Abstract: Currently, green rating systems are mainly utilized for
correctly sizing mechanical and electrical systems, which have short
lifetime expectancies. In these systems, passive solar and bio-climatic
architecture, which have long lifetime expectancies, are neglected.
Urban rating systems consider buildings and services in addition to
neighborhoods and public transportation as integral parts of the built
environment. The main goal of this study was to develop a more
consistent point allocation system for urban building standards by
using six different lifetime shearing layers: Site, Structure, Skin,
Services, Space, and Stuff, each reflecting distinct environmental
damages. This shearing-layer concept was applied to internationally
well-known rating systems: Leadership in Energy and Environmental
Design (LEED) for Neighborhood Development, BRE
Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) for Communities
and Comprehensive Assessment System for Building Environmental
Efficiency (CASBEE) for Urban Development. The results showed
that LEED for Neighborhood Development and BREEAM for
Communities focused on long-lifetime-expectancy building designs,
whereas CASBEE for Urban Development gave equal importance to
the Building and Service Layers. Moreover, although this rating
system was applied using a building-scale assessment, “Urban Area +
Buildings” focuses on a short-lifetime-expectancy system design,
neglecting to improve the architectural design by considering bioclimatic
and passive solar aspects.
Abstract: The goal of this paper is to present the diagnostic
contribution that the screening instrument, Mini-Mental State
Examination-2: Expanded Version (MMSE-2:EV), brings in
detecting the cognitive impairment or in monitoring the progress of
degenerative disorders. The diagnostic signification is underlined by
the interpretation of the MMSE-2:EV scores, resulted from the test
application to patients with mild and major neurocognitive disorders.
The cases were selected from current practice, in order to cover vast
and significant neurocognitive pathology: mild cognitive impairment,
Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, mixed dementia, Parkinson’s
disease, conversion of the mild cognitive impairment into
Alzheimer’s disease. The MMSE-2:EV version was used: it was
applied one month after the initial assessment, three months after the
first reevaluation and then every six months, alternating the blue and
red forms. Correlated with age and educational level, the raw scores
were converted in T scores and then, with the mean and the standard
deviation, the z scores were calculated. The differences of raw scores
between the evaluations were analyzed from the point of view of
statistic signification, in order to establish the progression in time of
the disease. The results indicated that the psycho-diagnostic approach
for the evaluation of the cognitive impairment with MMSE-2:EV is
safe and the application interval is optimal. In clinical settings with a
large flux of patients, the application of the MMSE-2:EV is a safe
and fast psychodiagnostic solution. The clinicians can draw objective
decisions and for the patients: it does not take too much time and
energy, it does not bother them and it doesn’t force them to travel
frequently.
Abstract: Live video streaming is one of the most widely used
service among end users, yet it is a big challenge for the network
operators in terms of quality. The only way to provide excellent
Quality of Experience (QoE) to the end users is continuous
monitoring of live video streaming. For this purpose, there are several
objective algorithms available that monitor the quality of the video in
a live stream. Subjective tests play a very important role in fine
tuning the results of objective algorithms. As human perception is
considered to be the most reliable source for assessing the quality of a
video stream subjective tests are conducted in order to develop more
reliable objective algorithms. Temporal impairments in a live video
stream can have a negative impact on the end users. In this paper we
have conducted subjective evaluation tests on a set of video
sequences containing temporal impairment known as frame freezing.
Frame Freezing is considered as a transmission error as well as a
hardware error which can result in loss of video frames on the
reception side of a transmission system. In our subjective tests, we
have performed tests on videos that contain a single freezing event
and also for videos that contain multiple freezing events. We have
recorded our subjective test results for all the videos in order to give a
comparison on the available No Reference (NR) objective
algorithms. Finally, we have shown the performance of no reference
algorithms used for objective evaluation of videos and suggested the
algorithm that works better. The outcome of this study shows the
importance of QoE and its effect on human perception. The results
for the subjective evaluation can serve the purpose for validating
objective algorithms.
Abstract: The purpose of the present study is to find the efficacy
of high school student self-assessment of written production. It aimed
to explore the following two research questions: 1) How is topic
development of their written production improved after student
self-assessment and teacher feedback? 2) Does the consistency
between student self-assessment and teacher assessment develop after
student self-assessment and teacher feedback? The data came from the
written production of 82 Japanese high school students aged from 16
to 18 years old, an American English teacher and one Japanese English
teacher. Students were asked to write English compositions, about 150
words, for thirty minutes without using dictionaries. It was conducted
twice at intervals of two months. Students were supposed to assess
their own compositions by themselves. Teachers also assessed
students’ compositions using the same assessment sheet. The results
showed that both teachers and students assessed the second
compositions higher than the first compositions. However, there was
not the development of the consistency in coherence.
Abstract: This paper presents an approach of on-line control of
the state of technosphere and environment objects based on the
integration of Data Warehouse, OLAP and Expert systems
technologies. It looks at the structure and content of data warehouse
that provides consolidation and storage of monitoring data. There is a
description of OLAP-models that provide a multidimensional
analysis of monitoring data and dynamic analysis of principal
parameters of controlled objects. The authors suggest some criteria of
emergency risk assessment using expert knowledge about danger
levels. It is demonstrated now some of the proposed solutions could
be adopted in territorial decision making support systems.
Operational control allows authorities to detect threat, prevent natural
and anthropogenic emergencies and ensure a comprehensive safety of
territory.
Abstract: Background: The change in foot posture can possibly
generate changes in the pelvic alignment. There is still a lack of
evidence about the effects of bilateral and unilateral flatfoot on
possible changes in pelvic alignment. The purpose of this study was
to investigate the effect of flatfoot on the sagittal and frontal planes of
pelvic postures. Materials and Methods: 56 subjects, aged 18–40
years, were assigned into three groups: 20 healthy subjects, 19
subjects with bilateral flexible second-degree flat foot, and 17
subjects with unilateral flexible second-degree flat foot. 3D
assessment of the pelvis using the formetric-II device was used to
evaluate pelvic alignment in the frontal and sagittal planes by
measuring pelvic inclination and pelvic tilt angles. Results: ANOVA
test with LSD test were used for statistical analysis. Both Unilateral
and bilateral second degree flatfoot produced significant (P
Abstract: In this study, the signal of brain electrical activities of
the sixteen students selected from the Department of Electrical and
Energy at Usak University have been recorded during a lecturer
performed happiness emotions for the first group and anger emotions
for the second group in different time while the groups were in the
classroom separately. The attention and meditation data extracted
from the recorded signals have been analyzed and evaluated toward
the teacher’s specific emotion states simultaneously. Attention levels
of students who are under influence of happiness emotions of the
lecturer have a positive trend and attention levels of students who are
under influence of anger emotions of the lecturer have a negative
trend. The meditation or mental relaxation levels of students who are
under influence of happiness emotions of the lecturer are 34.3%
higher comparing with the mental relaxation levels of students who
are under influence of anger emotions of the lecturer.
Abstract: In recent decades, particulate matter (PM10) have
received much attention due to its potential adverse health impact and
the subsequent need to better control or regulate these pollutants.
The aim of this paper is focused on study risk assessment of PM10
in four different districts (Shebikah, Masfalah, Aziziyah, Awali) in
Makkah, Saudi Arabia during the period from 1 Ramadan 1434 AH -
27 Safar 1435 AH. Samples were collected by using Low Volume
Sampler (LVS Low Volume Sampler) device and filtration method
for estimating the total concentration of PM10.
The study indicated that the mean PM10 concentrations were 254.6
(186.1 - 343.2) μg/m3 in Shebikah, 184.9 (145.6 - 271.4) μg/m3 in
Masfalah, 162.4 (92.4-253.8) μg/m3 in Aziziyah, and 56.0 (44.5 -
119.8) μg/m3 in Awali. These values did not exceed the permissible
limits in PME (340 μg/m3 as daily average). Furthermore, health
assessment is carried out using AirQ2.2.3 model to estimate the
number of hospital admissions due to respiratory diseases. The
cumulative number of cases per 100,000 were 1534 (18-3050 case),
which lower than that recorded in the United States, Malaysia. The
concentration response coefficient was 0.49 (95% CI 0.05 - 0.70) per
10 μg/m3 increase of PM10.
Abstract: Traditionally, the embodied energy of design choices
which reduce operational energy were assumed to have a negligible
impact on the life cycle energy of buildings. However with new
buildings having considerably lower operational energy, the
significance of embodied energy increases. A life cycle assessment of
a population of house designs was conducted in a mild and mixed
climate zone. It was determined not only that embodied energy
dominates life cycle energy, but that the impact on embodied of
design choices was of equal significance to the impact on operational
energy.
Abstract: Residential buildings consume significant amounts of
energy and produce large amount of emissions and waste. However,
there is a substantial potential for energy savings in this sector which
needs to be evaluated over the life cycle of residential buildings. Life
Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology has been employed to study
the primary energy uses and associated environmental impacts of
different phases (i.e., product, construction, use, end of life, and
beyond building life) for residential buildings. Four different
alternatives of residential buildings in Vancouver (BC, Canada) with
a 50-year lifespan have been evaluated, including High Rise
Apartment (HRA), Low Rise Apartment (LRA), Single family
Attached House (SAH), and Single family Detached House (SDH).
Life cycle performance of the buildings is evaluated for embodied
energy, embodied environmental impacts, operational energy,
operational environmental impacts, total life-cycle energy, and total
life cycle environmental impacts. Estimation of operational energy
and LCA are performed using DesignBuilder software and Athena
Impact estimator software respectively.
The study results revealed that over the life span of the buildings,
the relationship between the energy use and the environmental
impacts are identical. LRA is found to be the best alternative in terms
of embodied energy use and embodied environmental impacts; while,
HRA showed the best life-cycle performance in terms of minimum
energy use and environmental impacts. Sensitivity analysis has also
been carried out to study the influence of building service lifespan
over 50, 75, and 100 years on the relative significance of embodied
energy and total life cycle energy. The life-cycle energy requirements
for SDH are found to be a significant component among the four
types of residential buildings. The overall disclose that the primary
operations of these buildings accounts for 90% of the total life cycle
energy which far outweighs minor differences in embodied effects
between the buildings.
Abstract: Several parameters are established in order to measure
biodiesel quality. One of them is the iodine value, which is an
important parameter that measures the total unsaturation within a
mixture of fatty acids. Limitation of unsaturated fatty acids is
necessary since warming of higher quantity of these ones ends in
either formation of deposits inside the motor or damage of lubricant.
Determination of iodine value by official procedure tends to be very
laborious, with high costs and toxicity of the reagents, this study uses
artificial neural network (ANN) in order to predict the iodine value
property as an alternative to these problems. The methodology of
development of networks used 13 esters of fatty acids in the input
with convergence algorithms of back propagation of back
propagation type were optimized in order to get an architecture of
prediction of iodine value. This study allowed us to demonstrate the
neural networks’ ability to learn the correlation between biodiesel
quality properties, in this caseiodine value, and the molecular
structures that make it up. The model developed in the study reached
a correlation coefficient (R) of 0.99 for both network validation and
network simulation, with Levenberg-Maquardt algorithm.
Abstract: Construction projects are information intensive in
nature and involve many activities that are related to each other.
Wireless technologies can be used to improve the accuracy and
timeliness of data collected from construction sites and shares it with
appropriate parties. Nonetheless, the construction industry tends to be
conservative and shows hesitation to adopt new technologies. A main
concern for owners, contractors or any person in charge on a job site
is the cost of the technology in question. Wireless technologies are
not cheap. There are a lot of expenses to be taken into consideration,
and a study should be completed to make sure that the importance
and savings resulting from the usage of this technology is worth the
expenses. This research attempts to assess the effectiveness of using
the appropriate wireless technologies based on criteria such as
performance, reliability, and risk. The assessment is based on a utility
function model that breaks down the selection issue into alternatives
attribute. Then the attributes are assigned weights and single
attributes are measured. Finally, single attribute are combined to
develop one single aggregate utility index for each alternative.
Abstract: Mitigating soil erosion, especially in Mediterranean
countries such as Greece, is essential in order to maintain
environmental and agricultural sustainability. In this paper, scientific
publications related to soil erosion studies in Greece were reviewed
and categorized. To accomplish this, the online search engine of
Scopus was used. The key words were “soil”, “erosion” and
“Greece.” An analysis of the published articles was conducted at
three levels: i) type of publication, ii) chronologic and iii) thematic. A
hundred and ten publications published in scientific journals were
reviewed. The results showed that the awareness regarding the soil
erosion in Greece has increased only in the last decades. The
publications covered a wide range of thematic categories such as the
type of studied areas, the physical phenomena that trigger and
influence the soil erosion, the negative anthropogenic impacts on
them, the assessment tools that were used in order to examine the
threat and the proper management. The analysis of these articles was
significant and necessary in order to find the scientific gaps of soil
erosion studies in Greece and help enhance the sustainability of soil
management in the future.
Abstract: Land Use Land Cover (LULC) changes due to human
activities and natural causes have become a major environmental
concern. Assessment of temporal remote sensing data provides
information about LULC impacts on environment. Land Surface
Temperature (LST) is one of the important components for modeling
environmental changes in climatological, hydrological, and
agricultural studies. In this study, LULC changes (September 7, 1984
and July 8, 2014) especially in agricultural lands together with
population changes (1985-2014) and LST status were investigated
using remotely sensed and census data in South Marmara Watershed,
Turkey. LULC changes were determined using Landsat TM and
Landsat OLI data acquired in 1984 and 2014 summers. Six-band TM
and OLI images were classified using supervised classification
method to prepare LULC map including five classes including Forest
(F), Grazing Land (G), Agricultural Land (A), Water Surface (W),
Residential Area-Bare Soil (R-B) classes. The LST image was also
derived from thermal bands of the same dates.
LULC classification results showed that forest areas, agricultural
lands, water surfaces and residential area-bare soils were increased as
65751 ha, 20163 ha, 1924 ha and 20462 ha respectively. In
comparison, a dramatic decrement occurred in grazing land (107985
ha) within three decades. The population increased 29% between
years 1984-2014 in whole study area. Along with the natural causes,
migration also caused this increase since the study area has an
important employment potential. LULC was transformed among the
classes due to the expansion in residential, commercial and industrial
areas as well as political decisions. In the study, results showed that
agricultural lands around the settlement areas transformed to
residential areas in 30 years.
The LST images showed that mean temperatures were ranged
between 26-32°C in 1984 and 27-33°C in 2014. Minimum
temperature of agricultural lands was increased 3°C and reached to
23°C. In contrast, maximum temperature of A class decreased to
41°C from 44°C. Considering temperatures of the 2014 R-B class and
1984 status of same areas, it was seen that mean, min and max
temperatures increased by 2°C.
As a result, the dynamism of population, LULC and LST resulted
in increasing mean and maximum surface temperatures, living
spaces/industrial areas and agricultural lands.
Abstract: Evapotranspiration is one of the most important
components of the hydrological cycle. Evapotranspiration (ETo) is an
important variable in water and energy balances on the earth’s
surface, and knowledge of the distribution of ET is a key factor in
hydrology, climatology, agronomy and ecology studies. Many
researchers have a valid relationship, which is a function of climate
factors, to estimate the potential evapotranspiration presented to the
plant water stress or water loss, prevent. The FAO-Penman method
(PM) had been recommended as a standard method. This method
requires many data and these data are not available in every area of
world. So, other methods should be evaluated for these conditions.
When sufficient or reliable data to solve the PM equation are not
available then Hargreaves equation can be used. The Hargreaves
equation (HG) requires only daily mean, maximum and minimum air
temperature extraterrestrial radiation .In this study, Hargreaves
method (HG) were evaluated in 12 stations in the North West region
of Iran. Results of HG and M.HG methods were compared with
results of PM method. Statistical analysis of this comparison showed
that calibration process has had significant effect on efficiency of
Hargreaves method.
Abstract: The new era of digital communication has brought up
many challenges that network operators need to overcome. The high
demand of mobile data rates require improved networks, which is a
challenge for the operators in terms of maintaining the quality of
experience (QoE) for their consumers. In live video transmission,
there is a sheer need for live surveillance of the videos in order to
maintain the quality of the network. For this purpose objective
algorithms are employed to monitor the quality of the videos that are
transmitted over a network. In order to test these objective algorithms,
subjective quality assessment of the streamed videos is required, as the
human eye is the best source of perceptual assessment. In this paper we
have conducted subjective evaluation of videos with varying spatial
and temporal impairments. These videos were impaired with frame
freezing distortions so that the impact of frame freezing on the quality
of experience could be studied. We present subjective Mean Opinion
Score (MOS) for these videos that can be used for fine tuning the
objective algorithms for video quality assessment.
Abstract: This study, for its research subjects, uses patients who
had undergone total knee replacement surgery from the database of the
National Health Insurance Administration. Through the review of
literatures and the interviews with physicians, important factors are
selected after careful screening. Then using Cross Entropy Method,
Genetic Algorithm Logistic Regression, and Particle Swarm
Optimization, the weight of each factor is calculated and obtained. In
the meantime, Excel VBA and Case Based Reasoning are combined
and adopted to evaluate the system. Results show no significant
difference found through Genetic Algorithm Logistic Regression and
Particle Swarm Optimization with over 97% accuracy in both
methods. Both ROC areas are above 0.87. This study can provide
critical reference to medical personnel as clinical assessment to
effectively enhance medical care quality and efficiency, prevent
unnecessary waste, and provide practical advantages to resource
allocation to medical institutes.
Abstract: Diagnostic enzymes like aspartate aminotransferase
(AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and alkaline phosphatase
(ALP) were determined as indices of heavy metal pollution in Tilapia
guinensis. Three different sets of fishes treated with lead (Pb), iron
(Fe) and copper (Cu) were used for the study while a fourth group
with no heavy metal served as a control. Fishes in each of the groups
were exposed to 2.65mg/l of Pb, 0.85mg/l of Fe and 0.35 mg/l of Cu
in aerated aquaria for 96 hours. Tissue fractionation of the liver
tissues was carried out and the three diagnostic enzymes (AST, ALT,
and ALP) were estimated. Serum levels of the same diagnostic
enzymes were also measured. The mean values of the serum enzyme
activity for ALP in each experimental group were 19.5±1.62,
29.67±2.17 and 1.15±0.27 IU/L for Pb, Fe and Cu groups compared
with 9.99±1.34 IU/L enzyme activity in the control. This result
showed that Pb and Fe caused increased release of the enzyme into
the blood circulation indicating increased tissue damage while Cu
caused a reduction in the serum level as compared with the level in
the control group. The mean values of enzyme activity obtained in
the liver were 102.14±6.12, 140.17±2.06 and 168.23±3.52 IU/L for
Pb, Fe and Cu groups, respectively compared to 91.20±9.42 IU/L
enzyme activity for the control group. The serum and liver AST and
ALT activities obtained in Pb, Fe, Cu and control groups are
reported. It was generally noted that the presence of the heavy metal
caused liver tissues damage and consequent increased level of the
diagnostic enzymes in the serum.
Abstract: This paper describes the main features of a knowledge-based system evaluation method. System evaluation is placed in the context of a hybrid legal decision-support system, Advisory Support for Home Settlement in Divorce (ASHSD). Legal knowledge for ASHSD is represented in two forms, as rules and previously decided cases. Besides distinguishing the two different forms of knowledge representation, the paper outlines the actual use of these forms in a computational framework that is designed to generate a plausible solution for a given case, by using rule-based reasoning (RBR) and case-based reasoning (CBR) in an integrated environment. The nature of suitability assessment of a solution has been considered as a multiple criteria decision-making process in ASHAD evaluation. The evaluation was performed by a combination of discussions and questionnaires with different user groups. The answers to questionnaires used in this evaluations method have been measured as a fuzzy linguistic term. The finding suggests that fuzzy linguistic evaluation is practical and meaningful in knowledge-based system development purpose.
Abstract: The Figaro AM-1 sensor module which employs TGS
2600 model gas sensor in air quality assessment was used. The
system was coupled with a microprocessor that enables sensor
module to create warning message via telephone. This low cot sensor
system’s performance was compared with a DiagNose II commercial
electronic nose system. Both air quality sensor and electronic nose
system employ metal oxide chemical gas sensors. In the study
experimental setup, data acquisition methods for electronic nose
system, and performance of the low cost air quality system were
evaluated and explained.