Search results for: critical speed range

Authors: Mohamed S. M. Elghazal, Adel Aneiba, Essa Q. Shahra

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This study presents a comprehensive comparative analysis of REST and GraphQL API models within the context of microservices development, offering empirical insights into the strengths and limitations of each approach. The research explores the effectiveness and efficiency of GraphQL versus REST, focusing on their impact on critical software quality metrics and user experience. Using a controlled experimental setup, the study evaluates key performance indicators, including response time, data transfer efficiency, and error rates. The findings reveal that REST APIs demonstrate superior memory efficiency and faster response times, particularly under high-load conditions, making them a reliable choice for performance-critical microservices. On the other hand, GraphQL excels in offering greater flexibility for data fetching but exhibits higher response times and increased error rates when handling complex queries. This research provides a nuanced understanding of the trade-offs between REST and GraphQL API interaction models, offering actionable guidance for developers and researchers in selecting the optimal API model for microservice-based applications. The insights are particularly valuable for balancing considerations such as performance, flexibility, and reliability in real-world implementations.

Keywords: REST API, GraphQL AP, microservice, software development

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Authors: Maha Salah Abdullah Ismail, Mahmoud M. Alsagheir, Mohammed Salah Abd Allah

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Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is characterized by permeability pulmonary edema and refractory hypoxemia. Lung-protective ventilation is still the key of better outcome in ARDS. Prone position reduces the trans-pulmonary pressure gradient, recruiting collapsed regions of the lung without increasing airway pressure or hyperinflation. Prone ventilation showed improved oxygenation and improved outcomes in severe hypoxemic patients with ARDS. This study evaluates the effect of prone positioning on mechanically ventilated patients with ARDS. A quasi-experimental design was carried out at Critical Care Units, on 60 patients. Two tools were utilized to collect data; Socio demographic, medical and clinical outcomes data sheet. Results of the present study indicated that prone position improves oxygenation in patients with severe respiratory distress syndrome. The study recommended that use prone position in patients with severe ARDS, as early as possible and for long sessions. Also, replication of this study on larger probability sample at the different geographical location is highly recommended.

Keywords: acute respiratory distress syndrome, critical care, mechanical ventilation, prone position

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Authors: Amer Alzaidi

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Islamic banking is an alternative solution to those people who are worried about Riba (interest) in all forms of transaction while using banking services and products. Today, banks around the world have Islamic banking services and products the in one form or another. The use of Islamic banking is not only restricted to Muslims world but have reached to non-Muslim countries like UK, USA, Australia and Canada as well. Compared to conventional banking, the adoption rate of Islamic banking is low because of unawareness of customers, financial cost, and performance issues. The interest in Islamic banking by financial institutions as well as low adoption rate motivated us to look this matter into detail in order to identify Critical Success Factors, which are positively motivating customers to use Islamic banking services/ products and Critical Risk Factors, which have significantly negative effect on the adoption of Islamic banking. The CSFs and CRFs will be initially identified from the literature using methodology called Systematic Literature Review, followed by the empirical analysis of these factors using survey research method. Later, we will develop Islamic Banking Adoption Model (IBAM) to help banks to assess their Islamic banking strategic positioning and to improve their operational efficiency. The first potential contribution of this research study will be the development of IBAM protocol that will provide us guidelines for conducting our actual SLR. The second major contribution of this research will be the development of Islamic Banking Adoption Model (IBAM), and the third contribution of this research study will be the evaluation of the developed IBMA.

Keywords: Islamic banking, adoption model, protocol, technology

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Authors: Siamak Epackachi, Andrew S. Whittaker, Amit H. Varma

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An experimental program on steel-plate concrete (SC) composite shear walls was executed in the NEES laboratory at the University at Buffalo. Four large-size specimens were tested under displacement-controlled cyclic loading. The design variables considered in the testing program included wall thickness, reinforcement ratio, and faceplate slenderness ratio. The aspect ratio (height-to-length) of the four walls was 1.0. Each SC wall was installed on top of a re-usable foundation block. A bolted baseplate to RC foundation connection was used for all four walls. The walls were identified to be flexure-critical. This paper presents the damage to SC walls at different drift ratios, the cyclic force-displacement relationships, energy dissipation and equivalent viscous damping ratios, the strain and stress fields in the steel faceplates and the contribution of the steel faceplates to the total shear load, the variation of vertical strain in the steel faceplates along the length of the wall, near the base, at different drift ratios, the contributions of shear, flexure, and base rotation to the total lateral displacement, the displacement ductility of the SC walls, and the cyclic secant stiffness of the four SC walls.

Keywords: steel-plate composite shear wall, safety-related nuclear structure, flexure-critical wall, cyclic loading

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Authors: Saleh Nabiyev

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Renewable energy is becoming increasingly important in today's world due to its significant impact on the green economy, ecology, environment, and climate change. Renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind, are clean and sustainable, making them an ideal solution to reduce carbon emissions and mitigate the effects of climate change. The Karabakh region is located in the South Caucasus and covers an area of approximately 11,500 km². The region has a mountainous terrain, which can affect the availability of wind and solar resources. The Karabakh region has significant wind power potential, particularly in its mountainous areas where wind speeds are typically higher. According to a study conducted by the European Commission Joint Research Centre, the average wind speed in the Karabakh region is between 4 and 6 meters per second (m/s) at a height of 50 meters above ground level (AGL). However, wind speeds can be higher in some areas, reaching up to 10 m/s in some mountainous areas. The region also has significant solar power potential, with an average of 2,000 to 2,200 hours of sunshine per year. The region's high altitude and clear skies make it particularly suitable for the development of solar power projects. In this research, the application of satellite images, solar radiation, wind speed and direction, as well as various other materials to determine suitable areas for alternative energy sources, is investigated. The methodology for selecting suitable locations for solar and wind energy consists of four main parts: identification of factors, evaluation of factors, data preparation, and application of suitability analysis. At the end of the research, the territory of the Kalbajar and Lachin districts is suitable for wind energy. The southern plain part of Karabakh is highly evaluated in terms of solar energy potential, especially Jabrayil district. Generally, outcomes taken from this research are essential data for increasing of rational using natural resources, as well as combating climate change.

Keywords: GIS, remote sensing, suitability analysis, solar energy, wind energy

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Authors: Raymond Olayinka

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The last three decades have witnessed myriads of definitions of knowledge management proposed by researchers and industry practitioners. Despite the magnitude of research and available literature on knowledge management, there is yet to be a consensus on what constitutes a good definition. There exists an in-exhaustive list of definitions which can appear confusing, conflicting and overlapping. What is even more daunting is the lack of common terminology in describing knowledge management processes and the inconsistency in the sequence in which the processes take. Whilst newbies to knowledge management research would struggle to make sense of knowledge management definitions, industry practitioners would struggle with their applicability. Against this backdrop, this study aimed to re-evaluate knowledge management definitions and terminologies. The objectives were threefold: (1) to conduct a critical review of an existing body of work around knowledge management concepts and definitions (2) to analyse and synthesise findings (3) to present conclusions and recommendations. The methodology for this study centres around the review of the literature and secondary data sources. A total of 48 knowledge management processes were found and extracted from various definitions (e.g. ‘identify’, ‘capture’, ‘codify’, ‘store’…). A taxonomy of the processes was created based on the commonality of the entities. The 48 processes were classified under 8 headings which were further converged into 3 main headings namely ‘acquire’, ‘exploit’ and ‘evaluate’, of which all definitions therefore hinge. The study concludes that in the multitude of knowledge management definitions, there is a consistent pattern to which the processes are organised and should be utilised. The contribution of this study is in the synthesis of previous work by various authors and the presentation of a more holistic approach to knowledge management definitions and terminologies.

Keywords: knowledge management definitions, knowledge management terminologies, knowledge management processes, literature review

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Authors: Aashutosh A. Tadse, Kush Mehta, Hardik Vyas

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Friction Stir Welding is a process in which an FSW tool produces friction heat and thus penetrates through the junction and upon rotation carries out the weld by exchange of material within the 2 metals being welded. It involves holding the workpieces stiff enough to bear the force of the tool moving across the junction to carry out a successful weld. The weld that has flat plates as workpieces, has a quite simpler geometry in terms of fixture holding them. In the case of FSW of pipes, the pipes need to be held firm with the chucks and jaws according to the diameter of the pipes being welded; the FSW tool is then revolved around the pipes to carry out the weld. Machine requires a larger area and it becomes more costly because of such a setup. To carry out the weld on the Milling machine, the newly designed fixture must be set-up on the table of milling machine and must facilitate rotation of pipes by the motor being shafted to one end of the fixture, and the other end automatically rotated because of the rotating jaws held tight enough with the pipes. The set-up has tapered cones as the jaws that would go in the pipes thus holding it with the help of its knurled surface providing the required grip. The process has rotation of pipes with the stationary rotating tool penetrating into the junction. The FSW on pipes in this process requires a very low RPM of pipes to carry out a fine weld and the speed shall change with every combination of material and diameter of pipes, so a variable speed setting motor shall serve the purpose. To withstand the force of the tool, an attachment to the shaft is provided which will be diameter specific that will resist flow of material towards the center during the weld. The welded joint thus carried out will be proper to required standards and specifications. Current industrial requirements state the need of space efficient, cost-friendly and more generalized form of fixtures and set-ups of machines to be put up. The proposed design considers every mentioned factor and thus proves to be positive in the same.

Keywords: force of tool, friction stir welding, milling machine, rotation of pipes, tapered cones

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Authors: Vahid Ramezankhani, Keith J. Stevenson, Stanislav. S. Fedotov

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Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) play a pivotal role in achieving the key objective “zero-carbon emission” as countries agreed to reach a 1.5ᵒC global warming target according to the Paris agreement. Nowadays, due to the tremendous mobile and stationary consumption of small/large-format LIBs, the demand and consequently the price for such energy storage devices have been raised. The aforementioned challenges originate from the shrinkage of the major applied critical materials in these batteries, such as cobalt (Co), nickel (Ni), Lithium (Li), graphite (G), and manganese (Mn). Therefore, it is imperative to consider alternative elements to address issues corresponding to the limitation of resources around the globe. Potassium (K) is considered an effective alternative to Li since K is a more abundant element, has a higher operating potential, a faster diffusion rate, and the lowest stokes radius in comparison to the closest neighbors in the periodic table (Li and Na). Among all reported materials for metal-ion batteries, some of them possess the general formula AMXO4L [A = Li, Na, K; M = Fe, Ti, V; X = P, S, Si; L= O, F, OH] is of potential to be applied both as anode and cathode and enable researchers to investigate them in the full symmetric battery format. KTiPO4F (KTP structural material) has been previously reported by our group as a promising cathode with decent electronic properties. Herein, we report a synthesis, crystal structure characterization, morphology, as well as K-ion storage properties of KTiPO4F. Our investigation reveals that KTiPO4F delivers discharge capacity > 150 mAh/g at 26.6 mA/g (C/5 current rate) in the potential window of 0.001-3 V. Surprisingly, the cycling performance of C-KTiPO4F//K cell is stable for 1000 cycles at 130 mA/g (C current rate), presenting capacity > 130 mAh/g. More interestingly, we achieved to assemble full symmetric batteries where carbon-coated KTiPO4F serves as both negative and positive electrodes, delivering >70 mAh/g in the potential range of 0.001-4.2V.

Keywords: anode material, potassium battery, chemical characterization, electrochemical properties

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Authors: Sourabh Jain, Sukhvir Singh Jain, Gaurav V. Jain

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Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) is the application of technology for developing a user–friendly transportation system for urban areas in developing countries. The goal of urban corridor management using ITS in road transport is to achieve improvements in mobility, safety, and the productivity of the transportation system within the available facilities through the integrated application of advanced monitoring, communications, computer, display, and control process technologies, both in the vehicle and on the road. This paper attempts to present the past studies regarding several ITS available that have been successfully deployed in urban corridors of India and abroad, and to know about the current scenario and the methodology considered for planning, design, and operation of Traffic Management Systems. This paper also presents the endeavor that was made to interpret and figure out the performance of the 27.4 Km long study corridor having eight intersections and four flyovers. The corridor consisting of 6 lanes as well as 8 lanes divided road network. Two categories of data were collected on February 2016 such as traffic data (traffic volume, spot speed, delay) and road characteristics data (no. of lanes, lane width, bus stops, mid-block sections, intersections, flyovers). The instruments used for collecting the data were video camera, radar gun, mobile GPS and stopwatch. From analysis, the performance interpretations incorporated were identification of peak hours and off peak hours, congestion and level of service (LOS) at mid blocks, delay followed by the plotting speed contours and recommending urban corridor management strategies. From the analysis, it is found that ITS based urban corridor management strategies will be useful to reduce congestion, fuel consumption and pollution so as to provide comfort and efficiency to the users. The paper presented urban corridor management strategies based on sensors incorporated in both vehicles and on the roads.

Keywords: congestion, ITS strategies, mobility, safety

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Authors: Silvia Rahmita

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Entrepreneurial success is crucial for economic growth, competitiveness, and job creation, yet many entrepreneurs face failure due to various challenges. This paper explores the critical role of strategic thinking in mitigating entrepreneurial failure. Entrepreneurial competencies—encompassing knowledge, skills, and traits—are essential for creating and growing ventures. Despite these competencies, numerous entrepreneurs fail due to poor management, inadequate support, and ineffective policies. The paper categorizes entrepreneurial failures into financial, operational, market, product or service, strategic, leadership, legal, human capital, technological, and environmental failures. Each failure type can be addressed through strategic thinking, which involves foresight, balancing short-term and long-term goals, and hypothesis-driven processes. By integrating strategic thinking into their approach, entrepreneurs can enhance risk management, adapt to market changes, and sustain growth. This process involves setting clear goals, innovating products, and maintaining a competitive edge. Ultimately, strategic thinking provides a framework for proactive planning, adaptation, and continuous improvement, reducing the likelihood of failure and ensuring long-term success. Entrepreneurs who prioritize strategic thinking are better equipped to navigate the complexities of the business environment and achieve sustainable growth.

Keywords: entrepreneurial failure, strategic thinking, risk management, business failure

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Authors: Bharti Saini, Sukanta K. Dash

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In this work polymeric Nanofiltration (NF) membranes of polysulfone (PSF) (average molecular weight of 22400 Da) were prepared using polyethylene glycol (PEG) (average molecular weight of 200 Da) as an organic additive and ZnCl2 as an inorganic additive. Dimethyl acetamide (DMAc) was used as the solvent, and Deionised water as nonsolvent. The membranes were prepared by phase inversion (immersion precipitation) method. PEG 200 and ZnCl2 in varying concentration are directly added into the casting solution of PSF and DMAc. PEG 200 was used in concentration varying from 0 to 10 % (w/w) in the solution of PSF and DMAc, while ZnCl2 is varied from 0 to 2% (w/w). Membranes were characterized for surface morphology, water uptake, porosity and contact angle, with respect to concentration of PEG and ZnCl2. It was observed that with the increase in additive PEG 200, the porosity and hence, hydrophilicity increase. As a result, the number of pores increases as justified by the SEM analysis as well. The study revealed that the synergistic effect of PEG with ZnCl2 is more effective, and the best results were produced by the solution containing 2% PEG 200 and 1% ZnCl2. It was inferred that with the increase in concentration of additives, the pore size goes on decreasing. The membranes obtained gradually move from microfiltration range to nanofiltration range, and this change is primarily brought about by the addition of ZnCl2.

Keywords: membrane, phase inversion method, polysulfone, porous structure

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Authors: Samaila Bawa Muazu

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Hydration process, crack potential and setting time of concrete grade C30, C40 and C50 were separately monitored using non-contact electrical resistivity apparatus, a novel plastic ring mould and penetration resistance method respectively. The results show highest resistivity of C30 at the beginning until reaching the acceleration point when C50 accelerated and overtaken the others, and this period corresponds to its final setting time range, from resistivity derivative curve, hydration process can be divided into dissolution, induction, acceleration and deceleration periods, restrained shrinkage crack and setting time tests demonstrated the earliest cracking and setting time of C50, therefore, this method conveniently and rapidly determines the concrete’s crack potential. The highest inflection time (ti), the final setting time (tf) were obtained and used with crack time in coming up with mathematical models for the prediction of concrete’s cracking age for the range being considered. Finally, ANSYS numerical simulations supports the experimental findings in terms of the earliest crack age of C50 and the crack location that, highest stress concentration is always beneath the artificially introduced expansion joint of C50.

Keywords: concrete hydration, electrical resistivity, restrained shrinkage crack, setting time, simulation

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Authors: Ali Zaker, Zhi Chen

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Due to the concerns about the depletion of fossil fuel sources and the deteriorating environment, the attempt to investigate the production of renewable energy will play a crucial role as a potential to alleviate the dependency on mineral fuels. One particular area of interest is the generation of bio-oil through sewage sludge (SS) pyrolysis. SS can be a potential candidate in contrast to other types of biomasses due to its availability and low cost. However, the presence of high molecular weight hydrocarbons and oxygenated compounds in the SS bio-oil hinders some of its fuel applications. In this context, catalytic pyrolysis is another attainable route to upgrade bio-oil quality. Among different catalysts (i.e., zeolites) studied for SS pyrolysis, activated chars (AC) are eco-friendly alternatives. The beneficial features of AC derived from SS comprise the comparatively large surface area, porosity, enriched surface functional groups, and presence of a high amount of metal species that can improve the catalytic activity. Hence, a sludge-based AC catalyst was fabricated in a single-step pyrolysis reaction with NaOH as the activation agent and was compared with HZSM5 zeolite in this study. The thermal decomposition and kinetics were invested via thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) for guidance and control of pyrolysis and catalytic pyrolysis and the design of the pyrolysis setup. The results indicated that the pyrolysis and catalytic pyrolysis contains four obvious stages, and the main decomposition reaction occurred in the range of 200-600°C. The Coats-Redfern method was applied in the 2nd and 3rd devolatilization stages to estimate the reaction order and activation energy (E) from the mass loss data. The average activation energy (Em) values for the reaction orders n = 1, 2, and 3 were in the range of 6.67-20.37 kJ for SS; 1.51-6.87 kJ for HZSM5; and 2.29-9.17 kJ for AC, respectively. According to the results, AC and HZSM5 both were able to improve the reaction rate of SS pyrolysis by abridging the Em value. Moreover, to generate and examine the effect of the catalysts on the quality of bio-oil, a fixed-bed pyrolysis system was designed and implemented. The composition analysis of the produced bio-oil was carried out via gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The selected SS to catalyst ratios were 1:1, 2:1, and 4:1. The optimum ratio in terms of cracking the long-chain hydrocarbons and removing oxygen-containing compounds was 1:1 for both catalysts. The upgraded bio-oils with AC and HZSM5 were in the total range of C4-C17, with around 72% in the range of C4-C9. The bio-oil from pyrolysis of SS contained 49.27% oxygenated compounds, while with the presence of AC and HZSM5 dropped to 13.02% and 7.3%, respectively. Meanwhile, the generation of benzene, toluene, and xylene (BTX) compounds was significantly improved in the catalytic process. Furthermore, the fabricated AC catalyst was characterized by BET, SEM-EDX, FT-IR, and TGA techniques. Overall, this research demonstrated AC is an efficient catalyst in the pyrolysis of SS and can be used as a cost-competitive catalyst in contrast to HZSM5.

Keywords: catalytic pyrolysis, sewage sludge, activated char, HZSM5, bio-oil

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Authors: A. Assad, T. Zayed

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Water networks (WNs) are responsible of providing adequate amounts of safe, high quality, water to the public. As other critical infrastructure systems, WNs are subjected to deterioration which increases the number of breaks and leaks and lower water quality. In Canada, 35% of water assets require critical attention and there is a significant gap between the needed and the implemented investments. Thus, the need for efficient rehabilitation programs is becoming more urgent given the paradigm of aging infrastructure and tight budget. The first step towards developing such programs is to formulate a Performance Index that reflects the current condition of water assets along with its criticality. While numerous studies in the literature have focused on various aspects of condition assessment and reliability, limited efforts have investigated the criticality of such components. Critical water mains are those whose failure cause significant economic, environmental or social impacts on a community. Inclusion of criticality in computing the performance index will serve as a prioritizing tool for the optimum allocating of the available resources and budget. In this study, several social, economic, and environmental factors that dictate the criticality of a water pipelines have been elicited from analyzing the literature. Expert opinions were sought to provide pairwise comparisons of the importance of such factors. Subsequently, Fuzzy Logic along with Analytical Network Process (ANP) was utilized to calculate the weights of several criteria factors. Multi Attribute Utility Theories (MAUT) was then employed to integrate the aforementioned weights with the attribute values of several pipelines in Montreal WN. The result is a criticality index, 0-1, that quantifies the severity of the consequence of failure of each pipeline. A novel contribution of this approach is that it accounts for both the interdependency between criteria factors as well as the inherited uncertainties in calculating the criticality. The practical value of the current study is represented by the automated tool, Excel-MATLAB, which can be used by the utility managers and decision makers in planning for future maintenance and rehabilitation activities where high-level efficiency in use of materials and time resources is required.

Keywords: water networks, criticality assessment, asset management, fuzzy analytical network process

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Authors: Somruedee Pongsena

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The purpose of this study is to follow up on the graduated students of Bachelor of Science in Applied Statistics from Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University (SSRU) during the 1999 – 2012 academic years and to provide the fundamental guideline for developing the current curriculum according to Thai Qualifications Framework for Higher Education (TQF: HEd). The sample was collected from 75 graduates by interview and online questionnaire. The content covered 5 subjects: ethics and moral, knowledge, cognitive skills, interpersonal skills and responsibility, numerical analysis as well as communication and information technology skills. Data were analyzed by using statistical methods as percentiles, means, standard deviation, t-tests, and F-tests. The findings showed that samples were mostly females younger than 26 years old. The majority of graduates had income in the range of 10,001-20,000 Baht and their experience range was 2-5 years. In addition, overall opinions from receiving knowledge to apply to work were at agree; mean score was 3.97 and standard deviation was 0.40. In terms of opinion difference, the hypothesis' testing results indicate gender only had different opinion at a significant level of 0.05.

Keywords: follow-up, graduates, knowledge, opinion, work performance.

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Authors: Harry Einhorn

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This paper aims to explore the integration of Buddhism into educational settings with the goal of fostering the holistic development of children. By incorporating Buddhist principles and practices, educators can create a nurturing environment that cultivates wisdom, compassion, and ethical values in children. The teachings of Buddhism provide valuable insights into mindfulness, compassion, and critical thinking, which can be adapted and applied to educational curricula to enhance children's intellectual, emotional, and moral growth. One of the fundamental aspects of Buddhist philosophy that is particularly relevant to education is the concept of mindfulness. By introducing mindfulness practices, such as meditation and breathing exercises, children can learn to cultivate present-moment awareness, develop emotional resilience, and enhance their ability to concentrate and focus. These skills are essential for effective learning and can contribute to reducing stress and promoting overall well-being in children. Mindfulness practices can also teach children how to manage their emotions and thoughts, promoting self-regulation and creating a positive classroom environment. In addition to mindfulness, Buddhism emphasizes the cultivation of compassion and empathy toward all living beings. Integrating teachings on kindness, empathy, and ethical behavior into the educational framework can help children develop a deep sense of interconnectedness and social responsibility. By engaging children in activities that promote empathy and encourage acts of kindness, such as community service projects and cooperative learning, educators can foster the development of compassionate individuals who are actively engaged in creating a more harmonious and compassionate society. Moreover, Buddhist teachings encourage critical thinking and inquiry, which are crucial skills for intellectual development. By introducing children to fundamental Buddhist concepts such as impermanence, interdependence, and the nature of suffering, educators can engage them in philosophical reflections and broaden their perspectives on life. These teachings promote open-mindedness, curiosity, and a deeper understanding of the interconnectedness of all things. Through the exploration of these concepts, children can develop critical thinking skills and gain insights into the complexities of the world, enabling them to navigate challenges with wisdom and discernment. While integrating Buddhism into education requires sensitivity, cultural awareness, and respect for diverse beliefs and backgrounds, it holds great potential for nurturing the holistic development of children. By incorporating mindfulness practices, fostering compassion and empathy, and promoting critical thinking, Buddhism can contribute to the creation of a more compassionate, inclusive, and harmonious educational environment. This integration can shape well-rounded individuals who are equipped with the necessary skills and qualities to navigate the complexities of the modern world with wisdom, compassion, and resilience. In conclusion, the integration of Buddhism into education offers a valuable framework for cultivating wisdom, compassion, and ethical values in children. By incorporating mindfulness, compassion, and critical thinking into educational practices, educators can create a supportive environment that promotes children's holistic development. By nurturing these qualities, Buddhism can help shape individuals who are not only academically proficient but also morally and ethically responsible, contributing to a more compassionate and harmonious society.

Keywords: Buddhism, education, children, mindfulness

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Authors: Malcolm Dinovitzer, Calvin Miller, Adam Hacker, Gabriel Wong, Zach Annen, Padmassun Rajakareyar, Jordan Mulvihill, Mostafa S.A. ElSayed

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The research work presented in this paper is developed by the Blended Wing Body (BWB) Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) team, a fourth-year capstone project at Carleton University Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Here, a clean sheet UAV with BWB configuration is designed and optimized using Multiscale Design Optimization (MSDO) approach employing lattice materials taking into consideration design for additive manufacturing constraints. The BWB-UAV is being developed with a mission profile designed for surveillance purposes with a minimum payload of 1000 grams. To demonstrate the design methodology, a single design loop of a sample rib from the airframe is shown in details. This includes presentation of the conceptual design, materials selection, experimental characterization and residual thermal stress distribution analysis of additively manufactured materials, manufacturing constraint identification, critical loads computations, stress analysis and design optimization. A dynamic turbulent critical load case was identified composed of a 1-g static maneuver with an incremental Power Spectral Density (PSD) gust which was used as a deterministic design load case for the design optimization. 2D flat plate Doublet Lattice Method (DLM) was used to simulate aerodynamics in the aeroelastic analysis. The aerodynamic results were verified versus a 3D CFD analysis applying Spalart-Allmaras and SST k-omega turbulence to the rigid UAV and vortex lattice method applied in the OpenVSP environment. Design optimization of a single rib was conducted using topology optimization as well as MSDO. Compared to a solid rib, weight savings of 36.44% and 59.65% were obtained for the topology optimization and the MSDO, respectively. These results suggest that MSDO is an acceptable alternative to topology optimization in weight critical applications while preserving the functional requirements.

Keywords: blended wing body, multiscale design optimization, additive manufacturing, unmanned aerial vehicle

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Authors: Sumeet Rai, Anuj Tyagi, B. T. Naveen Kumar, Shubhkaramjeet Kaur, Niraj K. Singh

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Since their discovery, indiscriminate use of antibiotics in human, veterinary and aquaculture systems has resulted in global emergence/spread of multidrug-resistant bacterial pathogens. Thus, the need for alternative approaches to control bacterial infections has become utmost important. High selectivity/specificity of bacteriophages (phages) permits the targeting of specific bacteria without affecting the desirable flora. In this study, a lytic phage (Ahp1) specific to Aeromonas hydrophila subsp. hydrophila was isolated from finfish aquaculture pond. The host range of Ahp1 range was tested against 10 isolates of A. hydrophila, 7 isolates of A. veronii, 25 Vibrio cholerae isolates, 4 V. parahaemolyticus isolates and one isolate each of V. harveyi and Salmonella enterica collected previously. Except the host A. hydrophila subsp. hydrophila strain, no lytic activity against any other bacterial was detected. During the adsorption rate and one-step growth curve analysis, 69.7% of phage particles were able to get adsorbed on host cell followed by the release of 93 ± 6 phage progenies per host cell after a latent period of ~30 min. Phage nucleic acid was extracted by column purification methods. After determining the nature of phage nucleic acid as dsDNA, phage genome was subjected to next-generation sequencing by generating paired-end (PE, 2 x 300bp) reads on Illumina MiSeq system. De novo assembly of sequencing reads generated circular phage genome of 42,439 bp with G+C content of 58.95%. During open read frame (ORF) prediction and annotation, 22 ORFs (out of 49 total predicted ORFs) were functionally annotated and rest encoded for hypothetical proteins. Proteins involved in major functions such as phage structure formation and packaging, DNA replication and repair, DNA transcription and host cell lysis were encoded by the phage genome. The complete genome sequence of Ahp1 along with gene annotation was submitted to NCBI GenBank (accession number MF683623). Stability of Ahp1 preparations at storage temperatures of 4 °C, 30 °C, and 40 °C was studied over a period of 9 months. At 40 °C storage, phage counts declined by 4 log units within one month; with a total loss of viability after 2 months. At 30 °C temperature, phage preparation was stable for < 5 months. On the other hand, phage counts decreased by only 2 log units over a period of 9 during storage at 4 °C. As some of the phages have also been reported as glycerol sensitive, the stability of Ahp1 preparations in (0%, 15%, 30% and 45%) glycerol stocks were also studied during storage at -80 °C over a period of 9 months. The phage counts decreased only by 2 log units during storage, and no significant difference in phage counts was observed at different concentrations of glycerol. The Ahp1 phage discovered in our study had a very narrow host range and it may be useful for phage typing applications. Moreover, the endolysin and holin genes in Ahp1 genome could be ideal candidates for recombinant cloning and expression of antimicrobial proteins.

Keywords: Aeromonas hydrophila, endolysin, phage, narrow host range

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Authors: Yatimah Alias, Tilagam Marimuthu, M. R. Mahmoudian, Sharifah Mohamad

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The rapid growth of science and technology in energy and environmental fields has enlightened the substantial importance of the conducting polymer and metal composite materials engineered at nano-scale. In this study, polypyrrole-cobalt composites (PPy-Co Cs) and polypyrrole-nickel oxide composites (PPy-NiO Cs) were prepared by a simple and facile chemical polymerization method with an aqueous solution of pyrrole monomer in the presence of metal salt. These composites then fabricated into non-enzymatic hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and glucose sensor. The morphology and composition of the composites are characterized by the Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrum and X-ray Powder Diffraction. The obtained results were compared with the pure PPy and metal oxide particles. The structural and morphology properties of synthesized composites are different from those of pure PPy and metal oxide particles, which were attributed to the strong interaction between the PPy and the metal particles. Besides, a favorable micro-environment for the electrochemical oxidation of H2O2 and glucose was achieved on the modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE) coated with PPy-Co Cs and PPy-NiO Cs respectively, resulting in an enhanced amperometric response. Both PPy-Co/GCE and PPy-NiO/GCE give high response towards target analyte at optimum condition of 500 μl pyrrole monomer content. Furthermore, the presence of pyrrole monomer greatly increases the sensitivity of the respective modified electrode. The PPy-Co/GCE could detect H2O2 in a linear range of 20 μM to 80 mM with two linear segments (low and high concentration of H2O2) and the detection limit for both ranges is 2.05 μM and 19.64 μM, respectively. Besides, PPy-NiO/GCE exhibited good electrocatalytic behavior towards glucose oxidation in alkaline medium and could detect glucose in linear ranges of 0.01 mM to 0.50 mM and 1 mM to 20 mM with detection limit of 0.33 and 5.77 μM, respectively. The ease of modifying and the long-term stability of this sensor have made it superior to enzymatic sensors, which must kept in a critical environment.

Keywords: metal oxide, composite, non-enzymatic sensor, polypyrrole

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Authors: Rwei-Ching Chang, Bo-Yu Su

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Adhesion of copper thin films deposited on polyethylene terephthAdhesion of copper thin films deposited on polyethylene terephthalate substrate by direct current sputtering with different sputtering parameters is discussed in this work. The effects of plasma treatment with 0, 5, and 10 minutes on the thin film properties are investigated first. Various argon flow rates at 40, 50, 60 standard cubic centimeters per minute (sccm), deposition power at 30, 40, 50 W, and film thickness at 100, 200, 300 nm are also discussed. The 3-dimensional surface profilometer, micro scratch machine, and optical microscope are used to characterize the thin film properties. The results show that the increase of the plasma treatment time on the polyethylene terephthalate surface affects the roughness and critical load of the films. The critical load increases as the plasma treatment time increases. When the plasma treatment time was adjusted from 5 minutes to 10 minutes, the adhesion increased from 8.20 mN to 13.67 mN. When the argon flow rate is decreased from 60 sccm to 40 sccm, the adhesion increases from 8.27 mN to 13.67 mN. The adhesion is also increased by the condition of higher power, where the adhesion increased from 13.67 mN to 25.07 mN as the power increases from 30 W to 50 W. The adhesion of the film increases from 13.67 mN to 21.41mN as the film thickness increases from 100 nm to 300 nm. Comparing all the deposition parameters, it indicates the change of the power and thickness has much improvement on the film adhesion.alate substrate by direct current sputtering with different sputtering parameters is discussed in this work. The effects of plasma treatment with 0, 5, and 10 minutes on the thin film properties are investigated first. Various argon flow rates at 40, 50, 60 standard cubic centimeters per minute (sccm), deposition power at 30, 40, 50 W, and film thickness at 100, 200, 300 nm are also discussed. The 3-dimensional surface profilometer, micro scratch machine, and optical microscope are used to characterize the thin film properties. The results show that the increase of the plasma treatment time on the polyethylene terephthalate surface affects the roughness and critical load of the films. The critical load increases as the plasma treatment time increases. When the plasma treatment time was adjusted from 5 minutes to 10 minutes, the adhesion increased from 8.20 mN to 13.67 mN. When the argon flow rate is decreased from 60 sccm to 40 sccm, the adhesion increases from 8.27 mN to 13.67 mN. The adhesion is also increased by the condition of higher power, where the adhesion increased from 13.67 mN to 25.07 mN as the power increases from 30 W to 50 W. The adhesion of the film increases from 13.67 mN to 21.41mN as the film thickness increases from 100 nm to 300 nm. Comparing all the deposition parameters, it indicates the change of the power and thickness has much improvement on the film adhesion.

Keywords: flexible substrate, sputtering, adhesion, copper thin film

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Authors: Mahdi Jalili

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Functional connectivity in the human brain can be represented as a network using electroencephalography (EEG) signals. Network representation of EEG time series can be an efficient vehicle to understand the underlying mechanisms of brain function. Brain functional networks – whose nodes are brain regions and edges correspond to functional links between them – are characterized by neurobiologically meaningful graph theory metrics. This study investigates the degree to which graph theory metrics are sex dependent. To this end, EEGs from 24 healthy female subjects and 21 healthy male subjects were recorded in eyes-closed resting state conditions. The connectivity matrices were extracted using correlation analysis and were further binarized to obtain binary functional networks. Global and local efficiency measures – as graph theory metrics– were computed for the extracted networks. We found that male brains have a significantly greater global efficiency (i.e., global communicability of the network) across all frequency bands for a wide range of cost values in both hemispheres. Furthermore, for a range of cost values, female brains showed significantly greater right-hemispheric local efficiency (i.e., local connectivity) than male brains.

Keywords: EEG, brain, functional networks, network science, graph theory

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Authors: Do-Won Kim, Andy Eu Jin Lim, Raja Muthusamy Kumarasamy, Vishal Vinayak, Jacky Wang Yu-Shun, Jason Liow Tsung Yang, Patrick Lo Guo Qiang

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In this study, we demonstrate 4-channel coarse wavelength division multiplexing (CWDM) optical transceiver based on silicon photonics integrated circuits (PIC) of waveguide Ge-photodiode (Ge-PD) and Mach Zehnder (MZ)-modulator. 4-channel arrayed PICs of Ge-PD and MZ-modulator are verified to operate at 25 Gbps/ch achieving 4x25 Gbps of total data rate. 4 bare dies of single-channel commercial electronics ICs (EICs) of trans-impedance amplifier (TIA) for Ge-PD and driver IC for MZ-modulator are packaged with PIC on printed circuit board (PCB) in a chip-on-board (COB) manner. Each single-channel EIC is electrically connected to the one channel of 4-channel PICs by wire bonds to trace. The PICs have 4-channel multiplexer for MZ-modulator and 4-channel demultiplexer for Ge-PD. The 4-channel multiplexer/demultiplexer have echelle gratings for4 CWDM optic signals of which center wavelengths are 1511, 1531, 1553, and 1573 nm. Its insertion loss is around 4dB with over 15dB of extinction ratio.The dimension of 4-channel Ge-PD is 3.6x1.4x0.3mm, and its responsivity is 1A/W with dark current of less than 20 nA.Its measured 3dB bandwidth is around 20GHz. The dimension of the 4-channel MZ-modulator is 3.6x4.8x0.3mm, and its 3dB bandwidth is around 11Ghz at -2V of reverse biasing voltage. It has 2.4V•cmbyVπVL of 6V for π shift to 4 mm length modulator.5x5um of Inversed tapered mode size converter with less than 2dB of coupling loss is used for the coupling of the lensed fiber which has 5um of mode field diameter.The PCB for COB packaging and signal transmission is designed to have 6 layers in the hybrid layer structure. 0.25 mm-thick Rogers Duroid RT5880 is used as the first core dielectric layer for high-speed performance over 25 Gbps. It has 0.017 mm-thick of copper layers and its dielectric constant is 2.2and dissipation factor is 0.0009 at 10 GHz. The dimension of both single ended and differential microstrip transmission lines are calculated using full-wave electromagnetic (EM) field simulator HFSS which RF industry is using most. It showed 3dB bandwidth at around 15GHz in S-parameter measurement using network analyzer. The wire bond length for transmission line and ground connection from EIC is done to have less than 300 µm to minimize the parasitic effect to the system.Single layered capacitors (SLC) of 100pF and 1000pF are connected as close as possible to the EICs for stabilizing the DC biasing voltage by decoupling. Its signal transmission performance is under measurement at 25Gbps achieving 100Gbps by 4chx25Gbps. This work can be applied for the active optical cable (AOC) and quad small form-factor pluggable (QSFP) for high-speed optical interconnections. Its demands are quite large in data centers targeting 100 Gbps, 400 Gbps, and 1 Tbps. As the demands of high-speed AOC and QSFP for the application to intra/inter data centers increase, this silicon photonics based high-speed 4 channel CWDM scheme can have advantages not only in data throughput but also cost effectiveness since it reduces fiber cost dramatically through WDM.

Keywords: active optical cable(AOC), 4-channel coarse wavelength division multiplexing (CWDM), communication system, data center, ge-photodiode, Mach Zehnder (MZ) modulator, optical interconnections, optical transceiver, photonics integrated circuits (PIC), quad small form-factor pluggable (QSFP), silicon photonics

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Authors: Fatema-Tuz-Zahura, Raquib Ahsan

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Punching shear failure is usually the governing failure mode of flat plate structures. Punching failure is brittle in nature which induces more vulnerability to this type of structure. In the present study, a 3D finite element model of a flat plate with low reinforcement ratio and without any transverse reinforcement has been developed. Punching shear stress and the deflection data were obtained on the surface of the flat plate as well as through the thickness of the model from numerical simulations. The obtained data were compared with the experimental results. Variation of punching stress with respect to deflection as obtained from numerical results is found to be in good agreement with the experimental results; the range of variation of punching stress is within 5%. The numerical simulation shows an early and gradual onset of nonlinearity, whereas the same is late and abrupt as observed in the experimental results. The range of variation of punching stress for different slab thicknesses between experimental and numerical results is less than 15%. The developed numerical model is useful to complement available punching test series performed in the past. The results obtained from the numerical model will be helpful for designing retrofitting schemes of flat plates.

Keywords: flat plate, finite element model, punching shear, reinforcement ratio

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Authors: Nouf Nasser, Nada Alotaibi, Jazzal Kandiel

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This research study is about the use of artificial intelligence in PhotoRoom. When an individual selects a photo, PhotoRoom automagically removes or separates the background from other parts of the photo through the use of artificial intelligence. This will allow an individual to select their desired background and edit it as they wish. The methodology used was an observation, where various reviews and parts of the app were observed. The review section's findings showed that many people actually like the app, and some even rated it five stars. The conclusion was that PhotoRoom is one of the best photo editing apps due to its speed and accuracy in removing backgrounds.

Keywords: removing background, app, artificial intelligence, machine learning

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Authors: Shadi Fathi, Moura Mehravar, Mujib Rahman

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Over the years,increased demands on railways, the emergence of high-speed trains and heavy axle loads, ageing, and deterioration of the existing tracks, is imposing costly maintenance actions on the railway sector. The need for developing a fast andcost-efficient non-destructive assessment method for the structural evaluation of railway tracksis therefore critically important. The layer modulus is the main parameter used in the structural design and evaluation of the railway track substructure (foundation). Among many recently developed NDTs, Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD) test, widely used in pavement evaluation, has shown promising results for railway track substructure monitoring. The surface deflection data collected by FWD are used to estimate the modulus of substructure layers through the back-analysis technique. Although there are different commerciallyavailableback-analysis programs are used for pavement applications, there are onlya limited number of research-based techniques have been so far developed for railway track evaluation. In this paper, the suitability, accuracy, and reliability of the BAKFAAsoftware are investigated. The main rationale for selecting BAKFAA as it has a relatively straightforward user interfacethat is freely available and widely used in highway and airport pavement evaluation. As part of the study, a finite element (FE) model of a railway track section near Leominsterstation, Herefordshire, UK subjected to the FWD test, was developed and validated against available field data. Then, a virtual experimental database (including 218 sets of FWD testing data) was generated using theFE model and employed as the measured database for the BAKFAA software. This database was generated considering various layers’ moduli for each layer of track substructure over a predefined range. The BAKFAA predictions were compared against the cone penetration test (CPT) data (available from literature; conducted near to Leominster station same section as the FWD was performed). The results reveal that BAKFAA overestimatesthe layers’ moduli of each substructure layer. To adjust the BAKFA with the CPT data, this study introduces a correlation model to make the BAKFAA applicable in railway applications.

Keywords: back-analysis, bakfaa, railway track substructure, falling weight deflectometer (FWD), cone penetration test (CPT)

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Authors: Jingjing Yan, Gengen He, Anahid Basiri

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The design of an indoor navigation system for fire evacuation support requires not only physical feasibility but also a relatively thorough consideration of the human factors. This study has taken a survey to investigate the fire response performances (FRP) of the indoor occupants in age of 20s, virtually in an environment for their routine life, focusing on the aspects of indoor familiarity (spatial cognition), psychological stress and decision makings. For indoor familiarity, it is interested in three factors, i.e., the familiarity to exits and risky places as well as the satisfaction degree of the current indoor sign installation. According to the results, males have a higher average familiarity with the indoor exits while both genders have a relatively low level of risky place awareness. These two factors are positively correlated with the satisfaction degree of the current installation of the indoor signs, and this correlation is more evident for the exit familiarity. The integration of the height factor with the other two indoor familiarity factors can improve the degree of indoor sign satisfaction. For psychological stress, this study concentrates on the situated cognition of moving difficulty, nervousness, and speed reduction when using a bending posture during the fire evacuation to avoid smoke inhalation. The results have shown that both genders have a similar mid-level of hardness sensation. The females have a higher average level of nervousness, while males have a higher average level of speed reduction sensation. This study has assumed that the growing indoor spatial cognition can help ease the psychological hardness and nervousness. However, it only seems to be true after reaching a certain level. When integrating the effects from indoor familiarity and the other two psychological factors, the correlation to the sensation of speed change can be strengthened, based on a stronger positive correlation with the integrated factors. This study has also investigated the participants’ attitude to the navigation support during evacuation, and the majority of the participants have shown positive attitudes. For following the guidance under some extreme cases, i.e., changing to a longer path and to an alternative exit, the majority of the participants has shown the confidence of keeping trusting the guidance service. These decisions are affected by the combined influences from indoor familiarity, psychological stress, and attitude of using navigation service. For the decision time of the selected extreme cases, it costs more time in average for deciding to use a longer route than to use an alternative exit, and this situation is more evident for the female participants. This requires further considerations when designing a personalized smartphone-based navigation app. This study has also investigated the calming factors for people being trapped during evacuation. The top consideration is the distance to the nearest firefighters, and the following considerations are the current fire conditions in the surrounding environment and the locations of all firefighters. The ranking of the latter two considerations is very gender-dependent according to the results.

Keywords: fire response performances, indoor spatial cognition, situated cognition, survey analysis

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Authors: Deniz Bozoglu, Deniz Deger, Kemal Ulutas, Sahin Yakut

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In recent years, silica aerogels have attracted great attention due to their outstanding properties, and their wide variety of potential applications such as microelectronics, nuclear and high-energy physics, optics and acoustics, superconductivity, space-physics. Hydrophobic silica aerogels were successfully synthesized in one-step by surface modification at ambient pressure. FT-IR result confirmed that Si-OH groups were successfully converted into hydrophobic and non-polar Si-CH3 groups by surface modification using trimethylchloro silane (TMCS) as co-precursor. Using Alpha-A High-Resolution Dielectric, Conductivity and Impedance Analyzer, AC conductivity of samples were examined at temperature range 293-423 K and measured over frequency range between 1-106 Hz. The characteristic relaxation time decreases with increasing temperature. The AC conductivity follows σ_AC (ω)=σ_t-σ_DC=Aω^s relation at frequencies higher than 10 Hz, and the dominant conduction mechanism is found to obey the Correlated Barrier Hopping (CBH) mechanism. At frequencies lower than 10 Hz, the electrical conduction is found to be in accordance with DC conduction mechanism. The activation energies obtained from AC conductivity results and it was observed two relaxation regions.

Keywords: aerogel, synthesis, dielectric constant, dielectric loss, relaxation time

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Authors: Matthew McNees

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An inductive aesthetic approach to sports yields critical and meaningful insight into sports philosophy, sports governance, and sports history. Critical reflection will always remain key to the analysis of the past, present and future of sporting institutions, but a philosophically imaginative method of induction allows certain salient connections to be articulated and potentially implemented between various sporting entities who exist as individuals, particularly between practitioner, owner/manager and observer (‘fan’ or interested party.) By honing in on the concept of beauty in sports, the primary reason for viewership, consumption or engagement with sports comes into focus as an aesthetic concept. While always a subjective or shadowy articulation, an aesthetic state often remains unnecessarily unrevealed due to claims about unconscious states, entire rhetorics (or counter-rhetorics) about beauty, and Misalliance among sporting development systems. Since aesthetics require an inductive state of subjectivity in determining various levels of beauty (which the so-called world of sports often thinks of as morality), the audience for aesthetics in sports also needs an inductive explanation of the concept in which one comes to see a process of viewership at work within themselves that is revealed by a simple need parried outward by a complex process of engagement. The potentially redemptive moment of revelation regarding the beauty of sports and the athlete within these systems creates in the viewer a new space of consciousness where the world of sports discovers some of its longed-for transparency, openness, parity and equity upon which its immediate future depends.

Keywords: aesthetics, governance, history, philosophy

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Authors: Teesta Dey

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Integrated Transport development with proper traffic management leads to sustainable growth of any urban sphere. Appropriate mass transport planning is essential for the populous cities in third world countries like India. The exponential growth of motor vehicles with unplanned road network is now the common feature of major urban centres in India. Kolkata, the third largest mega city in India, is not an exception of it. The imbalance between demand and supply of unplanned transport services in this city is manifested in the high economic and environmental costs borne by the associated society. With the passage of time, the growth and extent of passenger demand for rapid urban transport has outstripped proper infrastructural planning and causes severe transport problems in the overall urban realm. Hence Kolkata stands out in the world as one of the most crisis-ridden metropolises. The urban transport crisis of this city involves severe traffic congestion, the disparity in mass transport services on changing peripheral land uses, route overlapping, lowering of travel speed and faulty implementation of governmental plans as mostly induced by rapid growth of private vehicles on limited road space with huge carbon footprint. Therefore the paper will critically analyze the extant road network pattern for improving regional connectivity and accessibility, assess the degree of congestion, identify the deviation from demand and supply balance and finally evaluate the emerging alternate transport options as promoted by the government. For this purpose, linear, nodal and spatial transport network have been assessed based on certain selected indices viz. Road Degree, Traffic Volume, Shimbel Index, Direct Bus Connectivity, Average Travel and Waiting Tine Indices, Route Variety, Service Frequency, Bus Intensity, Concentration Analysis, Delay Rate, Quality of Traffic Transmission, Lane Length Duration Index and Modal Mix. Total 20 Traffic Intersection Points (TIPs) have been selected for the measurement of nodal accessibility. Critical Congestion Zones (CCZs) are delineated based on one km buffer zones of each TIP for congestion pattern analysis. A total of 480 bus routes are assessed for identifying the deficiency in network planning. Apart from bus services, the combined effects of other mass and para transit modes, containing metro rail, auto, cab and ferry services, are also analyzed. Based on systematic random sampling method, a total of 1500 daily urban passengers’ perceptions were studied for checking the ground realities. The outcome of this research identifies the spatial disparity among the 15 boroughs of the city with severe route overlapping and congestion problem. North and Central Kolkata-based mass transport services exceed the transport strength of south and peripheral Kolkata. Faulty infrastructural condition, service inadequacy, economic loss and workers’ inefficiency are the most dominant reasons behind the defective mass transport network plan. Hence there is an urgent need to revive the extant road based mass transport system of this city by implementing a holistic management approach by upgrading traffic infrastructure, designing new roads, better cooperation among different mass transport agencies, better coordination of transport and changing land use policies, large increase in funding and finally general passengers’ awareness.

Keywords: carbon footprint, critical congestion zones, direct bus connectivity, integrated transport development

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Authors: Pierre F. Gerard, Frederic F. Leymarie, William Latham

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Architects have developed a series of objective evaluations, using spatial analysis tools such as Isovist, that show how certain spatial qualities are beneficial to specific human activities hosted in the built environments. In return, they can build more adapted environments by tuning those spatial qualities in their design. In parallel, virtual reality technologies have been developed by engineers with the dream of creating a system that immerses users in a new form of spatial experiences. They already have demonstrated a useful range of benefits not only in simulating critical events to assist people in acquiring new skills, but also to enhance memory retention, to name just a few. This paper investigates the effects of two spatial qualities, openness, and complexity, on cognitive performance within immersive virtual environments. Isovist measure is used to design a series of room settings with different levels of each spatial qualities. In an empirical study, each room was then used by every participant to solve a navigational puzzle game and give a rating of their spatial experience. They were then asked to fill in a questionnaire before solving the visual-spatial memory quiz, which addressed how well they remembered the different rooms. Findings suggest that those spatial qualities have an effect on some of the measures, including navigation performance and memory retention. In particular, there is an order effect for the navigation puzzle game. Participants tended to spend a longer time in the complex room settings. Moreover, there is an interaction effect while with more open settings, participants tended to perform better when in a simple setting; however, with more closed settings, participants tended to perform better in a more complex setting. For the visual-spatial memory quiz, participants performed significantly better within the more open rooms. We believe this is a first step in using virtual environments to enhance participant cognitive performances through better use of specific spatial qualities.

Keywords: architecture, navigation, spatial cognition, virtual reality

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