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Understanding the sorption process in natural zeolite and bentonite is necessary for effective utilization of these minerals as nutrient adsorbents and on the other side for controlling release of plant nutrients. This research was undertaken to characterize the ability of natural zeolite and bentonite minerals to adsorb and release zinc and manganese. The potentials for sorption of these ions were evaluated by applying the Langmuir and Freundlich equations. The results showed that Langmuir constant [maximum adsorption (b mmol kg-1)] of both Zn and Mn were for bentonite > zeolite While the [binding strength values (k in L.mmol-1)] for zeolite > bentonite Zn in case of zeolite showed the lowest desorbed percentage particularly at high levels of sorbed Zn. Only, 74.7 % is readily extractable by DTPA after three successive extractions leaving, 25.3 % Zn retained by the mineral. In case of bentonite, 82.26 % of sorbed Zn is readily extractable by DTPA after three successive extractions leaving, 17.74 % Zn retained by the mineral. In case of Mn, 84.63% of Mn sorbed by zeolite is readily extractable by DTPA after three successive extractions leaving, 15.37% Mn retained by the mineral. In case of bentonite, 89.79 % of adsorbed Mn is readily extractable by DTPA after three successive extractions leaving, 10.21 % Mn retained by the mineral. This finding may reflect clearly the possibility of using natural zeolite and bentonite as a slow release fertilizer for Zn and Mn and on the other hand preventing soil pollution with heavy metals.

PPeople are linked to places they relate to through their memories, responsive places represent a sequel to human life outside buildings, and are considered a key focus to urban development.Social housing patterns are a translation of the interaction of people and their preferable places.Egypt has recently been trying to implement a sustainable development strategy in Egypt`s Vision 2030; However, regarding the social housing pillar the gap continues to widen between the interpretation yet integration of the social character with in the urban patterns of social housing projects in Egypt.Therefore, this research seeks to reform the concept of social housing in Egypt based on the diversity in the application of practical practices of placemaking in a way that meets the people`s needs; through discussing both quantitative and qualitative methods in defining social housing in the Egyptian context, analysing global models of housing based on social housing factors, in order to integrate all life leading factors of urbanism in the future definition and application of social housing projects to form a comprehensive vision of social housing in Egypt. Based on this, the research concludes that there is a deficiency in both definition and application of the practice of sustainable social housing that responses to the needs, requirements and aspirations of the population; despite being a vital and critical component that acts as a sequence and thus completes urbanism in the city; which indeed acts as a social interaction bond to the people towards their streets and places and makes them realize the difference between the space and the place.So, Social Housing as both a definition and an application should be more comprehensive in order to include the different sequenced layers of both the buildings and the open spaces; and to deal with both layers based on the human needs and the relation between people and places to produce a livable yet enjoyable and healthy communities. In order to re-right the relation between people and places in social housing places in Egypt according to sustainable standards; all social, economic, environmental, cultural and functional factors should be reconsidered, and a human-based criteria of 3 levels includes 1) Basic dimensions, 2) Secondary requirements and 3) Standard indicators should be activated.

The Evidence Based Design ( EBD ) has become the fastest growing trend in healthcare development . It is a field of study emphasizing credible evidence to influence design. The paper deals with the EBD of "patient rooms" as one of the most important therapeutic elements of the environment inside a healthcare building. It examines the efficiency of care environment for patients, the feedback through the patient satisfaction and orientation towards the future design of patient rooms where the built environment will continuously need to be developed due to possible changes in medical technology. Some of the world proposal designs for patient rooms were studied as "Future's Patient Room". Factors associated with the room design were taken into consideration to gain access to a range of features for evidence-based design for maximum safety and optimality. An analytical study was carried out for some of patients rooms in Soin medical Center in Ohio, USA as an international case study. The field study investigated a range of patient rooms in Mansoura University hospital as well as in the the Urology and Nephrology Center-Mansoura University. Justifications for choosing the case studies were clarified, and the design of patient rooms were analyzed. The study includes evaluation of the most important features of each room through clarifying aspects of the EBD. Concluding comments are fomulated aiming to create more efficient health care environment and to improve patient and staff well-being, patient healing, stress reduction and safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kitchener drain isconsideredone of the largest drains in the Nile delta. The current study aimed to assess water quality and level of some chemical and biological pollutants in both the water and sediments of Kitchener drain. The studied water quality parameters included nitrate (NO3-), phosphate (PO43-), total solids (TS), total suspended solids (TSS) and total dissolved solids (TDS), in addition, water and sediment samples were exposed to bacteriological analysis which included, total coliform (TC) bacteria, faecal coliform (FC) bacteria and Salmonella&Shigella (SS). The results showed that nitrate (NO3-) and phosphate (PO43-) concentrations in most sampling sides were within the permitted Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) limits for irrigation water. In addition, all the values of total suspended solids (TSS) and total dissolved solids concentrations (TDS) in El-Gharbia governorate were higher than the World Health Organization (WHO) permitted limits. Bacteriological results revealed that most sampling sites were contaminated with both TC and FC bacteria where, the counts of them in the water samples exceeded the 1,000 CFU/100 ml which is higher than the WHO limits. In addition, the counts of studied organisms in all examined sediment samples were higher compared to water samples. Based on these results the water in Kitchener drain is considered unsuitablefor domestic and agricultural purposes.

Land degradation is a global environmental issue, given the various negative impact on socio-economic and ecological implications. It leads to reduced production capacity in addition to soil erosion, physical /chemical /biological /economic land deterioration, and long-term loss (or degradation) of vegetation. When a severe deterioration in drought areas called the process of desertification i.e. arid, dry sub-humid and semi-arid areas. Desertification processes reduces the productivity of the soil and as a result effect on food stocks. The main objective of this study is integrating remote sensing data and a geographic information system (GIS) to evaluate the environmental sensitivity for desertification in Wadi El Natrun, Egypt based on the Mediterranean Desertification and Land Use (MEDALUS) approach. The collected soil data; from description of represented soil profiles and analysis of soil samples, in addition to climate, plant cover, and management data were considered for assessing the sensitivity of desertification. The obtained results showed that 10.4 % of Wadi El Natrun area is considered severe sensitivity to desertification as a result of alkalinity and salinity, while the moderately sensitive area occupies approximately 10.93 % of the study area. The low sensitive one exhibits 76.3 %. This area is described by high soil quality because of the study area is one of the new development areas which were not affected by the factors of desertification. It can be concluded that the desert extension of El-Beheira Governorate (i.e. Wadi El Rayan) is one of the areas that possess valuable land resources which should be considered for future land reclamation projects. Similar international studies are recommended to be achieved with the use of multi-criteria GIS modeling (i.e. MEDALUS) which considered all relevant factors in the form of thematic layers for easier implementation and assessments. Present study represents one of the initial attempts to use the MEDALUS model for desertification assessment in the desert extension of El-Beheira Governorate.