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Virtual reality (VR) technology has the potential to revolutionize public engagement in the design of urban projects, leading to more sustainable and inclusive environments. This research scrutinizes this potential through a study of elevated urban spaces, specifically the Sky Garden and Crossrail Place in London. Comparing real and virtual interactions, the aim is to highlight their differences and similarities while underscoring the importance of design decision-making for sustainable public places. Through walk-along interviews with 33 visitors in each space and a VR experiment with a separate group of 33 participants, the study analyses the effectiveness of VR as a co-design tool. The outcomes demonstrate that VR positively influences user involvement and allows for the production and real-time testing of design alternatives. Significantly, the majority of participants, who had not physically visited the spaces, could identify design concerns and propose potential activities and features through the VR experiment. These findings were consistent with those expressed by actual users of the spaces. By comparing human activities, circulation, and design concerns in both physical and virtual environments, the research underscores the potential and limitations of VR as a co-design tool for creating sustainable public spaces.

This study evaluates the readiness of Egypt's construction sector to integrate Circular Economy (CE) principles by identifying and analyzing the main barriers to effective Construction and Demolition Waste (CDW) management. A comprehensive survey-based methodology (n = 384) was employed to gather data from industry stakeholders, demonstrating excellent sampling adequacy (KMO = 0.961). Initially, 41 potential barriers were identified via literature review and expert consultation. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) subsequently refined these to 10 critical barriers, whose interrelationships were validated using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), exhibiting a strong model fit (RMSEA = 0.065; CFI = 0.974). The analysis revealed persistent economic, technological, and social barriers impeding CE adoption. Notable challenges include high implementation costs, inadequate technical expertise, low stakeholder awareness, and weak policy enforcement. Based on these findings, prioritized, time-phased recommendations are proposed to provide an evidence-based framework for policy and practice. This research contributes an early empirical assessment of CE adoption in Egypt's construction sector, offering a robust roadmap for a more sustainable, resource-efficient industry aligned with national environmental and economic objectives.

Purpose: This paper investigates the potential of virtual reality (VR) technologies—specifically, building information modeling (BIM) (“Autodesk Revit”) and game engines (“Unreal Engine”)—to enhance public involvement in the design and execution of architecture and urban projects. The main research question focuses on comparing the effectiveness of these two methods in creating an interactive design model for participatory design in public spaces. Methods: The study employed a VR exploratory experiment with 33 participants, followed by semi-structured interviews to analyze two recent developments in London: the Sky Garden, and Crossrail Place Roof Garden. Participants interacted with the design models and provided feedback on their experiences. Results: The findings demonstrate that integrating VR with BIM software using the Enscape plugin effectively enhances user involvement, enabling real-time generation and testing of design alternatives. While both methods were found to be beneficial, participants reported a preference for the direct implementation of VR in BIM software. Conclusions: This research highlights the potential of VR technologies—specifically, BIM and game engines—as a co-design approach for public and social spaces in urban environments. It also identifies limitations and future research opportunities in adopting these methods for participatory design.

Cost overruns are common on long-term construction projects. This is mostly because of inaccurate early estimates and unexpected changes in the economy and finances. In Egypt, the costs of materials like steel, cement, bricks, sand, and aggregates make up a large part of the cost of building. These costs are greatly affected by the state of the economy and the financial markets. Even though the Construction Cost Index (CCI) is a widely used economic indicator around the world, Egypt has not yet made its own CCI official. This study creates a predictive model just for Egypt’s construction industry that aims to predict a localized CCI to improve financial planning and lower risk. The framework uses two deep learning models, Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) and Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU), to make predictions about Egypt’s CCI. The models include a wide range of macroeconomic, monetary, foreign exchange market, commodity/energy market and equity market indicators, as well as technical indicators. In Python, advanced statistical methods like correlation analysis, multicollinearity, and stepwise regression are used to make sure that the best features are chosen. The GRU is better at keeping things in balance because it wins on the calibration (Weighted Absolute Percentage Error (WAPE), Bias (mean error)), the absolute error metrics (Mean Absolute Error, Mean Absolute Percentage Error, Symmetric Mean Absolute Percentage Error, and median error), while LSTM is better at squared-loss/association and turning points (Root Mean Squared Error, Mean Squared Error, Coefficient of determination, Directional Accuracy) because it has a slightly tighter variance fit and sign tracking. There is a permutation feature importance analysis for six features in both the GRU Model and the LSTM Model that shows that oil is the most important thing that affects the construction cost index (CCI). The study shows that deep learning models can accurately predict economic indicators. This gives Egypt’s construction industry a useful, data-driven tool for estimating costs ahead of time. They make a big difference in Egypt’s construction industry and meet the need for localized forecasting models in markets.

Nephrolithiasis is a prevalent issue around the globe, particularly in hot climates such as Saudi Arabia. This analysis's objectives were to investigate the characteristics of kidney stones in Eastern Saudi Arabia and to provide the following findings: urinary stone composition, gender and age distribution, seasonal variations in stone formation, coexisting diseases linked to stone development, and urinary stone incidence. With comparisons to European and American populations, the primary risk factors for nephrolithiasis in Asian populations are to be determined through this systematic review and meta-analysis. We synthesized data from 13 geographically different studies using a thorough literature search through PubMed, ScienceDirect, and ResearchGate following the Preferred Reporting Items of Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses criteria. Potential targets for specialized public health programs were highlighted by the elucidation of differences in health-care-seeking behavior and disparities in health-care access. The results of this systematic analysis give doctors, researchers, and policymakers a thorough understanding of the condition of nephrolithiasis care in Saudi Arabia today. In addition, to maximize the care of nephrolithiasis in this particular group, this review identifies information gaps and highlights the necessity of context-specific guidelines and future research initiatives. All things considered, this systematic review addresses the unique possibilities and problems that exist within the Saudi Arabian health-care sector while also adding to the worldwide conversation on nephrolithiasis.

Abstract Background: Currently, there are many techniques available for repairing hypospadias in urogenital reconstructive surgery. Aim: The purpose of this survey is to determine the preferred age of hypospadias repair patients, as well as the preferred surgical techniques among Saudi urologic and pediatric surgeons. Materials and Methods: An E-mail questionnaire was sent to urologic and pediatric surgeons throughout Saudi Arabia. Results: Forty-six participants from the Saudi regions returned completed questionnaires. Sixty-five percent of participants preferred age to do surgery on 6-18 months. While, 50% preferred meatal advancement and glanduloplasty techniques for coronal/glandular hypospadias, and 46% participate that tubularized incised plate (TIP). It was found that 86% of the participants admitted to using TIP procedure for subcoronal/distal penile hypospadias, whereas the majority of them (63%) used TIP for midpenile/proximal hypospadias with significant value P < 0.05. Ninety-eight percentage of surgeons stated that they prefer performing the chordee repair simultaneously. As a final note, 91% of participants have been omitted preoperative androgen in their protocols. Conclusions and Recommendation: We concluded from the surgeons' preferences regarding hypospadias repair in this study, that their preferences are highly successful rate and have few complications; however, we highly recommend using this study as a basis for future studies.

This paper investigated the flexural behavior and serviceability performance of glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP)-reinforced concrete (GFRP-RC) beams fabricated with normal- and highstrength concretes (NSCs and HSCs). The beam specimens measured 4250 mm long x 200 mm wide x 400 mm deep (167.0 x 8 x 16 in.). Three GFRP products with moduli of elasticity ranging from 48.7 to 69.0 GPa (7100 to 10,000 ksi) with sand-coated and helically grooved surface textures were employed. A total of 12 full-scale beams reinforced with GFRP bars and two reinforced with steel bars, serving as control specimens, were tested to failure in four-point bending over a clear span of 3750 mm (148 in.). The test parameters were: 1) type and ratio of the GFRP reinforcement; 2) surface configuration of the GFRP bars; 3) concrete strength; and 4) bar diameter. The test results were reported in terms of deflection, crack width, strains in concrete and reinforcement, flexural capacity, and mode of failure; they were also employed to assess the accuracy of the current deflection and crack-width prediction equations in the FRP-RC codes. The test results revealed that the crack widths were affected by the bar diameter and surface configuration while the deflections were not significantly affected. In addition, the bond coefficient k^sub b^ value of 1.4 was very conservative for both of the sand-coated and helically grooved GFRP bars in NSC and HSC. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR) is reshaping urban design by offering advanced tools that foster experiential engagement, real-time collaboration, and inclusive design strategies. This study explores AI-enhanced VR platforms through the development and implementation of a digital model of Loughborough University across five environments: Twinmotion, Unreal Engine, Hubs, FrameVR, and ShapesXR. As a methodological and technical evaluation, the research assesses each platform based on four core dimensions: compatibility, design and VR features, collaboration and accessibility, and AI capabilities. The results highlight the comparative strengths and limitations of each system, providing insights into their suitability for various urban design contexts. By establishing a structured evaluation framework, this study contributes to the discourse on digital urbanism and offers practical guidance for selecting and optimizing VR tools in architectural workflows. It concludes by underscoring the potential of AI–VR integration in bridging digital and physical environments within future Metaverse applications.