Search results for: building fire response

Authors: Abeer A. M., Allawi A. A., Chai H. K.

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A new analytical method to predict the torsional capacity and behavior of R.C multi-cell box girders strengthened with carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) sheets is presented. Modification was done on the Softened Truss Model (STM) in the proposed method; the concrete torsional problem is solved by combining the equilibrium conditions, compatibility conditions and constitutive laws of materials by taking into account the confinement of concrete with CFRP sheets. A specific algorithm is developed to predict the torsional behavior of reinforced concrete multi-cell box girders with or without strengthening by CFRP sheets. Applications of the developed method as an assessment tool to strengthened multicell box girders with CFRP and first analytical example that demonstrate the contribution of the CFRP materials on the torsional response is also included.

Keywords: Carbon fiber reinforced polymer, Concrete torsion, Modified Softened Truss Model, Multi-Cell box girder.

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Authors: Omer Cahana, Maya Herman, Ofer Levi

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Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a lengthy medical scan that stems from a long acquisition time. Its length is mainly due to the traditional sampling theorem, which defines a lower boundary for sampling. However, it is still possible to accelerate the scan by using a different approach such as Compress Sensing (CS) or Parallel Imaging (PI). These two complementary methods can be combined to achieve a faster scan with high-fidelity imaging. To achieve that, two conditions must be satisfied: i) the signal must be sparse under a known transform domain, and ii) the sampling method must be incoherent. In addition, a nonlinear reconstruction algorithm must be applied to recover the signal. While the rapid advances in Deep Learning (DL) have had tremendous successes in various computer vision tasks, the field of MRI reconstruction is still in its early stages. In this paper, we present an end-to-end method for MRI reconstruction from k-space to image. Our method contains two parts. The first is sensitivity map estimation (SME), which is a small yet effective network that can easily be extended to a variable number of coils. The second is reconstruction, which is a top-down architecture with lateral connections developed for building high-level refinement at all scales. Our method holds the state-of-art fastMRI benchmark, which is the largest, most diverse benchmark for MRI reconstruction.

Keywords: Accelerate MRI scans, image reconstruction, pyramid network, deep learning.

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Authors: Lucia Abbamonte, Olimpia Matarazzo

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In recent years linguistic research has turned increasing attention to covert/overt strategies to modulate authorial stance and positioning in scientific texts, and to the recipients' response. This study discussed some theoretical implications of the use of rhetoric in scientific communication and analysed qualitative data from the authoritative The Cognitive Neurosciences III (2004) volume. Its genre-identity, status and readability were considered, in the social interactive context of contemporary disciplinary discourses – in their polyphony of traditional and new, emerging genres. Evidence was given of the ways its famous authors negotiate and shape knowledge and research results – explicitly appraising team work and promoting faith in the fast-paced progress of Cognitive Neuroscience, also through experiential metaphors – by presenting a set of examples, ordered according to their dominant rhetorical quality.

Keywords: Appraisal, disciplinary discourses, experientialmetaphors, genre, identity, knowledge, readability, rhetoric, strategies, theoretical implications.

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Authors: Ahmed Arara

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Information sharing and exchange, rather than information processing, is what characterizes information technology in the 21st century. Ontologies, as shared common understanding, gain increasing attention, as they appear as the most promising solution to enable information sharing both at a semantic level and in a machine-processable way. Domain Ontology-based modeling has been exploited to provide shareability and information exchange among diversified, heterogeneous applications of enterprises. Contextual ontologies are “an explicit specification of contextual conceptualization". That is: ontology is characterized by concepts that have multiple representations and they may exist in several contexts. Hence, contextual ontologies are a set of concepts and relationships, which are seen from different perspectives. Contextualization is to allow for ontologies to be partitioned according to their contexts. The need for contextual ontologies in enterprise modeling has become crucial due to the nature of today's competitive market. Information resources in enterprise is distributed and diversified and is in need to be shared and communicated locally through the intranet and globally though the internet. This paper discusses the roles that ontologies play in an enterprise modeling, and how ontologies assist in building a conceptual model in order to provide communicative and interoperable information systems. The issue of enterprise modeling based on contextual domain ontology is also investigated, and a framework is proposed for an enterprise model that consists of various applications.

Keywords: Contextual ontologies, Enterprise model, domainontology.

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Authors: G.Y. Zhang , M.L. Xu, R.Q. Zhang, W.H. Tang

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MOC (method of cell) is a new method of investigating wave propagating in material with periodic microstructure, and can reflect the effect of microstructure. Wave propagation in periodically laminated medium consisting of linearly elastic layers can be treated as a special application of this method. In this paper, it was used to simulate the dynamic response of carbon-phenolic to impulsive loading under certain boundary conditions. From the comparison between the results obtained from this method and the exact results based on propagator matrix theory, excellent agreement is achieved. Conclusion can be made that the oscillation periodicity is decided by the thickness of sub-cells. In the end, the NHDMOC method, which permits studying stress wave propagation with one dimensional strain, was applied to study the one-dimensional stress wave propagation. In this paper, the ZWT nonlinear visco-elastic constitutive relationship with 7 parameters, NHDMOC, and corresponding equations were deduced. The equations were verified, comparing the elastic stress wave propagation in SHPB with, respectively, the elastic and the visco-elastic bar. Finally the dispersion and attenuation of stress wave in SHPB with visco-elastic bar was studied.

Keywords: MOC, NHDMOC, visco-elastic, wave propagation

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Authors: Srinivasan Chandrasekaran, Manda Hari Venkata Ramachandra Rao

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Increase in the oil and gas exploration in ultra deep-water demands an adaptive structural form of the platform. Triceratops has superior motion characteristics compared to that of the Tension Leg Platform and Single Point Anchor Reservoir platforms, which is well established in the literature. Buoyant legs that support the deck are position-restrained to the sea bed using tethers with high axial pretension. Environmental forces that act on the platform induce dynamic tension variations in the tethers, causing the failure of tethers. The present study investigates the dynamic response behavior of the restraining system of the platform under the failure of a single tether of each buoyant leg in high sea states. Using the rain-flow counting algorithm and the Goodman diagram, fatigue damage caused to the tethers is estimated, and the fatigue life is predicted. Results shows that under failure conditions, the fatigue life of the remaining tethers is quite alarmingly low.

Keywords: Fatigue life, Failure analysis, PM spectrum, rain flow counting, triceratops.

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Authors: Hyun-Woo Cho

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Detection of incipient abnormal events is important to improve safety and reliability of machine operations and reduce losses caused by failures. Improper set-ups or aligning of parts often leads to severe problems in many machines. The construction of prediction models for predicting faulty conditions is quite essential in making decisions on when to perform machine maintenance. This paper presents a multivariate calibration monitoring approach based on the statistical analysis of machine measurement data. The calibration model is used to predict two faulty conditions from historical reference data. This approach utilizes genetic algorithms (GA) based variable selection, and we evaluate the predictive performance of several prediction methods using real data. The results shows that the calibration model based on supervised probabilistic principal component analysis (SPPCA) yielded best performance in this work. By adopting a proper variable selection scheme in calibration models, the prediction performance can be improved by excluding non-informative variables from their model building steps.

Keywords: Prediction, operation monitoring, on-line data, nonlinear statistical methods, empirical model.

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Authors: Hilmi Yazici

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The more homogenized population taken over by the Republic immediately after the Ottoman was being canalized towards the goal of national identity and the historical and cultural structure of the nation was being readdressed and redefined. Modernization and Westernization history of the new Turkey, which started with Ottoman reforms and took its final form with the Kemalist nation-state, politically resulted in transformation from a multinational empire to a “nation-state” and adopted reaching to the level of Western civilizations as a sociology ideal. This objective of change will be achieved, on the one hand, by finding the Turkish culture which was preserved only by the society and by instilling Western civilization to national culture, on the other hand.  In line with this, it is seen that in musical considerations while Turkish folk music was accepted and adopted as an indispensible part of Turkish identity, Turkish classical music was refused on the ground that it was not a part of Turkish identity. Again in this period, it is seen that with the notion of cultural reform, which is a part of “nation building”, the desire to create a national music to be performed with Western techniques brought along deliberate interventions to folk music.

Keywords: Folk song, Nationalism, National music, nation-state, Turkish music.

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Authors: Climstein Mike, Walsh Joe, John Best, Heazlewood Ian Timothy, Burke Stephen, Kettunen Jyrki, Adams Kent, DeBeliso Mark

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Recently, the health of retired National Football League players, particularly lineman has been investigated. A number of studies have reported increased cardiometabolic risk, premature ardiovascular disease and incidence of type 2 diabetes. Rugby union players have somatotypes very similar to National Football league players which suggest that rugby players may have similar health risks. The International Golden Oldies World Rugby Festival (GORF) provided a unique opportunity to investigate the demographics of veteran rugby players. METHODOLOGIES: A cross-sectional, observational study was completed using an online web-based questionnaire that consisted of medical history and physiological measures. Data analysis was completed using a one sample t-test (<50yrs versus >50yrs) and Chi-square test. RESULTS: A total of 216 veteran rugby competitors (response rate = 6.8%) representing 10 countries, aged 35-72 yrs (mean 51.2, S.D. ±8.0), participated in the online survey. As a group, the incidence of current smokers was low at 8.8% (avg 72.4 cigs/wk) whilst the percentage consuming alcohol was high (93.1% (avg 11.2 drinks/wk). Competitors reported the following top six chronic diseases/disorders; hypertension (18.6%), arthritis (OA/RA, 11.5%), asthma (9.3%), hyperlipidemia (8.2%), diabetes (all types, 7.5%) and gout (6%), there were significant differences between groups with regard to cancer (all types) and migraines. When compared to the Australian general population (Australian Bureau of Statistics data, n=18,000), GORF competitors had a Climstein Mike, Walsh Joe (corresponding author) and Burke Stephen School of Exercise Science, Australian Catholic University, 25A Barker Road, Strathfield, Sydney, NSW, 2016, Australia (e-mail: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]). John Best is with Orthosports, 160 Belmore Rd., Randwick, Sydney,NSW 2031, Australia (e-mail: [email protected]). Heazlewood, Ian Timothy is with School of Environmental and Life Sciences, Faculty Education, Health and Science, Charles Darwin University, Precinct Yellow Building 2, Charles Darwin University, NT 0909, Australia (e-mail: [email protected]). Kettunen Jyrki Arcada University of Applied Sciences, Jan-Magnus Janssonin aukio 1, FI-00550, Helsinki, Finland (e-mail: [email protected]). Adams Kent is with California State University Monterey Bay, Kinesiology Department, 100 Campus Center, Seaside, CA., 93955, USA (email: [email protected]). DeBeliso Mark is with Department of Physical Education and Human Performance, Southern Utah University, 351 West University Blvd, Cedar City, Utah, USA (e-mail: [email protected]). significantly lower incidence of anxiety (p<0.01), arthritis (p<0.06), depression (p<.01) however, a significantly higher incidence of diabetes (p<0.03) and hypertension (p<0.01). The GORF competitors also reported taking the following prescribed medications; antihypertensive (13%), hypolipidemics (8%), non-steroidal anti-inflammatory (6%), and anticoagulants (4%). Significant differences between groups were observed in antihypertensives, anticoagulants and hypolipidemics. There were significant (p<0.05) differences between groups (<50yrs versus >50yrs) with regard to height (180 vs 177cm), weight (97.6 vs 93.1Kg-s), BMI (30 vs 29.7kg/m2) and waist circumference (85.7 vs 93.1cm) however, there were no differences in subsequent parameters of systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, total cholesterol, HDL-C, LDL-C, triglycerides-C or fasting plasma glucose. CONCLUSIONS: This represents the first collection of demographics on this cohort. GORF participants demonstrated increased cardiometabolic risk with regard to the incidence of hypercholesterolemia, hypertension and type 2 diabetes. Preventative strategies should be developed to reduce this risk with education of these risks for future participants.

Keywords: Masters athlete, rugby union, risk factors, chronic disease.

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Authors: Chih-Jer Lin, Chun-Ying Lee, Chiang-Ho Cheng, Geng-Fung Chen

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This paper investigates experimental studies on vibration suppression for a cantilever beam using an Electro-Rheological (ER) sandwich shock absorber. ER fluid (ERF) is a class of smart materials that can undergo significant reversible changes immediately in its rheological and mechanical properties under the influence of an applied electric field. Firstly, an ER sandwich beam is fabricated by inserting a starch-based ERF into a hollow composite beam. At the same time, experimental investigations are focused on the frequency response of the ERF sandwich beam. Second, the ERF sandwich beam is attached to a cantilever beam to become as a shock absorber. Finally, a fuzzy semi-active vibration control is designed to suppress the vibration of the cantilever beam via the ERF sandwich shock absorber. To check the consistency of the proposed fuzzy controller, the real-time implementation validated the performance of the controller.

Keywords: Electro-Rheological Fluid, Semi-active vibration control, shock absorber, fuzzy control, Real-time control.

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Authors: Rasikh Tariq, Fatima Z. Benarab

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Evaporative coolers has a minimum potential to reach the wet-bulb temperature of intake air which is not enough to handle a large cooling load; therefore, it is not a feasible option to overcome cooling requirement of a building. The invention of Maisotsenko (M) cycle has led evaporative cooling technology to reach the sub-wet-bulb temperature of the intake air; therefore, it brings an innovation in evaporative cooling techniques. In this work, we developed a mathematical model of the Maisotsenko based air cooler by applying energy and mass balance laws on different air channels. The governing ordinary differential equations are discretized and simulated on MATLAB. The temperature and the humidity plots are shown in the simulation results. A parametric study is conducted by varying working air inlet conditions (temperature and humidity), inlet air velocity, geometric parameters and water temperature. The influence of these aforementioned parameters on the cooling effectiveness of the HMX is reported.  Results have shown that the effectiveness of the M-Cycle is increased by increasing the ambient temperature and decreasing absolute humidity. An air velocity of 0.5 m/sec and a channel height of 6-8mm is recommended.

Keywords: Renewable energy, indirect evaporative cooling, Maisotsenko cycle, HMX, mathematical model, numerical simulation.

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Authors: Candice Moy, Damien Guirco, Thomas Boyle

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Intelligent technologies are increasingly facilitating sustainable water management strategies in Australia. While this innovation can present clear cost benefits to utilities through immediate leak detection and deference of capital costs, the impact of this technology on households is less distinct. By offering real-time engagement and detailed end-use consumption breakdowns, there is significant potential for demand reduction as a behavioural response to increased information. Despite this potential, passive implementation without well-planned residential engagement strategies is likely to result in a lost opportunity. This paper begins this research process by exploring the effect of smart water meters through the lens of three behaviour change theories. The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), Belief Revision theory (BR) and Practice Theory emphasise different variables that can potentially influence and predict household water engagements. In acknowledging the strengths of each theory, the nuances and complexity of household water engagement can be recognised which can contribute to effective planning for residential smart meter engagement strategies.

Keywords: Behaviour, information, household, smart meters, water.

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Authors: Santanu Santra, Utpal Roy

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Quantum-dot Cellular Automata (QCA) is one of the most substitute emerging nanotechnologies for electronic circuits, because of lower power consumption, higher speed and smaller size in comparison with CMOS technology. The basic devices, a Quantum-dot cell can be used to implement logic gates and wires. As it is the fundamental building block on nanotechnology circuits. By applying XOR gate the hardware requirements for a QCA circuit can be decrease and circuits can be simpler in terms of level, delay and cell count. This article present a modest approach for implementing novel optimized XOR gate, which can be applied to design many variants of complex QCA circuits. Proposed XOR gate is simple in structure and powerful in terms of implementing any digital circuits. In order to verify the functionality of the proposed design some complex implementation of parity generator and parity checker circuits are proposed and simulating by QCA Designer tool and compare with some most recent design. Simulation results and physical relations confirm its usefulness in implementing every digital circuit.

Keywords: Clock, CMOS technology, Logic gates, QCA Designer, Quantum-dot Cellular Automata (QCA).

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Authors: Sinee Sankrusme

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The study was a case study analysis about Thai Asia Pacific Brewery Company. The purpose was to analyze the company’s marketing objective, marketing strategy at company level, and marketing mix before liquor liberalization in 2000. Methods used in this study were qualitative and descriptive research approach which demonstrated the following results of the study demonstrated as follows: (1) Marketing objective was to increase market share of Heineken and Amtel, (2) the company’s marketing strategies were brand building strategy and distribution strategy. Additionally, the company also conducted marketing mix strategy as follows. Product strategy: The company added more beer brands namely Amstel and Tiger to provide additional choice to consumers, product and marketing research, and product development. Price strategy: the company had taken the following into consideration: cost, competitor, market, economic situation and tax. Promotion strategy: the company conducted sales promotion and advertising. Distribution strategy: the company extended channels its channels of distribution into food shops, pubs and various entertainment places. This strategy benefited interested persons and people who were engaged in the beer business.

Keywords: Marketing Strategy, Beer, Thai Asia Pacific Brewery Company.

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Authors: Norhayati Mat Wajid, Abdul Murad Zainal Abidin, Faiz Fadzil, Mohd Yusof Aizad Mukhtar

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One of the areas that present an opportunity to reduce the national carbon emission is the energy management of public buildings. To our present knowledge, there is no easy-to-use and centralized mechanism that enables the government to monitor the overall energy performance, as well as the carbon footprint, of Malaysia’s public buildings. Therefore, the Public Works Department Malaysia, or PWD, has developed a web-based energy performance reporting tool called JENOSYS (JKR Energy Online System), which incorporates a database of utility account numbers acquired from the utility service provider for analysis and reporting. For test case purposes, 23 buildings under PWD were selected and monitored for their monthly energy performance (in kWh), carbon emission reduction (in tCO₂eq) and utility cost (in MYR), against the baseline. This paper demonstrates the simplicity with which buildings without energy metering can be monitored centrally and the benefits that can be accrued by the government in terms of building energy disclosure and concludes with the recommendation of expanding the system to all the public buildings in Malaysia.

Keywords: Energy-efficient buildings. energy management systems, government buildings, JENOSYS.

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Authors: Yun Zhang, Zhu Wang

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Renewing ancient residential areas is an integral part of the sustainable development of modern cities. Compared with a metropolis, the old areas of small and medium-sized cities is more complicated to update, as the spatial form is more fragmented. In this context, the author takes as the research object, the ancient town of Changshu City, which is a small city representative in China with a history of more than 1,200 years. Through the analysis of urban research and update projects, the spatial evolution characteristics and renewal strategies of small ancient urban settlements are studied. On this basis, it is proposed to protect the residential area from the perspective of integrity and sustainability, strengthen the core public part, control the district building, and reshape the important interface. Renewing small and medium-sized urban areas should respect the rhythm of their own urban development and gradually complete the update, not blindly copying the experience of large cities.

Keywords: Ancient residential area, Changshu, city renewal strategy, small and medium-sized cities.

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Authors: Drago Jakovcevic, Mihovil Andelinovic, Igor Husak

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The aim of this paper is to explore the economic circumstances in which the selective credit policy, the least used instrument of four types of instruments on disposal to central banks, should be used. The most significant example includes the use of selective credit policies in response to the emergence of the global financial crisis by the FED. Specifics of the potential use of selective credit policies as the instigator of economic growth in Croatia, a small open economy, are determined by high euroization of financial system, fixed exchange rate and long-term trend growth of external debt that is related to the need to maintain high levels of foreign reserves. In such conditions, the classic forms of selective credit policies are unsuitable for the introduction. Several alternative approaches to implement selective credit policies are examined in this paper. Also, thorough analysis of distribution of selective monetary policy loans among economic sectors in Croatia is conducted in order to minimize the risk of investing funds and maximize the return, in order to influence the GDP growth.

Keywords: Global crisis, Selective credit policy, Small open economy.

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Authors: Iskandar Ishak, Naomie Salim

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Unstructured peer-to-peer networks are popular due to its robustness and scalability. Query schemes that are being used in unstructured peer-to-peer such as the flooding and interest-based shortcuts suffer various problems such as using large communication overhead long delay response. The use of routing indices has been a popular approach for peer-to-peer query routing. It helps the query routing processes to learn the routing based on the feedbacks collected. In an unstructured network where there is no global information available, efficient and low cost routing approach is needed for routing efficiency. In this paper, we propose a novel mechanism for query-feedback oriented routing indices to achieve routing efficiency in unstructured network at a minimal cost. The approach also applied information retrieval technique to make sure the content of the query is understandable and will make the routing process not just based to the query hits but also related to the query content. Experiments have shown that the proposed mechanism performs more efficient than flood-based routing.

Keywords: Unstructured peer-to-peer, Searching, Retrieval, Internet.

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Authors: Wooyoung Jung, Ghang Lee

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This paper reports the worldwide status of building information modeling (BIM) adoption from the perspectives of the engagement level, the Hype Cycle model, the technology diffusion model, and BIM services. An online survey was distributed, and 156 experts from six continents responded. Overall, North America was the most advanced continent, followed by Oceania and Europe. Countries in Asia perceived their phase mainly as slope of enlightenment (mature) in the Hype Cycle model. In the technology diffusion model, the main BIM-users worldwide were “early majority” (third phase), but those in the Middle East/Africa and South America were “early adopters” (second phase). In addition, the more advanced the country, the more number of BIM services employed in general. In summary, North America, Europe, Oceania, and Asia were advancing rapidly toward the mature stage of BIM, whereas the Middle East/Africa and South America were still in the early phase. The simple indexes used in this study may be used to track the worldwide status of BIM adoption in long-term surveys.

Keywords: BIM adoption, BIM services, Hype Cycle model, Technology diffusion model.

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Authors: S. A. Mohamed, A. S. Zayed, O. A. Abolaeha

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A new Feed-Forward/Feedback Generalized Minimum Variance Pole-placement Controller to incorporate the robustness of classical pole-placement into the flexibility of generalized minimum variance self-tuning controller for Single-Input Single-Output (SISO) has been proposed in this paper. The design, which provides the user with an adaptive mechanism, which ensures that the closed loop poles are, located at their pre-specified positions. In addition, the controller design which has a feed-forward/feedback structure overcomes the certain limitations existing in similar poleplacement control designs whilst retaining the simplicity of adaptation mechanisms used in other designs. It tracks set-point changes with the desired speed of response, penalizes excessive control action, and can be applied to non-minimum phase systems. Besides, at steady state, the controller has the ability to regulate the constant load disturbance to zero. Example simulation results using both simulated and real plant models demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed controller.

Keywords: Pole-placement, Minimum variance control, self-tuning control and feedforward control.

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Authors: Ahmad Al-Omari, Osama Khreis, Ahmad M. K. Dagamseh, Abdullah Ababneh, Kevin Lear

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High-speed infrared vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser diodes (VCSELs) with Cu-plated heat sinks were fabricated and tested. VCSELs with 10 mm aperture diameter and 4 mm of electroplated copper demonstrated a -3dB modulation bandwidth (f_-3dB) of 14 GHz and a resonance frequency (f_R) of 9.5 GHz at a bias current density (J_bias) of only 4.3 kA/cm², which corresponds to an improved f_-3dB²/J_bias ratio of 44 GHz²/kA/cm². At higher and lower bias current densities, the f_-3dB²/ J_bias ratio decreased to about 30 GHz²/kA/cm² and 18 GHz²/kA/cm², respectively. Examination of the analogue modulation response demonstrated that the presented VCSELs displayed a steady f_-3dB/ f_R ratio of 1.41±10% over the whole range of the bias current (1.3I_th to 6.2I_th). The devices also demonstrated a maximum modulation bandwidth (f_{-3dB max}) of more than 16 GHz at a bias current less than the industrial bias current standard for reliability by 25%.

Keywords: Current density, High-speed VCSELs, Modulation bandwidth, Small-Signal Characteristics, Thermal impedance, Vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers.

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Authors: Yung-Ting Chang, Chung-You Tsai, Yu-Chuan Li

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Nosocomial (i.e., hospital-acquired) infections (NI) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in hospitals. NI rate is higher in intensive care units (ICU) than in the general ward due to patients with severe symptoms, poor immunity, and accepted many invasive therapies. Contact behaviors between health caregivers and patients is one of the infect factors. It is difficult to obtain complete contact records by traditional method of retrospective analysis of medical records. This paper establishes a contact history inferential model (CHIM) intended to extend the use of Proximity Sensing of rapid frequency identification (RFID) technology to transferring all proximity events between health caregivers and patients into clinical events (close-in events, contact events and invasive events).The results of the study indicated that the CHIM can infer proximity care activities into close-in events and contact events. The infection control team could redesign and build optimal workflow in the ICU according to the patient-specific contact history which provided by our automatic tracing system.

Keywords: Active Radio Frequency Identification, Intensive Care Unit, Nosocomial Infections

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Authors: Mohamed Haffar, Lombe Ngome Enongene, Mohammed Hamdan, Gbolahan Gbadamosi

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Despite the considerable body of literature investigating the influence of National Culture (NC) dimensions on consumer behaviour, there is a lack of studies comparing the influence of NC in Africa with Western European countries. This study is intended to fill the vacuum in knowledge by exploring how NC affects consumer buyer behavior in Nigeria and the United Kingdom. The primary data were collected through in depth, semi-structured interviews conducted with three groups of individuals: British students, Nigerian students in the United Kingdom, and Nigerian-based students. This approach and new frontier to analyze culture and consumer behaviour could help understand residual cultural threads of people (that are ingrained in their being) irrespective of exposure to other cultures. The findings of this study show that Nigerian and British consumers differ remarkably in cultural orientations such as symbols, values and psychological standpoints. This ultimately affects the choices made at every stage of the decision building process, and proves beneficial for international retail marketing.

Keywords: National culture, consumer behaviour, international business, Nigeria, UK.

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Authors: Ming-Lun Chiang, Hsi-Chia Chen, Chieh Wu, Yu-Ting Tseng, Ming-Ju Chen

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In this study, three strains of Vibrio parahaemolyticus (690, BCRC 13023 and BCRC 13025) were subjected to acid adaptation at pH 5.5 for 90 min. The survival of acid-adapted and non-adapted V. parahaemolyticus strains under simulated gastric condition and their protein expression profiles were investigated. Results showed that acid adaptation increased the survival of the test V. parahaemolyticus strains after exposure to simulated gastric juice (pH 3). Additionally, acid adaptation also affected the protein expression in these V. parahaemolyticus strains. Nine proteins, identified as atpA, atpB, DnaK, GroEL, OmpU, enolase, fructose-bisphosphate aldolase, phosphoglycerate kinase and triosephosphate isomerase, were induced by acid adaptation in two or three of the test strains. These acid-adaptive proteins may play important regulatory roles in the acid tolerance response (ATR) of V. parahaemolyticus.

Keywords: Acid adaptation, protein expression, simulated gastric juice, Vibrio parahaemolyticus

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Authors: Hamed Rafiei, Masoud Rabbani

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This paper deals with the project selection problem. Project selection problem is one of the problems arose firstly in the field of operations research following some production concepts from primary product mix problem. Afterward, introduction of managerial considerations into the project selection problem have emerged qualitative factors and criteria to be regarded as well as quantitative ones. To overcome both kinds of criteria, an analytic network process is developed in this paper enhanced with fuzzy sets theory to tackle the vagueness of experts- comments to evaluate the alternatives. Additionally, a modified version of Least-Square method through a non-linear programming model is augmented to the developed group decision making structure in order to elicit the final weights from comparison matrices. Finally, a case study is considered by which developed structure in this paper is validated. Moreover, a sensitivity analysis is performed to validate the response of the model with respect to the condition alteration.

Keywords: Analytic network process, Fuzzy sets theory, Nonlinear programming, Project selection.

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Authors: Nael Y. Zabel, Maged E. Georgy, Moheeb E. Ibrahim

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A knowledge-based expert system with the acronym RASPE is developed as an application tool to help decision makers in construction companies make informed decisions about managing risks in pipeline construction projects. Choosing to use expert systems from all available artificial intelligence techniques is due to the fact that an expert system is more suited to representing a domain’s knowledge and the reasoning behind domain-specific decisions. The knowledge-based expert system can capture the knowledge in the form of conditional rules which represent various project scenarios and potential risk mitigation/response actions. The built knowledge in RASPE is utilized through the underlying inference engine that allows the firing of rules relevant to a project scenario into consideration. Paper provides an overview of the knowledge acquisition process and goes about describing the knowledge structure which is divided up into four major modules. The paper shows one module in full detail for illustration purposes and concludes with insightful remarks.

Keywords: Expert System, Knowledge Management, Pipeline Projects, Risk Mismanagement.

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Authors: N. Tuaycharoen, W. Konisranukul

Abstract:

The main aim of this research was to investigate a prototype bamboo shading device. There were two objectives to this study: first, to investigate the effects of non-chemical treatments on bamboo shading devices damaged by powder-post beetles and fungi, and second to develop a prototype bamboo shading device. This study of the effects of non-chemical treatments on bamboo shading devices damage by powder-post beetles in the laboratory showed that, among seven treatments tested, wood vinegar treatment can protect powder-post beetles better than the original method by up to 92.91%. It was also found that wood vinegar treatment shows the best performance in fungi protection and works better than the original method by up to 40%. A second experiment was carried out by constructing four bamboo shading devices and installing them on a building for 28 days. All aspects of shading device were investigated in terms of their beauty, durability, and ease of construction and assembly. The final prototype was developed from the lessons learned from the test results. In conclusion, this study showed the effectiveness of some natural preservatives against insect and fungi damage, and it also illustrated the characteristics of a prototype bamboo shading device that can be constructed by rural workers within one week.

Keywords: Bamboo, shading device, energy conservation, alternative materials.

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Authors: Jatindra N. Bhakta, Yukihiro Munekage

Abstract:

The present study attempted to improve the Mercury (Hg) sorption capacity of kanuma volcanic ash soil (KVAS) by impregnating the cupper (Cu). Impregnation was executed by 1 and 5% Cu powder and sorption characterization of optimum Hg removing Cu impregnated KVAS was performed under different operational conditions, contact time, solution pH, sorbent dosage and Hg concentration using the batch operation studies. The 1% Cu impregnated KVAS pronounced optimum improvement (79%) in removing Hg from water compare to control. The present investigation determined the equilibrium state of maximum Hg adsorption at 6 h contact period. The adsorption revealed a pH dependent response and pH 3.5 showed maximum sorption capacity of Hg. Freundlich isotherm model is well fitted with the experimental data than that of Langmuir isotherm. It can be concluded that the Cu impregnation improves the Hg sorption capacity of KVAS and 1% Cu impregnated KVAS could be employed as cost-effective adsorbent media for treating Hg contaminated water.

Keywords: Cupper, impregnation, isotherm, kanuma volcanic ash soil, mercury, sorption

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Authors: Y. T. Tsai, Jin H. Huang

Abstract:

The sound pressure level (SPL) of the moving-coil loudspeaker (MCL) is often simulated and analyzed using the lumped parameter model. However, the SPL of a MCL cannot be simulated precisely in the high frequency region, because the value of cone effective area is changed due to the geometry variation in different mode shapes, it is also related to affect the acoustic radiation mass and resistance. Herein, the paper presents the inverse method which has a high ability to measure the value of cone effective area in various frequency points, also can estimate the MCL electroacoustic parameters simultaneously. The proposed inverse method comprises the direct problem, adjoint problem, and sensitivity problem in collaboration with nonlinear conjugate gradient method. Estimated values from the inverse method are validated experimentally which compared with the measured SPL curve result. Results presented in this paper not only improve the accuracy of lumped parameter model but also provide the valuable information on loudspeaker cone design.

Keywords: Inverse problem, cone effective area, loudspeaker, nonlinear conjugate gradient method.

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Authors: L. Nevrivova, K. Lang, M. Kotoucek, D. Vsiansky

Abstract:

This entry concerned with dense silica bricks microstructure was produced as a part of a project within the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic which is being implemented in cooperation of the biggest producer of refractories the P-D Refractories CZ company with the research organisation Brno University of Technology. The paper is focused on the influence of mixture homogenisation and the influence of grain size of the mineraliser on the resulting utility properties of the material as well as its microstructure. It has a decisive influence on the durability of the material in a building structure. This paper is a continuation of a previously published study dealing with the suitability of various types of mineralising agents in terms of density, strength and mineral composition of silica brick. The entry describes the influence of the method of mixture homogenisation and the influence of granulometry of the applied Femineralising agent on the resulting silica microstructure. Porosity, density, phase composition and microstructure of the experimentally prepared silica bricks samples were examined and the results were discussed in context with the technology of homogenisation and firing temperature used. The properties of silica bricks samples were compared to the sample without any Fe-mineraliser.

Keywords: Silica bricks, Fe-mineraliser, mineralogical composition, new developed silica bricks.

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