Search results for: urban heat island.
259 Evaluation of Groundwater Unit Hydrograph of Kavar-Maharloo Aquifer
Authors: Mohammad Hosein Hojati, Fardin Boustani
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Groundwater is one of the most important water resources in Fars province. Based on this study, 95 percent of the total annual water consumption in Fars is used for agriculture, whereas the percentages for domestic and industrial uses are 4 and 1 percent, respectively. Population growth, urban and industrial growth, and agricultural development in Fars have created a condition of water stress. In this province, farmers and other users are pumping groundwater faster than its natural replenishment rate, causing a continuous drop in groundwater tables and depletion of this resource. In this research variation of groundwater level, their effects and ways to help control groundwater levels in aquifer of the Kavar- Maharloo plains in Fars plain were evaluated .Excessive exploitation of groundwater in this aquifer caused the groundwater levels fall too fast or to unacceptable levels. The average drawdown of the groundwater level in this plain were 17 meters during 1995 to 2006. The purpose of this study is to evaluate water level changes in the Kavar-Maharloo Aquifer in the Fars province in order to determine the areas of greatest depletion, the cause of depletion, and predict the remaining life of the aquifer.Keywords: Aquifer , ground water depletion, water table
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1673258 On the Development of a Homogenized Earthquake Catalogue for Northern Algeria
Authors: I. Grigoratos, R. Monteiro
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Regions with a significant percentage of non-seismically designed buildings and reduced urban planning are particularly vulnerable to natural hazards. In this context, the project ‘Improved Tools for Disaster Risk Mitigation in Algeria’ (ITERATE) aims at seismic risk mitigation in Algeria. Past earthquakes in North Algeria caused extensive damages, e.g. the El Asnam 1980 moment magnitude (Mw) 7.1 and Boumerdes 2003 Mw 6.8 earthquakes. This paper will address a number of proposed developments and considerations made towards a further improvement of the component of seismic hazard. In specific, an updated earthquake catalog (until year 2018) is compiled, and new conversion equations to moment magnitude are introduced. Furthermore, a network-based method for the estimation of the spatial and temporal distribution of the minimum magnitude of completeness is applied. We found relatively large values for Mc, due to the sparse network, and a nonlinear trend between Mw and body wave (mb) or local magnitude (ML), which are the most common scales reported in the region. Lastly, the resulting b-value of the Gutenberg-Richter distribution is sensitive to the declustering method.
Keywords: Conversion equation, magnitude of completeness, seismic events, seismic hazard.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 803257 An Effective Method of Head Lamp and Tail Lamp Recognition for Night Time Vehicle Detection
Authors: Hyun-Koo Kim, Sagong Kuk, MinKwan Kim, Ho-Youl Jung
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This paper presents an effective method for detecting vehicles in front of the camera-assisted car during nighttime driving. The proposed method detects vehicles based on detecting vehicle headlights and taillights using techniques of image segmentation and clustering. First, to effectively extract spotlight of interest, a segmentation process based on automatic multi-level threshold method is applied on the road-scene images. Second, to spatial clustering vehicle of detecting lamps, a grouping process based on light tracking and locating vehicle lighting patterns. For simulation, we are implemented through Da-vinci 7437 DSP board with near infrared mono-camera and tested it in the urban and rural roads. Through the test, classification performances are above 97% of true positive rate evaluated on real-time environment. Our method also has good performance in the case of clear, fog and rain weather.
Keywords: Assistance Driving System, Multi-level Threshold Method, Near Infrared Mono Camera, Nighttime Vehicle Detection.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2925256 Study on Numerical Simulation Applied to Moisture Buffering Design Method – The Case Study of Pine Wood in a Single Zone Residential Unit in Taiwan
Authors: Y.C. Yeh, Y.S. Tsay, C.M. Chiang
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A good green building design project, designers should consider not only energy consumption, but also healthy and comfortable needs of inhabitants. In recent years, the Taiwan government paid attentions on both carbon reduction and indoor air quality issues, which be presented in the legislation of Building Codes and other regulations. Taiwan located in hot and humid climates, dampness in buildings leads to significant microbial pollution and building damage. This means that the high temperature and humidity present a serious indoor air quality issue. The interactions between vapor transfers and energy fluxes are essential for the whole building Heat Air and Moisture (HAM) response. However, a simulation tool with short calculation time, property accuracy and interface is needed for practical building design processes. In this research, we consider the vapor transfer phenomenon of building materials as well as temperature and humidity and energy consumption in a building space. The simulation bases on the EMPD method, which was performed by EnergyPlus, a simulation tool developed by DOE, to simulate the indoor moisture variation in a one-zone residential unit based on the Effective Moisture Penetration Depth Method, which is more suitable for practical building design processes.
Keywords: Effective Moisture Penetration Depth Method, Moisture Buffering Effect, Interior Material, Green Material, EnergyPlus
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1565255 Investigation on the Physical Conditions of Façade Systems of Campus Buildings by Infrared Thermography Tests
Authors: N. Türkmenoğlu Bayraktar, E. Kishalı
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Campus buildings are educational facilities where various amount of energy consumption for lighting, heating, cooling and ventilation occurs. Some of the new universities in Turkey, where this investigation takes place, still continue their educational activities in existing buildings primarily designed for different architectural programs and converted to campus buildings via changes of function, space organizations and structural interventions but most of the time without consideration of appropriate micro climatic conditions. Reducing energy consumption in these structures not only contributes to the national economy but also mitigates the negative effects on environment. Furthermore, optimum thermal comfort conditions should be provided during the refurbishment of existing campus structures and their building envelope. Considering this issue, the first step is to investigate the climatic performance of building elements regarding refurbishment process. In the context of the study Kocaeli University, Faculty of Design and Architecture building constructed in 1980s in Anıtpark campus located in the central part of Kocaeli, Turkey was investigated. Climatic factors influencing thermal conditions; the deteriorations on building envelope; temperature distribution; heat losses from façade elements observed by thermography were presented in order to improve strategies for retrofit process for the building envelope. Within the scope of the survey, refurbishment strategies towards providing optimum climatic comfort conditions, increasing energy efficiency of building envelope were proposed.
Keywords: Building envelope, IRT, refurbishment, non-destructive test.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 875254 Effect of Shell Dimensions on Buckling Behavior and Entropy Generation of Thin Welded Shells
Authors: Sima Ziaee, Khosro Jafarpur
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Among all mechanical joining processes, welding has been employed for its advantage in design flexibility, cost saving, reduced overall weight and enhanced structural performance. However, for structures made of relatively thin components, welding can introduce significant buckling distortion which causes loss of dimensional control, structural integrity and increased fabrication costs. Different parameters can affect buckling behavior of welded thin structures such as, heat input, welding sequence, dimension of structure. In this work, a 3-D thermo elastic-viscoplastic finite element analysis technique is applied to evaluate the effect of shell dimensions on buckling behavior and entropy generation of welded thin shells. Also, in the present work, the approximated longitudinal transient stresses which produced in each time step, is applied to the 3D-eigenvalue analysis to ratify predicted buckling time and corresponding eigenmode. Besides, the possibility of buckling prediction by entropy generation at each time is investigated and it is found that one can predict time of buckling with drawing entropy generation versus out of plane deformation. The results of finite element analysis show that the length, span and thickness of welded thin shells affect the number of local buckling, mode shape of global buckling and post-buckling behavior of welded thin shells.Keywords: Buckling behavior, Elastic viscoplastic model, Entropy generation, Finite element method, Shell dimensions.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1626253 Static Balance in the Elderly: Comparison between Elderly Performing Physical Activity and Fine Motor Coordination Activity
Authors: Andreia Guimarães Farnese, Mateus Fernandes Réu Urban, Leandro Procópio, Renato Zângaro, Regiane Albertini
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Senescence changes include postural balance, inferring the risk of falls, and can lead to fractures, bedridden, and the risk of death. Physical activity, e.g., cardiovascular exercises, is notable for improving balance due to brain cell stimulations, but fine coordination exercises also elevate cell brain metabolism. This study aimed to verify whether the elderly person who performs fine motor activity has a balance similar to that of those who practice physical activity. The subjects were divided into three groups according to the activity practice: control group (CG) with seven participants for the sedentary individuals, motor coordination group (MCG) with six participants, and physical activity group (PAG) with eight participants. Data comparisons were from the Berg balance scale, Time up and Go test, and stabilometric analysis. Descriptive statistical and ANOVA analyses were performed for data analysis. The results reveal that including fine motor activities can improve the balance of the elderly and indirectly decrease the risk of falls.
Keywords: Balance, barapodometer, coordination, elderly.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 509252 Evaluating the Factors Influencing the Efficiency and Usage of Public Sports Services in a Chinese Province
Authors: Zhankun Wang, Timothy Makubuya
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The efficiency of public sports service of prefecture-level cities in Zhejiang from 2008 to 2012 was evaluated by applying the DEA method, then its influencing factors were also analyzed through Tobit model. Upon analysis, the results revealed the following; (i) the change in average efficiency of public sports service in Zhejiang present a smooth uptrend and at a relatively high level from 2008 to 2012 (ii) generally, the productivity of public sports service in Zhejiang improved from 2008 to 2012, the productivity efficiency varied greatly in different years, and the regional difference of production efficiency increased. (iii) The correlations for urbanization rate, aging rate, per capita GDP and the population density were significantly positive with the public sports service efficiency in Zhejiang, of which the most significant was the aging rate. However, the population density and per capita GDP had less impact on the efficiency of public sports service in Zhejiang. In addition, whether the efficiency of public sports services in different areas in Zhejiang reciprocates to overall benefits in public wellbeing in both rural and urban settings is still arguable.
Keywords: DEA Model, public sports service, efficiency, Tobit model, Malmquist productivity index, Zhejiang.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 776251 Urban Big Data: An Experimental Approach to Building-Value Estimation Using Web-Based Data
Authors: Sun-Young Jang, Sung-Ah Kim, Dongyoun Shin
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Current real-estate value estimation, difficult for laymen, usually is performed by specialists. This paper presents an automated estimation process based on big data and machine-learning technology that calculates influences of building conditions on real-estate price measurement. The present study analyzed actual building sales sample data for Nonhyeon-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Korea, measuring the major influencing factors among the various building conditions. Further to that analysis, a prediction model was established and applied using RapidMiner Studio, a graphical user interface (GUI)-based tool for derivation of machine-learning prototypes. The prediction model is formulated by reference to previous examples. When new examples are applied, it analyses and predicts accordingly. The analysis process discerns the crucial factors effecting price increases by calculation of weighted values. The model was verified, and its accuracy determined, by comparing its predicted values with actual price increases.Keywords: Big data, building-value analysis, machine learning, price prediction.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1152250 Sustainable Energy Policy for Africa (Nigeria) and Europe: A Comparative Study
Authors: N. Garba, C. S. Özveren, D. Blackwood, A. Adamu, A. I. Augie
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The purpose of this paper was to develop a policy and associated regulatory actions together with legislations that could help in sustainable energy development in Africa and Nigeria in particular. As a result of depletion of fossil fuels in most African countries, renewable energy options such as solar, wind and hydropower biomass are considered to be alternative sources in sustaining the energy security in the continent and particularly Nigeria. Corruption level is another factor that hinders economic growth and development in Nigeria. A review of the past literature on sustainable energy policy from Europe has been carried out. The countries investigated include: The United Kingdom, Germany, Norway and Finland. Their policies have been examined, and this helps suggest new policies on sustainable energy for Nigeria and Africa as a continent. The policies analyzed focused on incentives such as Feed-in-Tariff (FiT). Renewable energy sources potential and renewable have been investigated in Nigeria and that could help in formulating new sustainable energy policy for the country. Some of the proposed policies includes: Renewable Obligation (RO), Cogeneration, FiT, Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), Renewable Integration, and Heat Entrepreneurship. These are some the new policies that could help sustain the energy security, reduce the level of poverty and corruption in Nigeria as well as Africa in general. If these policies are well designed and properly implemented as observed in this research, Nigeria can achieve sustainable energy and economic growth and development in the near future. Each proposed policy was assigned a timeframe for it to be achieved.
Keywords: Sustainability, renewable energy, energy policies, Africa, Nigeria, Europe, United Kingdom, Germany, Norway, Finland.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 954249 Distributed Multi-Agent Based Approach on an Intelligent Transportation Network
Authors: Xiao Yihong, Yu Kexin, Burra Venkata Durga Kumar
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With the accelerating process of urbanization, the problem of urban road congestion is becoming more and more serious. Intelligent transportation system combining distributed and artificial intelligence has become a research hotspot. As the core development direction of the intelligent transportation system, Cooperative Intelligent Transportation System (C-ITS) integrates advanced information technology and communication methods and realizes the integration of human, vehicle, roadside infrastructure and other elements through the multi-agent distributed system. By analyzing the system architecture and technical characteristics of C-ITS, the paper proposes a distributed multi-agent C-ITS. The system consists of Roadside Subsystem, Vehicle Subsystem and Personal Subsystem. At the same time, we explore the scalability of the C-ITS and put forward incorporating local rewards in the centralized training decentralized execution paradigm, hoping to add a scalable value decomposition method. In addition, we also suggest introducing blockchain to improve the safety of the traffic information transmission process. The system is expected to improve vehicle capacity and traffic safety.
Keywords: Distributed system, artificial intelligence, multi-agent, Cooperative Intelligent Transportation System.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 544248 Hybrid Advanced Oxidative Pretreatment of Complex Industrial Effluent for Biodegradability Enhancement
Authors: K. Paradkar, S. N. Mudliar, A. Sharma, A. B. Pandit, R. A. Pandey
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The study explores the hybrid combination of Hydrodynamic Cavitation (HC) and Subcritical Wet Air Oxidation-based pretreatment of complex industrial effluent to enhance the biodegradability selectively (without major COD destruction) to facilitate subsequent enhanced downstream processing via anaerobic or aerobic biological treatment. Advanced oxidation based techniques can be less efficient as standalone options and a hybrid approach by combining Hydrodynamic Cavitation (HC), and Wet Air Oxidation (WAO) can lead to a synergistic effect since both the options are based on common free radical mechanism. The HC can be used for initial turbulence and generation of hotspots which can begin the free radical attack and this agitating mixture then can be subjected to less intense WAO since initial heat (to raise the activation energy) can be taken care by HC alone. Lab-scale venturi-based hydrodynamic cavitation and wet air oxidation reactor with biomethanated distillery wastewater (BMDWW) as a model effluent was examined for establishing the proof-of-concept. The results indicated that for a desirable biodegradability index (BOD: COD - BI) enhancement (up to 0.4), the Cavitation (standalone) pretreatment condition was: 5 bar and 88 min reaction time with a COD reduction of 36 % and BI enhancement of up to 0.27 (initial BI - 0.17). The optimum WAO condition (standalone) was: 150oC, 6 bar and 30 minutes with 31% COD reduction and 0.33 BI. The hybrid pretreatment (combined Cavitation + WAO) worked out to be 23.18 min HC (at 5 bar) followed by 30 min WAO at 150oC, 6 bar, at which around 50% COD was retained yielding a BI of 0.55. FTIR & NMR analysis of pretreated effluent indicated dissociation and/or reorientation of complex organic compounds in untreated effluent to simpler organic compounds post-pretreatment.
Keywords: BI, hybrid, hydrodynamic cavitation, wet air oxidation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1747247 Disidentification of Historical City Centers: A Comparative Study of the Old and New Settlements of Mardin, Turkey
Authors: Fatma Kürüm Varolgüneş, Fatih Canan
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Mardin is one of the unique cities in Turkey with its rich cultural and historical heritage. Mardin’s traditional dwellings have been affected both by natural data such as climate and topography and by cultural data like lifestyle and belief. However, in the new settlements, housing is formed with modern approaches and unsuitable forms clashing with Mardin’s culture and environment. While the city is expanding, traditional textures are ignored. Thus, traditional settlements are losing their identity and are vanishing because of the rapid change and transformation. The main aim of this paper is to determine the physical and social data needed to define the characteristic features of Mardin’s old and new settlements. In this context, based on social and cultural data, old and new settlement formations of Mardin have been investigated from various aspects. During this research, the following methods have been utilized: observations, interviews, public surveys, literature review, as well as site examination via maps, photographs and questionnaire methodology. In conclusion, this paper focuses on how changes in the physical forms of cities affect the typology and the identity of cities, as in the case of Mardin.
Keywords: Urban and local identity, historical city center, traditional settlements, Mardin, Turkey.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1030246 Pollution Control and Sustainable Urban Transport System - Electric Vehicle
Authors: M.M. Al Emran Hasan, M.Ektesabi, A.Kapoor
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Recently electric vehicles are becoming popular as an alternative of conventional fossil fuel vehicles. Conventional Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicle uses fossil fuel which contributing a major part of overall carbon emission in the environment. Carbon and other green house gas emission are responsible for global warming and resulting climate change. It becomes vital to evaluate performance of vehicle based on emission. In this paper an effort has been made to depict the picture of emission caused by vehicle and scenario of Australia has taken into account. Effort has been made to compare the fossil based vehicle with electric vehicle in phases. The study also evaluates advancement in electric vehicle technology, required infrastructure for sustainability and future scope of developments. This paper also includes the evaluation of electric vehicle concept for pollution control and sustainable transport systems in future. This study can be a benchmark for development of electric vehicle as low carbon emission alternative for the cities of tomorrow.Keywords: Electric Vehicle, Fossil Fuel, Internal CombustionEngine, Green House Gas, In wheel motor, Smart grid
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1711245 Visualized Flow Patterns around and inside a Two-Sided Wind-Catcher in the Presence of Upstream Structures
Authors: M. Afshin, A. Sohankar, M. Dehghan Manshadi, M. R. Daneshgar, G. R. Dehghan Kamaragi
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In this paper, the influence of upstream structures on the flow patternaround and inside the wind-catcher is experimentally investigated by smoke flow visualization techniques. Wind-catchers are an important part of natural ventilation in residential buildings or public places such as shopping centers, libraries, etc. Wind-catchers might be also used in places of high urban densities; hence their potential to provide natural ventilation is dependent on the presence of upstream structures. In this study, the two-sided wind-catcher model was based on a real wind-catcher observed in the city of Yazd, Iran. The present study focuses on the flow patterns around and inside the isolated two-sided wind-catcher, and on a two-sided wind-catcher in the presence of an upstream structure. The results show that the presence of an upstream structure influences the airflow pattern force and direction. Placing a high upstream structure reverses the airflow direction inside the wind-catcher.
Keywords: Natural Ventilation, Smoke Flow Visualization, Two-Sided Wind-Catcher.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1977244 Cities Simulation and Representation in Locative Games from the Perspective of Cultural Studies
Authors: B. A. A. Paixão, J. V. B. Gomide
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This work aims to analyze the locative structure used by the locative games of the company Niantic. To fulfill this objective, a literature review on the representation and simulation of cities was developed; interviews with Ingress players and playing Ingress. Relating these data, it was possible to deepen the relationship between the virtual and the real to create the simulation of cities and their cultural objects in locative games. Cities representation associates geo-location provided by the Global Positioning System (GPS), with augmented reality and digital image, and provides a new paradigm in the city interaction with its parts and real and virtual world elements, homeomorphic to real world. Bibliographic review of papers related to the representation and simulation study and their application in locative games was carried out and is presented in the present paper. The cities representation and simulation concepts in locative games, and how this setting enables the flow and immersion in urban space, are analyzed. Some examples of games are discussed for this new setting development, which is a mix of real and virtual world. Finally, it was proposed a Locative Structure for electronic games using the concepts of heterotrophic representations and isotropic representations conjoined with immediacy and hypermediacy.
Keywords: Cities representation, city simulation, games simulation, locative games.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 861243 Feasibility Study of Friction Stir Welding Application for Kevlar Material
Authors: Ahmet Taşan, Süha Tirkeş, Yavuz Öztürk, Zafer Bingül
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Friction stir welding (FSW) is a joining process in the solid state, which eliminates problems associated with the material melting and solidification, such as cracks, residual stresses and distortions generated during conventional welding. Among the most important advantages of FSW are; easy automation, less distortion, lower residual stress and good mechanical properties in the joining region. FSW is a recent approach to metal joining and although originally intended for aluminum alloys, it is investigated in a variety of metallic materials. The basic concept of FSW is a rotating tool, made of non-consumable material, specially designed with a geometry consisting of a pin and a recess (shoulder). This tool is inserted as spinning on its axis at the adjoining edges of two sheets or plates to be joined and then it travels along the joining path line. The tool rotation axis defines an angle of inclination with which the components to be welded. This angle is used for receiving the material to be processed at the tool base and to promote the gradual forge effect imposed by the shoulder during the passage of the tool. This prevents the material plastic flow at the tool lateral, ensuring weld closure on the back of the pin. In this study, two 4 mm Kevlar® plates which were produced with the Kevlar® fabrics, are analyzed with COMSOL Multiphysics in order to investigate the weldability via FSW. Thereafter, some experimental investigation is done with an appropriate workbench in order to compare them with the analysis results.
Keywords: Analytical modeling, composite materials welding, friction stir welding, heat generation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1098242 Sustainable Renovation and Restoration of the Rural Based on the View Point of Psychology
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Countryside has been generally recognized and regarded as a characteristic symbol which presents in human memory for a long time. As a result of the change of times, because of it is failure to meet the growing needs of the growing life and mental decline, the vast rural area began to decline. But their history feature image which accumulated by the ancient tradition provides people with the origins of existence on the spiritual level, such as "identity" and "belonging", makes people closer to the others in the spiritual and psychological aspects of a common experience about the past, thus the sense of a lack of culture caused by the losing of memory symbols is weakened. So, in the modernization process, how to repair its vitality and transform and planning it in a sustainable way has become a hot topics in architectural and urban planning. This paper aims to break the constraints of disciplines, from the perspective of interdiscipline, using the research methods of systems science to analyze and discuss the theories and methods of rural form factors, which based on the viewpoint of memory in psychology. So we can find a right way to transform the Rural to give full play to the role of the countryside in the actual use and the shape of history spirits.Keywords: The rural, sustainable renovation, restoration, psychology, memory.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1465241 Water, Sanitation and Health in Developing Countries: How Far from Sustainable Development?
Authors: May A. Massoud
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The availability of water in adequate quantity and quality is imperative for sustainable development. Worldwide, significant imbalance exists with regards to sustainable development particularly from a water and sanitation perspective. Water is a critical component of public health, and failure to supply safe water will place a heavy burden on the entire population. Although the 21st century has witnessed wealth and advanced development, it has not been realized everywhere. Billions of people are still striving to access the most basic human needs which are food, shelter, safe drinking water and adequate sanitation. The global picture conceals various inequalities particularly with regards to sanitation coverage in rural and urban areas. Currently, water scarcity and in particular water governance is the main challenge which will cause a threat to sustainable development goals. Within the context of water, sanitation and health, sustainable development is a confusing concept primarily when examined from the viewpoint of policy options for developing countries. This perspective paper aims to summarize and critically evaluate evidence of published studies in relation to water, sanitation and health and to identify relevant solutions to reduce public health impacts. Evidently, improving water and sanitation services will result in significant and lasting gains in health and economic development.Keywords: developing countries, health, sanitation, sustainability, water
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1406240 The Role of Glutamine-Rich Region of Candida Albicans Tec1p in Mediating Morphological Transition and Invasive Growth
Authors: W. Abu Rayyan, A. Singh, A. M. Al-Jaafreh, W. Abu Dayyih, M. Bustami, S. Salem, N. Seder, K. Schröppel
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Hyphal growth and the transcriptional regulation to the host environment are key issues during the pathogenesis of C. albicans. Tec1p is the C. albicans homolog of a TEA transcription factor family, which share a conserved DNA-binding TEA domain in their N-terminal. In order to define a structure-function relationship of the C. albicans Tec1p protein, we constructed several mutations on the N terminal, C terminal or in the TEA binding domain itself by homologous recombination technology. The modifications in the open reading frame of TEC1 were tested for reconstitution of the morphogenetic development of the tec1/tec1 mutant strain CaAS12. Mutation in the TEA consensus sequence did not confer transition to hyphae whereas the reconstitution of the full-length Tec1p has reconstituted hyphal development. A deletion in one of glutamine-rich regions either in the Tec1p N-terminal or the C-terminal in regions of 53-212 or 637–744 aa, respectively, did not restore morphological development in mutant CaAS12 strain. Whereas, the reconstitution with Tec1p mutants other than the glutamate-rich region has restored the morphogenetic switch. Additionally, the deletion of the glutamine-rich region has attenuated the invasive growth and the heat shock resistance of C. albicans. In conclusion, we show that a glutamine-rich region of Tec1p is essential for the hyphal development and mediating adaptation to the host environment of C. albicans.
Keywords: Candida albicans, transcription factor, TEA domain, hyphal formation, morphogenetic development, TEC1, Tet-induced.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 836239 Hybrid Equity Warrants Pricing Formulation under Stochastic Dynamics
Authors: Teh Raihana Nazirah Roslan, Siti Zulaiha Ibrahim, Sharmila Karim
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A warrant is a financial contract that confers the right but not the obligation, to buy or sell a security at a certain price before expiration. The standard procedure to value equity warrants using call option pricing models such as the Black–Scholes model had been proven to contain many flaws, such as the assumption of constant interest rate and constant volatility. In fact, existing alternative models were found focusing more on demonstrating techniques for pricing, rather than empirical testing. Therefore, a mathematical model for pricing and analyzing equity warrants which comprises stochastic interest rate and stochastic volatility is essential to incorporate the dynamic relationships between the identified variables and illustrate the real market. Here, the aim is to develop dynamic pricing formulations for hybrid equity warrants by incorporating stochastic interest rates from the Cox-Ingersoll-Ross (CIR) model, along with stochastic volatility from the Heston model. The development of the model involves the derivations of stochastic differential equations that govern the model dynamics. The resulting equations which involve Cauchy problem and heat equations are then solved using partial differential equation approaches. The analytical pricing formulas obtained in this study comply with the form of analytical expressions embedded in the Black-Scholes model and other existing pricing models for equity warrants. This facilitates the practicality of this proposed formula for comparison purposes and further empirical study.
Keywords: Cox-Ingersoll-Ross model, equity warrants, Heston model, hybrid models, stochastic.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 568238 Contemporary Housing Indicators in Poland on the Wroclaw Study Case
Authors: R.P.Masztalski, M.Michalski
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The paper presents the results of research on trends in shaping of multifamily buildings in Poland on the example of Wrocław, after Polish accession to the European Union. The study is conducted within the research project: “Trends in creating of multifamily housing development since 2004, on the Wrocław study case" supported by Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education and will be completed in November 2011. The research involves multifamily buildings completed in the last decade, in term of fundamental urbanization factors such as: building-s coefficient area, useable area, green area (biologically active surface), intensity of building development, amount of dwellings, dwelling area, amount of parking places, numbers of floors, etc. The analysis of these indicators was conducted based on the date obtained in the study of approximately one hundred new housing units, completed in Wroclaw. The analysis attempts to formulate the main trends in creating of housing policy in Poland during the last 10 years in reference to local urban policy.
Keywords: Housing indicators, multifamily housing development in Poland, multifamily housing transformation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1388237 Territories' Challenges and Opportunities to Promote Circular Economy in the Building Sector
Authors: R. Tirado, G. Habert, A. Mailhac, S. Laurenceau
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The rapid development of cities implies significant material inflows and outflows. The construction sector is one of the main consumers of raw materials and producers of waste. The waste from the building sector, for its quantity and potential for recovery, constitutes significant deposits requiring major efforts, by combining different actors, to achieve the circular economy's objectives. It is necessary to understand and know the current construction actors' knowledge of stocks, urban metabolism, deposits, and recovery practices in this context. This article aims to explore the role of local governments in planning strategies by facilitating a circular economy. In particular, the principal opportunities and challenges of communities for applying the principles of the circular economy in the building sector will be identified. The approach used for the study was to conduct semi-structured interviews with those responsible for circular economy projects within local administrations of some communities in France. The results show territories' involvement in the inclusion and application of the principles of the circular economy in the building sector. The main challenges encountered are numerous, hence the importance of having identified and described them so that the different actors can work to meet them.
Keywords: Building stock, circular economy, interview, local authorities.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 512236 An Investigation into the Impact of the Relocation of Tannery Industry on Water Quality Parameters of Urban River Buriganga
Authors: Md Asif Imrul, Maria Rafique, M. Habibur Rahman
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The study deals with an investigation into the impact of the relocation of tannery industry on water quality parameters of Buriganga. For this purpose, previous records have been collected from authentic data resources and for the attainment of present values, several samples were collected from three major locations of the Buriganga River during summer and winter seasons in 2018 to determine the distribution and variation of water quality parameters. Samples were collected six ft below the river water surface. Analysis indicates slightly acidic to slightly alkaline (6.8-7.49) in nature. Bio-Chemical Oxygen Demand, Total Dissolved Solids, Total Solids (TS) & Total Suspended Solids (TSS) have been found greater in summer. On the other hand, Dissolved Oxygen is found greater in rainy seasons. Relocation shows improvement in water quality parameters. Though the improvement related to relocation of tannery industry is not adequate to turn the water body to be an inhabitable place for aquatic lives.
Keywords: Buriganga river, river pollution, tannery industry, water quality parameters.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 902235 Groundwater Quality and the Sources of Pollution in Baghan Watershed, Iran
Authors: Abolfazl Moeini, Elahe Alizadeh Paeenafrakaty
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The protection of groundwater resources is the great important many semiarid and arid environments. Baghan watershed is located in the north of Kangan in the Boshehr province in Iran. The groundwater resources have a vital role in supplying agricultural, drinking, domestic and industrial water demand in Baghan watershed. For our investigation into the water quality we collected 30 samples to chemical and physical analysis. The result showed the marl and evaporation deposits that contain anhydrite and gypsum is the main source of groundwater pollution, and one part of the groundwater was polluted by oil and gas industrial. Another part of the groundwater was contaminated by urban waste water. The electrical conductivity and captions and anions increased around of towns and gas refinery. Although the negative impact of untreated domestic wastewater is relatively low but the results showed strongly the negative impact of wastewater refinery is very considerable. This negative impact increased in downstream due to shallow aquifer. Additionally, the agents that adversely affect the quality of groundwater come from a variety of sources, including geology, domestic wastewater and the Jam refinery in Baghan watershed.Keywords: Baghan watershed, Chemical quality, Groundwater, Pollution sources.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2043234 Importance of Pastoral Human Factor Overloading in Land Desertification: Case Studies in Northeastern Libya
Authors: Abdelsalam Omran Gebril, Ali Gh Saeid
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Grazing and pastoral overloading through human factors result in significant land desertification. Failure to take into account the phenomenon of desertification as a serious problem can lead to an environmental disaster because of the damages caused by land encroachment. Therefore, soil on residential and urban areas is affected because of the deterioration of vegetation. Overgrazing or grazing in open and irregular lands is practiced in these areas almost throughout the year, especially during the growth cycle of edible plants, thereby leading to their disappearance. In addition, the large number of livestock in these areas exceeds the capacity of these pastures because of pastoral land overloading, which results in deterioration and desertification in the region. In addition, rare plants, the extinction of some edible plants in the region, and the emergence of plants unsuitable for grazing, must be taken into consideration, as along with the emergence of dust and sand storms during the dry seasons (summer to autumn) due to the degradation of vegetation. These results show that strategic plans and regulations that protect the environment from desertification must be developed. Therefore, increased pastoral load is a key human factor in the deterioration of vegetation cover, leading to land desertification in this region.
Keywords: Overloading, pastoral, grazing, desertification, Libya
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2116233 Double Pass Solar Air Heater with Transvers Fins and without Absorber Plate
Authors: A. J. Mahmood, L. B. Y. Aldabbagh
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The counter flow solar air heaters, with four transverse fins and wire mesh layers are constructed and investigated experimentally for thermal efficiency at a geographic location of Cyprus in the city of Famagusta. The absorber plate is replaced by sixteen steel wire mesh layers, 0.18 x 0.18cm in cross section opening and a 0.02cm in diameter. The wire mesh layers arranged in three groups, first and second include 6 layers, while the third include 4 layers. All layers fixed in the duct parallel to the glazing and each group separated from the others by wood frame thickness of 0.5cm to reduce the pressure drop. The transverse fins arranged in a way to force the air to flow through the bed like eight letter path with flow depth 3cm. The proposed design has increased the heat transfer rate, but on other hand causes a high pressure drop. The obtained results show that, for air mass flow rate range between 0.011-0.036kg/s, the thermal efficiency increases with increasing the air mass flow. The maximum efficiency obtained is 65.6% for the mass flow rate of 0.036kg/s. Moreover, the temperature difference between the outlet flow and the ambient temperature, ΔT, reduces as the air mass flow rate increase. The maximum difference between the outlet and ambient temperature obtained was 43°C for double pass for minimum mass flow rate of 0.011kg/s. Comparison with a conventional solar air heater collector shows a significantly development in the thermal efficiency.Keywords: Counter flow, solar air heater (SAH), Wire mesh, Fins, Thermal efficiency.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3170232 A Study on the Effect of Mg and Ag Additions and Age Hardening Treatment on the Properties of As-Cast Al-Cu-Mg-Ag Alloys
Authors: Ahmed. S. Alasmari, M. S. Soliman, Magdy M. El-Rayes
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This study focuses on the effect of the addition of magnesium (Mg) and silver (Ag) on the mechanical properties of aluminum based alloys. The alloying elements will be added at different levels using the factorial design of experiments of 22; the two factors are Mg and Ag at two levels of concentration. The superior mechanical properties of the produced Al-Cu-Mg-Ag alloys after aging will be resulted from a unique type of precipitation named as Ω-phase. The formed precipitate enhanced the tensile strength and thermal stability. This paper further investigated the microstructure and mechanical properties of as cast Al–Cu–Mg–Ag alloys after being complete homogenized treatment at 520 °C for 8 hours followed by isothermally age hardening process at 190 °C for different periods of time. The homogenization at 520 °C for 8 hours was selected based on homogenization study at various temperatures and times. The alloys’ microstructures were studied by using optical microscopy (OM). In addition to that, the fracture surface investigation was performed using a scanning electronic microscope (SEM). Studying the microstructure of aged Al-Cu-Mg-Ag alloys reveal that the grains are equiaxed with an average grain size of about 50 µm. A detailed fractography study for fractured surface of the aged alloys exhibited a mixed fracture whereby the random fracture suggested crack propagation along the grain boundaries while the dimples indicated that the fracture was ductile. The present result has shown that alloy 5 has the highest hardness values and the best mechanical behaviors.
Keywords: Precipitation hardening, aluminum alloys, aging, design of experiments, analysis of variance, heat treatments.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1166231 Molecular Dynamics Simulation of the Effect of the Solid Gas Interface Nanolayer on Enhanced Thermal Conductivity of Copper-CO2 Nanofluid
Authors: Zeeshan Ahmed, Ajinkya Sarode, Pratik Basarkar, Atul Bhargav, Debjyoti Banerjee
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The use of CO2 in oil recovery and in CO2 capture and storage is gaining traction in recent years. These applications involve heat transfer between CO2 and the base fluid, and hence, there arises a need to improve the thermal conductivity of CO2 to increase the process efficiency and reduce cost. One way to improve the thermal conductivity is through nanoparticle addition in the base fluid. The nanofluid model in this study consisted of copper (Cu) nanoparticles in varying concentrations with CO2 as a base fluid. No experimental data are available on thermal conductivity of CO2 based nanofluid. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are an increasingly adopted tool to perform preliminary assessments of nanoparticle (NP) fluid interactions. In this study, the effect of the formation of a nanolayer (or molecular layering) at the gas-solid interface on thermal conductivity is investigated using equilibrium MD simulations by varying NP diameter and keeping the volume fraction (1.413%) of nanofluid constant to check the diameter effect of NP on the nanolayer and thermal conductivity. A dense semi-solid fluid layer was seen to be formed at the NP-gas interface, and the thickness increases with increase in particle diameter, which also moves with the NP Brownian motion. Density distribution has been done to see the effect of nanolayer, and its thickness around the NP. These findings are extremely beneficial, especially to industries employed in oil recovery as increased thermal conductivity of CO2 will lead to enhanced oil recovery and thermal energy storage.
Keywords: Copper-CO2 nanofluid, molecular interfacial layer, thermal conductivity, molecular dynamic simulation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1098230 A Comparison of Adaline and MLP Neural Network based Predictors in SIR Estimation in Mobile DS/CDMA Systems
Authors: Nahid Ardalani, Ahmadreza Khoogar, H. Roohi
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In this paper we compare the response of linear and nonlinear neural network-based prediction schemes in prediction of received Signal-to-Interference Power Ratio (SIR) in Direct Sequence Code Division Multiple Access (DS/CDMA) systems. The nonlinear predictor is Multilayer Perceptron MLP and the linear predictor is an Adaptive Linear (Adaline) predictor. We solve the problem of complexity by using the Minimum Mean Squared Error (MMSE) principle to select the optimal predictors. The optimized Adaline predictor is compared to optimized MLP by employing noisy Rayleigh fading signals with 1.8 GHZ carrier frequency in an urban environment. The results show that the Adaline predictor can estimates SIR with the same error as MLP when the user has the velocity of 5 km/h and 60 km/h but by increasing the velocity up-to 120 km/h the mean squared error of MLP is two times more than Adaline predictor. This makes the Adaline predictor (with lower complexity) more suitable than MLP for closed-loop power control where efficient and accurate identification of the time-varying inverse dynamics of the multi path fading channel is required.Keywords: Power control, neural networks, DS/CDMA mobilecommunication systems.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2502