Deconstructing the dualities between design and use through a case of sustainability

Ponència presentada a: Session 2: Post-ocupación / Post-occupancy: buildings and citie

Exploring temporary urban interventions through user activities: a case study of Abdali Boulevard, Amman, Jordan

Introduction: Urban studies have examined the potential of urban interventions to upgrade spaces. This is the focus of relational approaches that emphasize interactions between interventions and users. One approach, actor–network theory, views these interactions as temporary stabilized relational effects. Despite its usefulness in uncovering diverse interactions in urban spaces, the utilization of actor–network theory in unpacking these relations has been limited.Methods: This study utilized an actor–network theory-inspired ethnography in a temporary urban intervention in Abdali Boulevard, in Jordan, to bridge this gap. It relied on desk research, interviews, and site observations to explore the different intervention–user interactions.Results: The findings revealed various interactions and relational patterns occurring between interventions and their users through their presence and absence in space and time, where users attended to, engaged with, overlooked, bypassed, disturbed the intervention, or floated between different modes of interaction.Discussion: Unpacking these diverse interactions and relations provides a nuanced perspective on the effects of urban interventions on spaces. This would be useful for designers in developing new ways of designing through offering interventions that engage the public

Enhanced Antenna Design for Rectenna Application in the 2.45 GHz ISM Band

In this paper a two layers microstrip antenna design at 2.45 GHz ISM band with Harmonic rejection filter embedded on the ground plane is presented. The two roger substrates with relative permittivity of 2.2 are separated by an air gap which enhances the antenna gain. The design is simulated using Computer Simulation Technology (CST) Studio Suite 2015. Different aperture couplings slots such as rectangular and triangular aperture coupling slots are studied and compared. It is found that the antenna with triangular aperture coupling slot enhances the antenna performance by suppressing 2nd and 3rd harmonics at 5 GHz and 8 GHz, respectively, increasing the antenna gain and providing a better circular polarization behavior. The simulated antenna design achieves a gain of 9 dB, return loss of -23.6dB, axial ratio of 1.27dB and axial-ratio bandwidth of 40.8% (2 ~ 3 GHz). The proposed antenna shows an enhancement in the antenna performance which makes it a suitable candidate for rectifying antenna or rectenna application as it can increase the total conversion efficiency resulting in a high output DC voltage used to power low power electronic and electrical devices such as wireless sensor

Enhancing Rice Leaf Disease Classification: A Customized Convolutional Neural Network Approach

In modern agriculture, correctly identifying rice leaf diseases is crucial for maintaining crop health and promoting sustainable food production. This study presents a detailed methodology to enhance the accuracy of rice leaf disease classification. We achieve this by employing a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model specifically designed for rice leaf images. The proposed method achieved an accuracy of 0.914 during the final epoch, demonstrating highly competitive performance compared to other models, with low loss and minimal overfitting. A comparison was conducted with Transfer Learning Inception-v3 and Transfer Learning EfficientNet-B2 models, and the proposed method showed superior accuracy and performance. With the increasing demand for precision agriculture, models like the proposed one show great potential in accurately detecting and managing diseases, ultimately leading to improved crop yields and ecological sustainability

N/A and signature analysis for malwares detection and removal

Objectives: This study aimed to design an application that effectively scans, detects, and removes malware based on their signatures and behaviours. Methods/Statistical analysis: The rapid growth in the number and types of malware poses high security risks despite the numerous antivirus softwares with Signature-Based Detection (SBD) method. The SBD method depends on the signatures or malware names that are available in the algorithm database. Findings: Malware is a type of malicious software that poses security threats to the targeted system, resulting in information loss, resource abuse, or system damage. The antivirus software is one of the most commonly used security tools to detect and remove malware. However, the malware defences should focus on the malware signatures since there is no universal way of recognising all malware. Therefore, this study suggested N/A detection technique as the dynamic method (behaviour-based detection method) that depends on the Windows Registry (system database). Both static and dynamic detection methods were assessed in this study. Based on the experimental outcomes, SBD method detected and removed most of malware (only known viruses). Application/Improvements: Meanwhile, the N/A detection method detected and removed all injected malware (known and unknown Trojan horse) within a relatively low running time

UWB Filtenna With Electronically Reconfigurable Band Notch Using Defected Microstrip Structure

A new design of filtenna with electronically reconfigurable band notch for ultra-wideband (UWB) applications is presented. The filtenna is designed based on modified monopole antenna integrated with resonant structure. To produce wider bandwidth with better return loss and higher frequency skirt selectivity, the monopole antenna is modified using microstrip transition in the feedline and block with a triangular-shape slot on each side of the circular patch. The resonant structure is about U-shaped slot defected on the feedline to achieve band notch characteristic. The position of the created band notch is controlled by optimizing the length of the U-shaped slot. By using a PIN diode switch inserted in the U-shaped slot to achieve reconfigurability feature. The experimental results show that the proposed design exhibits a wide bandwidth ranging from 3.0 to 14.0 GHz with reconfigurable band notch at 5.5 GHz (WLAN), and omnidirectional radiation pattern. Therefore, the proposed design is a good candidate for modern UWB applications

A Novel Reconfigurable UWB Filtering-Antenna with Dual Sharp Band Notches Using Double Split Ring Resonators

This study presents a novel technique for designing an ultra-wideband (UWB) filteringantenna with dual sharp band notches. This design is composed of a modified monopole antenna integrated with resonant structures. The monopole antenna is modified using microstrip transition between the feedline and the patch. In addition, block with a triangle-shaped slot is loaded on each side of the ordinary circular patch to produce wide bandwidth with better return loss and higher frequency skirt selectivity. The resonant structures are constructed using two double split ring resonators (DSRR) loaded above the ground plane of the antenna to produce dual band notches and filter out WiMAX (3.3–3.7GHz) and HiperLAN2 (5.4–5.7GHz) frequencies. The band notch position is controlled by varying the length of the DSRR. The reconfigurability feature is achieved by using two PIN diode switches employed in the two DSRR. The measured results show that the proposed filtering-antenna provides wide impedance bandwidth from 2.58 to 15.5GHz with controllable dual sharp band notches for WiMAX and HiperLAN, peak realized gain of 4.96 dB and omnidirectional radiation pattern

Effect of Indoor Environment on Occupant Air Comfort and Productivity in Office Buildings: A Response Surface Analysis Approach

Indoor air quality is a significant factor influencing occupant comfort, health and productivity. Indoor air comfort and its relationship to occupant comfort and productivity are widely documented. Statistical correlation between the two has been highlighted in scientific literature. This paper investigates any unique correlations between non-air quality parameters (such as lux level, temperature, and noise level) and indoor air comfort and presents a study investigating the effect of indoor environmental quality on occupant air comfort and productivity. This study was conducted by collecting data on indoor environmental parameters using remote sensors and an online survey for occupant responses for twelve months. Data analysis was performed using Response Surface Analysis to present mathematical relationships between indoor environmental quality parameters and occupant air comfort. Results show that carbon dioxide up to 600 ppm, VOC up to 25 (by volume) and humidity up to 60 have a positive impact on occupant air comfort and productivity. Our research highlighted that some non-air quality parameters, such as outdoor temperature and lux levels, affect occupant air comfort. These results would enable built environment professionals to design and operate offices (subtropical desert climate) conducive to occupant comfort and productivity