Open Source Architecture: Redefining Residential Architecture in Islamabad

Islamabad, a planned city, has grown rapidly since its conception in the 1960’s but it has not followed its predetermined fate but rather grown haphazardly due to the lack of infrastructure available to implement Doxiadis’s master plan. The city was unable to meet the housing requirements of the people causing them to build gated communities on the outskirts of Islamabad and its sister city, Rawalpindi. The market demands caused city prices to rise exponentially, increasing the economic divide between the social classes. The city which was once supposed to reflect diversity of social classes became home to the elite and the privileged. To heal these woes, the government needs to rethink the by-laws to echo the changes in the economy and society of Islamabad. Today, the city is facing multiple issues politically, economically and socially. The energy crisis is opening up the need for people to find alternative energy solutions. By defining a set of principles which reflect the teachings of vernacular architecture and employing renewable energy techniques, this thesis envisions a matrix of solutions tackling these issues. An open source platform would provide a data base of options for the 4 different types of dwellings defined by the housing authority. This would engage the city in an architectural discourse that does not currently exist, it would invite the layperson to understand and build awareness in the general population from architect to owner to builder

Socially Inclusive Development : The Foundations for Decent Societies in East and Southern Africa

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Electromechanical systems with transient high power response operating from a resonant AC link

The combination of an inherently robust asynchronous (induction) electrical machine with the rapid control of energy provided by a high frequency resonant AC link enables the efficient management of higher power levels with greater versatility. This could have a variety of applications from launch vehicles to all-electric automobiles. These types of systems utilize a machine which is operated by independent control of both the voltage and frequency. This is made possible by using an indirect field-oriented control method which allows instantaneous torque control in all four operating quadrants. Incorporating the AC link allows the converter in these systems to switch at the zero crossing of every half cycle of the AC waveform. This zero loss switching of the link allows rapid energy variations to be achieved without the usual frequency proportional switching loss. Several field-oriented control systems were developed by LeRC and General Dynamics Space Systems Division under contract to NASA. A description of a single motor, electromechanical actuation system is presented. Then, focus is on a conceptual design for an AC electric vehicle. This design incorporates an induction motor/generator together with a flywheel for peak energy storage. System operation and implications along with the associated circuitry are addressed. Such a system would greatly improve all-electric vehicle ranges over the Federal Urban Driving Cycle (FUD)

Dancing on a Pin: Health Planning in Arizona

This publication challenges us to step back and reflect on the past, present and future of health systems. Take a deeper look at planning and how we got here, review the roles of competition and regulation, and learn about the health planning matrix along with the concept of health planning bridges. Discover for yourself if these thoughts and tools help the signal of quality health planning rise more clearly from out of the noise

Location prediction based on a sector snapshot for location-based services

In location-based services (LBSs), the service is provided based on the users' locations through location determination and mobility realization. Most of the current location prediction research is focused on generalized location models, where the geographic extent is divided into regular-shaped cells. These models are not suitable for certain LBSs where the objectives are to compute and present on-road services. Such techniques are the new Markov-based mobility prediction (NMMP) and prediction location model (PLM) that deal with inner cell structure and different levels of prediction, respectively. The NMMP and PLM techniques suffer from complex computation, accuracy rate regression, and insufficient accuracy. In this paper, a novel cell splitting algorithm is proposed. Also, a new prediction technique is introduced. The cell splitting is universal so it can be applied to all types of cells. Meanwhile, this algorithm is implemented to the Micro cell in parallel with the new prediction technique. The prediction technique, compared with two classic prediction techniques and the experimental results, show the effectiveness and robustness of the new splitting algorithm and prediction technique

Near real-time flood detection in urban and rural areas using high resolution Synthetic Aperture Radar images

A near real-time flood detection algorithm giving a synoptic overview of the extent of flooding in both urban and rural areas, and capable of working during night-time and day-time even if cloud was present, could be a useful tool for operational flood relief management. The paper describes an automatic algorithm using high resolution Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite data that builds on existing approaches, including the use of image segmentation techniques prior to object classification to cope with the very large number of pixels in these scenes. Flood detection in urban areas is guided by the flood extent derived in adjacent rural areas. The algorithm assumes that high resolution topographic height data are available for at least the urban areas of the scene, in order that a SAR simulator may be used to estimate areas of radar shadow and layover. The algorithm proved capable of detecting flooding in rural areas using TerraSAR-X with good accuracy, classifying 89% of flooded pixels correctly, with an associated false positive rate of 6%. Of the urban water pixels visible to TerraSAR-X, 75% were correctly detected, with a false positive rate of 24%. If all urban water pixels were considered, including those in shadow and layover regions, these figures fell to 57% and 18% respectively

The role of governance in agricultural expansion and intensification: a global study of arable agriculture

In this research we studied empirical relationships between agricultural production dynamics and six quantitative World Bank governance indicators for 173 countries between 1975 and 2007. It is hypothesized that in countries with lower quality of governance, agricultural production increases are more likely to be achieved by area expansions than by increases in yields. We distinguished four groups of countries: those with both area and yield increases; those with increasing yields but decreasing area; those with decreasing yields but a growing area; and those with both declines in yields and area. We analyzed differences between these four groups, and also analyzed governance-production relationships within these groups. On average, quality of governance is low in countries with both area and yield increases and high in countries with increasing yields but decreasing area. Countries with declining yields were too few in number to allow for quantitative analyses. The analysis of governance-production relationships within the four groups suggests that countries with a lower quality of governance are more inclined to achieve production increases by expanding agricultural area rather than increasing yields. Additional explanatory value of governance indicators to agricultural production dynamics is generally small, but nevertheless significant in most cases. Our results suggest that, in order for agricultural production to increase without excessive expansions of agricultural area, governance issues should be resolve

Lessons from the Past and Future Directions for Corporate Real Estate Research

This study seeks to answer several questions about corporate real estate research. The first, Where should corporate real estate research be focused in the future? is addressed by a proposed alternative corporate real estate research framework that differs from what has been followed in the past. A second question that follows from the first is then addressed: Given such an alternative research framework, what types of corporate real estate issues merit research consideration? Finally, a third closely related question is then examined: Which research methodologies, databases and statistical tools are likely to prove useful to academic researchers seeking promotion and tenure, as well as corporate executives and others interested in better understanding the impacts of corporate real estate decisions?