Search results for: architectural planning solutions

Authors: Erva Akin

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– The use of copyrighted material for machine learning purposes is a challenging issue in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). While machine learning algorithms require large amounts of data to train and improve their accuracy and creativity, the use of copyrighted material without permission from the authors may infringe on their intellectual property rights. In order to overcome copyright legal hurdle against the data sharing, access and re-use of data, the use of copyrighted material for machine learning purposes may be considered permissible under certain circumstances. For example, if the copyright holder has given permission to use the data through a licensing agreement, then the use for machine learning purposes may be lawful. It is also argued that copying for non-expressive purposes that do not involve conveying expressive elements to the public, such as automated data extraction, should not be seen as infringing. The focus of such ‘copy-reliant technologies’ is on understanding language rules, styles, and syntax and no creative ideas are being used. However, the non-expressive use defense is within the framework of the fair use doctrine, which allows the use of copyrighted material for research or educational purposes. The questions arise because the fair use doctrine is not available in EU law, instead, the InfoSoc Directive provides for a rigid system of exclusive rights with a list of exceptions and limitations. One could only argue that non-expressive uses of copyrighted material for machine learning purposes do not constitute a ‘reproduction’ in the first place. Nevertheless, the use of machine learning with copyrighted material is difficult because EU copyright law applies to the mere use of the works. Two solutions can be proposed to address the problem of copyright clearance for AI training data. The first is to introduce a broad exception for text and data mining, either mandatorily or for commercial and scientific purposes, or to permit the reproduction of works for non-expressive purposes. The second is that copyright laws should permit the reproduction of works for non-expressive purposes, which opens the door to discussions regarding the transposition of the fair use principle from the US into EU law. Both solutions aim to provide more space for AI developers to operate and encourage greater freedom, which could lead to more rapid innovation in the field. The Data Governance Act presents a significant opportunity to advance these debates. Finally, issues concerning the balance of general public interests and legitimate private interests in machine learning training data must be addressed. In my opinion, it is crucial that robot-creation output should fall into the public domain. Machines depend on human creativity, innovation, and expression. To encourage technological advancement and innovation, freedom of expression and business operation must be prioritised.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, copyright, data governance, machine learning

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Authors: Abdessalam Hijab, Hafida Boulekbache, Eric Henry

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According to several research studies, the city as a whole is a complex, spatially organized system; its modeling must take into account several factors, socio-economic, and political, or geographical, acting at multiple scales of observation according to varied temporalities. Sustainable management and protection of the environment in this complex system require significant human and technical investment, particularly for monitoring and maintenance. The objective of this paper is to propose an intelligent approach based on the coupling of Geographic Information System (GIS) and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) tools in order to integrate the inhabitants in the processes of sustainable management and protection of the urban environment, specifically in the processes of household waste collection in urban areas. We are discussing a collaborative 'city/inhabitant' space. Indeed, it is a geo-collaborative approach, based on the spatialization and real-time geo-localization of topological and multimedia data taken by the 'active' inhabitant, in the form of geo-localized alerts related to household waste issues in their city. Our proposal provides a good understanding of the extent to which civil society (inhabitants) can help and contribute to the development of complementary solutions for the collection of household waste and the protection of the urban environment. Moreover, it allows the inhabitant to contribute to the enrichment of a data bank for future uses. Our geo-collaborative model will be tested in the Lamkansa sampling district of the city of Casablanca in Morocco.

Keywords: geographic information system, GIS, information and communications technology, ICT, geo-collaboration, inhabitants, city

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Authors: Veruska C. Dutra, Lucio F.M. Adorno, Mary L. G. S. Senna

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Since it recognized the importance of planning sustainable tourism, which has been discussed effective methods of monitoring tourist. In this sense, the indicators, can transmit a set of information about complex processes, events or trends, showing up as an important monitoring tool and aid in the environmental assessment, helping to identify the progress of it and to chart future actions, contributing, so for decision making. The World Tourism Organization - WTO recognizes the importance of indicators to appraise the tourism activity in the point of view of sustainability, launching in 1995 eleven Keys Indicators of Sustainable Tourism to assist in the monitoring of tourist destinations. So we propose a case study to examine the applicability or otherwise of a monitoring methodology and aid in the understanding of tourism sustainability, analyzing the effectiveness of local indicators on the approach defined by the WTO. The study was applied to the Lagoa da Confusão City, in the state of Tocantins - North Brazil. The case study was carried out in 2006/2007, with the guiding deductive method. The indicators were measured by specific methodologies adapted to the study site, so that could generate quantitative results which could be analyzed at the proposed scale WTO (0 to 10 points). Applied indicators: Attractive Protection – AP (level of a natural and cultural attractive protection), Sociocultural Impact–SI (level of socio-cultural impacts), Waste Management - WM (level of management of solid waste generated), Planning Process-PP (trip planning level) Tourist Satisfaction-TS (satisfaction of the tourist experience), Community Satisfaction-CS (satisfaction of the local community with the development of local tourism) and Tourism Contribution to the Local Economy-TCLE (tourist level of contribution to the local economy). The city of Lagoa da Confusão was presented as an important object of study for the methodology in question, as offered condition to analyze the indicators and the complexities that arose during the research. The data collected can help discussions on the sustainability of tourism in the destination. The indicators TS, CS, WM , PP and AP appeared as satisfactory as allowed the measurement "translating" the reality under study, unlike TCLE and the SI indicators that were not seen as reliable and clear and should be reviewed and discussed for an adaptation and replication of the same. The application and study of various indicators of sustainable tourism, give better able to analyze the local tourism situation than monitor only one of the indicators, it does not demonstrate all collected data, which could result in a superficial analysis of the tourist destination.

Keywords: indicators, Lagoa da Confusão, Tocantins, Brazil, monitoring, sustainability

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Authors: Mahmoud Y. Shokry, Rami M. El-Sherbiny

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This paper aims to highlight the role of some parameters that may be of a noticeable impact on numerical analysis/design of embankments. It presents the results of a three-dimensional (3-D) finite element analysis of a monitored earth embankment that was constructed on soft clay formation stabilized by cast in-situ piles using software PLAXIS 3D. A comparison between the predicted and the monitored responses is presented to assess the adequacy of the adopted numerical model. The model was used in the targeted parametric study. Moreover, a comparison was performed between the results of the 3-D analyses and the analytical solutions. This paper concluded that the effect of using mono pile caps led to decrease both the total and differential settlement and increased the efficiency of the piled embankment system. The study of using geogrids revealed that it can contribute in decreasing the settlement and maximizing the part of the embankment load transferred to piles. Moreover, it was found that increasing the stiffness of the geogrids provides higher values of tensile forces and hence has more effective influence on embankment load carried by piles rather than using multi-number of layers with low values of geogrid stiffness. The efficiency of the piled embankments system was also found to be greater when higher embankments are used rather than the low height embankments. The comparison between the numerical 3-D model and the theoretical design methods revealed that many analytical solutions are conservative and non-accurate rather than the 3-D finite element numerical models.

Keywords: efficiency, embankment, geogrids, soft clay

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Authors: Vildan Kistik, Tuncay Can

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From a business perspective, cost and profit are two key factors for businesses. The intent of most businesses is to minimize the cost to maximize or equalize the profit, so as to provide the greatest benefit to itself. However, the physical system is very complicated because of technological constructions, rapid increase of competitive environments and similar factors. In such a system it is not easy to maximize profits or to minimize costs. Businesses must decide on the competence and competence of the personnel to be recruited, taking into consideration many criteria in selecting personnel. There are many criteria to determine the competence and competence of a staff member. Factors such as the level of education, experience, psychological and sociological position, and human relationships that exist in the field are just some of the important factors in selecting a staff for a firm. Personnel selection is a very important and costly process in terms of businesses in today's competitive market. Although there are many mathematical methods developed for the selection of personnel, unfortunately the use of these mathematical methods is rarely encountered in real life. In this study, unlike other methods, an exponential programming model was established based on the possibilities of failing in case the selected personnel was started to work. With the necessary transformations, the problem has been transformed into unconstrained Geometrical Programming problem and personnel selection problem is approached with geometric programming technique. Personnel selection scenarios for a classroom were established with the help of normal distribution and optimum solutions were obtained. In the most appropriate solutions, the personnel selection process for the classroom has been achieved with minimum cost.

Keywords: geometric programming, personnel selection, non-linear programming, operations research

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Authors: Ekin Nurbaş

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One of the essential challenges in array signal processing, which has drawn enormous research interest over the past several decades, is estimating the direction of arrival (DOA) of plane waves impinging on an array of sensors. In recent years, the Compressive Sensing based DoA estimation methods have been proposed by researchers, and it has been discovered that the Compressive Sensing (CS)-based algorithms achieved significant performances for DoA estimation even in scenarios where there are multiple coherent sources. On the other hand, the Genetic Algorithm, which is a method that provides a solution strategy inspired by natural selection, has been used in sparse representation problems in recent years and provides significant improvements in performance. With all of those in consideration, in this paper, a method that combines the Genetic Algorithm (GA) and the Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) approaches for Direction of Arrival (DoA) estimation in the Compressive Sensing (CS) framework is proposed. In this method, we generate a multi-objective optimization problem by splitting the norm minimization and reconstruction loss minimization parts of the Compressive Sensing algorithm. With the help of the Genetic Algorithm, multiple non-dominated solutions are achieved for the defined multi-objective optimization problem. Among the pareto-frontier solutions, the final solution is obtained with the multiple MCDM methods. Moreover, the performance of the proposed method is compared with the CS-based methods in the literature.

Keywords: genetic algorithm, direction of arrival esitmation, multi criteria decision making, compressive sensing

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Authors: A. Aloga, A. S. Aloga

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The study examined the influence of instructional supervision on teachers’ performance in secondary schools in Otukpo LGA of Benue State. The study was guided by four research questions and four hypotheses. The study employed a descriptive research design. The population of the study comprised of 579 teachers in 26 public secondary schools out of which 236 respondents were sampled and used as the studied population. The instrument used for data collection was a structured questionnaire, titled ‘Instructional Supervision and Teachers Performance Questionnaire (ISTPQ)’ The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions. And Chi-Square Statistics was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The study found that instructional supervision has a significant influence on teachers’ lesson planning, effective teaching, teachers’ class attendance and teachers’ classroom management. The study concluded that instructional supervision influences teachers’ performance. It was recommended that; instructional supervisors should always give useful suggestions as regards the best instructional practices needed by teachers in enhancing lesson planning. The government should recruit more trained and qualified instructional supervisors to be able to meet the intending demands of instructional supervision. This will relieve the existing few qualified instructional supervisors from work overload which may result to ineffectiveness and poor performance of their duties. Conferences and seminars should be organized for instructional supervisors from time to time to cater for the professional assistance needed by teachers. The state government should always provide adequate funding for these conferences and seminars since it provides an avenue for acquiring new knowledge in educational development by teachers among others.

Keywords: influence, instructional supervision, teachers’ performance, secondary schools

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Authors: Alemaw Kefale, Aramde Fetene, Hayal Desta

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Monitoring the amount of green space in urban areas is important for ensuring sustainable development and proper management. The study analyzed changes in urban green space coverage over the past 20 years in two rapidly urbanizing cities in Ethiopia, Debre Berhan and Debre Markos, using GIS and remote sensing. The researchers used Landsat 5 and 8 data with a spatial resolution of 30 m to determine different land use and land cover classes, including urban green spaces, barren and croplands, built-up areas, and water bodies. The classification accuracy ranged between 90% and 91.4%, with a Kappa Statistic of 0.85 to 0.88. The results showed that both cities experienced significant decreases in vegetation cover in their urban cores between 2000 and 2020, with radical changes observed from green spaces and croplands to built-up areas. In Debre Berhan, barren and croplands decreased by 32.96%, while built-up and green spaces increased by 357.9% and 37.4%, respectively, in 2020. In Debre Markos, built-up areas increased by 224.2%, while green spaces and barren and croplands decreased by 41% and 5.71%, respectively. The spatial structure of cities and planning policies were noticed as the major factors for big green cover change. Thus it has an implication for other rapidly urbanized cities in Africa and Asia. Overall, rapid urbanization threatens green spaces and agricultural areas, highlighting the need for ecological-based spatial planning in rapidly urbanizing cities.

Keywords: green space coverage, GIS and remote sensing, Landsat, LULC, Ethiopia

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Authors: Deddi Nordiawan

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Effective public policy creation required a strong budget system, both in terms of design and implementation. Performance-based Budget is an evolutionary approach with two substantial characteristics; first, the strong integration between budgeting and planning, and second, its existence as guidance so that all activities and expenditures refer to measurable performance targets. There are four processes in the government that should be followed in order to make the budget become performance-based. These four processes consist of the preparation of a vision according to the bold aspiration, the formulation of outcome, the determination of output based on the analysis of organizational resources, and the formulation of Value Creation Map that contains a series of programs and activities. This is consistent with the concept of logic model which revealed that the budget performance should be placed within a relational framework of resources, activities, outputs, outcomes and impacts. Through the issuance of Law 17/2003 regarding State Finance, local governments in Indonesia have to implement performance-based budget. Central Government then issued Government Regulation 58/2005 which contains the detail guidelines how to prepare local governments budget. After a decade, implementation of performance budgeting in local government is still not fully meet expectations, though the guidance is completed, socialization routinely performed, and trainings have also been carried out at all levels. Accordingly, this study views the practice of performance-based budget at local governments as a problematic situation. This condition must be approached with a system approach that allows the solutions from many point of views. Based on the fact that the infrastructure of budgeting has already settled, the study then considering the situation as complexity. Therefore, the intervention needs to be done in the area of human activity system. Using Soft Systems Methodology, this research will reconstruct the process of performance-based budget at local governments is area of human activity system. Through conceptual models, this study will invite all actors (central government, local government, and the parliament) for dialogue and formulate interventions in human activity systems that systematically desirable and culturally feasible. The result will direct central government in revise the guidance to local government budgeting process as well as a reference to build the capacity building strategy.

Keywords: soft systems methodology, performance-based budgeting, Indonesia, public policy

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Authors: Rishabh Ambavanekar

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Expressive Aphasia (EA) is an oral disability, common among stroke victims, in which the Broca’s area of the brain is damaged, interfering with verbal communication abilities. EA currently has no technological solutions and its only current viable solutions are inefficient or only available to the affluent. This prompts the need for an affordable, innovative solution to facilitate recovery and assist in speech generation. This project proposes a novel concept: using a wearable low-cost electroencephalography (EEG) device-based brain-computer interface (BCI) to translate a user’s inner dialogue into words. A low-cost EEG device was developed and found to be 10 to 100 times less expensive than any current EEG device on the market. As part of the BCI, a machine learning (ML) model was developed and trained using the EEG data. Two stages of testing were conducted to analyze the effectiveness of the device: a proof-of-concept and a final solution test. The proof-of-concept test demonstrated an average accuracy of above 90% and the final solution test demonstrated an average accuracy of above 75%. These two successful tests were used as a basis to demonstrate the viability of BCI research in developing lower-cost verbal communication devices. Additionally, the device proved to not only enable users to verbally communicate but has the potential to also assist in accelerated recovery from the disorder.

Keywords: neurotechnology, brain-computer interface, neuroscience, human-machine interface, BCI, HMI, aphasia, verbal disability, stroke, low-cost, machine learning, ML, image recognition, EEG, signal analysis

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Authors: Luis Guilherme Resende Santos, Ido Nevat, Leslie Norford

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The Urban Heat Island (UHI) is characterized by increased air temperatures in urban areas compared to undeveloped rural surrounding environments. With urbanization and densification, the intensity of UHI increases, bringing negative impacts on livability, health and economy. In order to reduce those effects, it is required to take into consideration design factors when planning future developments. Given design constraints such as population size and availability of area for development, non-trivial decisions regarding the buildings’ dimensions and their spatial distribution are required. We develop a framework for optimization of urban design in order to jointly minimize UHI intensity and buildings’ energy consumption. First, the design constraints are defined according to spatial and population limits in order to establish realistic boundaries that would be applicable in real life decisions. Second, the tools Urban Weather Generator (UWG) and EnergyPlus are used to generate outputs of UHI intensity and total buildings’ energy consumption, respectively. Those outputs are changed based on a set of variable inputs related to urban morphology aspects, such as building height, urban canyon width and population density. Lastly, an optimization problem is cast where the utility function quantifies the performance of each design candidate (e.g. minimizing a linear combination of UHI and energy consumption), and a set of constraints to be met is set. Solving this optimization problem is difficult, since there is no simple analytic form which represents the UWG and EnergyPlus models. We therefore cannot use any direct optimization techniques, but instead, develop an indirect “black box” optimization algorithm. To this end we develop a solution that is based on stochastic optimization method, known as the Cross Entropy method (CEM). The CEM translates the deterministic optimization problem into an associated stochastic optimization problem which is simple to solve analytically. We illustrate our model on a typical residential area in Singapore. Due to fast growth in population and built area and land availability generated by land reclamation, urban planning decisions are of the most importance for the country. Furthermore, the hot and humid climate in the country raises the concern for the impact of UHI. The problem presented is highly relevant to early urban design stages and the objective of such framework is to guide decision makers and assist them to include and evaluate urban microclimate and energy aspects in the process of urban planning.

Keywords: building energy consumption, stochastic optimization, urban design, urban heat island, urban weather generator

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Authors: Guoqin Ge, Minhui Huang, Yazhou Zhou

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The growth of the Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration has been designated as a national strategy in China. Analyzing its spatial evolution characteristics is crucial for devising relevant development strategies. This paper enhances the gravitational model by using temporal distance as a factor. It applies this improved model to assess the economic interconnection and concentration level of each geographical unit within the Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration between 2011 and 2019. On this basis, this paper examines the spatial correlation characteristics of economic agglomeration intensity and urban-rural development equalization by employing spatial autocorrelation analysis. The study findings indicate that the spatial integration in the Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration is currently in the "point-axis" development stage. The spatial organization structure is becoming more flattened, and there is a stronger economic connection between the core of the urban agglomeration and the peripheral areas. The integration of the Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration is currently hindered by conflicting interests and institutional heterogeneity between Chengdu and Chongqing. Additionally, the connections between the relatively secondary spatial units are largely loose and weak. The strength and scale of economic ties and the level of urban-rural equilibrium among spatial units within the Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration have increased, but regional imbalances have continued to widen, and such positive and negative changes have been characterized by the spatial and temporal synergistic evolution of the "core-periphery". Ultimately, this paper presents planning ideas for the future integration development of the Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration, drawing from the findings.

Keywords: integration, planning strategy, space organization, space evolution, urban agglomeration

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Authors: Naziema B. Jappie

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Over the last 23 years leaders in government, political parties and universities have been spending much time on identifying and discussing various gaps in the system that impact systematically on students especially those from historically Black communities. Equity and access to higher education were two critical aspects that featured in achieving the transformation goals together with a funding model for those previously disadvantaged. Free education was not a feasible option for the government. Institutional leaders in higher education face many demands on their time and resources. Often, the time for crisis management planning or consideration of being proactive and preventative is not a standing agenda item. With many issues being priority in academia, people become complacent and think that crisis may not affect them or they will cross the bridge when they get to it. Historically South Africa has proven to be a country of militancy, strikes and protests in most industries, some leading to disastrous outcomes. Higher education was not different between October 2015 and late 2016 when the #Rhodes Must Fall which morphed into the # Fees Must Fall protest challenged the establishment, changed the social fabric of universities, bringing the sector to a standstill. Some institutional leaders and administrators were better at handling unexpected, high-consequence situations than others. At most crisis leadership is viewed as a situation more than a style of leadership which is usually characterized by crisis management. The objective of this paper is to show how institutions managed catastrophes of disastrous proportions, down through unexpected incidents of 2015/2016. The content draws on the vast past crisis management experience of the presenter and includes the occurrences of the recent protests giving an event timeline. Using responses from interviews with institutional leaders and administrators as well as students will ensure first-hand information on their experiences and the outcomes. Students have tasted the power of organized action and they demand immediate change, if not the revolt will continue. This paper will examine the approaches that guided institutional leaders and their crisis teams and sector crisis response. It will further expand on whether the solutions effectively changed governance in higher education or has it minimized the need for more protests. The conclusion will give an insight into the future of higher education in South Africa from a leadership perspective.

Keywords: crisis, governance, intervention, leadership, strategies, protests

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Authors: Ivan Maguire, Ciprian Briciu, Alan Barrett, Dara Kervick, Jens Ducrèe, Fiona Regan

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With the ever-increasing myriad of applications of which microfluidic devices are capable, reliable fluidic actuation development has remained fundamental to the success of these microfluidic platforms. There are a number of approaches which can be taken in order to integrate liquid actuation on microfluidic platforms, which can usually be split into two primary categories; active microvalves and passive microvalves. Active microvalves are microfluidic valves which require a physical parameter change by external, or separate interaction, for actuation to occur. Passive microvalves are microfluidic valves which don’t require external interaction for actuation due to the valve’s natural physical parameters, which can be overcome through sample interaction. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how further improvements to past microvalve solutions can largely enhance systematic reliability and performance, with both novel active and passive microvalves demonstrated. Covered within this scope will be two alternative and novel microvalve solutions for centrifugal microfluidic platforms; a revamped pneumatic-dissolvable film active microvalve (PAM) strategy and a spray-on Sol-Gel based hydrophobic passive microvalve (HPM) approach. Both the PAM and the HPM mechanisms were demonstrated on a centrifugal microfluidic platform consisting of alternating layers of 1.5 mm poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) (for reagent storage) sheets and ~150 μm pressure sensitive adhesive (PSA) (for microchannel fabrication) sheets. The PAM approach differs from previous SOLUBON™ dissolvable film methods by introducing a more reliable and predictable liquid delivery mechanism to microvalve site, thus significantly reducing premature activation. This approach has also shown excellent synchronicity when performed in a multiplexed form. The HPM method utilises a new spray-on and low curing temperature (70°C) sol-gel material. The resultant double layer coating comprises a PMMA adherent sol-gel as the bottom layer and an ultra hydrophobic silica nano-particles (SNPs) film as the top layer. The optimal coating was integrated to microfluidic channels with varying cross-sectional area for assessing microvalve burst frequencies consistency. It is hoped that these microvalving solutions, which can be easily added to centrifugal microfluidic platforms, will significantly improve automation reliability.

Keywords: centrifugal microfluidics, hydrophobic microvalves, lab-on-a-disc, pneumatic microvalves

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Authors: Mohammadreza Akbari, Sara Akbari, Davood Domiri Ganji, Pooya Solimani, Reza Khalili

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In this paper, three complicated nonlinear differential equations(PDE,ODE) in the field of engineering and non-vibration have been analyzed and solved completely by new method that we have named it Akbari-Ganji's Method (AGM) . As regards the previous published papers, investigating this kind of equations is a very hard task to do and the obtained solution is not accurate and reliable. This issue will be emerged after comparing the achieved solutions by Numerical Method. Based on the comparisons which have been made between the gained solutions by AGM and Numerical Method (Runge-Kutta 4th), it is possible to indicate that AGM can be successfully applied for various differential equations particularly for difficult ones. Furthermore, It is necessary to mention that a summary of the excellence of this method in comparison with the other approaches can be considered as follows: It is noteworthy that these results have been indicated that this approach is very effective and easy therefore it can be applied for other kinds of nonlinear equations, And also the reasons of selecting the mentioned method for solving differential equations in a wide variety of fields not only in vibrations but also in different fields of sciences such as fluid mechanics, solid mechanics, chemical engineering, etc. Therefore, a solution with high precision will be acquired. With regard to the afore-mentioned explanations, the process of solving nonlinear equation(s) will be very easy and convenient in comparison with the other methods. And also one of the important position that is explored in this paper is: Trigonometric and exponential terms in the differential equation (the method AGM) , is no need to use Taylor series Expansion to enhance the precision of the result.

Keywords: new method (AGM), complex non-linear partial differential equations, damping ratio, energy lost per cycle

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Authors: Lucia Rozumová, Ivo Šafařík, Jana Seidlerová, Pavel Kůs

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Biosorption by biological waste materials from agriculture industry could be a cost-effective technique for removing metal ions from wastewater. The performance of new biosorbent systems, consisting of the waste matrixes which were magnetically modified by iron oxide nanoparticles, for the removal of lead ions from an aqueous solution was tested. The use of low-cost and eco-friendly adsorbents has been investigated as an ideal alternative to the current expensive methods. This article deals with the removal of metal ions from aqueous solutions by modified waste products - orange peels, sawdust, peanuts husks, used tea leaves and ground coffee sediment. Magnetically modified waste materials were suspended in methanol and then was added ferrofluid (magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles). This modification process gives the predictions for the formation of the smart materials with new properties. Prepared material was characterized by using scanning electron microscopy, specific surface area and pore size analyzer. Studies were focused on the sorption and desorption properties. The changes of iron content in magnetically modified materials after treatment were observed as well. Adsorption process has been modelled by adsorption isotherms. The results show that magnetically modified materials during the dynamic sorption and desorption are stable at the high adsorbed amount of lead ions. The results of this study indicate that the biological waste materials as sorbent with new properties are highly effective for the treatment of wastewater.

Keywords: biological waste, sorption, metal ions, ferrofluid

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Authors: Sheyla Moroni

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A number of scholars around the world have analyzed the great architectural and urban planning revolution proposed by Skopje 2014, but so far, there are no readings of the parallels between the museums in the Balkan area (including Greece) that share the same name as the museum at the center of that political and cultural revolution. In the former FYROM (now renamed North Macedonia), a museum called "Macedonian Struggle" was born during the reconstruction of the city of Skopje as the new "national" capital. This new museum was built under the "Skopje 2014" plan and cost about 560 million euros (1/3 of the country's GDP). It has been a "flagship" of the government of Nikola Gruevski, leader of the nationalist VMRO-DPMNE party. Until 2016 this museum was close to the motivations of the Macedonian nationalist movement (and later party) active (including terrorist actions) during the 19th and 20th centuries. The museum served to narrate a new "nation-building" after "state-building" had already taken place. But there are three other museums that tell the story of the "Macedonian struggle" by understanding "Macedonia" as a territory other than present-day North Macedonia. The first one is located in Thessaloniki and primarily commemorates the "Greek battle" against the Ottoman Empire. While the first uses a new dark building and many reconstructed rooms and shows the bloody history of the quest for "freedom" for the Macedonian language and people (different from Greeks, Albanians, and Bulgarians), the second is located in an old building in Thessaloniki and in its six rooms on the ground floor graphically illustrates the modern and contemporary history of Greek Macedonia. There are also third and fourth museums: in Kastoria (toward the Albanian border) and in Chromio (near the Greek-North Macedonian border). These two museums (Kastoria and Chromio) are smaller, but they mark two important borders for the (Greek) regions bordering Albania to the east and dividing it to the northwest not only from the Ottoman past but also from two communities felt to be "foreign" (Albanians and former Yugoslav Macedonians). All museums reconstruct a different "national edifice" and emphasize the themes of language and religion. The objective of the research is to understand, through four museums bearing the same name, what are the main "mental boundaries" (religious, linguistic, cultural) of the different states (reconstructed between the late 19th century and 1991). Both classical historiographic methodology (very different between Balkan and "Western" areas) and on-site observation and interactions with different sites are used in this research. An attempt is made to highlight four different political focuses with respect to nation-building and the Public History (and/or propaganda) approaches applied in the construction of these buildings and memorials tendency often that one "defines" oneself by differences from "others" (even if close).

Keywords: nationalisms, museum, nation building, public history

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Authors: Dianne Lyneth Alavado

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At the turn of the millennium, development paradigms in the international scene revolved around one goal: elimination of global poverty without comprising human rights. One measure which achieved high endorsement and visibility in the world of work is the Decent Work Agenda (DWA) championed by the United Nation’s (UN) specialized agency for work, the International Labour Organization (ILO). The DWA has been thoroughly promoted and recommended as an ingredient of development planning and a poverty reduction strategy, particularly in developing countries such as the Philippines. The global imperative of economic growth is measurable not only in the numbers raked in by countries in terms of expanding economy but also by the development and realization of the full capacities of their people. Decent work (DW), as an outcome and not just a development approach, promises poverty eradication by means of providing both quantity and quality work that is accompanied by rights, representation, and protection. As a party to these international pacts, the Philippines is expected to heed the call towards a world free from poverty through well-endorsed measures such as the DWA with the aid of multilateral and donor organizations such as the ILO. This study aims to assess the capacity and readiness of the Philippines to achieve the goals of the DWA. This is a qualitative research using the sociological and juridical lens in the desk analysis of existing Philippine laws, policies, and programs vis-à-vis decent work indicators set forth by the ILO. Interview with experts on the Philippine labor situation is conducted for further validation. The paper identifies gaps within the Philippine legal system and its collection of laws, acts, presidential decrees, department orders and other policy instruments aimed towards achieving the goals of the DWA. Among the major findings of this paper are: the predisposition of Philippine labor laws towards the formal sector; the need for alternative solutions for the informal sector veering away from the usual dole-outs and livelihood projects; the needs for evaluation of policies and programs that are usually self-evaluated; the minimal reach of the labour inspectorate which ensures decent work; and the lack of substantial penalty for non-compliance with labor laws. The paper concludes with policy implications and recommendations towards addressing the potholes on the road to Decent Work.

Keywords: decent work agenda, labor laws, millennium development goals, poverty eradication, sustainable development goal

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Authors: Rahul Thakur, Onkar Chandel

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Red Hat is the world leader in providing open source software and solutions. A global enterprise, like Red Hat, has unique issues of connecting employees with content because of distributed offices, multiple teams spread across geographies, multiple languages, and different cultures. Employees, of a global company, create content that is distributed across departments, teams, regions, and countries. This makes finding the best content difficult since owners keep iterating on the existing content. When employees are unable to find the content, they end up creating it once again and in the process duplicating existing material and effort. Also, employees may not find the relevant content and spend time reviewing obsolete duplicate, or irrelevant content. On an average, a person spends 15 minutes/day in failed searches that might result in missed business opportunities, employee frustration, and substandard deliverables. Red Hat Knowledge Management Office (KMO) applied 'open source strategy' to solve the above problems. Under the Open Source Strategy, decisions are taken collectively. The strategy aims at accomplishing common goals with the help of communities. The objectives of this initiative were to save employees' time, get them authentic content, improve their content search experience, avoid duplicate content creation, provide context based search, improve analytics, improve content management workflows, automate content classification, and automate content upload. This session will describe open source strategy, its applicability in content management, challenges, recommended solutions, and outcome.

Keywords: content classification, content management, knowledge management, open source

Procedia PDF Downloads 210

Authors: Yeimis Milton, Palomino Pichihua

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The city, like living organisms, originates from codes, structured information in the form of rules that condition the physical form and performance of urban space. Usually, the so-called urban codes clash with the spontaneous nature of the city, with the urban Kháos that contextualizes the free creation (poiesis) of human collectives. This contradiction is especially evident in Latin America, which, like other developing regions, lacks adequate instruments to guide urban growth. Thus constructing a hybrid between the formal and informal city, categories that are difficult to separate one from the other. This is a comparative study focusing on the urban codes created to address the pandemic. The objective is to build an overview of these innovations in the region. The sample is made up of official norms published in pandemic, directly linked to urban planning and building control (urban form). The countries analyzed are Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Peru, Colombia, and Chile. The study uncovers a shared interest in facing future urban problems, in contrast to the inconsistency of proposed legal instruments. Factors such as the lack of articulation, validity time, and ambiguity, among others, accentuate this problem. Likewise, it evidences that the political situation of each country has a significant influence on the development of these norms and the possibility of their long-term impact. In summary, the global emergency has produced opportunities to transform urban systems from their internal rules; however, there are very few successful examples in this field. Therefore, Latin American cities have the task of learning from this defeat in order to lay the foundations for a more resilient and sustainable urban future.

Keywords: pandemic, regulation, urban planning, latin America

Procedia PDF Downloads 101

Authors: Chibuzo Okoye Daniels, Gillian Glegg, Lynda Rodwell

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Marine debris from fishing nets to medical equipment to food packaging that play major roles in boosting the economy and protecting human health is now more than an environmental problem that can be solved by legislation, law enforcement and technical solutions. It has also been identified as a cultural problem that can only be addressed by identifying instruments that can be used to change human attitudes and behaviors. This may be through management approaches, education and involvement of all sectors/interests, including the public. To contribute to the sustainable development of coastal Nigeria, two case study areas (Ikoyi and Victoria Islands of Lagos State) were used to evaluate the socio-economic impacts of marine debris problem in coastal Nigeria. The following methods were used: (1) semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders and businesses on beaches, waterfronts and waterways within the study areas and (2) observational study of beaches, waterfronts and waterways within the study areas. The results of the study have shown that marine debris is a cultural and multi-sectoral problem that poses great threat not only to the environmental sustainability of the study areas but also to the wellbeing of its citizens and the economy of coastal Nigeria. Current solid waste and marine debris management practices are inefficient due to inadequate knowledge of how to tackle the problem. To ensure environmental sustainability in coastal Nigeria and avoid waste of scarce financial resources, adequate, appropriate and cost effective solutions to the marine debris problem need to be identified and effectively transferred for implementation in the study areas.

Keywords: sustainability, coastal Nigeria, study areas, aquaculture

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Authors: Rafael Santos Fischer, Aloísio Leoni Schmid, Amanda Dalla-Bonna

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The life cycle analysis and the energy life cycle analysis are useful design support tools when sustainability becomes imperative. The final phase of buildings life cycle is probably the least known, on which less knowledge is available. In the Brazilian building industry, the lifespan of a building design rarely is treated as a definite design parameter. There is rather a common sense attitude to take any building demands as permanent, and to take for granted that buildings solutions are durable and solid. Housing, being a permanent issue in any society, presents a real challenge to the choice of a design lifespan. In Brazilian history, there was a contrast of the native solutions of collective, non-durable houses built by several nomadic tribes, and the stone and masonry buildings introduced by the sedentary Portuguese conquerors. Durable buildings are commonly associated with welfare. However, social dynamics makes traditional families of both parents and children be just one of several possible arrangements. In addition, a more liberal attitude towards family leads to an increase in the number of people living in alternative arrangements. Japan is an example of country where houses have been made intentionally ephemeral since the half of 20th century. The present article presents the development of a flexible housing design solution on the basis of the Design Science Research approach. A comparison in terms of energy life cycle shows how flexibility and dematerialization may point at a feasible future for housing policies in Brazil.

Keywords: adaptability, adaptable building, embodied energy, life cyclce analysis, social housing

Procedia PDF Downloads 589

Authors: Katarina Rogulj, Ivana Racetin, Jelena Kilic

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In this study, the fuzzy logic approach (FLA) was developed for construction project management (CPM) under uncertainty and duality. The focus was on decision making in selecting the type of the glass facade for a residential-commercial building in the main design. The adoption of fuzzy sets was capable of reflecting construction managers’ reliability level over subjective judgments, and thus the robustness of the system can be achieved. An α-cuts method was utilized for discretizing the fuzzy sets in FLA. This method can communicate all uncertain information in the optimization process, taking into account the values of this information. Furthermore, FLA provides in-depth analyses of diverse policy scenarios that are related to various levels of economic aspects when it comes to the construction projects' valid decision making. The developed approach is applied to CPM to demonstrate its applicability. Analyzing the materials of glass facades, variants were defined. The development of the FLA for the CPM included relevant construction projec'ts stakeholders that were involved in the criteria definition to evaluate each variant. Using fuzzy Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory Method (DEMATEL) comparison of the glass facade was conducted. This way, a rank, according to the priorities for inclusion into the main design, of variants is obtained. The concept was tested on a residential-commercial building in the city of Rijeka, Croatia. The newly developed methodology was then compared with the existing one. The aim of the research was to define an approach that will improve current judgments and decisions when it comes to the material selection of buildings facade as one of the most important architectural and engineering tasks in the main design. The advantage of the new methodology compared to the old one is that it includes the subjective side of the managers’ decisions, as an inevitable factor in each decision making. The proposed approach can help construction projects managers to identify the desired type of glass facade according to their preference and practical conditions, as well as facilitate in-depth analyses of tradeoffs between economic efficiency and architectural design.

Keywords: construction projects management, DEMATEL, fuzzy logic approach, glass façade selection

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Authors: Reza Hadjiaghaie Vafaie, Sevda Givtaj

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Automation and control of biological samples and solutions at the microscale is a major advantage for biochemistry analysis and biological diagnostics. Despite the known potential of miniaturization in biochemistry and biomedical applications, comparatively little is known about fluid automation and control at the microscale. Here, we study the electric field effect inside a fluidic channel and proper electrode structures with different patterns proposed to form forward, reversal, and rotational flows inside the channel. The simulation results confirmed that the ac electro-thermal flow is efficient for the control and automation of high-conductive solutions. In this research, the fluid pumping and mixing effects were numerically studied by solving physic-coupled electric, temperature, hydrodynamic, and concentration fields inside a microchannel. From an experimental point of view, the electrode structures are deposited on a silicon substrate and bonded to a PDMS microchannel to form a microfluidic chip. The motions of fluorescent particles in pumping and mixing modes were captured by using a CCD camera. By measuring the frequency response of the fluid and exciting the electrodes with the proper voltage, the fluid motions (including pumping and mixing effects) are observed inside the channel through the CCD camera. Based on the results, there is good agreement between the experimental and simulation studies.

Keywords: microfluidic, nano/micro actuator, AC electrothermal, Reynolds number, micropump, micromixer, microfabrication, mass transfer, biomedical applications

Procedia PDF Downloads 79

Authors: Thomas Trouton, Sebastian Tanner, Manvir Sandher

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The use of simulation in undergraduate and postgraduate medical curricula is ever-growing, is a useful addition to the traditional apprenticeship model of learning within medical education, and better prepares graduates for the team-based approach to healthcare seen in real-life clinical practice. As a learning tool, however, undergraduate medical students often have little understanding of the theory behind the use of medical simulation and have little experience in planning and delivering their own simulated teaching sessions. We designed and implemented a student-selected component (SSC) as part of the undergraduate medical curriculum at the University of Buckingham Medical School to introduce students to the concepts behind the use of medical simulation in education and allow them to plan and deliver their own simulated medical scenario to their peers. The SSC took place over a 2-week period in the 3rd year of the undergraduate course. There was a mix of lectures, seminars and interactive group work sessions, as well as hands-on experience in the simulation suite, to introduce key concepts related to medical simulation, including technical considerations in simulation, human factors, debriefing and troubleshooting scenarios. We evaluated the success of our SSC using “Net Promotor Scores” (NPS) to assess students’ confidence in planning and facilitating a simulation-based teaching session, as well as leading a debrief session. In all three domains, we showed an increase in the confidence of the students. We also showed an increase in confidence in the management of common medical emergencies as a result of the SSC. Overall, the students who chose our SSC had the opportunity to learn new skills in medical education, with a particular focus on the use of simulation-based teaching, and feedback highlighted that a number of students would take these skills forward in their own practice. We demonstrated an increase in confidence in several domains related to the use of medical simulation in education and have hopefully inspired a new generation of medical educators.

Keywords: simulation, SSC, teaching, medical students

Procedia PDF Downloads 123

Authors: Sayed M. Ahmed, Sawsan S. Darwish, Nagib A. Elmarzugi, Mohammad A. Al-Dosari, Mahmoud A. Adam, Nadia A. Al-Mouallimi

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The preservation of cultural heritage is a worldwide problem. Stone monuments represent an important part of this heritage, but due to their prevalently outdoor location, they are generally subject to a complex series of weathering and decay processes, in addition to physical and chemical factors, also biological agents usually play an important role in deterioration phenomena. The aim of this paper is to experimentally verify applicability and feasibility of titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles for the preservation of historical (architectural, monumental, archaeological) stone surfaces which enables to reduce the deterioration behaviors mentioned above. TiO2 nanoparticles dispersed in an aqueous colloidal suspension were applied directly on travertine (Marble and limestone often used in historical and monumental buildings) by spray-coating in order to obtain a nanometric film on stone samples. SEM, coupled with EDX microanalysis. (SEM-EDX), in order to obtain information oncoating homogeneity, surface morphology before and after aging and penetration depth of the TiO2 within the samples. Activity of the coated surface was evaluated with UV accelerated aging test. Capillary water absorption, thermal aging and colorimetric measurements have been performed on on coated and uncoated samples to evaluate their properties and estimate change of appearance with colour variation. Results show Tio2 nanoparticles good candidate for coating applications on calcareous stone, good water-repellence was observed on the samples after treatment; analyses were carried out on both untreated and freshly treated samples as well as after artificial aging. Colour change showed negligible variations on the coated or uncoated stone as well as after aging. Results showed that treated stone surfaces seem to be not affected after 1000 hours of exposure to UV radiation, no alteration of the original features.

Keywords: architectural and archaeological heritage, calcareous stone, photocatalysis TiO2, self-cleaning, thermal aging

Procedia PDF Downloads 277

Authors: Yendo Hu, Xu-Yu Wu, Dylan Oh

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GPS-Denied drones open the possibility of indoor applications, including dynamic arial surveillance, inspection, safety enforcement, and discovery. Indoor swarming further enhances these applications in accuracy, robustness, operational time, and coverage. For micro-drones, power management becomes a critical issue, given the battery payload restriction. This paper proposes an application enabling battery replacement solution that extends the micro-drone active phase without human intervention. First, a framework to quantify the effectiveness of a power management solution for a drone fleet is proposed. The operation-to-non-operation ratio, ONR, gives one a quantitative benchmark to measure the effectiveness of a power management solution. Second, a survey was carried out to evaluate the ONR performance for the various solutions. Third, through analysis, this paper proposes a solution tailored to the indoor micro-drone, suitable for swarming applications. The proposed automated battery replacement solution, along with a modified micro-drone architecture, was implemented along with the associated micro-drone. Fourth, the system was tested and compared with the various solutions within the industry. Results show that the proposed solution achieves an ONR value of 31, which is a 1-fold improvement of the best alternative option. The cost analysis shows a manufacturing cost of $25, which makes this approach viable for cost-sensitive markets (e.g., consumer). Further challenges remain in the area of drone design for automated battery replacement, landing pad/drone production, high-precision landing control, and ONR improvements.

Keywords: micro-drone, battery swap, battery replacement, battery recharge, landing pad, power management

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Authors: Lorenza Sganzetta, Nunzia Borrelli

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The research intends to reflect on the current mapping of the Food Strategies, on the reasons why in the planning objectives panorama, such sustainability priorities are located in those geographic areas and on the evolutions of these priorities of the Mediterranean planning dispositions. The whirling population growth that is affecting global cities is causing an enormous challenge to conventional resource-intensive food production and supply and the urgent need to face food safety, food security and sustainability concerns. Urban or Territorial Food Strategies can provide an interesting path for the development of this new agenda within the imperative principle of sustainability. In the specific, it is relevant to explore what ‘sustainability’ means within these policies. Most of these plans include actions related to four main components and interpretations of sustainability that are food security and safety, food equity, environmental sustainability itself and cultural identity and, at the designing phase, they differ slightly from each other according to the degree of approximation to one of these dimensions. Moving from these assumptions, the article would analyze some practices and policies representatives of different Food Strategies of the world and focus on the Mediterranean ones, on the problems and negative externalities from which they start, on the first interventions that are implementing and on their main objectives. We will mainly use qualitative data from primary and secondary collections. So far, an essential observation could have been made about the relationship between these sustainability dimensions and geography. In statistical terms, the US and Canadian policies tended to devote a large research space to health issues and access to food; those northern European showed a special attention to the environmental issues and the shortening of the chain; and finally the policies that, even in limited numbers, were being developed in the Mediterranean basin, were characterized by a strong territorial and cultural imprint and their major aim was to preserve local production and the contact between the productive land and the end consumer. Recently, though, Mediterranean food planning strategies are focusing more on health related and food accessibility issues and analyzing our diets not just as a matter of culture and territorial branding but as tools for reducing public health costs and accessibility to fresh food for everyone. The article would reflect then on how Food Safety, Food Security and Health are entering the new agenda of the Mediterranean Food Strategies. The research hypothesis suggests that the economic crisis that in the last years invested both producers and consumers had a significant impact on the nutrition habits and on the redefinition of food poverty, even in the fatherland of the healthy Mediterranean diet. This trend and other variables influenced the orientation and the objectives of the food strategies.

Keywords: food security, food strategy, health, sustainability

Procedia PDF Downloads 223

Authors: Karolina Porada

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Over the last 40 years, there has been a trend in landscape architecture which supporters do not perceive the role of pro-ecological or postmodern solutions in the design of public green spaces as an essential goal, shifting their attention to the 'sculptural' shaping of areas with the use of slopes, hills, embankments, and other forms of terrain. This group of designers can be considered avant-garde, which in its activities refers to land art. Initial research shows that such applications are particularly frequent in places of former post-industrial sites and landfills, utilizing materials such as debris and post-mining waste in their construction. Due to the high degradation of the environment surrounding modern man, the brownfields are a challenge and a field of interest for the representatives of landscape architecture avant-garde, who through their projects try to recover lost lands by means of transformations supported by engineering and ecological knowledge to create places where nature can develop again. The analysis of a dozen or so facilities made it possible to come up with an important conclusion: apart from the cultural aspects (including artistic activities), the green areas formally referring to the land are important in the process of remediation of post-industrial sites and waste recycling (e. g. from construction sites). In these processes, there is also a potential for applying the concept of Natural Based Solutions, i.e. solutions allowing for the natural development of the site in such a way as to use it to cope with environmental problems, such as e.g.  air pollution, soil phytoremediation and climate change. The paper presents examples of modern parks, whose compositions are based on shaping the surface of the terrain in a way referring to the land art, at the same time providing an example of brownfields reuse and application of waste recycling.  For the purposes of object analysis, research methods such as historical-interpretation studies, case studies, qualitative research or the method of logical argumentation were used. The obtained results provide information about the role that landscape architecture can have in the process of remediation of degraded areas, at the same time guaranteeing the benefits, such as the shaping of landscapes attractive in terms of visual appearance, low costs of implementation, and improvement of the natural environment quality.

Keywords: brownfields, contemporary parks, landscape architecture, remediation

Procedia PDF Downloads 150

Authors: Nimrod Bantigue

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The Department of Education is continuously providing safe teaching-learning facilities and hazard-free environments to the learners. To achieve this goal, teachers’ awareness of DepEd’s DRRM programs and activities is extremely important; thus, this descriptive correlational quantitative study was conceptualized. This research answered four questions on the profile and level of awareness of the 153 teacher respondents of Oriental Mindoro National High School for the academic year 2018-2019. Stratified proportional sampling was employed, and both descriptive and inferential statistics were utilized to treat data. The findings revealed that the majority of the teachers at OMNHS are female and are in the age bracket of 20-40. Most are married and pursue graduate studies. They have moderate awareness of the Department of Education’s DRRM programs and activities in terms of assessment of risks activities, planning activities, implementation activities during disaster and evaluation and monitoring activities with 3.32, 3.12, 3.40 and 3.31 as computed means, respectively. Further, the result showed a significant relationship between the profile of the respondents such as age, civil status and educational attainment and the level of awareness. On the contrary, sex does not have a significant relationship with the level of awareness. The Support School DRRM program with Utilization Guide on School DRRM Manual was proposed to increase, improve and strengthen the weakest areas of awareness rated in each DRRM activity, such as assessment of risks, planning, and implementation during disasters and monitoring and evaluation.

Keywords: awareness, management, monitoring, risk reduction

Procedia PDF Downloads 219