Search results for: mobile genetic elements

Authors: Krassimir Todorov

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The purpose of the paper is to redefine the levels of structure of corporate, business and functional strategies that were established over the past several decades, to a conceptual model, consisting of corporate, business and operations strategies, that are reinforced by functional strategies. We will propose a conceptual framework of different perspectives in the role of strategic operations as a separate strategic place and reposition the remaining functional strategies as supporting tools, existing at all three levels. The proposed model is called ‘the strategic engine’, since the mutual relationships of its ingredients are identical with main elements and working principle of the internal combustion engine. Based on theoretical essence, related to every strategic level, we will prove that the strategic engine model is useful for managers seeking to safeguard the competitive advantage of their companies. Each strategy level is researched through its basic elements. At the corporate level we examine the scope of firm’s product, the vertical and geographical coverage. At the business level, the point of interest is limited to the SWOT analysis’ basic elements. While at operations level, the key research issue relates to the scope of the following performance indicators: cost, quality, speed, flexibility and dependability. In this relationship, the paper provides a different view for the role of operations strategy within the overall strategy concept. We will prove that the theoretical essence of operations goes far beyond the scope of traditionally accepted business functions. Exploring the applications of Resource-based theory and Market-based theory within the strategic levels framework, we will prove that there is a logical consequence of the theoretical impact in corporate, business and operations strategy – at every strategic level, the validity of one theory is substituted to the level of the other. Practical application of the conceptual model is tested in automotive industry. Actually, the proposed theoretical concept is inspired by a leading global automotive group – Inchcape PLC, listed on the London Stock Exchange, and constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

Keywords: business strategy, corporate strategy, functional strategies, operations strategy

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Authors: Oday Al-Mamoori, J. Enrique Martinez-Rueda

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'C' shape yielding devices (C-devices) are effective tools for introducing supplemental sources of energy dissipation by hysteresis. Studies have shown that C-devices made of mild steel can be successfully applied as integral parts of seismic retrofitting schemes. However, explicit modelling of these devices can become cumbersome, expensive and time consuming. The device under study in this article has been previously used in non-invasive dissipative bracing for seismic retrofitting. The device is cut from a mild steel plate and has an overall shape that resembles that of a rectangular portal frame with circular interior corner transitions to avoid stress concentration and to control the extension of the dissipative region of the device. A number of inelastic finite element (FE) analyses using either inelastic 2D plane stress elements or inelastic fibre frame elements are reported and used to calibrate a 1D equivalent inelastic spring model that effectively reproduces the cyclic response of the device. The more elaborate FE model accounts for the frictional forces developed between the steel plate and the bolts used to connect the C-device to structural members. FE results also allow the visualization of the inelastic regions of the device where energy dissipation is expected to occur. FE analysis results are in a good agreement with experimental observations.

Keywords: C-device, equivalent nonlinear spring, FE analyses, reversed cyclic tests

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Authors: Zeynep Ozkan, Cigdem Serra Uzunpinar

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Citizenship is a legal bond that binds a person to a certain state. How constitutions define ‘the citizen’ and how they regulate the elements of citizenship have great importance in terms of individuals’ duties before the state as well as the rights they own. Especially in multi-segmented societies that contain foreign elements, it becomes necessary to examinate the institution of naturalization in terms of individuals’ duty of constitutional citizenship. The meaning of citizenship in Turkey has transformed due to the changes in practices of naturalization, in parallel to receiving huge amount of immagrants with the recent Syrian Crisis, the change in the governmental system and facing economic crisis. This transformation took place in the way of a diversion from the states’ initial motive of building the bond of citizenship with the aim of founding/sustaining political unity. Hence, rising of the economic and political motives in naturalization practices are in question, instead of objective and subjective criterias, that are traditionally used on defining the notion of nation. In this study, firstly the regime of citizenship and the legal regime of aliens in Turkish legislation will be given place. Then, the transformation, that the notion of constitutional citizenship underwent, will be studied, especially on the basis of governmental practices of naturalization. The assessment will be made in the context of legal institutions brought with the new governmental system as a result of recent constitutional amendment.

Keywords: constitutional citizenship, naturalization, naturalization practices in Turkish legal system, transformation of the notion of constitutional citizenship

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Authors: Rajkamal Kumar, Sudhir Mishra

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The connections between various elements of concrete structures play a vital role in determining the durability of structures. These connections produce discontinuities and to ensure the monolithic behavior of structures, these connections should be carefully designed. The connections between concrete layers may occur in various situations such as structure repairing and rehabilitation or construction of huge structures with cast-in-situ or pre-cast elements, etc. Bond strength at the interface of these concrete layers should be able to prevent the progressive slip from taking place and it should also ensure satisfactory performance of the structure. Different approaches to enhance the bond strength at interface have been a major area of research. Nowadays, micro-concrete is getting popular as a repair material. Under this ambit, this paper aims to present the experimental results of connections between concrete layers of different age with artificial indentation at interface with two types of repair material: Concrete with same parent concrete composition and ready-mix mortar (micro-concrete), artificial indentations (grooves and holes) were made on the old layer of concrete to increase the bond strength. Curing plays an important role in determining the bond strength. Optimum duration for curing have also been discussed for each type of repair material. Different types of failure patterns have also been mentioned.

Keywords: adhesion, cohesion, compressive stress, micro-concrete, shear stress, slant shear test

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Authors: Ching-Shoei Chiang

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The Malfatti’s Problem is to ask for fitting 3 circles into a right triangle such that they are tangent to each other, and each circle is also tangent to a pair of the triangle’s side. This problem has been extended to any triangle (called general Malfatti’s Problem). Furthermore, the problem has been extended to have 1+2+…+n circles, we call it extended general Malfatti’s problem, these circles whose tangency graph, using the center of circles as vertices and the edge connect two circles center if these two circles tangent to each other, has the structure as Pascal’s triangle, and the exterior circles of these circles tangent to three sides of the triangle. In the extended general Malfatti’s problem, there are closed-form solutions for n=1, 2, and the problem becomes complex when n is greater than 2. In solving extended general Malfatti’s problem (n>2), we initially give values to the radii of all circles. From the tangency graph and current radii, we can compute angle value between two vectors. These vectors are from the center of the circle to the tangency points with surrounding elements, and these surrounding elements can be the boundary of the triangle or other circles. For each circle C, there are vectors from its center c to its tangency point with its neighbors (count clockwise) pi, i=0, 1,2,..,n. We add all angles between cpi to cp(i+1) mod (n+1), i=0,1,..,n, call it sumangle(C) for circle C. Using sumangle(C), we can reduce/enlarge the radii for all circles in next iteration, until sumangle(C) is equal to 2πfor all circles. With a similar idea, this paper proposed an algorithm to find the radii of circles whose tangency has the structure of Pascal’s triangle, and the exterior circles of these circles are tangent to the unit Realeaux Triangle.

Keywords: Malfatti’s problem, geometric constraint solver, computer-aided geometric design, circle packing, data visualization

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Authors: Sozan H. Omar, Lina L. Al-Rewaili

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The current study aimed to measure the fifth Grade student skills of reading illustrates in physical and chemical chapter included in science textbook, as well as identity the tasks the dispersants related to designing these illustrates which obstruct the students to read them properly. The researcher applied the test instrument of open discuss questions to measure the skill of: recognizing, description, interpretation and assessment for a sample of this research consisted of (269) students who read three illustrates, and conduct an interview with sample of them (27) students to recognize the dispersants related to designing of these illustrates. The study results showed that there are poor levels in illustrated drawing reading skills: description, interpretation, and assessment. The most important dispersants which obstruct the students to read theses illustrates properly representing: Art impacts of these illustrates, there are some elements which don’t serve these illustrates. In the light of the above results, the researcher provided some recommendations such as training the students on using the images and illustrates properly in science textbooks, as well as create simple designs of illustrates and they should be free of crowded elements and impacts which don’t serve the illustrates.

Keywords: reading illustrated drawings skills, fifth grade science, physical and chemical changes

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Authors: Rashmi Malik, Videep Mishra

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The practice of generative design has become a transformative approach for an efficient way of generating multiple iterations for any design project. The conventional way of modeling the game elements is very time-consuming and requires skilled artists to design. A 3D modeling tool like 3D S Max, Blender, etc., is used traditionally to create the game library, which will take its stipulated time to model. The study is focused on using the generative design tool to increase the efficiency in game development at the stage of prop and environment generation. This will involve procedural level and customized regulated or randomized assets generation. The paper will present the system design approach using generative tools like Grasshopper (visual scripting) and other scripting tools to automate the process of game library modeling. The script will enable the generation of multiple products from the single script, thus creating a system that lets designers /artists customize props and environments. The main goal is to measure the efficacy of the automated system generated to create a wide variety of game elements, further reducing the need for manual content creation and integrating it into the workflow of AAA and Indie Games.

Keywords: iterative game design, generative design, gaming asset automation, generative game design

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Authors: Femy M. Makkar, S. Chandrakaran, N. Sankar

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The concept of reinforced earth has been used in the field of geotechnical engineering since 1960s, for many applications such as, construction of road and rail embankments, pavements, retaining walls, shallow foundations, soft ground improvement and so on. Conventionally, planar geosynthetic materials such as geotextiles and geogrids were used as the reinforcing elements. Recently, the use of three dimensional reinforcements becomes one of the emerging trends in this field. So, in the present investigation, three dimensional geogrid is proposed as a reinforcing material. Laboratory scaled plate load tests are conducted on a model square footing resting on 3D geogrid reinforced sand bed. The performance of 3D geogrids in triangular and square pattern was compared with conventional geogrids and the improvement in bearing capacity and reduction in settlement and heave are evaluated. When single layer of reinforcement was placed at an optimum depth of 0.25B from the bottom of the footing, the bearing capacity of conventional geogrid reinforced soil improved by 1.85 times compared to unreinforced soil, where as 3D geogrid reinforced soil with triangular pattern and square pattern shows 2.69 and 3.05 times improvement respectively compared to unreinforced soil. Also, 3D geogrids performs better than conventional geogrids in reducing the settlement and heave of sand bed around the model footing.

Keywords: 3D reinforcing elements, bearing capacity, heavy, settlement

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Authors: Fei Peng, Jun Yuan, Chen Fan, Fan Jiang, Qian Sun, Yudi Liu

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Although Earth Station in Motion (ESIM) services are widely used and there is a huge market demand around the world, International Telecommunication Union (ITU) does not have unified conclusion for the use of ESIM yet. ESIM are Mobile Satellite Services (MSS) due to its mobile-based attributes, while multiple administrations want to use ESIM in Fixed Satellite Service (FSS). However, Radio Regulations (RR) have strict distinction between MSS and FSS. In this case, ITU has been very controversial because this kind of application will violate the RR Article and the conflict will bring risks to the global deployment. Thus, this paper illustrates the development of rules, regulations, standards concerning ESIM and the radio spectrum usage of ESIM in different regions around the world. Firstly, the basic rules, standard and definition of ITU’s Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R) is introduced. Secondly, the World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) agenda item on radio spectrum allocation for ESIM, e.g. in C/Ku/Ka band, is introduced and multi-view on the radio spectrum allocation is elaborated, especially on 19.7-20.2 GHz & 29.5-30.0 GHz. Then, some ITU-R Recommendations and Reports are analyzed on the specific technique to enable these ESIM to communicate with Geostationary Earth Orbit Satellite (GSO) space stations in the FSS without causing interference at levels in excess of that caused by conventional FSS earth stations. Meanwhile, the opposite opinion on not allocating EISM service in FSS frequency band is also elaborated. Finally, based on the ESIM’s future application, the ITU-R standards development trend is forecasted. In conclusion, using radio spectrum resource in an equitable, rational and efficient manner is the basic guideline of ITU. Although it is not a good approach to obstruct the revise of RR when there is a large demand for radio spectrum resource in satellite industry, still the propulsion and global demand of the whole industry may face difficulties on the unclear application in modify rules of RR.

Keywords: earth station in motion, ITU standards, radio regulations, radio spectrum, satellite communication

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Authors: A. Chillali, M. Sahmoudi

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In this paper we will give a method for encoding the elements of the ring of integers of sextic extension, namely L = Q(a,b) which is a rational quadratic over cubic field K =Q(a) where a^{2} is a rational square free integer and b is a root of irreducible polynomiale of degree 3.

Keywords: coding, integral bases, sextic, quadratic

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Authors: Soumaya Mrabet, Taieb Ach, Imen Akkari, Amira Atig, Neirouz Ghannouchi, Koussay Ach, Elhem Ben Jazia

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Introduction: Celiac disease (CD) and type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1D) are complex disorders with shared genetic components. The association between CD and T1D has been reported in many pediatric series. The aim of our study is to describe the epidemiological, clinical and evolutive characteristics of adult patients presenting this association. Material and Methods: This is a retrospective study including patients diagnosed with CD and T1D, explored in Internal Medicine, Gastroenterology and Endocrinology and Diabetology Departments of the Farhat Hached University Hospital, between January 2005 and June 2016. Results: Among 57 patients with CD, 15 patients had also T1D (26.3%). There are 11 women and 4 men with a median age of 27 years (16-48). All patients developed T1D prior to the diagnosis of CD with an average duration of 47 months between the two diagnosis (6 months-5 years). CD was revealed by recurrent abdominal pain in 11 cases, diarrhea in 10 cases, bloating in 8 cases, constipation in 6 cases and vomiting in 2 cases. Three patients presented cycle disorders with secondary amenorrhea in 2 patients. Anti-Endomysium, anti-transglutaminase and Anti-gliadin antibodies were positive respectively in 57, 54 and 11 cases. The biological tests revealed anemia in 10 cases, secondary to iron deficiency in 6 cases and folate and vitamin B12 deficiency in 4 cases, hypoalbuminaemia in 4 cases, hypocalcemia in 3 cases and hypocholesterolemia in 1 patient. Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy showed an effacement of the folds of the duodenal mucosa in 6 cases and a congestive duodenal mucosa in 3 cases. The macroscopic appearance was normal in the others cases. Microscopic examination showed an aspect of villous atrophy in 57 cases, which was partial in 10 cases and total in 47 cases. After an average follow-up of 3 years 2 months, the evolution was favorable in all patients under gluten-free diet with the necessity of less important doses of insulin in 10 patients. Conclusion: In our study, the prevalence of T1D in adult patients with CD was 26.3%. This association can be attributed to overlapping genetic HLA risk loci. In recent studies, the role of gluten as an important player in the pathogenesis of CD and T1D has been also suggested.

Keywords: celiac disease, gluten, prevalence, type 1 diabetes

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Authors: Narjes Azimi

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It has been a while that narrative and storytelling turned to be the inevitable part of media. The narrative has so many aspects and among those entire aspects, the fantasy genre is consciously challenging one as fantasy readers are used to reading narratives like good versus evil plot. This paper will analyze the ASOIF TV series as a Meta narrative cultural production that deconstructs the elements of a traditional narrative. This study will shade on a grand narrative perspective from poststructuralism point of view. The theoretical framework is structuralism and post structuralism. Lyotard and Barthes are two main poststructuralists and focus of the study. Lyotard grand narrative elements will analyze in this research study. Fantasy genre generated a number of outstanding authors that explore innovative perspectives. Among all these leading authors George R.R Martin is one of the best. George R. R. Martin’s Fantasy a Song of Ice and Fire picturized the brutal world that seven kingdoms struggling for the power. Since 2011 this production has been followed and watched by millions of audiences all around the world. The methodology is the textual analysis of selected scenes. Martin’s distinctive fantasy style which makes it different from other fantasies, yet this shift does not negate how the previous fantasy writers represent the mentioned concepts of war, and etc., but Martin’ fantasy and left the mature audiences full of uncertainty.

Keywords: narrative theory, metanarrative, deconstruction, post-structuralism, Lyotard, Barthes

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Authors: Kyoungwoon Kim, Cuong Huynh, Cam Nguyen

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Exploding demands for more data, faster data transmission speed, less interference, more users, more wireless devices, and better reliable service-far exceeding those provided in the current mobile communications networks in the RF spectrum below 6 GHz-has led the wireless communication industry to focus on higher, previously unallocated spectrums. High frequencies in RF spectrum near (around 28 GHz) or within the millimeter-wave regime is the logical solution to meet these demands. This high-frequency RF spectrum is of increasingly important for wireless communications due to its large available bandwidths that facilitate various applications requiring large-data high-speed transmissions, reaching up to multi-gigabit per second, of vast information. It also resolves the traffic congestion problems of signals from many wireless devices operating in the current RF spectrum (below 6 GHz), hence handling more traffic. Consequently, the wireless communication industries are moving towards 5G (fifth generation) for next-generation communications such as mobile phones, autonomous vehicles, virtual reality, and the Internet of Things (IoT). The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proved on 14th July 2016 three frequency bands for 5G around 28, 37 and 39 GHz. We present some silicon-based RFIC power amplifiers (PA) for possible implementation for 5G wireless communications around 28, 37 and 39 GHz. The 16.5-28 GHz PA exhibits measured gain of more than 34.5 dB and very flat output power of 19.4±1.2 dBm across 16.5-28 GHz. The 25.5/37-GHz PA exhibits gain of 21.4 and 17 dB, and maximum output power of 16 and 13 dBm at 25.5 and 37 GHz, respectively, in the single-band mode. In the dual-band mode, the maximum output power is 13 and 9.5 dBm at 25.5 and 37 GHz, respectively. The 10-19/23-29/33-40 GHz PA has maximum output powers of 15, 13.3, and 13.8 dBm at 15, 25, and 35 GHz, respectively, in the single-band mode. When this PA is operated in dual-band mode, it has maximum output powers of 11.4/8.2 dBm at 15/25 GHz, 13.3/3 dBm at 15/35 GHz, and 8.7/6.7 dBm at 25/35 GHz. In the tri-band mode, it exhibits 8.8/5.4/3.8 dBm maximum output power at 15/25/35 GHz. Acknowledgement: This paper was made possible by NPRP grant # 6-241-2-102 from the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of Qatar Foundation). The statements made herein are solely the responsibility of the authors

Keywords: Microwaves, Millimeter waves, Power Amplifier, Wireless communications

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Authors: Artur Tyliszczak, Ewa Szymanek, Maciej Marek

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Flow through granular materials is important to a vast array of industries, for instance in construction industry where granular layers are used for bulkheads and isolators, in chemical engineering and catalytic reactors where large surfaces of packed granular beds intensify chemical reactions, or in energy production systems, where granulates are promising materials for heat storage and heat transfer media. Despite the common usage of granulates and extensive research performed in this field, phenomena occurring between granular solid elements or between solids and fluid are still not fully understood. In the present work we analyze the heat exchange process between the flowing medium (gas, liquid) and solid material inside the granular layers. We consider them as a composite of isolated solid elements and inter-granular spaces in which a gas or liquid can flow. The structure of the layer is controlled by shapes of particular granular elements (e.g., spheres, cylinders, cubes, Raschig rings), its spatial distribution or effective characteristic dimension (total volume or surface area). We will analyze to what extent alteration of these parameters influences on flow characteristics (turbulent intensity, mixing efficiency, heat transfer) inside the layer and behind it. Analysis of flow inside granular layers is very complicated because the use of classical experimental techniques (LDA, PIV, fibber probes) inside the layers is practically impossible, whereas the use of probes (e.g. thermocouples, Pitot tubes) requires drilling of holes inside the solid material. Hence, measurements of the flow inside granular layers are usually performed using for instance advanced X-ray tomography. In this respect, theoretical or numerical analyses of flow inside granulates seem crucial. Application of discrete element methods in combination with the classical finite volume/finite difference approaches is problematic as a mesh generation process for complex granular material can be very arduous. A good alternative for simulation of flow in complex domains is an immersed boundary-volume penalization (IB-VP) in which the computational meshes have simple Cartesian structure and impact of solid objects on the fluid is mimicked by source terms added to the Navier-Stokes and energy equations. The present paper focuses on application of the IB-VP method combined with large eddy simulation (LES). The flow solver used in this work is a high-order code (SAILOR), which was used previously in various studies, including laminar/turbulent transition in free flows and also for flows in wavy channels, wavy pipes and over various shape obstacles. In these cases a formal order of approximation turned out to be in between 1 and 2, depending on the test case. The current research concentrates on analyses of the flows in dense granular layers with elements distributed in a deterministic regular manner and validation of the results obtained using LES-IB method and body-fitted approach. The comparisons are very promising and show very good agreement. It is found that the size, number of elements and their distribution have huge impact on the obtained results. Ordering of the granular elements (or lack of it) affects both the pressure drop and efficiency of the heat transfer as it significantly changes mixing process.

Keywords: granular layers, heat transfer, immersed boundary method, numerical simulations

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Authors: Jeannette Anniés, Panagiotis Michalis, Chrysoula Papathanasiou, Selby Knudsen

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RiskPACC project aims to bring together researchers, practitioners, and first responders from nine European countries following a co-creation approach aiming to develop customised solutions to meet the needs of end-users. The co-creation workshops target to enhance the communication pathways between local civil protection authorities (CPAs) and citizens, in an effort to close the risk perception-action gap (RPAG). The participants in the workshops include a variety of stakeholders, as well as citizens, fostering the dialogue between the groups and supporting citizen participation in disaster risk management (DRM). The co-creation methodology in place implements co-design elements due to the integration of four ICT tools. Such ICT tools include web-based and mobile application technical solutions in different development stages, ranging from formulation and validation of concepts to pilot demonstrations. In total, seven different case studies are foreseen in RiskPACC. The workflow of the workshops is designed to be adaptive to every of the seven case study countries and their cultures’ particular needs. This work aims to provide an overview of the the preparation and the conduction of the workshops in which researchers and practitioners focused on mapping these different needs from the end users. The latter included first responders but also volunteers and citizens who actively participated in the co-creation workshops. The strategies to improve communication between CPAs and citizens themselves differ in the countries, and the modules of the co-creation methodology are adapted in response to such differences. Moreover, the project partners experienced how the structure of such workshops is perceived differently in the seven case studies. Therefore, the co-creation methodology itself is a design method underlying several iterations, which are eventually shaped by cross-cultural collaboration. For example, some case studies applied other modules according to the participatory group recruited. The participants were technical experts, teachers, citizens, first responders, or volunteers, among others. This work aspires to present the divergent approaches of the seven case studies implementing the co-creation methodology proposed, in response to different perceptions of the modules. An analysis of the adaptations and implications will also be provided to assess where the case studies’ objective of improving disaster resilience has been obtained.

Keywords: citizen participation, co-creation, disaster resilience, risk perception, ICT tools

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Authors: Maya Saade, Rafic Younes, Pascal Lafon

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This paper explores the transformative impact of smartphones on pedagogy and presents a smartphone application developed specifically for engineering problem-solving and educational purposes. The widespread availability and advanced capabilities of smartphones have revolutionized the way we interact with technology, including in education. The ubiquity of smartphones allows learners to access educational resources anytime and anywhere, promoting personalized and self-directed learning. The first part of this paper discusses the overall influence of smartphones on pedagogy, emphasizing their potential to improve learning experiences through mobile technology. In the context of engineering education, this paper focuses on the development of a dedicated smartphone application that serves as a powerful tool for both engineering problem-solving and education. The application features an intuitive and user-friendly interface, allowing engineering students and professionals to perform complex calculations and analyses on their smartphones. The smartphone application primarily focuses on beam calculations and serves as a comprehensive beam calculator tailored to engineering education. It caters to various engineering disciplines by offering interactive modules that allow students to learn key concepts through hands-on activities and simulations. With a primary emphasis on beam analysis, this application empowers users to perform calculations for statically determinate beams, statically indeterminate beams, and beam buckling phenomena. Furthermore, the app includes a comprehensive library of engineering formulas and reference materials, facilitating a deeper understanding and practical application of the fundamental principles in beam analysis. By offering a wide range of features specifically tailored for beam calculation, this application provides an invaluable tool for engineering students and professionals looking to enhance their understanding and proficiency in this crucial aspect of a structural engineer.

Keywords: mobile devices in education, solving engineering problems, smartphone application, engineering education

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Authors: Gayatri Mahajan

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Modern Construction Technology (CT) includes a broad range of advanced techniques and practices that bound the recent developments in material technology, design methods, quantity surveying, facility management, services, structural analysis and design, and other management education. Adoption of recent digital transformation technology is the need of today to speed up the business and is also the basis of construction improvement. Incorporating and practicing the technologies such as cloud-based communication and collaboration solution, Mobile Apps and 5G,3D printing, BIM and Digital Twins, CAD / CAM, AR/ VR, Big Data, IoT, Wearables, Blockchain, Modular Construction, Offsite Manifesting, Prefabrication, Robotic, Drones and GPS controlled equipment expedite the progress in the Construction industry (CI). Resources used are journaled research articles, web/net surfing, books, thesis, reports/surveys, magazines, etc. The outline of the research organization for this study is framed at four distinct levels in context to conceptualization, resources, innovative and emerging trends in CI, and better methods for completion of the construction projects. The present study conducted during 2020-2022 reveals that implementing these technologies improves the level of standards, planning, security, well-being, sustainability, and economics too. Application uses, benefits, impact, advantages/disadvantages, limitations and challenges, and policies are dealt with to provide information to architects and builders for smooth completion of the project. Results explain that construction technology trends vary from 4 to 15 for CI, and eventually, it reaches 27 for Civil Engineering (CE). The perspective of the most recent innovations, trends, tools, challenges, and solutions is highly embraced in the field of construction. The incorporation of the above said technologies in the pandemic Covid -19 and post-pandemic might lead to a focus on finding out effective ways to adopt new-age technologies for CI.

Keywords: BIM, drones, GPS, mobile apps, 5G, modular construction, robotics, 3D printing

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Authors: Md. Shoffikul Islam, Hongqing Hu

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Reducing trace elements' mobility and bioavailability through amendment addition, especially biochar (BC), is a cost-effective and efficient method to address their toxicity in the soil environment. However, the low molecular weight organic acids (LMWOAs) in the rhizosphere could affect BC's efficiency to stabilize trace metals as the LMWOAs could either mobilize or fix metals in the soils. Therefore, understanding the BC's and LMWOAs' interaction mechanisms on metals stabilization in the rhizosphere is crucial. The present study explored the impact of BC derived from rice husk and citric acid (CA) and the combination of BC and CA on the redistribution of cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), and zinc (Zn) among their geochemical forms through incubation experiment. The changes of zeta potential and X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern of BC and BC-amended soils to investigate the probable mechanisms of trace elements' immobilization by BC under the CA attack were also examined. The rice husk BC at 5% (w/w) was mixed with the air-dry soil (an Anthrosols) contaminated with Cd, Pb, and Zn in the plastic pot. The 2, 5, 10, and 20 mM kg-1 (w/v) of CA were added separately into the pot. All the ingredients were mixed thoroughly with the soil. A control (CK) treatment was also prepared without BC and CA addition. After 7, 15, and 60 days of incubation with 60% (w/v) moisture level at 25 °C, the incubated soils were determined for pH and EC and were sequentially extracted to assess the metals' transformation in soil. The electronegative charges and XRD peaks of BC and BC-amended soils were also measured. Compared to CK, the application of BC, low level of CA (2 mM kg-1 soil) (CA2), and BC plus the low concentration of CA (BC-CA2) considerably declined the acid-soluble Cd, Pb, and Zn in which BC-CA2 was found to be the most effective treatment. The reversed trends were observed concerning the high levels of CA (>5-20 mM kg-1 soil) and the BC plus high concentrations of CA treatments. BC-CA2 changed the highest amounts of acid-soluble and reducible metals to the oxidizable and residual forms with time. The most increased electronegative charges of BC-CA2 indicate its (BC-CA2) highest Cd, Pb, and Zn immobilizing efficiency, probably through metals adsorption and fixation with the negative charge sites. The XRD study revealed the presence of P, O, CO32-, and Cl1- in BC, which might be responsible for the precipitation of CdCO3, pyromorphite, and hopeite in the case of Cd, Pb, and Zn immobilization, respectively. The findings depicted that the low concentration of CA increased metals' stabilization, whereas the high levels of CA enhanced their mobilization. The BC-CA2 emerged as the best amendment among treatments for metals stabilization in contaminated soils.

Keywords: Biochar, citric acid, immobilization, trace elements contaminated soil

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Authors: Danuvasin Charoen

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The study investigates the business process and business model of GRABTAXI. The paper also discusses how the company implemented strategies to gain competitive advantages. The data is derived from the analysis of secondary data and the in-depth interviews among staffs, taxi drivers, and key customers. The findings indicated that the company’s competitive advantages come from being the first mover, emphasising on the ease of use and tangible benefits of application, and using network effect strategy.

Keywords: taxi, mobile application, innovative business model, Thailand

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Authors: Gyu-Dong Kim, Wuk-Jae Yoo, Sang-Youl Lee

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Composite structures offer numerous advantages over conventional structural systems in the form of higher specific stiffness and strength, lower life-cycle costs, and benefits such as easy installation and improved safety. Recently, there has been a considerable increase in the use of composites in engineering applications and as wraps for seismic upgrading and repairs. However, these composites deteriorate with time because of outdated materials, excessive use, repetitive loading, climatic conditions, manufacturing errors, and deficiencies in inspection methods. In particular, damaged fibers in a composite result in significant degradation of structural performance. In order to reduce the failure probability of composites in service, techniques to assess the condition of the composites to prevent continual growth of fiber damage are required. Condition assessment technology and nondestructive evaluation (NDE) techniques have provided various solutions for the safety of structures by means of detecting damage or defects from static or dynamic responses induced by external loading. A variety of techniques based on detecting the changes in static or dynamic behavior of isotropic structures has been developed in the last two decades. These methods, based on analytical approaches, are limited in their capabilities in dealing with complex systems, primarily because of their limitations in handling different loading and boundary conditions. Recently, investigators have introduced direct search methods based on metaheuristics techniques and artificial intelligence, such as genetic algorithms (GA), simulated annealing (SA) methods, and neural networks (NN), and have promisingly applied these methods to the field of structural identification. Among them, GAs attract our attention because they do not require a considerable amount of data in advance in dealing with complex problems and can make a global solution search possible as opposed to classical gradient-based optimization techniques. In this study, we propose an alternative damage-detection technique that can determine the degraded stiffness distribution of vibrating laminated composites made of Glass Fiber-reinforced Polymer (GFRP). The proposed method uses a modified form of the bivariate Gaussian distribution function to detect degraded stiffness characteristics. In addition, this study presents a method to detect the fiber property variation of laminated composite plates from the micromechanical point of view. The finite element model is used to study free vibrations of laminated composite plates for fiber stiffness degradation. In order to solve the inverse problem using the combined method, this study uses only first mode shapes in a structure for the measured frequency data. In particular, this study focuses on the effect of the interaction among various parameters, such as fiber angles, layup sequences, and damage distributions, on fiber-stiffness damage detection.

Keywords: stiffness detection, fiber damage, genetic algorithm, layup sequences

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Authors: Panpan Feng

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The concept of green infrastructure originated in Europe and the United States. It aims to ensure smart growth of urban and rural ecosystems and achieve sustainable urban and rural ecological, social, and economic development by combining it with gray infrastructure in traditional planning. Based on the literature review of the theoretical origin, value connotation, and measurement methods of green infrastructure, this study summarizes the research content of green infrastructure at different scales from the three spatial levels of region, city, and block and divides it into functional dimensions, spatial dimension, and strategic dimension. The results show that in the functional dimension, from region-city-block, the research on green infrastructure gradually shifts from ecological function to social function. In the spatial dimension, from region-city-block, the research on the spatial form of green infrastructure has shifted from two-dimensional to three-dimensional, and the spatial structure of green infrastructure has shifted from single ecological elements to multiple composite elements. From a strategic perspective, green infrastructure research is more of a spatial planning tool based on land management, environmental livability and ecological psychology, providing certain decision-making support.

Keywords: green infrastructure, multi-scale, social and ecological functions, spatial strategic decision-making tools

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Authors: Talha Ahmed, Ishtiaq Hassan

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Urban areas or metropolitan is portrayed by the very high density of population due to the result of these economic activities. Some critical elements, such as urban expansion and climate change, are driving changes in cities with exposure to the incidence and impacts of pluvial floods. Urban communities are recurrently developed by huge spaces by which water cannot enter impermeable surfaces, such as man-made permanent surfaces and structures, which do not cause the phenomena of infiltration and percolation. Urban sprawl can result in increased run-off volumes, flood stage and flood extents during heavy rainy seasons. The flood risks require a thorough examination of all aspects affecting to severe an event in order to accurately estimate their impacts and other risk factors associated with them. For risk evaluation and its impact due to urbanization, an integrated hydrological modeling approach is used on the study area in Islamabad (Pakistan), focusing on a natural water body that has been adopted in this research. The vulnerability of the physical elements at risk in the research region is analyzed using GIS and SOBEK. The supervised classification of land use containing the images from 1980 to 2020 is used. The modeling of DEM with selected return period is used for modeling a hydrodynamic model for flood event inundation. The selected return periods are 50,75 and 100 years which are used in flood modeling. The findings of this study provided useful information on high-risk places and at-risk properties.

Keywords: urbanization, flood, flood risk, GIS

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Authors: Mohammadreza Akbari, Leila Abdollahpour, Sara Akbari, Pooya Soleimani

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Transferring thermo at the field of solid materials for instance tube-shaped structures, causing dynamical vibration at them. Majority of thermal and fluid processes are done engineering science at solid materials, for example, thermo-transferred pipes, fluids, chemical and nuclear reactors, include thermal processes, so, they need to consider the moment solid-fundamental structural strength unto these thermal interactions. Fluid and thermo retentive materials in front of external force to it like thermodynamical force, hydrodynamical force and static force continuously according to a function of time vibrated, and this action causes relative displacement of the structural materials elements, as a result, the moment resistance analysis preservation materials in thermal processes, the most important parameters for design are discussed. Including structural substrate holder temperature and fluid of the administrative and industrial center, is a cylindrical tube that for vibration analysis of cylindrical cells with heat and fluid transfer requires the use of vibration differential equations governing the structure of a tubular and thermal differential equations as the vibrating motive force at double-glazed cylinders.

Keywords: heat transfer, elements in cylindrical coordinates, analytical solving the governing equations, structural vibration

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Authors: Tomasz Stenzel, Daria Dziewulska, Ewa Łukaszuk, Joy Custer, Simona Kraberger, Arvind Varsani

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Viral diseases, especially those leading to impairment of the immune system, are among the most important problems in avian pathology. However, there is not much data available on this subject other than commercial poultry bird species. Recently, increasing attention has been paid to racing pigeons, which have been refined for many years in terms of their ability to return to their place of origin. Currently, these birds are used for races at distances from 100 to 1000 km, and winning pigeons are highly valuable. The rearing system of racing pigeons contradicts the principles of biosecurity, as birds originating from various breeding facilities are commonly transported and reared in “One Loft Race” (OLR) facilities. This favors the spread of multiple infections and provides conditions for the development of novel variants of various pathogens through recombination. One of the most significant viruses occurring in this avian species is the pigeon circovirus (PiCV), which is detected in ca. 70% of pigeons. Circoviruses are characterized by vast genetic diversity which is due to, among other things, the recombination phenomenon. It consists of an exchange of fragments of genetic material among various strains of the virus during the infection of one organism. The rate and intensity of the development of PiCV recombinants have not been determined so far. For this reason, an experiment was performed to investigate the frequency of development of novel PiCV recombinants in racing pigeons kept in OLR-type conditions. 15 racing pigeons originating from 5 different breeding facilities, subclinically infected with various PiCV strains, were housed in one room for eight weeks, which was supposed to mimic the conditions of OLR rearing. Blood and swab samples were collected from birds every seven days to recover complete PiCV genomes that were amplified through Rolling Circle Amplification (RCA), cloned, sequenced, and subjected to bioinformatic analyses aimed at determining the genetic diversity and the dynamics of recombination phenomenon among the viruses. In addition, virus shedding rate/level of viremia, expression of the IFN-γ and interferon-related genes, and anti-PiCV antibodies were determined to enable the complete analysis of the course of infection in the flock. Initial results have shown that 336 full PiCV genomes were obtained, exhibiting nucleotide similarity ranging from 86.6 to 100%, and 8 of those were recombinants originating from viruses of different lofts of origin. The first recombinant appeared after seven days of experiment, but most of the recombinants appeared after 14 and 21 days of joint housing. The level of viremia and virus shedding was the highest in the 2nd week of the experiment and gradually decreased to the end of the experiment, which partially corresponded with Mx 1 gene expression and antibody dynamics. The results have shown that the OLR pigeon-rearing system could play a significant role in spreading infectious agents such as circoviruses and contributing to PiCV evolution through recombination. Therefore, it is worth considering whether a popular gambling game such as pigeon racing is sensible from both animal welfare and epidemiological point of view.

Keywords: pigeon circovirus, recombination, evolution, one loft race

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Authors: Ana Rahma Yuniarti, Ki Moo Lim

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Slowed myocardial conduction velocity (CV) and shortened action potential duration (APD) due to some reason are associated with an increased risk of re-entrant excitation, predisposing to cardiac arrhythmia. That is because both of CV reduction and APD shortening induces shortening of wavelength. In this study, we investigated quantitatively the cardiac mechanical responses under various CV and APD using multi-scale computational model of the heart. The model consisted of electrical model coupled with the mechanical contraction model together with a lumped model of the circulatory system. The electrical model consisted of 149.344 numbers of nodes and 183.993 numbers of elements of tetrahedral mesh, whereas the mechanical model consisted of 356 numbers of nodes and 172 numbers of elements of hexahedral mesh with hermite basis. We performed the electrical simulation with two scenarios: 1) by varying the CV values with constant APD and 2) by varying the APD values with constant CV. Then, we compared the electrical and mechanical responses for both scenarios. Our simulation showed that faster CV and longer APD induced largest resultants wavelength and generated better cardiac pumping efficacy by increasing the cardiac output and consuming less energy. This is due to the long wave propagation and faster conduction generated more synchronous contraction of whole ventricle.

Keywords: conduction velocity, action potential duration, mechanical contraction model, circulatory model

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Authors: Soodabeh Shahid Sales, Azam Rastgar Moghadam, Mehrane Mehramiz, Malihe Entezari, Kazem Anvari, Mohammad Sadegh Khorrami, Saeideh Ahmadi Simab, Ali Moradi, Seyed Mahdi Hassanian, Majid Ghayour-Mobarhan, Gordon A. Ferns, Amir Avan

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Background Esophageal cancer has been reported as the eighth most common cancer universal and the seventh cause of cancer-related death in men .recent studies have revealed that cytochrome P450, family 1, subfamily B, polypeptide 1, which plays a role in metabolizing xenobiotics, is associated with different cancers. Therefore in the present study, we investigated the impact of CYP1B1-rs1056836 on esophagus squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) patients. Method: 317 subjects, with and without ESCC were recruited. DNA was extracted and genotyped via Real-time PCR-Based Taq Man. Kaplan Meier curves were utilized to assess overall and progression-free survival. To evaluate the relationship between patients clinicopathological data, genotypic frequencies, disease prognosis, and patients survival, Pearson chi-square and t-test were used. Logistic regression was utilized to assess the association between the risk of ESCC and genotypes. Results: the genotypic frequency for GG, GC, and CC are respectively 58.6% , 29.8%, 11.5% in the healthy group and 51.8%, 36.14% and 12% in ESCC group. With respect to the recessive genetic inheritance model, an association between the GG genotype and stage of ESCC were found. Also, statistically significant results were not found for this variation and risk of ESCC. Patients with GG genotype had a decreased risk of nodal metastasis in comparison with patients with CC/CG genotype, although this link was not statistically significant. Conclusion: Our findings illustrated the correlation of CYP1B1-rs1056836 as a potential biomarker for ESCC patients, supporting further studies in larger populations in different ethnic groups. Moreover, further investigations are warranted to evaluate the association of emerging marker with dietary intake and lifestyle.

Keywords: Cytochrome P450, esophagus squamous cell carcinoma, dietary intake, lifestyle

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Authors: Abigail Parra Parra, Jorge L. Morelos Hernandez, Pedro A. Marquez Agilar, Marina Vlasova, Jesus Colin De La Cruz

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Carbothermal reduction of metal oxides is widely used both in metallurgical processes and in the production of oxygen-free refractory ceramics. As a rule, crushed coke and graphite are used as a reducing agent. The products of carbonization of organic compounds are among the innovative reducing agents. The aim of this work was to study the process of reduction of iron oxide (hematite) down to iron by waste active sludge (WAS) carbonization products. WAS was chosen due to the accumulation of a large amount of this type of waste, soil pollution, and the relevance of the development of technologies for its disposal. The studies have shown that the temperature treatment of mixtures WAS-Fe₂O₃ in the temperature range 900-1000 ºC for 1-5 hours under oxygen deficiency is described by the following scheme: WAS + Fe₂O₃→ C,CO + Fe₂O₃→ C + FexO → Fe (amorphous and crystalline). During the heat treatment of the mixtures, strong samples are formed. The study of the electrical conductive properties of such samples showed that, depending on the ratio of the components in the initial mixtures, it is possible to change the values of electrical resistivity from 5.6 Ω‧m to 151.6 Ω‧m When a current is passed through the samples, they are heated from 240 to 378ºC. Thus, based on WAS-Fe₂O₃ mixtures, heating elements can be created that can be used to heat ceramics and concrete.

Keywords: Fe₂O₃, reduction, waste activate sludge, electroconductivity

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Authors: Twarakavi Venkata Suresh Kumar, Sailaja Kumar, B. Eswara Reddy

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In a world of tremendous technical developments, effective and efficient higher education has always been a major challenge. The rising number of educational institutions have made it mandatory for healthy competitions among the institutions. To evaluate the qualitative competence of these educations institutions in engineering and technology and related disciplines, an efficient assessment technique in internal and external quality has to be followed. To achieve this, the curriculum is to be developed into courses, and each course has to be presented in the form teaching lesson plan consisting of topics and session outcome known as Course Outcomes (COs), that easily map into different Programme Outcomes (POs). The major objective of these methodologies is to provide quality technical education to its students. Detailed clear weightage in CO-PO mapping helps in proper measurable COs and to devise the POs attainment is an important issue. This ensures in assisting the achievement of the POs with proper weightage to POs, and also improves the successive curriculum development. In this paper, we presented a methodology for mapping CO and PO considering the key elements supported by each PO. This approach is useful in evaluating the attainment of POs which is based on the attainment of COs using the existing data from students' marks taken from various test items. Such direct assessment tools are used to measure the degree to which each student has achieved each course learning outcome by the completion of the course. Hence, these results are also useful in measuring the PO attainment for improving the programme vision and mission.

Keywords: attainment, course outcomes, programme outcomes, educational institutions

Procedia PDF Downloads 469

Authors: Arti Singh, Carolyn Jenkins, Oyedunni S. Arulogun, Mayowa O. Owolabi, Fred S. Sarfo, Bruce Ovbiagele, Enzinne Sylvia

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Background: Stroke, the leading cause of adult-onset disability and the second leading cause of death, is a major public health concern particularly pertinent in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where nearly 80% of all global stroke mortalities occur. The Stroke Investigative Research and Education Network (SIREN) seeks to comprehensively characterize the genomic, sociocultural, economic, and behavioral risk factors for stroke and to build effective teams for research to address and decrease the burden of stroke and other non communicable diseases in SSA. One of the first steps to address this goal was to effectively engage the communities that suffer the high burden of disease in SSA. This study describes how the SIREN project engaged six sites in Ghana and Nigeria over the past three years, describing the community engagement activities that have arisen since inception. Aim: The aim of community engagement (CE) within SIREN is to elucidate information about knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and practices (KABP) about stroke and its risk factors from individuals of African ancestry in SSA, and to educate the community about stroke and ways to decrease disabilities and deaths from stroke using socioculturally appropriate messaging and messengers. Methods: Community Advisory Board (CABs), Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and community outreach programs. Results: 27 FGDs with 168 participants including community heads, religious leaders, health professionals and individuals with stroke among others, were conducted, and over 60 CE outreaches have been conducted within the SIREN performance sites. Over 5,900 individuals have received education on cardiovascular risk factors and about 5,000 have been screened for cardiovascular risk factors during the outreaches. FGDs and outreach programs indicate that knowledge of stroke, as well as risk factors and follow-up evidence-based care is limited and often late. Other findings include: 1) Most recognize hypertension as a major risk factor for stroke. 2) About 50% report that stroke is hereditary and about 20% do not know organs affected by stroke. 3) More than 95% willing to participate in genetic testing research and about 85% willing to pay for testing and recommend the test to others. 4) Almost all indicated that genetic testing could help health providers better treat stroke and help scientists better understand the causes of stroke. The CABs provided stakeholder input into SIREN activities and facilitated collaborations among investigators, community members and stakeholders. Conclusion: The CE core within SIREN is a first-of-its kind public outreach engagement initiative to evaluate and address perceptions about stroke and genomics by patients, caregivers, and local leaders in SSA and has implications as a model for assessment in other high-stroke risk populations. SIREN’s CE program uses best practices to build capacity for community-engaged research, accelerate integration of research findings into practice and strengthen dynamic community-academic partnerships within our communities. CE has had several major successes over the past three years including our multi-site collaboration examining the KABP about stroke (symptoms, risk factors, burden) and genetic testing across SSA.

Keywords: community advisory board, community engagement, focus groups, outreach, SSA, stroke

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Authors: Krasimir Ivanov, Tonyo Tonev, Nguyen Nguyen, Alexander Peltekov, Anyo Mitkov

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Maize is among the most economically important crops and at the same time one of the most sensitive to soil deficiency in zinc. In this paper, the impact of the foliar zinc application in the form of zinc hydroxy nitrate suspension on the micro and macro elements partitioning in maize leaves and grain was studied during spring maize season, 2017. The impact of the foliar zinc fertilization on the grain yield and quality was estimated too. The experiment was performed by the randomized block design with 8 variants in 3 replications. Seven suspension solutions whit different Zn concentration were used, including ZnO suspension and zinc hydroxyl nitrate alone or nixed with other nutrients. Fertilization and irrigation were the same for all variants. The Zn content and the content of selected micro (Cu, Fe) and macro (Ca, Mg, P and K) elements in maize leaves were determined two weeks after the first spraying (5-6 sheets), two weeks after the second spraying (9-10 sheets) and after harvesting. It was concluded that the synthesized zinc hydroxy nitrate demonstrates potential as the long-term foliar fertilizer. A significant (p < 0.05) effect of zinc accumulation in maize leaves by foliar zinc application during the first growth stage was found, followed by its reutilization to other plants organs during the second growth stage. Significant export of Cu, P, and K from lower and middle leaves was observed. The content of Ca and Mg remains constant in the whole longevity period, while the content of Fe decreases sharply.

Keywords: foliar fertilization, zinc hydroxy nitrate, maize, zinc

Procedia PDF Downloads 168