A review of information modelling systems in the built environment

The built environment can be described to constitute the surrounding and existing elements created by humans. The systems for modelling information related to the built environment are numerous. Their development are based on varying assumptions and tailored to the various domains in which they are deployed. The functions of these systems are sometimes similar or overlap and they tend to end up with similar acronyms thereby creating confusion to stakeholders in the built environment. As such, stakeholders also find it difficult to choose systems best suited for their needs among the numerous existing ones. A comprehensive record of systems in the built environment with clear definitions of their functions and areas of overlap is therefore necessary to straighten up such confusion and provide requisite understanding among stakeholders. A literature review of information modelling systems in the built environment is therefore proposed. The review examines systems in key sectors of the built environment such the Architectural, Engineering, Construction, Geography and Urban Planning. We conclude that stakeholders should give strong consideration to interoperability needs along the supply chain in which they work while deciding on the choice of information modelling systems to procure

Fuzzy Sets Applications in Civil Engineering Basic Areas

Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including works like roads, bridges, canals, dams, and buildings. This paper presents some Fuzzy Logic (FL) applications in civil engeering discipline and shows the potential of facilities of FL in this area. The potential role of fuzzy sets in analysing system and human uncertainty is investigated in the paper. The main finding of this inquiry is FL applications used in different areas of civil engeering discipline with success. Once developed, the fuzzy logic models can be used for further monitoring activities, as a management tool

The Importance of Critical Mass and the Consequences of Scarcity for Television Markets

This thesis “As a matter of size” demonstrates that size does indeed matter. Television markets have common characteristics across small and large markets, but the implications of these characteristics are varied due to the difference in size of economy and population. The influence of variable size is a consequence of the economic conditions of scarcity (limited resources) and thus the relative critical mass of the media market. Thus, the influence of size is an expression of the television market's inability to operate on normal market terms for provisioning particular types of services. Larger markets (measured by economy and population) have a higher potential of securing such content commercially. But all markets suffer from challenges in securing provisioning of original domestic content. Market intervention and public subsidy play an important role when it comes to securing domestic production. Political intervention can to some extent counteract the effects of the common characteristics, by changing market conditions through political regulation or subsidisation. The thesis shows that the European television markets mainly operate under conditions of oligopoly, usually in the form of different types of duopolies. The effect of size on market concentration is not as unambiguous as estimated in the literature, as the scope and extent of market intervention influence this quite intensely. Moreover, the study shows that television markets are dominated by relatively few, usually local, media companies and the multinational companies in most markets currently do not pose a real danger - but there are signs of a development which requires further research. Public service companies remain relatively strong in the markets studied, and continue to play an important role as a counterweight to national and international commercial competitors. Different markets require different policies that take into account the conditions in that specific market, in order to achieve a certain desirable merited effect. The thesis supports the view that a "one size fits all" policy across several markets when it comes to media regulation, risks not yielding the warranted results. Markets with different conditions, exposed to the same type of regulation, might have overall positive effects, but could also easily have a very negative impact if the conditions in a particular market do not fit with the intent of the policy. It is therefore far from certain that a "one size fits all" regulation will have the intended uniform effect on the affected market across several markets. This is especially true for markets that are challenged by having both a small population and a small economy. In a sense it is a paradox that the interest at European level in fair competition and equal opportunity for success can lead to different conditions of competition in a domestic market, as players may be subject to various conditions (in a way it can also be regarded as a consequence of domestic policy interventions), where the domestic players can face a strong international player, and as a result of the internal market and the Audiovisual Media Services directive, can achieve a competitive advantage, for example in relation to choosing the most lenient advertising rules. The analytical work of the thesis can substantiate claims that size has a significant effect and that there are concrete policy implications depending on size of economy and population, due to scarcity of resources in the individual market

The Importance of Critical Mass and the Consequences of Scarcity for Television Markets

This thesis “As a matter of size” demonstrates that size does indeed matter. Television markets have common characteristics across small and large markets, but the implications of these characteristics are varied due to the difference in size of economy and population. The influence of variable size is a consequence of the economic conditions of scarcity (limited resources) and thus the relative critical mass of the media market. Thus, the influence of size is an expression of the television market's inability to operate on normal market terms for provisioning particular types of services. Larger markets (measured by economy and population) have a higher potential of securing such content commercially. But all markets suffer from challenges in securing provisioning of original domestic content. Market intervention and public subsidy play an important role when it comes to securing domestic production. Political intervention can to some extent counteract the effects of the common characteristics, by changing market conditions through political regulation or subsidisation. The thesis shows that the European television markets mainly operate under conditions of oligopoly, usually in the form of different types of duopolies. The effect of size on market concentration is not as unambiguous as estimated in the literature, as the scope and extent of market intervention influence this quite intensely. Moreover, the study shows that television markets are dominated by relatively few, usually local, media companies and the multinational companies in most markets currently do not pose a real danger - but there are signs of a development which requires further research. Public service companies remain relatively strong in the markets studied, and continue to play an important role as a counterweight to national and international commercial competitors. Different markets require different policies that take into account the conditions in that specific market, in order to achieve a certain desirable merited effect. The thesis supports the view that a "one size fits all" policy across several markets when it comes to media regulation, risks not yielding the warranted results. Markets with different conditions, exposed to the same type of regulation, might have overall positive effects, but could also easily have a very negative impact if the conditions in a particular market do not fit with the intent of the policy. It is therefore far from certain that a "one size fits all" regulation will have the intended uniform effect on the affected market across several markets. This is especially true for markets that are challenged by having both a small population and a small economy. In a sense it is a paradox that the interest at European level in fair competition and equal opportunity for success can lead to different conditions of competition in a domestic market, as players may be subject to various conditions (in a way it can also be regarded as a consequence of domestic policy interventions), where the domestic players can face a strong international player, and as a result of the internal market and the Audiovisual Media Services directive, can achieve a competitive advantage, for example in relation to choosing the most lenient advertising rules. The analytical work of the thesis can substantiate claims that size has a significant effect and that there are concrete policy implications depending on size of economy and population, due to scarcity of resources in the individual market

An Integrated Method for Optimizing Bridge Maintenance Plans

Bridges are one of the vital civil infrastructure assets, essential for economic developments and public welfare. Their large numbers, deteriorating condition, public demands for safe and efficient transportation networks and limited maintenance and intervention budgets pose a challenge, particularly when coupled with the need to respect environmental constraints. This state of affairs creates a wide gap between critical needs for intervention actions, and tight maintenance and rehabilitation funds. In an effort to meet this challenge, a newly developed integrated method for optimized maintenance and intervention plans for reinforced concrete bridge decks is introduced. The method encompasses development of five models: surface defects evaluation, corrosion severities evaluation, deterioration modeling, integrated condition assessment, and optimized maintenance plans. These models were automated in a set of standalone computer applications, coded using C#.net in Matlab environment. These computer applications were subsequently combined to form an integrated method for optimized maintenance and intervention plans. Four bridges and a dataset of bridge images were used in testing and validating the developed optimization method and its five models. The developed models have unique features and demonstrated noticeable performance and accuracy over methods used in practice and those reported in the literature. For example, the accuracy of the surface defects detection and evaluation model outperforms those of widely-recognized machine leaning and deep learning models; reducing detection, recognition and evaluation of surface defects error by 56.08%, 20.2% and 64.23%, respectively. The corrosion evaluation model comprises design of a standardized amplitude rating system that circumvents limitations of numerical amplitude-based corrosion maps. In the integrated condition, it was inferred that the developed model accomplished consistent improvement over the visual inspection procedures in-use by the Ministry of Transportation in Quebec. Similarly, the deterioration model displayed average enhancement in the prediction accuracies by 60% when compared against the most commonly-utilized weibull distribution. The performance of the developed multi-objective optimization model yielded 49% and 25% improvement over that of genetic algorithm in a five-year study period and a twenty five-year study period, respectively. At the level of thirty five-year study period, unlike the developed model, classical meta-heuristics failed to find feasible solutions within the assigned constraints. The developed integrated platform is expected to provide an efficient tool that enables decision makers to formulate sustainable maintenance plans that optimize budget allocations and ensure efficient utilization of resources

Religious Minorities in the Middle East

Focusing on the situation of both Muslim and non-Muslim religious minorities in the Middle East, this volume offers an analysis of various strategies of resilience and accommodation from a historical as well a contemporary perspective. Readership: All those interested in the sociology of religion, majority/minority and ethnic relations, nationalism, state and nation-building, the politics of citizenship, human rights, and the Middle East in general

Religious Minorities in the Middle East

The relationship between religious majorities and minorities in the Middle East is often construed as one of domination versus powerlessness. While this may indeed be the case, to claim that this is only or always so is to give a simplified picture of a complex reality. Such a description lays emphasis on the challenges faced by the minorities, while overlooking their astonishing ability to mobilize internal and external resources to meet these challenges. Through the study of strategies of domination, resilience, and accommodation among both Muslim and non-Muslim minorities, this volume throws into relief the inherently dynamic character of a relationship which is increasingly influenced by global events and global connections

Shared Margins: an Ethnography with Writers in Alexandria after the Revolution

Shared Margins tells of writers, writing, and literary milieus in Alexandria, Egypt's second city. It de-centres cosmopolitan avant-gardes and secular-revolutionary aesthetics that have been intensively documented and studied since 2011. Instead, it offers a fieldwork-based account of various milieus and styles, and their common grounds and lines of division. Structured in two parts, Shared Margins gives an account of literature as a social practice embedded in milieus that at once enable and limit literary imagination, and of a life-worldly experience of plurality in absence of pluralism that marks literary engagements with the intimate and social realities of Alexandria after 2011. Literary writing, this book argues, has marginality as an at once enabling and limiting condition. It provides shared spaces of imaginary excess that may go beyond the taken-for-granted of a societal milieu, and yet are never unlimited. Literary imagination is part and parcel of such social conflicts and transformations, its role being neither one of resistance against power nor of guidance towards norms, but rather one of open-ended complicity