Search results for: office building

Authors: Jin Woong Lee, Kyuman Cho, Taehoon Kim

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The application of constructability is increasingly required not only in the construction phase but also in the whole project stage. In particular, the proper application of construction experience and knowledge during the design phase enables the minimization of inefficiencies such as design changes and improvements in constructability during the construction phase. In order to apply knowledge effectively, engineering technology efforts should be implemented with design progress. Among many engineering technologies, engineering for temporary works, including facilities, equipment, and other related construction methods, is important to improve constructability. Therefore, as basic research, this study investigates the applicability of temporary work engineering during the design phase in the building construction industry. As a result, application of temporary work engineering has a greater impact on construction cost reduction and constructability improvement. In contrast to the existing design-bid-build method, the turn-key and CM (construct management) procurement methods currently being implemented in Korea are expected to have a significant impact on the direction of temporary work engineering. To introduce temporary work engineering, expert/professional organization training is first required, and a lack of client awareness should be preferentially improved. The results of this study are expected to be useful as reference material for the development of more effective temporary work engineering tasks and work processes in the future.

Keywords: Temporary work engineering, design phase, constructability, building construction.

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Authors: Bing Lu, Shuang Li, Hongyuan Zhou

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The steel-concrete hybrid structure has been extensively employed in high-rise buildings and super high-rise buildings. The light gauge steel-concrete hybrid structure, including light gauge steel structure and concrete hybrid structure, is a type of steel-concrete hybrid structure, which possesses some advantages of light gauge steel structure and concrete hybrid structure. The seismic behavior and loss assessment of three high-rise buildings with three different concrete hybrid structures were investigated through finite element software. The three concrete hybrid structures are reinforced concrete column-steel beam (RC-S) hybrid structure, concrete-filled steel tube column-steel beam (CFST-S) hybrid structure, and tubed concrete column-steel beam (TC-S) hybrid structure. The nonlinear time-history analysis of three high-rise buildings under 80 earthquakes was carried out. After simulation, it indicated that the seismic performances of three high-rise buildings were superior. Under extremely rare earthquakes, the maximum inter-story drifts of three high-rise buildings are significantly lower than 1/50. The inter-story drift and floor acceleration of high-rise building with CFST-S hybrid structure were bigger than those of high-rise buildings with RC-S hybrid structure, and smaller than those of high-rise building with TC-S hybrid structure. Then, based on the time-history analysis results, the post-earthquake repair cost ratio and repair time of three high-rise buildings were predicted through an economic performance analysis method proposed in FEMA-P58 report. Under frequent earthquakes, basic earthquakes and rare earthquakes, the repair cost ratio and repair time of three high-rise buildings were less than 5% and 15 days, respectively. Under extremely rare earthquakes, the repair cost ratio and repair time of high-rise buildings with TC-S hybrid structure were the most among three high rise buildings. Due to the advantages of CFST-S hybrid structure, it could be extensively employed in high-rise buildings subjected to earthquake excitations.

Keywords: seismic behavior, loss assessment, light gauge steel, concrete hybrid structure, high-rise building, time-history analysis

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Authors: Mansur Hamma-Adama, Tahar Kouider

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Construction Industry has been evolving since the development of Building Information Modelling (BIM). This technological process is unstoppable; it is out to the market with remarkable case studies of solving the long industry’s history of fragmentation. This industry has been changing over time; United States has recorded the most significant development in construction digitalization, Australia, United Kingdom and some other developed nations are also amongst promoters of BIM process and its development. Recently, a developing country like China and Malaysia are keying into the industry’s digital shift, while very little move is seen in South Africa whose development is considered higher and perhaps leader in the digital transition amongst the African countries. To authors’ best knowledge, Nigerian construction industry has never engaged in BIM discussions hence has no attention at national level. Consequently, Nigeria has no “Noteworthy BIM publications.” Decision makers and key stakeholders need to be informed on the current trend of the industry’s development (BIM in specific) and the opportunities of adopting this digitalization trend in relation to the identified challenges. BIM concept can be traced mostly in Architectural practices than engineering practices in Nigeria. A superficial BIM practice is found to be at organisational level only and operating a model based - “BIM stage 1.” Research to adopting this innovation has received very little attention. This piece of work is literature review based, aimed at exploring BIM in Nigeria and its prospects. The exploration reveals limitations in the literature availability as to extensive research in the development of BIM in the country. Numerous challenges were noticed including building collapse, inefficiencies, cost overrun and late project delivery. BIM has potentials to overcome the above challenges and even beyond. Low level of BIM adoption with reasonable level of awareness is noticed. However, lack of policy and guideline as well as serious lack of experts in the field are amongst the major barriers to BIM adoption. The industry needs to embrace BIM to possibly compete with its global counterpart.

Keywords: Adoption, BIM, CAD, construction industry, Nigeria, opportunities.

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Authors: Mostafa Osman, Ata El-Kareim Shoeib Soliman

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Since columns are the most important elements of the structures, failure of one column in a critical location can cause a progressive collapse. In this respect, the repair and strengthening of columns is a very important subject to reduce the building failure and to keep the columns capacity. Twenty columns with different parameters is tested and analysis. Eleven typical confined reinforced concrete (RC) columns with different types of techniques are assessment. And also, four confined concrete columns with plastic tube (PVC) are tested with and with four paralleling tested of unconfined plain concrete. The techniques of confined RC columns are mortar strengthening, Steel rings strengthening, FRP strengthening. Moreover, the technique of confined plain concrete (PC) column is used PVC tubes. The columns are tested under uniaxial compressive loads studied the effect of confinement on the structural behavior of circular RC columns. Test results for each column are presented in the form of crack patterns, stress-strain curves. Test results show that confining of the RC columns using different techniques of strengthening results significant improvement of the general behavior of the columns and can used in construction. And also, tested confined PC columns with PVC tubes results shown that the confined PC with PVC tubes can be used in economical building. The theoretical model for predicted column capacity is founded with experimental factor depends on the confined techniques used and the strain reduction.

Keywords: Confined reinforced concrete column, CFRP, GFRP, Mortar.

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Authors: Mohamed Adnan Landolsi, Ali F. Almutairi

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The paper addresses the problem of line-of-sight (LOS) vs. non-line-of-sight (NLOS) propagation link identification in ultra-wideband (UWB) wireless networks, which is necessary for improving the accuracy of radiolocation and positioning applications. A LOS/NLOS likelihood hypothesis testing approach is applied based on exploiting distinctive statistical features of the channel impulse response (CIR) using parameters related to the “skewness” of the CIR and its root mean square (RMS) delay spread. A log-normal fit is presented for the probability densities of the CIR parameters. Simulation results show that different environments (residential, office, outdoor, etc.) have measurable differences in their CIR parameters’ statistics, which is then exploited in determining the nature of the propagation channels. Correct LOS/NLOS channel identification rates exceeding 90% are shown to be achievable for most types of environments. Additional improvement is also obtained by combining both CIR skewness and RMS delay statistics.

Keywords: Ultra-wideband, propagation, line-of-sight, non-line-of-sight, identification.

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Authors: Nurdan Yildirim, Arif Hepbasli

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Heating, cooling and lighting appliances in buildings account for more than one third of the world’s primary energy demand. Therefore, main components of the building heating systems play an essential role in terms of energy consumption. In this context, efficient energy and exergy utilization in HVAC-R systems has been very essential, especially in developing energy policies towards increasing efficiencies. The main objective of the present study is to assess the performance of a family house with a volume of 326.7 m3 and a net floor area of 121 m2, located in the city of Izmir, Turkey in terms of energetic, exergetic and sustainability aspects. The indoor and exterior air temperatures are taken as 20°C and 1°C, respectively. In the analysis and assessment, various metrics (indices or indicators) such as exergetic efficiency, exergy flexibility ratio and sustainability index are utilized. Two heating options (Case 1: condensing boiler and Case 2: air heat pump) are considered for comparison purposes. The total heat loss rate of the family house is determined to be 3770.72 W. The overall energy efficiencies of the studied cases are calculated to be 49.4% for Case 1 and 54.7% for Case 2. The overall exergy efficiencies, the flexibility factor and the sustainability index of Cases 1 and 2 are computed to be around 3.3%, 0.17 and 1.034, respectively.

Keywords: Buildings, exergy, low exergy, sustainability, efficiency, heating, renewable energy.

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Authors: Ali Payan

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The aim of this paper is to evaluate the performance of the faculties of Islamic Azad University of Zahedan Branch based on two-component (teaching and research) decision making units (DMUs) in data envelopment analysis (DEA). Nowadays it is obvious that most of the systems as DMUs do not act as a simple inputoutput structure. Instead, if they have been studied more delicately, they include network structure. University is such a network in which different sections i.e. teaching, research, students and office work as a parallel structure. They consume some inputs of university commonly and some others individually. Then, they produce both dependent and independent outputs. These DMUs are called two-component DMUs with network structure. In this paper, performance of the faculties of Zahedan branch is calculated by using relative efficiency model and also, a formula to compute relative efficiencies teaching and research components based on DEA are offered.

Keywords: Data envelopment analysis, faculties of Islamic Azad University of Zahedan branch, two-component DMUs.

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Authors: Byung-Kon Kim

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According as the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) Industry projects have grown more complex and larger, the number of utilization of BIM for 3D design and simulation is increasing significantly. Therefore, typical applications of BIM such as clash detection and alternative measures based on 3-dimenstional planning are expanded to process management, cost and quantity management, structural analysis, check for regulation, and various domains for virtual design and construction. Presently, commercial BIM software is operated on single-user environment, so initial cost is so high and the investment may be wasted frequently. Cloud computing that is a next-generation internet technology enables simple internet devices (such as PC, Tablet, Smart phone etc) to use services and resources of BIM software. In this paper, we suggested developing method of the BIM software based on cloud computing environment in order to expand utilization of BIM and reduce cost of BIM software. First, for the benchmarking, we surveyed successful case of BIM and cloud computing. And we analyzed needs and opportunities of BIM and cloud computing in AEC Industry. Finally, we suggested main functions of BIM software based on cloud computing environment and developed a simple prototype of cloud computing BIM software for basic BIM model viewing.

Keywords: Construction IT, BIM(Building Information Modeling), Cloud Computing, BIM Service Based Cloud Computing, Viewer Based BIM Server, 3D Design.

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Authors: Haider AlAbadi, Joe Petrolito, Nelson Lam, Emad Gad

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In areas of low to moderate seismicity many building contents and equipment are not positively fixed to the floor or tied to adjacent walls. Under seismic induced horizontal vibration, such contents and equipment can suffer from damage by either overturning or impact associated with rocking. This paper focuses on the estimation of shock on typical contents and equipment due to rocking. A simplified analytical model is outlined that can be used to estimate the maximum acceleration on a rocking object given its basic geometric and mechanical properties. The developed model was validated against experimental results. The experimental results revealed that the maximum shock acceleration can be underestimated if the static stiffness of the materials at the interface between the rocking object and floor is used rather than the dynamic stiffness. Excellent agreement between the model and experimental results was found when the dynamic stiffness for the interface material was used, which was found to be generally much higher than corresponding static stiffness under different investigated boundary conditions of the cushion. The proposed model can be a beneficial tool in performing a rapid assessment of shock sensitive components considered for possible seismic rectification. 

Keywords: Impact, shock, earthquakes, rocking, building contents, overturning.

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Authors: T. G. L. J. Bikoko, J. C. Tchamba, S. Amziane

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This study focuses on the problem of collapsed buildings within the city of Douala over the past ten years, and more precisely within the period from 2011 to 2020. It was carried out in a bid to ascertain the real causes of this phenomenon, which has become recurrent in the leading economic city of Cameroon. To achieve this, it was first necessary to review some works dealing with construction materials and technology as well as some case histories of structural collapse within the city. Thereafter, a statistical study was carried out on the results obtained. It was found that the causes of building collapses in the city of Douala are: Neglect of administrative procedures, use of poor quality materials, poor composition and confectioning of concrete, lack of Geotechnical study, lack of structural analysis and design, corrosion of the reinforcement bars, poor maintenance in buildings, and other causes. Out of the 46 cases of failure and collapse of buildings within the city of Douala, 7 of these were identified to have had no geotechnical study carried out, giving a percentage of 15.22%. It was also observed that out of the 46 cases of structural failure, 6 were as a result of lack of proper structural analysis and design giving a percentage of 13.04%. Subsequently, recommendations and suggestions are made in a bid to placing particular emphasis on the choice of materials, the manufacture and casting of concrete as well as the placement of the required reinforcements. All this guarantees the stability of a building.

Keywords: collapse buildings, Douala, structural collapse, Cameroon

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Authors: M. Philokyprou, A. Michael

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Contemporary theories of sustainability, concerning the natural and built environment, have recently introduced an environmental attitude towards the architectural design that, in turn, affects the practice of conservation and reuse of the existing building stock. This paper presents an environmentally friendly approach towards the conservation of vernacular architecture and it is based on the results of a research program which involved the investigation of sustainable design elements of traditional buildings in Cyprus. The research in question showed that Cypriot vernacular architecture gave more emphasis on cooling rather than heating strategies. Another notable finding of the investigation was the great importance given to courtyards as they enhance considerably, and in various ways, the microclimatic conditions of the immediate environment with favorable results throughout the year. Moreover, it was shown that the reduction in temperature fluctuation observed in the closed and semi-open spaces, compared to the respective temperature fluctuation of the external environment -due to the thermal inertia of the building envelope- helps towards the achievement of more comfortable living conditions within traditional dwellings. This paper concludes with a proposal of a sustainable approach towards the conservation of the existing environment and the introduction of new environmental criteria for the conservation of traditional buildings, beyond the aesthetic, morphological and structural ones that are generally applied.

Keywords: Bioclimatic, conservation, environmental, traditional dwellings, vernacular architecture.

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Authors: P. Wlodarczak, J. Soar, M. Ally

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The dramatic rise in the use of Social Media (SM) platforms such as Facebook and Twitter provide access to an unprecedented amount of user data. Users may post reviews on products and services they bought, write about their interests, share ideas or give their opinions and views on political issues. There is a growing interest in the analysis of SM data from organisations for detecting new trends, obtaining user opinions on their products and services or finding out about their online reputations. A recent research trend in SM analysis is making predictions based on sentiment analysis of SM. Often indicators of historic SM data are represented as time series and correlated with a variety of real world phenomena like the outcome of elections, the development of financial indicators, box office revenue and disease outbreaks. This paper examines the current state of research in the area of SM mining and predictive analysis and gives an overview of the analysis methods using opinion mining and machine learning techniques.

Keywords: Social Media, text mining, knowledge discovery, predictive analysis, machine learning.

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Authors: Abdulkadir Abu Lawal

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For the dearth of reliable cardinal numerical data, the linked phenomena in productivity indices such as operational costs and company turnovers, etc. could not be investigated. This would not give us insight to the root of productivity problems at unique sites. So, ordinal ranking by professionals who were most directly involved with construction sites was applied for Kendall’s concordance. Responses gathered from independent architects, builders/engineers, and quantity surveyors were herein analyzed. They were responses based on factors that affect sites productivity, and these factors were categorized as head office factors, resource management effectiveness factors, motivational factors, and training/skill development factors. It was found that productivity is low and has to be improved in order to facilitate Nigerian efforts in bridging its infrastructure deficit. The significance of this work is underlined with the Kendall’s coefficient of concordance of 0.78, while remedial measures must be emphasized to stimulate better productivity. Further detailed study can be undertaken by using Fuzzy logic analysis on wider Delphi survey.

Keywords: Factors, Kendall’s coefficient of concordance, magnitude of agreement, percentage magnitude of dichotomy, ranking variables.

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Authors: M. Abdelhamid, I. Beshara, M. Ghoneim

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In Egypt, the concept of Asset Management (AM) is new; however, the need for applying it has become crucial because deteriorating or losing an asset is unaffordable in a developing country like Egypt. Therefore the current study focuses on educational buildings as one of the most important assets regarding planning, building, operating and maintenance expenditures. The main objective of this study is to develop a SAMF for educational buildings in Egypt. The General Authority for Educational Buildings (GAEB) was chosen as a case study of the current research as it represents the biggest governmental organization responsible for planning, operating and maintaining schools in Egypt. To achieve the research objective, structured interviews were conducted with senior managers of GAEB using a pre designed questionnaire to explore the current practice of AM. Gab analysis technique was applied against best practices compounded from a vast literature review to identify gaps between current practices and the desired one. The previous steps mainly revealed; limited knowledge about strategic asset management, no clear goals, no training, no real risk plan and lack of data, technical and financial resources. Based on the findings, a SAMF for GAEB was introduced and Framework implementation steps and assessment techniques were explained in detail.

Keywords: Strategic Asset Management, Educational Building, Framework, Gab Analysis, Developing Country.

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Authors: Masoud Mahdavi

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The structure is made using different members and combining them with each other. These members are basically based on technical and engineering principles and are combined in different ways and have their own unique effects on the building. Trusses are one of the most common and important members of the structure, accounting for a large percentage of the power transmission structure in the building. Different types of trusses are based on structural needs and evaluating and making complete comparisons between them is one of the most important engineering analyses. In the present study, four types of trusses have been studied; 1) Hawe truss, 2) Pratt truss, 3) k truss, and 4) warren truss, under cyclic loading for 80 seconds. The trusses are modeled in 3d using st₃₇ steel. The results showed that Hawe trusses had higher values ​​than all other trusses (k, Pratt and Warren) in all the studied indicators. Indicators examined in the study include; 1) von Mises stresses, 2) displacement, 3) support force, 4) velocity, 5) acceleration, 6) capacity (hysteresis curve) and 7) energy diagram. Pratt truss in indicators; Mises stress, displacement, energy have the least amount compared to other trusses. K truss in indicators; support force, speed and acceleration are the lowest compared to other trusses.

Keywords: Hawe truss, Pratt truss, K truss, Warren truss, cyclic loading, finite element method.

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Authors: René Čechmánek, Vladan Prachař, Ludvík Lederer, Jiří Loskot

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Thin-walled elements with a matrix set on a base of high-valuable Portland cement with dispersed reinforcement from alkali-resistant glass fibres are used in a range of applications as claddings of buildings and infrastructure constructions as well as various architectural elements of residential buildings. Even though their elementary thickness and therefore total weight is quite low, architects and building companies demand on even further decreasing of the bulk density of these fibre-cement elements for the reason of loading elimination of connected superstructures and easier assembling in demand conditions. By the means of various kinds of light-weight aggregates it is possible to achieve light-weighing of these composite elements. From the range of possible fillers with different material properties granulated expanded glass worked the best. By the means of laboratory testing an effect of two fillers based on expanded glass on the fibre reinforced cement composite was verified. Practical applicability was tested in the production of commonly manufactured glass fibre reinforced concrete elements, such as channels for electrical cable deposition, products for urban equipment and especially various cladding elements. Even though these are not structural elements, it is necessary to evaluate also strength characteristics and resistance to environment for their durability in certain applications.

Keywords: Fibre-cement composite, granulated expanded glass, light-weighing.

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Authors: P. Nafisi Poor, P. Javid

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Over the past few years, the idea of adaptive buildings and specifically, adaptive building energy management systems (ABEMS) has become popular. Well-performed management in terms of energy is to create a balance between energy consumption and user comfort; therefore, in new energy management models, efficient energy consumption is not the sole factor and the user's comfortability is also considered in the calculations. One of the main ways of measuring this factor is by analyzing user feedback on the conditions to understand whether they are satisfied with conditions or not. This paper provides a comprehensive review of recent approaches towards energy management systems based on users' feedbacks and subsequently performs a comparison between them premised upon their efficiency and accuracy to understand which approaches were more accurate and which ones resulted in a more efficient way of minimizing energy consumption while maintaining users' comfortability. It was concluded that the highest accuracy rate among the presented works was 95% accuracy in determining satisfaction and up to 51.08% energy savings can be achieved without disturbing user’s comfort. Considering the growing interest in designing and developing adaptive buildings, these studies can support diverse inquiries about this subject and can be used as a resource to support studies and researches towards efficient energy consumption while maintaining the comfortability of users.

Keywords: Adaptive buildings, energy efficiency, intelligent buildings, user comfortability.

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Authors: Asmat Ismail, Muna Hanim Abdul Samad, Abdul Malek Abdul Rahman

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The phenomenon of global warming or climate change has led to many environmental issues including higher atmospheric temperatures, intense precipitation, increased greenhouse gaseous emissions and increased indoor discomfort. Studies have shown that bringing nature to the roof such as constructing green roof and implementing high-reflective roof may give positive impact in mitigating the effects of global warming and in increasing thermal comfort sensation inside buildings. However, no study has been conducted to compare both types of passive roof treatments in Malaysia in order to increase thermal comfort in buildings. Therefore, this study is conducted to investigate the effect of green roof and white painted roof as passive roof treatment in improving indoor comfort of Malaysian homes. This study uses an experimental approach in which the measurements of temperatures are conducted on the case study building. The measurements of outdoor and indoor environments were conducted on the flat roof with two different types of roof treatment that are green roof and white roof. The measurement of existing black bare roof was also conducted to act as a control for this study.

Keywords: global warming, green roof, white painted roof, indoor temperature reduction.

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Authors: P. Novosad, L. Osuska, M. Tazky, T. Tazky

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Current trends in the building industry are oriented towards the reduction of maintenance costs and the ecological benefits of buildings or building materials. Surface treatment of building materials with photocatalytic active titanium dioxide added into concrete can offer a good solution in this context. Architectural concrete has one disadvantage – dust and fouling keep settling on its surface, diminishing its aesthetic value and increasing maintenance e costs. Concrete surface – silicate material with open porosity – fulfils the conditions of effective photocatalysis, in particular, the self-cleaning properties of surfaces. This modern material is advantageous in particular for direct finishing and architectural concrete applications. If photoactive titanium dioxide is part of the top layers of road concrete on busy roads and the facades of the buildings surrounding these roads, exhaust fumes can be degraded with the aid of sunshine; hence, environmental load will decrease. It is clear that options for removing pollutants like nitrogen oxides (NOx) must be found. Not only do these gases present a health risk, they also cause the degradation of the surfaces of concrete structures. The photocatalytic properties of titanium dioxide can in the long term contribute to the enhanced appearance of surface layers and eliminate harmful pollutants dispersed in the air, and facilitate the conversion of pollutants into less toxic forms (e.g., NOx to HNO₃). This paper describes verification of the photocatalytic properties of titanium dioxide and presents the results of mechanical and physical tests on samples of architectural lightweight self-compacting concretes (LWSCC). The very essence of the use of LWSCC is their rheological ability to seep into otherwise extremely hard accessible or inaccessible construction areas, or sections thereof where concrete compacting will be a problem, or where vibration is completely excluded. They are also able to create a solid monolithic element with a large variety of shapes; the concrete will at the same meet the requirements of both chemical aggression and the influences of the surrounding environment. Due to their viscosity, LWSCCs are able to imprint the formwork elements into their structure and thus create high quality lightweight architectural concretes.

Keywords: Photocatalytic concretes, titanium dioxide, architectural concretes, LWSCC.

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Authors: Tae in Seol, Sun-Tae Chung, Seongwon Cho

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Realistic 3D face model is desired in various applications such as face recognition, games, avatars, animations, and etc. Construction of 3D face model is composed of 1) building a face shape model and 2) rendering the face shape model. Thus, building a realistic 3D face shape model is an essential step for realistic 3D face model. Recently, 3D morphable model is successfully introduced to deal with the various human face shapes. 3D dense correspondence problem should be precedently resolved for constructing a realistic 3D dense morphable face shape model. Several approaches to 3D dense correspondence problem in 3D face modeling have been proposed previously, and among them optical flow based algorithms and TPS (Thin Plate Spline) based algorithms are representative. Optical flow based algorithms require texture information of faces, which is sensitive to variation of illumination. In TPS based algorithms proposed so far, TPS process is performed on the 2D projection representation in cylindrical coordinates of the 3D face data, not directly on the 3D face data and thus errors due to distortion in data during 2D TPS process may be inevitable. In this paper, we propose a new 3D dense correspondence algorithm for 3D dense morphable face shape modeling. The proposed algorithm does not need texture information and applies TPS directly on 3D face data. Through construction procedures, it is observed that the proposed algorithm constructs realistic 3D face morphable model reliably and fast.

Keywords: 3D Dense Correspondence, 3D Morphable Face Shape Model, 3D Face Modeling.

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Authors: Manjunath Aradhya V N, Hemantha Kumar G, Shivakumara P

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Document image processing has become an increasingly important technology in the automation of office documentation tasks. During document scanning, skew is inevitably introduced into the incoming document image. Since the algorithm for layout analysis and character recognition are generally very sensitive to the page skew. Hence, skew detection and correction in document images are the critical steps before layout analysis. In this paper, a novel skew detection method is presented for binary document images. The method considered the some selected characters of the text which may be subjected to thinning and Hough transform to estimate skew angle accurately. Several experiments have been conducted on various types of documents such as documents containing English Documents, Journals, Text-Book, Different Languages and Document with different fonts, Documents with different resolutions, to reveal the robustness of the proposed method. The experimental results revealed that the proposed method is accurate compared to the results of well-known existing methods.

Keywords: Optical Character Recognition, Skew angle, Thinning, Hough transform, Document processing

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Authors: Ubaidillah Zuhdi, Shunsuke Mori, Kazuhisa Kamegai

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The purpose of this study is to forecast the influences of information and communication technology (ICT) on the structural changes of Japanese economies. In this study, input-output (IO) and statistical approaches are used as analysis instruments. More specifically, this study employs Leontief IO coefficients and constrained multivariate regression (CMR) model in order to achieve the purpose. The periods of initial and forecast in this study are 2005 and 2015, respectively. In this study, ICT is represented by ICT capital stocks. This study conducts two levels of analysis, namely macro and micro. The results of macro level analysis show that the dynamics of Japanese economies on the forecast period, relative to the initial period, are not so high. We focus on (1) commerce, (2) business services and office supplies, and (3) personal services sectors when conducting the analysis of the micro level. Further, we analyze its specific IO coefficients when doing this analysis. The results of the analysis explain that ICT gives a strong influence on the changes of these coefficients from initial to forecast periods.

Keywords: Forecast, ICT, Structural changes, Japanese economies.

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Authors: Yacine Challal, Hamida Seba

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Group key management is an important functional building block for any secure multicast architecture. Thereby, it has been extensively studied in the literature. In this paper we present relevant group key management protocols. Then, we compare them against some pertinent performance criteria.

Keywords: Multicast, Security, Group Key Management.

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Authors: Subramaniam Chandran

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This paper describes the evolution of language politics and the part played by political leaders with reference to the Dravidian parties in Tamil Nadu. It explores the interesting evolution from separatism to coalition in sustaining the values of parliamentary democracy and federalism. It seems that the appropriation of language politics is fully ascribed to the DMK leadership under Annadurai and Karunanidhi. For them, the Tamil language is a self-determining power, a terrain of nationhood, and a perennial source of social and political powers. The DMK remains a symbol of Tamil nationalist party playing language politics in the interest of the Tamils. Though electoral alliances largely determine the success, the language politics still has significant space in the politics of Tamil Nadu. Ironically, DMK moves from the periphery to centre for getting national recognition for the Tamils as well as for its own maximization of power. The evolution can be seen in two major phases as: language politics for party building; and language politics for state building with three successive political processes, namely, language politics in the process of separatism, representative politics and coalition. The much pronounced Dravidian Movement is radical enough to democratize the party ideology to survive the spirit of parliamentary democracy. This has secured its own rewards in terms of political power. The political power provides the means to achieve the social and political goal of the political party. Language politics and leadership pattern actualized this trend though the movement is shifted from separatism to coalition.

Keywords: Language politics, cultural nationalism, leadership, social justice

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Authors: Mansour Nikpour, Mohd Zin kandar, Mohammad Ghomeshi, Nima Moeinzadeh, Mohsen Ghasemi

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So much energy is used in high rise buildings to fulfill the basic needs of users such as lighting and thermal comfort. Malaysia has hot and humid climate, buildings especially high rise buildings receive unnecessary solar radiation that cause more solar heat gain. Energy use specially electricity consumption in high rise buildings has increased. There have been growing concerns about energy consumption and its effect on environment. Building, energy and the environment are important issues that the designers should consider to them. Self protected form is one of possible ways against the impact of solar radiation in high rise buildings. The Energy performance of building envelopes was investigated in term of the Overall Thermal Transfer Value (OTTV ).In this paper, the amount of OTTV reduction was calculated through OTTV Equations to clear the effectiveness of self shading strategy on minimizing energy consumption for cooling interior spaces in high rise buildings which has considerable envelope areas against solar radiation. Also increasing the optimum window area was investigated using self-shading strategy in designing high rise buildings. As result, the significant reduction in OTTV was shown based on WWR.In addition slight increase was demonstrated in WWR that can influence on visible comfort interior spaces.

Keywords: Self-shading strategy, high rise buildings, Overall thermal transfer value (OTTV ), Window to wall ratio (WWR).

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Authors: H. P. Kerry

Abstract:

Drone technology has become a significant discourse in a nation’s national security, while this technology could constitute a danger to national security on the one hand, on the other hand, it is used in developed and developing countries for border security, and in some cases, for protection of security agents and migrants. In the case of Nigeria, drones are used by the military to monitor and tighten security around the borders. However, terrorist groups have devised a means to utilize the technology to their advantage. Therefore, the potential danger in the widespread proliferation of this technology has become a myriad of risks. The research on the effects of cross-border use of drones in Nigerian national security looks at the negative and positive consequences of using drone technology. The study employs the use of interviews and relevant documents to obtain data while the study applied the Just War theory to justify the reason why countries use force; it further buttresses the points with what the realist theory thinks about the use of force. In conclusion, the paper recommends that the Nigerian government through the National Assembly should pass a bill for the establishment of a law that will guide the use of armed and unarmed drones in Nigeria enforced by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority and the office of the National Security Adviser.

Keywords: Armed drones, cross-border, drones, national security.

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Authors: V. Sulakatko, F. U. Vogdt, I. Lill

Abstract:

Construction technology and on-site construction activities have a direct influence on the life cycle costs of energy efficiently renovated apartment buildings. The systematic inadequacies of the External Thermal Insulation Composite System (ETICS) which occur during the construction phase increase the risk for all stakeholders, reduce mechanical durability and increase the life cycle costs of the building. The economic effect of these shortcomings can be minimised if the risk of the most significant on-site activities is recognised. The objective of the presented ETICS economic assessment concept is to evaluate the economic influence of on-site shortcomings and reveal their significance to the foreseeable future repair costs. The model assembles repair techniques, discusses their direct cost calculation methods, argues over the proper usage of net present value over the life cycle of the building, and proposes a simulation tool to evaluate the risk of on-site activities. As the technique is dependent on the selected real interest rate, a sensitivity analysis is anticipated to determine the validity of the recommendations. After the verification of the model on the sample buildings by the industry, it is expected to increase economic rationality of resource allocation and reduce high-risk systematic shortcomings during the construction process of ETICS.

Keywords: Activity-based cost estimating, Cost estimation, ETICS, Life cycle costing.

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Authors: Khan Farhan Rafat, M. Junaid Hussain

Abstract:

Seamless modification of an entity for the purpose of hiding a message of significance inside its substance in a manner that the embedding remains oblivious to an observer is known as steganography. Together with today's pervasive registering frameworks, steganography has developed into a science that offers an assortment of strategies for stealth correspondence over the globe that must, however, need a critical appraisal from security breach standpoint. Microsoft Word is amongst the preferably used word processing software, which comes as a part of the Microsoft Office suite. With a user-friendly graphical interface, the richness of text editing, and formatting topographies, the documents produced through this software are also most suitable for stealth communication. This research aimed not only to epitomize the fundamental concepts of steganography but also to expound on the utilization of Microsoft Word document as a carrier for furtive message exchange. The exertion is to examine contemporary message hiding schemes from security aspect so as to present the explorative discoveries and suggest enhancements which may serve a wellspring of information to encourage such futuristic research endeavors.

Keywords: Hiding information in plain sight, stealth communication, oblivious information exchange, conceal, steganography.

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Authors: Roxan Venter

Abstract:

Ombudsmen often face the challenge of a lack of authority to have their decisions and recommendations enforced. This lack of authority may be seen as one of the major obstacles in the way of the effectiveness of the institutions of Ombudsman and also the South African Public Protector. The paper will address the current legal position in South Africa with regard to the status of the decisions and recommendations of the South African Public Protector and the enforcement thereof. In addition, the paper will compare the South African position with the experiences of other jurisdictions, including Scandinavian countries like Sweden, Denmark and Norway, but also New Zealand and Northern Ireland, with regard to the enforcement of the decisions of Ombudsmen. Finally, the paper will make recommendations with regard to the enhancement of the power and authority of Ombudsmen in order to effectively enforce their decisions. It is submitted that the creation of the office of Ombudsman, and the Public Protector in the South African system, is an essential tool to ensure the protection of society against governmental abuse of power and it is therefore imperative to ensure that these watchdogs of democracy are not muzzled by a lack of powers of enforcement.

Keywords: Enforcement of decisions of Ombudsmen, Governmental control, Ombudsman, South African Public Protector.

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Authors: A. Ras, I. Nait Zerrad, N. Benmouna, N. Boumechra

Abstract:

Use of base isolators in the seismic design of structures has attracted considerable attention in recent years. The major concern in the design of these structures is to have enough lateral stability to resist wind and seismic forces. There are different systems providing such isolation, among them there are friction- pendulum base isolation systems (FPS) which are rather widely applied nowadays involving to both affordable cost and high fundamental periods. These devices are characterised by a stiff resistance against wind loads and to be flexible to the seismic tremors, which make them suitable for different situations. In this paper, a 3D numerical investigation is done considering the seismic response of a twelve-storey steel building retrofitted with a FPS. Fast nonlinear time history analysis (FNA) of Boumerdes earthquake (Algeria, May 2003) is considered for analysis and carried out using SAP2000 software. Comparisons between fixed base, bearing base isolated and braced structures are shown in a tabulated and graphical format. The results of the various alternatives studies to compare the structural response without and with this device of dissipation energy thus obtained were discussed and the conclusions showed the interesting potential of the FPS isolator. This system may to improve the dissipative capacities of the structure without increasing its rigidity in a significant way which contributes to optimize the quantity of steel necessary for its general stability.

Keywords: Steel structure, energy dissipation, friction-pendulum system, nonlinear analysis.

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