Design of grid connected photovoltaic power plant: for Al-Ahliyya Amman University in Jordan

The Photovoltaic power plant is considered one of the most important renewable energy resources economically and environmentally. This project proposes the production and performance analysis for a GCPV power plant. The high irradiance and high tariff rate for the private sectors in Jordan are the main factors that encourage the usage of a renewable energy source to reduce the annual electricity bill. The tariff rate for Al-Ahliyya Amman University is 0.36 $/kWh and annual energy consumption is 4 GWh. The proposed power plant size is set to be 985 kWp on a 7,550 m2 available area designed using three methods which are mathematical equations, PVsyst software and Helioscope. Different methods are used to identify the power plant annual production and performance considering orientation, arrangement and irradiance losses. The mathematical equations annual production is 1616.041 MWh, performance ratio of 80%, payback period of 1 year and 11 months and CO2 emission of 24240.615 tCO₂. The PVsyst software method annual production is 1704.4 MWh, average performance ratio 83.4%, payback period of 2 years and CO2 emission of 24628.6 tCO₂. Lastly the Helioscope software annual production is 1,343.4 MWh, performance ratio of 80.8% and payback period of 2 years and 5 months CO2 emission of 19406.35 tCO₂. It‟s found that mathematical equations and PVsyst software obtained similar results of annual production and payback period comparing to the Helioscope due to the consideration of the location irradiance. For this study it‟s found that the PVsyst achieved the highest energy generation, annual electricity saving and CO2 emission due to the consideration of orientation, irradiance changes, detailed losses factors and sizin

Foreign direct investment in Malaysia: Trends and prospects

This paper reports on a study analyzing recent trends, pattern and prospects of the foreign direct investment (FDI) in Malaysia in the post-1997 financial crisis period. Among the ASEAN-4 countries, Malaysia continues to remain as the main centre for attracting FDI.The macroeconomic variables such as GDP, exports and employment are found to be positively influenced by the growth of FDI in Malaysia. To enhance the positive effect of FDI on the growth process of the Malaysian economy the flow of FDI into export-oriented sector and use of domestic inputs by the foreign oriented firms need to be encouraged.It is suggested that for sustained flow of FDI, continual price stability, macroeconomic balances, good governance and economic liberalization reforms are crucially important in the country.In the event of declining inflows of FDI, Malaysia has to shiR towards inward looking policies and search other alternatives to sustain its growth and economic prosperity by seeking more investment oufflows as a global player

Hierarchy based information requirements for sustainable operations of buildings in Qatar

Information flows in construction projects are generally focused on the needs of the design and construction phases. This creates disruption of workflows across the project stages and in particular with the information handover to the operation stage. The adherence to the clients' requirements for the operation phase of buildings becomes very challenging. A structured information delivery enabled by BIM protocols, established at the project’s inception phase, can help: 1) prevent information loss during the project development; 2) ensure the coordinated delivery of the clients’ requirements as stated at the pre-design stage, and 3) anticipate the impact of client decisions at early project stages on the operational performance of buildings. This research presents a methodology and a decision support system to help obtaining, categorizing and trading off sustainability and facility management values using subjective driven priorities from top-level management. The decision support system will assist, within digitally enabled projects, in translating these priorities into objective parameters and information categories. These can be subsequently included within the project tender and bidders’ BIM Execution Plans. The tool will also help to monitor the performance of the project design with the national sustainability and the client targets as the project progresses. The proposed tool is presented within the context of Qatar but it could be applied in other countries

Automotive Cognitive Access: Towards customized vehicular communication system

The evolution of Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Virtualization of mobile Network Functions (NFV) have enabled the new ways of managing mobile access systems and are seen as a major technological foundation of the Fifth Generation (5G) of mobile networks. With the appearance of 5G specifications, the mobile system architecture has the transition from a network of entities to a network of functions. This paradigm shift led to new possibilities and challenges. Existing mobile communication systems rely on closed and inflexible hardware-based architectures both at the access and core network. It implies significant challenges in implementing new techniques to maximize the network capacity, scalability and increasing performance for diverse data services. This work focuses preliminary on the architectural evolutions needed to solve challenges perceived for the next generation of mobile networks. I consider Software defined plus Virtualization featured Mobile Network (S+ MN) architecture as a baseline reference model, aiming at the further improvements to support the access requirements for diverse user groups. I consider an important class of things, vehicles, which needs efficient mobile internet access at both the system and application levels. I identify and describe key requirements of emerging vehicular communications and assess existing standards to determine their limitations. To provide optimized wireless communications for the specific user group, the 5G systems come up with network slicing as a potential solution to create customized networks. Network slicing has the capability to facilitates dynamic and efficient allocation of network resources and support diverse service scenarios and services. A network slice can be broadly defined as an end-to-end logically isolated network that includes end devices as well as access and core network functions. To this effect, I describe the enhanced behaviour of S+ MN architecture for the collection of network resources and details the potential functional grouping provided by S+ MN architecture that paves the way to support automotive slicing. The proposed enhancements support seamless connection mobility addressing the automotive access use case highly mobile environment. I follow the distribution of gateway functions to solve the problem of unnecessary long routes and delays. Exploiting the open SDN capabilities, the proposed S+ NC is able to parallelize the execution of certain control plane messages thus enabling the signalling optimisation. Furthermore, it enables the (Re)selection of efficient data plane paths with implied upper-layer service continuity mechanisms that remove the chains of IP address preservation for session continuity during IP anchor relocation. An implementation setup validates the proposed evolutions, including its core functionalities implemented using the ns-3 network simulator. The proposed slicing scheme has been evaluated through a number of scenarios such as numbers of signalling messages processed by control entities for an intersystem handover procedure relative to current mobile network architecture. I also perform the performance improvement analysis based on simulation results. Furthermore, I experimentally prove the feasibility of using Multipath TCP for connection mobility in intersystem handover scenario. The experiments run over the Linux Kernel implementation of Multipath TCP developed over the last years. I extend the Multipath TCP path management to delegates the management of the data paths according to the application needs. The implementation results have shown that the proposed S+ MN slicing architecture and enhancements achieve benefits in multiple areas, for example improving the mobility control and management, maintaining QoS, smooth handover, session continuity and efficient slice management and orchestration

La rivalidad indo-pakistaní sobre Cachemira: Un análisis del pasado y presente de Cachemira

The Kashmir issue, a principal reason for rivalry between India and Pakistan, has become the atomic flashpoint and a constant threat to the security of South Asia. The aim of this paper is to highlight the root causes of Kashmir disputes and the major events that contributed towards the Indo-Pak rivalry with respect to Kashmir. The paper highlights present political conditions in the Indian-held Kashmir also shows the role of India, Pakistan, and the United Nations in Kashmir Dispute. In the end, a conclusion is presented for the devalued relations of India and Pakistan in the setting of Kashmir and its effects are analyzed. La cuestión de Cachemira, una de las principales razones de la rivalidad entre la India y el Pakistán, se ha convertido en el punto álgido atómico y en una amenaza constante para la seguridad del Asia meridional. El objetivo de este documento es poner de relieve las causas fundamentales de las disputas de Cachemira y los principales acontecimientos que contribuyeron a la rivalidad indo-pakistaní con respecto a Cachemira. El documento pone de relieve las condiciones políticas actuales en la Cachemira controlada por la India y muestra también el papel de la India, el Pakistán y las Naciones Unidas en la controversia sobre Cachemira. Al final, se presenta una conclusión para las relaciones devaluadas de la India y el Pakistán en el escenario de Cachemira y se analizan sus efectos.

Women Health in Rural Pakistan in Millennium Development Goals Perspectives

This aim of this research was to study the situation of different Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) indicators at the gross root level in Mardan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. For this primary data were collected with the help of pre-designed questionnaires through face to face interview from 60 randomly households head. The data was analysed by using descriptive statistics and non-parametric tests. Main finding revealed that majority and statistically significant respondents not using any contraceptive methods. Majority of the respondents have no deliveries in their homes ended in last 3 years and there was no significant difference in the percent distribution of the respondents in the selected villages regarding this. Maternal health care, births attendant status and immunization of children against EPI are not up to the mark. Knowledge about HIV/AIDS, malaria, TB, DM is at maximum. The study recommends for social campaign/awareness, births control at the household’s level, training of more skillful persons having specialty in the maternal health care, immunization of children of less than 2 years about the different contagious diseases. Keywords: Maternal health, HIV/AIDS preventions, MDG

Study on Asphalt Pavement Distress: A Case Study in Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus

In past few years, Pavement Engineers are exploring new techniques and methods to reduce the cost of pavement construction, while increasing its service life. So it manages the ingredient of pavement material due to the pavement failure, although to characterize the thickness of pavement layers. The road must be designed and properly constructed in the site and then proper maintenance necessary. Meanwhile, the road must not be designed in a short period because of deterioration will start and shows the distress on the pavement surface like surface deformation, surface defect bleeding, disintegration pothole, and cracking. The causes of deterioration are environmental factors (moisture, climate), improper maintenance, Poor material, improper pavement design, traffic overload, traffic volume and subgrade failure. This research paper evaluates the current condition of asphalt pavement distresses which are existed in North Cyprus. A condition survey conducted from Lefkosa to Famagusta and the length of the highway is 57.9 km. It has achieved and proved 10 types of pavement distress in the study area such as potholes, Patching, Bleeding Slippage, Block, Transverse, Longitudinal, alligator. Furthermore, it analyzes the severity separately. It was concluded that the best maintenance alternative for the treatment of distresses in North Cyprus is crack filling, patching, an overlay, and shoulder enhancement

Changing histological spectrum of adult nephrotic syndrome in comparison to previous study: single centre analysis

Background: Glomerular diseases are an important cause of chronic renal failure in developing countries. The spectrum of diseases causing nephrotic syndrome is changing globally in the last few decades. Methods: Patients in the age group 18-60 years with nephrotic syndrome were consecutively included in the study. Renal biopsies were performed in all patients and were subjected to light microscopy, immunofluorescence (IF) and electron microscopy (EM). Results: 189 patients (67% males) were included in the study. The mean age was 43 years. Primary glomerular diseases accounted for 92.5% of cases while lupus nephritis was the most common secondary glomerular disease. Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) accounted for 28.6% of primary glomerular diseases making it the most common cause of nephrotic syndrome. It was followed by membranous glomerulonephritis (MGN) in 13.2%, membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis in 11.2%, diffuse proliferative glomerulonephritis in 10.6% and minimal change disease in 9.5%. Conclusions: The biopsy diagnosis of FSGS has increased considerably in last few decades and it is now the most common cause of nephrotic syndrome in adults in North India. MGN is the most common lesion in patients over 40 years of age

Principles and recommendations for client information requirements for BIM enabled construction projects in Qatar

Employer's information requirements (EIR) is one of the key early documents in projects using building information modelling (BIM). EIR, introduced by the UK BIM Task Group, sets out information deliverables and the standards and processes to be adopted by the supply chain. It includes a set of requirements and guidelines in three areas namely technical, management and commercial. EIR, which are applicable to the construction industry in Qatar, are not clearly defined despite BIM is increasingly required on projects. This paper aims to develop a set of principles and recommendations for the three areas of the EIR which are applicable to Qatar's construction sector. Following an investigation of current BIM practices in Qatar, a set of general principles and recommendations were proposed and validated for the areas of the client information requirements (CIR) - an adaption of the term EIR as evidenced in the paper. Copyright 2016 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.Scopu

Error resilient packet-switched video telephony with adaptive rateless coding and reference picture selection.

Providing high-quality video for packet-switched wireless video telephony on hand-held devices is a challenging task due to packet loss, limited available bandwidth, and complexity constraints. We propose a low-complexity channel-adaptive error resilience technique that combines application-layer forward error correction (FEC) with rateless codes, retransmission, and reference picture selection. Experimental results for H.264 video sequences show that the proposed technique achieves significant peak-signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) and percentage degraded video duration (PDVD) improvements over previous techniques in networks involving two wireless links