized bead was noted. The weld metal deposition rate was calculated for establishing A vs WMDR empirical relationships. From the results, ten progressive strategies have been established which can improve welding productivity from 21 to 211% from baseline. The established relationships, strategies can be effectively used, to estimate/optimize the productivity based on the welding current values, for each wire type and diameter.

Innovative building materials are being used in building envelopes for reducing their heating and cooling needs. This paper aims to assess the thermal impact of using lightweight concrete in Lebanese building constructions by pouring an 8 cm thickness of lightweight concrete on the roof and the slab and replacing traditional hollow concrete block by lightweight concrete blocks. Thermal properties of two different samples were experimentally determined: the first one (558 kg/m3) used for the roof and the slab and the second one (1074 kg/m3) used for the walls. Then numerical simulations were carried out for a Lebanese traditional detached house using the characteristics of these two samples. The thermally improved Light Weight Concrete building (LWC) was compared to a traditional Lebanese house base case (BC) using a dynamic building energy simulation tool in the four different Lebanese climate zones: coastal, mid-mountain, mountain, and inland zones. The results highlight the effectiveness of integrating LWC to building envelopes by reducing energy consumption and improving thermal comfort in both winter and summer climate conditions and in the different Lebanese climatic zones. The paper demonstrates that the use of LWC in the vertical walls replacing the traditional hollow blocks can reduce the heating needs by up to 9% and by up to 13% for cooling needs. On the other hand, adding a LWC roof screed has a very high impact on cooling and heating energy consumption, which can reach up to 74% in cooling energy savings and up to 24% in heating energy savings.

This paper proposes use of a new capacitive thermal age sensor that inherently integrates time and temperature without batteries or electronic memory to predict the remaining thermal life of a wide range of monitored products. The sensor is a tiny capacitor comprising a polymeric dielectric between two conductive plates. Capacitance of the sensor increases during thermal aging due to shrinkage of the polymer. Additives such as catalysts adjust the activation energy (Ea) of capacitance change with thermal age.A thermal age tag, incorporating two capacitive sensors of different activation energy, can be used to determine the effective temperature (Teff) of a complex thermal environment at wide range of product degradation activation energies. Correlation of the thermal age of the tag at the monitored product’s degradation activation energy to product thermal aging data provides estimated remaining thermal life of the product. The thermal age tag requires no batteries or electronic memory required in data-logging approaches resulting in reduced size, weight and cost. These passive tags are potentially maintenance free for the life of the product.This paper describes the development of a universal thermal age (UTA) tag incorporating capacitive thermal age sensors and preliminary co-aging trials with a variety of selected polymeric products to demonstrate feasibility of this approach.

A geotechnical investigation was carried out aton the soil ofEl-Alamein New City, northern coast. The tests include both in-situ and laboratorial tests. The achieved results reveal that the soil profiledisplaysdifferent layers; these are the topmost fill layer, the sandstone layer, the upper limestone layer, the clayey layer,the middle gypsiferous limestone layer and finally the lower limestone layer. Generally, the fill layer is fine- to medium-grained sand. The sand layerhas relative density very loose, loose to medium(SPT: 1-20 blows/ft).The upper limestone layer is moderately-weak, and has strongunconfined compressive strength (qu:91,326kg/cm2) and very poor quality (R.Q.D: 0-12%). A very poor kaolinite layer has high swelling potential (PI: 16-54%)and high water content (31- 44%).The middle gypsiferous limestone layer (7.5 12m thick) hasa weak unconfined compressive strength (qu: 37-50 kg/cm2) which is poor to very poor quality (R.Q.D: 15-35%).The lower limestone layer has moderately strong unconfined compressive strength (qu: 114 kg/cm2) and very poor quality (R.Q.D: 0-10%).Several kaolinite to illite lenses are encountered within this layer which have very high swelling potential.

Submerged Arc Welding (SAW) process is used to weld large, heavy metal deposition jobs with critical requirements, and this metal joining process alone is used to weld approximately 10% of the deposited weld metal worldwide. Any augmentation in productivity of SAW process, will immensely benefit the welding industry, as this process is widely used on variety of common metals and alloys. This paper focusses on establishing relationship between welding current and productivity (in terms of weld metal deposition rate as an index), for a given filler wire diameter. Productivity rates of most common solid filler wire sizes were studied, at different preset current values, covering full current range through bead-on-plate experiments. At each preset current value, the bead was first optimized for acceptable visual quality, by varying arc travel speed and voltage, then wire feed rate (of acceptable beads) was noted. The current density, heat input and corresponding weld metal deposition rate were calculated for establishing relationships. The established relationships can be effectively used, to estimate productivity from the preset current values, for a given solid wire diameter.

This chapter has two distinct foci. We begin by looking at the wide variety of meanings associated with the term “co-production”, which has led to confusion and uncertainty about when, why, who and what is involved in this form of healthcare delivery. We provide a graphic showing a range of interactions that infer a deepening relationship between providers and users of services, with suggestions about where consultation ends and co-production starts. Following this we draw attention to the issues and challenges involved in managing co-production from the perspective of providers and users.