Employing back casting principles for the formation of long term built asset management strategies - A theoretical approach

Purpose: Facilities managers have traditionally relied on forecasting approaches using the stock condition survey to predict maintenance and refurbishment needs against changing user requirements. However, the authors have previously shown that such an approach, whilst effective for short term planning, is unable to cope with the uncertainty and complex data sets required to develop long term plans (> 10 years), in particular the impact of future climate change (physical and legislative). This paper will present back casting as an alternative approach to support long term built asset management planning. Background: Back casting has been applied to sustainable transport management, energy planning and community climate change adaptation projects. The process in principle envisions a future state (end-point) set by stakeholders. Alternative ‘paths of approach’ are identified by looking backwards from the future state to the present. Each path is examined in turn to identify interventions (physical and/or operational) required in order for that path to achieve the end-goal. The stakeholder’s review each path and select the most appropriate for achieving the desired (end-point). This path is then integrated into the facilities (built asset) management strategy. Approach: The researchers worked with various stakeholders as part of an action research team to identify climate change adaptations that may be required to ensure the continued performance of the building and integrate these into a 60 year facilities management plan. Results: The paper superimposes back casting theory onto the adaptation process and explains how the theory supported long term facilities management planning. The paper also explains how the approach was used to provide confidence for the building owner to invest in the planned refurbishment of their built asset to improve its future performance and sustainability. Practical implications: The paper demonstrates the application of this approach through a case study example of a newly constructed £75 m educational building. A similar approach could be applied to other building types. Research limitations: This paper presents a theoretical model which needs to be validated using longitudinal data sets. Originality/value: This is the first paper to suggest the potential of back casting to inform long term built asset management strategies

Built Asset Management Climate Change Model

Purpose - Climate change continues to pose major challenges to those responsible for the management of built assets. The adaptation required to address long-term building performance affected by climate change rarely get prioritised above more immediate, short-term needs (general built asset management needs). This paper, thus presents results of an action research addressing climate change adaptation of selected social housing stock in the UK. Design /methodology/approach – The study adopts an in-depth participatory action research with a London based social landlord and integrates climate change adaptation framework and performance based model established through author’s previous research projects. Findings - A staged process for including adaptation measures in built asset management strategy is developed along with metrics to analyse the performance of the housing stock against climate change impacts of flooding. The prioritisation of adaptation measure implementation into long term built asset management plans was examined through cost based appraisal. Research Limitation – The research was carried out with a singular organisation, already acquainted with potential climate change impacts, vulnerability and adaptive capacity assessment. The process adopted will differ for similar organisation in the sector with different settings and limited working knowledge of climate change impact assessment. Originality /Value –. In addition to the practical results from the study the paper outlines a novel process that integrates resilience concepts, risk framing (to climate change impacts) and performance management into built asset management (maintenance and refurbishment) planning. Practical implications - The paper concludes with a 10 step process developed as an aide memoir to guide social landlords through the climate change adaptation planning process

Persistent ectopic pregnancy after milking procedure: Case report

Ectopic pregnancy is the settlement of the pregnancy product at any site other than the endometrium. The incidence of ectopic pregnancy have increased in the last 20 years. Increased frequency and early diagnosis has led to conservative treatment methods to become more favorable. Follow-up, medical management and surgical managements are considered as conservative methods. As salpingostomy is the most common conservative surgical method, milking is considered as an alternative conservative surgical method. The most important complication of the conservative surgery is the persistence of ectopic pregnancy because of the residual trophoblastic tissue. Since the prediction of the persistent ectopic pregnancy is difficult after the conservative surgery, β-HCG follow up is so important for early diagnosis. In this case report we have discussed the case of the patient who admitted to our clinic with persistent ectopic pregnancy with acute abdomen, after the treatment with milking procedure whom than treated by salpingectomy procedure

Image based simulation of one-dimensional compression tests on carbonate sand

High factors of safety and conservative methods are commonly used on foundation design on shelly carbonate soils. A better understanding of the behavior of this material is, thus, critical for more sustainable approaches for the design of a number of offshore structures and submarine pipelines. In particular, understanding the physical phenomena taking place at the microscale has the potential to spur the development of robust computational methods. In this study, a one-dimensional compression test was performed inside an X-ray scanner to obtain 3D images of the evolving internal structure of a shelly carbonate sand. A preliminary inspection of the images through five loading increments has shown that the grains rearrange under loading and in some cases cracks develop at the contacts. In order to replicate of the experiments in the numerical domain, the 3D image of the soil prior to loading was imported into a micro Finite Element (µFE) framework. This image-based modelling tool enables measurements of the contact force and stress map inside the grains while making use of the real microstructure of the soil. The potential of the µFE model to contribute insights into yield initiation within the grain is demonstrated here. This is of particular interest to better understand the breakage of shelly grains underpinning their highly compressive behavior

Studi Kasus Lingusql: Aplikasi Transaksi Perdagangan Saham

Proses pengembangan perangkat lunak yang ideal selalu mensyaratkan pengujian yang menyeluruh untuk memperoleh hasil perangkat lunak yang memiliki tingkat kebenaran tertentu. Namun pada prakteknya pengujian secara menyeluruh sangat jarang dilakukan karena membutuhkan sumber daya waktu dan biaya yang banyak. LinguSQL adalah sebuah tool pengembangan eksperimen yang mengintegrasikan proses pengujian secara whitebox dan blackbox ke dalam aktifitas pembuatan kodenya. Paper ini memaparkan penerapan LinguSQL dalam pengembangan studi kasus sebuah aplikasi transaksi perdagangan saham. Penerapan LinguSQL pada studi kasus yang cukup kompleks diharapkan akan menampilkan keuntungan konsep pengujian secara menyeluruh serta, dalam konteks implementasi tool, menunjukkan bagian-bagian yang masih perlu dikembangkan lebih lanjut. The ideal process software development always requires thorough testing to obtain the software that has a certain degree of truth. However, in practice very rarely thorough testing done because it requires so much resources of time and cost. LinguSQL is an experimental tool that integrates the development process is whitebox and blackbox testing in manufacturing activity code. This paper describes the implementastion of LinguSQL in the development of a stock trading application case study. Implementation of LinguSQL on a complex case study will show the expected benefit of testing the concept a thorough and in the context of the implementation tool, showing the parts that still need to be developed further

Web Service Discovery in a Semantically Extended UDDI Registry: the Case of FUSION

Service-oriented computing is being adopted at an unprecedented rate, making the effectiveness of automated service discovery an increasingly important challenge. UDDI has emerged as a de facto industry standard and fundamental building block within SOA infrastructures. Nevertheless, conventional UDDI registries lack means to provide unambiguous, semantically rich representations of Web service capabilities, and the logic inference power required for facilitating automated service discovery. To overcome this important limitation, a number of approaches have been proposed towards augmenting Web service discovery with semantics. This paper discusses the benefits of semantically extending Web service descriptions and UDDI registries, and presents an overview of the approach put forward in project FUSION, towards semantically-enhanced publication and discovery of services based on SAWSDL

Surface modification, strengthening effect and electrochemical comparative study of Zn-Al2O3-CeO3 and Zn-TiO2-CeO3 coating on mild steel

Surface enhancement of engineering materials is necessary for preventing service failure and corrosion attacks industrially. The surface modification, strengthening effect and electrochemical comparative study of Zn-Al2O3-CeO3 and Zn-TiO2-CeO3 coating on mild steel was investigated. Deposition was performed to obtain a better surface adherent coating using the electrodeposition technique. Co-deposition of mild steel resulted into surface modification attributes to the complex alloys that were developed. Films of mild steel were electrodeposited on zinc electrodes using the chloride bath solutions. The effect of deposition potentials was systematically studied using a focus ion beam scanning electron microscope (FIB-SEM) and an atomic force microscope (AFM) to observe the surface morphology, topography and the surface adherent properties of the coatings. The elemental composition and the phases evolved in composite coatings were measured by means of the energy dispersed spectrometer (EDS). The microhardness measurements and corrosion behaviours of the deposits were investigated. Weight loss measurement was conducted on the plated samples to observe the rate of corrosion and it was observed that there was severe corrosion on the controlled sample in comparison to the plated samples and that Zn-TiO2-CeO3 resisted more corrosion attacks

Effect of WO3 Nanoparticle Loading on the Microstructural, Mechanical and Corrosion Resistance of Zn Matrix/TiO2-WO3 Nanocomposite Coatings for Marine Application

In this study, for marine application purposes, we evaluated the effect of process parameter and particle loading on the microstructure, mechanical reinforcement and corrosion resistance properties of a Zn-TiO2-WO3 nanocomposite produced via electrodeposition. We characterized the morphological properties of the composite coatings with a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) equipped with an Energy Dispersive Spectrometer (EDS). We carried out mechanical examination using a Dura Scan hardness tester and a CERT UMT-2 multi-functional tribological tester. We evaluated the corrosion properties by linear polarization in 3.5% NaCl. The results show that the coatings exhibited good stability and the quantitative particle loading greatly enhanced the structural and morphological properties, hardness behavior and corrosion resistance of the coatings. We observed the precipitation of this alloy on steel is greatly influenced by the composite characteristics