Search results for: building vulnerability

Authors: Kenny Onayemi

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In an era where academic institutions increasingly rely on information technology, the security of academic networks has emerged as a paramount concern. This comprehensive study delves into the effectiveness of security practices, including network mapping, vulnerability scanning, and penetration testing, within academic networks. Leveraging data from surveys administered to faculty, staff, IT professionals and IT students in the university, the study assesses their familiarity with these practices, perceived effectiveness, and frequency of implementation. The findings reveal that a significant portion of respondents exhibit a strong understanding of network mapping, vulnerability scanning, and penetration testing, highlighting the presence of knowledgeable professionals within academic institutions. Additionally, active scanning using network scanning tools and automated vulnerability scanning tools emerge as highly effective methods. However, concerns arise as the respondents show that the academic institutions conduct these practices rarely or never. Notably, many respondents have reported significant vulnerabilities or security incidents through these security measures within their institution. This study concludes with recommendations to enhance network security awareness and practices among faculty, staff, IT personnel, and students, ultimately fortifying the security posture of academic networks in the digital age.

Keywords: network security, academic networks, vulnerability scanning, penetration testing, information security

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Authors: Benhammadi Hocine, Chaffai Hicham

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Urban development is often dependent on adequate land for expansion, except that sometimes these areas have vulnerability. This is the case of karst regions characterized by carbonate geological formations marked by the presence of cavities and cracks. The impact of climate variability in Cheria area marked by a growing shortage of rainfall, the impact resulted in the development of the vulnerability of these structures. This vulnerability has led to the appearance of collapse phenomena as well in both agricultural and urban areas. Two phenomena have emerged to explain the collapses, the first is assigned a filling process in the cavities, and the second is due to a weakening of the resistance that collapses limestone slab shear phenomenon. In urban areas, the weight of the buildings has increased the load on the limestone slab and accelerated the collapse. The analysis of the environmental process is in the context of our modest work, after which we indicate the appropriate methods for management policy of urban expansion. This management more preventive (upstream), much less expensive than remedial solutions (downstream) needed after the event and sometimes ineffective.

Keywords: Cheria, urban, climate variability, vulnerability karst collapse, extension, management

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Authors: Muhammad Afzal, Shahbaz Mushtaq, Duc-Anh-An-Vo, Kathryn Reardon Smith, Thanh Ma

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Climate change has become one of the most challenging environmental issues in the 21st century. Climate change-induced natural disasters, especially floods, are the major factors of livelihood vulnerability, impacting millions of individuals worldwide. Evaluating and mitigating the effects of floods requires an in-depth understanding of the relationship between vulnerability and livelihood capital assets. Using an integrated approach, sustainable livelihood framework, and system thinking approach, the study developed a conceptual model of a generalized livelihood system in District Rajanpur, Pakistan. The model visualizes the livelihood vulnerability system as a whole and identifies the key feedback loops likely to influence the livelihood vulnerability. The study suggests that such conceptual models provide effective communication and understanding tools to stakeholders and decision-makers to anticipate the problem and design appropriate policies. It can also serve as an evaluation technique for rural livelihood policy and identify key systematic interventions. The key finding of the study reveals that household income, health, and education are the major factors behind the livelihood vulnerability of the rural poor of District Rajanpur. The Pakistani government tried to reduce the livelihood vulnerability of the region through different income, health, and education programs, but still, many changes are required to make these programs more effective especially during the flood times. The government provided only cash to vulnerable and marginalized families through income support programs, but this study suggests that along with the cash, the government must provide seed storage facilities and access to crop insurance to the farmers. Similarly, the government should establish basic health units in villages and frequent visits of medical mobile vans should be arranged with advanced medical lab facilities during and after the flood.

Keywords: livelihood vulnerability, rural communities, flood, sustainable livelihood framework, system dynamics, Pakistan

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Authors: T. Dubayova

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Slovak, as well as foreign authors, believe that the influence of non-cognitive factors on a student's academic success or failure is unquestionable. The aim of this paper is to establish a link between the mental vulnerability and coping strategies used by 4^th grade elementary school students in dealing with stressful situations and their academic performance, which was used as a simple quantitative indicator of academic success. The research sample consists of 320 students representing the standard population and 60 students with special education needs (SEN), who were assessed by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) by their teachers and the Children’s Coping Strategies Checklist (CCSC-R1) filled in by themselves. Students with SEN recorded an extraordinarily high frequency of mental vulnerability (34.5 %) than students representing the standard population (7 %). The poorest academic performance of students with SEN was associated with the avoidance behavior displayed during stressful situations. Students of the standard population did not demonstrate this association. Students with SEN are more likely to display mental health problems than students of the standard population. This may be caused by the accumulation of and frequent exposure to situations that they perceive as stressful.

Keywords: coping, mental vulnerability, pupil with special education needs, school performance, school success

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Authors: Liang Weichien

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Without adequate information and mitigation plan for natural disaster, the risk to urban populated areas will increase in the future as populations grow, especially in Taiwan. Taiwan is recognized as the world's high-risk areas, where an average of 5.7 times of floods occur per year should seek to strengthen coherence and consensus in how cities can plan for flood and climate change. Therefore, this study aims at understanding the vulnerability to flooding in Taipei city, Taiwan, by creating indicators and calculating the vulnerability of each study units. The indicators were grouped into sensitivity and adaptive capacity based on the definition of vulnerability of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The indicators were weighted by using Principal Component Analysis. However, current researches were based on the assumption that the composition and influence of the indicators were the same in different areas. This disregarded spatial correlation that might result in inaccurate explanation on local vulnerability. The study used Geographically Weighted Principal Component Analysis by adding geographic weighting matrix as weighting to get the different main flood impact characteristic in different areas. Cross Validation Method and Akaike Information Criterion were used to decide bandwidth and Gaussian Pattern as the bandwidth weight scheme. The ultimate outcome can be used for the reduction of damage potential by integrating the outputs into local mitigation plan and urban planning.

Keywords: flood vulnerability, geographically weighted principal components analysis, GWPCA, highly urbanized area, spatial correlation

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Authors: Xiong Xie, Yuhang Chen

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Vulnerability discovery technology is a significant field of the current. In this paper, a fuzzy framework based on concolic execution has been proposed. Fuzzy test and symbolic execution are widely used in the field of vulnerability discovery technology. But each of them has its own advantages and disadvantages. During the path generation stage, path traversal algorithm based on generation is used to get more accurate path. During the constraint solving stage, dynamic concolic execution is used to avoid the path explosion. If there is external call, the concolic based on function summary is used. Experiments show that the framework can effectively improve the ability of triggering vulnerabilities and code coverage.

Keywords: concolic execution, constraint solving, fuzzy test, vulnerability discovery

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Authors: Geraldine G. Granados Vazquez

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Every human being is exposed to the risk of dying; wherein some of them are more susceptible than others depending on the cause. Therefore, the cause could be the hazard to die that a group or individual has, making this irreversible damage the condition of vulnerability. Risk is a dynamic concept; which means that it depends on the environmental, social, economic and political conditions. Thus vulnerability may only be evaluated in terms of relative parameters. This research is focusing specifically on building a model that evaluate the risk or propensity of death in past urban societies in connection with the everyday life of individuals, considering that death can be a consequence of two coexisting issues: hazard and the deterioration of the resistance to destruction. One of the most important discussions in bioarchaeology refers to health and life conditions in ancient groups; the researchers are looking for more flexible models that evaluate these topics. In that way, this research proposes a theoretical-methodological model that assess the vulnerability of death in past urban groups. This model pretends to be useful to evaluate the risk of death, considering their sociohistorical context, and their intrinsic biological features. This theoretical and methodological model, propose four areas to assess vulnerability. The first three areas use statistical methods or quantitative analysis. While the last and fourth area, which corresponds to the embodiment, is based on qualitative analysis. The four areas and their techniques proposed are a) Demographic dynamics. From the distribution of age at the time of death, the analysis of mortality will be performed using life tables. From here, four aspects may be inferred: population structure, fertility, mortality-survival, and productivity-migration, b) Frailty. Selective mortality and heterogeneity in frailty can be assessed through the relationship between characteristics and the age at death. There are two indicators used in contemporary populations to evaluate stress: height and linear enamel hypoplasias. Height estimates may account for the individual’s nutrition and health history in specific groups; while enamel hypoplasias are an account of the individual’s first years of life, c) Inequality. Space reflects various sectors of society, also in ancient cities. In general terms, the spatial analysis uses measures of association to show the relationship between frail variables and space, d) Embodiment. The story of everyone leaves some evidence on the body, even in the bones. That led us to think about the dynamic individual's relations in terms of time and space; consequently, the micro analysis of persons will assess vulnerability from the everyday life, where the symbolic meaning also plays a major role. In sum, using some Mesoamerica examples, as study cases, this research demonstrates that not only the intrinsic characteristics related to the age and sex of individuals are conducive to vulnerability, but also the social and historical context that determines their state of frailty before death. An attenuating factor for past groups is that some basic aspects –such as the role they played in everyday life– escape our comprehension, and are still under discussion.

Keywords: bioarchaeology, frailty, Mesoamerica, vulnerability

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Authors: Johann Van Niekerk

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The disciplines of conducting (instrumental or choral) and of singing presume a willingness toward an open posture and, in many cases, demand it for effective communication and technique. Yet, this very openness, with the "spread-eagle" gesture as an extreme, is oftentimes counterintuitive for musicians and within the trajectory of human evolution. Conversely, it is in this very gesture of "taking up space" that confidence-gaining techniques such as the popular "power pose" are based. This paper consists primarily of a literature review, exploring the topics of physical openness and vulnerability, considering the semiotics of the "spread-eagle" and its accompanying letter X. A major finding of this research is the discrepancy between evolutionary instinct towards physical self-protection and “folding in” and the demands of the discipline of physical and gestural openness, expansiveness and vulnerability. A secondary finding is ways in which encouragement of confidence-gaining techniques may be more effective in obtaining the required results than insistence on vulnerability, which is influenced by various cultural contexts and socialization. Choral conductors and music educators are constantly seeking ways to promote engagement and healthy singing. Much of the information and direction toward this goal is gleaned by students from conducting gestures and other pedagogies employed in the rehearsal. The findings of this research provide yet another avenue toward reaching the goals required for sufficient and effective teaching and artistry on the part of instructors and students alike.

Keywords: conducting, gesture, music, pedagogy, posture, vulnerability

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Authors: Amritee Bora, B. S. Mipun

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Land degradation is often used to describe the land environmental phenomena that reduce land’s original productivity both qualitatively and quantitatively. The study of land degradation vulnerability primarily deals with “Environmentally Sensitive Areas” (ESA) and the amount of topsoil loss due to erosion. In many studies, it is observed that the assessment of the existing status of land degradation is used to represent the vulnerability. Moreover, it is also noticed that in most studies, the primary emphasis of land degradation vulnerability is to assess its sensitivity to soil erosion only. However, the concept of land degradation vulnerability can have different objectives depending upon the perspective of the study. It shows the extent to which changes in land use land cover can imprint their effect on the land. In other words, it represents the susceptibility of a piece of land to degrade its productive quality permanently or in the long run. It is also important to mention that the vulnerability of land degradation is not a single factor outcome. It is a probability assessment to evaluate the status of land degradation and needs to consider both biophysical and human induce parameters. To avoid the complexity of the previous models in this regard, the present study has emphasized on to generate a simplified model to assess the land degradation vulnerability in terms of its current human population pressure, land use practices, and existing biophysical conditions. It is a “Mixed-Method” termed as the land degradation vulnerability index (LDVi). It was originally inspired by the MEDALUS model (Mediterranean Desertification and Land Use), 1999, and Farazadeh’s 2007 revised version of it. It has followed the guidelines of Space Application Center, Ahmedabad / Indian Space Research Organization for land degradation vulnerability. The model integrates the climatic index (Ci), vegetation index (Vi), erosion index (Ei), land utilization index (Li), population pressure index (Pi), and cover management index (CMi) by giving equal weightage to each parameter. The final result shows that the very high vulnerable zone primarily indicates three (3) prominent circumstances; land under continuous population pressure, high concentration of human settlement, and high amount of topsoil loss due to surface runoff within the study sites. As all the parameters of the model are amalgamated with equal weightage further with the help of regression analysis, the LDVi model also provides a strong grasp of each parameter and how far they are competent to trigger the land degradation process.

Keywords: population pressure, land utilization, soil erosion, land degradation vulnerability

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Authors: Atul K. Desai, Jigar K. Sevalia, Sandip A. Vasanwala

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When a building is located in an urban area, it is exposed to a wind of different characteristics then wind over an open terrain. This is development of turbulent wake region behind an upstream building. The interaction with upstream building can produce significant changes in the response of the tall building. Here, in this paper, an attempt has been made to study wind induced interference effects on tall building. In order to study wind induced interference effect (IF) on Tall Building, initially a tall building (which is termed as Principal Building now on wards) with square plan shape has been considered with different Height to Width Ratio and total drag force is obtained considering different terrain conditions as well as different incident wind direction. Then total drag force on Principal Building is obtained by considering adjacent building which is termed as Interfering Building now on wards with different terrain conditions and incident wind angle. To execute study, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Code namely Fluent and Gambit have been used.

Keywords: computational fluid dynamics, tall building, turbulent, wake region, wind

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Authors: Olufemi Oyedele

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Building collapse (BC) in Nigeria is becoming a regular occurrence, each recording great casualties in the number of lives and materials lost. Building collapse is a situation where building which has been completed and occupied, completed but not occupied or under construction, collapses on its own due to action or inaction of man or due to natural event like earthquake, storm, flooding, tsunami or wildfire. It is different from building demolition. There are various causes of building collapse and each case requires expert judgment to decide the cause of its collapse. Rate of building collapse is a reflection of the level of organization and control of building activities and degree of sophistication of the construction professionals in a country. This study explored the use of case study by examining the causes of six (6) collapsed buildings (CB) across Nigeria. Samples of materials from the sites of the collapsed buildings were taken for testing and analysis, while critical observations were made at the sites to note the conditions of the ground (building base). The study found out that majority of the building collapses in Nigeria were due to poor workmanship, sub-standard building materials, followed by bad building base and poor design. The National Building Code 2006 is not effective due to lack of enforcement and the Physical Development Departments of states and Federal Capital Territory are just mere agents of corruption allowing all types of construction without building approvals.

Keywords: building collapse, concrete tests, differential settlement, integrity test, quality control

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Authors: S. Vavias, T. R. Brewer, T. S. Farewell

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Coastal floods have been identified as an important natural hazard that can cause significant damage to the populated built-up areas, related infrastructure and also ecosystems and habitats. This study attempts to fill the gap associated with the development of preliminary assessments of coastal flood vulnerability for compliance with the EU Directive on the Assessment and Management of Flood Risks (2007/60/EC). In this context, a methodology has been created by taking into account three major parameters; the maximum wave run-up modelled from historical weather observations, the highest tide according to historic time series, and the sea level rise projections due to climate change. A high resolution digital terrain model (DTM) derived from LIDAR data has been used to integrate the estimated flood events in a GIS environment. The flood vulnerability map created shows potential risk areas and can play a crucial role in the coastal zone planning process. The proposed method has the potential to be a powerful tool for policy and decision makers for spatial planning and strategic management.

Keywords: coastal floods, vulnerability mapping, climate change, extreme weather events

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Authors: Pubudu K. Hitigala Kaluarachchilage, Champike Attanayake, Sasith Rajasooriya, Chris P. Tsokos

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Operating system (OS) security is a key component of computer security. Assessing and improving OSs strength to resist against vulnerabilities and attacks is a mandatory requirement given the rate of new vulnerabilities discovered and attacks occurring. Frequency and the number of different kinds of vulnerabilities found in an OS can be considered an index of its information security level. In the present study five mostly used OSs, Microsoft Windows (windows 7, windows 8 and windows 10), Apple’s Mac and Linux are assessed for their discovered vulnerabilities and the risk associated with each. Each discovered and reported vulnerability has an exploitability score assigned in CVSS score of the national vulnerability database. In this study the risk from vulnerabilities in each of the five Operating Systems is compared. Risk Indexes used are developed based on the Markov model to evaluate the risk of each vulnerability. Statistical methodology and underlying mathematical approach is described. Initially, parametric procedures are conducted and measured. There were, however, violations of some statistical assumptions observed. Therefore the need for non-parametric approaches was recognized. 6838 vulnerabilities recorded were considered in the analysis. According to the risk associated with all the vulnerabilities considered, it was found that there is a statistically significant difference among average risk levels for some operating systems, indicating that according to our method some operating systems have been more risk vulnerable than others given the assumptions and limitations. Relevant test results revealing a statistically significant difference in the Risk levels of different OSs are presented.

Keywords: cybersecurity, Markov chain, non-parametric analysis, vulnerability, operating system

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Authors: Yan Lyu, Yiqun Pan, Zhizhong Huang

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In the design stage of a new building, the energy model of this building is often required for the analysis of the performance on energy efficiency. In practice, a certain degree of geometric simplification should be done in the establishment of building energy models, since the detailed geometric features of a real building are hard to be described perfectly in most energy simulation engine, such as ESP-r, eQuest or EnergyPlus. Actually, the detailed description is not necessary when the result with extremely high accuracy is not demanded. Therefore, this paper analyzed the relationship between the error of the simulation result from building energy models and the geometric simplification of the models. Finally, the following two parameters are selected as the indices to characterize the geometric feature of in building energy simulation: the southward projected area and total side surface area of the building, Based on the parameterization method, the simplification from an arbitrary column building to a typical shape (a cuboid) building can be made for energy modeling. The result in this study indicates that this simplification would only lead to the error that is less than 7% for those buildings with the ratio of southward projection length to total perimeter of the bottom of 0.25~0.35, which can cover most situations.

Keywords: building energy model, simulation, geometric simplification, design, regression

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Authors: Sally Naji, Julie Gwilliam

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Climate change remains a challenging matter for the human and the built environment in the 21st century, where the need to consider adaptation to climate change in the development process is paramount. However, there remains a lack of information regarding how we should prepare responses to this issue, such as through developing organized and sophisticated tools enabling the adaptation process. This study aims to build a systematic framework approach to investigate the potentials that Neighborhood Sustainability Assessment tools (NSA) might offer in enabling both the analysis of the emerging adaptive capacity to climate change. The analysis of the framework presented in this paper aims to discuss this issue in three main phases. The first part attempts to link sustainability and climate change, in the context of adaptive capacity. It is argued that in deciding to promote sustainability in the context of climate change, both the resilience and vulnerability processes become central. However, there is still a gap in the current literature regarding how the sustainable development process can respond to climate change. As well as how the resilience of practical strategies might be evaluated. It is suggested that the integration of the sustainability assessment processes with both the resilience thinking process, and vulnerability might provide important components for addressing the adaptive capacity to climate change. A critical review of existing literature is presented illustrating the current lack of work in this field, integrating these three concepts in the context of addressing the adaptive capacity to climate change. The second part aims to identify the most appropriate scale at which to address the built environment for the climate change adaptation. It is suggested that the neighborhood scale can be considered as more suitable than either the building or urban scales. It then presents the example of NSAs, and discusses the need to explore their potential role in promoting the adaptive capacity to climate change. The third part of the framework presents a comparison among three example NSAs, BREEAM Communities, LEED-ND, and CASBEE-UD. These three tools have been selected as the most developed and comprehensive assessment tools that are currently available for the neighborhood scale. This study concludes that NSAs are likely to present the basis for an organized framework to address the practical process for analyzing and yet promoting Adaptive Capacity to Climate Change. It is further argued that vulnerability (exposure & sensitivity) and resilience (Interdependence & Recovery) form essential aspects to be addressed in the future assessment of NSA’s capability to adapt to both short and long term climate change impacts. Finally, it is acknowledged that further work is now required to understand impact assessment in terms of the range of physical sectors (Water, Energy, Transportation, Building, Land Use and Ecosystems), Actor and stakeholder engagement as well as a detailed evaluation of the NSA indicators, together with a barriers diagnosis process.

Keywords: adaptive capacity, climate change, NSA tools, resilience, sustainability

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Authors: Bahareh Montakhabi

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Earthquake is known as one of the deadliest natural disasters, with a high potential for damage to life and property. Some of Iran's cities were completely destroyed after major earthquakes, and the people of the region suffered a lot of mental, financial and psychological damage. Tehran is one of the cities located on the fault line. According to experts, the only city that could be severely damaged by a moderate earthquake in Earthquake Engineering Intensity Scale (EEIS) (70% destruction) is Tehran because Tehran is built precisely on the fault. Seismic risk assessment (SRA) of cities in the scale of urban areas and neighborhoods is the first phase of the earthquake crisis management process, which can provide the information required to make optimal use of available resources and facilities in order to reduce the destructive effects and consequences of an earthquake. This study has investigated strategies to promote safety and reduce the vulnerability of worn-out urban textures in the District 12 of Tehran to the potential risk of earthquake aimed at prioritizing the factors affecting the vulnerability of worn-out urban textures to earthquake crises and how to reduce them, using the analytical-exploratory method, analytical hierarchy process (AHP), Expert choice and SWOT technique. The results of SWAT and AHP analysis of the vulnerability of the worn-out textures of District 12 to internal threats (1.70) and external threats (2.40) indicate weak safety of the textures of District 12 regarding internal and external factors and a high possibility of damage.

Keywords: risk management, vulnerability, worn-out textures, earthquake

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Authors: M. Alwetaishi, Giulia Sonetti

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It is architecturally accepted that building form and design is considered as one of the most important aspects in affecting indoor temperature. The total area of building plan might be identical, but the design will have a major influence on the total area of external walls. This will have a clear impact on the amount of heat exchange with outdoor. Moreover, it will affect the position and area of glazing system. This has not received enough consideration in research by the specialists, since most of the publications are highlighting the impact of building envelope in terms of physical heat transfer in buildings. This research will investigate the impact of orientation of various building forms in various climatic regions. It will be concluded that orientation and glazing to wall ratio were recognized to be the most effective variables despite the shape of the building. However, linear ad radial forms were found more appropriate shapes almost across the continent.

Keywords: architectural building design, building form, building design in different climate, indoor air temperature

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Authors: Emhemed Shaklawoon, Ibrahim Althomali

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We propose that we identify different defense mechanisms that were used before the introduction of the cloud and compare if their protection mechanisms are still valuable and to what degree. Note that in order to defend against vulnerability, we must know how this vulnerability is abused in an attack. Only then, we will be able to recognize if it is easier or harder to defend against cyber attacks.

Keywords: cloud computing, privacy, cyber attacks, defend the cloud

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Authors: Richard J. Sobelsohn

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Green Building and Sustainable Development help fight climate change, and protects the ozone, animal habitats, air quality, and ground water. The myriad of reasons to go Green has multiplied to the point that a developer that is building a ground-up or renovating/retrofitting a property has a plethora of choices to get to the green goal post. Sustainability not affects the bottom line but satisfies corporate mandates (ESG), consumer demand, market requirements, and the many laws dictating green building practices. The good news is that there are many paths a property owner can take to become green. The bad news is that there are many paths a property owner can take to become green, and they need to choose which direction to take. Certification of a building used to be the highest achievement in the Green building world. Now there are so many variables and laws with which a property owner must comply, and the legal analysis has mushroomed. Operation and Maintenance have also become one of the most important functions for a prudent Green Building owner. So adding to the “development/retrofit” parties involved in the sustainable building legal world, we now need to include all those people who keep the building green, and there are a lot of them!

Keywords: green building, sustainable development, legal issues, greenwashing, green cleaning, compliance, ESQ

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Authors: Diana Reckien

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Vulnerability assessments are increasingly used to support policy-making in complex environments, like urban areas. Usually, vulnerability studies include the construction of aggregate (sub-) indices and the subsequent mapping of indices across an area of interest. Vulnerability studies show a couple of advantages: they are great communication tools, can inform a wider general debate about environmental issues, and can help allocating and efficiently targeting scarce resources for adaptation policy and planning. However, they also have a number of challenges: Vulnerability assessments are constructed on the basis of a wide range of methodologies and there is no single framework or methodology that has proven to serve best in certain environments, indicators vary highly according to the spatial scale used, different variables and metrics produce different results, and aggregate or composite vulnerability indicators that are mapped easily distort or bias the picture of vulnerability as they hide the underlying causes of vulnerability and level out conflicting reasons of vulnerability in space. So, there is urgent need to further develop the methodology of vulnerability studies towards a common framework, which is one reason of the paper. We introduce a social vulnerability approach, which is compared with other approaches of bio-physical or sectoral vulnerability studies relatively developed in terms of a common methodology for index construction, guidelines for mapping, assessment of sensitivity, and verification of variables. Two approaches are commonly pursued in the literature. The first one is an additive approach, in which all potentially influential variables are weighted according to their importance for the vulnerability aspect, and then added to form a composite vulnerability index per unit area. The second approach includes variable reduction, mostly Principal Component Analysis (PCA) that reduces the number of variables that are interrelated into a smaller number of less correlating components, which are also added to form a composite index. We test these two approaches of constructing indices on the area of New York City as well as two different metrics of variables used as input and compare the outcome for the 5 boroughs of NY. Our analysis yields that the mapping exercise yields particularly different results in the outer regions and parts of the boroughs, such as Outer Queens and Staten Island. However, some of these parts, particularly the coastal areas receive the highest attention in the current adaptation policy. We imply from this that the current adaptation policy and practice in NY might need to be discussed, as these outer urban areas show relatively low social vulnerability as compared with the more central parts, i.e. the high dense areas of Manhattan, Central Brooklyn, Central Queens and the Southern Bronx. The inner urban parts receive lesser adaptation attention, but bear a higher risk of damage in case of hazards in those areas. This is conceivable, e.g., during large heatwaves, which would more affect more the inner and poorer parts of the city as compared with the outer urban areas. In light of the recent planning practice of NY one needs to question and discuss who in NY makes adaptation policy for whom, but the presented analyses points towards an under representation of the needs of the socially vulnerable population, such as the poor, the elderly, and ethnic minorities, in the current adaptation practice in New York City.

Keywords: vulnerability mapping, social vulnerability, additive approach, Principal Component Analysis (PCA), New York City, United States, adaptation, social sensitivity

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Authors: Elise Machline

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Policy instruments have been developed worldwide to reduce the energy demand of buildings. Two types of such instruments have been green building rating systems and energy efficiency standards for buildings -such as Green Star (Australia), LEED (United States, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), Energy Star (United States), and BREEAM (United Kingdom, Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method). The popularity of the idea of sustainable development has allowed the actors to consider the potential value generated by the environmental performance of buildings, labeled “green value” in the literature. Sustainable performances of buildings are expected to improve their attractiveness, increasing their value. A growing number of empirical studies demonstrate that green buildings yield rental/sale premia, as well as higher occupancy rates and thus higher asset values. The results suggest that green buildings are not affordable to all and that their construction tends to have a gentrifying effect. An increasing number of countries are institutionalizing green strategies for affordable housing. In that sense, making green buildings affordable to all will depend on government policies. That research aims to investigate whether green building fosters inequality in Israel, under the banner of sustainability. The method is comparison (of the market value). This method involves comparing the green buildings sale prices with non-certified buildings of the same type that have undergone recent transactions. The “market value” is deduced from those sources by analogy. The results show that, in Israel, green building projects are usually addressed to the middle to upper classes. The green apartment’s sale premium is about 19% (comparing to non-certified dwelling). There is a link between energy and/or environmental performance and the financial value of the dwellings. Moreover, price differential is much higher than the value of energy savings. This perpetuates socio-spatial and socio-economic inequality as well as ecological vulnerability for the poor and other socially marginal groups. Moreover, there are no green affordable housings and the authorities do not subsidy green building or retrofitting.

Keywords: green building, gentrification, social housing, green value, green building certification

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Authors: Giuliana Scuderi, Patrick Teuffel

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The proven vulnerability of the existing social housing building heritage to natural or induced earthquakes requires the development of new design concepts and conceptual method to preserve materials and object, at the same time providing new performances. An integrate intervention between civil engineering, building physics and architecture can convert the social housing districts from a critical part of the city to a strategic resource of revitalization. Referring to bio-mimicry principles the present research proposes a taxonomy with the exoskeleton of the insect, an external, light and resistant armour whose role is to protect the internal organs from external potentially dangerous inputs. In the same way, a “building exoskeleton”, acting from the outside of the building as an enclosing cage, can restore, protect and support the existing building, assuming a complex set of roles, from the structural to the thermal, from the aesthetical to the functional. This study evaluates the structural efficiency of shape memory alloys devices (SMADs) connecting the “building exoskeleton” with the existing structure to rehabilitate, in order to prevent the out-of-plane collapse of walls and for the passive dissipation of the seismic energy, with a calibrated operability in relation to the intensity of the horizontal loads. The two case studies of a masonry structure and of a masonry structure with concrete frame are considered, and for each case, a theoretical social housing building is exposed to earthquake forces, to evaluate its structural response with or without SMADs. The two typologies are modelled with the finite element program SAP2000, and they are respectively defined through a “frame model” and a “diagonal strut model”. In the same software two types of SMADs, called the 00-10 SMAD and the 05-10 SMAD are defined, and non-linear static and dynamic analyses, namely push over analysis and time history analysis, are performed to evaluate the seismic response of the building. The effectiveness of the devices in limiting the control joint displacements resulted higher in one direction, leading to the consideration of a possible calibrated use of the devices in the different walls of the building. The results show also a higher efficiency of the 00-10 SMADs in controlling the interstory drift, but at the same time the necessity to improve the hysteretic behaviour, to maximise the passive dissipation of the seismic energy.

Keywords: adaptive structure, biomimetic design, building exoskeleton, social housing, structural envelope, structural retrofitting

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Authors: James Hilton Williams

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Recent tsunami events, including the 2011 Tohoku Tsunami, Japan, and the 2015 Illapel Tsunami, Chile, have highlighted the potential for tsunami impacts on the built environment. International research in the tsunami impacts domain has been largely focused toward impacts on buildings and casualty estimations, while only limited attention has been placed on the impacts on infrastructure which is critical for the recovery of impacted communities. New Zealand, with 75% of the population within 10 km of the coast, has a large amount of coastal infrastructure exposed to local, regional and distant tsunami sources. To effectively manage tsunami risk for New Zealand critical infrastructure, including energy, transportation, and communications, the vulnerability of infrastructure networks and components must first be determined. This research develops infrastructure asset vulnerability, functionality and repair- cost functions based on international post-event tsunami impact assessment data from technologically similar countries, including Japan and Chile, and adapts these to New Zealand. These functions are then utilized within a New Zealand based impact framework, allowing for cost benefit analyses, effective tsunami risk management strategies and mitigation options for exposed critical infrastructure to be determined, which can also be applied internationally.

Keywords: impact assessment, infrastructure, tsunami impacts, vulnerability functions

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Authors: Azzouzi Fadoua

Abstract:

This study focuses on the diagnosis of the dynamics of natural resources in a semi-arid mountainous weakened by natural vulnerability and anthropogenic action. This is evident in the forms of hydraulic erosion and degradation of agricultural land. The rate of this damaged land is 53%, with a strong presence of concentrated erosion; this shows that balanced and semi-balanced environments are less apparent to the Watershed, representing 47%. The results revealed the crucial role of the slopes and the density of the hydraulic networks to facilitate the transport of fine elements, at the level of the slopes with low vegetation intensity, to the lake of the dam. Something that endangers the siltation of the latter. After the study of natural and anthropogenic elements, it turned out that natural vulnerability is an integral part of the current dynamic, especially when it coincides with the overexploitation of natural resources, in this case, the exploitation of steep slopes for the cultivation of cereals and overgrazing. This causes the soil to pile up and increase the rate of runoff.

Keywords: watershed, erosion, natural vulnerability, anthropogenic

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Authors: Yinan Cao, Francine Herrmann

Abstract:

Adversary emulation is a very effective concrete way to evaluate the defense of an information system or network. It is about building an emulator, which depending on the vulnerability of a target system, will allow to detect and execute a set of identified attacks. However, emulating an adversary is very costly in terms of time and resources. Verifying the information of each technique and building up the countermeasures in the middle of the test is also needed to be accomplished manually. In this article, a synthesis of previous MITRE research on the creation of the ATT&CK matrix will be as the knowledge base of the known techniques and a well-designed adversary emulation software CALDERA based on ATT&CK Matrix will be used as our platform. Inspired and guided by the previous study, a plugin in CALDERA called Tinker will be implemented, which is aiming to help the tester to get more information and also the mitigation of each technique used in the previous operation. Furthermore, the optional countermeasures for some techniques are also implemented and preset in Tinker in order to facilitate and fasten the process of the defense improvement of the tested system.

Keywords: automation, adversary emulation, CALDERA, countermeasures, MITRE ATT&CK

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Authors: B. S. Choudri

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Introduction: Climate change is a major threat to rural livelihoods and to food security in the developing world, including Oman. The aim of this study is to provide a basis for policymakers and researchers in order to understand the impacts of climate change on agriculture and developing adaptation strategies in Oman. Methodology: The data was collected from different agricultural areas across the country with the help of a questionnaire survey among farmers, discussion with community, and observations at the field level. Results: The analysis of data collected from different areas within the country shows a shift in the sowing period of major crops and increased temperatures over recent years. Farmer community is adopting through diversification of crops, use of heat-tolerant species, and improved measures of soil and water conservation. Agriculture has been the main livelihood for most of the farmer communities in rural areas in the country. Conclusions: In order to reduce the effects of climate change at the local and farmer communities, risk reduction would be important along with an in-depth analysis of the vulnerability. Therefore, capacity building of local farmers and providing them with scientific knowledge, mainstreaming adaptation into development activities would be essential with additional funding and subsidies.

Keywords: agriculture, climate change, vulnerability, adaptation

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Authors: Yi-Chun Kuo, Jo-Chieh Lin

Abstract:

The objective of a supply chain strategy is to reduce waste and increase efficiency to attain cost benefits, and to guarantee supply chain flexibility when facing the ever-changing market environment in order to meet customer requirements. Strategy implementation aims to fulfill common goals and attain benefits by integrating upstream and downstream enterprises, sharing information, conducting common planning, and taking part in decision making, so as to enhance the overall performance of the supply chain. With the rise of outsourcing and globalization, the increasing dependence on suppliers and customers and the rapid development of information technology, the complexity and uncertainty of the supply chain have intensified, and supply chain vulnerability has surged, resulting in adverse effects on supply chain performance. Thus, this study aims to use supply chain vulnerability as a moderating variable and apply structural equation modeling (SEM) to determine the relationships among supply chain strategy, supply chain integration, and supply chain performance, as well as the moderating effect of supply chain vulnerability on supply chain performance. The data investigation of this study was questionnaires which were collected from the management level of enterprises in Taiwan and China, 149 questionnaires were received. The result of confirmatory factor analysis shows that the path coefficients of supply chain strategy on supply chain integration and supply chain performance are positive (0.497, t= 4.914; 0.748, t= 5.919), having a significantly positive effect. Supply chain integration is also significantly positively correlated to supply chain performance (0.192, t = 2.273). The moderating effects of supply chain vulnerability on supply chain strategy and supply chain integration to supply chain performance are significant (7.407; 4.687). In Taiwan, 97.73% of enterprises are small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) focusing on receiving original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and original design manufacturer (ODM) orders. In order to meet the needs of customers and to respond to market changes, these enterprises especially focus on supply chain flexibility and their integration with the upstream and downstream enterprises. According to the observation of this research, the effect of supply chain vulnerability on supply chain performance is significant, and so enterprises need to attach great importance to the management of supply chain risk and conduct risk analysis on their suppliers in order to formulate response strategies when facing emergency situations. At the same time, risk management is incorporated into the supply chain so as to reduce the effect of supply chain vulnerability on the overall supply chain performance.

Keywords: supply chain integration, supply chain performance, supply chain vulnerability, structural equation modeling

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Authors: Carlos M. Parra, Matthew Sutherland, Ranjita Poudel

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Reduced mental-bandwidth related to low socioeconomic status (low-SES) might lead to impulsivity and risk-taking behavior, which poses as a major hurdle towards asset building (savings) behavior. Understanding the relationship between risk-related personality metrics as well as laboratory risk behavior and real-life savings behavior can help facilitate the development of effective asset building programs, which are vital for mitigating financial vulnerability and income inequality. As such, this study explored the relationship between personality metrics, laboratory behavior in a risky decision-making task and real-life asset building (savings) behaviors among individuals with low-SES from Miami, Florida (FL). Study participants (12 male, 15 female) included racially and ethnically diverse adults (mean age 41.22 ± 12.65 years), with incomplete higher education (18% had High School Diploma, 30% Associates, and 52% Some College), and low annual income (mean $13,872 ± $8020.43). Participants completed eight self-report surveys and played a widely used risky decision-making paradigm called the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART). Specifically, participants played three runs of BART (20 trials in each run; total 60 trials). In addition, asset building behavior data was collected for 24 participants who opened and used savings accounts and completed a 6-month savings program that involved monthly matches, and a final reward for completing the savings program without any interim withdrawals. Each participant’s total savings at the end of this program was the main asset building indicator considered. In addition, a new effective use of average pump bet (EUAPB) indicator was developed to characterize each participant’s ability to place winning bets. This indicator takes the ratio of each participant’s total BART earnings to average pump bet (APB) in all 60 trials. Our findings indicated that EUAPB explained more than a third of the variation in total savings among participants. Moreover, participants who managed to obtain BART earnings of at least 30 cents out of their APB, also tended to exhibit better asset building (savings) behavior. In particular, using this criterion to separate participants into high and low EUAPB groups, the nine participants with high EUAPB (mean BART earnings of 35.64 cents per APB) ended up with higher mean total savings ($255.11), while the 15 participants with low EUAPB (mean BART earnings of 22.50 cents per APB) obtained lower mean total savings ($40.01). All mean differences are statistically significant (2-tailed p  .0001) indicating that the relation between higher EUAPB and higher total savings is robust. Overall, these findings can help refine asset building interventions implemented by policy makers and practitioners interested in reducing financial vulnerability among low-SES population. Specifically, by helping identify individuals who are likely to readily take advantage of savings opportunities (such as matched savings programs) and avoiding the stipulation of unnecessary and expensive financial coaching programs to these individuals. This study was funded by J.P. Morgan Chase (JPMC) and carried out by scientists from Florida International University (FIU) in partnership with Catalyst Miami.

Keywords: balloon analogue risk task (BART), matched savings programs, asset building capability, low-SES participants

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Authors: Rifaldy, Misbahudin, Khalid Rizky, Ricky Aryanto, M. Alfiyan Bagus, Fahri Septianto, Firman Najib Wibisana, Excobar Arman

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Indonesia is a country that has a high level of disaster because it is on the ring of fire, and there are several regions with three major plates meeting in the world. So that disaster analysis must always be done to see the potential disasters that might always occur, especially in this research are landslides and liquefaction. This research was conducted to analyze areas that are vulnerable to landslides and liquefaction hazards and their relationship with the assessment of the issue of moving the new capital of the Republic of Indonesia to the island of Kalimantan with a total area of 612,267.22 km². The method in this analysis uses the Analytical Hierarchy Process and consistency ratio testing as a complex and unstructured problem-solving process into several parameters by providing values. The parameters used in this analysis are the slope, land cover, lithology distribution, wetness index, earthquake data, peak ground acceleration. Weighted overlay was carried out from all these parameters using the percentage value obtained from the Analytical Hierarchy Process and confirmed its accuracy with a consistency ratio so that a percentage of the area obtained with different vulnerability classification values was obtained. Based on the analysis results obtained vulnerability classification from very high to low vulnerability. There are (0.15%) 918.40083 km² of highly vulnerable, medium (20.75%) 127,045,44815 km², low (56.54%) 346,175.886188 km², very low (22.56%) 138,127.484832 km². This research is expected to be able to map landslides and liquefaction disasters on the island of Kalimantan and provide consideration of the suitability of regional development of the new capital of the Republic of Indonesia. Also, this research is expected to provide input or can be applied to all regions that are analyzing the vulnerability of landslides and liquefaction or the suitability of the development of certain regions.

Keywords: analytic hierarchy process, Borneo Island, landslide and liquefaction, vulnerability analysis

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Authors: Nasiru Medugu Idris

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This research is aimed at assessing the vulnerability of climate change to rural communities (farmers, herdsmen and fishermen) in Nigeria with the view to study the underlying causes and degree of vulnerability to climate change and examine the conflict between farmers and herdsmen as a result of climate change. This research employed the use of quantitative and qualitative means of data gathering techniques as well as physical observations. Six states (Kebbi, Adamawa, Nasarawa, Osun, Ebonyi, and Akwa Ibom) have been selected on the ground that they are key food production areas in the country and are therefore essential to continual food security in the country. So also, they also double as fishing communities in order to aid the comprehensive study of all the effects on climate on farmers and fishermen alike. Community focus group discussions were carried out in the various states for an interactive session and also to have firsthand information on their level of awareness on climate change. Climate data from the Nigerian Meteorological Agency over the past decade were collected for the purpose of analyzing trends in climate. The study observed that the level of vulnerability of rural dwellers most especially farmers, herdsmen and fishermen to climate change is very high due to their socioeconomic, ethnic and historical perspective of their trend. The study, therefore, recommends that urgent step needs to be put in place to help control natural hazards and man-made disasters and serious measures are also needed in order to minimize severe societal, economic and political crises; some of which may either escalate to violent conflicts or could be avoided by efforts of conflict resolution and prevention by the initiation of a process of de-escalation. So this study has recommended the best-fit adaptive and mitigation measures to climate change vulnerability in rural communities of Nigeria.

Keywords: adaptation, farmers, fishermen, herdsmen

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