Search results for: building circularity assessment

Authors: Farah Al-Mutairi, Hadeer Al-Jeeraan, Lima Ali, Raya Al-Dabbous, Sarah Baroun

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Lately, within the middle east, development has taken place in the construction area which increased the demand of a crucial component, where without it; stunning views from skyscrapers cannot been experienced, and natural light would not be able to be viewed from an indoor building. Glass has changed the path of living and building. Float glass is a type of glass that is flat and it is the type used in the construction and automobile sector. Facility design on the other hand is a study that improves the efficiency utilization of people, equipment, material and space. Kuwait's governmental future developing plan bears in mind the need of increase in industries to increase the growth domestic product(GDP) of the country. This project studies the feasibility of two designs of a float glass manufacture in Kuwait. The first Alternative, consists of one production line of capacity 500 tons of glass per day. The second alternative, consists of three production lines, each of capacity 500 tons of glass daily.

Keywords: float glass manufacture, Kuwait, feasibility float glass, facility design, float glass production

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Authors: Varsha Hemant Patil, Swati A. Bhavsar, Abolee H. Patil

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Image quality assessment plays an important role in image evaluation. This paper aims to present an investigation of classic techniques in use for image quality assessment, especially for super-resolution imaging. Researchers have contributed a lot towards the development of super-resolution imaging techniques. However, not much attention is paid to the development of metrics for testing the performance of developed techniques. In this paper, the study report of existing image quality measures is given. The paper classifies reviewed approaches according to functionality and suitability for super-resolution imaging. Probable modifications and improvements of these to suit super-resolution imaging are presented. The prime goal of the paper is to provide a comprehensive reference source for researchers working towards super-resolution imaging and suggest a better framework for measuring the performance of super-resolution imaging techniques.

Keywords: interpolation, MSE, PSNR, SSIM, super resolution

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Authors: Andrey A. Chernousov, Ben Y. B. Chan

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The thermal behavior of a large-scale, phase change material (PCM) enhanced building envelope system was studied in regard to the need for pre-fabricated construction in subtropical regions. The proposed large-scale envelope consists of a reinforced aluminum skin, insulation core, phase change material and reinforced gypsum board. The PCM impact on an energy efficiency of an enveloped room was resolved by validation of the Energy Plus numerical scheme and optimization of a smart material location in the core. The PCM location was optimized by a minimization method of a cooling energy demand. It has been shown that there is good agreement between the test and simulation results. The optimal location of the PCM layer in Hong Kong summer conditions has been then recomputed for core thicknesses of 40, 60 and 80 mm. A non-dimensional value of the optimal PCM location was obtained to be same for all the studied cases and the considered external and internal conditions.

Keywords: thermal performance, phase change material, energy efficiency, PCM optimization

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Authors: M. Kadela

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The load caused by the traffic movement should be transferred in the road constructions in a harmless way to the pavement as follows: − on the stiff upper layers of the structure (e.g. layers of asphalt: abrading and binding), and − through the layers of principal and secondary substructure, − on the subsoil, directly or through an improved subsoil layer. Reliable description of the interaction proceeding in a system “road construction – subsoil” should be in such case one of the basic requirements of the assessment of the size of internal forces of structure and its durability. Analyses of road constructions are based on: − elements of mechanics, which allows to create computational models, and − results of the experiments included in the criteria of fatigue life analyses. Above approach is a fundamental feature of commonly used mechanistic methods. They allow to use in the conducted evaluations of the fatigue life of structures arbitrarily complex numerical computational models. Considering the work of the system “road construction – subsoil”, it is commonly accepted that, as a result of repetitive loads on the subsoil under pavement, the growth of relatively small deformation in the initial phase is recognized, then this increase disappears, and the deformation takes the character completely reversible. The reliability of calculation model is combined with appropriate use (for a given type of analysis) of constitutive relationships. Phenomena occurring in the initial stage of the system “road construction – subsoil” is unfortunately difficult to interpret in the modeling process. The classic interpretation of the behavior of the material in the elastic-plastic model (e-p) is that elastic phase of the work (e) is undergoing to phase (e-p) by increasing the load (or growth of deformation in the damaging structure). The paper presents the essence of the calibration process of cooperating subsystem in the calculation model of the system “road construction – subsoil”, created for the mechanistic analysis. Calibration process was directed to show the impact of applied constitutive models on its deformation and stress response. The proper comparative base for assessing the reliability of created. This work was supported by the on-going research project “Stabilization of weak soil by application of layer of foamed concrete used in contact with subsoil” (LIDER/022/537/L-4/NCBR/2013) financed by The National Centre for Research and Development within the LIDER Programme. M. Kadela is with the Department of Building Construction Elements and Building Structures on Mining Areas, Building Research Institute, Silesian Branch, Katowice, Poland (phone: +48 32 730 29 47; fax: +48 32 730 25 22; e-mail: m.kadela@ itb.pl). models should be, however, the actual, monitored system “road construction – subsoil”. The paper presents too behavior of subsoil under cyclic load transmitted by pavement layers. The response of subsoil to cyclic load is recorded in situ by the observation system (sensors) installed on the testing ground prepared for this purpose, being a part of the test road near Katowice, in Poland. A different behavior of the homogeneous subsoil under pavement is observed for different seasons of the year, when pavement construction works as a flexible structure in summer, and as a rigid plate in winter. Albeit the observed character of subsoil response is the same regardless of the applied load and area values, this response can be divided into: - zone of indirect action of the applied load; this zone extends to the depth of 1,0 m under the pavement, - zone of a small strain, extending to about 2,0 m.

Keywords: road structure, constitutive model, calculation model, pavement, soil, FEA, response of soil, monitored system

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Authors: Aneri Mehta, Krunal Mehta

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Administration is largely based on two sciences: ‘management science’ and ‘political science’. The approach of new public management is more inclined towards the management science. Era of ‘New Public Management’ has affected the developing countries very immensely. Public management reforms are needed to enhance the development of the countries. This reform mainly includes capacity building, control of corruption, political decentralization, debureaucratization and public empowerment. This gives the opportunity to create self-sustaining change in the governance. This paper includes the link of approach of new public management and their effect on building effective democratization in the country. This approach mainly focuses on rationality and effectiveness of governance system. These need to have deep efforts on technological, organizational, social and cultural fields. Bringing citizen participation in governance is main objective of NPM. The shift from traditional public management to new public management have low success rate of reforms. This research includes case study of RTI which is a big step of government towards citizen centric approach of governance. The aspect of ‘publicness’ in the democratic policy implementation is important for good governance in India.

Keywords: public management, development, public empowerment, governance

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Authors: Gia Surguladze, Nino Topuria, Lily Petriashvili, Giorgi Surguladze

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Modeling of building processes of a multimodal freight transportation support information system is discussed based on modern CASE technologies. Functional efficiencies of ports in the eastern part of the Black Sea are analyzed taking into account their ecological, seasonal, resource usage parameters. By resources, we mean capacities of berths, cranes, automotive transport, as well as work crews and neighbouring airports. For the purpose of designing database of computer support system for Managerial (Logistics) function, using Object-Role Modeling (ORM) tool (NORMA – Natural ORM Architecture) is proposed, after which Entity Relationship Model (ERM) is generated in automated process. The software is developed based on Process-Oriented and Service-Oriented architecture, in Visual Studio.NET environment.

Keywords: seaport resources, business-processes, multimodal transportation, CASE technology, object-role model, entity relationship model, SOA

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Authors: Adejo Andrew Ojonugwa, Jomboh Jeff Kator, Garkida Adele Dzikwi

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This study investigates the behaviour of textured glass coat to chemical reactions upon application. Samples of textured glass coat developed from mixed post consumer glass were subjected to pH test (ASTM D5464), Chemical resistance test (ASTM D3260 and D1308), Adhesion test (ASTM D3359), and Abrasion test (ASTM D4060). Results shows a pH of 8.50, Chemical resistance of 5% flick rate when reacted with Sodium hydroxide (NaOH), a 3%, 5%, 10%, and 15% discolouration when reacted with Magnesium hydroxide (Mg(OH)2), Hydrogen fluoride (HF), Potassium hydroxide (KOH) and NaOH respectively, an adhesion of 4A and abrasion of 0.2g. The results confirm that the developed textured glass coat is in line with the standard pH range of 8-9, resistant to acid and base except for HF, NaOH, and Mg(OH)₂, good adhesion and abrasion properties, thereby making the coat resistant to chemical degradation and a good engineering material.

Keywords: chemical durability, glass-coat, building, recycling

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Authors: K. Geetha Ramesh, A. Ramachandraiah

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In an internal building space, daylight becomes a powerful source of illumination. The challenge therefore, is to develop means of utilizing both direct and diffuse natural light in buildings while maintaining and improving occupant's visual comfort, particularly at greater distances from the windows throwing daylight. The geometrical features of windows in a building have significant effect in providing daylight. The main goal of this research is to develop an innovative window geometry, which will effectively provide the daylight component adequately together with internal reflected component(IRC) and also the external reflected component(ERC), if any. This involves exploration of a light redirecting system using fractal geometry for windows, in order to penetrate and distribute daylight more uniformly to greater depths, minimizing heat gain and glare, and also to reduce building energy use substantially. Of late the creation of fractal geometrical window and the occurrence of daylight illuminance due to such windows is becoming an interesting study. The amount of daylight can change significantly based on the window geometry and sky conditions. This leads to the (i) exploration of various fractal patterns suitable for window designs, and (ii) quantification of the effect of chosen fractal window based on the relationship between the fractal pattern, size, orientation and glazing properties for optimizing daylighting. There are a lot of natural lighting applications able to predict the behaviour of a light in a room through a traditional opening - a regular window. The conventional prediction methodology involves the evaluation of the daylight factor, the internal reflected component and the external reflected component. Having evaluated the daylight illuminance level for a conventional window, the technical performance of a fractal window for an optimal daylighting is to be studied and compared with that of a regular window. The methodologies involved are highlighted in this paper.

Keywords: daylighting, fractal geometry, fractal window, optimization

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Authors: Nicolas Bae, Theodore L. Karavasilis

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Increasingly, a large number of new and existing tall buildings are required to improve their resilient performance against strong winds and earthquakes to minimize direct, as well as indirect damages to society. Those advent stationary functions of tall building structures in metropolitan regions can be severely hazardous, in socio-economic terms, which also increase the requirement of advanced seismic performance. To achieve these progressive requirements, the seismic reinforcement for some old, conventional buildings have become enormously costly. The methods of increasing the buildings’ resilience against wind or earthquake loads have also become more advanced. Up to now, vibration control devices, such as the passive damper system, is still regarded as an effective and an easy-to-install option, in improving the seismic resilience of buildings at affordable prices. The main purpose of this paper is to examine 1) the optimization of the shape of visco plastic brace damper (VPBD) system which is one of hybrid damper system so that it can maximize its energy dissipation capacity in tall buildings against wind and earthquake. 2) the verification of the seismic performance of the visco plastic brace damper system in tall buildings; up to forty-storey high steel frame buildings, by comparing the results of Non-Linear Response History Analysis (NLRHA), with and without a damper system. The most significant contribution of this research is to introduce the optimized hybrid damper system that is adequate for high rise buildings. The efficiency of this visco plastic brace damper system and the advantages of its use in tall buildings can be verified since tall buildings tend to be affected by wind load at its normal state and also by earthquake load after yielding of steel plates. The modeling of the prototype tall building will be conducted using the Opensees software. Three types of modeling were used to verify the performance of the damper (MRF, MRF with visco-elastic, MRF with visco-plastic model) 22-set seismic records used and the scaling procedure was followed according to the FEMA code. It is shown that MRF with viscous, visco-elastic damper, it is superior effective to reduce inelastic deformation such as roof displacement, maximum story drift, roof velocity compared to the MRF only.

Keywords: tall steel building, seismic retrofit, viscous, viscoelastic damper, performance based design, resilience based design

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Authors: Francesco Gallucci, Mariangela Salerno, Ettore Guerriero, Manfredi Amalfi, Giancarlo Chiatti, Fulvio Palmieri

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The paper deals with the experimental activities on a biomass combustion test-bed. More in detail, experimental campaigns have been devoted to investigate the operation of a biomass moving grate furnace. A research-oriented facility based on a moving grate furnace (350kW) has been set up in order to perform experimental activities in a wide range of test configurations. The paper reports the description of the complete biomass-plant and the assessment of the system operation. As the first step, the chemical and physical properties of the used wooden biomass have been preliminarily investigated. Once the biomass fuel has been characterized, investigations have been devoted to point out the operation of the furnace. It has been operated at full load, highlighting the influence of biomass combustion parameters on particulate matter and gaseous emission.

Keywords: biomass, combustion, experimental, pollutants

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Authors: Mohan Kotamrazu

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Tall buildings block and divert strong upper level winds to the ground. These high velocity winds many a time create adverse wind effects at ground level which can be uncomfortable and even compromise the safety of pedestrians and people who frequent the spaces in the vicinity of tall buildings. Discomfort can be experienced around the entrances and corners of tall buildings. Activities such as strolling or sitting in a park, waiting for a bus near a tall building can become highly unpleasant. For the elderly unpleasant conditions can also become dangerous leading to accidents and injuries. Today there is a growing concern among architects, planners and urban designers about the wind environment in the vicinity of tall building. Regulating authorities insist on wind tunnel testing of tall buildings in cities such as Wellington, Auckland, Boston, San Francisco, etc. prior to granting permission for their construction The present paper examines the different ways that tall buildings can induce strong winds at pedestrian level and their impact on people who frequent the spaces around tall buildings.

Keywords: tall buildings, wind effects, wind comfort, wind safety

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Authors: Ngoc T. B. Hoang

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With a young population showing a greatly entrepreneurial spirit, Vietnam has become a potential land for a growing knowledge-based entrepreneurial ecosystem (KBEE). KBEE is the key to new job formation, and well solution for the crisis of unemployment of higher education graduates and powerful engine for knowledge-based development and building the knowledge based economy in Vietnam. Consequently, Vietnam is attempting to build a healthy KBEE, giving local entrepreneurs more opportunities to develop their businesses. The purpose of the research article is to sketch up a general map to show the current situation of Vietnam's startup ecosystem in the beginning of a startup nation and take into consideration the influence of socio-cultural norms, institutional landscape and socio-economic factors on motivation to develop a KBEE. This paper also proposes a qualitative approach to explore the relationship between these and other elements of Vietnamese entrepreneurial ecosystems. Eventually, viable recommendations are drawn for Vietnamese entrepreneurs and policymakers to improve the quality of the knowledge-based entrepreneurial ecosystem in Vietnam.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, knowledge-based entrepreneurial ecosystem, startup ecosystem, Vietnam

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Authors: Achim Washington, Reece Clothier, Jose Silva

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System Safety Regulations (SSR) are a central component to the airworthiness certification of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS). There is significant debate on the setting of appropriate SSR for UAS. Putting this debate aside, the challenge lies in how to apply the system safety process to UAS, which lacks the data and operational heritage of conventionally piloted aircraft. The limited knowledge and lack of operational data result in uncertainty in the system safety assessment of UAS. This uncertainty can lead to incorrect compliance findings and the potential certification and operation of UAS that do not meet minimum safety performance requirements. The existing system safety assessment and compliance processes, as used for conventional piloted aviation, do not adequately account for the uncertainty, limiting the suitability of its application to UAS. This paper discusses the challenges of undertaking system safety assessments for UAS and presents current and envisaged research towards addressing these challenges. It aims to highlight the main advantages associated with adopting a risk based framework to the System Safety Performance Requirement (SSPR) compliance process that is capable of taking the uncertainty associated with each of the outputs of the system safety assessment process into consideration. Based on this study, it is made clear that developing a framework tailored to UAS, would allow for a more rational, transparent and systematic approach to decision making. This would reduce the need for conservative assumptions and take the risk posed by each UAS into consideration while determining its state of compliance to the SSR.

Keywords: Part 1309 regulations, risk models, uncertainty, unmanned aircraft systems

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Authors: Tammam A. Benmusa, Mohamed A. Shlibek, Rawad M. Swesi

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The investigation of Buildings Penetration Loss (BPL) of radio signal is getting more and more important. It plays an important role in calculating the indoor coverage for wireless communication networks. In this paper, the theory behind BPL and its mechanisms have been reviewed. The operating frequency, coverage area type, climate condition, time of measurement, and other factors affecting the values of BPL have been discussed. The practical part of this work was conducting 4000 measurements of BPL in different areas in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, to get empirical model for this loss. The measurements were taken for 2 different types of wireless communication networks; mobile telephone network (for Almadar company), which operates at 900 MHz and WiMAX network (LTT company) which operates at 2500 MHz. The results for each network were summarized and presented in several graphs. The graphs are showing how the BPL affected by: time of measurement, morphology (type of area), and climatic environment.

Keywords: building penetration loss, wireless network, mobile network, link budget, indoor network performance

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Authors: D. Serero, L. Couton, J. D. Parisse, R. Leroy

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In urban planning, an increasing number of cities require wind analysis to verify comfort of public spaces and around buildings. These studies are made using computer fluid dynamic simulation (CFD). However, this technique is often based on wind information taken from meteorological stations located at several kilometers of the spot of analysis. The approximated input data on project surroundings produces unprecise results for this type of analysis. They can only be used to get general behavior of wind in a zone but not to evaluate precise wind speed. This paper presents another approach to this problem, based on collecting wind data and generating an urban wind cartography using connected ultrasound anemometers. They are wireless devices that send immediate data on wind to a remote server. Assembled in array, these devices generate geo-localized data on wind such as speed, temperature, pressure and allow us to compare wind behavior on a specific site or building. These Netatmo-type anemometers communicate by wifi with central equipment, which shares data acquired by a wide variety of devices such as wind speed, indoor and outdoor temperature, rainfall, and sunshine. Beside its precision, this method extracts geo-localized data on any type of site that can be feedback looped in the architectural design of a building or a public place. Furthermore, this method allows a precise calibration of a virtual wind tunnel using numerical aeraulic simulations (like STAR CCM + software) and then to develop the complete volumetric model of wind behavior over a roof area or an entire city block. The paper showcases connected ultrasonic anemometers, which were implanted for an 18 months survey on four study sites in the Grand Paris region. This case study focuses on Paris as an urban environment with multiple historical layers whose diversity of typology and buildings allows considering different ways of capturing wind energy. The objective of this approach is to categorize the different types of wind in urban areas. This, particularly the identification of the minimum and maximum wind spectrum, helps define the choice and performance of wind energy capturing devices that could be implanted there. The localization on the roof of a building, the type of wind, the altimetry of the device in relation to the levels of the roofs, the potential nuisances generated. The method allows identifying the characteristics of wind turbines in order to maximize their performance in an urban site with turbulent wind.

Keywords: computer fluid dynamic simulation in urban environment, wind energy harvesting devices, net-zero energy building, urban wind behavior simulation, advanced building skin design methodology

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Authors: Jelena R. Pejović, Nina N. Serdar

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This paper presents an analysis of the “Performance-Based” seismic design method, in order to overcome the perceived disadvantages and limitations of the existing seismic design approach based on force, in engineering practice. Bearing in mind, the specificity of the earthquake as a load and the fact that the seismic resistance of the structures solely depends on its behaviour in the nonlinear field, traditional seismic design approach based on force and linear analysis is not adequate. “Performance-Based” seismic design method is based on nonlinear analysis and can be used in everyday engineering practice. This paper presents the application of this method to eight-story high reinforced concrete building with combined structural system (reinforced concrete frame structural system in one direction and reinforced concrete ductile wall system in other direction). The nonlinear time-history analysis is performed on the spatial model of the structure using program Perform 3D, where the structure is exposed to forty real earthquake records. For considered building, large number of results were obtained. It was concluded that using this method we could, with a high degree of reliability, evaluate structural behavior under earthquake. It is obtained significant differences in the response of structures to various earthquake records. Also analysis showed that frame structural system had not performed well at the effect of earthquake records on soil like sand and gravel, while a ductile wall system had a satisfactory behavior on different types of soils.

Keywords: ductile wall, frame system, nonlinear time-history analysis, performance-based methodology, RC building

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Authors: Daniel M. Muntean, Viorel Ungureanu

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More than half of the urban population in Romania lives today in residential buildings made out of large prefabricated reinforced concrete panels. Since their initial design was made in the 1960’s, these housing units are now being technically and morally outdated, consuming large amounts of energy for heating, cooling, ventilation and lighting, while failing to meet the needs of the contemporary life-style. Due to their widespread use, the design of a system that improves their energy efficiency would have a real impact, not only on the energy consumption of the residential sector, but also on the quality of life that it offers. Furthermore, with the transition of today’s existing power grid to a “smart grid”, buildings could become an active element for future electricity networks by contributing in micro-generation and energy storage. One of the most addressed issues today is to find locally adapted strategies that can be applied considering the 20-20-20 EU policy criteria and to offer sustainable and innovative solutions for the cost-optimal energy performance of buildings adapted on the existing local market. This paper presents a possible adaptive design scenario towards sustainable retrofitting of these housing units. The apartments are transformed in order to meet the current living requirements and additional extensions are placed on top of the building, replacing the unused roof space, acting not only as housing units, but as active solar energy collection systems. An adaptive building envelope is ensured in order to achieve overall air-tightness and an elevator system is introduced to facilitate access to the upper levels.

Keywords: adaptive building, energy efficiency, retrofitting, residential buildings, smart grid

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Authors: Amina Salem Attia

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This east project consists in studying The child's mental health is the medium through which he expresses his thoughts, so pay attention to it because it is an essential building block in the process of building the child's future personality, where it gives him a balance between feelings and mental thoughts, and since the family is the child's first guardian, it greatly affects his personality and psychological development. As the disturbed environment contributes to behavioral deviations and mental disorders, unlike the stable environment, which plays a major role in developing the child's abilities and forming his psychologically sound attitudes, this should not be forgotten about the role of the school, it is also the second social institution after the family and has a major impact on the child's mental health as it contributes It is important in forming the child's personality and developing his skills and achieving his healthy psychological development, by providing him with psychological care and helping him to solve his problems by using models that are valid for the behavior that is taught to him or that the teachers present in their daily behavior with him.

Keywords: psychological, behavioral problems, children, school education

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Authors: Lucia Ceccherini Nelli, Alessandra Donato

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The ABITA Master course of the University of Florence offered by the Department of Architecture covers nearly all the energy-relevant issues that can arise in public and private companies and sectors. The main purpose of the Master course, active since 2003, is to analyse the energy consumption of building technologies, components, and structures at the conceptual design stage, so it could be very helpful, for designers, when making decisions related to the selection of the most suitable design alternatives and for the materials choice that will be used in an energy-efficient building. The training course provides a solid basis for increasing the knowledge and skills of energy managers and is developed with an emphasis on practical experiences related to the knowledge through case studies, measurements, and verification of energy-efficient solutions in buildings, in the industry and in the cities. The main objectives are: i)To raise the professional standards of those engaged in energy auditing, ii) To improve the practice of energy auditors by encouraging energy auditing professionals in a continuing education program of professional development, iii) Implement in the use of instrumentations for the typical measurements, iv) To propose an integrated methodology that links energy analysis tools with green building certification systems. This methodology will be applied at the early design stage of a project’s life. The final output of the practical training is to achieve an elevated professionalism in the study of environmental design and Energy management in buildings. The results are the redaction of line guides instruction for the energy refurbishment of Public schools in Florence. The school heritage of the Municipality of Florence requires interventions for the control of energy performance, as old construction buildings are often made without taking into account the necessary envelope performance. For this reason, every year, the Master's course aims to study groups of public schools to enable the Municipality to carry out energy redevelopment interventions on the existing building heritage. The future challenges of the education and training program are related to follow-up activities, the development of interactive tools and the curriculum's customization to meet the constantly growing needs of energy experts from industry.

Keywords: expert in energy, energy auditing, public buildings, thermal analysis

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Authors: Muhammad Wasif, Asif Ahmed Shaikh, Sarosh Hashmat Lodi, Muhammad Aslam Bhutto, Riazuddin

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Risk Management System is quite popular in profit- based organizations, health and safety and project management fields since the last few decades. But due to rapidly changing environment and requirement of ISO 9001:2015 standards, public-sector institution, especially higher education institutes are also performing risk assessment to monitor the performance of the institution and aligning it with the latest benchmark. In this context, NED University of Engineering and Technology performed research and developed a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the risk assessment, its monitoring and control. In this research, risks are broken into the four sources, namely; Internal Academics Risks, External Academics Risks, Internal Non-academic Risks, External Non-academic Risks. Risks are identified by the management at all levels. Severity and likelihood of the risks are assigned based on the previous audit results and the customer complains. Risk Ratings are calculated to orderly arrange the risk according to the Risk Rating, and controls for the risks are designed, which are assigned to the responsible person. At the end of the article, result and analysis on the different sources of risk are discussed in details and the conclusion is drawn. Discussion on few sample risks are presented in this article. Hence it is presented in the research that the Risk Management System can be applied in a Higher Education Institute to effectively control the risks which might affect the scope and Quality Management System of an organization.

Keywords: higher education, quality management system, risk assessment, risk management

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Authors: C. Akhras

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Change is the life blood of business. Dynamic factors inspire change yet may act as barriers, influencing the company’s position in the market and challenging its organizational mission and culture. Today, the business context has globalized with business enterprises in the North and South joint in mergers and the East forges a strategic alliance with the West. Moreover, given that very little remains stable in certain industries, national business goals in the millennial marketplaces might be rapid, accelerated, and differentiated growth while distinctive competitive advantage might mark new qualitative excellence in others. In a new age culture marked by change, organizations, leaders, and followers are impacted; indigenous business leaders seem to have a very important role to play in change management. This case study was carried out on 178 business employees employed in local industry to evaluate perceptions of indigenous business leadership, workplace assessment, and organizational change management in the Middle East and North Africa. Three research questions were posed: (1) In your work context, do you think business leaders are essentially changing agents? (2) In your work context, is workplace change more effective in business leaders perceived as a hierarchical change agent rather than those perceived as an empowering change agent? (3) In your work context, is workplace change more efficient in business leaders perceived as a hierarchical change agent rather than those perceived as an empowering change agent? The results of the study and its limitations imposed by time and space indicate that more comprehensive research is required in this area.

Keywords: catalyst, change management, business enterprise, workplace assessment

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Authors: Gustavo Menezes De Souza Melo, Arnaud Heitz, Johannes Henrich Schleifenbaum

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Additive manufacturing is a growing market that is taking over in many industries as it offers numerous advantages like new design possibilities, weight-saving solutions, ease of manufacture, and simplification of assemblies. These are all unquestionable technical or financial assets. As to the environmental aspect, additive manufacturing is often discussed whether it is the best solution to decarbonize our industries or if conventional manufacturing remains cleaner. This work presents a life cycle assessment (LCA) comparison based on the technological case of a motorbike swing-arm. We compare the original equipment manufacturer part made with conventional manufacturing (CM) methods to an additive manufacturing (AM) version printed using the laser powder bed fusion process. The AM version has been modified and optimized to achieve better dynamic performance without any regard to weight saving. Lightweight not being a priority in the creation of the 3D printed part brings us a unique perspective in this study. To achieve the LCA, we are using the open-source life cycle, and sustainability software OpenLCA combined with the ReCiPe 2016 at midpoint and endpoint level method. This allows the calculation and the presentation of the results through indicators such as global warming, water use, resource scarcity, etc. The results are then showing the relative impact of the AM version compared to the CM one and give us a key to understand and answer questions about the environmental sustainability of additive manufacturing.

Keywords: additive manufacturing, environmental impact, life cycle assessment, laser powder bed fusion

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Authors: Serag El Hegazi

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The development of an assessment methodological framework for local and institutional sustainability is a key factor for future development plans and visions. This paper develops an approach to local and institutional sustainability assessment (ALISA). The ALISA methodology is a methodological framework that assists in the clarification, formulation, preparation, selection, and ranking of key indicators to facilitate the assessment of the level of sustainability at the local and institutional levels in North African and Middle Eastern cities. According to the literature review, this paper formulates a methodological framework, ALISA, which is a combination of the UNCSD (2001) Theme Indicators Framework and the issue-based Framework illustrated by McLaren (1996). The methodological framework has been implemented to formulate, select, and prioritise key indicators that most directly reflect the issues of a case study at the local community and institutional level. Yet, in the meantime, there is a lack of clear indicators and frameworks that can be developed to apply successfully at the local and institutional levels in the MENA Region, particularly in the cities of Benghazi and Amman. This is an essential issue for sustainability development estimation. Therefore, a conceptual framework was developed to be tested as a methodology to collect and classify data. The Approach to Local and Institutional Sustainability Assessment (ALISA) is a methodological framework that was developed to apply to certain cities in the MENA region. The main goal is to develop the ALISA framework to formulate, choose, and prioritize sustainability key indicators, which then can assist in guiding an assessment progress to improve decisions and policymakers towards the development of sustainable cities at the local and institutional level in the city of Benghazi. The conceptual, methodological framework, which supports this research with joint documentary and analysed data in two case studies, including focus-group discussions, semi-structured interviews, and questionnaires, reflects the approach required to develop a combined framework that assists the development of sustainability indicators. To achieve this progress and reach the aim of this paper, which is developing a practical approach for sustainability indicators framework that could be used as a tool to develop local and institutional sustainability indicators, appropriate stages must be applied to propose a set of local and institutional sustainability indicators as follows: Step one: issues clarifications, Step two: objectives formation/analysing of issues and boundaries, Step three: indicators preparation, First list of proposed indictors, Step four: indicator selection, Step five: indicator rating/ranking.

Keywords: sustainability indicators, approach to local and institutional level, ALISA, policymakers

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Authors: Felipe A. Guth, Shane Ward, Kevin McDonnell

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The assessment of disease levels in crop fields is an important and time-consuming task that generally relies on expert knowledge of trained individuals. Image classification in agriculture problems historically has been based on classical machine learning strategies that make use of hand-engineered features in the top of a classification algorithm. This approach tends to not produce results with high accuracy and generalization to the classes classified by the system when the nature of the elements has a significant variability. The advent of deep convolutional neural networks has revolutionized the field of machine learning, especially in computer vision tasks. These networks have great resourcefulness of learning and have been applied successfully to image classification and object detection tasks in the last years. The objective of this work was to propose a new method based on deep learning convolutional neural networks towards the task of disease level monitoring. Common RGB images of winter wheat were obtained during a growing season. Five categories of disease levels presence were produced, in collaboration with agronomists, for the algorithm classification. Disease level tasks performed by experts provided ground truth data for the disease score of the same winter wheat plots were RGB images were acquired. The system had an overall accuracy of 84% on the discrimination of the disease level classes.

Keywords: crop disease assessment, deep learning, precision agriculture, residual neural networks

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Authors: Mohammed S. Assiri

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In EFL programs, rating scales used in writing assessment are often constructed by intuition. Intuition-based scales tend to provide inaccurate and divisive ratings of learners’ writing performance. Hence, following an empirical approach, this study attempted to develop a rating scale for elementary-level writing at an EFL program in Saudi Arabia. Towards this goal, 98 students’ essays were scored and then coded using comprehensive taxonomy of writing constructs and their measures. An automatic linear modeling was run to find out which measures would best predict essay scores. A nonparametric ANOVA, the Kruskal-Wallis test, was then used to determine which measures could best differentiate among scoring levels. Findings indicated that there were certain measures that could serve as either good predictors of essay scores or differentiators among scoring levels, or both. The main conclusion was that a rating scale can be empirically developed using predictive and discriminative statistical tests.

Keywords: analytic scoring, rating scales, writing assessment, writing constructs, writing performance

Procedia PDF Downloads 460

Authors: Jen Wang, Wei-Chia Hsu, Zih-Sin Wang, Ching-Ping Chu, Bo-Shiou Guo

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In the late 19th century, the Jinguashi ore deposit in northern Taiwan was discovered, and accompanied with flourishing mining activities. However, tons of contaminants including heavy metals, sulfur dioxide, and total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) were released to surroundings and caused environmental problems. Site T was one of copper smelter located on the coastal hill near Jinguashi ore deposit. In over ten years of operation, variety contaminants were emitted that it polluted the surrounding soil and groundwater quality. In order to exhaust fumes produced from smelting process, three stacks were built along the hill behind the factory. The sediment inside the stacks contains high concentration of heavy metals such as arsenic, lead, copper, etc. Moreover, soil around the discarded stacks suffered a serious contamination when deposition leached from the ruptures of stacks. Consequently, Site T (including the factory and its surroundings) was declared as a pollution remediation site that visiting the site and land-use activities on it are forbidden. However, the natural landscape and cultural attractions of Site T are spectacular that it attracts a lot of visitors annually. Moreover, land resources are extremely precious in Taiwan. In addition, Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) is actively promoting the contaminated land revitalization policy. Therefore, this study took Site T as case study for brownfield revitalization planning to the limits of activate and remediate the natural resources. Land-use suitability analysis and risk mapping were applied in this study to make appropriate risk management measures and redevelopment plan for the site. In land-use suitability analysis, surrounding factors into consideration such as environmentally sensitive areas, biological resources, land use, contamination, culture, and landscapes were collected to assess the development of each area; health risk mapping was introduced to show the image of risk assessments results based on the site contamination investigation. According to land-use suitability analysis, the site was divided into four zones: priority area (for high-efficiency development), secondary area (for co-development with priority area), conditional area (for reusing existing building) and limited area (for Eco-tourism and education). According to the investigation, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB), heavy metals and TPH were considered as target contaminants while oral, inhalation and dermal would be the major exposure pathways in health risk assessment. In accordance with health risk map, the highest risk was found in the southwest and eastern side. Based on the results, the development plan focused on zoning and land use. Site T was recommended be divides to public facility zone, public architectonic art zone, viewing zone, existing building preservation zone, historic building zone, and cultural landscape zone for various purpose. In addition, risk management measures including sustained remediation, extinguish exposure and administration management are applied to ensure particular places are suitable for visiting and protect the visitors’ health. The consolidated results are corroborated available by analyzing aspects of law, land acquired method, maintenance and management and public participation. Therefore, this study has a certain reference value to promote the contaminated land revitalization policy in Taiwan.

Keywords: brownfield revitalization, land-use suitability analysis, health risk map, risk management

Procedia PDF Downloads 179

Authors: M. Zare, S. Biau, M. Corq, Y. Roquelaure

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A wide variety of observational methods have been developed to evaluate the ergonomic workloads in manufacturing. However, the precision and accuracy of these methods remain a subject of debate. The aims of this study were to develop biomechanical methods to evaluate ergonomic workloads and to compare them with observational methods. Two observational methods, i.e. SCANIA Ergonomic Standard (SES) and Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA), were used to assess ergonomic workloads at two simulated workstations. They included four tasks such as tightening & loosening, attachment of tubes and strapping as well as other actions. Sensors were also used to measure biomechanical data (Inclinometers, Accelerometers, and Goniometers). Our findings showed that in assessment of some risk factors both RULA & SES were in agreement with the results of biomechanical methods. However, there was disagreement on neck and wrist postures. In conclusion, the biomechanical approach was more precise than observational methods, but some risk factors evaluated with observational methods were not measurable with the biomechanical techniques developed.

Keywords: ergonomic, observational method, biomechanical methods, workload

Procedia PDF Downloads 386

Authors: L. Pigon, S. Kot, J. K. Grabara

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Nowadays, with organizations facing the challenges of increasing competitiveness, human capital accumulated by the organization is one of the elements that strongly differentiate between companies. Efficient management in the competition area requires to manage the competencies of their employees to be suitable to the market fluctuations. The aim of the paper was to determine how employee training to improve their competencies is verified. The survey was conducted among 37 respondents involved in selection of training providers and training programs in their enterprises. The results showed that all organizations use training survey as a basic method for evaluation of training effectiveness. Depending on the training contents and organization, the questionnaires contain various questions. Most of these surveys are composed of the three basic blocks: the trainer's assessment, the evaluation of the training contents, the assessment of the materials and the place of the organisation. None of the organization surveys conducted regular job-related observations or examined the attitudes of the training participants.

Keywords: human capital, competencies, training effectiveness, sale department

Procedia PDF Downloads 168

Authors: Anantdeep Kaur, Sharanjeet Singh

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Early childhood education and assessment of children is a very essential tool that helps them in their growth and development. Techniques should be developed, and tools should be created in this field as it is a very important learning phase of life. Some information and sources are included for student assessment to provide a record of growth in all developmental areas cognitive, physical, Language, social-emotional, and approaches to learning. As an early childhood educator, it is very important to identify children who need special support and counseling to improve them because they are not mentally mature to discuss with the teacher their problems and needs. It is the duty and responsibility of the educator to assess children from their body language, behavior, and their routine actions about their skills that can be improved and which can take them forward in their future life. And also, children should be assessed with their weaker points because this is the right time to correct them, and they be improved with certain methods and tools by working on them constantly. Observing children regularly with all their facets of development, including intellectual, linguistic, social-emotional, and physical development. Every day, a physical education class should be regulated to check their physical growth activities, which can help to assess their physical activeness and motor abilities. When they are outside on the playgrounds, it is very important to instill environmental understanding among them so that they should know that they are very part of this nature, and it will help them to be one with the universe rather than feeling themselves individually. This technique assists them in living their childhood full of energy all the time. All types of assessments have unique purposes. It is important first to determine what should be measured, then find the program that best assesses those.

Keywords: special needs, motor ability, environmental understanding, physical development

Procedia PDF Downloads 92

Authors: Andreas Rudisch, Ralf Lampert, Andreas Kolbitsch

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It is a well-known fact among the engineering community that earthquakes with comparatively low magnitudes can cause serious damage to nonstructural components (NSCs) of buildings, even when the supporting structure performs relatively well. Past research works focused mainly on NSCs of nuclear power plants and industrial plants. Particular attention should also be given to architectural façade elements of old masonry buildings (e.g. ornamental figures, balustrades, vases), which are very vulnerable under seismic excitation. Large numbers of these historical nonstructural components (HiNSCs) can be found in highly frequented historical city centers and in the event of failure, they pose a significant danger to persons. In order to estimate the vulnerability of acceleration sensitive HiNSCs, the peak horizontal floor acceleration (PHFA) is used. The PHFA depends on the dynamic characteristics of the building, the ground excitation, and induced nonlinearities. Consequently, the PHFA can not be generalized as a simple function of height. In the present research work, an extensive case study was conducted to investigate the influence of induced nonlinearity on the PHFA for old masonry buildings. Probabilistic nonlinear FE time-history analyses considering three different hazard levels were performed. A set of eighteen synthetically generated ground motions was used as input to the structure models. An elastoplastic macro-model (multiPlas) for nonlinear homogenized continuum FE-calculation was calibrated to multiple scales and applied, taking specific failure mechanisms of masonry into account. The macro-model was calibrated according to the results of specific laboratory and cyclic in situ shear tests. The nonlinear macro-model is based on the concept of multi-surface rate-independent plasticity. Material damage or crack formation are detected by reducing the initial strength after failure due to shear or tensile stress. As a result, shear forces can only be transmitted to a limited extent by friction when the cracking begins. The tensile strength is reduced to zero. The first goal of the calibration was the consistency of the load-displacement curves between experiment and simulation. The calibrated macro-model matches well with regard to the initial stiffness and the maximum horizontal load. Another goal was the correct reproduction of the observed crack image and the plastic strain activities. Again the macro-model proved to work well in this case and shows very good correlation. The results of the case study show that there is significant scatter in the absolute distribution of the PHFA between the applied ground excitations. An absolute distribution along the normalized building height was determined in the framework of probability theory. It can be observed that the extent of nonlinear behavior varies for the three hazard levels. Due to the detailed scope of the present research work, a robust comparison with code-recommendations and simplified PHFA distributions are possible. The chosen methodology offers a chance to determine the distribution of PHFA along the building height of old masonry structures. This permits a proper hazard assessment of HiNSCs under seismic loads.

Keywords: nonlinear macro-model, nonstructural components, time-history analysis, unreinforced masonry

Procedia PDF Downloads 165