Bioclimatic Architecture: Housing and Sustainability

This paper aims to define several natural conditions that influence the architecture and sustainability of several buildings selected from various climatic zones around the world. The case studies in this paper vary from traditional to modern buildings, with a focus on the natural conditions that influence the architectural decisions of sustainable housing. This research paper encourages analyzing and taking advantage of environmental conditions around buildings to maintain ideal living conditions within the buildings through minimal consumption of energy, and to achieve sustainability that has become a philosophy of the modern architecture. The paper also includes climate studies of two cities in Syria, with differing environmental conditions that result in certain architectural decisions. Keywords: Sustainability, Bioclimatic, Housing

Wind Catchers and Sustainable Architecture in the Arab World

Ventilation is considered as one of the most important aspects in a successful architectural design. Distinguished designers dedicate a considerable part of the design process to develop this important aspect in their building design. The research presents a comparative analysis of the mechanical ventilation system that is in one of my suggested projects in Aleppo (Syria), and the wind catcher system and the soil cooling properties. The design concept is based on suction of outdoor air through vertical wind catchers positioned on top of the buildings adjacently to staircases and directed to the North West. The imported air is directed into underground horizontal ducts where heat exchange takes place between the hot air in the ducts and the cooler soil, thus cooling the air and increasing the humidity level which ultimately results in colder air in the ducts. The hot air is then repelled into the courtyard or the outdoor. The research concludes the advantages and disadvantages of both systems from environmental, economical, urban and social perspectives. Keywords : Wind catchers, natural ventilation

Architectural Visual Language in the Epic of Gilgamesh

The epic of Gilgamesh has proved to be more than just a legendary text as it provided us with valuable insight to the architectural design of its age. We are going to look, within our study, at what is known to be one of the most ancient journeys known in history inside the world of architect and design.According to my knowledge there has not been a text describing any such journey prior to the Gilgamesh epic containing the twelve chapters that form the body of the work. Most of the works mentioning such journeys were written almost ten decades after the release of the epic. The text of the epic is also unique in its length unmatched except by Homer's Odyssey and its crazy Phoenician journey passing by the Pillars of Hercules; this journey occurred on the Atlantic Ocean coast.I have been reviewing these texts in depth for over 39 years, since I first read the epic back in 1975. I have had the opportunity back then to look at what was once considered a taboo. Something that was prohibited for me to overview during my youth. The epic was one of the prohibitions due to the similarities it contains within its text with Monotheistic religions regardless of the style and the language used in the holly books. As a hungry reader back then I was only allowed access to texts mentioned within Quran. Since then I was obsessed with having the opportunity to embody the epic's architectural designs through forming surrealistic paintings reflecting my own view of this eternal epic.I will attempt through this humble study to embody the epic through ten paintings I have completed throughout last year. These paintings describe the Mesopotamian civilization; it also provides insight to that stage of history in addition to the time and place the epic took place. It also clarifies the identity of the place where the epic took place in the lights of the texts, archeological and historic data that could be compared to the epic's text.The rule adopted here is that any piece of art work needs to be predestined by critique conditions. similarly, any critique article needs to be predestined by ethical terms that relate to art work ethics and its deployment in addition to its influence level in the yet to come personal experience or its influence in the experience of others. Keywords: Epic of Gilgamesh, Mesopotamia, Immortality, Noah, Sumerians, Dilmun Islan

Snail abundance in freshwater canals in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia and acute toxicity studies of copper sulphate in Biomphalaria arabica and Lymnaea auricularia

The present study aimed to investigate the distribution of three species of freshwater snails, namely; Biomphalaria Arabica; Planorbidae, Lymnaea auricularia; Lymnaeidae and Melanoides tuberculatus; Thiaridae in two different parallel canals (the concrete irrigation and the earthen drainage canals) in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia and the effect of copper sulphate pentahydrate (CuSO4.5H2O) on mortality of the first two species after 24 h of exposure. The physico-chemical properties of the water especially, temperature and pH were determined as important factors for snail distribution. The results show that the water temperature and the pH of the two canals were almost the same. The range of water temperature was 25.8 to 28.3°C, while the water pH was 6.6 to 6.8. The two canals were occupied by three species of aquatic snails viz. B. arabica, L. auricularia and M. tuberculatus. The bioassay of CuSO4.5H2O on only two snail species showed 24 h–LC50 as 5.7 ppm for B. arabicus and 7.8 ppm for L. auricularia. This result reveals that CuSO4.5H2O was highly effective in snail eradication. On the basis of the present study, it is recommended that some further studies on the canals including all environmental factors should be investigated for their role in aquatic snail distribution. However, the chronic effect of lower lethal dose of CuSO4.5H2O on the snails mortality and their effects on developmental stages should be investigated, and some local plant extract should also be tried for their potency on snail mortality.Key words: Biomphalaria, Lymnea, Melanoides, distribution, freshwater snails, copper sulphate, Saudi Arabia

The Relationship Between Mobile In-App Advertising and Consumer Behavior: An Applied Study of Students Enrolled in Ernest C. Trefz School of Business at the University of Bridgeport

Technology has brought about profound changes in the advertising industry, affecting both consumers and businesses. These changes are mainly due to new technological tools that made it possible to target consumers based on their location, interests, age, and many other factors. Today, companies can tailor advertising campaigns based on the behavior of potential consumers from Internet usage, and send messages based on each consumer’s geographical location, areas of interest, history of Internet browsing, and demographic characteristics. In addition, the impact of using smartphones has grown to such a great degree that it has become a necessity not only for communications but also for other things such as game playing and entertainment, reading, writing, shopping, social networking, teleworking, etc. There has been a two-fold increase in smartphone usage in the past three years. Since 2014, smartphones have led the growth in digital media consumption. The average person spends 2 hours and 51 minutes a day on a mobile phone. In 2018, it is expected that the average time spent per day with mobile Internet, among US mobile users, will be 3 hours and 25 minutes for in-app usage versus 51 minutes for mobile web usage. According to Lipsman and Lella, “Mobile now represents almost 7 in 10 digital media minutes, and smartphone apps alone account for half of all digital consumption.” In addition, ads in mobile apps have become an integral part of the apps themselves. However, based on an analysis of the literature, there is a lack of knowledge about the consumer's behavior toward the ads presented within mobile applications. Therefore, the research problem can be summed up in this question: Do ads within mobile applications influence the behavior of consumers

A theoretical perspective for explaining factors associated with cooperative membership in the Qassim Region of Saudi Arabia

The focus of this study is on voluntary membership of farmers in agricultural cooperatives. Communication channels and personal motives of farmers are investigated in an effort to understand the problems hindering the agricultural cooperation movement. The main purpose of this study is to critique the traditional diffusion model in its application to cooperative membership in Saudi Arabia. Suggestions are made to expand the traditional model beyond utilitarian considerations to consider cooperation as a moral obligation. This comes out of a deontological perspective where cultural (moral) conditions are combined with perceived individual benefits for understanding how farmers decide on whether or not to join agricultural cooperatives;The research was conducted in Qassim, an agricultural area located in the Central Region of Saudi Arabia. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with a sample of 219 farmers during summer 1991. Results of the discriminant analysis show that accepting the idea of becoming an agricultural cooperative member by respondents was impacted by the same factors usually influencing adoption of most agricultural innovations. Members of the cooperative, however, were not only more educated and had larger farms, higher farm incomes, and more knowledge about cooperatives. They also provided more assistance to other farmers and viewed cooperation with others as an important matter. Implications of the findings are drawn. Finally, limitations of the study and suggestions for further research are discussed

Lean Implementation in Rawdat Al-Khail Health Center

Due to the significant increment of the State of Qatar Population in the Last few years, enormous pressure are puts on the current health care centers across the country. Health care is one of the main pillars of the future vision of Qatar 2030. Therefore, a revision of the current system of the country’s health care system is highly appreciated. In this project, one of Qatar’s busiest health care centers is studied to enhance the workflow of the patients. The walk-in patients are the most unpredictable, and hence, the project is focusing on improving the current walk-in patients’ flow in the health care center. The Lean Thinking approach is utilized to achieve this enhancement to the system. The Value Stream Mapping (VSM) tools are the used tool to accomplish this goal. After mapping the current process of the patients, the non-value-added activities are identified, and improvement ideas are suggested in order to reduce the waiting time of the walk-in patients of Rawdat Al-Khail Health Center. Cost-reduction is also achieved using the recommended approach of organizing the work activities. The improvements in the lead time (LT) and process time (PT) were mainly in the administrative steps of the current workflow since the other actions are not controllable, where a reduction of 8.8% in LT and 9.3% in PT were achieved. Suggestions and recommendations were made to Rawdat Al-Khail Health Center, which are applicable to other health centers in the State of Qatar. Further improvements to the other sectors of the Health Care are going to be addressed in the future in order to achieve a larger enhancement to the entire system

Surface and cross-sectional characterization of titanium-nitride coated nickel–titanium endodontic files

Background/purpose Although the effect of experimental surface modifications on various properties (e.g., fatigue, wear) on coated files have been tested in the past, there is no report for the coating quality of commercially available TiN coated files. The aim of this study was to characterize the surface and cross section of TiN coated endodontic files. Materials and methods TiN coated nickel–titanium endodontic files (EasyShape) were surface and cross-sectionally analyzed via scanning electron microscopy backscattered electron imaging and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy analysis in spot, area, and line scan modes. Results Surface imaging revealed parallel oblong regions with higher mean atomic contrast, a finding attributed to increased Ni content. Cross-sectional analysis showed that the coating’s average total thickness was 0.31 μm and consisted of a thin layered film. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy analysis revealed the presence of Ti, Ni, N, and O in the coating, whereas only Ni and Ti were identified in the bulk of the file. Ti and O showed their peak compositions at the bulk/coating and coating/surface interfaces, respectively, whereas N displayed a rather constant content within the coated region. The N and O contents started increasing inner to the coating/bulk interface, denoting possible diffusion of both elements to the subcoating region. Conclusion Surface and bulk characterization showed no uncoated areas of the files tested. Apart from Ti, Ni, and N, oxygen was also identified within the coating region