Search results for: smart building envelope

Authors: Biskri Yasmina, Laidi Babouri, Dehas Ouided, Bougherira Nadjiba, Baghloul Rahima

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Algeria is one of the countries which have extraordinary resources in vegetable fibers (Palmier, Alfa, Cotton, Sisal). Unfortunately, their valorization in the practical fields, among other things, in building materials, is still little exploited. Several works align with the fact that the use of plant fibers in mortar is an advantageous solution, given its abundance and its socio-economic and environmental impact. The idea of introducing plant fiber into the field of Civil Engineering is not new. Based on the work of several researchers in this field, we propose to study the mechanical behavior of mortar based on Sisal fibers. This work consists of the experimental characterization in the fresh state (workability) and in the hardened state (mechanical resistance to compression and traction by three-point bending) on the scale of mortar mortars based on sisal plant fibers. The main objective of this work is the study of the effect of fiber incorporation on mechanical properties (compressive strength and three-point bending strength). In this study, we varied two parameters, such as the length of the fiber (7cm, 10 cm) and the fibers percentage (0.25%, 0.5%, 0.75%, 1%, 1.25% and 1.5%). The results show that there is a slight increase in the compressive strength of the fiber-reinforced mortars compared to the reference mortar (mortar without fibers). With regard to the three-point bending tests, the fiber-reinforced mortars presented higher resistances compared to the reference mortar and this was for the different lengths and different percentages studied.

Keywords: mortar, plant fiber, experimentation, mechanical characterization, analysis

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Authors: Salima Djehaichia, Rachid Lassoued

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Reinforced concrete structural walls are very efficient elements for protecting buildings against excessive early damage and against collapse under earthquake actions. It is therefore of interest to develop a numerical model which simulates the typical behavior of these units, this paper presents and describes different modeling techniques that have been used by researchers and their advantages and limitations mentioned. The earthquake of Boumerdes in 2003 has demonstrated the fragility of structures and total neglect of sismique design rules in the realization of old buildings. Significant damage and destruction of buildings caused by this earthquake are not due to the choice of type of material, but the design and the study does not congruent with seismic code requirements and bad quality of materials. For idealizing the failure of rules, a parametric study focuses on: low rate of reinforcements, type of reinforcement, resistance moderate of concrete. As an application the modeling strategy based on finite elements combined with a discretization of wall more solicited by successive thin layers. The estimated performance level achieved during a seismic action is obtained from capacity curves under incrementally increasing loads. Using a pushover analysis, a characteristic non linear force-displacement relationship can be determined. The results of numeric model are confronted with those of Algerian Para seismic Rules (RPA) in force have allowed the determination of profits in terms of displacement, shearing action, ductility.

Keywords: modeling, old building, pushover analysis, structural walls

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Authors: Maria Elisabete Costa Ferreira

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Domestic violence is a serious social issue in which victims are mostly women. Domestic violence develops in cycles, starting with the building of tension, passing through the incident of abuse and ending with reconciliation, also known as honeymoon. As time goes by, the shorter these phases become, and the greater and more severe the attacks, rarely leading to the death of the victim of abuse. Sometimes, the victim stops the abuse by killing the aggressor, usually after the immediate aggression has taken place. This poses an important obstacle to the claim of self-defense by the victim of domestic violence pending trial for the homicide of her long-time abuser. The main problem with self-defense claims in such cases is that the law requires the act of aggression to be present or imminent (imminent threat or immediate danger) so that it permits the victim to take her defense into her own hands. If the episode of aggression has already taken place, this general requirement for the admissibility of self-defense is not satisfied. This paper sheds new light on the concept of the actuality of the aggression, understanding that, since domestic violence is a permanent offense, for as long as the victim stays under the domain of the aggressor, imminent threat will be present, allowing the self-defense claim of a woman who kills her abuser in such circumstances to be admissible. An actualist interpretation of the requirement of the necessity of the means used in self-defense will be satisfied when evaluated from the subjective perspective of the intimate partner victim. Necessity will be satisfied if it is reasonable for the victim to perceive the use of lethal force as the only means to release herself from the abuser.

Keywords: domestic violence, homicide, self-defense, imminent threat, necessity of lethal force

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Authors: Rita A. Sunday-Kanu

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This article reports on an evaluation of lunch hour concert and its effectiveness in improving undergraduate performance ability. In particular, it examines the aptitude of students in classroom applied music and their reaction/responses to true life concert situations. It further investigated factors affecting students’ confidence during performances, the relationship between stage fright and confidence building in regular concert participation. The Department of Music, University of Port Harcourt runs monthly lunch our concerts which are coordinated by undergraduates for the university community. Forty music students who have participated in or coordinated lunch hour concerts were chosen for this survey. Eight music lecturers who have supervised the monthly lunch hour concert were also chosen for this study. The attitude and view on the effectiveness of lunch hour concert in enhancing students’ performance skills were gotten through questionnaires survey, in-depth interview and participant observation to determine if classroom based applied music alone is as successful in grooming performance genius as the lunch hour concert. Result indicated that students’ participation in lunch hour concert did indeed broaden and strengthened their performance experiences. This observation led to a recommendation that regular community based concerts be considered as a standard for performance practices in the university curriculum since it serves as a preparatory platform for acquiring professional performance skills before graduation.

Keywords: lunch hour concert, performance, performing skill, community concert

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Authors: Mari A. Virtanen, Elina Haavisto, Eeva Liikanen, Maria Kääriäinen

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Rapid technological development and digitalization has affected also on higher education. During last twenty years multiple of electronic and mobile learning (e-learning, m-learning) platforms have been developed and have become prevalent in many universities and in the all fields of education. Ubiquitous learning (u-learning) is not that widely known or used. Ubiquitous learning environments (ULE) are the new era of computer-assisted learning. They are based on ubiquitous technology and computing that fuses the learner seamlessly into learning process by using sensing technology as tags, badges or barcodes and smart devices like smartphones and tablets. ULE combines real-life learning situations into virtual aspects and can be flexible used in anytime and anyplace. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of ubiquitous 360 o learning environment on higher education students’ clinical histotechnology competence. A quasi-experimental study design was used. 57 students in biomedical laboratory science degree program was assigned voluntarily to experiment (n=29) and to control group (n=28). Experimental group studied via ubiquitous 360o learning environment and control group via traditional web-based learning environment (WLE) in a 8-week educational intervention. Ubiquitous 360o learning environment (ULE) combined authentic learning environment (histotechnology laboratory), digital environment (virtual laboratory), virtual microscope, multimedia learning content, interactive communication tools, electronic library and quick response barcodes placed into authentic laboratory. Web-based learning environment contained equal content and components with the exception of the use of mobile device, interactive communication tools and quick response barcodes. Competence of clinical histotechnology was assessed by using knowledge test and self-report developed for this study. Data was collected electronically before and after clinical histotechnology course and analysed by using descriptive statistics. Differences among groups were identified by using Wilcoxon test and differences between groups by using Mann-Whitney U-test. Statistically significant differences among groups were identified in both groups (p<0.001). Competence scores in post-test were higher in both groups, than in pre-test. Differences between groups were very small and not statistically significant. In this study the learning environment have developed based on 360o technology and successfully implemented into higher education context. And students’ competence increases when ubiquitous learning environment were used. In the future, ULE can be used as a learning management system for any learning situation in health sciences. More studies are needed to show differences between ULE and WLE.

Keywords: competence, higher education, histotechnology, ubiquitous learning, u-learning, 360o

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Authors: Mahyar Maali, Merve Sagiroglu

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Steel, which is one of the base materials we prefer in the building construction, is the material with the highest ratio to weight of carrying capacity. Due to the carrying capacity, lighter and better quality steel in smaller sections and sizes has recently been used as a frame system in cold-formed steel structures. While light steel elements used as secondary frame elements during the past, they have nowadays started to be preferred as the main frame in low/middle story buildings and detached houses with advantages such as quick and easy installation, time-saving, and small amount of scrap. It is also economically ideal because the weight of structure is lighter than other steel profiles. Structural performances and failure modes of cold-formed structures are different from conventional ones due to their thin-walled structures. One of the most important elements of light steel structures to ensure stability is the connection. The screwed connections, which have self-drilling properties with special drilling tools, are widely used in the installation of cold-formed profiles. The length of the screw is selected according to the total thickness of the elements after the screw thickness is determined according to the elements of connections. The thickness of the material depends on the length of the drilling portion at the end of the screw. The shear tests of plates connected with self-drilling screws are carried out depending on the screw length, and their failure modes were evaluated in this study.

Keywords: cold-formed steel, screwed connection, connection, screw length

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Authors: Atefeh Heydari, Mohammadali Tavakoli, Naomie Salim

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In recent years, we have witnessed that online reviews are the most important source of customers’ opinion. They are progressively more used by individuals and organisations to make purchase and business decisions. Unfortunately, for the reason of profit or fame, frauds produce deceptive reviews to hoodwink potential customers. Their activities mislead not only potential customers to make appropriate purchasing decisions and organisations to reshape their business, but also opinion mining techniques by preventing them from reaching accurate results. Spam reviews could be divided into two main groups, i.e. multiple and singleton spam reviews. Detecting a singleton spam review that is the only review written by a user ID is extremely challenging due to lack of clue for detection purposes. Singleton spam reviews are very harmful and various features and proofs used in multiple spam reviews detection are not applicable in this case. Current research aims to propose a novel supervised technique to detect singleton spam reviews. To achieve this, various features are proposed in this study and are to be combined with the most appropriate features extracted from literature and employed in a classifier. In order to compare the performance of different classifiers, SVM and naive Bayes classification algorithms were used for model building. The results revealed that SVM was more accurate than naive Bayes and our proposed technique is capable to detect singleton spam reviews effectively.

Keywords: classification algorithms, Naïve Bayes, opinion review spam detection, singleton review spam detection, support vector machine

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Authors: Abeer A. Q. Ahmed, Tracey McKay

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Biomass can provide a sustainable source for the production of high valued chemicals. Under the uncertain availability of fossil resources biomass could be the only available source for chemicals in future. Cellulose and hemicellulose can be hydrolyzed into their building blocks (hexsoses and pentoses) which can be converted later to the desired high valued chemicals. A cellulase- and xylanase- producing bacterial strain identified as Paenibacillus illinoisensis CX11 by 16S rRNA gene sequencing and phylogenetic analysis was found to have the ability to saccharify different lignocellulosic materials. Cellulase and xylanase activities were evaluated by 3,5-dinitro-salicylic acid (DNS) method using CMC and xylan as substrates. Results showed that P. illinoisensis CX11 have cellulase (2.63± 0.09 mg/ml) and xylanase (3.25 ± 0.2 mg/ml) activities. The ability of P. illinoisensis CX11 to saccharify lignocellulosic materials was tested using wheat straw (WS), wheat bran (WB), saw dust (SD), and corn stover (CS). DNS method was used to determine the amount of reducing sugars that were released from lignocellulosic materials. P. illinoisensis CX11 showed to have the ability to saccharify lignocellulosic materials and producing total reducing sugars as 2.34 ± 0.12, 2.51 ± 0.37, 1.86 ± 0.16, and 3.29 ± 0.20 mg/l from WS, WB, SD, and CS respectively. According to the author's knowledge, current findings are the first to report P. illinoisensis CX11 as a cellulase and xylanase producing species and that it has the ability to saccharify different lignocellulosic materials. This study presents P. illinoisensis CX11 that can be good source for cellulase and xylanase enzymes which could be introduced into lignocellulose bioconversion processes to produce high valued chemicals.

Keywords: cellulase, high valued chemicals, lignocellulosic materials, Paenibacillus illinoisensis CX11, Xylanase

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Authors: Elina Bakhtieva

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The variety of available digital tools, strategies and activities might confuse and disorient even an experienced marketer. This applies in particular to B2B companies, which are usually less flexible in uptaking of digital technology than B2C companies. B2B companies are lacking a framework that corresponds to the specifics of the B2B business, and which helps to evaluate a company’s capabilities and to choose an appropriate path. A B2B digital marketing maturity model helps to fill this gap. However, modern marketing offers no widely approved digital marketing maturity model, and thus, some marketing institutions provide their own tools. The purpose of this paper is building an optimized B2B digital marketing maturity model based on a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis of existing models. The current study provides an analytical review of the existing digital marketing maturity models with open access. The results of the research are twofold. First, the provided SWOT analysis outlines the main advantages and disadvantages of existing models. Secondly, the strengths of existing digital marketing maturity models, helps to identify the main characteristics and the structure of an optimized B2B digital marketing maturity model. The research findings indicate that only one out of three analyzed models could be used as a separate tool. This study is among the first examining the use of maturity models in digital marketing. It helps businesses to choose between the existing digital marketing models, the most effective one. Moreover, it creates a base for future research on digital marketing maturity models. This study contributes to the emerging B2B digital marketing literature by providing a SWOT analysis of the existing digital marketing maturity models and suggesting a structure and main characteristics of an optimized B2B digital marketing maturity model.

Keywords: B2B digital marketing strategy, digital marketing, digital marketing maturity model, SWOT analysis

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Authors: Nalinee Sophatsathit

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The objectives of memorabilia of Suan Sunandha are to develop a general knowledge presentation about the historical royal garden through interactive graphic simulation technique and to employ high-functionality context in enhancing interactive user navigation. The approach infers non-intrusive display of relevant history in response to situational context. User’s navigation runs through the virtual reality campus, consisting of new and restored buildings. A flash back presentation of information pertaining to the history in the form of photos, paintings, and textual descriptions are displayed along each passing-by building. To keep the presentation lively, graphical simulation is created in a serendipity game play so that the user can both learn and enjoy the educational tour. The benefits of this human-computer interaction development are two folds. First, lively presentation technique and situational context modeling are developed that entail a usable paradigm of knowledge and information presentation combinations. Second, cost effective training and promotion for both internal personnel and public visitors to learn and keep informed of this historical royal garden can be furnished without the need for a dedicated public relations service. Future improvement on graphic simulation and ability based display can extend this work to be more realistic, user-friendly, and informative for all.

Keywords: interactive user navigation, high-functionality context, situational context, human-computer interaction

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Authors: Makram El Bachawati, Rima Manneh, Thomas Dandres, Carla Nassab, Henri El Zakhem, Rafik Belarbi

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A vegetative roof, also called a garden roof, is a "roofing system that endorses the growth of plants on a rooftop". Garden roofs serve several purposes for a building, such as embellishing the roofing system, enhancing the water management, and reducing the energy consumption and heat island effects. Lebanon is a Middle East country that lacks the use of a sustainable energy system. It imports 98% of its non-renewable energy from neighboring countries and suffers flooding during heavy rains. The objective of this paper is to determine if the implementation of vegetative roofs is effectively better than the traditional roofs for the Lebanese context. A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is performed in order to compare an existing extensive green roof to a traditional gravel-asphalted roof. The life cycle inventory (LCI) was established and modeled using the SimaPro 8.0 software, while the environmental impacts were classified using the IMPACT 2002+ methodology. Results indicated that, for the existing extensive green roof, the waterproofing membrane and the growing medium were the highest contributors to the potential environmental impacts. When comparing the vegetative to the traditional roof, results showed that, for all impact categories, the extensive green roof had the less environmental impacts.

Keywords: life cycle assessment, green roofs, vegatative roof, environmental impact

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Authors: Ikenna Michael Onuorah

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The relentless march of globalization in architecture has led to a homogenization of built environments, often characterized by an overreliance on imported, resource-intensive materials and a disregard for local cultural contexts. This research posits that such practices pose significant environmental and cultural perils, trapping communities in "caged concrete jungles" devoid of both ecological sustainability and a meaningful connection to their heritage. Through a mixed-method approach encompassing quantitative and qualitative data analysis, the study investigated the impacts of neglecting local materials and cultural expression in architectural design. The research is anticipated to yield significant insights into the multifaceted consequences of neglecting locally available materials and cultural expression in architecture. It creates a compelling case for reasserting local materials and cultural expression in architectural design. Based on the anticipated research findings, the study proposed series of actionable recommendations for architects, policymakers, and communities to promote sustainable and culturally sensitive built environments. This will serve as a wake-up call, urging architects, policymakers, and communities to break free from the confines of "caged concrete jungles" and embrace a more sustainable and culturally sensitive approach to design.

Keywords: sustainability, cultural identity, building materials, sustainable dsigns

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Authors: Maryam Solgi, Behzad Shahmohammadi, Morteza Raissi Dehkordi

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One of the main steps for seismic retrofitting of buildings is to determine the vulnerability of structures. While current procedures for evaluating existing buildings are complicated, and there is no limitation between short, middle-high, and tall buildings. This research utilizes a simplified method for assessing structures, which is adequate for existing reinforced concrete buildings. To approach this aim, Simple Lateral Mechanisms Analysis (SLaMA) procedure proposed by NZSEE (New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering) has been carried out. In this study, three RC moment-resisting frame buildings are determined. First, these buildings have been evaluated by inelastic static procedure (Pushover) based on acceptance criteria. Then, Park-Ang Damage Index is determined for the whole members of each building by Inelastic Time History Analysis. Next, the Simple Lateral Mechanisms Analysis procedure, a hand method, is carried out to define the capacity of structures. Ultimately, existing procedures are compared with Peak Ground Acceleration caused to fail (PGAfail). The results of this comparison emphasize that the Pushover procedure and SLaMA method define a greater value of PGAfail than the Park-Ang Damage model.

Keywords: peak ground acceleration caused to fail, reinforced concrete moment-frame buildings, seismic vulnerability analysis, simple lateral mechanisms analysis

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Authors: Amirreza Heidari, Akram Avami, Ehsan Heidari

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Evaporative cooling systems are known as energy efficient cooling systems, with much lower electricity consumption than conventional vapor compression systems. A serious limitation of these systems, however, is that they are not applicable in humid regions. Combining a desiccant wheel with these systems, known as desiccant-based evaporative cooling systems, makes it possible to use evaporative cooling in humid climates. This paper evaluates the performane of a cooling system combining desiccant wheel, direct and indirect evaporative coolers (called desiccant-based indirect-direct evaporative cooling (DIDE) system) and then evaluates the energy saving potential of this system over the conventional vapor compression cooling and drying system. To illustrate the system ability of providing comfort conditions, a dynamic hourly simulation of this system is performed for a typical 60 m² building in Sydney, Australia. To evaluate the energy saving potential of this system, a conventional cooling and drying system is also simulated for the same cooling capacity. It has been found that the DIE system is able to provide comfort temperature and relative humidity in a subtropical humid climate like Sydney. The electricity and natural gas consumption of this system are respectively 39.2% and 2.6% lower than that of conventional system over a week. As the research has demonstrated, the innovative DIDE system is an energy efficient cooling system for subtropical humid regions.

Keywords: desiccant, evaporative cooling, dehumidification, indirect evaporative cooler

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Authors: Anass Rahouti, Guillaume Salze, Ruggiero Lovreglio, Sélim Datoussaïd

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In healthcare facilities, training the staff for firefighting and evacuation in real buildings is very challenging due to the presence of a vulnerable population in such an environment. In a standard environment, traditional approaches, such as fire drills, are often used to train the occupants and provide them with information about fire safety procedures. However, those traditional approaches may be inappropriate for a vulnerable population and can be inefficient from an educational viewpoint as it is impossible to expose the occupants to scenarios similar to a real emergency. Immersive serious games could be used as an alternative to traditional approaches to overcome their limitations. Serious games are already being used in different safety domains such as fires, earthquakes and terror attacks for several building types (e.g., office buildings, train stations, tunnels, etc.). In this study, we developed an immersive serious game to improve the fire safety skills of staff in healthcare facilities. An accurate representation of the healthcare environment was built in Unity3D by including visual and audio stimuli inspired from those employed in commercial action games. The serious game is organised in three levels. In each of them, the trainee is presented with a specific fire emergency and s/he can perform protective actions (e.g., firefighting, helping non-ambulant occupants, etc.) or s/he can ignore the opportunity for action and continue the evacuation. In this paper, we describe all the steps required to develop such a prototype, as well as the key questions that need to be answered, to develop a serious game for firefighting and evacuation in healthcare facilities.

Keywords: fire safety, healthcare, serious game, training

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Authors: Hasan Sungur, Evrim Baran, Benjamin Ahn, Aliye Karabulut Ilgu, Chris Rehmann, Cassandra Rutherford

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Engineering identity contributes to the professional and educational persistence of women engineers. A crucial factor contributing to the development of the engineering identity is recognition. Those without adequate recognition often do not succeed in positively building their identities. This research draws on Honneth’s recognition theory to identify factors impacting women civil engineers’ feelings of recognition as civil engineers. A survey was composed and distributed to 330 female alumni who graduated from the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering at Iowa State University in the last ten years. The survey items include demographics, perceptions of the identity of civil engineering, and factors that influence the recognition of civil engineering identities, such as views of society and family. Descriptive analysis of the survey responses revealed that the perceptions of civil engineering varied widely. Participants’ definitions of civil engineering included the terms: construction, design, and infrastructure. Almost half of the participants reported that the major reason to study civil engineering was their interest in the subject matter, and most reported that they were proud to be civil engineers. Many study participants reported that their parents see them as civil engineers. Treatment of institutions and the workplace were also considered as having a significant impact on the recognition of women civil engineers. Almost half of the participants reported that they felt isolated or ignored at work because of their gender. This research emphasizes the importance of recognition for the development of the civil engineering identity of women

Keywords: civil engineering, gender, identity, recognition

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Authors: Alexander Scott English, Yilin Ma, Xiaoying Liu

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The widespread use of artificial intelligence in everyday life has triggered a fervent discussion covering a wide range of areas. However, to date, research on the influence of gender in various segments and factors from a social science perspective is still limited. This study aims to explore whether there are gender differences in human trust in AI for its application in basic everyday life and correlates with human perceived similarity, perceived emotions (including competence and warmth), and attractiveness. We conducted a study involving 321 participants using a two-subject experimental design with a two-factor (masculinized vs. feminized voice of the AI) multiplied by a two-factor (pitch level of the AI's voice) between-subject experimental design. Four contexts were created for the study and randomly assigned. The results of the study showed significant gender differences in perceived similarity, trust, and perceived emotion of the AIs, with females rating them significantly higher than males. Trust was higher in relation to AIs presenting the same gender (e.g., human female to female AI, human male to male AI). Mediation modeling tests indicated that emotion perception and similarity played a sufficiently mediating role in trust. Notably, although trust in AIs was strongly correlated with human gender, there was no significant effect on the gender of the AI. In addition, the study discusses the effects of subjects' age, job search experience, and job type on the findings.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, gender differences, human-robot trust, mediation modeling

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Authors: Chady El Hachem, Pan Ye, Kamilia Abahri, Rachid Bennacer

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Considered as a building construction material, and regarding its environmental benefits, wood fiber insulation is the material of interest in this work. The definition of adequate elementary representative volume that guarantees reliable understanding of the hygrothermal macroscopic phenomena is very critical. At the microscopic scale, when subjected to hygric solicitations, fibers undergo local dimensionless variations. It is therefore necessary to master this behavior, which affects the global response of the material. This study consists of an experimental procedure using the non-destructive method, X-ray tomography, followed by morphological post-processing analysis using ImageJ software. A refine investigation took place in order to identify the representative elementary volume and the sufficient resolution for accurate structural analysis. The second part of this work was to evaluate the microscopic hygric behavior of the studied material. Many parameters were taken into consideration, like the evolution of the fiber diameters, distribution along the sorption cycle and the porosity, and the water content evolution. In addition, heat transfer simulations based on the energy equation resolution were achieved on the real structure. Further, the problematic of representative elementary volume was elaborated for such heterogeneous material. Moreover, the material’s porosity and its fibers’ thicknesses show very big correlation with the water content. These results provide the literature with very good understanding of wood fiber insulation’s behavior.

Keywords: hygric behavior, morphological characterization, wood fiber insulation material, x-ray tomography

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Authors: Doaa Saad, Igor Verner, Rinat B. Rosenberg-Kima

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This case study demonstrates how the Task-Centered Instructional Strategy can be used to develop robotics competencies in middle-school science teachers without programming knowledge, thereby reducing their anxiety about robotics. Sixteen middle school science teachers participated in a teachers’ professional development program. The strategy combines the progression of real-world tasks with explicit instruction that serves as the backbone of instruction. The designed progression includes three tasks that integrate building and programming robots, pedagogy, and science knowledge, with an increasing level of complexity and decreasing level of support. We used EV3 LEGO kits and programming blocks, a new technology for most of the participating teachers. Pre-post questionnaires were used to examine teachers’ anxiety in performing robotics tasks before the program began and after the program ended. In addition, post-program questionnaires were used to obtain teachers’ feedback on the program’s overall quality. The case study results showed that teachers were less anxious about performing robotics tasks after the program and were highly satisfied with the professional development program. Overall, our research findings indicate a positive effect of the Task-Centered Instructional Strategy for preparing in-service science teachers to integrate robotics activities into their science classes.

Keywords: competencies, educational robotics, task-centered instructional strategy, teachers’ professional development

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Authors: Matjaž Šraml, Marko Renčelj, Tomaž Tollazzi, Chiara Gruden

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Road safety is a worldwide issue with numerous and heterogeneous factors influencing it. On the side, driver state – comprising distraction/inattention, fatigue, drowsiness, extreme emotions, and socio-cultural factors highly affect road safety. On the other side, the vehicle state has an important role in mitigating (or not) the road risk. Finally, the road environment is still one of the main determinants of road safety, defining driving task complexity. At the same time, thanks to technological development, a lot of detailed data is easily available, creating opportunities for the detection of driver state, vehicle characteristics and road conditions and, consequently, for the design of ad hoc interventions aimed at improving driver performance, increase awareness and mitigate road risks. This is the challenge faced by the i-DREAMS project. i-DREAMS, which stands for a smart Driver and Road Environment Assessment and Monitoring System, is a 3-year project funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program. It aims to set up a platform to define, develop, test and validate a ‘Safety Tolerance Zone’ to prevent drivers from getting too close to the boundaries of unsafe operation by mitigating risks in real-time and after the trip. After the definition and development of the Safety Tolerance Zone concept and the concretization of the same in an Advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) platform, the system was tested firstly for 2 months in a driving simulator environment in 5 different countries. After that, naturalistic driving studies started for a 10-month period (comprising a 1-month pilot study, 3-month baseline study and 6 months study implementing interventions). Currently, the project team has approved a common evaluation approach, and it is developing the assessment of the usage and outcomes of the i-DREAMS system, which is turning positive insights. The i-DREAMS consortium consists of 13 partners, 7 engineering universities and research groups, 4 industry partners and 2 partners (European Transport Safety Council - ETSC - and POLIS cities and regions for transport innovation) closely linked to transport safety stakeholders, covering 8 different countries altogether.

Keywords: advanced driver assistant systems, driving simulator, safety tolerance zone, traffic safety

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Authors: Jean-Francois Rajotte, Martin Sotir, Frank Gouineau

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The installation and management of traffic monitoring devices can be costly from both a financial and resource point of view. It is therefore important to take advantage of in-place infrastructures to extract the most information. Here we show how low-quality urban road traffic images from cameras already available in many cities (such as Montreal, Vancouver, and Toronto) can be used to estimate traffic flow. To this end, we use a pre-trained neural network, developed for object detection, to count vehicles within images. We then compare the results with human annotations gathered through crowdsourcing campaigns. We use this comparison to assess performance and calibrate the neural network annotations. As a use case, we consider six months of continuous monitoring over hundreds of cameras installed in the city of Montreal. We compare the results with city-provided manual traffic counting performed in similar conditions at the same location. The good performance of our system allows us to consider applications which can monitor the traffic conditions in near real-time, making the counting usable for traffic-related services. Furthermore, the resulting annotations pave the way for building a historical vehicle counting dataset to be used for analysing the impact of road traffic on many city-related issues, such as urban planning, security, and pollution.

Keywords: traffic monitoring, deep learning, image annotation, vehicles, roads, artificial intelligence, real-time systems

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Authors: Nebila Lichiheb, LaToya Myles, William Pendergrass, Bruce Hicks, Dawson Cagle

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Atmospheric transport of hazardous materials in urban areas is increasingly under investigation due to the potential impact on human health and the environment. In response to health and safety concerns, several dispersion models have been developed to analyze and predict the dispersion of hazardous contaminants. The models of interest usually rely on meteorological information obtained from the meteorological models of NOAA’s National Weather Service (NWS). However, due to the complexity of the urban environment, NWS forecasts provide an inadequate basis for dispersion computation in urban areas. A dense meteorological network in Washington, DC, called DCNet, has been operated by NOAA since 2003 to support the development of urban monitoring methodologies and provide the driving meteorological observations for atmospheric transport and dispersion models. This study focuses on the comparison of wind observations from the DCNet station on the U.S. Department of Commerce Herbert C. Hoover Building against the North American Mesoscale (NAM) model outputs for the period 2017-2019. The goal is to develop a simple methodology for modifying NAM outputs so that the dispersion requirements of the city and its urban area can be satisfied. This methodology will allow us to quantify the prediction errors of the NAM model and propose adjustments of key variables controlling dispersion model calculation.

Keywords: meteorological data, Washington D.C., DCNet data, NAM model

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Authors: Jinsong Zhao, Lin Zhao

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Shenzhen, one of the fastest growing cities in the world, has been building a global ocean central city since 2017, facing many challenges, especially how to innovate new legal regimes to meet the future demands of the development of global shipping. First, the current legal regime of bills of lading as a document of title was established by English law in the 18th century but limited to the period of marine transportation from port of loading to port of discharge (namely, port to port). The e-commerce era is asking for such a function to be extended from port to port to door to door. Secondly, the function of the port has also been upgraded from the traditional loading and unloading of goods to a much wider area, such as being custody of warehousing goods for its mortgage bank, and therefore its legal status is changing, so it is necessary to amend the law of ports and harbours and innovate the rights and responsibilities of the port under its new role as the custody. Thirdly, the development of new marine energy has made more and more offshore floating wind power and floating photovoltaic devices face new legal issues such as legal status, nationality and ownership registration, mortgage, maritime lien, and possessory lien. Fourthly, the jurisdiction of the above issues, as well as conflicts of law and the applicable law, are also questions pending answers. This paper will discuss these issues of private international law, especially the innovation of new legal regimes with an aim to solve the above problems.

Keywords: maritime law, bills of lading, e-commerce, port law, marine clean energy

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Authors: Chen Bo, Wen Zengping

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Based on the results of previous studies, we focus on the research of real ground motion selection and scaling method for structural performance-based seismic evaluation using nonlinear dynamic analysis. The input of earthquake ground motion should be determined appropriately to make them compatible with the site-specific hazard level considered. Thus, an optimized selection and scaling method are established including the use of not only Monte Carlo simulation method to create the stochastic simulation spectrum considering the multivariate lognormal distribution of target spectrum, but also a spectral shape parameter. Its applications in structural fragility analysis are demonstrated through case studies. Compared to the previous scheme with no consideration of the uncertainty of target spectrum, the method shown here can make sure that the selected records are in good agreement with the median value, standard deviation and spectral correction of the target spectrum, and greatly reveal the uncertainty feature of site-specific hazard level. Meanwhile, it can help improve computational efficiency and matching accuracy. Given the important infection of target spectrum’s uncertainty on structural seismic fragility analysis, this work can provide the reasonable and reliable basis for structural seismic evaluation under scenario earthquake environment.

Keywords: ground motion selection, scaling method, seismic fragility analysis, spectral shape

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Authors: Zohreh Derikvand

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One new 2D metal-organic coordination polymer of Ni(II) namely [Ni2(ndc)2(DMSO)4(H2O)]n, where ndc = naphthalene-1,4-dicarboxylic acid and DMSO= dimethyl sulfoxide has been synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis, spectral (IR, UV-Vis), thermal (TG/DTG) analysis and single crystal X-ray diffraction. Compound 1 possesses a 2D layer structure constructed from dinuclear nickel(II) building blocks in which two crystallographically independent Ni2+ ions are bridged by ndc2– ligands and water molecule. The ndc2– ligands adopt μ3 bridging modes, linking the metal centers into a two-dimensional coordination framework. The two independent NiII cations are surrounded by dimethyl sulfoxide and naphthalene-1,4-dicarboxylate molecules in distorted octahedron geometry. In the crystal structures of 1 there are non-classical hydrogen bonding arrangements and C-H–π stacking interactions. Electrochemical behavior of [Ni2(ndc)2(DMSO)4(H2O)]n, (Ni-NDA) on the surface of carbon nanotube (CNTs) glassy carbon electrode (GCE) was described. The surface structure and composition of the sensor were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Oxidation of fructose on the surface of modified electrode was investigated with cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and the results showed that the Ni-NDA/CNTs film displays excellent electrochemical catalytic activities towards fructose oxidation.

Keywords: naphthalene-1, 4-dicarboxylic acid, crystal structure, coordination polymer, electrocatalysis, impedance spectroscopy

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Authors: Alon Gelbman, Daniel Laven

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The paper focuses on a case study of a small-scale heritage tourism venture that seeks to influence tourism development in Nazareth’s old city. This is an exploratory case study that uses qualitative research methods including extensive participant observation and in-depth interviews with the venture’s senior management group and selected employees. Study findings indicate a model of the relationship between community-based tourism development, heritage, and peace-building in a city that has experienced a wide range of cross-cultural conflicts. This model represents an alternative view to the notion that heritage serves to enhance differences and dissonance between different cultural groups. In contrast, findings from this study suggest that heritage in the form of tourism; can help create shared interests between different communities in settings characterized by cross-cultural conflict. This model represents an alternative view to the notion that heritage serves to enhance differences and dissonance between different cultural groups. In contrast, findings from this study suggest that heritage in the form of tourism; can help create shared interests between different communities in settings characterized by cross-cultural conflict.

Keywords: cultural heritage tourism, tourism and peace, community-based tourism, sustainable tourism, cross-cultural conflict, Nazareth historic city

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Authors: Inês N. Peça , A. Bicho, Rui Gardner, M. Margarida Cardoso

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Inorganic/organic nanocomplexes offer tremendous scope for future biomedical applications, including imaging, disease diagnosis and drug delivery. The combination of Fe3O4 with biocompatible polymers to produce smart drug delivery systems for use in pharmaceutical formulation present a powerful tool to target anti-cancer drugs to specific tumor sites through the application of an external magnetic field. In the present study, we focused on the evaluation of the effect of the magnetic field application time on the rate of drug release from iron oxide polymeric nanoparticles. Doxorubicin, an anticancer drug, was selected as the model drug loaded into the nanoparticles. Nanoparticles composed of poly(d-lactide-co-glycolide (PLGA), a biocompatible polymer already approved by FDA, containing iron oxide nanoparticles (MNP) for magnetic targeting and doxorubicin (DOX) were synthesized by the o/w solvent extraction/evaporation method and characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), by dynamic light scattering (DLS), by inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry and by Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy. The produced particles yielded smooth surfaces and spherical shapes exhibiting a size between 400 and 600 nm. The effect of the magnetic doxorubicin loaded PLGA nanoparticles produced on cell viability was investigated in mammalian CHO cell cultures. The results showed that unloaded magnetic PLGA nanoparticles were nontoxic while the magnetic particles without polymeric coating show a high level of toxicity. Concerning the therapeutic activity doxorubicin loaded magnetic particles cause a remarkable enhancement of the cell inhibition rates compared to their non-magnetic counterpart. In vitro drug release studies performed under a non-permanent magnetic field show that the application time and the on/off cycle duration have a great influence with respect to the final amount and to the rate of drug release. In order to determine the mechanism of drug release, the data obtained from the release curves were fitted to the semi-empirical equation of the the Korsmeyer-Peppas model that may be used to describe the Fickian and non-Fickian release behaviour. Doxorubicin release mechanism has shown to be governed mainly by Fickian diffusion. The results obtained show that the rate of drug release from the produced magnetic nanoparticles can be modulated through the magnetic field time application.

Keywords: drug delivery, magnetic nanoparticles, PLGA nanoparticles, controlled release rate

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Authors: Radek Novotny, Michal Novak, Daniela Marusakova, Monika Sipova, Hugo Fuentes, Peter Borst

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This research has been conducted within the European HORIZON 2020 project ECC-SMART. The main objective is to assess whether it is feasible to design and develop a small modular reactor (SMR) that would be cooled by supercritical water (SCW). One of the main objectives for material research concerns the corrosion of the candidate cladding materials. The experimental part has been conducted in support of the qualification procedure of the future SCW-SMR constructional materials. The last objective was to identify the gaps in current norms and guidelines. Apart from corrosion, resistance testing of candidate materials stresses corrosion cracking susceptibility tests have been performed in supercritical water. This paper describes part of these tests, in particular, those slow strain rate tensile loading applied for tangential ring shape specimens of two candidate materials, Alloy 800H and 310S stainless steel. These ring tensile tests are one the methods used for tensile testing of nuclear cladding. Here full circular heads with dimensions roughly equal to the inner diameter of the sample and the gage sections are placed in the parallel direction to the applied load. Slow strain rate tensile tests have been conducted in 380 or 500oC supercritical water applying two different elongation rates, 1x10-6 and 1x10-7 s-1. The effect of temperature and dissolved oxygen content on the SCC susceptibility of Alloy 800H and 310S stainless steel was investigated when two different temperatures and concentrations of dissolved oxygen were applied in supercritical water. The post-fracture analysis includes fractographic analysis of the fracture surfaces using SEM as well as cross-sectional analysis on the occurrence of secondary cracks. Assessment of the effect of environment and dissolved oxygen content was by comparing to the results of the reference tests performed in air and N2 gas overpressure. The effect of high temperature on creep and its role in the initiation of SCC was assessed as well. It has been concluded that the applied test method could be very useful for the investigation of stress corrosion cracking susceptibility of candidate cladding materials in supercritical water.

Keywords: stress corrosion cracking, ring tensile tests, super-critical water, alloy 800H, 310S stainless steel

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Authors: Santanu Pakhira, Chandan Mazumdar, R. Ranganathan, Maxim Avdeev

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Magnetically frustrated systems are of great interest and one of the most adorable topics for the researcher of condensed matter physics, due to their various interesting properties, viz. ground state degeneracy, finite entropy at zero temperature, lowering of ordering temperature, etc. Ternary intermetallics with the composition RE₂TX₃ (RE = rare-earth element, T= d electron transition metal and X= p electron element) crystallize in hexagonal AlB₂ type crystal structure (space group P6/mmm). In a hexagonal crystal structure with the antiferromagnetic interaction between the moments, the center moment is geometrically frustrated. Magnetic frustration along with disorder arrangements of non-magnetic ions are the building blocks for metastable spin-glass ground state formation for most of the compounds of this stoichiometry. The newly synthesized compound Er₂NiSi₃ compound forms in single phase in AlB₂ type structure with space group P6/mmm. The compound orders antiferromagnetically below 5.4 K and spin freezing of the frustrated magnetic moments occurs below 3 K for the compound. The compound shows magnetic relaxation behavior and magnetic memory effect below its freezing temperature. Neutron diffraction patterns for temperatures below the spin freezing temperature have been analyzed using FULLPROF software package. Diffuse magnetic scattering at low temperatures yields spin glass state formation for the compound.

Keywords: antiferromagnetism, magnetic frustration, spin-glass, neutron diffraction

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Authors: Medha Iyer, Anshul Paul, Aunnesha Bhowmick, Anahita Banerjee, Sana Prasad, Anoushka Singal, Lauren Sinopoli, Pooja Bapat, Shivi Jain

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In Himachal Pradesh, India, a majority of the population lives in rural villages spread throughout its hilly regions; many of these households rely on subsistence farming as their main source of livelihood. The student-run non-profit organization affiliated with this study, Project RISHI (Rural India Social and Health Improvement), works to promote sustainable development practices in Bharog Baneri, a gram panchayat, or union, of villages in Himachal Pradesh. In 2017, an established rainwater harvesting (RWH) project group within Project RISHI had surveyed many families, finding that the most common issue regarding food and water access was a lack of accessible water sources for agricultural use in the dry season. After a prototype build in 2018, the group built 6 systems for eligible residents that demonstrated need in 2019. Subsequently, the project went through an evaluation period, including self-evaluation of project goals and post-impact surveying of system recipients. The group used the social impact assessment model to optimize the implementation of domestic RWH systems in Bharog Baneri. Assessing implementation after in-person builds produced three pillars of focus — system design, equitable recipient selection, and community involvement. After two years of remote involvement during COVID-19, the group prepared to visit Bharog Baneri to build 10 new systems in the Summer 2022. First, the group created a more durable and cost-effective design that could withstand debris and heavy rains to prevent gutter failure. The domestic system design is a rooftop RWH catchment system with two tanks attached, an overflow pipe, debris filtration, and a spigot for accessibility. The group also developed a needs-based eligibility methodology with assistance from village leaders and surveying in Bharog Baneri and set up the groundwork for a future community board. COVID-19 has strengthened remote work, telecommunications, and other organizational support systems. As sustainable development evolves to encompass these practices in a post-pandemic world, the potential for new RWH system design and implementation processes has emerged as well. This raises the question: how can a social impact assessment of rural RWH projects inform an integrated approach to post-pandemic RWH system practices? The objective of this exploratory study is to investigate and evaluate a novel remote build infrastructure that brings access to reliable and sustainable sources of water for agricultural use. To construct the remote build approach, the group identified and assigned a point of contact who was experienced with previous RWH system builds. The recipients were selected based on demonstrated need and ease of building. The contact visited each of the houses and coordinated supplier relations and transportation of the materials in accordance with the participatory approach to sustainable development. Over the course of two months, the group completed four system builds with the resulting infrastructure. The infrastructure adhered to the social impact assessment model by centering supplier relations, material transportation, and construction logistics within the community. The conclusion of this exploration is that post-pandemic rural RWH practices should be rooted in strengthening villager communication and utilizing local assets. Through this, non-profit organizations can incorporate remote build strategies into their long-term goals.

Keywords: capturing run-off from rooftops, domestic rainwater harvesting, Implementation approaches and strategies, rainwater harvesting and management in rural sectors

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