Search results for: optimizing construction design work

Authors: Saleh Hayat

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Efficiency, productivity and sustainability are important factors for structure and the application of processes in green building. Various previous studies have addressed efficiency, productivity and sustainability separately. This research study aims to investigate the implications of these three factors taking together. Frequency analysis and the ranking techniques are carried out to explore the connection between these factors. The interconnection matrix has been developed and functional grouping is made based upon data from expert opinion and field professionals. The existence of a relationship, the type of relationship and the scaled impact have been drawn. Additionally, a system diagram has been developed to show the variable correlation. The results of expert opinion show that efficiency, productivity and sustainability have a stronger impact on green buildings.

Keywords: efficiency, green building, productivity, sustainability

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Authors: Somdatta Saha

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The main purpose was to provide an implementable design scenario for underground coal mines using wireless sensor networks (WSNs). The main reason being that given the intricacies in the physical structure of a coal mine, only low power WSN nodes can produce accurate surveillance and accident detection data. The work mainly concentrated on designing and simulating various alternate scenarios for a typical mine and comparing them based on the obtained results to arrive at a final design. In the Era of embedded technology, the Zigbee protocols are used in more and more applications. Because of the rapid development of sensors, microcontrollers, and network technology, a reliable technological condition has been provided for our automatic real-time monitoring of coal mine. The underground system collects temperature, humidity and methane values of coal mine through sensor nodes in the mine; it also collects the number of personnel inside the mine with the help of an IR sensor, and then transmits the data to information processing terminal based on ARM.

Keywords: ARM, embedded board, wireless sensor network (Zigbee)

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Authors: Atin Adhikari, Aniruddha Mitra, Abbas Rashidi, Imaobong Ekpo, Jefferson Doehling, Alexis Pawlak, Shane Lewis, Jacob Schwartz

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Building constructions in the US involve numerous wooden structures. Woods are routinely used in walls, framing floors, framing stairs, and making of landings in building constructions. Cross-laminated timbers are currently being used as construction materials for tall buildings. Numerous workers are involved in these timber based constructions, and wood dust is one of the most common occupational exposures for them. Wood dust is a complex substance composed of cellulose, polyoses and other substances. According to US OSHA, exposure to wood dust is associated with a variety of adverse health effects among workers, including dermatitis, allergic respiratory effects, mucosal and nonallergic respiratory effects, and cancers. The amount and size of particles released as wood dust differ according to the operations performed on woods. For example, shattering of wood during sanding operations produces finer particles than does chipping in sawing and milling industries. To our knowledge, how shattering, cutting and sanding of woods and wood slabs during new building construction release fine particles and nanoparticles are largely unknown. General belief is that the dust generated during timber cutting and sanding tasks are mostly large particles. Consequently, little attention has been given to the generated submicron ultrafine and nanoparticles and their exposure levels. These data are, however, critically important because recent laboratory studies have demonstrated cytotoxicity of nanoparticles on lung epithelial cells. The above-described knowledge gaps were addressed in this study by a novel newly developed nanoparticle monitor and conventional particle counters. This study was conducted in a large new building construction site in southern Georgia primarily during the framing of wooden side walls, inner partition walls, and landings. Exposure levels of nanoparticles (n = 10) were measured by a newly developed nanoparticle counter (TSI NanoScan SMPS Model 3910) at four different distances (5, 10, 15, and 30 m) from the work location. Other airborne particles (number of particles/m3) including PM2.5 and PM10 were monitored using a 6-channel (0.3, 0.5, 1.0, 2.5, 5.0 and 10 µm) particle counter at 15 m, 30 m, and 75 m distances at both upwind and downwind directions. Mass concentration of PM2.5 and PM10 (µg/m³) were measured by using a DustTrak Aerosol Monitor. Temperature and relative humidity levels were recorded. Wind velocity was measured by a hot wire anemometer. Concentration ranges of nanoparticles of 13 particle sizes were: 11.5 nm: 221 – 816/cm³; 15.4 nm: 696 – 1735/cm³; 20.5 nm: 879 – 1957/cm³; 27.4 nm: 1164 – 2903/cm³; 36.5 nm: 1138 – 2640/cm³; 48.7 nm: 938 – 1650/cm³; 64.9 nm: 759 – 1284/cm³; 86.6 nm: 705 – 1019/cm³; 115.5 nm: 494 – 1031/cm³; 154 nm: 417 – 806/cm³; 205.4 nm: 240 – 471/cm³; 273.8 nm: 45 – 92/cm³; and 365.2 nm: Keywords: wood dust, industrial hygiene, aerosol, occupational exposure

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Authors: Kittipob Kondee, Chutima Prommak

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In this paper, we propose an optimization technique that can be used to optimize the placements of reference nodes and improve the location determination performance for the multi-floor building. The proposed technique is based on Simulated Annealing algorithm (SA) and is called MSMR-M. The performance study in this work is based on simulation. We compare other node-placement techniques found in the literature with the optimal node-placement solutions obtained from our optimization. The results show that using the optimal node-placement obtained by our proposed technique can improve the positioning error distances up to 20% better than those of the other techniques. The proposed technique can provide an average error distance within 1.42 meters.

Keywords: indoor positioning system, optimization system design, multi-floor building, wireless sensor networks

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Authors: Birhanu Kassa

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The knowledge of temperature effect on index properties and, thus, the understanding of its behavior may be essential for a complete understanding of the various cases of Geotechnical Engineering problems and for conducting meaningful practical research, analysis, and design in tropical regions, such as the Ethiopian environment. The scarcity of the proper geotechnical information on the subsoil makes foundation and engineering works risk able, difficult, and sometimes hazardous. Seasonal variations, environmental effects, terrain challenges, and temperature effects all affect the quality of soil. Simada is a city which is found in south Gondar and it is developing rapidly both in horizontal and vertical construction. Rapid urbanization in the city area has led to an increased interest in the basic properties of soils that are present within the city area. There has been no previous research that looks into the effect of temperature on the investigation of clay soil index qualities in Simada. This work focuses mainly on investigating the Index and some other properties of soil in Simada Town with varying temperatures. To explore the influence of temperature change, samples were collected from various regions of the city, and routine laboratory tests were performed on the collected samples at various temperatures. Disturbed samples were taken at intervals where an average depth of 1.5-2m depths below natural ground level. The standard laboratory tests performed on all twenty-four soil samples were the water content, gradation analysis, Atterberg limits, specific gravity, and compaction test. All specimens were tested at different temperatures (25°C, 35 °C, 45 °C, 65 °C,75 and 105 °C). The variation of the plasticity characteristics of the soils has been determined based on the temperature variation. From the test result, we can conclude that temperature has a significant effect on the index properties of clay soil, in our case, red clay soil.

Keywords: airdried, oven dried, soils index properties, compaction test

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Authors: Fatima Zahra Falah, Touria El. Ghailassi, Samia Yousfi, Ahmed Moussaif, Hasna Hamdane, Mouna Latifa Bouamrani

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The management and treatment of radioactive wastewater pose significant challenges to environmental safety and public health. This study presents an innovative approach to optimizing radioactive wastewater treatment using a novel biosorbent: chitosan-argan nutshell beads. By employing Response Surface Methodology (RSM), we aimed to determine the optimal conditions for maximum removal efficiency of radioactive contaminants. Chitosan, a biodegradable and non-toxic biopolymer, was combined with argan nutshell powder to create composite beads. The argan nutshell, a waste product from argan oil production, provides additional adsorption sites and mechanical stability to the biosorbent. The beads were characterized using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and X-ray Diffraction (XRD) to confirm their structure and composition. A three-factor, three-level Box-Behnken design was utilized to investigate the effects of pH (3-9), contact time (30-150 minutes), and adsorbent dosage (0.5-2.5 g/L) on the removal efficiency of radioactive isotopes, primarily focusing on cesium-137. Batch adsorption experiments were conducted using synthetic radioactive wastewater with known concentrations of these isotopes. The RSM analysis revealed that all three factors significantly influenced the adsorption process. A quadratic model was developed to describe the relationship between the factors and the removal efficiency. The model's adequacy was confirmed through analysis of variance (ANOVA) and various diagnostic plots. Optimal conditions for maximum removal efficiency were pH 6.8, a contact time of 120 minutes, and an adsorbent dosage of 0.8 g/L. Under these conditions, the experimental removal efficiency for cesium-137 was 94.7%, closely matching the model's predictions. Adsorption isotherms and kinetics were also investigated to elucidate the mechanism of the process. The Langmuir isotherm and pseudo-second-order kinetic model best described the adsorption behavior, indicating a monolayer adsorption process on a homogeneous surface. This study demonstrates the potential of chitosan-argan nutshell beads as an effective and sustainable biosorbent for radioactive wastewater treatment. The use of RSM allowed for the efficient optimization of the process parameters, potentially reducing the time and resources required for large-scale implementation. Future work will focus on testing the biosorbent's performance with real radioactive wastewater samples and investigating its regeneration and reusability for long-term applications.

Keywords: adsorption, argan nutshell, beads, chitosan, mechanism, optimization, radioactive wastewater, response surface methodology

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Authors: Chen Wang, Qiuxiao Chen

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With the advent of the information age and the era of big data, urban planning research is no longer satisfied with the analysis and application of traditional data. Because of the limitations of traditional urban commercial center system research, big data provides new opportunities for urban research. Therefore, based on the quantitative evaluation method of big data, the commercial center system of the main city of Hangzhou is analyzed and evaluated, and the scale and hierarchical structure characteristics of the urban commercial center system are studied. In order to make up for the shortcomings of the existing POI extraction method, it proposes a POI extraction method based on adaptive adjustment of search window, which can accurately and efficiently extract the POI data of commercial business in the main city of Hangzhou. Through the visualization and nuclear density analysis of the extracted Point of Interest (POI) data, the current situation of the commercial center system in the main city of Hangzhou is evaluated. Then it compares with the commercial center system structure of 'Hangzhou City Master Plan (2001-2020)', analyzes the problems existing in the planned urban commercial center system, and provides corresponding suggestions and optimization strategy for the optimization of the planning of Hangzhou commercial center system. Then get the following conclusions: The status quo of the commercial center system in the main city of Hangzhou presents a first-level main center, a two-level main center, three third-level sub-centers, and multiple community-level business centers. Generally speaking, the construction of the main center in the commercial center system is basically up to standard, and there is still a big gap in the construction of the sub-center and the regional-level commercial center, further construction is needed. Therefore, it proposes an optimized hierarchical functional system, organizes commercial centers in an orderly manner; strengthens the central radiation to drive surrounding areas; implements the construction guidance of the center, effectively promotes the development of group formation and further improves the commercial center system structure of the main city of Hangzhou.

Keywords: business center system, business format, main city of Hangzhou, POI extraction method

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Authors: Habab Ahmed Hassan Abuzeid

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Organizations are social systems. If one wishes to work in them or to manage them, it is necessary to understand how they operate. Organizations combine science and people–technology and humanity. Unless we have qualified people to design and implement, techniques alone will not produce desirable results. Human behavior in organizations is rather unpredictable. It is unpredictable because it arises from people’s deep-seated needs and value systems. However, it can be partially understood in terms of the framework of behavioral science, management and other disciplines. There is no idealistic solution to organizational problems. All that can be done is to increase our understanding and skills so that human relations at work can be enhanced. In this paper, we consider management of organization behavior utilizing human resources. Study the elements of organization behavior, the effectiveness of mechanism to enhance staff relationships. Many approaches could be applied for healthy organizational environment, it’s highlighted more details in this paper. Organization behavior can raise the employees’ engagement, loyalty and commitment; to accomplish the goal.

Keywords: environment, engagement, human resources, organization behavior

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Authors: Shi Jiaxin

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The Government Work Report is an essential form of document in the government of the People’s Republic of China. It covers all aspects of Chinese society and reflects China’s development strategy and trend. There are countless special terms in Government Work Report. Only by understanding Chinese-specific terms can we understand the content of the Government Work Report. Only by accurately translating the Chinese-specific terms can people come from all across the world know the Chinese government work report and understand China. Relevance theory is a popular theory of cognitive pragmatics. Relevance Translation Theory, which is closely related to Relevance Theory, has crucial and major guiding significance for the translation of Chinese-specific. Through studying Relevance Theory and researching the translation techniques, strategies and applications in the process of translating Chinese-specific terms from the perspective of Relevance Theory, we can understand the meaning and connotation of Chinese-specific terms, then solve various problems in the process of C-E translation, and strengthen our translation ability.

Keywords: government work report, Chinese-specific terms, relevance theory, translation

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Authors: Alex Lundy

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As the suburban landscape has evolved over time, it has been slowly stripped down to the absolute bare essentials of housing. This has resulted in the loss of core elements of the built environment which previously supported community no longer being present in most neighborhoods. As a result, this work will explore how current and past designers have successfully introduced these concepts in similar settings, in an effort to re-implement them into the contemporary subdivision. Ultimately, this will result in a reimagining suburban design through elements like identity, adaptability, place, and social spaces to improve community interaction and cohesion. Overall, this thesis asserts that contemporary subdivisions don’t support the growing need for community in daily life and should be improved through the implementation of historical neighborhood design and select modern urban concepts to better suit living needs.

Keywords: suburbia, community, social connection, identity, adaptability, neighborhood, place, unity, leasure, social ties, third place, learning from history

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Authors: Wenyang Wan

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The study of urban land use and landscape pattern is the current hotspot in the fields of planning and design, ecology, etc., which is of great significance for the construction of the overall humanistic ecosystem of the city and optimization of the urban spatial structure. Banan District, as the main part of the eastern eco-city planning of Chongqing Municipality, is a new high ground for highlighting the ecological characteristics of Chongqing, realizing effective transformation of ecological value, and promoting the integrated development of urban and rural areas. The analytical methods of land use transfer matrix (GIS) and landscape pattern index (Fragstats) were used to study the characteristics and laws of the evolution of land use landscape pattern in Banan District from 2000 to 2020, which provide some reference value for Banan District to alleviate the ecological contradiction of landscape. The results of the study show that: ① Banan District is rich in land use types, of which the area of cultivated land will still account for 57.15% of the total area of the landscape until 2020, accounting for an absolute advantage in the land use structure of Banan District; ② From 2000 to 2020, land use conversion in Banan District is characterized as: Cropland > woodland > grassland > shrubland > built-up land > water bodies > wetlands, with cropland converted to built-up land being the largest; ③ From 2000 to 2020, the landscape elements of Banan District were distributed in a balanced way, and the landscape types were rich and diversified, but due to the influence of human interference, it also presented the characteristics that the shape of the landscape elements tended to be irregular, and the dominant patches were distributed in a scattered manner, and the patches had poor connectivity. It is recommended that in future regional ecological construction, the layout should be rationally optimized, the relationship between landscape components should be coordinated, and the connectivity between landscape patches should be strengthened, and the degree of landscape fragmentation should be reduced.

Keywords: land use transfer, landscape pattern evolution, GIS and FRAGSTATS, Banan District

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Authors: Shiva Kumar G.

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The present study is to know the level of noises emanated from vehicles in intersections located in urban areas using Sound Level Meter and the possibility of reducing noise levels through traffic flow optimization. The main objective is to study traffic noise level of the Intersections located at on-going metro construction activities and which are away from metro construction activities. To compare traffic noise level between stop phase, go phase and drive phase at the Intersections. To study the effect of traffic noise level of directional movement of traffic and variation in noise level during day and night times. The range of Noise level observed at intersections is between 60 to 105 decibel. The noise level of stop and drive phases were minimum and almost same where go phase had maximum noise level. By comparing noise level of directional movement of traffic, it has been noticed that Vijayanagar intersection has no significant difference in their noise level and all other intersection has a significant difference in their noise level. By comparing noise level of stop, go and drive phase it has been noticed that there was a significant difference in noise level during peak hours compared to off-peak hour. By comparing noise level between Metro and Non-Metro construction activity intersections it has been noticed that there was a significant difference in noise level. By comparing noise level during day and night times, significant differences in noise level were observed at all intersections.

Keywords: noise, metro and non-metro intersections, traffic flow optimization, stop-go and drive phase

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Authors: Yasser Abo El-Magd, Wael Fawzy Mohamed

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Due to the great development in construction and building field, there are many projects and huge works appeared which consume many construction materials. Accordingly, that causes difficulty in handling traditional transportation means (ordinary cranes) due to their limited capacity; there is an urgent need to use high capacity cranes such as tower cranes. However, with regard to their high expense, we have to take into consideration selecting what type of cranes to be utilized which has been discussed by many researchers. In this research, a proposed technique was created to select the suitable type of crane and the best place for crane erection, in addition to minimum radius for requested crane in order to minimize cost. To fulfill that target, a computer program is designed to numerate these problems, demonstrating an example explaining how to apply program and the result donated the best place.

Keywords: tower crane, jib length, operating time, location, feasible area

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Authors: Tran Duong Nguyen, Marwan Shagar, Qinghao Zeng, Aras Maqsoodi, Pardis Pishdad, Eunhwa Yang

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Construction supply chain management (CSCM) involves the collaboration of many disciplines and actors, which generates vast amounts of data. However, inefficient, fragmented, and non-standardized data storage often hinders this data exchange. The industry has adopted building information modeling (BIM) -a digital representation of a facility's physical and functional characteristics to improve collaboration, enhance transmission security, and provide a common data exchange platform. Still, the volume and complexity of data require tailored information categorization, aligning with stakeholders' preferences and demands. To address this, artificial intelligence (AI) can be integrated to handle this data’s magnitude and complexities. This research aims to develop an integrated and efficient approach for data exchange in CSCM by utilizing AI. The paper covers five main objectives: (1) Investigate existing framework and BIM adoption; (2) Identify challenges in data exchange; (3) Propose an integrated framework; (4) Enhance data transmission security; and (5) Develop data exchange in CSCM. The proposed framework demonstrates how integrating BIM and other technologies, such as cloud computing, blockchain, and AI applications, can significantly improve the efficiency and accuracy of data exchange in CSCM.

Keywords: construction supply chain management, BIM, data exchange, artificial intelligence

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Authors: Paweł Żur, Alicja Żur, Andrzej Baier

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Modal analysis is a crucial tool in the field of engineering for understanding the dynamic behavior of structures. In this study, numerical modal analysis was conducted on a multi-material 3D-printed composite bushing, which comprised a polylactic acid (PLA) outer shell and a thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) flexible filling. The objective was to investigate the modal characteristics of the bushing and assess its potential for practical applications. The analysis involved the development of a finite element model of the bushing, which was subsequently subjected to modal analysis techniques. Natural frequencies, mode shapes, and damping ratios were determined to identify the dominant vibration modes and their corresponding responses. The numerical modal analysis provided valuable insights into the dynamic behavior of the bushing, enabling a comprehensive understanding of its structural integrity and performance. Furthermore, the study expanded its scope by investigating the entire shaft mounting of a small electric car, incorporating the 3D-printed composite bushing. The shaft mounting system was subjected to numerical modal analysis to evaluate its dynamic characteristics and potential vibrational issues. The results of the modal analysis highlighted the effectiveness of the 3D-printed composite bushing in minimizing vibrations and optimizing the performance of the shaft mounting system. The findings contribute to the broader field of composite material applications in automotive engineering and provide valuable insights for the design and optimization of similar components.

Keywords: 3D printing, composite bushing, modal analysis, multi-material

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Authors: Yajing Jiang, Jing Wu

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Residential area construction links many problems such as population resources, ecology, social values, public services and transportation in the city. After Chinese housing reform, a large number of residential area development accompanied by the loss of agricultural and ecological land. To explore the future of Chinese urban residential area, this article concentrates on how the 'Compact Settlement' behaves in improving the living environment and saving the resources. Through the research of residential area in Hangzhou, there are some determines that increasing the development intensity of the area can indeed bring some improvement in the overall environment. In conclusion, possible design alternatives are discussed for leading Chinese urban development towards a more sustainable path.

Keywords: compact city development, environmental sustainability, residential area, Hangzhou

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Authors: Ayse Pekrioglu Balkis, Sawash Mecid

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Due to continued growth and rapid development of road construction in worldwide, road sub-layers consist of soil layers, therefore, identification and recognition of type of soil and soil behavior in different condition help to us to select soil according to specification and engineering characteristic, also if necessary sometimes stabilize the soil and treat undesirable properties of soils by adding materials such as bitumen, lime, cement, etc. If the soil beneath the road is not done according to the standards and construction will need more construction time. In this case, a large part of soil should be removed, transported and sometimes deposited. Then purchased sand and gravel is transported to the site and full depth filled and compacted. Stabilization by cement or other treats gives an opportunity to use the existing soil as a base material instead of removing it and purchasing and transporting better fill materials. Classification of soil according to AASHTOO system and USCS help engineers to anticipate soil behavior and select best treatment method. In this study soil classification and the relation between soil classification and stabilization method is discussed, cement stabilization with different percentages have been selected for soil treatment based on NCHRP. There are different parameters to define the strength of soil. In this study, CBR will be used to define the strength of soil. Cement by percentages, 0%, 3%, 7% and 10% added to soil for evaluation effect of added cement to CBR of treated soil. Implementation of stabilization process by different cement content help engineers to select an economic cement amount for the stabilization process according to project specification and characteristics. Stabilization process in optimum moisture content (OMC) and mixing rate effect on the strength of soil in the laboratory and field construction operation have been performed to see the improvement rate in strength and plasticity. Cement stabilization is quicker than a universal method such as removing and changing field soils. Cement addition increases CBR values of different soil types by the range of 22-69%.

Keywords: California Bearing Ratio, cement stabilization, clayey soil, mechanical properties

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Authors: E. Manikandan, C. Chilambarasan, M. Sulthan Ariff Rahman, S. Kanagaraj, V. R. Sanal Kumar

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The noise regulations around the major airports and rocket launching stations due to the environmental concern have made jet noise a crucial problem in the present day aero-acoustics research. The three main acoustic sources in jet nozzles are aerodynamics noise, noise from craft systems and engine and mechanical noise. Note that the majority of engine noise is due to the jet noise coming out from the exhaust nozzle. The previous studies reveal that the potential of chevron nozzles for aircraft engines noise reduction is promising owing to the fact that the jet noise continues to be the dominant noise component, especially during take-off. In this paper parametric analytical studies have been carried out for optimizing the number of chevron lobes, the lobe length and tip shape, and the level of penetration of the chevrons into the flow over a variety of flow conditions for various aerospace applications. The numerical studies have been carried out using a validated steady 3D density based, SST k-ω turbulence model with enhanced wall functions. In the numerical study, a fully implicit finite volume scheme of the compressible, Navier–Stokes equations is employed. We inferred that the geometry optimization of an environmental friendly chevron nozzle with a suitable number of chevron lobes with aerodynamically efficient tip contours for facilitating silent exit flow will enable a commendable sound reduction without much thrust penalty while comparing with the conventional supersonic nozzles with same area ratio.

Keywords: chevron nozzle, jet acoustic level, jet noise suppression, shape optimization of chevron nozzles

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Authors: Salman Hussam

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As a monitoring system to manage employees' time and employers' business, this system (logger) will monitor the employees at work and will announce them if they spend too much time on social media (even if they are using proxy it will catch them). In this way, people will spend less time at work and more time with family.

Keywords: clients, employees, employers, family, monitoring, systems, social media, time

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Authors: Tolulope A. Olukunle

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Plastic waste management has emerged as one of the greatest challenges facing developing countries. This paper describes the design of various components of a plastic shredder. This machine is widely used in industries and recycling plants. The introduction of plastic shredder machine will promote reduction of post-consumer plastic waste accumulation and serves as a system for wealth creation and empowerment through conversion of waste into economically viable products. In this design research, a 10 kW electric motor with a rotational speed of 500 rpm was chosen to drive the shredder. A pulley size of 400 mm is mounted on the electric motor at a distance of 1000 mm away from the shredder pulley. The shredder rotational speed is 300 rpm.

Keywords: design, machine, plastic waste, recycling

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Authors: Abdul Basit, Amil Daraz, Guoqiang Zhang

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With the increasing demand for wireless communication systems for unlicensed indoor applications, the FCC, in February 2002, allocated unlicensed bands ranging from 3.1 GHZ to 10.6 GHz with fractional bandwidth of about 109 %, because it plays a key role in the radiofrequency (RF) front ends devices and has been widely applied in many other microwave circuits. Targeting the proposed band defined by the FCC for the UWB system, this article presents a UWB bandpass filter with three stop bands for the mitigation of wireless bands that may interfere with the UWB range. For this purpose, two resonators are utilized for the implementation of triple-notched bands. The C-shaped resonator is used for the first notch band creation at 3.4 GHz to suppress the WiMAX signal, while the H-shaped resonator is employed in the initial UWB design to introduce the dual notched characteristic at 4.5 GHz and 8.1 GHz to reject the WLAN and Satellite Communication signals. The overall circuit area covered by the proposed design is 30.6 mm × 20 mm, or in terms of guided wavelength at the first stopband, its size is 0.06 λg × 0.02 λg. The presented structure shows a good return loss under -10 dB over most of the passband and greater than -15 dB for the notched frequency bands. Finally, the filter is simulated and analyzed in HFSS 15.0. All the bands for the rejection of wireless signals are independently controlled, which makes this work superior to the rest of the UWB filters presented in the literature.

Keywords: a bandpass filter (BPF), ultra-wideband (UWB), wireless communication, C-shaped resonator, triple notch

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Authors: R. Sharma, J. K. Bhatnagar, Poonam, R. C. Sharma

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Metal–air batteries have been designed and developed as an essential source of electric power to propel automobiles, make electronic equipment functional, and use them as the source of power in remote areas and space. High energy and power density, lightweight, easy recharge capabilities, and low cost are essential features of these batteries. Both primary and rechargeable magnesium air batteries are highly promising. Our focus will be on the basics of electrode reaction kinetics of Mg–air cell in this paper. Design and development of Mg or Mg alloys as anode materials, design and composition of air cathode, and promising electrolytes for Mg–air batteries have been reviewed. A brief note on the possible and proposed improvements in design and functionality is also incorporated. This article may serve as the primary and premier document in the critical research area of Mg-air battery systems.

Keywords: air cathode, battery design, magnesium air battery, magnesium anode, rechargeable magnesium air battery

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Authors: Meinrad Haule Lembuka

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Ubuntu is an African philosophy and model with the meaning of 'humanity to others' or 'care for other’s needs because of the guiding principle of interdependence’ that embraces collective and holistic efforts in development through the human face. The study uses a literature review method reflecting Julius Nyerere’s contributions in realizing Ubuntu and social work practice. Nyerere strived to restore Africa development in the lens of humanism through the values of solidarity, communal participation, compassion, care, justice etc; He later founded developmental social work through Ujamaa model, educational for self reliance and African dignity. Nyerere was against post-colonial syndromes through African socialism that envisioned values and principles of social work to provide social justice, human dignity, social change and social development. Also, he managed to serve the primary mission of the social work profession to enhance human wellbeing and help meet basic human needs of all people, with particular attention to the needs and empowerment of people who are vulnerable, oppressed, and living in poverty with African Ubuntu practice of equal distribution of resources. Nyerere further endorsed social work legal framework that embraced universal human rights: service, equality, social justice, and human dignity, Importance of human relationship, integrity and competence. Nyerere proved that Indigenous model can work with formal system like Social work profession. In 2014 the National Heritage Council of South Africa (NHC) honored him an Award of African Ubuntu champion. Nyerere strongly upheld to be an ambassador of social work through his remarkably contributions in developmental social work (Ujamaa model), social change, human dignity, equality, social unity and social justice in Africa and globe at large.

Keywords: ubuntu, Indiginious knowledge, Indiginious social work, ubuntu social work

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Authors: Brenden M. Shutt, Lubjana Beshaj, Paul L. Goethals, Ambrose Kam

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Communication security is of particular interest to military data networks. A relatively novel approach to network security is blockchain, a cryptographically secured distribution ledger with a decentralized consensus mechanism for data transaction processing. Recent advances in blockchain technology have proposed new techniques for both data validation and trust management, as well as different frameworks for managing dataflow. The purpose of this work is to test the feasibility of different blockchain architectures as applied to military command and control networks. Various architectures are tested through discrete-event simulation and the feasibility is determined based upon a blockchain design’s ability to maintain long-term stable performance at industry standards of throughput, network latency, and security. This work proposes a consortium blockchain architecture with a computationally inexpensive consensus mechanism, one that leverages a Proof-of-Identity (PoI) concept and a reputation management mechanism.

Keywords: blockchain, consensus mechanism, discrete-event simulation, fog computing

Procedia PDF Downloads 138

Authors: Sareh Rajabi, Taha Anjamrooz, Salwa Bheiry

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The continuous increase in the world population, resource shortage and the warning of climate change cause various environmental and social issues to the world. Thus, sustainability concept is much needed nowadays. Organizations are progressively falling under strong worldwide pressure to integrate sustainability practices into their project decision-making development. Construction projects in the industry are amongst the most significant, since it is one of the biggest divisions and of main significance for the national economy and hence has a massive effect on the environment and society. So, it is important to discover approaches to incorporate sustainability into the management of those projects. This study presents a combined sustainability index of projects with sustainable transportation which has been formed as per a comprehensive literature review and survey study. Transportation systems enable the movement of goods and services worldwide, and it is leading to economic growth and creating jobs while creating negative impacts on the environment and society. This research is study to quantify the sustainability indicators, through 1) identifying the importance of sustainable transportation indicators that are based on the sustainable practices used for the construction projects and 2) measure the effectiveness of practices through these indicators on the three sustainable pillars. A total 26 sustainability indicators have been selected and grouped under each related sustainability pillars. A survey was used to collect the opinion about the sustainability indicators by a scoring system. A combined sustainability index considering three sustainable pillars can be helpful in evaluating the transportation sustainable practices of a project and making decisions regarding project selection. In addition to focus on the issue of financial resource allocation in a project selection, the decision-maker could take into account the sustainability as an important key in addition to the project’s return and risk. The purpose of this study is to measure the performance of transportation sustainability which allow companies to assess multiple projects selection. This is useful to decision makers to rank and focus more on future sustainable projects.

Keywords: sustainable transportation, transportation performances, sustainable indicators, sustainable construction practice, sustainability

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Authors: P. Tej, P. Kněž, M. Blank

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The paper presents design and production of thin-walled U-profile footbridge made of UHPFRC. The main structure of the bridge is one prefabricated shell structure made of UHPFRC with dispersed steel fibers without any conventional reinforcement. The span of the bridge structure is 10 m and the clear width of 1.5 m. The thickness of the UHPFRC shell structure oscillated in an interval of 30-45 mm. Several calculations were made during the bridge design and compared with the experiments. For the purpose of verifying the calculations, a segment of 1.5 m was first produced, followed by the whole footbridge for testing. After the load tests were done, the design was optimized to cast the final footbridge.

Keywords: footbridge, non-linear analysis, shell structure, UHPFRC, Ultra-High Performance Fibre Reinforced Concrete

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Authors: Benyan Jiang, Dawei Xia, Yong Li

Abstract:

Compact city construction is considered as an effective measure to reduce carbon emission in city lives. Toyama City started its compact city strategy in 2000 and was selected as a Japanese Environmental Model City in 2008 for its achievement. This paper takes Toyama as a study case, aiming to find how city polices affected people’s life styles and reduced carbon emission. The main materials used in this study are first-hand documents, like urban planning materials, government annual report and statistic data from transportation association. It is found that the main measures taken by Toyama City include the construction of light rail transit, increasing the frequency of buses, building park and ride parking lots. In addition to hardware facilities, it also offers flexible policies like passengers' coupons for the senior citizens and free use of parking lots by buying shopping vouchers. Besides, Toyama City encourages citizens to live within 500 meters of public transportation. People who buy an apartment near public transportation will receive 500,000 Japanese Yen. These measures have proven to their effects. Compared with 2005, in 2014, the transportation sector reduced emissions of 2.35 million tons of CO₂, 13.6%. This aspect is related to the increase in the number of cars in public transport and also related to fuel improvement.

Keywords: Toyama, compact city, public transportation, CO₂ reduction

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Authors: Saliha Ozcan

Abstract:

Technology has become an integral part of our lives, aiding individuals in accessing higher order competencies, such as global awareness, creativity, collaborative problem solving, and self-directed learning. Students need to acquire these competencies, often referred to as 21st century skills, in order to adapt to a fast changing world. Today, an ever-increasing number of schools are exploring how engagement through telecollaboration can support language learning and promote 21st century skill development in classrooms. However, little is known regarding how telecollaboration may influence the way students acquire 21st century skills. In this paper, we aim to shed light to the potential implications of telecollaborative practices in acquisition of 21st century skills. In our context, telecollaboration, which might be carried out in a variety of settings both synchronously or asynchronously, is considered as the process of communicating and working together with other people or groups from different locations through online digital tools or offline activities to co-produce a desired work output. The study presented here will describe and analyse the implementation of a telecollaborative project between two high school classes, one in Spain and the other in Sweden. The students in these classes were asked to carry out some joint activities, including creating an online platform, aimed at raising awareness of the situation of the Syrian refugees. We conduct a qualitative study in order to explore how language, culture, communication, and technology merge into the co-construction of knowledge, as well as supporting the attainment of the 21st century skills needed for network-mediated communication. To this end, we collected a significant amount of audio-visual data, including video recordings of classroom interaction and external Skype meetings. By analysing this data, we verify whether the initial pedagogical design and intended objectives of the telecollaborative project coincide with what emerges from the actual implementation of the tasks. Our findings indicate that, as well as planned activities, unplanned classroom interactions may lead to acquisition of certain 21st century skills, such as collaborative problem solving and self-directed learning. This work is part of a wider project (KONECT, EDU2013-43932-P; Spanish Ministry of Economy and Finance), which aims to explore innovative, cross-competency based teaching that can address the current gaps between today’s educational practices and the needs of informed citizens in tomorrow’s interconnected, globalised world.

Keywords: 21st century skills, telecollaboration, language learning, network mediated communication

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Authors: Zhuoyuan Wang, Benson T. H. Lim, Imriyas Kamardeen

Abstract:

Effective service quality management has long been touted as a means of improving project and organisational performance. Particularly, in construction projects, main contractors are often seen as a broker between clients and subcontractors, and their service quality is thus associated with the overall project affinity and outcomes. While a considerable amount of research has focused on the aspect of clients-main contractors, very little research has been done to explore the effect of contractors’ service quality on subcontractors’ behaviours and so project outcomes. In addressing this gap, this study surveyed 97 subcontractors in the Chinese Construction industry and data was analysed using the Partial Least Square (PLS) Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) technique. The overall findings reveal that subcontractors categorised main contractors’ service quality into three dimensions: assurance; responsiveness; reliability and empathy. Of these, it is found that main contractors’ ‘assurance’ and ‘responsiveness’ positively influence subcontractors’ intention to engage in contractual behaviours. The results further show that the subcontractors’ intention to engage in organizational citizenship behaviours is associated with how flexible and committed the main contractors are in reliability and empathy. Collectively, both subcontractors’ contractual and organizational citizenship behaviours positively influence the overall project outcomes. In conclusion, the findings inform contractors different strategies towards managing and gaining subcontractors’ behaviour commitment in a socially connected, yet complex and uncertain, business environment.

Keywords: construction firms, organisational citizenship behaviour, service quality, social exchange theory

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Authors: Surasak Kangkhao, Chaturong Louhapensang

Abstract:

This research investigates design and cultural heritage interpretations by residential architecture design in World Heritage cities: Kamphaeng Phet, Thailand reflect on the essence of design based on local identity. The research consisted of three thematic foci. First, the studies examined the contextual background that led to the genesis of the building. Second, the investigations concentrated on how its design was developed and implemented. Third, these modes of problematisation lent a basis to argue that a quality of placeness was not confined exclusively to traditional or vernacular structures but could be found from the unconventional aesthetics of Residential Architecture as well.

Keywords: expressions, local identity, residential architecture, practice, world heritage site

Procedia PDF Downloads 397