Abstract: Problems exist in the present construction industry in China. Conflicts hinder the development of the whole society, such as contradictions between resource reservation and a huge population, living space needs and low building production efficiency, as well as environment protection and high pollution production pattern. In order to solve the problems and find a solution, research is needed to explore a building system. By investigating the whole architectural process and contrasting analysis of light structures and heavy structures, the paper raised the concepts to cope with the existing challenges, such as design conception based on product and real construction processes, design methods focusing on components, and maximum utilization of the temporary building by optimizing the construction speed and building performance. The project was not only designed in virtual reality, but was also physically constructed in the real world. A series of aluminum light structure housing systems were dictated at last, with the characteristics of high performance, extremely rapid construction speed and also flexible function. It can be used in lots of aspects ranging from a single building in a remote area to a large residential community.
Abstract: Governments constantly seek to offer faster, more secure, efficient and effective services for their citizens. Recent changes and developments to communication services and technologies, mainly due the Internet, have led to immense improvements in the way governments of advanced countries carry out their interior operations Therefore, advances in e-government services have been broadly adopted and used in various developed countries, as well as being adapted to developing countries. The implementation of advances depends on the utilization of the most innovative structures of data techniques, mainly in web dependent applications, to enhance the main functions of governments. These functions, in turn, have spread to mobile and wireless techniques, generating a new advanced direction called m-government. This paper discusses a selection of available m-government applications and several business modules and frameworks in various fields. Practically, the m-government models, techniques and methods have become the improved version of e-government. M-government offers the potential for applications which will work better, providing citizens with services utilizing mobile communication and data models incorporating several government entities. Developing countries can benefit greatly from this innovation due to the fact that a large percentage of their population is young and can adapt to new technology and to the fact that mobile computing devices are more affordable. The use of models of mobile transactions encourages effective participation through the use of mobile portals by businesses, various organizations, and individual citizens. Although the application of m-government has great potential, it does have major limitations. The limitations include: the implementation of wireless networks and relative communications, the encouragement of mobile diffusion, the administration of complicated tasks concerning the protection of security (including the ability to offer privacy for information), and the management of the legal issues concerning mobile applications and the utilization of services.
Abstract: The increasing demand of electric power is giving an
emphasis on the need for the maximum utilization of renewable
energy sources. On the other hand maintaining power quality to
satisfaction of utility is an essential requirement. In this paper the
design aspects of a Unified Power Quality Conditioner integrated
with photovoltaic system in a distributed generation is presented. The
proposed system consist of series inverter, shunt inverter are
connected back to back on the dc side and share a common dc-link
capacitor with Distributed Generation through a boost converter. The
primary task of UPQC is to minimize grid voltage and load current
disturbances along with reactive and harmonic power compensation.
In addition to primary tasks of UPQC, other functionalities such as
compensation of voltage interruption and active power transfer to the
load and grid in both islanding and interconnected mode have been
addressed. The simulation model is design in MATLAB/ Simulation
environment and the results are in good agreement with the published
work.
Abstract: This study attempts to consider the linkage between management and computer sciences in order to develop the software named “IntelSymb” as a demo application to prove data analysis of non-energy* fields’ diversification, which will positively influence on energy dependency mitigation of countries. Afterward, we analyzed 18 years of economic fields of development (5 sectors) of 13 countries by identifying which patterns mostly prevailed and which can be dominant in the near future. To make our analysis solid and plausible, as a future work, we suggest developing a gateway or interface, which will be connected to all available on-line data bases (WB, UN, OECD, U.S. EIA) for countries’ analysis by fields. Sample data consists of energy (TPES and energy import indicators) and non-energy industries’ (Main Science and Technology Indicator, Internet user index, and Sales and Production indicators) statistics from 13 OECD countries over 18 years (1995-2012). Our results show that the diversification of non-energy industries can have a positive effect on energy sector dependency (energy consumption and import dependence on crude oil) deceleration. These results can provide empirical and practical support for energy and non-energy industries diversification’ policies, such as the promoting of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), services and innovative technologies efficiency and management, in other OECD and non-OECD member states with similar energy utilization patterns and policies. Industries, including the ICT sector, generate around 4 percent of total GHG, but this is much higher — around 14 percent — if indirect energy use is included. The ICT sector itself (excluding the broadcasting sector) contributes approximately 2 percent of global GHG emissions, at just under 1 gigatonne of carbon dioxide equivalent (GtCO2eq). Ergo, this can be a good example and lesson for countries which are dependent and independent on energy, and mainly emerging oil-based economies, as well as to motivate non-energy industries diversification in order to be ready to energy crisis and to be able to face any economic crisis as well.
Abstract: Natural gas sweetening process is a controlled process that must be done at maximum efficiency and with the highest quality. In this work, due to complexity and non-linearity of the process, the H2S gas separation and the intelligent fuzzy controller, which is used to enhance the process, are simulated in MATLAB – Simulink. New design of fuzzy control for Gas Separator is discussed in this paper. The design is based on the utilization of linear state-estimation to generate the internal knowledge-base that stores input-output pairs. The obtained input/output pairs are then used to design a feedback fuzzy controller. The proposed closed-loop fuzzy control system maintains the system asymptotically-stability while it enhances the system time response to achieve better control of the concentration of the output gas from the tower. Simulation studies are carried out to illustrate the Gas Separator system performance.
Abstract: The importance of culture and tourism in the attractiveness and competitiveness of the countries is central, and many regions are evidencing their cultural assets, tangible and intangible, as a means to create comparative advantages in tourism and produce a distinctive place in response to the pressures of globalization. Culture and tourism are interlinked because of their obvious combination and growth potential. Cultural tourism is a crucial global tourism market with fast growing. Regions can develop significant relations between culture and tourism to increase their attractiveness as places to visit, live and invest, increasing their competitiveness. Accordingly, having new and creative approach to historical areas as cultural value-based destinations can improve their conditions to promote tourism. Furthermore, in 21st century, media become the most important factor affecting the development of urban cities, including public places. As a result of the digital revolution, re-imaging and re-linkage public places by media are essential to create more interactions between public spaces and users, interaction media display, and urban screens, one of the most important defined media. This interaction can transform the urban space from being neglected to be more interactive space with users, especially the pedestrians. The paper focuses on The Walled City of Famagusta. As many other historic quarters elsewhere in the world, is in a process, of decay and deterioration, and its functionally distinctive areas are severely threatened by physical, functional, locational, and image obsolescence at varying degrees. So the focus on the future development of this area through tourism promotion can be an appropriate decision for the monument enhancement of the spatial quality in Walled City of Famagusta. In this paper, it is aimed to identify the effects of these new digital factors to transform public spaces especially in historic urban areas to promote creative tourism. Accordingly, two different analysis methods are used as well as a theoretical review. The first is case study on site and the second is Close ended questionnaire, test many concepts raised in this paper. The physical analysis on site carried out in order to evaluate the walled city restoration for touristic purpose. Besides, theoretical review is done in order to provide background to the subject and cleared Factors to attract tourists.
Abstract: Present study focused on the utilization of solar
energy by the help of photovoltaic greenhouse solar dryer under
forced mode. A single slope photovoltaic greenhouse solar dryer has
been proposed and thermal modelling has been developed. Various
parameters have been calculated by thermal modelling such as
greenhouse room temperature, cell temperature, crop temperature and
air temperature at exit of greenhouse. Further cell efficiency, thermal
efficiency, and overall thermal efficiency have been calculated for a
typical day of May and November. It was found that system can
generate equivalent thermal energy up to 7.65 kW and 6.66 kW per
day for clear day of May and November respectively.
Abstract: Flue gas desulfurization gypsum (FGD) is a waste
material arouse from coal power plants. Hydroxyapatite (HAP) is a
biomaterial with porous structure. In this study, FGD gypsum which
retrieved from coal power plant in Turkey was characterized and
HAP particles which can be used as an adsorbent in wastewater
treatment application were synthesized from the FGD gypsum. The
raw materials are characterized by using X Ray Diffraction (XRD)
and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) techniques and
produced HAP are characterized by using XRD. As a result, HAP
particles were synthesized at the molar ratio of 5:10, 5:15, 5:20, 5:24,
at room temperature, in alkaline medium (pH=11) and in 1 hour-reaction
time. Among these conditions, 5:20 had the best result.
Abstract: Smart metering and demand response are gaining
ground in industrial and residential applications. Smart Appliances
have been given concern towards achieving Smart home. The success
of Smart grid development relies on the successful implementation of
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in power sector.
Smart Appliances have been the technology under development and
many new contributions to its realization have been reported in the
last few years. The role of ICT here is to capture data in real time,
thereby allowing bi-directional flow of information/data between
producing and utilization point; that lead a way for the attainment of
Smart appliances where home appliances can communicate between
themselves and provide a self-control (switch on and off) using the
signal (information) obtained from the grid. This paper depicts the
background on ICT for smart appliances paying a particular attention
to the current technology and identifying the future ICT trends for
load monitoring through which smart appliances can be achieved to
facilitate an efficient smart home system which promote demand
response program. This paper grouped and reviewed the recent
contributions, in order to establish the current state of the art and
trends of the technology, so that the reader can be provided with a
comprehensive and insightful review of where ICT for smart
appliances stands and is heading to. The paper also presents a brief
overview of communication types, and then narrowed the discussion
to the load monitoring (Non-intrusive Appliances Load Monitoring
‘NALM’). Finally, some future trends and challenges in the further
development of the ICT framework are discussed to motivate future
contributions that address open problems and explore new
possibilities.
Abstract: Many cluster based routing protocols have been
proposed in the field of wireless sensor networks, in which a group of
nodes are formed as clusters. A cluster head is selected from one
among those nodes based on residual energy, coverage area, number
of hops and that cluster-head will perform data gathering from
various sensor nodes and forwards aggregated data to the base station
or to a relay node (another cluster-head), which will forward the
packet along with its own data packet to the base station. Here a
Game Theory based Diligent Energy Utilization Algorithm (GTDEA)
for routing is proposed. In GTDEA, the cluster head selection is done
with the help of game theory, a decision making process, that selects
a cluster-head based on three parameters such as residual energy
(RE), Received Signal Strength Index (RSSI) and Packet Reception
Rate (PRR). Finding a feasible path to the destination with minimum
utilization of available energy improves the network lifetime and is
achieved by the proposed approach. In GTDEA, the packets are
forwarded to the base station using inter-cluster routing technique,
which will further forward it to the base station. Simulation results
reveal that GTDEA improves the network performance in terms of
throughput, lifetime, and power consumption.
Abstract: In IEEE 802.11 networks, it is well known that the
traditional time-domain contention often leads to low channel
utilization. The first frequency-domain contention scheme, the time to
frequency (T2F), has recently been proposed to improve the channel
utilization and has attracted a great deal of attention. In this paper, we
present the latest research progress on the weighed frequency-domain
contention. We compare the basic ideas, work principles of these
related schemes and point out their differences. This paper is very
useful for further study on frequency-domain contention.
Abstract: The present study aims to explore the effect of
computerization on marketing performance in Snowa Company. In
other words, this study intends to respond to this question that
whether or not, is there any relationship between utilization of
computerization in marketing activities and marketing performance?
The statistical population included 60 marketing managers of Snowa
Company. In order to test the research hypotheses, Pearson
correlation coefficient was employed. The reliability was equal to
96.8%. In this study, computerization was the independent variable
and marketing performance was the dependent variable with
characteristics of market share, improving the competitive position,
and sales volume. The results of testing the hypotheses revealed that
there is a significant relationship between utilization of
computerization and market share, sales volume and improving the
competitive position.
Abstract: Objective: Acute coronary syndrome is a clinical
condition encompassing ST segments elevation myocardial
infraction, Non ST segment is elevation myocardial infraction and un
stable angina is characterized by ruptured coronary plaque, stress and
myocardial injury. Angina pectoris is a pressure like pain in the chest
that is induced by exertion or stress and relived with in the minute
after cessation of effort or using sublingual nitroglycerin. The present
research was undertaken to study the drug utilization pattern of
antiplatelet drugs for the ischemic heart disease in a tertiary care
hospital. Method: The present study is retrospective drug utilization
study and study period is 6months. The data is collected from the
discharge case sheet of general medicine department from medical
department Rajiv Gandhi institute of medical sciences, Kadapa. The
tentative sample size fixed was 250 patients. Out of 250 cases 19
cases was excluded because of unrelated data. Results: A total of 250
prescriptions were collected for the study according to the inclusion
criteria 233 prescriptions were diagnosed with ischemic heart disease
17 prescriptions were excluded due to unrelated information. out of
233 prescriptions 128 are male (54.9%) and 105 patients are were
female (45%). According to the gender distribution, the prevalence of
ischemic heart disease in males are 90 (70.31%) and females are 39
(37.1%). In the same way the prevalence of ischemic heart disease
along with cerebrovascular disease in males are 39 (29.6%) and
females are 66 (62.6%). Conclusion: We found that 94.8% of drug
utilization of antiplatelet drugs was achieved in the Rajiv Gandhi
institute of medical sciences, Kadapa from 2011-2012.
Abstract: Sewage sludge is a biomass resource that can create a
solid fuel and electricity. Utilizing sewage sludge as a renewable
energy can contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gases. In Japan,
the "National Plan for the Promotion of Biomass Utilization" and the
“Priority Plan for Social Infrastructure Development" were approved
at cabinet meetings in December 2010 and August 2012, respectively,
to promote the energy utilization of sewage sludge. This study
investigated costs and greenhouse gas emission in different sewage
sludge treatments with technologies for energy from sewage sludge.
Expenses were estimated based on capital costs and O&M costs
including energy consumption of solid fuel plants and biogas power
generation plants for sewage sludge. Results showed that the cost of
sludge digestion treatment with solid fuel technologies was 8% lower
than landfill disposal. The greenhouse gas emission of sludge
digestion treatment with solid fuel technologies was also 6,390t as
CO2 smaller than landfill disposal. Biogas power generation reduced
the electricity of a wastewater treatment plant by 30% and the cost by
5%.
Abstract: Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM)
technology is the most promising technology for the proper
utilization of huge raw bandwidth provided by an optical fiber. One
of the key problems in implementing the all-optical WDM network is
the packet contention. This problem can be solved by several
different techniques. In time domain approach the packet contention
can be reduced by incorporating Fiber Delay Lines (FDLs) as optical
buffer in the switch architecture. Different types of buffering
architectures are reported in literatures. In the present paper a
comparative performance analysis of three most popular FDL
architectures are presented in order to obtain the best contention
resolution performance. The analysis is further extended to consider
the effect of different fiber non-linearities on the network
performance.
Abstract: Value addition to agricultural produce is of possible
potential in reducing poverty, improving food security and
malnutrition, therefore the need to develop small and microenterprises
of sweet potato production. A study was carried out in Nigeria to determine the acceptability
of blends sweet potato (Ipomea batatas) and commodities yellow
maize (Zea mays), millet (Pennisetum glaucum), soybean (Glycine
max), bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranean), guinea corn
(Sorghum vulgare), wheat (Triticum aestivum), and roselle (Hibiscus
sabdariffa) through sensory evaluation. Sweet potato (Ipomea batatas) roots were processed using two
methods: oven and sun drying. The blends were also assessed in
terms of functional, chemical and color properties. Most acceptable blends include BAW (80:20 of sweet
potato/wheat), BBC (80:20 of sweet potato/guinea corn), AAB (60:40
of sweet potato/guinea corn), YTE (100% soybean), TYG (100%
sweet potato), KTN (100% wheat flour), XGP (80:20 of sweet
potato/soybean), XAX (60:40 of sweet potato/wheat), LSS (100%
Roselle), CHK (100% Guinea corn), and ABC (60:40% of sweet
potato/ yellow maize). In addition, carried out chemical analysis
revealed that sweet potato has high percentage of vitamins A and C,
potassium (K), manganese (Mn), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg) and
iron (Fe) and fibre content. There is also an increase of vitamin A and
Iron in the blended products.
Abstract: Large quantities of solid wastes being generated
worldwide from sources such as household, domestic, industrial,
commercial and construction demolition activities, leads to
environmental concerns. Utilization of these wastes in making
building construction materials can reduce the magnitude of the
associated problems. When these waste products are used in place of
other conventional materials, natural resources and energy are
preserved and expensive and/or potentially harmful waste disposal is
avoided. Recycling which is regarded as the third most preferred waste
disposal option, with its numerous environmental benefits, stand as a
viable option to offset the environmental impact associated with the
construction industry. This paper reviews the results of laboratory tests and important
research findings, and the potential of using these wastes in building
construction materials with focus on sustainable development.
Research gaps, which includes; the need to develop standard mix
design for solid waste based building materials; the need to develop
energy efficient method of processing solid waste use in concrete; the
need to study the actual behavior or performance of such building
materials in practical application and the limited real life application
of such building materials have also been identified. A research is being proposed to develop an environmentally
friendly, lightweight building block from recycled waste paper,
without the use of cement, and with properties suitable for use as
walling unit. This proposed research intends to incorporate,
laboratory experimentation and modeling to address the identified
research gaps.
Abstract: Geopolymer composites reinforced with flax fabrics
and nanoclay are fabricated and studied for physical and mechanical
properties using X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform
Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), and Scanning Electron Microscope
(SEM). Nanoclay platelets at a weight of 1.0%, 2.0%, and 3.0% were
added to geopolymer pastes. Nanoclay at 2.0 wt.% was found to
improve density and decrease porosity while improving flexural
strength and post-peak toughness. A microstructural analysis
indicated that nanoclay behaves as filler and as an activator
supporting geopolymeric reaction while producing a higher content
geopolymer gel improving the microstructure of binders. The process
enhances adhesion between the geopolymer matrix and flax fibres.
Abstract: Global economy today is full of sophistication. All
over the world, business and marketing practices are undergoing
unprecedented transformation. In realization of this fact, the federal
government of Nigeria has put in place a robust transformation
agenda in order to put Nigeria in a better position to be a competitive
player and in the process transform all sectors of its economy. New
technologies, especially the Internet, are the driving force behind this
transformation. However, technology has inadvertently affected the
way businesses are done thus necessitating the acquisition of new
skills. In developing countries like Nigeria, citizens are still battling
with effective application of those technologies. Obviously, students
of business education need to acquire relevant business knowledge to
be able to transit into the world of work on graduation from school
and compete favorably in the labor market. Therefore, effective
utilization of social media by both teachers and students can help
extensively in empowering students with the needed skills. Social
media which is a group of Internet-based applications built on the
ideological foundations of Web 2.0, that allow the creation and
exchange of user generated content, and if incorporated into the
classroom experience may be the needed answer to unemployment
and poverty in Nigeria as beneficiaries can easily connect with
existing and potential enterprises and customers, engage with them
and reinforce mutual business benefits. Challenges and benefits of
social media use in education in Nigeria universities were revealed in
this study.
Abstract: The underutilization of biomass resources in the
Philippines, combined with its growing population and the rise in
fossil fuel prices confirms demand for alternative energy sources. The
goal of this paper is to provide a comparison of MODIS-based and
Landsat-based agricultural land cover maps when used in the
estimation of rice hull’s available energy potential. Biomass resource
assessment was done using mathematical models and remote sensing
techniques employed in a GIS platform.