Search results for: Construction supply chain management

Authors: Azita Behbahaninia, Seid Ahmad Mirbagheri

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The use of sewage sludge and effluents from wastewater treatment plants for irrigation of agricultural lands is on the rise particularly in peri-urban areas of developing countries. The reuse of nutrients and organic matter in treated wastewater and sewage sludge via land application is a desirable goal. However, trace or heavy metals present in sludge pose the risk of human or phytotoxicity from land application. Long-term use of sewage sludge, heavy metals can accumulate to phytotoxic levels and results in reduced plants growth and/or enhanced metal concentrations in plants, which consumed by animals then enter the food chain. In this research, the amount of heavy metals was measured in plants irrigated with wastewater and sludge application. For this purpose, three pilots were made in a Shush treatment plant in south of Tehran. Three plants species, spinach, lettuce and radish were selected and planted in the pilots.First pilot was irrigated just with wastewater of treatment plant and second pilot was irrigated with wastewater and sludge application .Third pilot was irrigated with simulated heavy metals solution equal 50 years of irrigation. The results indicate that the average of amount of heavy metals Pb, Cd in three plant species in first pilot were lower than permissible limits .In second pilot, Cadmium accumulations are high in three species plants and more than the standard limits. Concentration of Cd , Pb have exceed their permitted limits in plants in third pilot . It was concluded that the use of wastewater and sludge application in agricultural lands enriched soils with heavy metals to concentrations that may pose potential environmental and health risks in the long-term.

Keywords: Soil, contaminate, heavy metals, wastewater, sludge, plants.

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Authors: Jamila Bhar, Ridha Ouni, Kholdoun Torki, Salem Nasri

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To support user mobility for a wireless network new mechanisms are needed and are fundamental, such as paging, location updating, routing, and handover. Also an important key feature is mobile QoS offered by the WATM. Several ATM network protocols should be updated to implement mobility management and to maintain the already ATM QoS over wireless ATM networks. A survey of the various schemes and types of handover is provided. Handover procedure allows guarantee the terminal connection reestablishment when it moves between areas covered by different base stations. It is useful to satisfy user radio link transfer without interrupting a connection. However, failure to offer efficient solutions will result in handover important packet loss, severe delays and degradation of QoS offered to the applications. This paper reviews the requirements, characteristics and open issues of wireless ATM, particularly with regard to handover. It introduces key aspects of WATM and mobility extensions, which are added in the fixed ATM network. We propose a flexible approach for handover management that will minimize the QoS deterioration. Functional entities of this flexible approach are discussed in order to achieve minimum impact on the connection quality when a MT crosses the BS.

Keywords: Handover, HDL synthesis, QoS, Wireless ATM.

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Authors: E. Dado, R. Beheshti

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Recent developments in information and communication technologies (ICT) have created excellent conditions for profoundly enhancing the traditional learning and teaching practices. New modes of teaching in higher education subjects can profoundly enhance ones ability to proactively constructing his or her personal learning universe. These developments have contributed to digital learning environments becoming widely available and accessible. In addition, there is a trend towards enlargement and specialization in higher education in Europe. With as a result that existing Master of Science (MSc) programmes are merged or new programmes have been established that are offered as joint MSc programmes to students. In these joint MSc programmes, the need for (common) digital learning environments capable of surmounting the barriers of time and location has become evident. This paper discusses the past and ongoing efforts to establish such common digital learning environments in two joint MSc programmes in Europe and discusses the way technology-based learning environments affect the traditional way of learning.

Keywords: education, engineering, learning environments, ICT.

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Authors: P. F. Wong, H. Salleh, F. A. Rahim

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The adoption of building information modeling (BIM) is increasing in the construction industry. However, quantity surveyors are slow in adoption compared to other professions due to lack of awareness of the BIM’s potential in their profession. It is still unclear on how BIM application can enhance quantity surveyors’ work performance and project performance. The aim of this research is to identify the capabilities of BIM in quantity surveying practices and examine the relationship between BIM capabilities and project performance. Questionnaire survey and interviews were adopted for data collection. Literature reviews identified there are eleven BIM capabilities in quantity surveying practice. Questionnaire results showed that there are several BIM capabilities significantly correlated with project performance in time, cost and quality aspects and the results were validated through interviews. These findings show that BIM has the capabilities to enhance quantity surveyors’ performances and subsequently improved project performance.

Keywords: Building information modeling (BIM), quantity surveyors, capability, project performance.

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Authors: Veli Hakkoymaz, Alpaslan Altunköprü

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A multimedia presentation system refers to the integration of a multimedia database with a presentation manager which has the functionality of content selection, organization and playout of multimedia presentations. It requires high performance of involved system components. Starting from multimedia information capture until the presentation delivery, high performance tools are required for accessing, manipulating, storing and retrieving these segments, for transferring and delivering them in a presentation terminal according to a playout order. The organization of presentations is a complex task in that the display order of presentation contents (in time and space) must be specified. A multimedia presentation contains audio, video, images and text media types. The critical decisions for presentation construction include what the contents are, how the contents are organized, and once the decision is made on the organization of the contents of the presentation, it must be conveyed to the end user in the correct organizational order and in a timely fashion. This paper introduces a framework for specification of multimedia presentations and describes the design of sample presentations using this framework from a multimedia database.

Keywords: Multimedia presentation, temporal specification, SMIL, spatial specification.

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Authors: Fateh Adhnouss, Husam El-Asfour, Kenneth McIsaac, Abdul Mutalib Wahaishi, Idris El-Feghia

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Conceptualization is an essential component of semantic ontology-based approaches. There have been several approaches that rely on extensional structure and extensional reduction structure in order to construct conceptualization. In this paper, several limitations are highlighted relating to their applicability to the construction of conceptualizations in dynamic and open environments. These limitations arise from a number of strong assumptions that do not apply to such environments. An intensional structure is strongly argued to be a natural and adequate modeling approach. This paper presents a conceptualization structure based on property, relations, and propositions theory (PRP) to the model ontology that is suitable for open environments. The model extends the First-Order Logic (FOL) notation and defines the formal representation that enables interoperability between software systems and supports semantic integration for software systems in open, dynamic environments.

Keywords: Conceptualization, ontology, extensional structure, intensional structure.

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Authors: Raninder Kaur Dhillon, Mayur Jethwa, Hardeep Singh Rai

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Information technology has made a pivotal progress across disparate disciplines, one of which is AEC (Architecture, Engineering and Construction) industry. CAD is a form of computer-aided building modulation that architects, engineers and contractors use to create and view two- and three-dimensional models. The AEC industry also uses building information modeling (BIM), a newer computerized modeling system that can create four-dimensional models; this software can greatly increase productivity in the AEC industry. BIM models generate open source IFC (Industry Foundation Classes) files which aim for interoperability for exchanging information throughout the project lifecycle among various disciplines. The methods developed in previous studies require either an IFC schema or MVD and software applications, such as an IFC model server or a Building Information Modeling (BIM) authoring tool, to extract a partial or complete IFC instance model. This paper proposes an efficient algorithm for extracting a partial and total model from an Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) instance model without an IFC schema or a complete IFC model view definition (MVD).

Keywords: BIM, CAD, IFC, MVD.

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Authors: Z. Khan, O. Moselhi, T. Zayed

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Development of levels of service in municipal context is a flexible vehicle to assist in performing quality-cost trade-off analysis for municipal services. This trade-off depends on the willingness of a community to pay as well as on the condition of the assets. Community perspective of the performance of an asset from service point of view may be quite different from the municipality perspective of the performance of the same asset from condition point of view. This paper presents a three phased level of service based methodology for water mains that consists of :1)development of an Analytical Hierarchy model of level of service 2) development of Fuzzy Weighted Sum model of water main condition index and 3) deriving a Fuzzy logic based function that maps level of service to asset condition index. This mapping will assist asset managers in quantifying condition improvement requirement to meet service goals and to make more informed decisions on interventions and relayed priorities.

Keywords: Asset Management, Level of Service, Condition Index, Analytical Hierarchy, Fuzzy Logic.

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Authors: Ju-Chun Chien

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The main purpose of this study was to figure out employees’ attitudes toward the new performance appraisal program and to examine whether three different types of appraisal processes differentially affected job satisfaction and employee engagement. The second purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between performance appraisal reform, job satisfaction, and employee engagement. A large polyester and textile corporation had 2046 non-operational employees in February 2014. The valid participants were 1474 (72.04%) in this study. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA, one-way MANOVA, Pearson correlation, Content Validity Index, the exploratory factor analysis, and reliability analysis. The general results showed that employees who received the new performance appraisal program evaluated the program more positively and showed more job satisfaction than those who did not. In particular, the implementation effects of this new performance appraisal program were most highly rated by employees who used the KPI to rate their job performance. Moreover, employees’ attitudes toward the new performance appraisal program were positively related to their job satisfaction and employee engagement. Lastly, most employees regarded themselves as engaged workers. To sum up, the HR department of this company has made an effective contribution to performance appraisal reforms.

Keywords: Change management, Employee engagement, Job satisfaction, Performance appraisal reform.

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Authors: Yannick Verbelen, Sam De Winne, Niek Blondeel, Ann Peeters, An Braeken, Abdellah Touhafi

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The growing popularity of solid state thermoelectric devices in cooling applications has sparked an increasing diversity of thermoelectric coolers (TECs) on the market, commonly known as “Peltier modules”. They can also be used as generators, converting a temperature difference into electric power, and opportunities are plentiful to make use of these devices as thermoelectric generators (TEGs) to supply energy to low power, autonomous embedded electronic applications. Their adoption as energy harvesters in this new domain of usage is obstructed by the complex thermoelectric models commonly associated with TEGs. Low cost TECs for the consumer market lack the required parameters to use the models because they are not intended for this mode of operation, thereby urging an alternative method to obtain electric power estimations in specific operating conditions. The design of the test setup implemented in this paper is specifically targeted at benchmarking commercial, off-the-shelf TECs for use as energy harvesters in domestic environments: applications with limited temperature differences and space available. The usefulness is demonstrated by testing and comparing single and multi stage TECs with different sizes. The effect of a boost converter stage on the thermoelectric end-to-end efficiency is also discussed.

Keywords: Thermoelectric cooler, TEC, complementary balanced energy harvesting, step-up converter, DC/DC converter, embedded systems, energy harvesting, thermal harvesting.

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Authors: U. Schmidt, D. Dannehl, I. Schuch, J. Suhl, T. Rocksch, R. Salazar-Moreno, E. Fitz-Rodrigues, A. Rojano Aquilar, I. Lopez Cruz, G. Navas Gomez, R. A. Abraham, L. C. Irineo, N. G. Gilberto

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The integration of agricultural production systems into urban areas is a challenge for the coming decades. Because of increasing greenhouse gas emission and rising resource consumption as well as costs in animal husbandry, the dietary habits of people in the 21st century have to focus on herbal foods. Intensive plant cultivation systems in large cities and megacities require a smart coupling of information, material and energy flow with the urban infrastructure in terms of Horticulture 4.0. In recent years, many puzzle pieces have been developed for these closed processes at the Humboldt University. To compile these for an urban plant production, it has to be optimized and networked with urban infrastructure systems. In the field of heat energy production, it was shown that with closed greenhouse technology and patented heat exchange and storage technology energy can be provided for heating and domestic hot water supply in the city. Closed water circuits can be drastically reducing the water requirements of plant production in urban areas. Ion sensitive sensors and new disinfection methods can help keep circulating nutrient solutions in the system for a longer time in urban plant production greenhouses.

Keywords: Semi closed, greenhouses, urban farming, solar heat collector, closed water cycles, aquaponics.

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Authors: I. Algul, G. Akgun, H. Kurtaran

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Dynamic analysis of composite doubly curved panels with variable thickness subjected to different pulse types using Generalized Differential Quadrature method (GDQ) is presented in this study. Panels with variable thickness are used in the construction of aerospace and marine industry. Giving variable thickness to panels can allow the designer to get optimum structural efficiency. For this reason, estimating the response of variable thickness panels is very important to design more reliable structures under dynamic loads. Dynamic equations for composite panels with variable thickness are obtained using virtual work principle. Partial derivatives in the equation of motion are expressed with GDQ and Newmark average acceleration scheme is used for temporal discretization. Several examples are used to highlight the effectiveness of the proposed method. Results are compared with finite element method. Effects of taper ratios, boundary conditions and loading type on the response of composite panel are investigated.

Keywords: Generalized differential quadrature method, doubly curved panels, laminated composite materials, small displacement.

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Authors: Aïssa Rezzoug

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This paper is aimed to bring new elements that demonstrate the tide caused the groundwater to rise in the shoreline band, on which the urban areas occurs, especially in the western coastal cities of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia like Jeddah. The reason for the last events of Jeddah inundation was the groundwater rise in the city coupled at the same time to a strong precipitation event. This paper will illustrate the tide participation in increasing the groundwater level significantly. It shows that the reason for internal groundwater recharge within the urban area is not only the excess of the water supply coming from surrounding areas, due to the human activity, with lack of sufficient and efficient sewage system, but also due to tide effect. The research study follows a quantitative method to assess groundwater level rise risks through many in-situ measurements and mathematical modelling. The proposed approach highlights groundwater level, in the urban areas of the city on the shoreline band, reaching the high tide level without considering any input from precipitation. Despite the small tide in the Red Sea compared to other oceanic coasts, the groundwater level is considerably enhanced by the tide from the seaside and by the freshwater table from the landside of the city. In these conditions, the groundwater level becomes high in the city and prevents the soil to evacuate quickly enough the surface flow caused by the storm event, as it was observed in the last historical flood catastrophe of Jeddah in 2009.

Keywords: Flood, groundwater rise, Jeddah, tide.

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Authors: Perminder JitKaur, Santosh Satya, K. K. Pant, S. N. Naik

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Bamboo is extensively used in construction industry. Low durability of bamboo due to fungus infestation and termites attack under storage puts certain constrains for it usage as modern structural material. Looking at many chemical formulations for bamboo treatment leading to severe harmful environment effects, research on eco-friendly preservatives for bamboo treatment has been initiated world-over. In the present studies, eco-friendly preservative for bamboo treatment has been developed. To validate its application for structural purposes, investigation of effect of treatment on compressive strength has been investigated. Neemoil (25%) integrated with copper naphthenate (0.3%) on dilution with kerosene oil impregnated into bamboo culm at 2 bar pressure, has shown weight loss of only 3.15% in soil block analysis method. The results from compressive strength analysis using HEICO Automatic Compression Testing Machine reveal that preservative treatment has not altered the structural properties of bamboo culms. Compressive strength of control (11.72 N/mm2) and above treated samples (11.71 N/mm2) was found to be comparable.

Keywords: Compressive strength, D. strictus bamboo, Ecofriendly treatment, neem oil.

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Authors: Manirath Wongsim, Pawornprat Hongsakon

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Information Quality (IQ) has become a critical, strategic issue in Accounting Information Systems (AIS) adoption. In order to implement AIS adoption successfully, it is important to consider the quality of information use throughout the adoption process, which seriously impacts the effectiveness of AIS adoption practice and the optimisation of AIS adoption decisions. There is a growing need for research to provide insights into issues and solutions related to IQ in AIS adoption. The need for an integrated approach to improve IQ in AIS adoption, as well as the unique characteristics of accounting data, demands an AIS adoption specific IQ framework. This research aims to explore ways of managing information quality and AIS adoption to investigate the relationship between the IQ issues and AIS adoption process. This study has led to the development of a framework for understanding IQ management in AIS adoption. This research was done on 44 respondents as ten organisations from manufacturing firms in Thailand. The findings of the research’s empirical evidence suggest that IQ dimensions in AIS adoption to provide assistance in all process of decision making. This research provides empirical evidence that information quality of AIS adoption affect decision making and suggests that these variables should be considered in adopting AIS in order to improve the effectiveness of AIS.

Keywords: Information quality, information quality dimensions, accounting information systems, accounting Information system adoption.

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Authors: S. Cobos-Guzman

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This paper presents the results of a mechatronic design based on a 4-wheel omnidirectional mobile robot that can be used in indoor logistic applications. The low-level control has been selected using two open-source hardware (Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ and Arduino Mega 2560) that control four industrial motors, four ultrasound sensors, four optical encoders, a vision system of two cameras, and a Hokuyo URG-04LX-UG01 laser scanner. Moreover, the system is powered with a lithium battery that can supply 24 V DC and a maximum current-hour of 20Ah.The Robot Operating System (ROS) has been implemented in the Raspberry Pi and the performance is evaluated with the selection of the sensors and hardware selected. The mechatronic system is evaluated and proposed safe modes of power distribution for controlling all the electronic devices based on different tests. Therefore, based on different performance results, some recommendations are indicated for using the Raspberry Pi and Arduino in terms of power, communication, and distribution of control for different devices. According to these recommendations, the selection of sensors is distributed in both real-time controllers (Arduino and Raspberry Pi). On the other hand, the drivers of the cameras have been implemented in Linux and a python program has been implemented to access the cameras. These cameras will be used for implementing a deep learning algorithm to recognize people and objects. In this way, the level of intelligence can be increased in combination with the maps that can be obtained from the laser scanner.

Keywords: Autonomous, indoor robot, mechatronic, omnidirectional robot.

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Authors: Kevin Fong-Rey Liu, Ken Yeh, Cheng-Wu Chen, Han-Hsi Liang

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Environmental aspects plays a central role in environmental management system (EMS) because it is the basis for the identification of an organization-s environmental targets. The existing methods for the assessment of environmental aspects are grouped into three categories: risk assessment-based (RA-based), LCA-based and criterion-based methods. To combine the benefits of these three categories of research, this study proposes an integrated framework, combining RA-, LCA- and criterion-based methods. The integrated framework incorporates LCA techniques for the identification of the causal linkage for aspect, pathway, receptor and impact, uses fuzzy logic to assess aspects, considers fuzzy conditions, in likelihood assessment, and employs a new multi-criteria decision analysis method - multi-criteria and multi-connection comprehensive assessment (MMCA) - to estimate significant aspects in EMS. The proposed model is verified, using a real case study and the results show that this method successfully prioritizes the environmental aspects.

Keywords: Environmental management system, environmental aspect, risk assessment, life cycle assessment.

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Authors: Azza A. Al-Ghamdi, Abir S. Abdel-Naby

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Cellulose acetate (CA) is a natural biodegradable polymer. It forms transparent films by the casting technique. CA suffers from high degree of water permeability as well as the low thermal stability at high temperatures. To adjust the CA polymeric films to the manufacture of food packaging, its thermal and mechanical properties should be improved. The modification of CA by grafting it with N-Amino phenyl maleimide (N-APhM) led to the construction of hydrophobic branches throughout the polymeric matrix which reduced its wettability as compared to the parent CA. The branches built onto the polymeric chains had been characterized by UV/Vis, ¹³C-NMR and ESEM. The improvement of the thermal properties was investigated and compared to the parent CA using thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), differential thermal analysis (DTA), contact angle and mechanical testing measurements. The results revealed that the water-uptake was reduced by increasing the graft percentage. The thermal and mechanical properties were also improved.

Keywords: Cellulose acetate, food packaging, graft copolymerization.

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Authors: Jefferson Camacho Mejía, Jenny Paola Forero Pachón, Luis Carlos Gómez Flórez

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Action research is a qualitative research methodology, which leads the researcher to delve into the problems of a community in order to understand its needs in depth and finally, to propose actions that lead to a change of social paradigm. Although this methodology had its beginnings in the human sciences, it has attracted increasing interest and acceptance in the field of information systems research since the 1990s. The countless possibilities offered nowadays by the use of Information Technologies (IT) in the development of different socio-economic activities have meant a change of social paradigm and the emergence of the so-called information and knowledge society. According to this, governments, large corporations, small entrepreneurs and in general, organizations of all kinds are using IT to virtualize their processes, taking them from the physical environment to the digital environment. However, there is a potential risk for organizations related with exposing valuable information without an appropriate framework for protecting it. This paper shows progress in the development of a methodological design to manage the information security risks associated with the IT-based processes virtualization, by applying the principles of the action research methodology and it is the result of a systematic review of the scientific literature. This design consists of seven fundamental stages. These are distributed in the three stages described in the action research methodology: 1) Observe, 2) Analyze and 3) Take actions. Finally, this paper aims to offer an alternative tool to traditional information security management methodologies with a view to being applied specifically in the planning stage of IT-based process virtualization in order to foresee risks and to establish security controls before formulating IT solutions in any type of organization.

Keywords: Action research, information security, information technology, methodological design, process virtualization, risk management.

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Authors: Ľudmila Ballová, Slavomír Kurhajec, Eva Petrovová, Jarmila Eftimová

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Angiogenesis, a formation of new blood vessels from a pre-existing vasculature, plays an important role in pathologic processes such as the growth and metastasis of tumours. Tumours cannot grow beyond a few millimetres without blood supply from the newly formed blood vessels from the host tissue, a process called tumour-induced angiogenesis. The successful research of antiangiogenic treatment of cancer has focused on nutraceuticals with angiogenesis-modulating properties. Berberine, as a major active component of the bark of Phellodendron amurense Rupr., has shown antitumour activity by intervening into different steps of carcinogenesis. The influence of ethanolic extract of Phellodendron amurese bark on the angiogenesis was tested in vivo on chick chorioallantoic membrane (CAM). The irritancy of the CAM after the application of the crude bark extract dissolved in normal saline (10 mg/mL) was investigated on embryonic day 7. No significant signs of the irritancy, such as vasoconstriction, hyperaemia, haemorrhage or coagulation were observed which indicates the harmless character of the extract. A significant reduction in vessel sprouting and higher percentage of avascular zone was observed in the case of CAM treated with the extract in comparison with non-treated CAM (control), which is a proof of the antiangiogenic potential of the extract. These results could contribute to the development of novel drugs for the treatment of cancer or other diseases, in which angiogenesis plays a significant role.

Keywords: Angiogenesis, berberine, chorioallantoic membrane, Phellodendron amurense.

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Authors: Bolanle F. Oladejo, Victor T. Odumuyiwa, Amos A. David

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Knowledge is attributed to human whose problemsolving behavior is subjective and complex. In today-s knowledge economy, the need to manage knowledge produced by a community of actors cannot be overemphasized. This is due to the fact that actors possess some level of tacit knowledge which is generally difficult to articulate. Problem-solving requires searching and sharing of knowledge among a group of actors in a particular context. Knowledge expressed within the context of a problem resolution must be capitalized for future reuse. In this paper, an approach that permits dynamic capitalization of relevant and reliable actors- knowledge in solving decision problem following Economic Intelligence process is proposed. Knowledge annotation method and temporal attributes are used for handling the complexity in the communication among actors and in contextualizing expressed knowledge. A prototype is built to demonstrate the functionalities of a collaborative Knowledge Management system based on this approach. It is tested with sample cases and the result showed that dynamic capitalization leads to knowledge validation hence increasing reliability of captured knowledge for reuse. The system can be adapted to various domains.

Keywords: Actors' communication, knowledge annotation, recursive knowledge capitalization, visualization.

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Authors: J. Gazzola, I. M. Dal Fabbro, J. Soriano, M. V. G. Silva, S. Rodrigues

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Application of wood in rural construction is diffused all around the world since remote times. However, its inclusion in structural design deserves strong support from broad knowledge of material properties. The pertinent literature reveals the application of optical methods in determining the complete field displacement on bodies exhibiting regular as well as irregular surfaces. The use of moiré techniques in experimental mechanics consists in analyzing the patterns generated on the body surface before and after deformation. The objective of this research work is to study the qualitative deformation behavior of wooden testing specimens under specific loading situations. The experiment setup follows the literature description of shadow moiré methods. Results indicate strong anisotropy influence of the generated displacement field. Important qualitative as well as quantitative stress and strain distribution were obtained wooden members which are applicable to rural constructions.

Keywords: Moiré methods, wooden structural material, rural constructions.

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Authors: Mohamed T. Sorour, Mohamed A. Abdellatif, Ahmed A. Ramadan, Ahmed A. Abo-Ismail

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This paper describes the development of an autonomous robot for painting the interior walls of buildings. The robot consists of a painting arm with an end effector roller that scans the walls vertically and a mobile platform to give horizontal feed to paint the whole area of the wall. The painting arm has a planar twolink mechanism with two joints. Joints are driven from a stepping motor through a ball screw-nut mechanism. Four ultrasonic sensors are attached to the mobile platform and used to maintain a certain distance from the facing wall and to avoid collision with side walls. When settled on adjusted distance from the wall, the controller starts the painting process autonomously. Simplicity, relatively low weight and short painting time were considered in our design. Different modules constituting the robot have been separately tested then integrated. Experiments have shown successfulness of the robot in its intended tasks.

Keywords: Automated roller painting, Construction robots, Mobile robots, service robots, two link planar manipulator

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Authors: C. Chhorn, S. H. Han, S. W. Lee

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Roller-compacted concrete (RCC) has been used for decades in many pavement applications due to its economic cost and high construction speed. However, due to the lack of deep researches and experiences, this material has not been widely employed. An RCC mixture with appropriate consistency can induce high compacted density, while high density can induce good aggregate interlock and high strength. Consistency of RCC is mainly known to define its constructability. However, it was not well specified how this property may affect other properties of a constructed RCC pavement (RCCP). This study suggested the possibility of an ideal range of consistency that may provide adequate quality of RCCP. In this research, five sections of RCCP consisted of both 13 mm and 19 mm aggregate sections were investigated. The effects of consistency on compacted depth, strength, international roughness index (IRI), skid resistance are examined. From this study, a new range of consistency is suggested for RCCP application.

Keywords: Compacted depth, consistency, international roughness index, pavement, roller-compacted concrete, skid resistance, strength.

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Authors: A. P. Crowle

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Floating offshore wind farms may provide in the future large quantities of renewable energy. One of the challenges to their future development is the provision of installation vessels for the offshore installation of floating wind turbines. This paper examines the current fleet of vessels that can be used for inshore construction. Separate vessels are required for the ocean tow out and the offshore installation. Information will be provided on what new vessels might be required to improve the efficiency and reduce costs of installing floating wind turbines. Specialized cargo vessels are required for this initial mobilization. Anchor handling vessels are required to tow the floating wind turbine offshore and to install and connect the moorings. Subsea work vessels are required to install the dynamic cables whilst cable lay vessels are required for the export power cable. This paper reviews the existing and future installation vessel requirement for floating wind. Dedicated ports are required for vertical integration of the substructure and the tower, nacelle and blades.

Keywords: Floating wind, naval architecture, offshore installation vessels, ports for renewable energy.

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Authors: Ahmed F. Azmy , Amal E. Saafan, Tamer M. Essam, Magdy A. Amin, Shaban H. Ahmed

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Bacterial strains capable of degradation of malathion from the domestic sewage were isolated by an enrichment culture technique. Three bacterial strains were screened and identified as Acinetobacter baumannii (AFA), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PS1), and Pseudomonas mendocina (PS2) based on morphological, biochemical identification and 16S rRNA sequence analysis. Acinetobacter baumannii AFA was the most efficient malathion degrading bacterium, so used for further biodegradation study. AFA was able to grow in mineral salt medium (MSM) supplemented with malathion (100 mg/l) as a sole carbon source, and within 14 days, 84% of the initial dose was degraded by the isolate measured by high performance liquid chromatography. Strain AFA could also degrade other organophosphorus compounds including diazinon, chlorpyrifos and fenitrothion. The effect of different culture conditions on the degradation of malathion like inoculum density, other carbon or nitrogen sources, temperature and shaking were examined. Degradation of malathion and bacterial cell growth were accelerated when culture media were supplemented with yeast extract, glucose and citrate. The optimum conditions for malathion degradation by strain AFA were; an inoculum density of 1.5x 10^12CFU/ml at 30°C with shaking. A specific polymerase chain reaction primers were designed manually using multiple sequence alignment of the corresponding carboxylesterase enzymes of Acinetobacter species. Sequencing result of amplified PCR product and phylogenetic analysis showed low degree of homology with the other carboxylesterase enzymes of Acinetobacter strains, so we suggested that this enzyme is a novel esterase enzyme. Isolated bacterial strains may have potential role for use in bioremediation of malathion contaminated.

Keywords: Acinetobacter baumannii, biodegradation, Malathion, organophosphate pesticides.

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Authors: Hanaa T. El-Madany, Faten H. Fahmy, Ninet M. A. El-Rahman, Hassen T. Dorrah

Abstract:

Renewable energy resources are inexhaustible, clean as compared with conventional resources. Also, it is used to supply regions with no grid, no telephone lines, and often with difficult accessibility by common transport. Satellite earth stations which located in remote areas are the most important application of renewable energy. Neural control is a branch of the general field of intelligent control, which is based on the concept of artificial intelligence. This paper presents the mathematical modeling of satellite earth station power system which is required for simulating the system.Aswan is selected to be the site under consideration because it is a rich region with solar energy. The complete power system is simulated using MATLAB–SIMULINK.An artificial neural network (ANN) based model has been developed for the optimum operation of earth station power system. An ANN is trained using a back propagation with Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm. The best validation performance is obtained for minimum mean square error. The regression between the network output and the corresponding target is equal to 96% which means a high accuracy. Neural network controller architecture gives satisfactory results with small number of neurons, hence better in terms of memory and time are required for NNC implementation. The results indicate that the proposed control unit using ANN can be successfully used for controlling the satellite earth station power system.

Keywords: Satellite, neural network, MATLAB, power system.

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Authors: He YuanYan

Abstract:

In recent years, China has implemented the reform of land and space planning. As an important public policy, land and space planning plays a vital role in the construction and development of cities. Land and space planning throughout the country is in full swing, but there are still many disputes from all walks of life. The content, scope, and specific implementation process of land and space planning are also ambiguous, leading to the integration of multiple regulation problems such as unclear authority, unclear responsibilities, and poor planning results during the implementation of land and space planning. Therefore, it is necessary to sort out the development and evolution of domestic and foreign land space planning, clarify the problems and cruxes from the current situation of China's land space planning, and sort out the obstacles and countermeasures to the implementation of this policy, so as to deepen the understanding of the connotation of land space planning. It is of great practical significance for all planners to correctly understand and clarify the specific contents and methods of land space planning and to smoothly promote the implementation of land space planning at all levels.

Keywords: Territorial spatial planning, public policy, land space, overall planning.

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Authors: Peyman Amini Motlagh, Ali Pak

Abstract:

Seismic retrofitting of important structures is essential in seismological active zones. The importance is doubled when it comes to some buildings like schools, hospitals, bridges etc. because they are required to continue their serviceability even after a major earthquake. Generally, seismic retrofitting codes have paid little attention to retrofitting of foundations due to its construction complexity. In this paper different methods for seismic retrofitting of tall buildings’ foundations will be discussed and evaluated. Foundations are considered in three different categories. First, foundations those are in danger of liquefaction of their underlying soil. Second, foundations located on slopes in seismological active regions. Third, foundations designed according to former design codes and may show structural defects under earthquake loads. After describing different methods used in different countries for retrofitting of the existing foundations in seismological active regions, comprehensive comparison between these methods with regard to the above mentioned categories is carried out. This paper gives some guidelines to choose the best method for seismic retrofitting of tall buildings’ foundations in retrofitting projects.

Keywords: Existing foundation, landslide, liquefaction, seismic retrofitting.

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Authors: Idil Kanter Otcu

Abstract:

Nowadays, due to the growing problems of energy supply and the drastic reduction of natural non-renewable resources, the development of new applications in the energy sector and steps towards greater efficiency in energy consumption are required. Since buildings account for a large share of energy consumption, increasing the structural density of buildings causes an increase in energy consumption. This increase in energy consumption means that energy efficiency approaches to building design and the integration of new systems using emerging technologies become necessary in order to curb this consumption. As new systems for productive usage of generated energy are developed, buildings that require less energy to operate, with rational use of resources, need to be developed. One solution for reducing the energy requirements of buildings is through landscape planning, design and application. Requirements such as heating, cooling and lighting can be met with lower energy consumption through planting design, which can help to achieve more efficient and rational use of resources. Within this context, rather than a planting design which considers only the ecological and aesthetic features of plants, these considerations should also extend to spatial organization whereby the relationship between the site and open spaces in the context of climatic elements and planting designs are taken into account. In this way, the planting design can serve an additional purpose. In this study, a landscape design which takes into consideration location, local climate morphology and solar angle will be illustrated on a sample building project.

Keywords: Energy efficiency, landscape design, plant design, xeriscape landscape.

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