Search results for: Planned areas

Authors: Naoya Ozaki, Takuya Watanabe, Ryosuke Matsumoto, Noriko Fukasawa

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In the metropolitan areas in Japan, in many stations, shopping areas are set up, and escalators and elevators are installed to make the stations be barrier-free. Further, many areas around the stations are being redeveloped. Railway business operators want to know how much effect these circumstances have on attractiveness of the station or number of passengers using the station. So, we performed a questionnaire survey of the station users in the metropolitan areas for finding factors to affect the attractiveness of stations. Then, based on the analysis of the survey, we developed a method to quantitatively evaluate attractiveness of the stations. We also developed an estimation method for number of passengers based on combination of attractiveness of the station quantitatively evaluated and the residential and labor population around the station. Then, we derived precise linear regression models estimating the attractiveness of the station and number of passengers of the station.

Keywords: Attractiveness of the station, estimation method, number of passengers of the station, redevelopment around the station, renovation of the station.

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Authors: Vaclav David, Tereza Davidova

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The restoration of extinct ponds is considered as one of ways to gain new retention capacities for water which is getting much more important issue with respect to expected impacts of a climate change. However, there are also other pressures on the landscape which must be all taken into consideration when making a decision on the possible restoration of extinct ponds. The research presented here focuses besides others on the restoration of former ponds which could be important for both the flood protection and drought impacts prevention. The first step of the methodology development for the assessment of such areas is the assessment of their present state. In this paper, the results of land use types assessment for 22 localities are presented. These results confirm the assumption that the most present land use type in such areas is the permanent grassland. However, the spectra of land use types present in extinct pond areas is very diverse and include besides others also airport areas and industry.

Keywords: Extinct pond, land use change, sustainable water resources management, pond restoration.

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Authors: Alia Alghosoun, Michael Herty, Mohammed Seaid

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We present a new class of numerical techniques to solve shallow water flows over dry areas including run-up. Many recent investigations on wave run-up in coastal areas are based on the well-known shallow water equations. Numerical simulations have also performed to understand the effects of several factors on tsunami wave impact and run-up in the presence of coastal areas. In all these simulations the shallow water equations are solved in entire domain including dry areas and special treatments are used for numerical solution of singularities at these dry regions. In the present study we propose a new method to deal with these difficulties by reformulating the shallow water equations into a new system to be solved only in the wetted domain. The system is obtained by a change in the coordinates leading to a set of equations in a moving domain for which the wet/dry interface is the reconstructed using the wave speed. To solve the new system we present a finite volume method of Lax-Friedrich type along with a modified method of characteristics. The method is well-balanced and accurately resolves dam-break problems over dry areas.

Keywords: Run-up waves, Shallow water equations, finite volume method, wet/dry interface, dam-break problem.

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Authors: A. A. K. Abou-Arab, M. A. Abou Donia, A. K. Enab

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Lead is among the heavy metals and it is one of the highly toxic metals, recognized in most countries. This metal accumulates in animal organs as liver and kidney. The present investigation provides the concentrations of lead in cow's meat and different animal organs collected from three Egyptian environments. The results revealed that lead levels in muscle, liver, kidney, spleen and heart in industrial areas were higher than those detected in the same organs of other two areas (heavy traffic and rural), which recorded mean values of 3.0091, 1.7070, 1.8609, 0.6401 and 0.5332 mg/kg, respectively, followed by traffic areas, 2.9166, 1.4443, 1.6967, 0.4042 and 0.4103 mg/kg, respectively. The corresponding values of rural areas were 1.8895, 0.9550, 0.9117, 0.3215 and 0.2856 mg/kg, in the same order. It could be recommended that monitoring and evaluation of lead levels in meat at regular intervals are very important.

Keywords: Heavy metals, lead, meats, organs, liver, kidney, spleen, heart, environments.

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Authors: M. C. Proença

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The tools described in this paper enable the location of burned areas where took place the annihilation of natural habitats and establishes a baseline for major changes in forest ecosystems during recovery. Moreover, the result allows the follow up of the surface fuel loading, allowing the evaluation and guidance of restoration measures to remote areas by phased time planning. This case study implements the evaluation of burned areas that suffered successive wildfires in Portugal mainland during the summer of 2017, killing more than 60 people. The goal is to show that this evaluation can be done with remote sense data free of charges in a simple laptop, with open-source software, describing the not-so-simple methodology step by step, to make it accessible for local workers in the areas attained, where the availability of information is essential for the immediate planning of mitigation measures, such as restoring road access, allocate funds for the recovery of human dwellings and assess further needs for restoration of the ecological system. Wildfires also devastate forest ecosystems having a direct impact on vegetation cover and killing or driving away the animal population, besides loss of all crops in rural areas that are essential as local resources. The economic interests are also attained, as the pinewood burned becomes useless for the noblest applications, so its value decreases, and resin extraction ends for several years.

Keywords: Image processing, remote sensing, wildfires, burned areas, SENTINEL-2.

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Authors: Juan Carlos Briones Macias

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Currently, the Huancavilca City Park in Guayaquil is an abandoned public space that is discovering a growing problem of insecurity, where various problems have been perceived, such as the lack of green areas, deteriorating furniture, insufficient lighting, the use of inadequate cladding materials and very sunny areas due to the lack of planning in the design of green areas. The objective of this scientific article is to redesign Huancavilca Park through public space design strategies for more attractive and comfortable areas, becoming a point of interaction in a safe and accessible way. A mixed methodology (qualitative and quantitative) was applied, obtaining information based on surveys, interviews, field observations, and systematizing the data in the traditional weighting of the structuring aspects of the park. The results were obtained from the methodological design scheme of iterative analysis of public spaces by Jan Güell. It is concluded that the use of urban strategies in the structuring elements of the park, such as vegetation, furniture, generating new activities, and security interventions, will specifically solve all the problems of the Huancavilca Park tested in a Pareto 80/20 Diagram.

Keywords: Public space, green areas, vegetation, street furniture, urban analysis.

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Authors: H. M. Ghasemzadeh, Y. Mohammadi, Gh. Nouri, S. E. Nabavi

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Steel corrosion in concrete is considered as a main engineering problems for many countries and lots of expenses has been paid for their repair and maintenance annually. This problem may occur in all engineering structures whether in coastal and offshore or other areas. Hence, concrete structures should be able to withstand corrosion factors existing in water or soil. Reinforcing steel corrosion enhancement can be measured by use of concrete electrical resistance; and maintaining high electric resistivity in concrete is necessary for steel corrosion prevention. Lots of studies devoted to different aspects of the subjects worldwide. In this paper, an evaluation of the effects of W/C ratio, cementitious materials, and percent increase in silica fume were investigated on electric resistivity of high strength concrete. To do that, sixteen mix design with one aggregate grading was planned. Five of them had varying amount of W/C ratio and other eleven mixes was prepared with constant W/C ratio but different amount of cementitious materials. Silica fume and super plasticizer were used with different proportions in all specimens. Specimens were tested after moist curing for 28 days. A total of 80 cube specimens (50 mm) were tested for concrete electrical resistance. Results show that concrete electric resistivity can be increased with increasing amount of cementitious materials and silica fume.

Keywords: Corrosion, Electric resistivity, Mix design, Silica fume

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Authors: Cecilia Perri, Vincenzo Corvello

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The aim of the present study is to investigate consumers' determinants of intention toward the adoption of Smart Grid solutions and technologies. Ajzen's Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) model is applied and tested to explain the formation of such adoption intention. An exogenous variable, taking into account the resistance to change of individuals, was added to the basic model. The elicitation study allowed obtaining salient modal beliefs, which were used, with the support of literature, to design the questionnaire. After the screening phase, data collected from the main survey were analysed for evaluating measurement model's reliability and validity. Consistent with the theory, the results of structural equation analysis revealed that attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioural control positively, which affected the adoption intention. Specifically, the variable with the highest estimate loading factor was found to be the perceived behavioural control, and, the most important belief related to each construct was determined (e.g., energy saving was observed to be the most significant belief linked with attitude). Further investigation indicated that the added exogenous variable has a negative influence on intention; this finding confirmed partially the hypothesis, since this influence was indirect: such relationship was mediated by attitude. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Keywords: Adoption of innovation, consumers behaviour, energy management, smart grid, theory of planned behaviour.

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Authors: Patil Ashwini, Archana Thosar

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This paper addresses the mathematical model of wind energy system useful for designing fault tolerant control. To serve the demand of power, large capacity wind energy systems are vital. These systems are installed offshore where non planned service is very costly. Whenever there is a fault in between two planned services, the system may stop working abruptly. This might even lead to the complete failure of the system. To enhance the reliability, the availability and reduce the cost of maintenance of wind turbines, the fault tolerant control systems are very essential. For designing any control system, an appropriate mathematical model is always needed. In this paper, the two-mass model is modified by considering the frequent mechanical faults like misalignments in the drive train, gears and bearings faults. These faults are subject to a wear process and cause frictional losses. This paper addresses these faults in the mathematics of the wind energy system. Further, the work is extended to study the variations of the parameters namely generator inertia constant, spring constant, viscous friction coefficient and gear ratio; on the pole-zero plot which is related with the physical design of the wind turbine. Behavior of the wind turbine during drive train faults are simulated and briefly discussed.

Keywords: Mathematical model of wind energy system, stability analysis, shaft stiffness, viscous friction coefficient, gear ratio, generator inertia, fault tolerant control.

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Authors: Maja Sajdak

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The aim of this paper is to present the concept of an agile enterprise model and to initiate discussion on the research assumptions of the model presented. The implementation of the research project "The agility of enterprises in the process of adapting to the environment and its changes" began in August 2014 and is planned to last three years. The article has the form of a work-inprogress paper which aims to verify and initiate a debate over the proposed research model. In the literature there are very few publications relating to research into agility; it can be concluded that the most controversial issue in this regard is the method of measuring agility. In previous studies the operationalization of agility was often fragmentary, focusing only on selected areas of agility, for example manufacturing, or analysing only selected sectors. As a result the measures created to date can only be treated as contributory to the development of precise measurement tools. This research project aims to fill a cognitive gap in the literature with regard to the conceptualization and operationalization of an agile company. Thus, the original contribution of the author of this project is the construction of a theoretical model that integrates manufacturing agility (consisting mainly in adaptation to the environment) and strategic agility (based on proactive measures). The author of this research project is primarily interested in the attributes of an agile enterprise which indicate that the company is able to rapidly adapt to changing circumstances and behave pro-actively.

Keywords: Agile company, acuity, entrepreneurship, flexibility, research model, strategic leadership.

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Authors: A. Taqaddas

Abstract:

Purpose: Planning and dosimetry of different VMAT algorithms (SmartArc, Ergo++, Autobeam) is compared with IMRT for Head and Neck Cancer patients. Modelling was performed to rule out the causes of discrepancies between planned and delivered dose. Methods: Five HNC patients previously treated with IMRT were re-planned with SmartArc (SA), Ergo++ and Autobeam. Plans were compared with each other and against IMRT and evaluated using DVHs for PTVs and OARs, delivery time, monitor units (MU) and dosimetric accuracy. Modelling of control point (CP) spacing, Leaf-end Separation and MLC/Aperture shape was performed to rule out causes of discrepancies between planned and delivered doses. Additionally estimated arc delivery times, overall plan generation times and effect of CP spacing and number of arcs on plan generation times were recorded. Results: Single arc SmartArc plans (SA4d) were generally better than IMRT and double arc plans (SA2Arcs) in terms of homogeneity and target coverage. Double arc plans seemed to have a positive role in achieving improved Conformity Index (CI) and better sparing of some Organs at Risk (OARs) compared to Step and Shoot IMRT (ss-IMRT) and SA4d. Overall Ergo++ plans achieved best CI for both PTVs. Dosimetric validation of all VMAT plans without modelling was found to be lower than ss-IMRT. Total MUs required for delivery were on average 19%, 30%, 10.6% and 6.5% lower than ss-IMRT for SA4d, SA2d (Single arc with 2⁰ Gantry Spacing), SA2Arcs and Autobeam plans respectively. Autobeam was most efficient in terms of actual treatment delivery times whereas Ergo++ plans took longest to deliver. Conclusion: Overall SA single arc plans on average achieved best target coverage and homogeneity for both PTVs. SA2Arc plans showed improved CI and some OARs sparing. Very good dosimetric results were achieved with modelling. Ergo++ plans achieved best CI. Autobeam resulted in fastest treatment delivery times.

Keywords: Dosimetry, Intensity Modulated Radiotherapy, Optimization Algorithms, Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy.

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Authors: Guenther Schuh, Christina Koenig, Nico Schoen, Markus Wellensiek

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Identification and selection of appropriate product and manufacturing technologies are key factors for competitiveness and market success of technology-based companies. Therefore, many companies perform technology intelligence (TI) activities to ensure the identification of evolving technologies at the right time. Technology monitoring is one of the three base activities of TI, besides scanning and scouting. As the technological progress is accelerating, more and more technologies are being developed. Against the background of limited resources it is therefore necessary to focus TI activities. In this paper we propose a concept for defining appropriate search fields for technology monitoring. This limitation of search space leads to more concentrated monitoring activities. The concept will be introduced and demonstrated through an anonymized case study conducted within an industry project at the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT. The described concept provides a customized monitoring approach, which is suitable for use in technology-oriented companies. It is shown in this paper that the definition of search fields and search tasks are suitable methods to define topics of interest and thus to align monitoring activities. Current as well as planned product, production and material technologies and existing skills, capabilities and resources form the basis for derivation of relevant search areas. To further improve the concept of technology monitoring the proposed concept should be extended during future research e.g. by the definition of relevant monitoring parameters.

Keywords: Monitoring radar, search field, technology intelligence, technology monitoring.

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Authors: Reza Mokhtari Malek Abadi, Mohsen Saghaei, Fatima Iman

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This paper investigates the indices of a creative city in Isfahan. Its main aim is to evaluate quantitative status of the creative city indices in Isfahan city, analyze the dispersion and distribution of these indices in Isfahan city. Concerning these, this study tries to analyze the creative city indices in fifteen area of Isfahan through secondary data, questionnaire, TOPSIS model, Shannon entropy and SPSS. Based on this, the fifteen areas of Isfahan city have been ranked with 12 factors of creative city indices. The results of studies show that fifteen areas of Isfahan city are not equally benefiting from creative indices and there is much difference between the areas of Isfahan city.

Keywords: Grading, creative city, creative city evaluation indicators, regional planning model.

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Authors: Dolores Hidalgo, Jesús M. Martín-Marroquín, Francisco Corona

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Municipal waste consist of a variety of items that are everyday discarded by the population. They are usually collected by municipalities and include waste generated by households, commercial activities (local shops) and public buildings. The composition of municipal waste varies greatly from place to place, being mostly related to levels and patterns of consumption, rates of urbanization, lifestyles, and local or national waste management practices. Each year, a huge amount of resources is consumed in the EU, and according to that, also a huge amount of waste is produced. The environmental problems derived from the management and processing of these waste streams are well known, and include impacts on land, water and air. The situation in remote areas is even worst. Difficult access when climatic conditions are adverse, remoteness of centralized municipal treatment systems or dispersion of the population, are all factors that make remote areas a real municipal waste treatment challenge. Furthermore, the scope of the problem increases significantly because the total lack of awareness of the existing risks in this area together with the poor implementation of advanced culture on waste minimization and recycling responsibly. The aim of this work is to analyze the existing situation in remote areas in reference to the production of municipal waste and evaluate the efficiency of different management alternatives. Ideas for improving waste management in remote areas include, for example: the implementation of self-management systems for the organic fraction; establish door-to-door collection models; promote small-scale treatment facilities or adjust the rates of waste generation thereof.

Keywords: Door to door collection, islands, isolated areas, municipal waste, remote areas, rural communities.

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Authors: Tanima Bhattacharya, Joy Sen

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To transform a space into a better livable and sustainable zone, United Nations Summit in New York 2015, has decided upon 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) that approach directly to achieve inclusive, people-centric, sustainable developments. Though sustainability has been majorly constructed by four pillars, namely, Ecological, Economic, Social and Cultural, but it is essentially reduced to economic and ecological consideration in the context of developing countries. Therefore, in most cases planning has reduced its ambit to concentrate around the tangible infrastructure, ignoring the fundamentals of socio-cultural heritage. With the accentuating hype of infrastructural augmentation, lack of emphasis of traditional concerns like ethnicity and social connection have further diluted the situation, disintegrating cultural continuity. As cultural continuity lacks its cohesion, it’s growing absence increasingly acts as a catalyst to degrade the heritage structures, spaces around and linking these structures, and the ability of stakeholders in identifying themselves rooted in that particular space. Hence, this paper will argue that sustainability depends on the people and their interaction with their surroundings, their culture and livelihood. The interaction between people and their surroundings strengthen community building and social interaction that abides by stakeholders reverting back to their roots. To assess the socio-cultural sustainability of the city of Kolkata, two study areas are selected, namely, an old settlement from the northern part of the city of Kolkata (KMA), imbued with social connection, age-old cultural and ethnic bonding and, another cluster of new high-rises coming up in the Newtown area having portions of planned city extension on the eastern side of the city itself. Whereas, Newtown prioritizes the surging post-industrial trends of economic aspiration and ecological aspects of urban sustainability; the former settlements of northern Kolkata still continue to represent the earliest community settlement of the British-colonial-cum native era and even the pre-colonial era, permeated with socio-cultural reciprocation. Thus, to compare and assess the inlayed organizational structure of both the spaces in the two cases, selected areas have been surveyed to portray their current imageability. The argument of this paper is structured in 5parts. First, an introduction of the idea has been forwarded, Secondly, a literature review has been conducted to ground the proposed ideas, Thirdly, methodology has been discussed and appropriate case study areas have been selected, Fourthly, surveys and analyses has been forwarded and lastly, the paper has arrived at a set of conclusions by suggesting a threefold development to create happy, healthy and sustainable community.

Keywords: Art innovation, current scenario assessment, heritage, imageability, socio-cultural sustainability.

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Authors: Kayoko Yamamoto

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This study uses GIS (Geographic Information Systems) to conduct an evaluation of the degree of the sufficiency of public green spaces such as parks and urban green areas as an indicator of the density of metropolitan areas, in particular the Chubu metropolitan area, in Japan. To that end, it first grasps the distribution situation of green spaces in the three metropolitan areas in Japan, especially in the Chubu metropolitan area, using GIS digital maps. And based on this result, it conducts a GIS evaluation of the degree of sufficiency of public green spaces and arranges the result for every distance belt from the central part to compare and exam for every distance belt away from the center in the Chubu metropolitan area. Furthermore, after pointing out the insufficient areas of public green spaces based on the result, it also proposes the improvement policy which can be introduced in the Chubu metropolitan area.

Keywords: Public Green Spaces, Urban Density, MetropolitanAreas, Land Use, Urbanization, GIS (Geographic InformationSystems)

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Authors: Paula A. Cruise, Carvell McLeary

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Employee turnover leads to lowered productivity, decreased morale and work quality, and psychological effects associated with employee separation and replacement. Yet, it remains unknown why talented employees willingly withdraw from organizations. This uncertainty is worsened as studies; a) priorities organizational over individual predictors resulting in restriction in range in turnover measurement; b) focus on actual rather than intended turnover thereby limiting conceptual understanding of the turnover construct and its relationship with other variables and; c) produce inconsistent findings across cultures, contexts and industries despite a clear need for a unified perspective. The current study addressed these gaps by adopting the theory of planned behavior (TPB) framework to examine socio-cognitive factors in organizational trust and individual turnover intentions among bankers and energy employees in Jamaica. In a comparative study of n=369 [n_bank= 264; male=57 (22.73%); n_energy =105; male =45 (42.86)], it was hypothesized that organizational trust was a predictor of employee turnover intention, and the effect of individual, group, cognitive and socio-affective variables varied across industry. Findings from structural equation modelling confirmed the hypothesis, with a model of both cognitive and socio-affective variables being a better fit [CMIN (χ²) = 800.067, df = 364, p ≤ .000; CFI = 0.950; RMSEA = 0.057 with 90% C.I. (0.052 - 0.062); PCLOSE = 0.016; PNFI = 0.818 in predicting turnover intention. The findings are discussed in relation to socio-cognitive components of trust models and predicting negative employee behaviors across cultures and industries.

Keywords: Context-specific organizational trust, cross-cultural psychology, theory of planned behavior, employee turnover intention.

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Authors: Mehdi Saati, Mohammad Bagheri, Fatemeh Zamanian

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One of the most important parameters to develop and manage urban areas is appropriate selection of land surface to develop green spaces in these areas. In this study, in order to identify the most appropriate sites and areas cultivated for ornamental species in Jiroft, Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) images due to extract the most important effective climatic and adaphic parameters for growth ornamental species were used. After geometric and atmospheric corrections applied, to enhance accuracy of multi spectral (XS) bands, the fusion of Landsat XS bands by IRS-1D panchromatic band (PAN) was performed. After field sampling to evaluate the correlation between different factors in surface soil sampling location and different bands digital number (DN) of ETM+ sensor on the same points, correlation tables formed using the best computational model and the map of physical and chemical parameters of soil was produced. Then the accuracy of them was investigated by using kappa coefficient. Finally, according to produced maps, the best areas for cultivation of recommended species were introduced.

Keywords: Locate ornamental species, Remote Sensing, Adaphic parameters, ETM+, Jiroft

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Authors: Juliana C. Alencar, Monica Ferreira do Amaral Porto

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The blue-green infrastructure in recent years has been pointed out as a possibility to increase the environmental quality of watersheds. The regulation ecosystem services brought by these areas are many, such as the improvement of the air quality of the air, water, soil, microclimate, besides helping to control the peak flows and to promote the quality of life of the population. This study proposes a blue-green infrastructure scenario for the Jaguaré watershed, located in the western zone of the São Paulo city in Brazil. Based on the proposed scenario, it was verified the impact of the adoption of the blue and green infrastructure in the control of the peak flow of the basin, the benefits for the avifauna that are also reflected in the flora and finally, the quantification of the regulation ecosystem services brought by the adoption of the scenario proposed. A survey of existing green areas and potential areas for expansion and connection of these areas to form a network in the watershed was carried out. Based on this proposed new network of green areas, the peak flow for the proposed scenario was calculated with the help of software, ABC6. Finally, a survey of the ecosystem services contemplated in the proposed scenario was made. It was possible to conclude that the blue and green infrastructure would provide several regulation ecosystem services for the watershed, such as the control of the peak flow, the connection frame between the forest fragments that promoted the environmental enrichment of these fragments, improvement of the microclimate and the provision of leisure areas for the population.

Keywords: Blue and green infrastructure, sustainable drainage, urban waters, ecosystem services.

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Authors: Michael Zenker, Henrik Prinzhorn, Christian Böning, Tom Strating

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Large-scale products are often assembled according to the job-site principle, meaning that during the assembly the product is located at a fixed position, while the area requirements are constantly changing. On one hand, the product itself is growing with each assembly step, whereas varying areas for storage, machines or working areas are temporarily required. This is an important factor when arranging products to be assembled within the factory. Currently, it is common to reserve a fixed area for each product to avoid overlaps or collisions with the other assemblies. Intending to be large enough to include the product and all adjacent areas, this reserved area corresponds to the superposition of the maximum extents of all required areas of the product. In this procedure, the reserved area is usually poorly utilized over the course of the entire assembly process; instead a large part of it remains unused. If the available area is a limited resource, a systematic arrangement of the products, which complies with the dynamic area requirements, will lead to an increased area utilization and productivity. This paper presents the results of a study on the arrangement of assembly objects assuming dynamic, competing area requirements. First, the problem situation is extensively explained, and existing research on associated topics is described and evaluated on the possibility of an adaptation. Then, a newly developed mathematical optimization model is introduced. This model allows an optimal arrangement of dynamic areas, considering logical and practical constraints. Finally, in order to quantify the potential of the developed method, some test series results are presented, showing the possible increase in area utilization.

Keywords: Dynamic area requirements, facility layout problem, optimization model, product assembly.

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Authors: Khashayar Kashani Jou

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Transportation is one of the most fundamental challenges of urban development in contemporary world. On the other hand, sustainable urban development has received tremendous public attention in the last few years. This trend in addition to other factors such as energy cost, environmental concerns, traffic congestion and the feeling of lack of belonging have contributed to the development of pedestrian areas. The purpose of this paper is to study the role of walkable streets in sustainable development of cities. Accordingly, a documentary research through valid sources has been utilized to substantiate this study. The findings demonstrate that walking can lead to sustainable urban development from physical, social, environmental, cultural, economic and political aspects. Also, pedestrian areas –which are the main context of walking- act as focal points of development in cities and have a great effect on modifying and stimulating of their adjacent urban spaces.

Keywords: Pedestrian area, Sustainable urban development, Walking, Woonerf

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Authors: Mercan Efe Güney, Barış Parlatangiller, Melik Ayer

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In Turkey, while urban area boundaries are enlarged by making decisions on investment areas in cities, development plans are made according to government decisions, rather than scientific criteria. Even environment protection laws state that “if public interest is at stake”, areas under mandatory protection can be transformed into investment areas. This leads to destruction of valuable agricultural lands. Paper demonstrates loss of agricultural lands by superimposing plans, Suitability of the Lands for Agricultural Use and Google Earth Images in an exemplary settlement, and expresses that urban area boundaries should be included in legislation as an official boundary for all settlements.

Keywords: Agriculture, boundary, city planning, development plan, legislation.

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Authors: Javed Parvez, Mushtaq Ahmad Peer

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Mobile Ad hoc networks (MANETs) are collections of wireless mobile nodes dynamically reconfiguring and collectively forming a temporary network. These types of networks assume existence of no fixed infrastructure and are often useful in battle-field tactical operations or emergency search-and-rescue type of operations where fixed infrastructure is neither feasible nor practical. They also find use in ad hoc conferences, campus networks and commercial recreational applications carrying multimedia traffic. All of the above applications of MANETs require guaranteed levels of performance as experienced by the end-user. This paper focuses on key challenges in provisioning predetermined levels of such Quality of Service (QoS). It also identifies functional areas where QoS models are currently defined and used. Evolving functional areas where performance and QoS provisioning may be applied are also identified and some suggestions are provided for further research in this area. Although each of the above functional areas have been discussed separately in recent research studies, since these QoS functional areas are highly correlated and interdependent, a comprehensive and comparative analysis of these areas and their interrelationships is desired. In this paper we have attempted to provide such an overview.

Keywords: Bandwidth Reservation, Congestion, DynamicNetwork Topology, End-to-End Delay, Flexible QoS Model forMANET(FQMM), Hidden Terminal, Mobile AdhocNetwork(MANET), Packet Jitter, Queuing, Quality-of-Service(QoS), Relative Bandwidth Service Differentiation(RBSD), Resource ReSerVation Protocol (RSVP).

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Authors: Laura Gjyli, Pirro Prifti, Lindita Mukli, Silvana Gjyli, Irida Ikonomi, Jerina Kolitari

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Microbial air contamination of the outdoor air in Marine Durres-s Harbour (Durres, Albania) was estimated by sedimentation technique in August-October 2008. The sampling areas were: Ferry Terminal (FT), Fishery Harbor (FH), East Zone (EZ), Fuel Quay (FQ) and Apollonian Beach (AB). The aim of this study was to measure the number of aerobic plate count (mesophilic aerobic bacteria) and fungi (yeasts and molds) in the outdoor air in these areas. The number of colonies that were formed determines the number of cells at the moment in the outdoor air; respectively the number of mesophilic aerobic bacteria and yeasts and molds. The measure of bacteria and fungi used is CFU (Colony Forming Units) per Petri dish. It is said that marine harbours are very polluted areas. The aim of study was the definition of mesophilic aerobic bacteria and yeasts and molds number, and the comparison of microorganisms number in air sampling areas.

Keywords: Air microbiology, colony forming units, Marine Durres's Harbour, mesophilic aerobic bacteria, outdoor air, yeasts and molds.

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Authors: Hai-Ning Liang, Xiaowei Dai, Nancy Diniz, Charles Fleming, Woon Kian Chong

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Media displays in public areas are becoming increasingly pervasive—they are used in many settings, come in different sizes, serve different purposes, and have varied degrees of interactivity. In this paper, we aim to provide a survey of how these displays, often named media façades, are used in the wild in a city in China which is undergoing a rapid growth. This survey is intended to raise greater awareness and discussion about the use and effect of these displays in public areas. Through this survey, we have been able to distill some lessons of what is good, bad, and ugly about some current examples of media displays used in a city that is transitioning into becoming a modern one and one that is located in one of the fastest growing areas in Asia. With this research, we hope that we can provide technology designers and architects with some general principles that can help them integrate these types of technologies into their architectural creations.

Keywords: Large displays, media façades, interaction design, architectural displays.

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Authors: Faisal Aburub, Wael Hadi

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Data mining is the process of extracting useful or hidden information from a large database. Extracted information can be used to discover relationships among features, where data objects are grouped according to logical relationships; or to predict unseen objects to one of the predefined groups. In this paper, we aim to investigate four well-known data mining algorithms in order to predict groundwater areas in Jordan. These algorithms are Support Vector Machines (SVMs), Naïve Bayes (NB), K-Nearest Neighbor (kNN) and Classification Based on Association Rule (CBA). The experimental results indicate that the SVMs algorithm outperformed other algorithms in terms of classification accuracy, precision and F1 evaluation measures using the datasets of groundwater areas that were collected from Jordanian Ministry of Water and Irrigation.

Keywords: Classification, data mining, evaluation measures, groundwater.

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Authors: Luiz G. Véras, Felipe L. Medeiros, Lamartine F. Guimarães

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This work approaches the automatic planning of paths for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) through the application of the Rapidly Exploring Random Tree Star-Smart (RRT*-Smart) algorithm. RRT*-Smart is a sampling process of positions of a navigation environment through a tree-type graph. The algorithm consists of randomly expanding a tree from an initial position (root node) until one of its branches reaches the final position of the path to be planned. The algorithm ensures the planning of the shortest path, considering the number of iterations tending to infinity. When a new node is inserted into the tree, each neighbor node of the new node is connected to it, if and only if the extension of the path between the root node and that neighbor node, with this new connection, is less than the current extension of the path between those two nodes. RRT*-smart uses an intelligent sampling strategy to plan less extensive routes by spending a smaller number of iterations. This strategy is based on the creation of samples/nodes near to the convex vertices of the navigation environment obstacles. The planned paths are smoothed through the application of the method called quintic pythagorean hodograph curves. The smoothing process converts a route into a dynamically-viable one based on the kinematic constraints of the vehicle. This smoothing method models the hodograph components of a curve with polynomials that obey the Pythagorean Theorem. Its advantage is that the obtained structure allows computation of the curve length in an exact way, without the need for quadratural techniques for the resolution of integrals.

Keywords: Path planning, path smoothing, Pythagorean hodograph curve, RRT*-Smart.

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Authors: D. O. Omondi, M. K. Walingo, G. M. Mbagaya

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Objective: This study explored the possibility of integrating Health Belief Concepts as additional predictors of intention to adopt a recommended diet-category within the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). Methods: The study adopted a Sequential Exploratory Mixed Methods approach. Qualitative data were generated on attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control and perceptions on predetermined diet-categories including perceived susceptibility, perceived benefits, perceived severity and cues to action. Synthesis of qualitative data was done using constant comparative approach during phase 1. A survey tool developed from qualitative results was used to collect information on the same concepts across 237 legible Type 2 diabetics. Data analysis included use of Structural Equation Modeling in Analysis of Moment Structures to explore the possibility of including perceived susceptibility, perceived benefits, perceived severity and cues to action as additional intention predictors in a single nested model. Results: Two models-one nested based on the traditional TPB model {χ2=223.3, df = 77, p = .02, χ2/df = 2.9; TLI = .93; CFI =.91; RMSEA (90CI) = .090(.039, .146)} and the newly proposed Planned Behavior Health Belief Model (PBHB) {χ2 = 743.47, df = 301, p = .019; TLI = .90; CFI=.91; RMSEA (90CI) = .079(.031, .14)} passed the goodness of fit tests based on common fit indicators used. Conclusion: The newly developed PBHB Model ranked higher than the traditional TPB model with reference made to chi-square ratios (PBHB: χ2/df = 2.47; p=0.19 against TPB: χ2/df = 2.9, p=0.02). The integrated model can be used to motivate Type 2 diabetics towards healthy eating.

Keywords: Theory, intention, predictors, mixed methods design.

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Authors: Ching - Yi Lee, I-Hsiung Tseng, Feng-Chuan Pan

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Environment today is featured with aging population, increasing prevalence of chronic disease and complex of medical treatment. Safe use of pharmaceutics relied very much on the efforts made by both the health- related organizations and as well as the government agencies. As far as the specialization concern in providing health services to the patients, the government actively issued and implemented the divisions of medical treatment and pharmaceutical to improve the quality of care and to reduce medication errors and ensure public health. Pharmaceutical sub-sector policy has been implemented for 13 years. This study attempts to explore the factors that affect the patients- behavior intention of refilling a prescription from a NHIB pharmacy. Samples were those patients refilling their prescriptions with the case NHIB pharmacies. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect respondents- information while the patients or family members visit the pharmacy for the refilling. 1,200 questionnaires were dispatched in 37 pharmacies that randomly selected from Pingtung City, Dongkang, Chaozhou, Hengchun areas. 732 responses were gained with 604 valid samples for further analyses. Results of data analyses indicated that respondents- attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavior control and behavior intentions toward refilling behavior varied from some demographic variables to another. This research also suggested adding actual behavior, either by a self-report or observed, into the research.

Keywords: Separation of dispensing and prescribing, prescriptions refill slip, NHIB contracted pharmacy, drug safety, theory of planned behavior.

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Authors: Jin-Woong Park, Sun-Kyung Kang, Sung-Tae Jung

Abstract:

In this study, we propose a tongue diagnosis method which detects the tongue from face image and divides the tongue area into six areas, and finally generates tongue coating ratio of each area. To detect the tongue area from face image, we use ASM as one of the active shape models. Detected tongue area is divided into six areas widely used in the Korean traditional medicine and the distribution of tongue coating of the six areas is examined by SVM(Support Vector Machine). For SVM, we use a 3-dimensional vector calculated by PCA(Principal Component Analysis) from a 12-dimentional vector consisting of RGB, HIS, Lab, and Luv. As a result, we detected the tongue area stably using ASM and found that PCA and SVM helped raise the ratio of tongue coating detection.

Keywords: Active Shape Model, Principal Component Analysis, Support Vector Machine, Tongue diagnosis

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