Search results for: modern construction

Authors: M. Khairulmazidah, A. B. Nurul Nadiah, A. R. Rumiza

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Formulation of biological profile is one of the modern roles of forensic anthropologist. The present study was conducted to estimate height using foot and shoeprint length of Malaysian population. The present work can be very useful information in the process of identification of individual in forensic cases based on shoeprint evidence. It can help to narrow down suspects and ease the police investigation. Besides, stature is important parameters in determining the partial identify of unidentified and mutilated bodies. Thus, this study can help the problem encountered in cases of mass disaster, massacre, explosions and assault cases. This is because it is very hard to identify parts of bodies in these cases where people are dismembered and become unrecognizable. Samples in this research were collected from 200 Malaysian adults (100 males and 100 females) with age ranging from 20 to 45 years old. In this research, shoeprint length were measured based on the print of the shoes made from the flat shoes. Other information like gender, foot length and height of subject were also recorded. The data was analyzed using IBM® SPSS Statistics 19 software. Results indicated that, foot length has a strong correlation with stature than shoeprint length for both sides of the feet. However, in the unknown, where the gender was undetermined have shown a better correlation in foot length and shoeprint length parameter compared to males and females analyzed separately. In addition, prediction equations are developed to estimate the stature using linear regression analysis of foot length and shoeprint length. However, foot lengths give better prediction than shoeprint length. 

Keywords: Forensic anthropology, foot length, shoeprints, stature estimation.

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Authors: Abdolghani Ebrahimi, Diego Klabjan, Chenxi Ge, Daniela Ladner, Parker Stride

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In this work, we use machine learning and data analysis techniques to predict the one-year mortality of cirrhotic patients. Data from 2,322 patients with liver cirrhosis are collected at a single medical center. Different machine learning models are applied to predict one-year mortality. A comprehensive feature space including demographic information, comorbidity, clinical procedure and laboratory tests is being analyzed. A temporal pattern mining technic called Frequent Subgraph Mining (FSM) is being used. Model for End-stage liver disease (MELD) prediction of mortality is used as a comparator. All of our models statistically significantly outperform the MELD-score model and show an average 10% improvement of the area under the curve (AUC). The FSM technic itself does not improve the model significantly, but FSM, together with a machine learning technique called an ensemble, further improves the model performance. With the abundance of data available in healthcare through electronic health records (EHR), existing predictive models can be refined to identify and treat patients at risk for higher mortality. However, due to the sparsity of the temporal information needed by FSM, the FSM model does not yield significant improvements. Our work applies modern machine learning algorithms and data analysis methods on predicting one-year mortality of cirrhotic patients and builds a model that predicts one-year mortality significantly more accurate than the MELD score. We have also tested the potential of FSM and provided a new perspective of the importance of clinical features.

Keywords: machine learning, liver cirrhosis, subgraph mining, supervised learning

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Authors: Emna Benmohamed, Hela Ltifi, Mounir Ben Ayed

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Bayesian Network (BN) is one of the most efficient classification methods. It is widely used in several fields (i.e., medical diagnostics, risk analysis, bioinformatics research). The BN is defined as a probabilistic graphical model that represents a formalism for reasoning under uncertainty. This classification method has a high-performance rate in the extraction of new knowledge from data. The construction of this model consists of two phases for structure learning and parameter learning. For solving this problem, the K2 algorithm is one of the representative data-driven algorithms, which is based on score and search approach. In addition, the integration of the expert's knowledge in the structure learning process allows the obtainment of the highest accuracy. In this paper, we propose a hybrid approach combining the improvement of the K2 algorithm called K2 algorithm for Parents and Children search (K2PC) and the expert-driven method for learning the structure of BN. The evaluation of the experimental results, using the well-known benchmarks, proves that our K2PC algorithm has better performance in terms of correct structure detection. The real application of our model shows its efficiency in the analysis of the phosphate laundry effluents' impact on the watershed in the Gafsa area (southwestern Tunisia).

Keywords: Classification, Bayesian network; structure learning, K2 algorithm, expert knowledge, surface water analysis.

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Authors: P. Kamphikul, P. Krachodnok, R. Wongsan

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This paper presents the gain improvement of a sector antenna for mobile phone base station by using the new technique to enhance its gain for microstrip antenna (MSA) array without construction enlargement. The curved woodpile Electromagnetic Band Gap (EBG) has been utilized to improve the gain instead. The advantages of this proposed antenna are reducing the length of MSAs array but providing the higher gain and easy fabrication and installation. Moreover, it provides a fan-shaped radiation pattern, wide in the horizontal direction and relatively narrow in the vertical direction, which appropriate for mobile phone base station. The paper also presents the design procedures of a 1x8 MSAs array associated with U-shaped reflector for decreasing their back and side lobes. The fabricated curved woodpile EBG exhibits bandgap characteristics at 2.1 GHz and is utilized for realizing a resonant cavity of MSAs array. This idea has been verified by both the Computer Simulation Technology (CST) software and experimental results. As the results, the fabricated proposed antenna achieves a high gain of 20.3 dB and the half-power beam widths in the E- and H-plane of 36.8 and 8.7 degrees, respectively. Good qualitative agreement between measured and simulated results of the proposed antenna was obtained.

Keywords: Gain Improvement, Microstrip Antenna Array, Electromagnetic Band Gap, Base Station.

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Authors: M. S. Reza, M. Hamdi, S. H. Tomadi, A. R. Ismail

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The operating control parameters of injection flushing type of electrical discharge machining process on stainless steel 304 workpiece using copper tools are being optimized according to its individual machining characteristic i.e. Electrode Wear Ratio (EWR). Higher EWR would give bad dimensional precision for the EDM machined workpiece because of high electrode wear. Hence, the quality characteristic for EWR is set to lower-the-better to achieve the optimum dimensional precision for the machined workpiece. Taguchi method has been used for the construction, layout and analysis of the experiment for EWR machining characteristic. The use of Taguchi method in the experiment saves a lot of time and cost of preparing and machining the experiment samples. Therefore, an L18 Orthogonal array which was the fundamental component in the statistical design of experiments has been used to plan the experiments and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) is used to determine the optimum machining parameters for this machining characteristic. The control parameters selected for this optimization experiments are polarity, pulse on duration, discharge current, discharge voltage, machining depth, machining diameter and dielectric liquid pressure. The result had shown that negative polarity machining parameter setting will decreases EWR.

Keywords: ANOVA, EDM, Injection Flushing, L18Orthogonal Array, EWR, Stainless Steel 304

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

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

Keywords: collapse buildings, Douala, structural collapse, Cameroon

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Authors: Mahnaz Mahmoudi Zarandi (Qazvin Islamic Azad University)

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wind catchers have been served as a cooling system, used to provide acceptable ventilation by means of renewable energy of wind. In the present study, the city of Yazd in arid climate is selected as case study. From the architecture point of view, learning about wind catchers in this study is done by means of field surveys. Research method for selection of the case is based on random form, and analytical method. Wind catcher typology and knowledge of relationship governing the wind catcher's architecture were those measures that are taken for the first time. 53 wind catchers were analyzed. The typology of the wind-catchers is done by the physical analyzing, patterns and common concepts as incorporated in them. How the architecture of wind catcher can influence their operations by analyzing thermal behavior are the archetypes of selected wind catchers. Calculating fluids dynamics science, fluent software and numerical analysis are used in this study as the most accurate analytical approach. The results obtained from these analyses show the formal specifications of wind catchers with optimum operation in Yazd. The knowledge obtained from the optimum model could be used for design and construction of wind catchers with more improved operation

Keywords: Fluent Software, Iranian architecture, wind catcher

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Authors: Romain Bosquet, Pierre-Olivier Vandanjon, Alex Coiret, Tristan Lorino

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In the hardening energy context, the transport sector which constitutes a large worldwide energy demand has to be improving for decrease energy demand and global warming impacts. In a controversial situation where subsists an increasing demand for long-distance and high-speed travels, high-speed trains offer many advantages, as consuming significantly less energy than road or air transports. At the project phase of new rail infrastructures, it is nowadays important to characterize accurately the energy that will be induced by its operation phase, in addition to other more classical criteria as construction costs and travel time. Current literature consumption models used to estimate railways operation phase are obsolete or not enough accurate for taking into account the newest train or railways technologies. In this paper, an updated model of consumption for high-speed is proposed, based on experimental data obtained from full-scale tests performed on a new high-speed line. The assessment of the model is achieved by identifying train parameters and measured power consumptions for more than one hundred train routes. Perspectives are then discussed to use this updated model for accurately assess the energy impact of future railway infrastructures.

Keywords: High-speed train, energy, model, track profile, infrastructure

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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: Farzad Yavari, Fereydoun Ohadi

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Today, with the development and growth of technology and extreme environmental changes, organizations need to identify opportunities and create creativity and innovation in order to be able to maintain or improve their position in competition with others. In this regard, it is necessary that the resources and assets of the organization are coordinated and reviewed in accordance with the orientation of the strategy. One of the competitive advantages of the present age is knowledge management, which is to equip the organization with the knowledge of the day and disseminate among employees and use it in the development of products and services. Therefore, in the forthcoming research, the impact of dynamic capabilities components (sense, seize, and reconfiguration) has been investigated on knowledge management processes (acquisition, integration and knowledge utilization) in the MAPNA Engineering and Construction Company using a field survey and applied research method. For this purpose, a questionnaire was filled out in the form of 15 questions for dynamic components and 15 questions for measuring knowledge management components and distributed among 46 employees of the knowledge management organization. Validity of the questionnaire was evaluated through content validity and its reliability with Cronbach's coefficient. Pearson correlation test and structural equation technique were used to analyze the data. The results of the research indicate a positive significant correlation between the components of dynamic capabilities and knowledge management.

Keywords: Dynamic capabilities, knowledge management, sense capability, seize capability, reconfigurable capability, knowledge acquisition, knowledge integrity, knowledge utilization.

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Authors: Seyed Abolhasan Naeini, Mohammad Hossein Zade, E. Izadi, M. Hossein Zade

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The different seismic behavior of liquid storage tanks rather than conventional structures makes their responses more complicated. Uplifting and excessive settlement due to liquid sloshing are the most frequent damages in cylindrical liquid tanks after shell bucking failure modes. As a matter of fact, uses of liquid storage tanks because of the simple construction on compact layer of soil as a foundation are very conventional, but in some cases need to retrofit are essential. The tank seismic behavior can be improved by modifying dynamic characteristic of tank with verifying seismic loads as well as retrofitting and improving base ground. This paper focuses on a typical steel tank on loose, medium and stiff sandy soil and describes an evaluation of displacement of the tank before and after retrofitting. The Abaqus program was selected for its ability to include shell and structural steel elements, soil-structure interaction, and geometrical nonlinearities and contact type elements. The result shows considerable decreasing in settlement and uplifting in the case of retrofitted tank. Also, by increasing shear strength parameter of soil, the performance of the liquid storage tank under the case of seismic load increased.

Keywords: Steel tank, soil-structure, sandy soil, seismic load.

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Authors: Behnaz Shahrokh, Garnik N. Sargsyan, Arkadi B. Harutyunyan

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Investigations of the unimolecular decomposition of vinyl ethyl ether (VEE), vinyl propyl ether (VPE) and vinyl butyl ether (VBE) have shown that activation of the molecule of a ether results in formation of a cyclic construction - the transition state (TS), which may lead to the displacement of the thermodynamic equilibrium towards the reaction products. The TS is obtained by applying energy minimization relative to the ground state of an ether under the program MM2 when taking into account the hydrogen bond formation between a hydrogen atom of alkyl residue and the extreme atom of carbon of the vinyl group. The dissociation of TS up to the products is studied by energy minimization procedure using the mathematical program Gaussian. The obtained calculation data for VEE testify that the decomposition of this ether may be conditioned by hydrogen bond formation for two possible versions: when α- or β- hydrogen atoms of the ethyl group are bound to carbon atom of the vinyl group. Applying the same calculation methods to other ethers (VPE and VBE) it is shown that only in the case of hydrogen bonding between α-hydrogen atom of the alkyl residue and the extreme atom of carbon of the vinyl group (αH---C) results in decay of theses ethers.

Keywords: Gaussian, MM2, ethers, TS, decomposition

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Authors: Si-Hwan Kim, Gum-Sung Ryu, Kyung-Taek Koh, Jang-Hwa Lee

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Despite of the preponderant role played by cement among the construction materials, it is today considered as a material destructing the environment due to the large quantities of carbon dioxide exhausted during its manufacture. Besides, global warming is now recognized worldwide as the new threat to the humankind against which advanced countries are investigating measures to reduce the current amount of exhausted gases to the half by 2050. Accordingly, efforts to reduce green gases are exerted in all industrial fields. Especially, the cement industry strives to reduce the consumption of cement through the development of alkali-activated geopolymer mortars using industrial byproducts like bottom ash. This study intends to gather basic data on the flowability and strength development characteristics of alkali-activated geopolymer mortar by examining its FT-IT features with respect to the effects and strength of the alkali-activator in order to develop bottom ash-based alkali-activated geopolymer mortar. The results show that the 35:65 mass ratio of sodium hydroxide to sodium silicate is appropriate and that a molarity of 9M for sodium hydroxide is advantageous. The ratio of the alkali-activators to bottom ash is seen to have poor effect on the strength. Moreover, the FT-IR analysis reveals that larger improvement of the strength shifts the peak from 1060 cm–1 (T-O, T=Si or Al) toward shorter wavenumber.

Keywords: Bottom Ash, Geopolymer mortar, Flowability, Strength Properties.

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Authors: Sanghyeok Oh, Yunli Lee, Kwangjin Hong, Kirak Kim, Keechul Jung

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This paper proposes view-point insensitive human pose recognition system using neural network. Recognition system consists of silhouette image capturing module, data driven database, and neural network. The advantages of our system are first, it is possible to capture multiple view-point silhouette images of 3D human model automatically. This automatic capture module is helpful to reduce time consuming task of database construction. Second, we develop huge feature database to offer view-point insensitivity at pose recognition. Third, we use neural network to recognize human pose from multiple-view because every pose from each model have similar feature patterns, even though each model has different appearance and view-point. To construct database, we need to create 3D human model using 3D manipulate tools. Contour shape is used to convert silhouette image to feature vector of 12 degree. This extraction task is processed semi-automatically, which benefits in that capturing images and converting to silhouette images from the real capturing environment is needless. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach with experiments on virtual environment.

Keywords: Computer vision, neural network, pose recognition, view-point insensitive.

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Authors: Abass Braimah, Maha Hussein Abdallah

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The global ascendancy of terrorist attacks on building infrastructure with economic and heritage significance has increased awareness of the possibility of terrorism in Canada. Many structures in Canada that are at risk of terrorist attacks include government buildings, built many years ago of historic stone masonry construction. Although many researchers are investigating ways to retrofit masonry stone buildings to mitigate the effect of blast loadings, lack of knowledge on the dynamic behavior of historic stone masonry structures under blast loads makes it difficult to ascertain the effectiveness of the retrofitting techniques. This paper presents a review of open-source literature for the experimental and numerical stone masonry structures under blast loads. This review yielded very little information of the response of the historic stone masonry structures under blast loads. Thus, a comprehensive study is needed to understand the blast load effects on historic stone masonry buildings. The out-of-plane response of historic masonry structures to blast loads is investigated by using single-degree-of-freedom analysis. This approach presents equations that can be used effectively in the analysis of historic masonry walls to out-of-plane blast loading.

Keywords: Blast loads, historical buildings, masonry structure, single-degree-of-freedom analysis.

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Authors: Prakash G L, Chaitra K Meti, Poojitha K, Divya R.K.

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Wireless Sensor Network is Multi hop Self-configuring Wireless Network consisting of sensor nodes. The deployment of wireless sensor networks in many application areas, e.g., aggregation services, requires self-organization of the network nodes into clusters. Efficient way to enhance the lifetime of the system is to partition the network into distinct clusters with a high energy node as cluster head. The different methods of node clustering techniques have appeared in the literature, and roughly fall into two families; those based on the construction of a dominating set and those which are based solely on energy considerations. Energy optimized cluster formation for a set of randomly scattered wireless sensors is presented. Sensors within a cluster are expected to be communicating with cluster head only. The energy constraint and limited computing resources of the sensor nodes present the major challenges in gathering the data. In this paper we propose a framework to study how partially correlated data affect the performance of clustering algorithms. The total energy consumption and network lifetime can be analyzed by combining random geometry techniques and rate distortion theory. We also present the relation between compression distortion and data correlation.

Keywords: Clusters, multi hop, random geometry, rate distortion.

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Authors: N. Damenia, E. Kharaishvili, N. Sagareishvili, M. Saghareishvili

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Women's Employment is one of the most important issues in the global economy. The article discusses the stated topic in Georgia, through historical content, Soviet experience, and modern perspectives. The paper discusses segmentation insa terms of employment and related problems. Based on statistical analysis, women's unemployment rate and its factors are analyzed. The level of employment of women in Transcaucasia (Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan) is discussed and is compared with Baltic countries (Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia). The study analyzes women’s level of development, according to the average age of marriage and migration level. The focus is on Georgia's Association Agreement with the EU in 2014, which includes economic, social, trade and political issues. One part of it is gender equality at workplaces. According to the research, the average monthly remuneration of women managers in the financial and insurance sector equaled to 1044.6 Georgian Lari, while in overall business sector average monthly remuneration equaled to 961.1 GEL. Average salaries are increasing; however, the employment rate remains problematic. For example, in 2017, 74.6% of men and 50.8% of women were employed from a total workforce. It is also interesting that the proportion of men and women at managerial positions is 29% (women) to 71% (men). Based on the results, the main recommendation for government and civil society is to consider women as a part of the country’s economic development. In this aspect, the experience of developed countries should be considered. It is important to create additional jobs in urban or rural areas and help migrant women return and use their working resources properly.

Keywords: Employment of women, segregation in terms of employment, women's employment level in Transcaucasia, migration level.

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Authors: K. N. Kiran, S. Anish

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It is well known that secondary flow loses account about one third of the total loss in any axial turbine. Modern gas turbine height is smaller and have longer chord length, which might lead to increase in secondary flow. In order to improve the efficiency of the turbine, it is important to understand the behavior of secondary flow and device mechanisms to curtail these losses. The objective of the present work is to understand the effect of a stream wise end-wall fence on the aerodynamics of a linear turbine cascade. The study is carried out computationally by using commercial software ANSYS CFX. The effect of end-wall on the flow field are calculated based on RANS simulation by using SST transition turbulence model. Durham cascade which is similar to high-pressure axial flow turbine for simulation is used. The aim of fencing in blade passage is to get the maximum benefit from flow deviation and destroying the passage vortex in terms of loss reduction. It is observed that, for the present analysis, fence in the blade passage helps reducing the strength of horseshoe vortex and is capable of restraining the flow along the blade passage. Fence in the blade passage helps in reducing the under turning by 7⁰ in comparison with base case. Fence on end-wall is effective in preventing the movement of pressure side leg of horseshoe vortex and helps in breaking the passage vortex. Computations are carried for different fence height whose curvature is different from the blade camber. The optimum fence geometry and location reduces the loss coefficient by 15.6% in comparison with base case.

Keywords: Boundary layer fence, horseshoe vortex, linear cascade, passage vortex, secondary flow.

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Authors: Banu Karaşah, Derya Sarı

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Nature constantly changes as a result of human necessities. This change mostly feels in natural water sources which are reconstructed with an effect of dams and motorways. In other respects, visual quality of the landscape gets a new and different character during and after the construction of dams and motorways. Changing and specialization new landscapes will be very important to protection-usage balance to explore sustainable usage facilities. The main cause of the selection of Artvin city is that it has very important geographical location and one of the most attraction points in the World with its biodiversity, conservation areas and natural landscape characteristics. Many hydroelectric station and 7 dams are situated, 3 of them have already been built on the Çoruh River in the province of Artvin. As a result of dams, motorways route were reshaped and the ways which have already changed because of elevation is directly affected several of natural destruction. In contrast, many different reservoirs in Coruh Basin provide new vista point that has high visual quality. In this study, we would like to evaluate with sustainable landscape design in 76 km river corridor, which is mainly based on Deriner, Borçka and Muratlı Dams and determination of their basin-lakes recreational potential and opportunities. Lastly, we are going to give some suggestion about the potential of the corridor.

Keywords: Artvin, dam reservoirs, landscape assessment, river corridor, visual quality.

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Authors: Ali Komakpanah, Maryam Yazdi

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Few studies have been conducted on polymeric strip and the behavior of soil retaining walls. This paper will present the effect of frequency on the dynamic behavior of reinforced soil retaining walls with polymeric strips. The frequency content describes how the amplitude of a ground motion is distributed among different frequencies. Since the frequency content of an earthquake motion will strongly influence the effects of that motion, the characterization of the motion cannot be completed without the consideration of its frequency content. The maximum axial force of reinforcements and horizontal displacement of the reinforced walls are focused in this research. To clarify the dynamic behavior of reinforced soil retaining walls with polymeric strips, a numerical modeling using Finite Difference Method is benefited. As the results indicate, the frequency of input base acceleration has an important effect on the behavior of these structures. Because of resonant in the system, where the frequency of the input dynamic load is equal to the natural frequency of the system, the maximum horizontal displacement and the maximum axial forces in polymeric strips is occurred. Moreover, they were to increase the structure flexibility because of the main advantages of polymeric strips; i.e. being simple method of construction, having a homogeneous behavior with soils, and possessing long durability, which are of great importance in dynamic analysis.

Keywords: dynamic analysis, frequency, polymeric strip, reinforced soil.

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Authors: M. Eisakhani, A. Pauzi, O. Karim, A. Malakahmad, S.R. Mohamed Kutty, M. H. Isa

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Cameron Highlands is a mountainous area subjected to torrential tropical showers. It extracts 5.8 million liters of water per day for drinking supply from its rivers at several intake points. The water quality of rivers in Cameron Highlands, however, has deteriorated significantly due to land clearing for agriculture, excessive usage of pesticides and fertilizers as well as construction activities in rapidly developing urban areas. On the other hand, these pollution sources known as non-point pollution sources are diverse and hard to identify and therefore they are difficult to estimate. Hence, Geographical Information Systems (GIS) was used to provide an extensive approach to evaluate landuse and other mapping characteristics to explain the spatial distribution of non-point sources of contamination in Cameron Highlands. The method to assess pollution sources has been developed by using Cameron Highlands Master Plan (2006-2010) for integrating GIS, databases, as well as pollution loads in the area of study. The results show highest annual runoff is created by forest, 3.56 × 108 m3/yr followed by urban development, 1.46 × 108 m3/yr. Furthermore, urban development causes highest BOD load (1.31 × 106 kgBOD/yr) while agricultural activities and forest contribute the highest annual loads for phosphorus (6.91 × 104 kgP/yr) and nitrogen (2.50 × 105 kgN/yr), respectively. Therefore, best management practices (BMPs) are suggested to be applied to reduce pollution level in the area.

Keywords: Cameron Highlands, Land use, Non-point Sources of Pollution

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Authors: H. Juma, F. Al-hujaili, R. Kashani

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Modern structures such as floor systems, pedestrian bridges and high-rise buildings have become lighter in mass and more flexible with negligible damping and thus prone to vibration. In this paper, a semi-actively controlled pendulum tuned mass dampers (PTMD) is presented that uses air springs as both the restoring (resilient) and energy dissipating (damping) elements; the tuned mass damper (TMD) uses no passive dampers. The proposed PTMD can readily be fine-tuned and re-tuned, via software, without changing any hardware. Almost all existing semi-active systems have the three elements that passive TMDs have, i.e., inertia, resilient, and dissipative elements with some adjustability built into one or two of these elements. The proposed semi-active air suspended TMD, on the other hand, is made up of only inertia and resilience elements. A notable feature of this TMD is the absence of a physical damping element in its make-up. The required viscous damping is introduced into the TMD using a semi-active control scheme residing in a micro-controller which actuates a high-speed proportional valve regulating the flow of air in and out of the air springs. In addition to introducing damping into the TMD, the semi-active control scheme adjusts the stiffness of the TMD. The focus of this work has been the synthesis and analysis of the control algorithms and strategies to vary the tuning accuracy, introduce damping into air suspended PTMD, and enable the PTMD to self-tune itself. The accelerations of the main structure and PTMD as well as the pressure in the air springs are used as the feedback signals in control strategies. Numerical simulation and experimental evaluation of the proposed tuned damping system are presented in this paper.

Keywords: Tuned mass damper, air spring, semi-active, vibration control.

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Authors: Shahana T. K., Babita R. Jose, K. Poulose Jacob, Sreela Sasi

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The modern telecommunication industry demands higher capacity networks with high data rate. Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is a promising technique for high data rate wireless communications at reasonable complexity in wireless channels. OFDM has been adopted for many types of wireless systems like wireless local area networks such as IEEE 802.11a, and digital audio/video broadcasting (DAB/DVB). The proposed research focuses on a concatenated coding scheme that improve the performance of OFDM based wireless communications. It uses a Redundant Residue Number System (RRNS) code as the outer code and a convolutional code as the inner code. Here, a direct conversion of analog signal to residue domain is done to reduce the conversion complexity using sigma-delta based parallel analog-to-residue converter. The bit error rate (BER) performances of the proposed system under different channel conditions are investigated. These include the effect of additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN), multipath delay spread, peak power clipping and frame start synchronization error. The simulation results show that the proposed RRNS-Convolutional concatenated coding (RCCC) scheme provides significant improvement in the system performance by exploiting the inherent properties of RRNS.

Keywords: Analog-to-residue converter, Concatenated codes, OFDM, Redundant Residue Number System, Sigma-delta modulator, Wireless communication

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Authors: Mina Najafi, Mustafa Kamal Bin Mohd Shariff

Abstract:

Religious place attachment is an affective bond that develops between people and their religious settings. The published literature shows that although religion has a significant impact on the public ‘place attachment’, the architectural features and attributes of the places could still play an influencing role in strengthening this attachment. However, the role of architectural characteristics and features of the religious places, as the components that give them meaning(s), has not been adequately explored. This paper reports the impacts of factors influencing the physical and ambience quality of different styles of Malaysian mosques from the Muslim public perspective. Thereby, a survey was conducted to investigate Malaysian public attachment to selected five Malaysian state mosques with respect to their architectural characteristics and features. The survey employed the results of series of interviews as its theoretical basis. The finding proved that Malaysian ‘Muslim’ society has equally strong attachment to all selected mosques in spite of their different architectural styles. The findings also confirmed that the emotional attachment to the impressive aspects of architectural features (e.g. dome, minaret etc.) and the unique identity of the studied mosques is irrespective of the architectural styles, e.g. Modern vs. Postmodern. The paper also argued that religious activities and pleasant architectural characteristic of the studied places including the functional facilities are equally important factors in forming place attachment. This is a new approach to the study of physical and ambience quality of mosques, hence providing sufficient theoretical basis for further investigations and improvements.

Keywords: Place Attachment, Place Identity, Physical Features, Malaysian Mosques.

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Authors: M. Kashiripoor

Abstract:

Existing indicators for sustainable urban development do not identify the features of cities’ planning structures and their architecture. Iranian city has special relevance problem of assessing the conformity of their planning and development of the concept of sustainable development. Based on theoretical sources, the author concludes that, despite the existence of common indicators for sustainable development of settlements, specialized evaluation criteria city structure planning has not been developed. He is trying to fill this gap and put forward a system of indicators characterizing the level of development of the architectural-planning structure of the city. The proposed system of indicators is designed based on technical and economic urban standard indicators from different countries. Alternative designing systems and requirements of modern rating systems like LEED-ND comprise a criterion for evaluation of urban structures in accordance with principles of "Green" building and New Urbanism. Urban development trends are close in spirit of sustainable development and developed under its influence. The study allowed concluding that a system of indicators to identify the relevant architectural-planning structure of the city, requirements of sustainable development, should be adapted to the conditions of each country, particularly in Iran. The article attempts typology proposed indicators, which are presented in tabular form and are divided into two types: planning and spatial. This article discusses the known indicators of sustainable development and proposed specific system of indicators characterizing the level of development of architectural-planning structure of the city. This article examines indicators for evaluating level of city' planning structure development. The proposed system of indicators is derived from the urban planning standards and rating systems such as LEED-ND, BREEAM Community and CASBEE-UD.

Keywords: Architectural-planning structure of cities, urban planning indicators, urban space indicators.

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Authors: Kaan Yamanturk, Cihan Dogruoz

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Seismic isolators have been utilized around the world to protect the structures, nonstructural components and contents from the damaging effects of earthquakes. In Structural Engineering, seismic isolation is used for protecting buildings and its vibration-sensitive contents from earthquakes. Seismic isolation is a passive control system that lowers effective earthquake forces by utilizing flexible bearings. One of the most significant isolation systems is seismic isolators. In this paper, double pendulum type Teflon coated seismic isolators utilized in a city hospital project by Guris Construction and Engineering Co. Inc, located in Kutahya, Turkey, have been investigated. Totally, 498 seismic isolators were applied in the project. These isolators are double friction pendulum type seismic isolation devices. The review of current practices is also examined in this study. The focus of this study is related to the application of passive seismic isolation systems for buildings as practiced in Kutahya City Hospital Project. Based on the study, the acceleration at the top floor will be 0.18 g and it will decrease 0.01 g in every floor. Therefore, seismic isolators are very important for buildings located in earthquake zones.

Keywords: Maximum considered earthquake, moment resisting frame, seismic isolator, seismic design.

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Authors: Nickson Kipng’etich Lang’at, Thomas Thoruwa, John Abraham, John Wanyoko

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Green tea is made from the top two leaves and buds of a shrub, Camellia sinensis, of the family Theaceae and the order Theales. The green tea leaves are picked and immediately sent to be dried or steamed to prevent fermentation. Fluid bed drying technique is a common drying method used in drying green tea because of its ease in design and construction and fluidization of fine tea particles. Major problems in this method are significant loss of chemical content of the leaf and green appearance of tea, retention of high moisture content in the leaves and bed channeling and defluidization. The energy associated with the drying technology has been shown to be a vital factor in determining the quality of green tea. As part of the implementation, prototype dryer was built that facilitated sequence of operations involving steaming, cooling, pre-drying and final drying. The major findings of the project were in terms of quality characteristics of tea leaves and energy consumption during processing. The optimal design achieved a moisture content of 4.2 ± 0.84%. With the optimum drying temperature of 100 ºC, the specific energy consumption was 1697.8 kj.Kg^-1 and evaporation rate of 4.272 x 10^-4 Kg.m^-2.s^-1. The energy consumption in a fluidized system can be further reduced by focusing on energy saving designs.

Keywords: Evaporation rate, fluid bed dryer, maceration, specific energy consumption.

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Authors: Jooyeon Yook, Wonjun Ko

Abstract:

As the Social network game(SNG) is rising dramatically worldwide, an interesting aspect has appeared in the demographic analysis. That is the ratio of the game users by gender. Although the ratio of male and female users in online game was 60:40% previously, the ratio of male and female users in SNG stood at 47:53% which shows that the ratio of female users is higher than that of male users. Here, it should be noted that 35% in those 53% female users are the first-time users of game. This fact suggests that women who were not interested in game previously has taken an interest in SNG. Notwithstanding this issue, there have been little studies on the female users of SNG although there are many studies that analyzed the tendency of female users- online game play. This study conducted the analyzed how the game-playing tendency of SNG gamers was manifested in the game by gender. For that, this study will identify the tendency of SNG users by gender based on the preceding studies that analyzed the online game users by gender. The subject of this study was confined to the farm and urban construction simulation games which were offered based on the mobile application platform. Regarding the methodology of study, the first focus group interview(FGI) was conducted with the male and female users who had played games on Social network service(SNS) until recently. Later, the second one-on-one in-depth interview was conducted to gain an insight into the psychological state of the subjects.

Keywords: Social network Game, Gender, Play inclination, Game psychology

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Authors: Mingwei Yi, Liujie Guo, Zongjun Pan, Xiang Lin, Xiaoming Yi

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With the rapid expansion of road construction mileage in China, the scale of road maintenance needs has concurrently escalated. As the service life of roads extends, the design of pavement repair and maintenance emerges as a crucial component in preserving the excellent performance of the pavement. The remaining service life of asphalt pavement structure is a vital parameter in the lifecycle maintenance design of asphalt pavements. Based on an analysis of pavement structural integrity, this study presents a characterization and assessment of the remaining life of existing asphalt pavement structures. It proposes indicators such as the transverse crack spacing and the length of longitudinal cracks. The transverse crack spacing decreases with an increase in maintenance intervals and with the extended use of semi-rigid base layer structures, although this trend becomes less pronounced after maintenance intervals exceed 4 years. The length of longitudinal cracks increases with longer maintenance intervals, but this trend weakens after five years. This system can support the enhancement of standardization and scientific design in highway maintenance decision-making processes.

Keywords: Structural integrity, highways, pavement evaluation, asphalt concrete pavement.

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Authors: Mahdi Taghipour Masoumi, Ali Abdi Kordani, Mahmoud Nazirizad

Abstract:

Geosynthetics utilization plays an important role in the construction of highways with no additive layers, such as asphalt concrete or cement concrete, or in a subgrade layer which affects the bearing capacity of unbounded layers. This laboratory experimental study was carried out to evaluate changes in the load bearing capacity of reinforced soil with these materials in highway roadbed with regard to geotextile properties. California Bearing Ratio (CBR) test samples were prepared with two types of soil: Clayey and sandy containing non-reinforced and reinforced soil. The samples comprised three types of geotextiles with different characteristics (150, 200, 300 g/m²) and depths (H= 5, 10, 20, 30, 50, 100 mm), and were grouped into two forms, one-layered and two-layered, based on the sample materials in order to perform defined tests. The results showed that the soil bearing characteristics increased when one layer of geotextile was used in clayey and sandy samples reinforced by geotextile. However, the bearing capacity of the soil, in the presence of a geotextile layer material with depth of more than 30 mm, had no remarkable effect. Furthermore, when the two-layered geotextile was applied in material samples, although it increased the soil resistance, it also showed that through the addition of a number or weights of geotextile into samples, the natural composition of the soil changed and the results are unreliable.

Keywords: Reinforced soil, geosynthetics, geotextile, transportation capacity, CBR experiments.

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