Search results for: building transformation

Authors: E. S. Umdu, Ilker Kahraman, Nurdan Yildirim, Levent Bilir

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Algae-culture offers new applications in sustainable architecture with its continuous productive cycle, and a potential for high carbon dioxide capture. Microalgae itself has multiple functions such as carbon dioxide fixation, biomass production, oxygen generation and waste water treatment. Incorporating microalgae cultivation processes and systems to building design to utilize this potential is promising. Microalgae cultivation systems, especially closed photo bioreactors can be implemented as components in buildings. And these systems be accommodated in the façade of a building, or in other urban infrastructure in the future. Application microalgae bio-reactors of on building’s façade has the added benefit of acting as an effective insulation system, keeping out the heat of the summer and the chill of the winter. Furthermore, microalgae can give a dynamic appearance with a liquid façade that also works as an adaptive sunshade. Recently, potential of microalgae to use as a building component to reduce net energy demand in buildings becomes a popular topic and innovative design proposals and a handful of pilot applications appeared. Yet there is only a handful of examples in application and even less information on how these systems affect building energy behavior. Further studies on microalgae mostly focused on single application approach targeting either carbon dioxide utilization through biomass production or biofuel production. The main objective of this study is to investigate effects of design parameters of microalgae panel bio-reactors on light transmission characteristics and CO2 capture potential during growth of Nannochloropsis occulata sp. A maximum reduction of 18 ppm in CO2 levels of input air during the experiments with a % light transmission of 14.10, was achieved in 6 day growth cycles. Heat transfer behavior during these cycles was also inspected for possible façade applications.

Keywords: building façade, CO2 capture, light transmittance, microalgae

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Authors: Kadri-Ann Kertsmik, Martin Talvik, Kimmo Lylykangas, Simo Ilomets, Targo Kalamees

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This study compares the building carbon footprint (CF) values for a case study of a private house located in a cold climate, using the Level(s) methodology. It provides a framework for measuring the environmental performance of buildings throughout their life cycle, taking into account various factors. The study presents the results of the three scenarios, comparing their carbon emissions and highlighting the benefits of circular material usage. The construction process was thoroughly documented, and all materials and components (including minuscule mechanical fasteners, each meter of cable, a kilogram of mortar, and the component of HVAC systems, among other things) delivered to the construction site were noted. Transportation distances of each delivery, the fuel consumption of construction machines, and electricity consumption for temporary heating and electrical tools were also monitored. Using the detailed data on material and energy resources, the CF was calculated for two scenarios: one where circular material usage was applied and another where virgin materials were used instead of reused ones. The results were compared with the CF calculated based on the building permit design model using the Level(s) methodology. To study the range of possible results in the early stage of CF assessment, the same building permit design was given to several experts. Results showed that embodied carbon values for a built scenario were significantly lower than the values predicted by the building permit stage as a result of more precise material quantities, as the calculation methodology is designed to overestimate the CF. Moreover, designers made an effort to reduce the building's CF by reusing certain materials such as ceramic tiles, lightweight concrete blocks, and timber during the construction process. However, in a cold climate context where operational energy (B6) continues to dominate, the total building CF value changes between the three scenarios were less significant. The calculation for the building permit project was performed by several experts, and CF results were in the same range. It alludes that, for the first estimation of preliminary building CF, using average values proves to be an appropriate method for the Estonian national carbon footprint estimation phase during building permit application. The study also identified several opportunities for reducing the carbon footprint of the building, such as reusing materials from other construction sites, preferring local material producers, and reducing wastage on site. The findings suggest that using circular materials can significantly reduce the carbon footprint of buildings. Overall, the study highlights the importance of using a comprehensive approach to measure the environmental performance of buildings, taking into account both the project and the actually built house. It also emphasises the need for ongoing monitoring for designing the building and construction site waste. The study also gives some examples of how to enable future circularity of building components and materials, e.g., building in layers, using wood as untreated, etc.

Keywords: carbon footprint, circular economy, sustainable construction, level(s) methodology

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Authors: Ahmad Naqi

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Today, the passively controlled buildings are extensively becoming popular due to its excellent lateral load resistance circumstance. Typically, these buildings are enhanced with a damping device that has high market demand. Some manufacturer falsified the damping device parameter during the production to achieve the market demand. Therefore, this paper evaluates the seismic performance of buildings equipped with damping devices, which their parameter modified to simulate the falsified devices, intentionally. For this purpose, three benchmark buildings of 4-, 10-, and 20-story were selected from JSSI (Japan Society of Seismic Isolation) manual. The buildings are special moment resisting steel frame with oil damper in the longitudinal direction only. For each benchmark buildings, two types of structural elements are designed to resist the lateral load with and without damping devices (hereafter, known as Trimmed & Conventional Building). The target building was modeled using STERA-3D, a finite element based software coded for study purpose. Practicing the software one can develop either three-dimensional Model (3DM) or Lumped Mass model (LMM). Firstly, the seismic performance of 3DM and LMM models was evaluated and found excellent coincide for the target buildings. The simplified model of LMM used in this study to produce 66 cases for both of the buildings. Then, the device parameters were modified by ± 40% and ±20% to predict many possible conditions of falsification. It is verified that the building which is design to sustain the lateral load with support of damping device (Trimmed Building) are much more under threat as a result of device falsification than those building strengthen by damping device (Conventional Building).

Keywords: passive control system, oil damper, seismic assessment, lumped mass model

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Authors: Mujahid S. Alharbi

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The construction of process plants in oil and gas-producing countries, such as Saudi Arabia, necessitates substantial investment in design and building. Each new plant, while unique, includes common building types, suggesting an opportunity for design standardization. This study investigates the adoption of standardized Issue For Construction (IFC) packages for non-process buildings in Saudi Aramco. A SWOT analysis presents the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of this approach. The approach's benefits are illustrated using the Hawiyah Unayzah Gas Reservoir Storage Program (HUGRSP) as a case study. Standardization not only offers significant cost savings and operational efficiencies but also expedites project timelines, reduces the potential for change orders, and fosters local economic growth by allocating building tasks to local contractors. Standardization also improves project management by easing interface constraints between different contractors and promoting adaptability to future industry changes. This research underscores the standardization of non-process buildings as a powerful strategy for cost optimization, efficiency enhancement, and local economic development in process plant construction within the oil and gas sector.

Keywords: building, construction, management, project, standardization

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Authors: Burak Erkayman

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The manufacturing and service organizations are in the need of using ERP systems to integrate many functions from purchasing to storage, production planning to calculation of costs. Using ERP systems by the integration in the level of information provides companies remarkable advantages in terms of profitability, productivity and efficiency in processes. Cloud computing is one of the most significant changes in information and communication technology. The developments in Cloud Computing attract business world to take advantage of this field. Cloud Computing means much more storage area, more cost saving and faster data transfer rate. In addition to these, it presents new business models, new field of study and practicable solutions for anyone’s use. These developments make inevitable the implementation of ERP systems to cloud environment. In this study, the performance of ERP systems in cloud environment is analyzed through various performance criteria and a comparison between traditional and cloud-ERP systems is presented. At the end of study the transformation and the future of ERP systems is discussed.

Keywords: cloud-ERP, ERP system performance, information system transformation

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Authors: Rajkumar Kolangarakandy

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Feature extraction and selection is the primary part of any mammogram classification algorithms. The choice of feature, attribute or measurements have an important influence in any classification system. Discrete Wavelet Transformation (DWT) coefficients are one of the prominent features for representing images in frequency domain. The features obtained after the decomposition of the mammogram images using wavelet transformations have higher dimension. Even though the features are higher in dimension, they were highly correlated and redundant in nature. The dimensionality reduction techniques play an important role in selecting the optimum number of features from the higher dimension data, which are highly correlated. PCA is a mathematical tool that reduces the dimensionality of the data while retaining most of the variation in the dataset. In this paper, a multilevel classification of mammogram images using reduced discrete wavelet transformation coefficients and lazy classifiers is proposed. The classification is accomplished in two different levels. In the first level, mammogram ROIs extracted from the dataset is classified as normal and abnormal types. In the second level, all the abnormal mammogram ROIs is classified into benign and malignant too. A further classification is also accomplished based on the variation in structure and intensity distribution of the images in the dataset. The Lazy classifiers called Kstar, IBL and LWL are used for classification. The classification results obtained with the reduced feature set is highly promising and the result is also compared with the performance obtained without dimension reduction.

Keywords: PCA, wavelet transformation, lazy classifiers, Kstar, IBL, LWL

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Authors: Carlos H. Cuadra

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Seismic isolation can be used as a retrofit method for historical buildings with the advantage that minimum intervention on super-structure is required. However, selection of isolation devices depends on weight and stiffness of upper structure. In this study, two buildings are considered for analyses to evaluate the applicability of this retrofitting methodology. Both buildings are located at Akita prefecture in the north part of Japan. One building is a wooden structure that corresponds to the old council meeting hall of Noshiro city. The second building is a brick masonry structure that was used as house of a foreign mining engineer and it is located at Ani town. Ambient vibration measurements were performed on both buildings to estimate their dynamic characteristics. Then, target period of vibration of isolated systems is selected as 3 seconds is selected to estimate required stiffness of isolation devices. For wooden structure, which is a light construction, it was found that natural rubber isolators in combination with friction bearings are suitable for seismic isolation. In case of masonry building elastomeric isolator can be used for its seismic isolation. Lumped mass systems are used for seismic response analysis and it is verified in both cases that seismic isolation can be used as retrofitting method of historical construction. However, in the case of the light building, most of the weight corresponds to the reinforced concrete slab that is required to install isolation devices.

Keywords: historical building, finite element method, masonry structure, seismic isolation, wooden structure

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Authors: Martina Perinkova, Lenka Kolarcikova, Marketa Twrda

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In Ostrava there are a lot of former post-industrial areas and areas that have gradually through conversions and their subsequent reuse. One of the largest is the national cultural monument Lower Vítkovice area where there is a large complex transformation of the former iron production. Industrial heritage today visited by tourists for entertainment, culture, history, sports and other activities. This is a unique example of reuse of technical monuments and introduction of new life into the historic area. The main task of not only find the right function and use, in terms of re integration into city life and finding a balance between history and current lifestyle, looking at the history of the area and its technical condition before reconstruction. It is not only very expensive but also time consuming. Transformations industrial monument is the result of a dialogue architect, the idea of the investor and expert opinion heritage institute.

Keywords: post-industrial area, cultural monument, conversions

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Authors: Prudvi Paresi, Fatemeh Javidan

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In recent years, greenhouse gas, or in particular, carbon emissions, have received special attention from environmentalists and designers due to the fact that they significantly contribute to the temperature rise. The building industry is one of the top seven major industries contributing to embodied carbon emission. Signage systems are an integral part of the building industry and bring completeness to the space-building by providing the required information and guidance. A significant amount of building materials, such as steel, aluminium, acrylic, LED, etc., are utilized in these systems, but very limited information is available on their sustainability and carbon footprint. Therefore, there is an urgent need to assess the emissions associated with the signage industry and for controlling these by adopting different mitigation techniques without sacrificing the efficiency of the project. The present paper investigates the embodied carbon of two case studies in the Australian signage industry within the cradle – gate (A1-A3) and gate–site (A4-A5) stages. A material source-based database is considered to achieve more accuracy. The study identified that aluminium is the major contributor to embodied carbon in the signage industry compared to other constituents. Finally, an attempt is made to suggest strategies for mitigating embodied carbon in this industry.

Keywords: carbon accounting, small-scale construction, signage industry, construction materials

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Authors: Tosin Deborah Akanbi

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The Building Information Modeling Execution Plan (BEP) is a document that manifests the specifications for the adoption and execution of building information modeling in the construction sector in an organized manner so as to attain the listed goals. In this regard, the study examined the barriers to the adoption of building information modeling, evaluated the effect of building information modeling adoption characteristics on the key elements of a building information modeling execution plan and developed a strategic framework for a BEP in the Lagos State construction industry. Data were gathered through a questionnaire survey with 332 construction professionals in the study area. Three online structured interviews were conducted to support and validate the findings of the quantitative analysis. The results showed the significant relationships and connections between the variables in the framework: BIM usage and model quality control (aBIMskill -> dMQ, Beta = 0.121, T statistics = 1.829), BIM adoption characteristics and information exchange (bBIM_CH -> dIE, Beta = 0.128, T statistics = 1.727), BIM adoption characteristics and process design (bBIM_CH -> dPD, Beta = 0.170, T statistics = 2.754), BIM adoption characteristics and roles and responsibilities (bBIM_CH -> dRR, Beta = 0.131, T statistics = 2.181), interest BIM barriers and BIM adoption characteristics (cBBIM_INT -> bBIM_CH, Beta = 0.137, T statistics = 2.309), legal BIM barriers and BIM adoption characteristics (cBBIM_LEG -> bBIM_CH, Beta = 0.168, T statistics = 2.818), professional BIM barriers and BIM adoption characteristics (cBBIM_PRO -> bBIM_CH, Beta = 0.152, T statistics = 2.645). The results also revealed that seven final themes were generated, namely: model structure and process design, BIM information exchange and collaboration procedures, project goals and deliverables, project model quality control, roles and responsibilities, reflect Lagos state construction industry and validity of the BEP framework. Thus, there is a need for the policy makers to direct interventions to promote, encourage and support the understanding and adoption of BIM by emphasizing the various benefits of using the technology in the Lagos state construction industry.

Keywords: building information modelling execution plan, BIM adoption characteristics, BEP framework, construction industry

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Authors: Vinh Duy Cao, Shima Pilehvar, Anna M. Szczotok, Anna-Lena Kjøniksen

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The total energy consumption is dramatically increasing on over the world, especially for building energy consumption where a significant proportion of energy is used for heating and cooling purposes. One of the solutions to reduce the energy consumption for the building is to improve construction techniques and enhance material technology. Recently, microcapsulated phase change materials (MPCM) with high energy storage capacity within the phase transition temperature of the materials is a potential method to conserve and save energy. A new composite materials with high energy storage capacity by mixing MPCM into concrete for passive building technology is the promising candidate to reduce the energy consumption. One of the most untilized building materials for mixing with MPCM is Portland cement concrete. However, the emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) due to producing cement which plays the important role in the global warming is the main drawback of PCC. Accordingly, an environmentally friendly building material, geopolymer, which is synthesized by the reaction between the industrial waste material (aluminosilicate) and a strong alkali activator, is a potential materials to mixing with MPCM. Especially, the effect of MPCM on the thermal and mechanical properties of geopolymer concrete (GPC) is very limited. In this study, high thermal energy storage capacity materials were fabricated by mixing MPCM into geopolymer concrete. This article would investigate the effect of MPCM concentration on thermal and mechanical properties of GPC. The target is to balance the effect of MPCM on improving the thermal performance and maintaining the compressive strength of the geopolymer concrete at an acceptable level for building application.

Keywords: microencapsulated phase change materials, geopolymer concrete, energy storage capacity, thermal performance

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Authors: Naohiro Nakamura, Takuya Kinoshita, Hiroshi Fukuyama

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The 2011 off The Pacific Coast of Tohoku Earthquake caused considerable damage to wide areas of eastern Japan. A large number of earthquake observation records were obtained at various places. To design more earthquake-resistant buildings and improve earthquake disaster prevention, it is necessary to utilize these data to analyze and evaluate the behavior of a building during an earthquake. This paper presents an earthquake response simulation analysis (hereafter a seismic response analysis) that was conducted using data recorded during the main earthquake (hereafter the main shock) as well as the earthquakes before and after it. The data were obtained at a high-rise steel-reinforced concrete (SRC) building in the bay area of Tokyo. We first give an overview of the building, along with the characteristics of the earthquake motion and the building during the main shock. The data indicate that there was a change in the natural period before and after the earthquake. Next, we present the results of our seismic response analysis. First, the analysis model and conditions are shown, and then, the analysis result is compared with the observational records. Using the analysis result, we then study the effect of soil-structure interaction on the response of the building. By identifying the characteristics of the building during the earthquake (i.e., the 1st natural period and the 1st damping ratio) by the Auto-Regressive eXogenous (ARX) model, we compare the analysis result with the observational records so as to evaluate the accuracy of the response analysis. In this study, a lumped-mass system SR model was used to conduct a seismic response analysis using observational data as input waves. The main results of this study are as follows: 1) The observational records of the 3/11 main shock put it between a level 1 and level 2 earthquake. The result of the ground response analysis showed that the maximum shear strain in the ground was about 0.1% and that the possibility of liquefaction occurring was low. 2) During the 3/11 main shock, the observed wave showed that the eigenperiod of the building became longer; this behavior could be generally reproduced in the response analysis. This prolonged eigenperiod was due to the nonlinearity of the superstructure, and the effect of the nonlinearity of the ground seems to have been small. 3) As for the 4/11 aftershock, a continuous analysis in which the subject seismic wave was input after the 3/11 main shock was input was conducted. The analyzed values generally corresponded well with the observed values. This means that the effect of the nonlinearity of the main shock was retained by the building. It is important to consider this when conducting the response evaluation. 4) The first period and the damping ratio during a vibration were evaluated by an ARX model. Our results show that the response analysis model in this study is generally good at estimating a change in the response of the building during a vibration.

Keywords: ARX model, response analysis, SRC building, the 2011 off the Pacific Coast of Tohoku Earthquake

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Authors: Hale Kirer Silva Lecuna, Beyza Aydin

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Health is one of the main components of human capital and sustainable development, and it is very important for economic growth. Health economics, which is an indisputable part of the science of economics, has five stages in general. These are health and development, financing of health services, economic regulation in the health, allocation of resources and efficiency of health services. A well-developed and efficient health sector plays a major role by increasing the level of development of countries. The most crucial pillars of the health sector are the hospitals that are divided into public and private. The main purpose of the hospitals is to provide more efficient services. Therefore the aim is to meet patients’ satisfaction by increasing the service quality. Health-related studies in Turkey date back to the Ottoman and Seljuk Empires. In the near past, Turkey applied 'Health Sector Transformation Programs' under different titles between 2003 and 2010. Our aim in this paper is to measure how effective these transformation programs are for the health sector, to see how much they can increase the efficiency of hospitals over the years, to see the return of investments, to make comments and suggestions on the results, and to provide a new reference for the literature. Within this framework, the public and private hospitals in Balıkesir, Bilecik, Bursa, Çanakkale, Edirne, Istanbul, Kirklareli, Kocaeli, Sakarya, Tekirdağ, Yalova will be examined by using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) for the years between 2000 and 2019. DEA is a linear programming-based technique, which gives relatively good results in multivariate studies. DEA basically estimates an efficiency frontier and make a comparison. Constant returns to scale and variable returns to scale are two most commonly used DEA methods. Both models are divided into two as input and output-oriented. To analyze the data, the number of personnel, number of specialist physicians, number of practitioners, number of beds, number of examinations will be used as input variables; and the number of surgeries, in-patient ratio, and crude mortality rate as output variables. 11 hospitals belonging to the Marmara region were included in the study. It is seen that these hospitals worked effectively only in 7 provinces (Balıkesir, Bilecik, Bursa, Edirne, İstanbul, Kırklareli, Yalova) for the year 2001 when no transformation program was implemented. After the transformation program was implemented, for example, in 2014 and 2016, 10 hospitals (Balıkesir, Bilecik, Bursa, Çanakkale, Edirne, İstanbul, Kocaeli, Kırklareli, Tekirdağ, Yalova) were found to be effective. In 2015, ineffective results were observed for Sakarya, Tekirdağ and Yalova. However, since these values are closer to 1 after the transformation program, we can say that the transformation program has positive effects. For Sakarya alone, no effective results have been achieved in any year. When we look at the results in general, it shows that the transformation program has a positive effect on the effectiveness of hospitals.

Keywords: data envelopment analysis, efficiency, health sector, Marmara region

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Authors: Vinko Lešić, Mario Vašak, Anita Martinčević, Marko Gulin, Antonio Starčić, Hrvoje Novak

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With 40% of total world energy consumption, building systems are developing into technically complex large energy consumers suitable for application of sophisticated power management approaches to largely increase the energy efficiency and even make them active energy market participants. Centralized control system of building heating and cooling managed by economically-optimal model predictive control shows promising results with estimated 30% of energy efficiency increase. The research is focused on implementation of such a method on a case study performed on two floors of our faculty building with corresponding sensors wireless data acquisition, remote heating/cooling units and central climate controller. Building walls are mathematically modeled with corresponding material types, surface shapes and sizes. Models are then exploited to predict thermal characteristics and changes in different building zones. Exterior influences such as environmental conditions and weather forecast, people behavior and comfort demands are all taken into account for deriving price-optimal climate control. Finally, a DC microgrid with photovoltaics, wind turbine, supercapacitor, batteries and fuel cell stacks is added to make the building a unit capable of active participation in a price-varying energy market. Computational burden of applying model predictive control on such a complex system is relaxed through a hierarchical decomposition of the microgrid and climate control, where the former is designed as higher hierarchical level with pre-calculated price-optimal power flows control, and latter is designed as lower level control responsible to ensure thermal comfort and exploit the optimal supply conditions enabled by microgrid energy flows management. Such an approach is expected to enable the inclusion of more complex building subsystems into consideration in order to further increase the energy efficiency.

Keywords: price-optimal building climate control, Microgrid power flow optimisation, hierarchical model predictive control, energy efficient buildings, energy market participation

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Authors: Dereje Ferede, Solomon Negash

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a key enabler and driver to transform and revolutionize the healthcare industries. However, utilizing AI and achieving these benefits is challenging for different sectors in wide-ranging, more difficult for developing economy healthcare. Due to this, real-world clinical execution and implementation of AI have not yet aged. We believe that examining the determinants is key to addressing these challenges. Furthermore, the literature does not yet particularize determinants of AI capabilities and ways of empowering the healthcare ecosystem to develop AI capabilities in a developing economy. Thus, this study aims to position AI as a digital transformation weapon for the healthcare ecosystem by examining AI capability determinants and providing insights on better empowering the healthcare industry to develop AI capabilities. To do so, we base on the technology-organization-environment (TOE) model and will apply a mixed research approach. We will conclude with recommendations based on findings for future practitioners and researchers.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, capability, digital transformation, developing economies, healthcare

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Authors: Erisasadat Sahebzamani, Núria Forcada, Francisco Lendinez

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Global climate change has become increasingly problematic over the past few decades. The construction industry has contributed to greenhouse gas emissions in recent decades. Considering these issues and the high demand for materials in the construction industry, Circular Economy (CE) is considered necessary to keep materials in the loop and extend their useful lives. By providing tangible benefits, Construction 4.0 facilitates the adoption of CE by reducing waste, updating standard work, sharing knowledge, and increasing transparency and stability. This study aims to present a framework for integrating CE and digital tools like Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Virtual Reality (VR) to examine the impact on the construction industry based on stakeholders' perspectives.

Keywords: circular economy, building information modeling, virtual reality, stakeholder engagement

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Authors: Seyyed Hossein Alavi, Soudabe Mehri Talarposhti

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Passages urban landscape is made up of various components that the component parts of the whole and vice versa has relationships. In today’s cities, we have not seen a dual relationship and only one side of the equation which is the relationships of the component parts are considered. However, the effect of the component to whole is stronger and also longer. This means that every time the outer shell of the building was constructed instant impact on the viewers while it takes a long time to understand the impact of the building in its environment and basically, it seems city portrait has the sensory and untouchable effect on observer. Today, building facades are designated individually and in isolation from the context. Designers are familiar with the details of the facade, but they are not informed with the science of combination and its impact on portrait. The importance of city and also more important than that, the city portrait haven’t confirmed for those involved in the building and authorities and the construction been changed to a market for more glaring taste of designers and attracting more business and the city and its landscape has been forgotten. This essay is an attempt to collect a part of the principles and definitions needed on perspective issues and portrait, and it is hoped that it will open arena for more research and studies in this field and other related fields.

Keywords: facade, urban housing, urban design, sustainable architecture

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Authors: Ehsan Sadie

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Today, the cost of repair and maintenance of structures is very important and by studying the behavior of reinforced concrete structures Will become specified several factors such as : Design and calculation errors, lack of proper implementation of structural changes, the damage caused by the introduction of random loads, concrete corrosion and environmental conditions reduce durability of the structures . Meanwhile building codes alteration also cause changes in the assessment and review of the design and structure rather if necessary will be improved and strengthened in the future.

Keywords: concrete building , expandable cement, honeycombed surface , reinforcement corrosion

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Authors: K. Sivasubramanin, S. Mahimairaja, S. Pavithrapriya

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Heavy metal pollution originating from industrial wastes is becoming a serious problem in many urban environments. These heavy metals, if not properly managed, could enter into the food chain and cause a serious health hazards in animals and humans. Industrial wastes, sewage sludge, and automobile emissions also contribute to heavy metal like Pb pollution in the urban environment. However, information is scarce on the heavy metal pollution in Coimbatore urban environment. Therefore, the current study was carried out to examine the extent of lead pollution in Coimbatore urban environment the maximum Pb concentration in Coimbatore urban environment was found in ukkadam, whose concentration in soils 352 mg kg-1. In many places, the Pb concentration was found exceeded the permissible limit of 100 mg kg-1. In laboratory, closed incubation experiment showed that the concentration of different species of Pb viz., water soluble Pb(H2O-Pb), exchangeable Pb(KNO3-Pb), organic-Pb(NaOH-Pb), and organic plus metal (Fe & Al) oxides bound-Pb(Na2 EDTA-Pb) was found significantly increased during the 15 days incubation, mainly due to biotransformation processes. Both the moisture content of soil and ambient temperature exerted a profound influence on the transformation of Pb. The results of a batch experiment has shown that the sorption data was adequately described by the Freundlich equation as indicated by the high correlation coefficients (R2= 0.64) than the Langmuir equation (R2 = 0.33). A maximum of 86 mg of Pb was found adsorbed per kilogram of soil. Consistently, a soil column experiment result had shown that only a small amount of Pb( < 1.0 µg g-1 soil) alone was found leached from the soil. This might be due to greater potential of the soil towards Pb adsorption.

Keywords: lead pollution, adsorption, transformation, heavy metal pollution

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Authors: Yung Yau

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'Little people' are those who have extremely short stature as they suffer from rare bone diseases. They are commonly known as 'dwarves' or 'people with dwarfism'. Dwarfism is generally regarded as a type of rare disease for its extremely small odds (~1 in 15,000). On account of its rarity, dwarfism, unlike other types of disability, has attracted relatively little attention from the general public and in various academic fields (e.g. architecture, psychology and sociology) except medical science. In view of the extant research gaps, this study aims to investigate the physical barriers facing the little people in the built environment in Hong Kong. Between November 2017 and July 2018, ten little people or their family members participated in in-depth interviews. Responses of the interviewees were transcribed (i.e., speech being converted to text word for word). Interview data were then analyzed using the interpretative phenomenological analysis methodology developed by J. Smith and others in 2009. The findings of the project reveal that although Hong Kong's built environment has been designed barrier-free pursuant to the prevailing building standards, those standards do not cater to the special anthropometric characteristics of little people. As a result, little people face a lot of challenges when using built facilities. For example, most water closets, urinals, and wash hand basins are not fit for little people's use. As indicated by the project findings, we are still far away from providing a discrimination-free and barrier-free living environment for the little people in Hong Kong. To make Hong Kong society more inclusive to the little people, there is a need for further tailored building design. A set of building design principles for better inclusion of the little people in our society are highlighted. These principles include 'the building design should accommodate individuals with different heights' and 'the building design should allow individuals to use comfortably and efficiently with a minimum of fatigue'. At the end of the paper, the author also calls for an agenda for further studies. For instance, we need an anthropometric study on little people for developing practical building design guidelines.

Keywords: dwarfism, little people, inclusive buildings, people with disabilities, social sustainability

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Authors: Katarzyna Drela, Miroslaw Wielgos, Mikolaj Wrobel, Barbara Lukomska

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Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have a great potential in regenerative medicine. Since the initial number of isolated MSCs is limited, in vitro propagation is often required to reach sufficient numbers of cells for therapeutic applications. During long-term culture MSCs may undergo genetic or epigenetic alterations that subsequently increase the probability of spontaneous malignant transformation. Thus, factors that influence genomic stability of MSCs following long-term expansions need to be clarified before cultured MSCs are employed for clinical application. The aim of our study was to investigate the potential for spontaneous transformation of human neonatal cord blood (HUCB-MSCs) and adult bone marrow (BM-MSCs) derived MSCs. Materials and Methods: HUCB-MSCs and BM-MSCs were isolated by standard Ficoll gradient centrifugations method. Isolated cells were initially plated in high density 106 cells per cm2. After 48 h medium were changed and non-adherent cells were removed. The malignant transformation of MSCs in vitro was evaluated by morphological changes, proliferation rate, ability to enter cell senescence, the telomerase expression and chromosomal abnormality. Proliferation of MSCs was analyzed with WST-1 reduction method and population doubling time (PDT) was calculated at different culture stages. Then the expression pattern of genes characteristic for mesenchymal or epithelial cells, as well as transcriptions factors were examined by RT-PCR. Concomitantly, immunocytochemical analysis of gene-related proteins was employed. Results: Our studies showed that MSCs from all bone marrow isolations ultimately entered senescence and did not undergo spontaneous malignant transformation. However, HUCB-MSCs from one of the 15 donors displayed an increased proliferation rate, failed to enter senescence, and exhibited an altered cell morphology. In this sample we observed two different cell phenotypes: one mesenchymal-like exhibited spindle shaped morphology and express specific mesenchymal surface markers (CD73, CD90, CD105, CD166) with low proliferation rate, and the second one with round, densely package epithelial-like cells with significantly increased proliferation rate. The PDT of epithelial-like populations was around 1day and 100% of cells were positive for proliferation marker Ki-67. Moreover, HUCB-MSCs showed a positive expression of human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT), cMYC and exhibit increased number of CFU during the long-term culture in vitro. Furthermore, karyotype analysis revealed chromosomal abnormalities including duplications. Conclusions: Our studies demonstrate that HUCB-MSCs are susceptible to spontaneous malignant transformation during long-term culture. Spontaneous malignant transformation process following in vitro culture has enormous effect on the biosafety issues of future cell-based therapies and regenerative medicine regimens.

Keywords: mesenchymal stem cells, spontaneous, transformation, long-term culture

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Authors: Rina Yadav, Meng-Ting Tsai

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In the present scenario, sustainable buildings are in high demand. The essential decision for building sustainability is made during the design and preconstruction stages. Main objective of this study is reduction of unfavorable environmental impacts, which is a major cause of global warming. Based on this problem, to diminish the environmental hazards, present research study is applied to provide a guideline to designer that will be useful for material selection stage of designing. This can be achieved by using local available materials such as wood, mud, bamboos instead of cement, steel, concrete by reducing carbon dioxide emission. Energy simulation will be analyzed by software to get the comparable result. It will be encouraging and motivational for designer while using ecofriendly material to achieve points in Leadership in energy and environmental design (LEED) in green rating system.

Keywords: sustainability design, lead rating, LEED, building performance analyses

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Authors: Ghada Elshafei, A. Elazim Negm

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Recently, Green architecture becomes a significant way to a sustainable future. Green building designs involve finding the balance between comfortable homebuilding and sustainable environment. Moreover, the utilization of the new technologies such as artificial intelligence techniques are used to complement current practices in creating greener structures to keep the built environment more sustainable. The most common objectives are green buildings should be designed to minimize the overall impact of the built environment on ecosystems in general and particularly on human health and on the natural environment. This will lead to protecting occupant health, improving employee productivity, reducing pollution and sustaining the environmental. In green building design, multiple parameters which may be interrelated, contradicting, vague and of qualitative/quantitative nature are broaden to use. This paper presents a comprehensive critical state of art review of current practices based on fuzzy and its combination techniques. Also, presented how green architecture/building can be improved using the technologies that been used for analysis to seek optimal green solutions strategies and models to assist in making the best possible decision out of different alternatives.

Keywords: green architecture/building, technologies, optimization, strategies, fuzzy techniques, models

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Authors: Armin Samarghandi, Amirreza Jafari, Mohamad Ghiasi

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Numerous assertions and some empirical evidence imply that 'green' buildings ought to be more productive and healthier (mentally and physiologically) than conventional structures. Since then, empirical data has been equivocal, indicating either that the studies are inaccurate or that the research has just scratched the surface of green buildings in offices, accommodation, and hospital settings and not taken the aforementioned holistically. This study compared four green-certified buildings -one residential green building, one green hospital, and one green school- with conventional structures in Tehran, Iran, by means of a questionnaire spread among those utilizing these buildings, and assessing their productivity and health rate as opposed to the time they resided, worked in conventional buildings. The results demonstrated higher scores pertaining to productivity and physical and mental wellness as a consequence of better indoor environmental quality (IEQ), natural lighting, design, and sustainability of these buildings against non-green buildings. In addition, ancillary matters -environmental, financial, intellectual, emotional, social, and spiritual dimensions of participants- were indirectly evaluated, and the same results were produced.

Keywords: green building, LEED, productivity, physical and mental health, indoor environmental quality

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Authors: Farid M. Abdel-Rahim

Abstract:

In this study, Se90Te7Cu3 chalcogenide glass was prepared using the melt quenching technique. The amorphous nature of the as prepared samples was confirmed by scanning electron microscope (SEM). Result of differential scanning calorimetric (DSC) under nonisothermal condition on composition bulk materials are reported and discussed. It shows that these glasses exhibit a single-stage glass transition and a single-stage crystallization on heating rates. The glass transition temperature (Tg), the onset crystallization (Tc), the crystallization temperature (Tp), were found by dependent on the composition and heating rates. Activation energy for glass transition (Et), activation energy of the amorphous –crystalline transformation (Ec), crystallization reaction rate constant (Kp), (n) and (m) are constants related to crystallization mechanism of the bulk samples have been determined by different formulations.

Keywords: chalcogenides, heat treatment, DSC, SEM, glass transition, thermal analysis

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Authors: John Vergara, Giuseppe Palmese

Abstract:

Fundamental studies aimed at elucidating the key contributions to corrosion performance are needed to make progress toward effective and environmentally compliant corrosion control. Epoxy/amine systems are typically employed as barrier coatings for corrosion control. However, the hardening agents used for coating applications can be very complex, making fundamental studies of water and oxygen permeability challenging to carry out. Creating model building blocks for epoxy/amine coatings is the first step in carrying out these studies. We will demonstrate the synthesis and characterization of model amine building blocks from saturated fatty acids and simple amines such as diethylenetriamine (DETA) and Bis(3-aminopropyl)amine. The structure-property relationship of thermosets made from these model amines and Diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGBEA) will be discussed.

Keywords: building block, amine, synthesis, characterization

Procedia PDF Downloads 540

Authors: Weber-Lewerenz Bianca

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Digitization is developing fast and has become a powerful tool for digital planning, construction, and operations. Its transformation bears high potentials for companies, is critical for success, and thus, requires responsible handling. This study provides an assessment of calls made in the sustainable development goals by the United Nations (SDGs), White Papers on AI by international institutions, EU-Commission and German Government requesting for the consideration and protection of values and fundamental rights, the careful demarcation between machine (artificial) and human intelligence and the careful use of such technologies. The study discusses digitization and the impacts of artificial intelligence (AI) in construction engineering from an ethical perspective by generating data via conducting case studies and interviewing experts as part of the qualitative method. This research evaluates critically opportunities and risks revolving around corporate digital responsibility (CDR) in the construction industry. To the author's knowledge, no study has set out to investigate how CDR in construction could be conceptualized, especially in relation to the digitization and AI, to mitigate digital transformation both in large, medium-sized, and small companies. No study addressed the key research question: Where can CDR be allocated, how shall its adequate ethical framework be designed to support digital innovations in order to make full use of the potentials of digitization and AI? Now is the right timing for constructive approaches and apply ethics-by-design in order to develop and implement a safe and efficient AI. This represents the first study in construction engineering applying a holistic, interdisciplinary, inclusive approach to provide guidelines for orientation, examine benefits of AI and define ethical principles as the key driver for success, resources-cost-time efficiency, and sustainability using digital technologies and AI in construction engineering to enhance digital transformation. Innovative corporate organizations starting new business models are more likely to succeed than those dominated by conservative, traditional attitudes.

Keywords: construction engineering, digitization, digital transformation, artificial intelligence, ethics, corporate digital responsibility, digital innovation

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Authors: Mary Chriselda A

Abstract:

This paper deals with the fact that the Hubble's parameter is not constant and tends to vary stochastically with time. This premise has been proven by converting it to a stochastic differential equation using the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process. The formulated stochastic differential equation is further solved analytically using the Euler and the Kolmogorov Forward equations, thereby obtaining the probability density function using the Fourier transformation, thereby proving that the Hubble's parameter varies stochastically. This is further corroborated by simulating the observations using Python and R-software for validation of the premise postulated. We can further draw conclusion that the randomness in forces affecting the white noise can eventually affect the Hubble’s Parameter leading to scale invariance and thereby causing stochastic fluctuations in the density and the rate of expansion of the Universe.

Keywords: Chapman Kolmogorov forward differential equations, fourier transformation, hubble's parameter, ornstein-uhlenbeck process , stochastic differential equations

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Authors: Michael Zimba

Abstract:

A duplicated image region may be subjected to a number of attacks such as noise addition, compression, reflection, rotation, and scaling with the intention of either merely mating it to its targeted neighborhood or preventing its detection. In this paper, we present an effective and robust method of detecting duplicated regions inclusive of those affected by the various attacks. In order to reduce the dimension of the image, the proposed algorithm firstly performs discrete wavelet transform, DWT, of a suspicious image. However, unlike most existing copy move image forgery (CMIF) detection algorithms operating in the DWT domain which extract only the low frequency sub-band of the DWT of the suspicious image thereby leaving valuable information in the other three sub-bands, the proposed algorithm simultaneously extracts features from all the four sub-bands. The extracted features are not only more accurate representation of image regions but also robust to additive noise, JPEG compression, and affine transformation. Furthermore, principal component analysis-eigenvalue decomposition, PCA-EVD, is applied to reduce the dimension of the features. The extracted features are then sorted using the more computationally efficient Radix Sort algorithm. Finally, same affine transformation selection, SATS, a duplication verification method, is applied to detect duplicated regions. The proposed algorithm is not only fast but also more robust to attacks compared to the related CMIF detection algorithms. The experimental results show high detection rates.

Keywords: affine transformation, discrete wavelet transform, radix sort, SATS

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Authors: Zakariya B. H., Idris M. I., Jungudo M. A.

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High energy consumptions of urban settlements in Nigeria are escalating due to strong population growth and migration as a result of crises. The demand for lighting, heating, ventilation and air conditioning (LHVAC) is becoming higher. Conversely, there is a poor electricity supply to both rural and urban settlement in Nigeria. Generators were mostly used in Nigeria as a source of energy for LHVAC. Energy efficiency can be defined as any measure taken to reduce the amount of energy consumed for heating ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC), and house hold appliances like computers, stoves, refrigerators, televisions etc. The aim of the study was to minimize energy consumption in building through the integration of energy efficiency and renewable energy in building sector. Some of the energy efficient buildings within the study area were identified, the study covers there major cities of Nigeria namely, Abuja, Kaduna and Lagos city. The cost of investment on the energy efficiency and renewable energy was determined and compared with other fossil energy source for conventional building. Findings revealed that the low energy and energy efficient buildings in Nigeria are cheaper than the conventional ones. Based on the finding of the research, construction stake holders are strongly encouraged to abandon the conventional buildings and consider energy efficiency and renewable energy in buildings.

Keywords: energy, efficiency, LHVAC, sustainable development

Procedia PDF Downloads 581