Search results for: construction logistic
2205 A Cross-Sectional Study on Clinical Self-Efficacy of Final Year School of Nursing Students among Universities of Tigray Region, Northern Ethiopia
Authors: Awole Seid, Yosef Zenebe, Hadgu Gerensea, Kebede Haile Misgina
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Background: Clinical competence is one of the ultimate goals of nursing education. Clinical skills are more than successfully performing tasks; it incorporates client assessment, identification of deficits and the ability to critically think to provide solutions. Assessment of clinical competence, particularly identifying gaps that need improvement and determining the educational needs of nursing students have great importance in nursing education. Thus this study aims determining clinical self-efficacy of final year school of nursing students in three universities of Tigray Region. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 224 final year school of nursing students from department of nursing, psychiatric nursing, and midwifery on three universities of Tigray region. Anonymous self-administered questionnaire was administered to generate data collected on June, 2017. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 20. The result is described using tables and charts as required. Logistic regression was employed to test associations. Result: The mean age of students was 22.94 + 1.44. Generally, 21% of students have been graduated in the department in which they are not interested. The study demonstrated 28.6% had poor and 71.4% had good perceived clinical self-efficacy. Beside this, 43.8% of psychiatric nursing and 32.6% of comprehensive nursing students have poor clinical self-efficacy. Among the four domains, 39.3% and 37.9% have poor clinical self- efficacy with regard to ‘Professional development’ and ‘Management of care’. Place of the institution [AOR=3.480 (1.333 - 9.088), p=0.011], interest during department selection [AOR=2.202 (1.045 - 4.642), p=.038], and theory-practice gap [AOR=0.224 (0.110 - 0.457), p=0.000] were significantly associated with perceived clinical self-efficacy. Conclusion: The magnitude of students with poor clinically self efficacy was high. Place of institution, theory-practice gap, students interest to the discipline were the significant predictors of clinical self-efficacy. Students from youngest universities have good clinical self-efficacy. During department selection, student’s interest should be respected. The universities and other stakeholders should improve the capacity of surrounding affiliate teaching hospitals to set and improve care standards in order to narrow the theory-practice gap. School faculties should provide trainings to hospital staffs and monitor standards of clinical procedures.Keywords: clinical self-efficacy, nursing students, Tigray, northern Ethiopia
Procedia PDF Downloads 1692204 Men and Feminism: Social Constructions of Masculinities in Relation to the Feminist Movement
Authors: Leonardo Dias Cruz
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The advent of web 2.0 has enabled users to engage in translocal and transtemporal interactions in which meanings can be constantly (re)constructed. The fluidity of such interactions in the time-space spectrum makes it evident that D/discourses are always in movement and that here-and-now discursive practices are always linked to macro Discourses in social structures. Considering these assumptions, this study aims at exploring the social construction of masculinities in light of feminist D/discourses in online interactions. The data used are a series of comments from readers of articles posted in a website for (projected) male audiences. In order to approach the movable and fluid nature of such interactions, I examine the data through the lens of processes of entextualization, social positioning and indexical cues. The analysis explores the interactions as social arenas in which struggles for the control over entextualization processes are clearly noticeable. Moreover, two main stances are perceived: one that legitimates male’s participation in Feminism and one that rejects such participation.Keywords: entextualization, feminism, masculinities, positionings
Procedia PDF Downloads 4652203 Linguistic Identities of Post-Democratic South African Youth
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Language has long been a site of struggle in South Africa with an educational language policy that favoured English and Afrikaans as high status languages and positioned other language users in deficit ways. Furthermore, a segregationist past led to individuals viewing each other as racial beings and racial categorisations still prevail in private and public life. It has been argued that it is important to explore how South African youth identities are being constructed, if past discourses still shape their identities or if they are negotiating new ways of being. The paper probes the role of language, discourse and embedded ideologies in the persistence or not of youth linguistic identities and discourses, the implications for their lived realities and for their construction of other language users and the possibilities of shifts occurring with an awareness of such discourses. It finds that past discourses continue to shape youth identities and are surging in the light of what is happening in the country today.Keywords: discourse, ideologies, language, linguistic identities
Procedia PDF Downloads 4022202 Delays for Emergency Cesarean Sections and Neonatal Outcomes in Three Rural District Hospitals in Rwanda: A Retrospective Cross-Sectional Study
Authors: J. Niyitegeka, G. Nshimirimana, A. Silverstein, J. Odhiambo, Y. Lin, T. Nkurunziza, R. Riviello, S. Rulisa, P. Banguti, H. Magge, M. Macharia, J. P. Dushime, R. Habimana, B. Hedt-Gauthier
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In low-resource settings, women needing an emergency cesarean section experiences various delays in both reaching and receiving care that is often linked to poor neonatal outcomes. In this study, we quantified different measures of delays and assessed the association between these delays and neonatal outcomes at three rural district hospitals in Rwanda. This retrospective study included 441 neonates and their mothers who underwent emergency cesarean sections in 2015 at Butaro, Kirehe and Rwinkwavu District Hospitals. Four possible delays were measured: Time from start of labor to district hospital admission, travel time from a health center to the district hospital, time from admission to surgical incision, and time from the decision for the emergency cesarean section to surgical incision. Neonatal outcomes were categorized as unfavorable (APGAR < 7 or death) and favorable (APGAR ≥ 7). We assessed the relationship between each type of delay and neonatal outcomes using multivariate logistic regression. In our study, 38.7% (108 out of 279) of neonates’ mothers labored for 12 to 24 hours before hospital admission and 44.7% (159 of 356) of mothers were transferred from health centers that required 30 to 60 minutes of travel time to reach the district hospital. 48.1% (178 of 370) of caesarean sections started within five hours after admission and 85.2% (288 of 338) started more than thirty minutes after the decision for the emergency cesarean section was made. Neonatal outcomes were significantly worse among mothers with more than 90 minutes of travel time from the health center to the district hospital compared to health centers attached to the hospital (OR = 5.12, p = 0.02). Neonatal outcomes were also significantly different depending on decision to incision intervals; neonates with cesarean deliveries starting more than thirty minutes after decision had better outcomes than those started immediately (OR = 0.32, p = 0.04). Interventions that decrease barriers to access to maternal health care services can improve neonatal outcome after emergency cesarean section. Triaging could explain the inverse relationship between time from decision to incision and neonatal outcome; this must be studied more in the future.Keywords: Africa, emergency obstetric care, rural health delivery, maternal and child health
Procedia PDF Downloads 2232201 Diachronic Evolution and Multifaceted Interpretation of City-Mountain Landscape Culture: From Ritualistic Divinity to Poetic Aesthetics
Authors: Junjie Fu
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This paper explores the cultural evolution of the "city-mountain" landscape in ancient Chinese cities, tracing its origins in the regional mountain and town division within the national system. It delves into the cultural archetype of "city-mountain" landscape divine imagery and its spatial characteristics, drawing from the spatial conception of mountain worship and divine order in the model of Kunlun and Penglai. Furthermore, it examines the shift from religious to daily life influences, leading to a poetic aesthetic turn in the "city-mountain" landscape. The paper also discusses the organizational structure of the "city-mountain" poetic landscape and its role as a space for enjoyment. By studying the cultural connotations, evolving relationships, and power mechanisms of the "city-mountain" landscape, this research provides theoretical insights for the construction and development of "city-mountain" landscapes and mountain cities.Keywords: city-mountain landscape, cultural image, divinity, landscape image, poetry
Procedia PDF Downloads 842200 Gestational Vitamin D Levels Mitigate the Effect of Pre-pregnancy Obesity on Gestational Diabetes Mellitus: A Birth Cohort Study
Authors: Majeda S. Hammoud
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Background and Aim: Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a common pregnancy complication affecting around 14% of pregnancies globally that carries short and long-term consequences to the mother and her child. Pre-pregnancy overweight or obesity is the most consistently and strongly associated modifiable risk factor with GDM development. This analysis aimed to determine whether vitamin D status during pregnancy modulates the effect of pre-pregnancy obesity/overweight on GDM risk while stratifying by maternal age. Methods: Data from the Kuwait Birth Cohort (KBC) study were analyzed, which enrolled pregnant women in the second or third trimester of gestation. Pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI; kg/m2) was categorized as under/normal weight (<25.0), overweight (25.0 to <30.0), and obesity (≥30.0). 25 hydroxyvitamin D levels were measured in blood samples that were collected at recruitment and categorized as deficiency (<50 nmol/L) and insufficiency/sufficiency (≥50 nmol/L). GDM status was ascertained according to international guidelines. Logistic regression was used to evaluate associations, and adjusted odds ratios (aOR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated. Results: The analyzed study sample included a total of 982 pregnant women, with a mean (SD) age of 31.4 (5.2) years. The prevalence of GDM was estimated to be 17.3% (95% CI: 14.9-19.7), and the prevalence of pre-pregnancy overweight and obesity was 37.8% (95% CI: 34.8-40.8) and 28.8% (95% CI: 26.0-31.7), respectively. The prevalence of gestational vitamin D deficiency was estimated to be 55.3% (95% CI: 52.2-58.4). The association between pre-pregnancy overweight or obesity with GDM risk differed according to maternal age and gestational vitamin D status (Pinteraction[BMI × age × vitamin D = 0.047). Among pregnant women aged <35 years, prepregnancy obesity compared to under/normal weight was associated with increased GDM risk among women with gestational vitamin D deficiency (aOR: 3.65, 95% CI: 1.50-8.86, p = 0.004) and vitamin D insufficiency/sufficiency (aOR: 2.55, 95% CI: 1.16-5.61, p = 0.019). In contrast, among pregnant women aged ≥35 years, pre-pregnancy obesity compared to under/normal weight was associated with increased GDM risk among women with gestational vitamin D deficiency (aOR: 9.70, 95% CI: 2.01-46.69, p = 0.005), but not among women with vitamin D insufficiency/sufficiency (aOR: 1.46, 95% CI: 0.42-5.16, p = 0.553). Conclusion: The effect of pre-pregnancy obesity on GDM risk is modulated by maternal age and gestational vitamin D status, with the effect of pre-pregnancy obesity being more pronounced among older pregnant women (aged ≥35 years) with gestational vitamin D deficiency compared to those with vitamin D insufficiency/sufficiency. Whereas, among younger women (aged <35 years), the effect of pre-pregnancy obesity on GDM risk was not modulated by gestational vitamin D status. Therefore, vitamin D supplementation among pregnant women, specifically older women with pre-pregnancy obesity, may mitigate the effect of pre-pregnancy obesity on GDM risk.Keywords: gestational diabetes mellitus, vitamin D, obesity, body mass index
Procedia PDF Downloads 382199 Research on Key Technologies on Initial Installation of Ultra-Deep-Water Dynamic Umbilical
Authors: Weiwei Xie, Yichao Li
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The initial installation of the umbilical can affect the subsequent installation process and final installation. Meanwhile, the design of both ends of the ultra-deep water dynamic umbilical (UDWDU), as well as the design of the surface unit and the subsea production system connected by UDWDU,], varies in different oil and gas fields. To optimize the installation process of UDWDU, on the basis of the summary and analysis of the surface-end and the subsea-end design of UDWDU and the mainstream construction resources, the method of initial installation from the surface unit side or the subsea production system side of UDWDU is studied, and each initiation installation method is pointed out if some difficulties that may be encountered.Keywords: dynamic umbilical, ultra-deep-water, initial installation, installation process
Procedia PDF Downloads 1522198 The Development of Modernist Chinese Architecture from the Perspective of Cultural Regionalism in Taiwan: Spatial Practice by the Fieldoffice Architects
Authors: Yilei Yu
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Modernism, emerging in the Western world of the 20th century, attempted to create a universal international style, which pulled the architectural and social systems created by classicism back to an initial pure state. However, out of the introspection of the Modernism, Regionalism attempted to restore a humanistic environment and create flexible buildings during the 1950s. Meanwhile, as the first generation of architects came back, the wind of the Regionalism blew to Taiwan. However, with the increasing of political influence and the tightening of free creative space, from the second half of the 1950s to the 1980s, the "real" Regional Architecture, which should have taken roots in Taiwan, becomes the "fake" Regional Architecture filled with the oriental charm. Through the Comparative Method, which includes description, interpretation, juxtaposition, and comparison, this study analyses the difference of the style of the Modernist Chinese Architecture between the period before the 1980s and the after. The paper aims at exploring the development of Regionalism Architecture in Taiwan, which includes three parts. First, the burgeoning period of the "modernist Chinese architecture" in Taiwan was the beginning of the Chinese Nationalist Party's coming to Taiwan to consolidate political power. The architecture of the "Ming and Qing Dynasty Palace Revival Style" dominated the architectural circles in Taiwan. These superficial "regional buildings" have nearly no combination with the local customs of Taiwan, which is difficult to evoke the social identity. Second, in the late 1970s, the second generation of architects headed by Baode Han began focusing on the research and preservation of traditional Taiwanese architecture, and creating buildings combined the terroirs of Taiwan through the imitation of styles. However, some scholars have expressed regret that very few regionalist architectural works that appeared in the 1980s can respond specifically to regional conditions and forms of construction. Instead, most of them are vocabulary-led representations. Third, during the 1990s, by the end of the period of martial law, community building gradually emerged, which made the object of Taiwan's architectural concern gradually extended to the folk and ethnic groups. In the Yilan area, there are many architects who care about the local environment, such as the Field office Architects. Compared with the hollow regionality of the passionate national spirits that emerged during the martial law period, the local practice of the architect team in Yilan can better link the real local environmental life and reflect the true regionality. In conclusion, with the local practice case of the huge construction team in Yilan area, this paper focuses on the Spatial Practice by the Field office Architects to explore the spatial representation of the space and the practical enlightenment in the process of modernist Chinese architecture development in Taiwan.Keywords: regionalism, modernism, Chinese architecture, political landscape, spatial representation
Procedia PDF Downloads 1282197 Channel That Can Be Used on Slope, Slide Prone and Seismic Areas, Swelling and Collapsing Soils
Authors: Sabir Tehrankhan Hasanov, Mir Movsum Anar Dadashev
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The article provides a brief overview of irrigation systems and canals applied to slopes, landslide-prone, seismic areas, and swelling and collapsing soils. The contemporary construction of the canal used for irrigation, energy, and water supply purposes is described. In order to ensure the durability, longevity, and reliability of the channel, a damping mat made of cast material is created under its cover, and the top is covered with a waterproof screen. Dowels are placed on the bottom and sides of the channel, and the bottom dowel is riveted to the solid bedrock and connected with piles placed at certain distances. Drainage was placed next to the bottom dowel, an operation road was created on one side of the channel, and a berm road was created on the other side. A bathtub was built on the side of the road, and a forest-bush strip was built on its bank.Keywords: slope, channel, landslide, collapse, swell, soil, structure
Procedia PDF Downloads 852196 Seismic Response of Reinforced Concrete Buildings: Field Challenges and Simplified Code Formulas
Authors: Michel Soto Chalhoub
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Building code-related literature provides recommendations on normalizing approaches to the calculation of the dynamic properties of structures. Most building codes make a distinction among types of structural systems, construction material, and configuration through a numerical coefficient in the expression for the fundamental period. The period is then used in normalized response spectra to compute base shear. The typical parameter used in simplified code formulas for the fundamental period is overall building height raised to a power determined from analytical and experimental results. However, reinforced concrete buildings which constitute the majority of built space in less developed countries pose additional challenges to the ones built with homogeneous material such as steel, or with concrete under stricter quality control. In the present paper, the particularities of reinforced concrete buildings are explored and related to current methods of equivalent static analysis. A comparative study is presented between the Uniform Building Code, commonly used for buildings within and outside the USA, and data from the Middle East used to model 151 reinforced concrete buildings of varying number of bays, number of floors, overall building height, and individual story height. The fundamental period was calculated using eigenvalue matrix computation. The results were also used in a separate regression analysis where the computed period serves as dependent variable, while five building properties serve as independent variables. The statistical analysis shed light on important parameters that simplified code formulas need to account for including individual story height, overall building height, floor plan, number of bays, and concrete properties. Such inclusions are important for reinforced concrete buildings of special conditions due to the level of concrete damage, aging, or materials quality control during construction. Overall results of the present analysis show that simplified code formulas for fundamental period and base shear may be applied but they require revisions to account for multiple parameters. The conclusion above is confirmed by the analytical model where fundamental periods were computed using numerical techniques and eigenvalue solutions. This recommendation is particularly relevant to code upgrades in less developed countries where it is customary to adopt, and mildly adapt international codes. We also note the necessity of further research using empirical data from buildings in Lebanon that were subjected to severe damage due to impulse loading or accelerated aging. However, we excluded this study from the present paper and left it for future research as it has its own peculiarities and requires a different type of analysis.Keywords: seismic behaviour, reinforced concrete, simplified code formulas, equivalent static analysis, base shear, response spectra
Procedia PDF Downloads 2302195 Adhesion Performance According to Lateral Reinforcement Method of Textile
Authors: Jungbhin You, Taekyun Kim, Jongho Park, Sungnam Hong, Sun-Kyu Park
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Reinforced concrete has been mainly used in construction field because of excellent durability. However, it may lead to reduction of durability and safety due to corrosion of reinforcement steels according to damage of concrete surface. Recently, research of textile is ongoing to complement weakness of reinforced concrete. In previous research, only experiment of longitudinal length were performed. Therefore, in order to investigate the adhesion performance according to the lattice shape and the embedded length, the pull-out test was performed on the roving with parameter of the number of lateral reinforcement, the lateral reinforcement length and the lateral reinforcement spacing. As a result, the number of lateral reinforcement and the lateral reinforcement length did not significantly affect the load variation depending on the adhesion performance, and only the load analysis results according to the reinforcement spacing are affected.Keywords: adhesion performance, lateral reinforcement, pull-out test, textile
Procedia PDF Downloads 3572194 Evaluation of Subsurface Drilling and Geo Mechanic Properties Based on Stratum Index Factor for Humanities Environment
Authors: Abdull Halim Abdul, Muhaimin Sulam
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This paper is about a subsurface study of Taman Pudu Ulu, Cheras, Kuala Lumpur with emphasize of Geo mechanic properties based on stratum index factor in humanities environment. Subsurface drilling and seismic data were used to understand the subsurface condition of the study area such as the type and thickness of the strata. Borehole and soil samples were recovered Geo mechanic properties of the area by conducting number of experiments. Taman Pudu Ulu overlies the Kuala Lumpur Limestone formation that is known for its karstic features such as caves and cavities. Hence by knowing the Geo mechanic properties such as the normal strain and shear strain we can plan a safer and economics construction that is plan at the area in the future.Keywords: stratum, index factor, geo mechanic properties, humanities environment
Procedia PDF Downloads 4942193 Optimising GIS in Cushioning the Environmental Impact of Infrastructural Projects
Authors: Akerele Akintunde Hareef
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GIS is an integrating tool for storing, retrieving, manipulating, and analyzing spatial data. It is a tool which defines an area with respect to features and other relevant thematic delineations. On the other hand, Environmental Impact Assessment in short is both positive and negative impact of an infrastructure on an environment. Impact of infrastructural projects on the environment is an aspect of development that barely get extensive portion of pre-project execution phase and when they do, the effects are most times not implemented to cushion the impact they have on human and the environment. In this research, infrastructural projects like road constructions, water reticulation projects, building constructions, bridge etc. have immense impact on the environment and the people that reside in location of construction. Hence, the need for this research tends to portray the relevance of Environmental Impact assessment in calculating the vulnerability of human and the environment to imbalance necessitated by this infrastructural development and how the use of GIS application can be optimally applied to annul or minimize the effect.Keywords: environmental impact assessment (EIA), geographic information system (GIS), infrastructural projects, environment
Procedia PDF Downloads 5502192 Dynamic Analysis of Double Deck Tunnel
Authors: C. W. Kwak, I. J. Park, D. I. Jang
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The importance of cost-wise effective application and construction is getting increase due to the surge of traffic volume in the metropolitan cities. Accordingly, the necessity of the tunnel has large section becomes more critical. Double deck tunnel can be one of the most appropriate solutions to the necessity. The dynamic stability of double deck tunnel is essential against seismic load since it has large section and connection between perimeter lining and interim slab. In this study, 3-dimensional dynamic numerical analysis was conducted based on the Finite Difference Method to investigate the seismic behavior of double deck tunnel. Seismic joint for dynamic stability and the mitigation of seismic impact on the lining was considered in the modeling and analysis. Consequently, the mitigation of acceleration, lining displacement and stress were verified successfully.Keywords: double deck tunnel, interim slab, 3-dimensional dynamic numerical analysis, seismic joint
Procedia PDF Downloads 3792191 Introducing Future Smart Transport Solution for Women with Disabilities: A Review with Chongqing as the Focal Example
Authors: Xinyi Gao, Xiaoyun Feng, Ruijie Liu, Yumin Xia, Min Shao, Xinqing Wang
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This paper outlines the travel challenges, the absence of society, and studies around disabled women and chooses the Chongqing area as a case study to explore how terrain characteristics and city construction influence our subject's travel choice. It also highlights future transport options and the necessity of addressing the difficult travel position of women with disabilities. This study focuses on the travel demands of women with disabilities, illustrating what their ideal method of travel would be. An analysis of related smart cities like Hong Kong illustrates the aspects to consider in the reconstruction of Chongqing. Finally, relying on current smart city modelling approaches, several design ideas for assistive tools are suggested for the safety of women with disabilities during travel.Keywords: future smart city, disabled women, Chongqing, inclusive design, human-computer interaction
Procedia PDF Downloads 1192190 The Effect of Artificial Intelligence on Real Estate and Construction Marketing
Authors: Michael Saad Thabet Azrek
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Experiential advertising method is an unforgettable revel that remains deeply anchored within the customer's memory. Furthermore, client pleasure is defined as the emotional reaction to the stories provided that relate to precise products or services bought. Consequently, experiential advertising sports can influence the extent of consumer pleasure and loyalty. In this context, they have a look at pursuits to observe the connection between experiential advertising, purchaser satisfaction and loyalty to splendor merchandise in Konya. The outcomes of this examination confirmed that experiential marketing is an important indicator of consumer pride and loyalty, and that experiential advertising and marketing have a large positive impact on patron satisfaction and loyalty.Keywords: sponsorship, marketing communication theories, marketing communication tools internet, marketing, tourism, tourism management corporate responsibility, employee organizational performance, internal marketing, internal customer experiential marketing, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, social sciences.
Procedia PDF Downloads 292189 Prediction of Alzheimer's Disease Based on Blood Biomarkers and Machine Learning Algorithms
Authors: Man-Yun Liu, Emily Chia-Yu Su
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Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the public health crisis of the 21st century. AD is a degenerative brain disease and the most common cause of dementia, a costly disease on the healthcare system. Unfortunately, the cause of AD is poorly understood, furthermore; the treatments of AD so far can only alleviate symptoms rather cure or stop the progress of the disease. Currently, there are several ways to diagnose AD; medical imaging can be used to distinguish between AD, other dementias, and early onset AD, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Compared with other diagnostic tools, blood (plasma) test has advantages as an approach to population-based disease screening because it is simpler, less invasive also cost effective. In our study, we used blood biomarkers dataset of The Alzheimer’s disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) which was funded by National Institutes of Health (NIH) to do data analysis and develop a prediction model. We used independent analysis of datasets to identify plasma protein biomarkers predicting early onset AD. Firstly, to compare the basic demographic statistics between the cohorts, we used SAS Enterprise Guide to do data preprocessing and statistical analysis. Secondly, we used logistic regression, neural network, decision tree to validate biomarkers by SAS Enterprise Miner. This study generated data from ADNI, contained 146 blood biomarkers from 566 participants. Participants include cognitive normal (healthy), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and patient suffered Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Participants’ samples were separated into two groups, healthy and MCI, healthy and AD, respectively. We used the two groups to compare important biomarkers of AD and MCI. In preprocessing, we used a t-test to filter 41/47 features between the two groups (healthy and AD, healthy and MCI) before using machine learning algorithms. Then we have built model with 4 machine learning methods, the best AUC of two groups separately are 0.991/0.709. We want to stress the importance that the simple, less invasive, common blood (plasma) test may also early diagnose AD. As our opinion, the result will provide evidence that blood-based biomarkers might be an alternative diagnostics tool before further examination with CSF and medical imaging. A comprehensive study on the differences in blood-based biomarkers between AD patients and healthy subjects is warranted. Early detection of AD progression will allow physicians the opportunity for early intervention and treatment.Keywords: Alzheimer's disease, blood-based biomarkers, diagnostics, early detection, machine learning
Procedia PDF Downloads 3202188 Evaluation of Applicability of High Strength Stirrup for Prestressed Concrete Members
Authors: J.-Y. Lee, H.-S. Lim, S.-E. Kim
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Recently, the use of high-strength materials is increasing as the construction of large structures and high-rise structures increases. This paper presents an analysis of the shear behavior of prestressed concrete members with various types of materials by simulating a finite element (FE) analysis. The analytical results indicated that the shear strength and shear failure mode were strongly influenced by not only the shear reinforcement ratio but also the yield strength of shear reinforcement and the compressive strength of concrete. Though the yield strength of shear reinforcement increased the shear strength of prestressed concrete members, there was a limit to the increase in strength because of the change of shear failure modes. According to the results of FE analysis on various parameters, the maximum yield strength of the steel stirrup that can be applied to prestressed concrete members was about 860 MPa.Keywords: prestressed concrete members, high strength reinforcing bars, high strength concrete, shear behavior
Procedia PDF Downloads 2982187 Solar Technology: A Review of Government-Sponsored Green Energy
Authors: Christopher Battle
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The pursuit of a sustainable future is dependent on the ability of governments from the national to municipal level. The politics of energy and the development of state-sponsored photovoltaic cell expansion can nebulize in several ways based on a state or nation's physical and human geography. This study conducts a comparative analysis of the energy and solar program of Turkey, Pennsylvania, and Philadelphia. The study aims to assess the city of Philadelphia's solar policies in contrast with both its political history and the photovoltaic programs of Turkey, a world leader in solar system development, and Pennsylvania's history of energy regulation. This comparative study found that after hundreds of bills and regulations over decades, sustainable energy development in affordable housing and new construction is the next phase of State-Sponsored Green energy for the city of Philadelphia.Keywords: Turkey, solar power, Philadelphia, affordable energy development
Procedia PDF Downloads 942186 Investigating Causes of Pavement Deterioration in Khartoum State, Sudan
Authors: Magdi Mohamed Eltayeb Zumrawi
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It is quite essential to investigate the causes of pavement deterioration in order to select the proper maintenance technique. The objective of this study was to identify factors cause deterioration of recently constructed roads in Khartoum state. A comprehensive literature concerning the factors of road deterioration, common road defects and their causes were reviewed. Three major road projects with different deterioration reasons were selected for this study. The investigation involved field survey and laboratory testing on those projects to examine the existing pavement conditions. The results revealed that the roads investigated experienced severe failures in the forms of cracks, potholes and rutting in the wheel path. The causes of those failures were found mainly linked to poor drainage, traffic overloading, expansive subgrade soils and the use of low quality materials in construction. Based on the results, recommendations were provided to help highway engineers in selecting the most effective repair techniques for specific kinds of distresses.Keywords: pavement, deterioration, causes, failures
Procedia PDF Downloads 3522185 Drug Therapy Problem and Its Contributing Factors among Pediatric Patients with Infectious Diseases Admitted to Jimma University Medical Center, South West Ethiopia: Prospective Observational Study
Authors: Desalegn Feyissa Desu
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Drug therapy problem is a significant challenge to provide high quality health care service for the patients. It is associated with morbidity, mortality, increased hospital stay, and reduced quality of life. Moreover, pediatric patients are quite susceptible to drug therapy problems. Thus this study aimed to assess drug therapy problem and its contributing factors among pediatric patients diagnosed with infectious disease admitted to pediatric ward of Jimma university medical center, from April 1 to June 30, 2018. Prospective observational study was conducted among pediatric patients with infectious disease admitted from April 01 to June 30, 2018. Drug therapy problems were identified by using Cipolle’s and strand’s drug related problem classification method. Patient’s written informed consent was obtained after explaining the purpose of the study. Patient’s specific data were collected using structured questionnaire. Data were entered into Epi data version 4.0.2 and then exported to statistical software package version 21.0 for analysis. To identify predictors of drug therapy problems occurrence, multiple stepwise backward logistic regression analysis was done. The 95% CI was used to show the accuracy of data analysis and statistical significance was considered at p-value < 0.05. A total of 304 pediatric patients were included in the study. Of these, 226(74.3%) patients had at least one drug therapy problem during their hospital stay. A total of 356 drug therapy problems were identified among two hundred twenty six patients. Non-compliance (28.65%) and dose too low (27.53%) were the most common type of drug related problems while disease comorbidity [AOR=3.39, 95% CI= (1.89-6.08)], Polypharmacy [AOR=3.16, 95% CI= (1.61-6.20)] and more than six days stay in hospital [AOR=3.37, 95% CI= (1.71-6.64) were independent predictors of drug therapy problem occurrence. Drug therapy problems were common in pediatric patients with infectious disease in the study area. Presence of comorbidity, polypharmacy and prolonged hospital stay were the predictors of drug therapy problem in study area. Therefore, to overcome the significant gaps in pediatric pharmaceutical care, clinical pharmacists, Pediatricians, and other health care professionals have to work in collaboration.Keywords: drug therapy problem, pediatric, infectious disease, Ethiopia
Procedia PDF Downloads 1522184 Genealogy of a Building: Tarikhaneh
Authors: Mohadeseh Salari Sardari
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As Muslims conquered Iran, their first impression was to show their power over others. They needed mosques for their multiple needs like prayer, tax collecting, law-making, hearing of law cases, and most important of all, as a seat of government. Sometimes they did not have time to build mosques and only began to build them after years of ruling. Many religious buildings with pre-Islamic past survived in Iran, most of the fire temples in cities were destroyed or changed radically, but some deserted temples outside of cities survived, and based on these surviving buildings, we can trace changes in fire temples inside cities and discover how they were adapted and expanded to be mosques. In addition, there are some other buildings with doubts about their date of construction. These buildings might be transitional buildings between two different historical eras or might be an old building with a slight change. One of these interesting buildings is Tarikhaneh, a small, simple yet striking building. By tracing Tarikhaneh’s roots in other buildings like fire temples and secular buildings existed before Arab invasion, it can be better understood how the original form of Tatikhaneh was.Keywords: iranian architecture, early mosques, fire temples, adaptation and reuse
Procedia PDF Downloads 1362183 Contractor Selection by Using Analytical Network Process
Authors: Badr A. Al-Jehani
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Nowadays, contractor selection is a critical activity of the project owner. Selecting the right contractor is essential to the project manager for the success of the project, and this cab happens by using the proper selecting method. Traditionally, the contractor is being selected based on his offered bid price. This approach focuses only on the price factor and forgetting other essential factors for the success of the project. In this research paper, the Analytic Network Process (ANP) method is used as a decision tool model to select the most appropriate contractor. This decision-making method can help the clients who work in the construction industry to identify contractors who are capable of delivering satisfactory outcomes. Moreover, this research paper provides a case study of selecting the proper contractor among three contractors by using ANP method. The case study identifies and computes the relative weight of the eight criteria and eleven sub-criteria using a questionnaire.Keywords: contractor selection, project management, decision-making, bidding
Procedia PDF Downloads 872182 Characteristics of Cement Pastes Incorporating Different Amounts of Waste Cellular Concrete Powder
Authors: Mohammed Abed, Rita Nemes
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In this study different amounts of waste cellular concrete powder (WCCP) as replacement of cement have been investigated as an attempt to produce green binder, which is useful for sustainable construction applications. From zero to up to 60% of WCCP by mass replacement amounts of cement has been conducted. Consistency, compressive strength, bending strength and the activity index of WCCP through seven to ninety days old specimens have been examined, where the optimum WCCP replacement was up to 30%, depending on which the activity index still increased to the end of test period (90 days) and this could be an evidence for its continuity to increase for longer age. Also up to 30% of WCCP increased the bending strength to be higher than the control one. The main point in the present study that there is a possibility of replacing cement by 30% of WCCP, however, it is preferable to be less than this amount.Keywords: cellular concrete powder, waste cellular concrete powder (WCCP), supplementary cementatious material, SCM, activity index, mechanical properties
Procedia PDF Downloads 2162181 Impact Load Response of Light Rail Train Rail Guard
Authors: Eyob Hundessa Gose
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Nowadays, it is obviously known that the construction of different infrastructures is one measurement of the development of a country; infrastructures like buildings, bridges, roads, and railways are among them. In the capital city of Ethiopia, the so-called Addis Ababa, the Light Rail Train (LRT), was built Four years ago to satisfy the demand for transportation among the people in the city. The lane of the Train and vehicle separation Media was built with a curb and rail guard installation system to show the right-of-way and for protection of vehicles entering the Train Lane, but this Rail guard fails easily when impacted by vehicles and found that the impact load response of the Rail guard is weak and the Rail guard cannot withstand impact load. This study investigates the effect of variation of parameters such as vehicle speed and different mass effects and assesses the failure mode FRP and Steel reinforcement bar rail guards of deflection and damage state.Keywords: impact load, fiber reinforced polymer, rail guard, LS-DYNA
Procedia PDF Downloads 572180 Optimal Site Selection for Temporary Housing regarding Disaster Management Case Study: Tehran Municipality (No.6)
Authors: Ghazaleh Monazami Tehrani, Zhamak Monazami Tehrani, Raziyeh Hadavand
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Optimal site selection for temporary housing is one of the most important issues in crisis management. In this research, district six of Tehran city with high frequency and geographical distribution of earthquakes has been selected as a case study for positioning temporary housing after a probable earthquake. For achieving this goal this study tries to identify and evaluate distribution of location according to some standards such as compatible and incompatible urban land uses with utility of GIS and AHP. The results of this study show the most susceptible parts of this region in the center. According to the maps, north eastern part of Kordestan, Shaheed Gomnam intersection possesses the highest pixels value in terms of areal extent, therefore these places are recommended as an optimum site location for construction of emergency evacuation base.Keywords: optimal site selection, temporary housing , crisis management, AHP, GIS
Procedia PDF Downloads 2532179 Towards Real-Time Classification of Finger Movement Direction Using Encephalography Independent Components
Authors: Mohamed Mounir Tellache, Hiroyuki Kambara, Yasuharu Koike, Makoto Miyakoshi, Natsue Yoshimura
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This study explores the practicality of using electroencephalographic (EEG) independent components to predict eight-direction finger movements in pseudo-real-time. Six healthy participants with individual-head MRI images performed finger movements in eight directions with two different arm configurations. The analysis was performed in two stages. The first stage consisted of using independent component analysis (ICA) to separate the signals representing brain activity from non-brain activity signals and to obtain the unmixing matrix. The resulting independent components (ICs) were checked, and those reflecting brain-activity were selected. Finally, the time series of the selected ICs were used to predict eight finger-movement directions using Sparse Logistic Regression (SLR). The second stage consisted of using the previously obtained unmixing matrix, the selected ICs, and the model obtained by applying SLR to classify a different EEG dataset. This method was applied to two different settings, namely the single-participant level and the group-level. For the single-participant level, the EEG dataset used in the first stage and the EEG dataset used in the second stage originated from the same participant. For the group-level, the EEG datasets used in the first stage were constructed by temporally concatenating each combination without repetition of the EEG datasets of five participants out of six, whereas the EEG dataset used in the second stage originated from the remaining participants. The average test classification results across datasets (mean ± S.D.) were 38.62 ± 8.36% for the single-participant, which was significantly higher than the chance level (12.50 ± 0.01%), and 27.26 ± 4.39% for the group-level which was also significantly higher than the chance level (12.49% ± 0.01%). The classification accuracy within [–45°, 45°] of the true direction is 70.03 ± 8.14% for single-participant and 62.63 ± 6.07% for group-level which may be promising for some real-life applications. Clustering and contribution analyses further revealed the brain regions involved in finger movement and the temporal aspect of their contribution to the classification. These results showed the possibility of using the ICA-based method in combination with other methods to build a real-time system to control prostheses.Keywords: brain-computer interface, electroencephalography, finger motion decoding, independent component analysis, pseudo real-time motion decoding
Procedia PDF Downloads 1372178 Developing Three-Dimensional Digital Image Correlation Method to Detect the Crack Variation at the Joint of Weld Steel Plate
Authors: Ming-Hsiang Shih, Wen-Pei Sung, Shih-Heng Tung
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The purposes of hydraulic gate are to maintain the functions of storing and draining water. It bears long-term hydraulic pressure and earthquake force and is very important for reservoir and waterpower plant. The high tensile strength of steel plate is used as constructional material of hydraulic gate. The cracks and rusts, induced by the defects of material, bad construction and seismic excitation and under water respectively, thus, the mechanics phenomena of gate with crack are probing into the cause of stress concentration, induced high crack increase rate, affect the safety and usage of hydroelectric power plant. Stress distribution analysis is a very important and essential surveying technique to analyze bi-material and singular point problems. The finite difference infinitely small element method has been demonstrated, suitable for analyzing the buckling phenomena of welding seam and steel plate with crack. Especially, this method can easily analyze the singularity of kink crack. Nevertheless, the construction form and deformation shape of some gates are three-dimensional system. Therefore, the three-dimensional Digital Image Correlation (DIC) has been developed and applied to analyze the strain variation of steel plate with crack at weld joint. The proposed Digital image correlation (DIC) technique is an only non-contact method for measuring the variation of test object. According to rapid development of digital camera, the cost of this digital image correlation technique has been reduced. Otherwise, this DIC method provides with the advantages of widely practical application of indoor test and field test without the restriction on the size of test object. Thus, the research purpose of this research is to develop and apply this technique to monitor mechanics crack variations of weld steel hydraulic gate and its conformation under action of loading. The imagines can be picked from real time monitoring process to analyze the strain change of each loading stage. The proposed 3-Dimensional digital image correlation method, developed in the study, is applied to analyze the post-buckling phenomenon and buckling tendency of welded steel plate with crack. Then, the stress intensity of 3-dimensional analysis of different materials and enhanced materials in steel plate has been analyzed in this paper. The test results show that this proposed three-dimensional DIC method can precisely detect the crack variation of welded steel plate under different loading stages. Especially, this proposed DIC method can detect and identify the crack position and the other flaws of the welded steel plate that the traditional test methods hardly detect these kind phenomena. Therefore, this proposed three-dimensional DIC method can apply to observe the mechanics phenomena of composite materials subjected to loading and operating.Keywords: welded steel plate, crack variation, three-dimensional digital image correlation (DIC), crack stel plate
Procedia PDF Downloads 5182177 Zero-Knowledge Proof-of-Reserve: A Confidential Approach to Cryptocurrency Asset Verification
Authors: Sam Ng, Lewis Leighton, Sam Atkinson, Carson Yan, Landan Hu, Leslie Cheung, Brian Yap, Kent Lung, Ketat Sarakune
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This paper introduces a method for verifying cryptocurrency reserves that balances the need for both transparency and data confidentiality. Our methodology employs cryptographic techniques, including Merkle Trees, Bulletproof, and zkSnark, to verify that total assets equal or exceed total liabilities, represented by customer funds. Importantly, this verification is achieved without disclosing sensitive information such as the total asset value, customer count, or cold wallet addresses. We delve into the construction and implementation of this methodology. While the system is robust and scalable, we also identify areas for potential enhancements to improve its efficiency and versatility. As the digital asset landscape continues to evolve, our approach provides a solid foundation for ensuring continued trust and security in digital asset platforms.Keywords: cryptocurrency, crypto-currency, proof-of-reserve, por, zero-knowledge, ZKP
Procedia PDF Downloads 682176 Mechanical Study Printed Circuit Boards Bonding for Jefferson Laboratory Detector
Authors: F. Noto, F. De Persio, V. Bellini, G. Costa. F. Mammoliti, F. Meddi, C. Sutera, G. M. Urcioli
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One plane X and one plane Y of silicon microstrip detectors will constitute the front part of the Super Bigbite Spectrometer that is under construction and that will be installed in the experimental Hall A of the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Laboratory), located in Newport News, Virgina, USA. Each plane will be made up by two nearly identical, 300 μm thick, 10 cm x 10.3 cm wide silicon microstrip detectors with 50 um pitch, whose electronic signals will be transferred to the front-end electronic based on APV25 chips through C-shaped FR4 Printed Circuit Boards (PCB). A total of about 10000 strips are read-out. This paper treats the optimization of the detector support structure, the materials used through a finite element simulation. A very important aspect of the study will also cover the optimization of the bonding parameters between detector and electronics.Keywords: FEM analysis, bonding, SBS tracker, mechanical structure
Procedia PDF Downloads 337