Search results for: Islamic economic system

Authors: Cemil Atakara, Hüseyin Eryaman

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The use of glass as an envelope of a building has been increasing in the twentieth century. For more transparency and dematerialization new glass facade types have emerged in the past two decades which depends on point fixed glazing system (PFGS). The aim of this study is to analyze of the PFGS systems which are used on the glass curtain wall according to their types, degree, architectural and structural effects. This new system is desired because it enhances the transparency of the façade and it minimizes the component of the frames or of the profiles. This PFGS led to new structural elements which use cables, rods, trusses when designing a glass building facades, this structural element called the suspended glass system with pre-stressed cable truss (SGSPCT) which has been used for the first time in 1980 in Serres building. The twenty glass buildings which are designed in different systems have been analyzed during this study. After these analyses five selected SGSPCT building analyzed deeply and one skeletal frame building selected from Lefkosa redesigned according to the analysis results. These selected buildings have been included of various cable-truss system typologies and degree. The methodology of this study is building analysis method and literature survey with the help of books, articles, magazines, drawings, internet sources and applied connection details of the glass buildings. The selected five glass buildings and case building have been detailed analyzed with their architectural drawings, photographs and details. A gridshell structure can be compared with a shell structure; it consists of discrete members connecting nodal points. As these nodal points lie on the surface of an imaginary shell, their shapes function almost identically. Difference between shell and gridshell structures can be found in the fact that, due to their free-form and thus, due to the presence of bending forces, gridshells are required to resist loading through their cross-section. This research is divided into parts. A general study about the glass building and cable-glass and grid shell system will be done in the first chapters. Structural analyses and detailed analyses with schematic drawings with the plans, sections of the selected buildings will be explained in the second part. The third part it consists of the advantages and disadvantages of the use of the SGSPCT and Grid Shell in architecture. The study consists of four chapters including the introduction chapter. The general information of the SGSPCT and glazing system has been mentioned in the first chapter. Structural features, typologies, transparency principle and analytical information on systems have been explained of the selected buildings in the second chapter. The detailed analyses of case building have been done according to their schematic drawings with the plans, sections in the third chapter. After third chapter SGSPCT discussed on to the case building and selected buildings. SGSPCT systems have been compared with their advantages and disadvantages to the other systems. Advantages of cable-truss systems and SGSPCT have been concluded that the use of glass substrates in the last chapter.

Keywords: cable truss, glass, grid shell, transparency

Procedia PDF Downloads 412

Authors: The Nan Chang, Ping-Tang Yu, Jyun-Ming Lin

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A triple band circularly polarized antenna covering 1.17, 1.22, and 1.57 GHz is presented. To extend to the triple-band operation, we need to add one more ring while maintaining the mechanism to independently control each ring. The inset-part in the feeding scheme is used to excite the band at 1.22 GHz, while the proximate-part of the feeding scheme is used to excite not only the band at 1.57 GHz but also the band at 1.17 GHz. This is achieved by up-vertically coupled with one ring to radiate at 1.57 GHz and down-vertically coupled another ring to radiate at 1.17 GHz. It is also noted that the inset-part in our feeding scheme is by horizontal coupling. Furthermore, to increase the gain at all three bands, three air-layers are added to make the total height of the antenna be 7.8 mm. The total thickness of the three air-layers is 3 mm. The gains of the three bands are all greater than 5 dBiC after adding the air-layers.

Keywords: circular polarization, global position system, high gain, triband antenna

Procedia PDF Downloads 239

Authors: E. Steen, B. Dewulf, N. Müller, C. Vandycke, Y. Vandekerckhove

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Introduction: The care for a ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patient is time-critical. Reperfusion therapy within 90 minutes of initial medical contact is mandatory in the improvement of the outcome. Primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) without previous fibrinolytic treatment, is the preferred reperfusion strategy in patients with STEMI, provided it can be performed within guideline-mandated times. Aim of the study: During a one year period (January 2013 to December 2013) the files of all consecutive STEMI patients with urgent referral from non-PCI facilities for primary PCI were reviewed. Special attention was given to a subgroup of patients with prior out-of-hospital medical contact generated by the 112-system. In an effort to reduce out-of-hospital system delay to definitive care a change in pre-hospital 112 dispatch strategies is proposed for these time-critical patients. Actual time recordings were compared with travel time simulations for two suggested scenarios. A first scenario (SC1) involves the decision by the on scene ground EMS (GEMS) team to transport the out-of-hospital diagnosed STEMI patient straight forward to a PCI centre bypassing the nearest non-PCI hospital. Another strategy (SC2) explored the potential role of helicopter EMS (HEMS) where the on scene GEMS team requests a PCI-centre based HEMS team for immediate medical transfer to the PCI centre. Methods and Results: 49 (29,1% of all) STEMI patients were referred to our hospital for emergency PCI by a non-PCI facility. 1 file was excluded because of insufficient data collection. Within this analysed group of 48 secondary referrals 21 patients had an out-of-hospital medical contact generated by the 112-system. The other 27 patients presented at the referring emergency department without prior contact with the 112-system. The table below shows the actual time data from first medical contact to definitive care as well as the simulated possible gain of time for both suggested strategies. The PCI-team was always alarmed upon departure from the referring centre excluding further in-hospital delay. Time simulation tools were similar to those used by the 112-dispatch centre. Conclusion: Our data analysis confirms prolonged reperfusion times in case of secondary emergency referrals for STEMI patients even with the use of HEMS. In our setting there was no statistical difference in gain of time between the two suggested strategies, both reducing the secondary referral generated delay with about one hour and by this offering all patients PCI within the guidelines mandated time. However, immediate HEMS activation by the on scene ground EMS team for transport purposes is preferred. This ensures a faster availability of the local GEMS-team for its community. In case these options are not available and the guideline-mandated times for primary PCI are expected to be exceeded, primary fibrinolysis should be considered in a non-PCI centre.

Keywords: STEMI, system delay, HEMS, emergency medicine

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Authors: Kerols Seif Said Botros

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The relationship between development and human rights has been debated for a long time. Various principles, from the right to development to development-based human rights, are applied to understand the dynamics between these two concepts. Despite the measures calculated, the connection between enhancement and human rights remains vague. Despite, the connection between these two opinions and the need to strengthen human rights have increased in recent years. It will then be examined whether the right to sustainable development is acceptable or not. In various human rights instruments and this is a good vibe to the request cited above. The book then cites domestic and international human rights treaties, as well as jurisprudence and regulations defining human rights institutions, to support this view.

Keywords: sustainable development, human rights, the right to development, the human rights-based approach to development, environmental rights, economic development, social sustainability human rights protection, human rights violations, workers’ rights, justice, security.

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Authors: Chia-Ling Chang, Hao-Bo Chang

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Global climate change alters rainfall characteristics, while the variation of these characteristics further influences environmental conditions, such as hydrologic responses, landslide areas, and the amounts of diffuse pollution. The variations of environmental conditions may impact the stability of water resource systems. The objective of this study is to assess the present conditions of major water resource systems in Taiwan. The impact of climate change on each system is also discussed herein. Compared to the water resource systems in northern Taiwan, the ratio of the precipitation during the rainy season to that during the dry season has a larger increase in southern Taiwan. This variation of hydrologic condition impacts the stability of water resource systems and increases the risk of normal water supply. The findings in this work can be important references for water resource management.

Keywords: basin management, climate change, water resource system, water resource management

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Authors: Azna Zuberi

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Biofilm is a sessile bacterial accretion in which bacteria adapts different physiological and morphological behavior from planktonic form. It is the root cause of about 80% microbial infections in human. Among them, E. coli biofilms are most prevalent in medical devices associated nosocomial infections. The objective of this study was to inhibit biofilm formation by targeting LuxS gene, involved in quorum sensing using CRISPRi. luxS is a synthase, involved in the synthesis of Autoinducer-2(AI-2), which in turn guides the initial stage of biofilm formation. To implement CRISPRi system, we have synthesized complementary sgRNA to target gene sequence and co-expressed with dCas9. Suppression of luxS was confirmed through qRT-PCR. The effect of luxS gene on biofilm inhibition was studied through crystal violet assay, XTT reduction assay and scanning electron microscopy. We conclude that CRISPRi system could be a potential strategy to inhibit bacterial biofilm through mechanism base approach.

Keywords: biofilm, CRISPRi, luxS, microbial

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Authors: Justus Enninga

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Enthusiasts and skeptics about economic growth have not much in common in their preference for institutional arrangements that solve ecological conflicts. This paper argues that agreement between both opposing schools can be found in the Bloomington Schools’ concept of polycentricity. Growth-enthusiasts who will be referred to as Simons after the economist Julian Simon and growth-skeptics named Ehrlichs after the ecologist Paul R. Ehrlich both profit from a governance structure where many officials and decision structures are assigned limited and relatively autonomous prerogatives to determine, enforce and alter legal relationships. The paper advances this argument in four steps. First, it will provide clarification of what Simons and Ehrlichs mean when they talk about growth and what the arguments for and against growth-enhancing or degrowth policies are for them and for the other site. Secondly, the paper advances the concept of polycentricity as first introduced by Michael Polanyi and later refined to the study of governance by the Bloomington School of institutional analysis around the Nobel Prize laureate Elinor Ostrom. The Bloomington School defines polycentricity as a non-hierarchical, institutional, and cultural framework that makes possible the coexistence of multiple centers of decision making with different objectives and values, that sets the stage for an evolutionary competition between the complementary ideas and methods of those different decision centers. In the third and fourth parts, it is shown how the concept of polycentricity is of crucial importance for growth-enthusiasts and growth-skeptics alike. The shorter third part demonstrates the literature on growth-enhancing policies and argues that large parts of the literature already accept that polycentric forms of governance like markets, the rule of law and federalism are an important part of economic growth. Part four delves into the more nuanced question of how a stagnant steady-state economy or even an economy that de-grows will still find polycentric governance desirable. While the majority of degrowth proposals follow a top-down approach by requiring direct governmental control, a contrasting bottom-up approach is advanced. A decentralized, polycentric approach is desirable because it allows for the utilization of tacit information dispersed in society and an institutionalized discovery process for new solutions to the problem of ecological collective action – no matter whether you belong to the Simons or Ehrlichs in a green political economy.

Keywords: degrowth, green political theory, polycentricity, institutional robustness

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Authors: Khosru M. Salim, Md. Jasim Uddin, Mohammad Rejwan Uddin

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Developing countries like Bangladesh has huge population lives in the rural areas out of electricity. They are using manually operated tube well for collecting underground water to meet their daily demand. A human labour is required to lift water from tube well. Sometimes, it is impossible for a elementary school going child to operate a tube well in the school. Solar powered water pump could be a sustainable water pumping solution in the rural area of Bangladesh. To minimize the cost, a 0.5 horse power solar water pump is designed considering the requirement of water for a typical house hold in this research. A prototype of the 0.5 hp capacity system is implemented and tested in the rooftop of the university lab to validate the performances. Based on the experimental data, the performance of the system is analyzed and presented in this paper.

Keywords: water pump, solar photovoltaic module, performance analysis, feasibility study

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Authors: Zeynep Selin Acar

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In international system, there has always been a cycle of violence, war and peace. As there travels the time, after Christianity and later Just War theorists, international relations theorists have been tried to limit violence and war. As pieces of international law, Peace of Augsburg, Kellog-Briand Pact, League of Nations Covenant and UN Charter were and are still not effective to prevent war. Moreover, in order to find a way around these rules, it is believed that a new excuse started to be used instead of violence or war, humanitarian intervention. However, it has neither a legal nor a universally accepted framework. As a result, it is open to be manipulated by states. In order to prevent this, Responsibility to Protect (RtoP) which gives a state the responsibility to protect its citizens against violence, is created. Additionally, RtoP transfers this responsibility to regional or international group of states at the time when a state is the origin of violence. In the lights of these, this paper analyzes RtoP as an ethical approach to war and peace studies because it provides other states as guardians and care-takers of people who do not belong to them or do not share any togetherness.

Keywords: ethics, humanitarian intervention, responsibility to protect, UN charter

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Authors: Alexandra Leukauf, Alexander Schirrer, Emir Talic

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Numerical computation of wave propagation in a large domain usually requires significant computational effort. Hence, the considered domain must be truncated to a smaller domain of interest. In addition, special boundary conditions, which absorb the outward travelling waves, need to be implemented in order to describe the system domains correctly. In this work, the linear one dimensional wave equation is approximated by utilizing the Fourier Galerkin approach. Furthermore, the artificial boundaries are realized with absorbing boundary conditions. Within this work, a systematic work flow for setting up the wave problem, including the absorbing boundary conditions, is proposed. As a result, a convenient modal system description with an effective absorbing boundary formulation is established. Moreover, the truncated model shows high accuracy compared to the global domain.

Keywords: absorbing boundary conditions, boundary control, Fourier Galerkin approach, modal approach, wave equation

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Authors: Faisal Salah, Z. A. Aziz, K. K. Viswanathan

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In this article, the effects of g-jitter induced and combined with heat and mass transfer by mixed convection of MHD Maxwell fluid in microgravity situation is investigated for a simple system. This system consists of two heated vertical parallel infinite flat plates held at constant but different temperatures and concentrations. By using modified Darcy’s law, the equations governing the flow are modelled. These equations are solved analytically for the induced velocity, temperature and concentration distributions. Many interesting available results in the relevant literature (i.e. Newtonian fluid) is obtained as the special case of the present general analysis. Finally, the graphical results for the velocity profile of the oscillating flow in the channel are presented and discussed for different values of the material constants.

Keywords: g-jitter, heat and mass transfer, mixed convection, Maxwell fluid, porous medium

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Authors: Martina Holenko Dlab, Natasa Hoic-Bozic

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This paper presents an original approach to student and group activity level assessment that relies on certainty factors theory. Activity level is used to represent quantity and continuity of student’s contributions in individual and collaborative e‑learning activities (e‑tivities) and is calculated to assist teachers in assessing quantitative aspects of student's achievements. Calculated activity levels are also used to raise awareness and provide recommendations during the learning process. The proposed approach was implemented within the educational recommender system ELARS and validated using data obtained from e‑tivity realized during a blended learning course. The results showed that the proposed approach can be used to estimate activity level in the context of e-tivities realized using Web 2.0 tools as well as to facilitate the assessment of quantitative aspect of students’ participation in e‑tivities.

Keywords: assessment, ELARS, e-learning, recommender systems, student model

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Authors: Munirah Ismail, Joon Hock Yeo

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Paediatric patients who require ventricular outflow tract reconstruction usually need valve construction to prevent valvular regurgitation. They would face problems like lack of suitable, affordable conduits and the need to undergo several operations in their lifetime due to the short lifespan of existing valves. Their natural growth and development are also of concern, even if they manage to receive suitable conduits. Current prosthesis including homografts, bioprosthetic valves, mechanical valves, and bovine jugular veins either do not have the long-term durability or the ability to adapt to the growth of such patients. We have developed a new design of bi-leaflet valve. This new technique accommodates patients’ annular size growth while maintaining valvular patency. A mock circulatory system was set up to assess the hemodynamic performance of the bi-leaflet pulmonary valve. It was found that the percentage regurgitation was acceptable and thus, validates this novel concept.

Keywords: bi-leaflet pulmonary valve, pulmonary heart valve, tetralogy of fallot, mock circulatory system

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Authors: Hend Albassam, Nouf Alrumaih

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Nowadays we are in the age of technologies and communication and there is no doubt that technologies such as the Internet can offer many advantages for many business fields, and the health field is no execution. In fact, using the Internet provide us with a new path to improve the quality of health care throughout the world. The e-healthcare offers many advantages such as: efficiency by reducing the cost and avoiding duplicate diagnostics, empowerment of patients by enabling them to access their medical records, enhancing the quality of healthcare and enabling information exchange and communication between healthcare organizations. There are many problems that result from using papers as a way of communication, for example, paper-based prescriptions. Usually, the doctor writes a prescription and gives it to the patient who in turn carries it to the pharmacy. After that, the pharmacist takes the prescription to fill it and give it to the patient. Sometimes the pharmacist might find difficulty in reading the doctor’s handwriting; the patient could change and counterfeit the prescription. These existing problems and many others heighten the need to improve the quality of the healthcare. This project is set out to develop a distributed e-healthcare system that offers some features of e-health and addresses some of the above-mentioned problems. The developed system provides an electronic health record (EHR) and enables communication between separate health care organizations such as the clinic, pharmacy and laboratory. To develop this system, the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is adopted as a design approach, which helps to design several independent modules that communicate by using web services. The layering design pattern is used in designing each module as it provides reusability that allows the business logic layer to be reused by different higher layers such as the web service or the website in our system. The experimental analysis has shown that the project has successfully achieved its aims toward solving the problems related to the paper-based healthcare systems and it enables different health organization to communicate effectively. It implements four independent modules including healthcare provider, pharmacy, laboratory and medication information provider. Each module provides different functionalities and is used by a different type of user. These modules interoperate with each other using a set of web services.

Keywords: e-health, services oriented architecture (SOA), web services, interoperability

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Authors: Ibrahim Auwalu

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The main thrust of this paper is the examination of Quality Education as opposed to low level knowledge acquisition in the promotion of quality of life, health, individual and national growth and development. The paper reviews the role education plays in developed, developing and third world economies. It further explores the real meaning of poverty in the context it exists. That is poverty in terms of its dimensions– shortened lives, illiteracy, social exclusion and lack of material means to improve family circumstances. The paper concludes that education not only helps individuals escape poverty by developing the skills needed to improve their livelihoods, but also generates productivity gains that fuel economic growth.

Keywords: quality, education, global, poverty alleviation

Procedia PDF Downloads 321

Authors: Ndibarefinia Tobin

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The UK construction industry has been under pressure for many years to produce economical buildings which offer value for money, not only during the construction phase, but more importantly, during the full life of the building. Whole life costing is considered as an economic analysis tool that takes into account the total investment cost in and ownership, operation and subsequent disposal of a product or system to which the whole life costing method is being applied. In spite of its importance, the practice is still crippled by the lack of tangible evidence, ‘know-how’ skills and knowledge of the practice i.e. the lack of professionals with the knowledge and training on the use of the practice in construction project, this situation is compounded by the absence of available data on whole life costing from relevant projects, lack of data collection mechanisms and so on. The aforementioned problems has forced many construction organisations to adopt project enhancement initiatives to boost their performance on the use of whole life costing techniques so as to produce economical buildings which offer value for money during the construction stage also the whole life of the building/asset. The management of knowledge in whole life costing is considered as one of the many project enhancement initiative and it is becoming imperative in the performance and sustainability of an organisation. Procuring building projects using whole life costing technique is heavily reliant on the knowledge, experience, ideas and skills of workers, which comes from many sources including other individuals, electronic media and documents. Due to the diversity of knowledge, capabilities and skills of employees that vary across an organisation, it is significant that they are directed and coordinated efficiently so as to capture, retrieve and share knowledge in order to improve the performance of the organisation. The implementation of knowledge management concept has different levels in each organisation. Measuring the maturity level of knowledge management in whole life costing practice will paint a comprehensible picture of how knowledge is managed in construction organisations. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify knowledge management maturity in UK construction organisations adopting whole life costing in construction project. Design/methodology/approach: This study adopted a survey method and conducted by distributing questionnaires to large construction companies that implement knowledge management activities in whole life costing practice in construction project. Four level of knowledge management maturity was proposed on this study. Findings: From the results obtained in the study shows that 34 contractors at the practiced level, 26 contractors at managed level and 12 contractors at continuously improved level.

Keywords: knowledge management, whole life costing, construction industry, knowledge

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Authors: Shih-Wen Hsiao, Rong-Qi Chen

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In the field of fashion design, 3D Mannequin is a kind of assisting tool which could rapidly realize the design concepts. While the concept of 3D Mannequin is applied to the computer added fashion design, it will connect with the development and the application of design platform and system. Thus, the situation mentioned above revealed a truth that it is very critical to develop a module of 3D Mannequin which would correspond with the necessity of fashion design. This research proposes a concrete plan that developing and constructing a system of 3D Mannequin with Kinect. In the content, ergonomic measurements of objective human features could be attained real-time through the implement with depth camera of Kinect, and then the mesh morphing can be implemented through transformed the locations of the control-points on the model by inputting those ergonomic data to get an exclusive 3D mannequin model. In the proposed methodology, after the scanned points from the Kinect are revised for accuracy and smoothening, a complete human feature would be reconstructed by the ICP algorithm with the method of image processing. Also, the objective human feature could be recognized to analyze and get real measurements. Furthermore, the data of ergonomic measurements could be applied to shape morphing for the division of 3D Mannequin reconstructed by feature curves. Due to a standardized and customer-oriented 3D Mannequin would be generated by the implement of subdivision, the research could be applied to the fashion design or the presentation and display of 3D virtual clothes. In order to examine the practicality of research structure, a system of 3D Mannequin would be constructed with JAVA program in this study. Through the revision of experiments the practicability-contained research result would come out.

Keywords: 3D mannequin, kinect scanner, interactive closest point, shape morphing, subdivision

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Authors: Sajjad Rostami-Sani, Mojtaba Valinataj, Amir-Hossein Khojir-Angasi

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The cache has an important role in the reduction of access delay between a processor and memory in high-performance embedded systems. In these systems, the energy consumption is one of the most important concerns, and it will become more important with smaller processor feature sizes and higher frequencies. Meanwhile, the cache system dissipates a significant portion of energy compared to the other components of a processor. There are some elements that can affect the energy consumption of the cache such as replacement policy and degree of associativity. Due to these points, it can be inferred that selecting an appropriate configuration for the cache is a crucial part of designing a system. In this paper, we investigate the effect of different cache replacement policies on both cache’s performance and energy consumption. Furthermore, the impact of different Instruction Set Architectures (ISAs) on cache’s performance and energy consumption has been investigated.

Keywords: energy consumption, replacement policy, instruction set architecture, multicore processor

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Authors: A. Arabzadeh, H. R. Kazemi Nia Korrani

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Composite steel plate shear wall is a lateral loading resistance system, which is used especially in tall buildings. This wall is made of a thin steel plate with reinforced a concrete cover, which is attached to one or both sides of the steel plate. This system is similar to stiffened steel plate shear wall, in which reinforced concrete replaces the steel stiffeners. Composite shear wall have in-plane and out-plane significant strength. Also, they have appropriate ductility. The present numerical investigations were focused on the effects of opening on wall mode shapes. In addition, frequencies of composite shear wall with and without opening are compared. For analyzing composite shear wall, a new program will be developed using of finite element theory and the effects of shape, size and position openings on the behavior of composite shear wall will be studied. Results indicated that the existence of opening decreases wall frequency.

Keywords: composite shear wall, opening, finite element method, modal analysis

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Authors: S. Sangaroon, W. Ratanatongchai, S. Khaweerat, R. Picha, J. Channuie

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The prompt gamma-ray neutron activation analysis system (PGNAA) has been constructed and installed at a 6 inch diameter neutron beam port of the Thai Research Reactor-1/ Modification 1 (TRR-1/M1) since 1989. It was designed for the reactor operating power at 1.2 MW. The purpose of the system is for an elemental and isotopic analytical. In 2016, the PGNAA facility will be developed to reduce the leakage and background of neutrons and gamma radiation at the sample and detector position. In this work, the designed condition of these facilities is carried out based on the Monte Carlo method using MCNP5 computer code. The conditions with different modification materials, thicknesses and structure of the PGNAA facility, including gamma collimator and radiation shields of the detector, are simulated, and then the optimal structure parameters with a significantly improved performance of the facility are obtained.

Keywords: MCNP simulation, PGNAA, Thai research reactor (TRR-1/M1), radiation shielding

Procedia PDF Downloads 385

Authors: Ala Hanetite

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This study aims to investigate the implications of quality management system (QMS) practices in employees' attitudes relating to job involvement, job satisfaction, career satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Design/methodology/approach: This study was accomplished through the use of a questionnaire. Twenty hypotheses related to QMS practices and the employees' attitudes were formulated and tested. Findings: The results indicate that responsibility and teamwork have a significant and positive correlation with job involvement, job satisfaction, career satisfaction, as well as organizational commitment. Ongoing improvement and problem solving have significant implications in organizational commitment. In addition, training and education, as well as customer focus, did not demonstrate any favorable contribution to the employees' attitudes. Originality/value: The study recommends that management should be more committed to the development of quality practices to sustain and enhance employees' positive attitudes toward their job. Such practices are a competitive strategy to attract and retain competent employees.

Keywords: attitudes, employee, quality management system, competitive strategy

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Authors: Meysam Naeimi, Zili Li, Rolf Dollevoet

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A new small–scale test rig developed for rolling contact fatigue (RCF) investigations in wheel–rail material. This paper presents the scaling strategy of the rig based on dimensional analysis and mechanical modelling. The new experimental rig is indeed a spinning frame structure with multiple wheel components over a fixed rail-track ring, capable of simulating continuous wheel-rail contact in a laboratory scale. This paper describes the dimensional design of the rig, to derive its overall scaling strategy and to determine the key elements’ specifications. Finite element (FE) modelling is used to simulate the mechanical behavior of the rig with two sample scale factors of 1/5 and 1/7. The results of FE models are compared with the actual railway system to observe the effectiveness of the chosen scales. The mechanical properties of the components and variables of the system are finally determined through the design process.

Keywords: new test rig, rolling contact fatigue, rail, small scale

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Authors: M. Hossain, A. H. Khan, M. A. R. Sarkar

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Primary containment structure is one of the five safety layers of a nuclear facility which is needed to be designed in such a manner that it can withstand the pressure and excessive radioactivity during accidental situations. It is also necessary to ensure minimization of cost with maximum possible safety in order to make the design economically feasible and attractive. This paper attempts to identify the optimum design conditions for primary containment structure considering both mechanical and radiation safety keeping the economic aspects in mind. This work takes advantage of commercial simulation software to identify the suitable conditions without the requirement of costly experiments. Generated data may be helpful for further studies.

Keywords: PWR, concrete containment, finite element approach, neutron attenuation, Von Mises stress

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Authors: F. Boudet, V. Galano, D. Gmira, L. Munoz, A. Reina

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Commodities pricing needs a specific approach as they are often linked to each other and so are expectedly doing their prices. They are called co-integrated when at least one stationary linear combination exists between them. Though widespread in economic literature, and even if many equilibrium relations and co-movements exist in the economy, this principle of co-movement is not developed in derivatives field. The present study focuses on the following problem: How can the price of a forward agreement on a commodity be simulated, when it is co-integrated with other ones? Theoretical analysis is developed from Gibson-Schwartz model and an analytical solution is given for short maturities contracts and under risk-neutral conditions. The application has been made to crude oil and heating oil energy commodities and result confirms the applicability of proposed method.

Keywords: co-integration, commodities, forward pricing, Gibson-Schwartz

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Authors: Saadet Taşyürek Demirel, Halide Sena Koçyiğit, Rümeysa Fatma Çetin

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Celebrity worship, characterized by excessive admiration and devotion towards public figures, often mirrors elements of religious fervor. This study delves into the intricate connection between celebrity worship and religiosity, particularly within the Turkish cultural context, where Islamic values predominantly shape societal norms. The investigation involves the adaptation of the Celebrity Attitude Scale into Turkish and scrutinizes the interplay between young individuals' religiosity and their extreme adulation of celebrities. Additionally, the study explores potential moderating factors, such as age and gender, that might influence this relationship. A cohort of 197 young adults, aged 19 to 30, participated in this research, responding to self-administered questionnaires that assessed their attitudes towards celebrities using the adapted Celebrity Attitude Scale, along with their self-reported religiosity. The anticipated relationship between religiosity and celebrity worship is hypothesized to exhibit a non-linear pattern. Specifically, we expect religiosity to positively predict celebrity worship tendencies among individuals with minimal to moderate religiosity levels. Conversely, a negative association between religiosity and celebrity worship is expected to manifest among participants exhibiting moderate to high levels of religiosity. The findings of this study will contribute to the comprehension of the intricate dynamics between celebrity worship and religiosity, offering insights specifically within the Turkish cultural context. By shedding light on this relationship, the study aims to enhance our understanding of the multifaceted influences that shape individuals' perceptions and behaviors towards both celebrities and religious inclinations. Methodology of the study: A quantitative research will be conducted, where the factor analysis and correlational method will be used. The factor structure of the scale will be determined with exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. The reliability, internal consistency, Objectives of the study: This study examines the relationship between religiosity and celebrity worship by young adults in the Turkish context. The other aim of the study is to assess the Turkish validity and reliability of the Celebrity Attitude Scale and contribute it to the literature. Main Contributions of the study: The study aims to introduce celebrity worship to Turkish literature, assess the Celebrity Attitude Scale's reliability in a Turkish sample, explore manifestations of celebrity worship, and examine its link to religiosity. This research addresses the lack of Turkish sources on celebrity worship and extends understanding of the concept.

Keywords: celebrity, worship, religiosity, god

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Authors: T. Delval, C. Sauvage, Q. Jullien, R. Viano, T. Diallo, B. Collignan, G. Picinbono

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In the context of the international spread of COVID-19, the Centre Scientifique et Technique du Bâtiment (CSTB) has led a joint research with the French government authorities Hauts-de-Seine department, to analyse the risk in school spaces according to their configuration, ventilation system and spatial segmentation strategy. This paper describes the main results of this joint research. A multidisciplinary team involving experts in indoor air quality/ventilation, pedestrian movements and IT domains was established to develop a COVID risk analysis tool based on Building Information Model. The work started with specific analysis on two pilot schools in order to provide for the local administration specifications to minimize the spread of the virus. Different recommendations were published to optimize/validate the use of ventilation systems and the strategy of student occupancy and student flow segmentation within the building. This COVID expertise has been digitized in order to manage a quick risk analysis on the entire building that could be used by the public administration through an easy user interface implemented in a free BIM Management software. One of the most interesting results is to enable a dynamic comparison of different ventilation system scenarios and space occupation strategy inside the BIM model. This concurrent engineering approach provides users with the optimal solution according to both ventilation and pedestrian flow expertise.

Keywords: BIM, knowledge management, system expert, risk management, indoor ventilation, pedestrian movement, integrated design

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Authors: P. Abtahi, B. Samali

Abstract:

Façade panels of various shapes, weights, and connections usually act as a barrier between the indoor and outdoor environments. They also play a major role in enhancing the aesthetics of building structures. They are attached by different types of connections to the primary structure or inner panels in double skin façade skins. Structural buildings designed to withstand seismic shocks have been undergoing a critical appraisal in recent years, with the emphasis changing from ‘strength’ to ‘performance’. Performance based design and analysis have found their way into research, development, and practice of earthquake engineering, particularly after the 1994 Northridge and 1995 Kobe earthquakes. The design performance of facades as non-structural elements has now focused mainly on evaluating the damage sustained by façade frames with fixed connections, not movable ones. This paper will review current design standards for structural buildings, including the performance of structural and non-structural components during earthquake excitations in order to overview and evaluate the damage assessment and behaviour of various façade systems in building structures during seismic activities. The proposed solutions for each facade system will be discussed case by case to evaluate their potential for incorporation with newly designed connections. Finally, Double-Skin-Facade systems can potentially be combined with movable facade technology, although other glazing systems would require minor to major changes in their design before being integrated into the system.

Keywords: building performance, earthquake engineering, glazing system, movable façade technology

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Authors: Sayali Vyas, Atharva Desai, Shreyas Badave, Apurv Kulkarni, B. Rajiv

Abstract:

The Failure Modes and Effect Analysis (FMEA) is an efficient evaluation technique to identify potential failures in products, processes, and services. FMEA is designed to identify and prioritize failure modes. It proves to be a useful method for identifying and correcting possible failures at its earliest possible level so that one can avoid consequences of poor performance. In this paper, FMEA tool is used in detection of failures of various components of heat exchanger cycle and to identify critical failures of the components which may hamper the system’s performance. Further, a detailed Pareto analysis is done to find out the most critical components of the cycle, the causes of its failures, and possible recommended actions. This paper can be used as a checklist which will help in maintainability of the system.

Keywords: FMEA, heat exchanger cycle, Ishikawa diagram, pareto analysis, RPN (Risk Priority Number)

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Authors: Jason R. King, Hugh H. T. Liu

Abstract:

This research presents simulation and experimental work in the visual servoing of a quadrotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) to stabilize overtop of a moving target. Most previous work in the field assumes static or slow-moving, unpredictable targets. In this experiment, the target is assumed to be a friendly ground robot moving freely on a horizontal plane, which shares information with the UAV. This information includes velocity and acceleration information of the ground target to aid the quadrotor in its tracking task. The quadrotor is assumed to have a downward-facing camera which is fixed to the frame of the quadrotor. Only onboard sensing for the quadrotor is utilized for the experiment, with a VICON motion capture system in place used only to measure ground truth and evaluate the performance of the controller. The experimental platform consists of an ArDrone 2.0 and a Create Roomba, communicating using Robot Operating System (ROS). The addition of the target’s information is demonstrated to help the quadrotor in its tracking task using simulations of the dynamic model of a quadrotor in Matlab Simulink. A nested PID control loop is utilized for inner-loop control the quadrotor, similar to previous works at the Flight Systems and Controls Laboratory (FSC) at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS). Experiments are performed with ground truth provided by an indoor motion capture system, and the results are analyzed. It is demonstrated that a velocity controller which incorporates the additional information is able to perform better than the controllers which do not have access to the target’s information.

Keywords: quadrotor, target tracking, unmanned aerial vehicle, UAV, UAS, visual servoing

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Authors: Nuruol S. Mohd, Safia Ahmed, Rumana Riffat, Baoqiang Li

Abstract:

Anaerobic digestion at mesophilic and thermophilic temperatures have been widely studied and evaluated by numerous researchers. Limited extensive research has been conducted on anaerobic digestion in the intermediate zone of 45°C, mainly due to the notion that limited microbial activity occurs within this zone. The objectives of this research were to evaluate the performance and the capability of anaerobic digestion at 45°C in producing class A biosolids, in comparison to a mesophilic and thermophilic anaerobic digestion system operated at 35°C and 55°C, respectively. In addition to that, the investigation on the possible inhibition factors affecting the performance of the digestion system at this temperature will be conducted as well. The 45°C anaerobic digestion systems were not able to achieve comparable methane yield and high-quality effluent compared to the mesophilic system, even though the systems produced biogas with about 62-67% methane. The 45°C digesters suffered from high acetate accumulation, but sufficient buffering capacity was observed as the pH, alkalinity and volatile fatty acids (VFA)-to-alkalinity ratio were within recommended values. The accumulation of acetate observed in 45°C systems were presumably due to the high temperature which contributed to high hydrolysis rate. Consequently, it produced a large amount of toxic salts that combined with the substrate making them not readily available to be consumed by methanogens. Acetate accumulation, even though contributed to 52 to 71% reduction in acetate degradation process, could not be considered as completely inhibitory. Additionally, at 45°C, no ammonia inhibition was observed and the digesters were able to achieve volatile solids (VS) reduction of 47.94±4.17%. The pathogen counts were less than 1,000 MPN/g total solids, thus, producing Class A biosolids.

Keywords: 45°C anaerobic digestion, acetate accumulation, class A biosolids, salt toxicity

Procedia PDF Downloads 306