19 research outputs found

    Cognitive Buildings

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    Cognitive building is a pioneering topic envisioning the future of our built environment. The concept of "cognitive" provides a paradigm shift that steps from the static concept of the building as a container of human activities towards the modernist vision of "machine à habiter" of Le Corbusier, where the technological content adds the capability of learning from users' behavior and environmental variables to adapt itself to achieve major goals such as user comfort, energy-saving, flexible functionality, high durability, and good maintainability. The concept is based on digital frameworks and IoT networks towards the concept of a smart city

    Use of sensors in monitoring civil structures

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    Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2004."September 2004."Includes bibliographical references (p. 141-145).This thesis surveys the use of sensors and sensor networks in monitoring civil structures, with particular emphasis on the monitoring of bridges and highways using fiber optic sensors. Following a brief review of the most widespread form of civil infrastructure inspection -- visual inspection -- the thesis describes the anatomy, mechanisms, and types of fiber optic sensors and characterizes the tradeoffs involved in choosing between fiber-optic and conventional sensor technologies. The thesis then presents a survey of contributions to this field, followed by a discussion of deployed applications of fiber-optic sensors, many of them in North America. The latter portion of the thesis first briefly discusses the emerging technology of wireless sensor networks and then presents an abbreviated case study comparing the costs and time required to deploy a fiber optic system to traditional visual inspection on the same structure. The case study suggests that the fiber optic sensors are a cost-effective technology, particularly when indirect savings are considered. The thesis concludes with some comments on the prospects and challenges for sensor technologies in civil infrastructure monitoring.by Bassam William Daher.S.M

    Waste Management

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    The Productivity Commission�s inquiry report into �Waste Management� was released in December 2006. The Australian Government asked the Commission to identify policies that would enable Australia to address market failures and externalities associated with the generation and disposal of waste, and recommend how resource efficiencies can be optimised to improve economic, environmental and social outcomes. In the final report, the Commission maintains that waste management policy should be refocused on the environmental and social impacts of waste collection and disposal. The Commission noted that policy makers and community attitudes will need to be guided by more open and rigorous analysis of costs, benefits and risks, if waste management measures are to best serve the community. The Commission also recommends that the Australian Government play a leadership role in facilitating relevant reforms and in developing sound, nationally consistent waste management policies. The Commission makes further recommendations in several other areas including target setting, landfill regulation, disposal charges and levies, product stewardship, government procurement and performance indicators. The Commission�s findings and recommendations are categorised under the following headings: waste management in Australia; the costs and benefits of waste; the case for government intervention; a waste policy framework; the waste hierarchy and target setting; regulation; market-based instruments; extended producer responsibility and product stewardship; Government information provision and procurement; institutional and regulatory impediments to resource recovery; and performance measurement.Environmental Economics and Policy,

    Special oils for halal and safe cosmetics

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    Three types of non conventional oils were extracted, analyzed and tested for toxicity. Date palm kernel oil (DPKO), mango kernel oil (MKO) and Ramputan seed oil (RSO). Oil content for tow cultivars of dates Deglect Noor and Moshkan was 9.67% and 7.30%, respectively. The three varieties of mango were found to contain about 10% oil in average. The red yellow types of Ramputan were found to have 11 and 14% oil, respectively. The phenolic compounds in DPKO, MKO and RSO were 0.98, 0.88 and 0.78 mg/ml Gallic acid equivalent, respectively. Oils were analyzed for their fatty acid composition and they are rich in oleic acid C18:1 and showed the presence of (dodecanoic acid) lauric acid C12:0, which reported to appear some antimicrobial activities. All extracted oils, DPKO, MKO and RSO showed no toxic effect using prime shrimp bioassay. Since these oils are stable, melt at skin temperature, have good lubricity and are great source of essential fatty acids; they could be used as highly moisturizing, cleansing and nourishing oils because of high oleic acid content. They are ideal for use in such halal cosmetics such as Science, Engineering and Technology 75 skin care and massage, hair-care, soap and shampoo products

    Student Research Colloquium Proceedings 2008

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    2008 Student Research Colloquium proceedings include the following: a schedule of the day\u27s events, acknowledgement of research sponsors, the day\u27s program, conference presentation abstracts, student presenter index, research sponsor index, planning committee, poster and paper presentation judges, registration desk, sponsors, and donors, map of Atwood Memorial Center. Invited Alumni Keynote Address: Research in Action: Helping People included the following SCSU alumni panelists: Keesha Gaskins, Executive Director of Minnesota Women\u27s Political Caucus; Bob Goff, Co-founder and owner of Goff & Howard, Inc., a public relations firm; Amy Schultz, Geropsychologist from OPAL Institute, Oregon Passionate Aging and Living. These distinguished alumni will discuss how research helps them do their jobs. Panelists will describe their careers and answer questions about the secret to their success

    11th International Conference on Business, Technology and Innovation 2022

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    Welcome to IC – UBT 2022 UBT Annual International Conference is the 11th international interdisciplinary peer reviewed conference which publishes works of the scientists as well as practitioners in the area where UBT is active in Education, Research and Development. The UBT aims to implement an integrated strategy to establish itself as an internationally competitive, research-intensive university, committed to the transfer of knowledge and the provision of a world-class education to the most talented students from all background. The main perspective of the conference is to connect the scientists and practitioners from different disciplines in the same place and make them be aware of the recent advancements in different research fields, and provide them with a unique forum to share their experiences. It is also the place to support the new academic staff for doing research and publish their work in international standard level. This conference consists of sub conferences in different fields like: Security Studies Sport, Health and Society Psychology Political Science Pharmaceutical and Natural Sciences Mechatronics, System Engineering and Robotics Medicine and Nursing Modern Music, Digital Production and Management Management, Business and Economics Language and Culture Law Journalism, Media and Communication Information Systems and Security Integrated Design Energy Efficiency Engineering Education and Development Dental Sciences Computer Science and Communication Engineering Civil Engineering, Infrastructure and Environment Architecture and Spatial Planning Agriculture, Food Science and Technology Art and Digital Media This conference is the major scientific event of the UBT. It is organizing annually and always in cooperation with the partner universities from the region and Europe. We have to thank all Authors, partners, sponsors and also the conference organizing team making this event a real international scientific event. Edmond Hajrizi, President of UBT UBT – Higher Education Institutio

    Acetylcholine esterase as a possible marker for the detection of halal way of slaughtering

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    Introduction: Different methods of slaughtering are being practiced because of differences in religious guidelines and environmental issues (use of electricity) or convenience of handling etc. Variation in methods of slaughtering results in different conditions namely, release of varying amount of blood and different degree of movement of its body parts prior to death. These issues are related to the release of neurotransmitter (NT) at the neuro-muscular junction (NMJ) eventually is subject to be released from the body through the blood flow. Experimental design: Muscle samples from chicken in small pieces were collected immediately after slaughtering. Slaughtering was carried out using sharp knife. Two different conditions pertaining to the Islamic guidelines of slaughtering were investigated. such as whether the neck was severed (S+) or not (S-) from the body during slaughtering and whether the animal just after slaughtering was released (R+) or not (R-). The level of acetylecholine esterase mRNA involved in the degradation of acetylecholine, a NT at NMJ was investigated by RT-PCR. Results: The level of acetylecholine esterase mRNA was not detected in the sample obtained from the chicken slaughtered following Islamic guidelines i.e., neck should not be severed and body should be released just after the slaughtering (R+S-). Conclusions: Level of acetylcholine or acetylcholine esterase can be used as a biomarker to identify if the slaughtering is performed following Islamic guidelines

    Calophyllum canum : antibacterial and anticancer plant

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    Human have used plants as a source of medicine throughout the world since time immemorial. Today there are at least 120 distinct chemical substances derived from plants that are considered as important drugs currently in use in one or more countries in the world. In particular, 60% drugs currently in clinical use for treatment of cancer were found to be of natural origin. Calophyllum canum is a large tree which grows in South East Asia and which is popular for its timber. This plant belongs to the family Guttiferae; a family that boasts species which are rich in bioactive phytochemicals. Some species are believed to having medicinal values and are used against several diseases including anti-inflammatory, anti infectious, astringent and antipyretic. We have successfully isolated two compounds from the methanol extract of Calophyllum canum stembarks that active inhibit the growth of Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 29213 and ATCC 25923). The cytotoxic study on the extracts revealed that the n-hexane extract had the strongest antiproliferation activity, followed by the methanol extract. n-hexane strongly inhibited the growth of TE1 and MCF7 cell lines. IC50 for n-hexane and methanol extract activity on the A549 cell line was found to be 27.96 μg/mL and 78.9 μg/mL respectively.The compounds (CE0 - CE5) isolated from ethyl acetate extract of C. canum are active to inhibit cell proliferation of human cervix adenocarcinoma cells
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