Worth of Sick Building Syndrome and Enhance the Quality of Life in Green Building

A proper house is a suitable residential area which provides comfort, proper accessibility, security, stability and permanence of structure, enough lighting, proper initial infrastructures and ventilation for its inhabitants and the most important of all, it should be proportional to the family’s financial power . Saving energy and making optimal usage of it and also taking advantage of stable energies are the bases of green buildings. Making green building will help the health of a person living in it and in its surrounding. It will support the people and provoke their satisfaction. Not only it will bring about the raise of level of the quality of life for building inhabitants, but it will cause the promotion of quality level of life of the people living in the surrounding area and in general the society.   

Study of a Fabry-Perot Resonator

A laser is essentially an optical oscillator consisting of a resonant cavity, an amplifying medium and a pumping source. In semiconductor diode lasers, the cavity is created by the boundary between the cleaved face of the semiconductor crystal and air, and has reflective properties as a result of the differing refractive indices of the two media. For a GaAs-air interface a reflectance of 0.3 is typical and therefore the length of the semiconductor junction forms the resonant cavity. To prevent light being emitted in unwanted directions from the junction, sides perpendicular to the required direction are roughened. The objective of this work is to simulate the optical resonator Fabry-Perot and explore its main characteristics, such as FSR, finesse, linewidth, transmission and so on, that describe the performance of resonator.

Investigation on the Fate Pesticides in Water and Sediments Iraqi Marshland

These studies have been carried out on the behavior of pesticides in aquatic environments of marshes to monitoring water and sediment. A total of 25 water and 25 sediment samples were collected at five sampling station during April, June and September. 2013 the levels of organochlorine (OCP) pesticide as a case study to find out the extent of pesticide contamination and accumulation, in water was the concentration of OCPs (0.02, 0.066, 0.7, 0.8, 0.072, 0.058) ppb. In sediment was the concentration of OCPs (5.897, 10.987, 0.089, 0.096, 7.897, and 12.389) ppb respectively in DDT, DDE, Chlordane, Heptachlor, Lindane, and Endosulfan. There is a relationship between pesticides and sediment and water with physical properties because the concentrations of pesticide in water and sediment are not always in equilibrium Furthermore, when sediments are smaller, the rate of deposition is slower. There the wetlands of pesticides due to factors of high temperature and evaporation but used in the control of pesticides in water and sediment also there still exist a variety of organochlorine pesticide residues in water and sediments of wetlands.

Effect of Field Dielectric Material on Performance of InGaAs Power LDMOSFET

In this paper, a power laterally-diffused metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (LDMOSFET) on In0.53Ga0.47As is presented. The device utilizes a thicker field-oxide with low dielectric constant under the field-plate in order to achieve possible reduction in device capacitances and reduced-surface-field effect. Using 2D numerical simulations, performance of the proposed device is analyzed and compared with that of the conventional LDMOSFET. The proposed structure provides 50% increase in the breakdown voltage, 21% increase in transit frequency, and 72% improvement in figure-of-merit over the conventional device for same cell pitch.

The Impacts of Off-Campus Students on Local Neighbourhood in Malaysia

The impacts of near-campus student housing, or offcampus students accommodation cannot be ignored by the universities and as well as the community officials. Numerous scholarly studies, have highlighted the substantial economic impacts either; direct, indirect or induced, and cumulatively the roles of the universities have significantly contributed to the local economies. The issue of the impacts of off-campus student rental housing on neighbourhoods is one that has been of long-standing but increasing concern in Malaysia. Statistically, in Malaysia, there was approximately a total of 1.2 - 1.5 million students in 2009. By the year 2015, it is expected that 50 per cent of 18 to 30 year olds active population should gain access to university education, amounting to 120,000 yearly. The objectives of the research are to assess the impacts off-campus students on the local neighbourhood and specifically to obtain information on the living and learning conditions of off-campus students of Universiti Teknologi MARA Shah Alam, Malaysia. It is also to isolate those factors that may impede the successful learning so that priority can be given to them in subsequent policy implementations and actions by government and the higher education institutions.

Numerical Calculation of the Ionization Energy of Donors in a Cubic Quantum well and Wire

The ionization energy in semiconductor systems in nano scale was investigated by using effective mass approximation. By introducing the Hamiltonian of the system, the variational technique was employed to calculate the ground state and the ionization energy of a donor at the center and in the case that the impurities are randomly distributed inside a cubic quantum well. The numerical results for GaAs/GaAlAs show that the ionization energy strongly depends on the well width for both cases and it decreases as the well width increases. The ionization energy of a quantum wire was also calculated and compared with the results for the well.

Q-Net: A Novel QoS Aware Routing Algorithm for Future Data Networks

The expectation of network performance from the early days of ARPANET until now has been changed significantly. Every day, new advancement in technological infrastructure opens the doors for better quality of service and accordingly level of perceived quality of network services have been increased over the time. Nowadays for many applications, late information has no value or even may result in financial or catastrophic loss, on the other hand, demands for some level of guarantee in providing and maintaining quality of service are ever increasing. Based on this history, having a QoS aware routing system which is able to provide today's required level of quality of service in the networks and effectively adapt to the future needs, seems as a key requirement for future Internet. In this work we have extended the traditional AntNet routing system to support QoS with multiple metrics such as bandwidth and delay which is named Q-Net. This novel scalable QoS routing system aims to provide different types of services in the network simultaneously. Each type of service can be provided for a period of time in the network and network nodes do not need to have any previous knowledge about it. When a type of quality of service is requested, Q-Net will allocate required resources for the service and will guarantee QoS requirement of the service, based on target objectives.

The Incorporation of In in GaAsN as a Means of N Fraction Calibration

InGaAsN and GaAsN epitaxial layers with similar nitrogen compositions in a sample were successfully grown on a GaAs (001) substrate by solid source molecular beam epitaxy. An electron cyclotron resonance nitrogen plasma source has been used to generate atomic nitrogen during the growth of the nitride layers. The indium composition changed from sample to sample to give compressive and tensile strained InGaAsN layers. Layer characteristics have been assessed by high-resolution x-ray diffraction to determine the relationship between the lattice constant of the GaAs1-yNy layer and the fraction x of In. The objective was to determine the In fraction x in an InxGa1-xAs1-yNy epitaxial layer which exactly cancels the strain present in a GaAs1-yNy epitaxial layer with the same nitrogen content when grown on a GaAs substrate.

Comparative Micro-Morphology, Anatomy and Architecture of Leaf of Physalis

Two species of Physalis, P.angulataL. and P. peruviana L. were used as models for comparative study to understand the values of micro-morphological, -anatomical and architectural characteristics of leaf for taxonomic purposes and possibly breeding and commercial applications. Both speciespossess amphistomaticleaves with 1-layer epidermis, 3-4-layer spongy mesophyll andbicollateral bundle midrib. Palisade parenchyma cells of P. angulatawere almost twice longer (65-75 μm) than the other one. Type of stomata was similar as anomocyticbut stomatal index(SI) at adaxial surface and abaxial surface of P. angulata were less than of P. peruvianaas 3.57, 4.00 and6.25, 6.66 respectively. Some leaf architectural characteristics such as leaf shape, order of venationalsoprovided information of taxonomic significance

SELF-Cured Alkali Activated Slag Concrete Mixes- An Experimental Study

Alkali Activated Slag Concrete (AASC) mixes are manufactured by activating ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) using sodium hydroxide and sodium silicate solutions. The aim of the present experimental research was to investigate the effect of increasing the dosages of sodium oxide (Na2O, in the range of 4 to 8%) and the activator modulus (Ms) (i.e. the SiO2/Na2O ratio, in the range of 0.5 to 1.5) of the alkaline solutions, on the workability and strength characteristics of self-cured (air-cured) alkali activated Indian slag concrete mixes. Further the split tensile and flexure strengths for optimal mixes were studied for each dosage of Na2O.It is observed that increase in Na2O concentration increases the compressive, split-tensile and flexural strengths, both at the early and later-ages, while increase in Ms, decreases the workability of the mixes. An optimal Ms of 1.25 is found at various Na2O dosages. No significant differences in the strength performances were observed between AASCs manufactured with alkali solutions prepared using either of potable and de-ionized water.

Pt(IV) Complexes with Polystrene-bound Schiff Bases as Antimicrobial Agent: Synthesis and Characterization

Novel polystrene-bound Schiff bases and their Pt(IV) complexes have been prepared from condensation reaction of polystyrene-A-NH2 with 2-hydroxybenzaldehyde and 5-fluoro-3- bromo-2-hydroxybenzaldehyde. The structures of Pt(IV) complexes with polystyrene including Schiff bases have been determined by elemental analyses, magnetic susceptibility, IR, 1H-NMR, UV-vis, TG/DTA and AAS. The antibacterial and antifungal activities of the synthesized compounds have been studied by the well-diffusion method against some selected microorganisms: (Bacillus cereus spp., Listeria monocytogenes 4b, Micrococcus luteus, Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermis, Brucella abortus, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas putida spp., Shigella dysenteria type 10, Salmonella typhi H).

Integration of Resistive Switching Memory Cell with Vertical Nanowire Transistor

We integrate TiN/Ni/HfO2/Si RRAM cell with a vertical gate-all-around (GAA) nanowire transistor to achieve compact 4F2 footprint in a 1T1R configuration. The tip of the Si nanowire (source of the transistor) serves as bottom electrode of the memory cell. Fabricated devices with nanowire diameter ~ 50nm demonstrate ultra-low current/power switching; unipolar switching with 10μA/30μW SET and 20μA/30μW RESET and bipolar switching with 20nA/85nW SET and 0.2nA/0.7nW RESET. Further, the switching current is found to scale with nanowire diameter making the architecture promising for future scaling.

Matching Pursuit based Removal of Cardiac Pulse-Related Artifacts in EEG/fMRI

Cardiac pulse-related artifacts in the EEG recorded simultaneously with fMRI are complex and highly variable. Their effective removal is an unsolved problem. Our aim is to develop an adaptive removal algorithm based on the matching pursuit (MP) technique and to compare it to established methods using a visual evoked potential (VEP). We recorded the VEP inside the static magnetic field of an MR scanner (with artifacts) as well as in an electrically shielded room (artifact free). The MP-based artifact removal outperformed average artifact subtraction (AAS) and optimal basis set removal (OBS) in terms of restoring the EEG field map topography of the VEP. Subsequently, a dipole model was fitted to the VEP under each condition using a realistic boundary element head model. The source location of the VEP recorded inside the MR scanner was closest to that of the artifact free VEP after cleaning with the MP-based algorithm as well as with AAS. While none of the tested algorithms offered complete removal, MP showed promising results due to its ability to adapt to variations of latency, frequency and amplitude of individual artifact occurrences while still utilizing a common template.

Parameters Extraction for Pseudomorphic HEMTs Using Genetic Algorithms

A proposed small-signal model parameters for a pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor (PHEMT) is presented. Both extrinsic and intrinsic circuit elements of a smallsignal model are determined using genetic algorithm (GA) as a stochastic global search and optimization tool. The parameters extraction of the small-signal model is performed on 200-μm gate width AlGaAs/InGaAs PHEMT. The equivalent circuit elements for a proposed 18 elements model are determined directly from the measured S- parameters. The GA is used to extract the parameters of the proposed small-signal model from 0.5 up to 18 GHz.

Study on Geometric Design of Nay Pyi Taw-Mandalay Expressway and Possible Improvements; Sagarinn-Myinsain Portion

Geometric design is an important part of planning process design for physical highway to fill up basic function of roads, to give good traffic service. It is found that most of the road safety problems occur at the horizontal curves and complex-compound curves. In this paper, review on Sagarinn-Myinsain Portion of Nay Pyi Taw - Mandalay highway has been conducted in aspect of geometric design induced road safety condition. Horizontal alignment of geometric features and curve details are reviewed based on (AASHTO) standard and revised by Autodesk Land Desktop Software. Moreover, 85th Percentile Operation Speeds (V85) with driver confidence on horizontal curves is evaluated in order to obtain the range of highway safety factor (FS). The length of the selected highway portion is 13.65 miles and 8 lanes. The results of this study can be used to investigate the possible hazardous locations in advance and to revise how design radius and super elevation should be for better road safety performance for the selected portion. Moreover, the relationship between highway safety and highway geometry characteristics can also be known.

Evaluation of the Effects of Climate Change in Destruction Procedure on Iran-s Historic Buildings

Climate change could lead to changes in cultural environments and landscapes as we know them.Climate change presents an immediate and significant threat to our natural and built environments and to the ways of life which co-exist with these environments. In most traditional buildings, the harmony of texture with nature and environment has been ever considered; so houses and cities have been mixed with their natural environment so astonishingly and the selection and usage of materials have been in such a way that they have provided the utmost conformity with the environment, as the result the created areas have a unique beauty and attraction.The extent to which climate change contributes to destruction procedure on Iran-s historic buildings.is a subject of current discussion. Cities, towns and built-up areas also have their own characteristics that might make them particularly vulnerable to climate change.

Cloud Computing-s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) Delivery Model Benefits Technical Courses in Higher Education

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is a form of cloud computing that relieves the user of the burden of hardware and software installation and management. SaaS can be used at the course level to enhance curricula and student experience. When cloud computing and SaaS are included in educational literature, the focus is typically on implementing administrative functions. Yet, SaaS can make more immediate and substantial contributions to the technical course content in educational offerings. This paper explores cloud computing and SaaS, provides examples, reports on experiences using SaaS to offer specialized software in courses, and analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of using SaaS at the course level. The paper contributes to the literature in higher education by analyzing the major technical concepts, potential, and constraints for using SaaS to deliver specialized software at the course level. Further it may enable more educators and students to benefit from this emerging technology.

Nutrient Modelling to Fabricate Dairy Milk Constituents: Let Milk Serve More Than a Food Item

Dietary macro and micro nutrients in their respective proportion and fractions present a practical potential tool to fabricate milk constituents since cells of lactating mammary glands obtain about 80 % of milk synthesis nutrients from blood, reflecting the existence of an isotonic equilibrium between blood and milk. Diverting milk biosynthetic activities through manipulation of nutrients towards producing milk not only keeping in view its significance as natural food but also as food item which prevents or dilutes the adverse effects of some diseases (like cardiovascular problem by saturated milk fat intake) has been area of interest in the last decade. Nutritional modification / supplementation has been reported to enhance conjugated linoleic acid, fatty acid type and concentration, essential fatty acid concentration, vitamin B12& C, Se, Cu, I and Fe which are involved to counter the health threats to human well being. Synchronizing dietary nutrients aimed to modify rumen dynamics towards synthesis of nutrients or their precursors to make their drive towards formulated milk constituents presents a practical option. Formulating dietary constituents to design milk constituents will let the farmers, consumers and investors know about the real potential and profit margins associated with this enterprise. This article briefly recapitulates the ways and means to modify milk constituents keeping an eye on human health and well being issues, which allows milk to serve more than a food item.

Virtual E-Medic: A Cloud Based Medical Aid

This paper discusses about an intelligent system to be installed in ambulances providing professional support to the paramedics on board. A video conferencing device over mobile 4G services enables specialists virtually attending the patient being transferred to the hospital. The data centre holds detailed databases on the patients past medical history and hospitals with the specialists. It also hosts various software modules that compute the shortest traffic –less path to the closest hospital with the required facilities, on inputting the symptoms of the patient, on a real time basis.

Quantitative Indicator of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Rupture Risk Based on its Geometric Parameters

Abdominal aortic aneurysms rupture (AAAs) is one of the main causes of death in the world. This is a very complex phenomenon that usually occurs “without previous warning". Currently, criteria to assess the aneurysm rupture risk (peak diameter and growth rate) can not be considered as reliable indicators. In a first approach, the main geometric parameters of aneurysms have been linked into five biomechanical factors. These are combined to obtain a dimensionless rupture risk index, RI(t), which has been validated preliminarily with a clinical case and others from literature. This quantitative indicator is easy to understand, it allows estimating the aneurysms rupture risks and it is expected to be able to identify the one in aneurysm whose peak diameter is less than the threshold value. Based on initial results, a broader study has begun with twelve patients from the Clinic Hospital of Valladolid-Spain, which are submitted to periodic follow-up examinations.