Search results for: real–time information

Authors: Francesco Ruscio, Paolo Paoletti, Jens Thomas, Paul Myers, Sebastiano Fichera

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This paper presents the development of a low-cost monitoring system for a hydroponic urban vertical farm, enabling its automation and a quantitative assessment of the farm performance. Urban farming has seen increasing interest in the last decade thanks to the development of energy efficient and affordable LED lights; however, the optimal configuration of such systems (i.e. amount of nutrients, light-on time, ambient temperature etc.) is mostly based on the farmers’ experience and empirical guidelines. Moreover, even if simple, the maintenance of such systems is labor intensive as it requires water to be topped-up periodically, mixing of the nutrients etc. To unlock the full potential of urban farming, a quantitative understanding of the role that each variable plays in the growth of the plants is needed, together with a higher degree of automation. The low-cost monitoring system proposed in this paper is a step toward filling this knowledge and technological gap, as it enables collection of sensor data related to water and air temperature, water level, humidity, pressure, light intensity, pH and electric conductivity without requiring any human intervention. More sensors and actuators can also easily be added thanks to the modular design of the proposed platform. Data can be accessed remotely via a simple web interface. The proposed platform can be used both for quantitatively optimizing the setup of the farms and for automating some of the most labor-intensive maintenance activities. Moreover, such monitoring system can also potentially be used for high-level decision making, once enough data are collected.

Keywords: Automation, hydroponics, internet of things, monitoring system, urban farming.

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Authors: Virginia Bassily, Sherif Goubran

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In heritage conservation and revival, much of the focus is placed on the techniques and methods to preserve, restore, and revive heritage structures and locations. However, more attention needs to be drawn to how deterioration happens and its effect on the area’s character and socio-economic status. To this end, this research aims to examine the decline and its effect in the El Korba area in Heliopolis, Cairo, Egypt. El Korba was designed with a unique architectural character to stimulate social and economic life. However, the area has been on a path of physical deterioration that is corroding the social life on its streets. This research uses diachronic analysis in Ibrahim El-Lakkani Boulevard of El Korba based on a previously developed framework that connects buildings’ architectural features to the degree of social interaction in the street to document the changes that the building deterioration could have caused. Architectural features of the street level during both the original state (1906) and the current state (2021) are broken down and categorized in those six parameters to understand their decline or improvement over time. We find that the parameters that have decreased over the years and caused the deterioration are complexity and architectural character, permeability, territoriality and personalization, and physical comfort.  Based on these findings, revival projects can focus on physical parameters that create synergistic benefits by preserving and renewing heritage locations and revitalizing their socio-economic potential.

Keywords: Architectural character, heritage building conservation, enclosure, ground-floor use, El Korba, visual and physical permeability, personalization, physical comfort, social life, territoriality.

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Authors: Kaushal Kumar Jha

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Nagaland, the 16th state of India in order of statehood, is situated between 25° 6' and 27° 4' latitude north and between 93º 20' E and 95º 15' E longitude of equator in the North Eastern part of the India. Endowed with varied topography, soil and agro climatic conditions it is known for its potentiality to grow all most all kinds of horticultural crops. Pineapple being grown since long organically by default is one of the most promising crops of the state with emphasis being laid for commercialization by the government of Nagaland. In light of commercialization, globalization and scope of setting small-scale industries, a research study was undertaken to examine the socio-economic and personal characteristics, entrepreneurial characteristics and attitude of the pineapple growers towards improved package of practices of pineapple cultivation. The study was conducted in Medziphema block of Dimapur district of the Nagaland state of India following ex post facto research design. Ninety pineapple growers were selected from four different villages of Medziphema block based on proportionate random selection procedure. Findings of the study revealed that majority of the respondents had medium level of entrepreneurial characteristics in terms of knowledge level, risk orientation, self confidence, management orientation, farm decision making ability and leadership ability and most of them had favourable attitude towards improved package of practices of pineapple cultivation. The variables age, education, farm size, risk orientation, management orientation and sources of information utilized were found important to influence the attitude of the respondents. The study revealed that favourable attitude and entrepreneurial characteristics of the pineapple cultivators might be harnessed for increased production of pineapple in the state thereby bringing socio economic upliftment of the marginal and small-scale farmers.

Keywords: Attitude, Entrepreneurial characteristics, Pineapple, Socio economic upliftment.

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Authors: Mukul Shukla, Rasheedat M. Mahamood, Esther T. Akinlabi, Sisa. Pityana

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Laser Metal Deposition (LMD) is an additive manufacturing process with capabilities that include: producing new part directly from 3 Dimensional Computer Aided Design (3D CAD) model, building new part on the existing old component and repairing an existing high valued component parts that would have been discarded in the past. With all these capabilities and its advantages over other additive manufacturing techniques, the underlying physics of the LMD process is yet to be fully understood probably because of high interaction between the processing parameters and studying many parameters at the same time makes it further complex to understand. In this study, the effect of laser power and powder flow rate on physical properties (deposition height and deposition width), metallurgical property (microstructure) and mechanical (microhardness) properties on laser deposited most widely used aerospace alloy are studied. Also, because the Ti6Al4V is very expensive, and LMD is capable of reducing buy-to-fly ratio of aerospace parts, the material utilization efficiency is also studied. Four sets of experiments were performed and repeated to establish repeatability using laser power of 1.8 kW and 3.0 kW, powder flow rate of 2.88 g/min and 5.67 g/min, and keeping the gas flow rate and scanning speed constant at 2 l/min and 0.005 m/s respectively. The deposition height / width are found to increase with increase in laser power and increase in powder flow rate. The material utilization is favoured by higher power while higher powder flow rate reduces material utilization. The results are presented and fully discussed.

Keywords: Laser Metal Deposition, Material Efficiency, Microstructure, Ti6Al4V.

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Authors: Krishna Kumar Singh, Praveen Jain

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Collection of storm water runoff and forcing it into the groundwater is the need of the hour to sustain the ground water table. However, the runoff entraps various types of sediments and other floating objects whose removal are essential to avoid pollution of ground water and blocking of pores of aquifer. However, it requires regular cleaning and maintenance due to problem of clogging. To evaluate the performance of filter system consisting of coarse sand (CS), gravel (G) and pebble (P) layers, a laboratory experiment was conducted in a rectangular column. The effect of variable thickness of CS, G and P layers of the filtration unit of the recharge shaft on the recharge rate and the sediment concentration of effluent water were evaluated. Medium sand (MS) of three particle sizes, viz. 0.150–0.300 mm (T1), 0.300–0.425 mm (T2) and 0.425–0.600 mm of thickness 25 cm, 30 cm and 35 cm respectively in the top layer of the filter system and having seven influent sediment concentrations of 250–3,000 mg/l were used for experimental study. The performance was evaluated in terms of recharge rates and clogging time. The results indicated that 100 % suspended solids were entrapped in the upper 10 cm layer of MS, the recharge rates declined sharply for influent concentrations of more than 1,000 mg/l. All treatments with higher thickness of MS media indicated recharge rate slightly more than that of all treatment with lower thickness of MS media respectively. The performance of storm water infiltration systems was highly dependent on the formation of a clogging layer at the filter. An empirical relationship has been derived between recharge rates, inflow sediment load, size of MS and thickness of MS with using MLR.

Keywords: Groundwater, medium sand-mixed storm water filter, inflow sediment load.

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Authors: Nooshin La'l Mohamadi

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Due to the fact that in the new century customers tend to express globally increasing demands, networks of interconnected businesses have been established in societies and the management of such networks seems to be a major key through gaining competitive advantages. Supply chain management encompasses such managerial activities. Within a supply chain, a critical role is played by quality. QFD is a widely-utilized tool which serves the purpose of not only bringing quality to the ultimate provision of products or service packages required by the end customer or the retailer, but it can also initiate us into a satisfactory relationship with our initial customer; that is the wholesaler. However, the wholesalers- cooperation is considerably based on the capabilities that are heavily dependent on their locations and existing circumstances. Therefore, it is undeniable that for all companies each wholesaler possesses a specific importance ratio which can heavily influence the figures calculated in the House of Quality in QFD. Moreover, due to the competitiveness of the marketplace today, it-s been widely recognized that consumers- expression of demands has been highly volatile in periods of production. Apparently, such instability and proneness to change has been very tangibly noticed and taking it into account during the analysis of HOQ is widely influential and doubtlessly required. For a more reliable outcome in such matters, this article demonstrates the application viability of Analytic Network Process for considering the wholesalers- reputation and simultaneously introduces a mortality coefficient for the reliability and stability of the consumers- expressed demands in course of time. Following to this, the paper provides further elaboration on the relevant contributory factors and approaches through the calculation of such coefficients. In the end, the article concludes that an empirical application is needed to achieve broader validity.

Keywords: Analytic Network Process, Quality Function Deployment, QFD flaws, Supply Chain Management

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Authors: Shahram Naghizadeh Raeisi, Ali Alghooneh

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Using membrane technology and modification of milk protein structural properties, a lactose free yogurt was developed. The functional, textural and structural properties of the sample were evaluated and compared with the commercial ones. Results showed that the modification of protein in high fat set yogurt resulted in 11.55%, 18%, 20.21% and 7.08% higher hardness, consistency, water holding capacity, and shininess values compared with the control one. Furthermore, these indices of modified low fat set yogurt were 21.40%, 25.41%, 28.15% & 10.58% higher than the control one, which could be related to the gel network microstructural properties in yogurt formulated with modified protein. In this way, in comparison with the control one, the index of linkage strength (A), the number of linkages (z), and time scale of linkages (λrel) of the high fat modified yogurt were 22.10%, 50.68%, 21.82% higher than the control one; whereas, the average linear distance between two adjacent crosslinks (ξ), was 16.77% lower than the control one. For low fat modified yogurt, A, z, λrel, and ξ indices were 34.30%, 61.70% and 42.60% higher and 19.20% lower than the control one, respectively. The shelf life of modified yogurt was extended to 10 weeks in the refrigerator, while, the control set yogurt had a 3 weeks shelf life. The acidity of high fat and low fat modified yogurts increased from 76 to 84 and 72 to 80 Dornic degrees during 10 weeks of storage, respectively, whereas for control high fat and low fat yogurts they increased from 82 to 122 and 77 to 112 Dornic degrees, respectively. This behavior could be due to the elimination of microorganism’s source of energy in modified yogurt. Furthermore, the calories of high fat and low fat lactose free yogurts were 25% and 40% lower than their control samples, respectively. Generally, results showed that the lactose free yogurt with modified protein, despite of 1% lower protein content than the control one, showed better functional properties, nutritional properties, network parameters, and shelf stability, which could be promising in the set yogurt industry.

Keywords: Lactose free, low calorie, network properties, protein modification.

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Authors: Mohammad Saeri, Noor Rizkiyah, Kambang Vetrani Asie, Titin Apung Atikah

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The study aims to assess efficient specific-location soybean farming technology assembly by assisting the farmers in applying the suggested technology. Superimposed trial was conducted to know NPK fertilizer effect toward soybean growth and yield and soybean improved variety test for the dissemination of improved variety. The assessment was conducted at the farmers group of Sumber Rejeki, Kepulungan Village, Gempol Sub-district, Pasuruan Regency as the soybean central at Pasuruan area. The number of farmers involved in the study was 38 people with 25 ha soybean area. This study was held from July to October 2012.  The recommended technology package agreed at the socialization time and used in this research were: using Argomulyo variety seeds of 40 kg/ha, planting by drilling, planting by distance of 40x10 cm, deciding the seeds amount of 2-3 seeds per hole, and giving fertilization based on recommendation of East Java AIAT of 50 kg Urea, 100 kg SP-36 and 50 kg KCl.  Farmers around the research location were used as control group. Assessment on soybean farming system was considered effective because it could increase the production up to 38%. The farming analysis showed that the result collaborator farmers gained were positively higher than non-collaborator farmers with RC ratio of 2.03 and 1.54, respectively. Argomulyo variety has the prospect to be developed due to the high yield of about 2 tons/ha and the larger seeds. The NPK fertilization test at the soybean plants showed that the fertilization had minor effect on the yield.

Keywords: Farming system, soybean, variety, location specific farming.

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Authors: Kh. Ashrafi, Gh. A. Hoshyaripour

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Atmospheric stability plays the most important role in the transport and dispersion of air pollutants. Different methods are used for stability determination with varying degrees of complexity. Most of these methods are based on the relative magnitude of convective and mechanical turbulence in atmospheric motions. Richardson number, Monin-Obukhov length, Pasquill-Gifford stability classification and Pasquill–Turner stability classification, are the most common parameters and methods. The Pasquill–Turner Method (PTM), which is employed in this study, makes use of observations of wind speed, insolation and the time of day to classify atmospheric stability with distinguishable indices. In this study, a model is presented to determination of atmospheric stability conditions using PTM. As a case study, meteorological data of Mehrabad station in Tehran from 2000 to 2005 is applied to model. Here, three different categories are considered to deduce the pattern of stability conditions. First, the total pattern of stability classification is obtained and results show that atmosphere is 38.77%, 27.26%, 33.97%, at stable, neutral and unstable condition, respectively. It is also observed that days are mostly unstable (66.50%) while nights are mostly stable (72.55%). Second, monthly and seasonal patterns are derived and results indicate that relative frequency of stable conditions decrease during January to June and increase during June to December, while results for unstable conditions are exactly in opposite manner. Autumn is the most stable season with relative frequency of 50.69% for stable condition, whilst, it is 42.79%, 34.38% and 27.08% for winter, summer and spring, respectively. Hourly stability pattern is the third category that points out that unstable condition is dominant from approximately 03-15 GTM and 04-12 GTM for warm and cold seasons, respectively. Finally, correlation between atmospheric stability and CO concentration is achieved.

Keywords: Atmospheric stability, Pasquill-Turner classification, convective turbulence, mechanical turbulence, Tehran.

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Authors: Benazeer Md. Shahzada, Verelst Jan, Van Grembergen Wim, Mannaert Herwig

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This article is an extension and a practical application approach of Wheeler-s NEBIC theory (Net Enabled Business Innovation Cycle). NEBIC theory is a new approach in IS research and can be used for dynamic environment related to new technology. Firms can follow the market changes rapidly with support of the IT resources. Flexible firms adapt their market strategies, and respond more quickly to customers changing behaviors. When every leading firm in an industry has access to the same IT resources, the way that these IT resources are managed will determine the competitive advantages or disadvantages of firm. From Dynamic Capabilities Perspective and from newly introduced NEBIC theory by Wheeler, we know that only IT resources cannot deliver customer value but good configuration of those resources can guarantee customer value by choosing the right emerging technology, grasping the right economic opportunities through business innovation and growth. We found evidences in literature that SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) is a promising emerging technology which can deliver the desired economic opportunity through modularity, flexibility and loose-coupling. SOA can also help firms to connect in network which can open a new window of opportunity to collaborate in innovation and right kind of outsourcing. There are many articles and research reports indicates that failure rate in outsourcing is very high but at the same time research indicates that successful outsourcing projects adds tangible and intangible benefits to the service consumer. Business executives and policy makers in the west should not afraid of outsourcing but they should choose the right strategy through the use of emerging technology to significantly reduce the failure rate in outsourcing.

Keywords: Absorptive capacity, Dynamic Capability, Netenabled business innovation cycle, Service oriented architecture.

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Authors: Maria C. Proença, Maria T. Rebelo, Maria J. Alves, Sofia Cunha

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Vector-borne diseases are transmitted to humans by mosquitos, sandflies, bugs, ticks, and other vectors. Some are re-transmitted between vectors, if the infected human has a new contact when his levels of infection are high. The vector is infected for lifetime and can transmit infectious diseases not only between humans but also from animals to humans. Some vector borne diseases are very disabling and globally account for more than one million deaths worldwide. The mosquitoes from the complex Culex pipiens sl. are the most abundant in Portugal, and we dispose in this moment of a data set from the surveillance program that has been carried on since 2006 across the country. All mosquitos’ species are included, but the large coverage of Culex pipiens sl. and its importance for public health make this vector an interesting candidate to assess risk of disease amplification. This work focus on ports and airports identified as key areas of high density of vectors. Mosquitoes being ectothermic organisms, the main factor for vector survival and pathogen development is temperature. Minima and maxima local air temperatures for each area of interest are averaged by month from data gathered on a daily basis at the national network of meteorological stations, and interpolated in a geographic information system (GIS). The range of temperatures ideal for several pathogens are known and this work shows how to use it with the meteorological data in each port and airport facility, to focus an efficient implementation of countermeasures and reduce simultaneously risk transmission and mitigation costs. The results show an increased alert with decreasing latitude, which corresponds to higher minimum and maximum temperatures and a lower amplitude range of the daily temperature.

Keywords: Human health, risk assessment, risk management, vector-borne diseases.

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Authors: Xiang Zhang, Daohong Yang, Ziyuan Wu, Lei Li, Wanting Zhou

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Visual Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (VSLAM) uses cameras to gather information in unknown environments to achieve simultaneous localization and mapping of the environment. This technology has a wide range of applications in autonomous driving, virtual reality, and other related fields. Currently, the research advancements related to VSLAM can maintain high accuracy in static environments. But in dynamic environments, the presence of moving objects in the scene can reduce the stability of the VSLAM system, leading to inaccurate localization and mapping, or even system failure. In this paper, a robust VSLAM method was proposed to effectively address the challenges in dynamic environments. We proposed a dynamic region removal scheme based on a semantic segmentation neural network and geometric constraints. Firstly, a semantic segmentation neural network is used to extract the prior active motion region, prior static region, and prior passive motion region in the environment. Then, the lightweight frame tracking module initializes the transform pose between the previous frame and the current frame on the prior static region. A motion consistency detection module based on multi-view geometry and scene flow is used to divide the environment into static regions and dynamic regions. Thus, the dynamic object region was successfully eliminated. Finally, only the static region is used for tracking thread. Our research is based on the ORBSLAM3 system, which is one of the most effective VSLAM systems available. We evaluated our method on the TUM RGB-D benchmark and the results demonstrate that the proposed VSLAM method improves the accuracy of the original ORBSLAM3 by 70%˜98.5% under a high dynamic environment.

Keywords: Dynamic scene, dynamic visual SLAM, semantic segmentation, scene flow, VSLAM.

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Authors: W. C. Lucas, S. Titus, M. E. M. Young

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Gymnastics is the umbrella term that represents seven different and unique disciplines of gymnastics. Men and women of all ages and abilities practice this sport, and participation in gymnastics can develop both gross and fine motor skills, strength, flexibility, coordination and balance. There are various social factors, such as a family’s socioeconomic status or accessibility to sports facilities that may play a role in affecting levels of participation. The aim of this study is to investigate the social factors that have an influence on gymnastics participation in the Western Cape. To this end, a qualitative approach is adopted to collect data. This study also adopts the ecological systems theory as the theoretical framework, and is used to analyze and interpret current social factors that directly or indirectly influence participation in gymnastics. The study’s objectives were to ascertain which social factors hinder participation, and which social factors promote participation, thus, coaches, parents and gymnasts participated in focus group discussions. Key informant interviews took place with experts in the field of gymnastics in the Western Cape. A thematic analysis was conducted on transcriptions from the focus group discussions and key informant interviews. Social factors investigated in this study occurred in the chronosystem, macrosystem, exosystem, mesosystem, and microsystem, and had both a direct and indirect influence on the gymnast’s continued participation. These systems are defined as the environment of the individual, in which they grow and develop. The research findings of this paper are used to draw conclusions and make specific recommendations for practice and further research. The information gathered in this study can assist all stakeholders within the field of gymnastics, such as parents, judges, coaches, gymnasts, and the supporting community which surround the participating gymnast.

Keywords: Developing child, ecological systems theory, facilities, federation, gymnastics, influence, participation, social factors, socioeconomic status, sport.

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Authors: Yanju Zhang, Joost M. Woltering, Fons J. Verbeek

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It has been established that microRNAs (miRNAs) play an important role in gene expression by post-transcriptional regulation of messengerRNAs (mRNAs). However, the precise relationships between microRNAs and their target genes in sense of numbers, types and biological relevance remain largely unclear. Dissecting the miRNA-target relationships will render more insights for miRNA targets identification and validation therefore promote the understanding of miRNA function. In miRBase, miRanda is the key algorithm used for target prediction for Zebrafish. This algorithm is high-throughput but brings lots of false positives (noise). Since validation of a large scale of targets through laboratory experiments is very time consuming, several computational methods for miRNA targets validation should be developed. In this paper, we present an integrative method to investigate several aspects of the relationships between miRNAs and their targets with the final purpose of extracting high confident targets from miRanda predicted targets pool. This is achieved by using the techniques ranging from statistical tests to clustering and association rules. Our research focuses on Zebrafish. It was found that validated targets do not necessarily associate with the highest sequence matching. Besides, for some miRNA families, the frequency of their predicted targets is significantly higher in the genomic region nearby their own physical location. Finally, in a case study of dre-miR-10 and dre-miR-196, it was found that the predicted target genes hoxd13a, hoxd11a, hoxd10a and hoxc4a of dre-miR- 10 while hoxa9a, hoxc8a and hoxa13a of dre-miR-196 have similar characteristics as validated target genes and therefore represent high confidence target candidates.

Keywords: MicroRNA targets validation, microRNA-target relationships, dre-miR-10, dre-miR-196.

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Authors: Rohit Kumar Shrivastava, Amalia Thomas, Nathalie Vriend, Stefan Luding

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A mechanical wave or vibration propagating through granular media exhibits a specific signature in time. A coherent pulse or wavefront arrives first with multiply scattered waves (coda) arriving later. The coherent pulse is micro-structure independent i.e. it depends only on the bulk properties of the disordered granular sample, the sound wave velocity of the granular sample and hence bulk and shear moduli. The coherent wavefront attenuates (decreases in amplitude) and broadens with distance from its source. The pulse attenuation and broadening effects are affected by disorder (polydispersity; contrast in size of the granules) and have often been attributed to dispersion and scattering. To study the effect of disorder and initial amplitude (non-linearity) of the pulse imparted to the system on the coherent wavefront, numerical simulations have been carried out on one-dimensional sets of particles (granular chains). The interaction force between the particles is given by a Hertzian contact model. The sizes of particles have been selected randomly from a Gaussian distribution, where the standard deviation of this distribution is the relevant parameter that quantifies the effect of disorder on the coherent wavefront. Since, the coherent wavefront is system configuration independent, ensemble averaging has been used for improving the signal quality of the coherent pulse and removing the multiply scattered waves. The results concerning the width of the coherent wavefront have been formulated in terms of scaling laws. An experimental set-up of photoelastic particles constituting a granular chain is proposed to validate the numerical results.

Keywords: Discrete elements, Hertzian Contact, polydispersity, weakly nonlinear, wave propagation.

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Authors: D. Dannehl, Z. Taylor, J. Suhl, L. Miranda, R., Ulrichs, C., Salazar, E. Fitz-Rodriguez, I. Lopez-Cruz, A. Rojano-Aguilar, G. Navas-Gomez, U. Schmidt

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Growing environmental and sustainability concerns have driven continual modernization of horticultural practices, especially for urban farming. Controlled environment and soilless production methods are increasing in popularity because of their efficient resource use and intensive cropping capabilities. However, some popular substrates used for hydroponic cultivation, particularly rock wool, represent a large environmental burden in regard to their manufacture and disposal. Substrate-less hydroponic systems are effective in producing short cropping cycle plants such as lettuce or herbs, but less information is available for the production of plants with larger root-systems and longer cropping times. Here, we investigated the viability of a hybrid aeroponic/nutrient film technique (AP/NFT) system for the cultivation of greenhouse tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum ‘Panovy’). The plants grown in the AP/NFT system had a more compact phenotype, accumulated more Na⁺ and less P and S than the rock wool grown counterparts. Due to forced irrigation interruptions, we propose that the differences observed were cofounded by the differing severity of water-stress for plants with and without substrate. They may also be caused by a higher root zone temperature predominant in plants exposed to AP/NFT. However, leaf area, stem diameter, and number of trusses did not differ significantly. The same was found for leaf pigments and plant photosynthetic efficiency. Overall, the AP/NFT system appears to be viable for the production of greenhouse tomato, enabling the environment to be relieved by way of lessening rock wool usage.

Keywords: Aeroponic/nutrient film technique, greenhouse, nutrient dynamic, soilless culture, urban farming, waste reduction.

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Authors: Farzaneh Tahmoorian, Bijan Samali, John Yeaman

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Road networks are increasingly expanding all over the world. The construction and maintenance of the road pavements require large amounts of aggregates. Considerable usage of various natural aggregates for constructing roads as well as the increasing rate at which solid waste is generated have attracted the attention of many researchers in the pavement industry to investigate the feasibility of the application of some of the waste materials as alternative materials in pavement construction. Among various waste materials, construction and demolition wastes, including Recycled Construction Aggregate (RCA) constitute a major part of the municipal solid wastes in Australia. Creating opportunities for the application of RCA in civil and geotechnical engineering applications is an efficient way to increase the market value of RCA. However, in spite of such promising potentials, insufficient and inconclusive data and information on the engineering properties of RCA had limited the reliability and design specifications of RCA to date. In light of this, this paper, as a first step of a comprehensive research, aims to investigate the feasibility of the application of RCA obtained from construction and demolition wastes for the replacement of part of coarse aggregates in asphalt mixture. As the suitability of aggregates for using in asphalt mixtures is determined based on the aggregate characteristics, including physical and mechanical properties of the aggregates, an experimental program is set up to evaluate the physical and mechanical properties of RCA. This laboratory investigation included the measurement of compressive strength and workability of RCA, particle shape, water absorption, flakiness index, crushing value, deleterious materials and weak particles, wet/dry strength variation, and particle density. In addition, the comparison of RCA properties with virgin aggregates has been included as part of this investigation and this paper presents the results of these investigations on RCA, basalt, and the mix of RCA/basalt.

Keywords: Asphalt, basalt, pavement, recycled aggregate.

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Authors: Helen L. Hein, Joachim Schwarte

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As a pillar of sustainable development, ecology has become an important milestone in research community, especially due to global challenges like climate change. The ecological performance of products can be scientifically conducted with life cycle assessments. In the construction sector, significant amounts of CO₂ emissions are assigned to the energy used for building heating purposes. Therefore, sustainable construction materials for insulating purposes are substantial, whereby aerogels have been explored intensively in the last years due to their low thermal conductivity. Therefore, the WALL-ACE project aims to develop an aerogel-based thermal insulating plaster that would achieve minor thermal conductivities. But as in the early stage of development phases, a lot of information is still missing or not yet accessible, the ecological performance of innovative products bases increasingly on uncertain data that can lead to significant deviations in the results. To be able to predict realistically how meaningful the results are and how viable the developed products may be with regard to their corresponding respective market, these deviations however have to be considered. Therefore, a classification method is presented in this study, which may allow comparing the ecological performance of modern products with already established and competitive materials. In order to achieve this, an alternative calculation method was used that allows computing with lower and upper bounds to consider all possible values without precise data. The life cycle analysis of the considered products was conducted with an interval arithmetic based calculation method. The results lead to the conclusion that the interval solutions describing the possible environmental impacts are so wide that the result usability is limited. Nevertheless, a further optimization in reducing environmental impacts of aerogels seems to be needed to become more competitive in the future.

Keywords: Aerogel-based, insulating material, early develop¬ment phase, interval arithmetic.

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Authors: A. Nour Eddine, D. Chalet, L. Aixala, P. Chessé, X. Faure, N. Hatat

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Thermal power technology such as the TEG (Thermo-Electric Generator) arouses significant attention worldwide for waste heat recovery. Despite the potential benefits of marine application due to the permanent heat sink from sea water, no significant studies on this application were to be found. In this study, a test rig has been designed and built to test the performance of the TEG on engine operating points. The TEG device is built from commercially available materials for the sake of possible economical application. Two types of commercial TEM (thermo electric module) have been studied separately on the test rig. The engine data were extracted from a commercial Diesel engine since it shares the same principle in terms of engine efficiency and exhaust with the marine Diesel engine. An open circuit water cooling system is used to replicate the sea water cold source. The characterization tests showed that the silicium-germanium alloys TEM proved a remarkable reliability on all engine operating points, with no significant deterioration of performance even under sever variation in the hot source conditions. The performance of the bismuth-telluride alloys was 100% better than the first type of TEM but it showed a deterioration in power generation when the air temperature exceeds 300 °C. The temperature distribution on the heat exchange surfaces revealed no useful combination of these two types of TEM with this tube length, since the surface temperature difference between both ends is no more than 10 °C. This study exposed the perspective of use of TEG technology for marine engine exhaust heat recovery. Although the results suggested non-sufficient power generation from the low cost commercial TEM used, it provides valuable information about TEG device optimization, including the design of heat exchanger and the types of thermo-electric materials.

Keywords: Internal combustion engine application, Seebeck, thermo-electricity, waste heat recovery.

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Authors: S. S. Sravanthi, Swati Ghosh Acharyya

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Automotive light weighting is of major prominence in the current times due to its contribution in improved fuel economy and reduced environmental pollution. Various arc welding technologies are being employed in the production of automobile components with reduced weight. The present study is of practical importance since it involves preferential substitution of Zinc coated mild steel with a light weight alloy such as 6061 Aluminium by means of Gas Metal Arc Welding (GMAW) – Brazing technique at different processing parameters. However, the fabricated joints have shown the generation of Al – Fe layer at the interfacial regions which was confirmed by the Scanning Electron Microscope and Energy Dispersion Spectroscopy. These Al-Fe compounds not only affect the mechanical strength, but also predominantly deteriorate the corrosion resistance of the joints. Hence, it is essential to understand the phases formed in this layer and their crystal structure. Micro area X - ray diffraction technique has been exclusively used for this study. Moreover, the crevice corrosion analysis at the joint interfaces was done by exposing the joints to 5 wt.% FeCl₃ solution at regular time intervals as per ASTM G 48-03. The joints have shown a decreased crevice corrosion resistance with increased heat intensity. Inner surfaces of welds have shown severe oxide cracking and a remarkable weight loss when exposed to concentrated FeCl₃. The weight loss was enhanced with decreased filler wire feed rate and increased heat intensity. 

Keywords: Automobiles, welding, corrosion, lap joints, Micro XRD.

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Authors: Chutarat Boontho

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The purposes of this study were as follows to evaluate the economic value of Phu Kradueng National Park by the travel cost method (TCM) and the contingent valuation method (CVM) and to estimate the demand for traveling and the willingness to pay. The data for this study were collected by conducting two large scale surveys on users and non-users. A total of 1,016 users and 1,034 non-users were interviewed. The data were analyzed using multiple linear regression analysis, logistic regression model and the consumer surplus (CS) was the integral of demand function for trips. The survey found, were as follows: 1)Using the travel cost method which provides an estimate of direct benefits to park users, we found that visitors- total willingness to pay per visit was 2,284.57 bath, of which 958.29 bath was travel cost, 1,129.82 bath was expenditure for accommodation, food, and services, and 166.66 bath was consumer surplus or the visitors -net gain or satisfaction from the visit (the integral of demand function for trips). 2) Thai visitors to Phu Kradueng National Park were further willing to pay an average of 646.84 bath per head per year to ensure the continued existence of Phu Kradueng National Park and to preserve their option to use it in the future. 3) Thai non-visitors, on the other hand, are willing to pay an average of 212.61 bath per head per year for the option and existence value provided by the Park. 4) The total economic value of Phu Kradueng National Park to Thai visitors and non-visitors taken together stands today at 9,249.55 million bath per year. 5) The users- average willingness to pay for access to Phu Kradueng National Park rises from 40 bath to 84.66 bath per head per trip for improved services such as road improvement, increased cleanliness, and upgraded information. This paper was needed to investigate of the potential market demand for bio prospecting in Phu Kradueng national Park and to investigate how a larger share of the economic benefits of tourism could be distributed income to the local residents.

Keywords: Contingent Valuation Method, Travel Cost Method, Consumer surplus.

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Authors: Mohammadreza Vafaei, Amirali Moradi, Sophia C. Alih

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The method selected for the design of structures not only can affect their seismic vulnerability but also can affect their construction cost. For the design of steel structures, two distinct methods have been introduced by existing codes, namely allowable stress design (ASD) and load resistant factor design (LRFD). This study investigates the effect of using the aforementioned design methods on the seismic vulnerability and construction cost of steel structures. Specifically, a 20-story building equipped with special moment resisting frame and an eccentrically braced system was selected for this study. The building was designed for three different intensities of peak ground acceleration including 0.2 g, 0.25 g, and 0.3 g using the ASD and LRFD methods. The required sizes of beams, columns, and braces were obtained using response spectrum analysis. Then, the designed frames were subjected to nine natural earthquake records which were scaled to the designed response spectrum. For each frame, the base shear, story shears, and inter-story drifts were calculated and then were compared. Results indicated that the LRFD method led to a more economical design for the frames. In addition, the LRFD method resulted in lower base shears and larger inter-story drifts when compared with the ASD method. It was concluded that the application of the LRFD method not only reduced the weights of structural elements but also provided a higher safety margin against seismic actions when compared with the ASD method.

Keywords: Allowable stress design, load resistant factor design, nonlinear time history analysis, seismic vulnerability, steel structures.

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Authors: David M. Lucas, Charles W. Jarrett

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In the culture of Thailand, the Yak serve as a mediated icon representing strength, power, and mystical protection not only for the Buddha, but for population of worshipers. Originating from the forests of China, the Yak continues to stand guard at the gates of Buddhist temples. The Yak represents Thai culture in the hearts of Thai people. This paper presents a qualitative study regarding the curious mix of media, culture, and religion that projects the Yak of Thailand as a larger than life message throughout the political, cultural, and religious spheres. The gate guardians, or gods as they are sometimes called, appear throughout the religious temples of Asian cultures. However, the Asian cultures demonstrate differences in artistic renditions (or presentations) of such sentinels. Thailand gate guards (the Yak) stand in front of many Buddhist temples, and these iconic figures display unique features with varied symbolic significance. The temple (or wat), plays a vital role in every community; and, for many people, Thailand’s temples are the country’s most endearing sights. The authors applied folknography as a methodology to illustrate the importance of the Thai Yak in serving as meaningful icons that transcend not only time, but the culture, religion, and mass media. The Yak represents mythical, religious, artistic, cultural, and militaristic significance for the Thai people. Data collection included interviews, focus groups, and natural observations. This paper summarizes the perceptions of the Thai people concerning their gate sentries and the relationship, communication, connection, and the enduring respect that Thai people hold for their guardians of the gates.

Keywords: Communication, Culture, Folknography, Icon, Image, Media, Protection, Religion, Yak.

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Authors: Ana Lambelho

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In an economic crisis such as the one that shook (and still shake) Europe, one does not question the importance of the measures that encourage the hiring and integration of young people into the labour market. In the mentioned context, enterprises tend to reduce the cost of labour and to seek flexible contracting instruments. The professional internships allow innovation and creativity at low cost, because, as they are not labour contracts, the enterprises do not have to respect the minimum standards related to wages, working time duration and so on. In Portugal, we observe a widespread existence of training contracts in which the trainee worked several hours without salary or was paid below the legally prescribed for the function and the work period. For this reason, under the tripartite agreement for a new system of regulation of labour relations, employment policies and social protection, between the Government and the social partners, in June 2008, foresaw a prohibition of professional internships unpaid and the legal regulation of the mandatory internships for access to an activity. The first Act about private internship contracts, i.e., internships without public funding was embodied in the Decree-Law N. 66/2011, of 1^st June. This work is dedicated to the study of the legal regime of the internship contract in Portugal, by analysing the problems brought by the new set of rules and especially those which remains unresolved. In fact, we can conclude that the number of situations covered by the Act is much lower than what was expected, because of the exclusion of the mandatory internship for access to a profession when the activity is developed autonomously. Since the majority of the activities can be developed both autonomously or subordinated, it is quite easy to out of the Act requirements and, so, out of the protection that it confers to the intern. In order to complete this study, we considered not only the mentioned legal Act, but also the few doctrine and jurisprudence about the theme.

Keywords: Intern, internship contact, labour law, Portugal.

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Authors: Sayed M. Soleimani, Nader H. Ghareeb, Nourhan H. Shaker, Muhammad B. Siddiqui

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Honeycomb sandwich panels have been widely used as protective structural elements against blast loading. The main advantages of these panels include their light weight due to the presence of voids, as well as their energy absorption capability. Terrorist activities have imposed new challenges to structural engineers to design protective measures for vital structures. Since blast loading is not usually considered in the load combinations during the design process of a structure, researchers around the world have been motivated to study the behavior of potential elements capable of resisting sudden loads imposed by the detonation of explosive materials. One of the best candidates for this objective is the honeycomb sandwich panel. Studying the effects of explosive materials on the panels requires costly and time-consuming experiments. Moreover, these type of experiments need permission from defense organizations which can become a hurdle. As a result, modeling and simulation using an appropriate tool can be considered as a good alternative. In this research work, the finite element package ABAQUS® is used to study the behavior of hexagonal and squared honeycomb steel sandwich panels under the explosive effects of different amounts of trinitrotoluene (TNT). The results of finite element modeling of a specific honeycomb configuration are initially validated by comparing them with the experimental results from literature. Afterwards, several configurations including different geometrical properties of the honeycomb wall are investigated and the results are compared with the original model. Finally, the effectiveness of the core shape and wall thickness are discussed, and conclusions are made.

Keywords: Blast loading, finite element modeling, steel honeycomb sandwich panel.

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Authors: R. Pournaghi

Abstract:

Taking into account the significance of measuring the daily use of the study space in the libraries in order to develop and reorganize the space for enhancing the efficiency of the study space, the current study aimed to apply GIS in analyzing the study halls of the Central Library and Document Center of Tehran University in order to determine how study desks and chairs were used by the students. The study used a combination of survey-descriptive and system design method. In order to gather the required data, surveydescriptive method was used. For implementing and entering data into ArcGIS and analyzing the data and displaying the results on the maps of the study halls of the library, system design method was utilized. The design of the spatial database of the use of the study halls was measured through the extent of occupancy of the space by the library users and the maps of the study halls of the central library of Tehran University as the case study. The results showed that Abooreyhan hall had the highest rate of occupancy of the desks and chairs compared to the other halls. The Hall of Science and Technology, with an average occupancy rate of 0.39 for the tables represented the lowest number of users and Rashid al-Dins hall, and Science and Technology hall with an average occupancy rate (0.40) had the lowest number of users for seats. In this study, the comparison of the space occupied at different periods in the morning, evenings, afternoons, and several months was performed through GIS. This system analyzed the space relationships effectively and efficiently. The output of this study would be used by administrators and librarians to determine the exact extent of use of the equipment of the study halls and librarians can use the output map to design the space more efficiently at the library.

Keywords: Geospatial Information System, Spatial analysis, Reading Room, Academic libraries, Library’s User, Central Library of Tehran University.

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Authors: A. B. Chehreh, M. Grätzel, M. Klein, J. P. Bergmann, F. Walther

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Friction stir welding (FSW) is an advantageous method in the thermal joining processes, featuring the welding of various dissimilar and similar material combinations, joining temperatures below the melting point which prevents irregularities such as pores and hot cracks as well as high strengths mechanical joints near the base material. The FSW process consists of a rotating tool which is made of a shoulder and a probe. The welding process is based on a rotating tool which plunges in the workpiece under axial pressure. As a result, the material is plasticized by frictional heat which leads to a decrease in the flow stress. During the welding procedure, the material is continuously displaced by the tool, creating a firmly bonded weld seam behind the tool. However, the mechanical properties of the weld seam are affected by the design and geometry of the tool. These include in particular microstructural and surface properties which can favor crack initiation. Following investigation compares the dynamic properties of FSW weld seams with conventional and stationary shoulder geometry based on load increase test (LIT). Compared to classical Woehler tests, it is possible to determine the fatigue strength of the specimens after a short amount of time. The investigations were carried out on a robotized welding setup on 2 mm thick EN AW 5754 aluminum alloy sheets. It was shown that an increased tensile and fatigue strength can be achieved by using the stationary shoulder concept. Furthermore, it could be demonstrated that the LIT is a valid method to describe the fatigue behavior of FSW weld seams.

Keywords: Aluminum alloy, fatigue performance, fracture, friction stir welding.

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Authors: P. V. S. Mascarenhas, B. C. P. Albuquerque, D. J. F. Campos, L. L. Almeida, V. R. Domingues, L. C. S. M. Ozelim

Abstract:

Retaining slope structures are increasingly considered in geotechnical engineering projects due to extensive urban cities growth. These kinds of engineering constructions may present instabilities over the time and may require reinforcement or even rebuilding of the structure. In this context, statistical analysis is an important tool for decision making regarding retaining structures. This study approaches the failure probability of the construction of a retaining wall over the debris of an old and collapsed one. The new solution’s extension length will be of approximately 350 m and will be located over the margins of the Lake Paranoá, Brasilia, in the capital of Brazil. The building process must also account for the utilization of the ruins as a caisson. A series of in situ and laboratory experiments defined local soil strength parameters. A Standard Penetration Test (SPT) defined the in situ soil stratigraphy. Also, the parameters obtained were verified using soil data from a collection of masters and doctoral works from the University of Brasília, which is similar to the local soil. Initial studies show that the concrete wall is the proper solution for this case, taking into account the technical, economic and deterministic analysis. On the other hand, in order to better analyze the statistical significance of the factor-of-safety factors obtained, a Monte Carlo analysis was performed for the concrete wall and two more initial solutions. A comparison between the statistical and risk results generated for the different solutions indicated that a Gabion solution would better fit the financial and technical feasibility of the project.

Keywords: Economical analysis, probability of failure, retaining walls, statistical analysis.

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Authors: Chee Teck Phua, Gaëlle Lissorgues

Abstract:

Blood pulse is an important human physiological signal commonly used for the understanding of the individual physical health. Current methods of non-invasive blood pulse sensing require direct contact or access to the human skin. As such, the performances of these devices tend to vary with time and are subjective to human body fluids (e.g. blood, perspiration and skin-oil) and environmental contaminants (e.g. mud, water, etc). This paper proposes a simulation model for the novel method of non-invasive acquisition of blood pulse using the disturbance created by blood flowing through a localized magnetic field. The simulation model geometry represents a blood vessel, a permanent magnet, a magnetic sensor, surrounding tissues and air in 2-dimensional. In this model, the velocity and pressure fields in the blood stream are described based on Navier-Stroke equations and the walls of the blood vessel are assumed to have no-slip condition. The blood assumes a parabolic profile considering a laminar flow for blood in major artery near the skin. And the inlet velocity follows a sinusoidal equation. This will allow the computational software to compute the interactions between the magnetic vector potential generated by the permanent magnet and the magnetic nanoparticles in the blood. These interactions are simulated based on Maxwell equations at the location where the magnetic sensor is placed. The simulated magnetic field at the sensor location is found to assume similar sinusoidal waveform characteristics as the inlet velocity of the blood. The amplitude of the simulated waveforms at the sensor location are compared with physical measurements on human subjects and found to be highly correlated.

Keywords: Blood pulse, magnetic sensing, non-invasive measurement, magnetic disturbance.

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Authors: S.R.Kamat, A.Yoxall, C.Craig , M.J.Carré, J.Rowson

Abstract:

The hand is one of the essential parts of the body for carrying out Activities of Daily Living (ADLs). Individuals use their hands and fingers in everyday activities in the both the workplace and home. Hand-intensive tasks require diverse and sometimes extreme levels of exertion, depending on the action, movement or manipulation involved. The authors have undertaken several studies looking at grip choice and comfort. It is hoped that in providing improved understanding of discomfort during ADLs this will aid in the design of consumer products. Previous work by the authors outlined a methodology for calculating pain frequency and pain level for a range of tasks. From an online survey undertaken by the authors with regards manipulating objects during everyday tasks, tasks involving gripping were seen to produce the highest levels of pain and discomfort. Questioning of the participants showed that cleaning tasks were seen to be ADL's that produced the highest levels of discomfort, with women feeling higher levels of discomfort than men. This paper looks at the methodology for calculating pain frequency and pain level with particular regards to gripping activities. This methodology shows that activities such as mopping, sweeping and hoovering shows the highest numbers of pain frequency and pain level at 3112.5 frequency per month while the pain level per person doing this action was 0.78.The study then uses thin-film force sensors to analyze the force distribution in the hand whilst hoovering and compares this for differing grip styles and genders. Women were seen to have more of their hand under a higher pressure than men when undertaking hoovering. This suggests that women may feel greater discomfort than men since their hand is at a higher pressure more of the time.

Keywords: hovering, grip, pain

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