Challenging Investigations into Structural Design of Lean Oil Unit Used in Refineries

This work describes a challenging structural investigation that was conducted for Lean Oil Unit (LOU) commonly designed in oil refineries. Little guidelines are available in design codes and industrial specifications for design of this type of structures. The paper also describes Numerical models developed to idealize load transfer between various structural systems. Concrete piles are used to support major structures used in the unit. Spring elements are used to simulate soil interaction. Economical strategies and design recommendations are discussed that can be used by practitioners for design of industrial structures and optimize overall project capital cost. The scope of the paper is only limited to the structural designs aspects. Chemical or mechanical aspects are not within the scope of the paper

Efficient Methodology for Design of Industrial Blast Resistant Electrical Substations and Control Buildings

This paper describes economical strategies to design electrical substations and control buildings that are commonly used at industrial plants. Limited literature addressed design aspects for this class of buildings. Furthermore, little guidelines are available in practice to regulate this type of steel construction.  The first part of the paper overviews the architectural and structural layouts of electrical buildings. Blast resistance requirements for occupied control buildings are also discussed. Simplified multiple degrees of freedom (MDOF) dynamic model is also illustrated that can be utilized for analysis of the blast resistant buildings. The economical aspects and cost savings resulting in using mobile industrial buildings are discussed. The article also highlights the engineering challenges that are encountered in design of mobile electrical facilities. The transportation procedure and design requirements are briefly described. Guidelines are proposed to calculate the center of mass of the building combined with interior equipments. The proposed design concept for electrical and control buildings is cost effective and can be implemented in industry to reduce projects cost

An investigation into whether experiential avoidance acts as a mediator in the relationship between religious coping and depression in an adult Muslim population.

Background Depression presents differently in Muslims (Sami & El-Gawad, 1995). Religious coping and experiential avoidance (EA) are ways of coping with depression in many populations and religions but how these manifest or interact in Muslims is unknown. The way individuals cope with stressors may lead to the development of depression (Beck, 1987b). Positive religious coping (PRC) and acceptance are adaptive forms of coping and correlate with better quality of life (Gardner, Krägeloh and Henning, 2014). Negative religious coping (NRC) and EA are maladaptive forms of coping correlating with depression (Hayes et al., 2004; Pargament Feuille & Burdzy, 2011). Islam fosters acceptance and positive action. An a priori prediction is that well-adjusted, practicing Muslims will engage in PRC and acceptance, whilst those engaging in NRC and EA will display more depressive symptoms. Aims To investigate whether religious coping and EA are implicated in the development of depression in Muslims. To date no study has addressed both constructs together in a Muslim sample. The study aimed to fill this gap and further the understanding of depression in Muslims. Doctoral Thesis: An investigation into whether Dina Bedair experiential avoidance acts as a mediator in the relationship between religious coping and depression in an adult Muslim population iii Method Participants were recruited from a community sample of Arabic-speaking Muslims in the United Kingdom. Data were collected with an Arabic questionnaire pack including EA, religious coping and depression measures. Analysis A cross-sectional, correlation and mediation design was adopted to test the hypotheses. Results NRC moderately, positively correlated with depression. EA strongly positively correlated with depression. PRC was not related to depression. EA mediated the relationship between NRC and depression. Conclusion EA could be a clinical target for depressed Muslims, e.g. using existing therapies like acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT; Hayes & Wilson 1994) or by incorporating Islamic concepts into other therapies like CBT to reduce NRC and increase acceptance. There is a need to develop standardised Arabic measures for use with this population

Iterative Approach for Global and Local Stability of Built-up Stiffened Box Sections

This paper describes iterative procedure for stability analysis of stiffened built-up stiffened box sections subject to combined loadings. Unconstrained optimization algorithm (UOA) is used to compute the global and local buckling stresses. Energy formulation is first presented for the structural elements assuming the stiffeners are rigidly connected to the flanges. Global buckling load also determined by minimizing the unconstrained objective function with respect to the displacement coefficients. The webs are assumed partially restrained against rotation and subject to non-uniform compressive and shear loadings. Web local buckling is also formulated using (UOA) by treating the skew angle and half wave length as design variables. Results are presented to illustrate structural performance of the assembled box section. Design guidelines are proposed that can be utilized in practice to maximize the structural response

Prevalence of oral mucosal lesions in psoriatic patients: a controlled study

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate and compare the prevalence of oral mucosal lesions in a group of psoriatic patients and healthy subjects, and its correlation to multiple clinical parameters. Study design: 100 psoriatic patients and 100 closely matched controls underwent clinical oral examination. Oral lesions were diagnosed according to the criteria proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO). The patients filled the Hospital Anxiety and Depression (HAD) questionnaire and the Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI). The severity of psoriasis was assessed by the Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI). Categorical variables were evaluated using Chi-square test or Fisher's exact test with overall significance set at p< 0.05. Results: Oral mucosal lesions were diagnosed in 43 (43%) psoriatic patients and 17 (17%) control subjects (p=0.000). Comparing psoriatic patients to control subjects the prevalence of fissured tongue (FT) was 35% vs. 13% (p=0.000); geographic tongue (GT) 17% vs. 9% (p=0.09); combination of FT and GT 5% vs. 5% (p=1.00); oral candidosis 3% vs. 0% (p=0.81); leukoedema 1% vs. 3% (p=0.62); physiologic melanin pigmentations 4% vs. 1% (p=0.37) respectively. The clinical type of psoriasis, duration of the disease, method of disease management (medicated vs. non-medicated for psoriasis), smoking habit, psychological status or the disease severity did not influence the prevalence of FT and GT. Psoriatic patients who experienced 'very large' to 'extremely large' adverse effect of psoriasis on their quality of life have significantly higher prevalence of GT (p=0.04). Conclusions: FT is significantly more common in psoriatic patients compared to controls; hence studies investigating the nature of this relationship are warranted. Oral health care providers should be aware of the predisposition of psoriatic patients to oral candidosis

Intention to Purchase Counterfeit Products: The Impact of Unethical Beliefs, Social Status and Perceived Risk

Counterfeiting has become an economic problem as an increasing number of goods are being illegally produced. However, there is a dearth of studies investigating counterfeiting in the Arab World. This study uses a five-point Likert scale to examine the impact of moral beliefs, social status and perceived risk on the intention to purchase counterfeits of luxury brands in the Arab Gulf (n = 448). Structural equation modelling was employed for data analysis. Results show that consumers’ unethical beliefs and perceived risk have a negative, while status consumption has a positive, impact on the intention to purchase counterfeit products. Additionally, users’ demographic measures, such as religiosity, cultural background and socioeconomic status, do not have a significant impact on the intent to purchase counterfeit products. This study provides a new theoretical foundation for studying the purchase of counterfeit products in a non-Western culture, and also provides companies with a number of factors that might help in discouraging counterfeit product consumption

Intention to Purchase Counterfeit Products: The Impact of Unethical Beliefs, Social Status and Perceived Risk

Counterfeiting has become an economic problem as an increasing number of goods are being illegally produced. However, there is a dearth of studies investigating counterfeiting in the Arab World. This study uses a five-point Likert scale to examine the impact of moral beliefs, social status and perceived risk on the intention to purchase counterfeits of luxury brands in the Arab Gulf (n = 448). Structural equation modelling was employed for data analysis. Results show that consumers’ unethical beliefs and perceived risk have a negative, while status consumption has a positive, impact on the intention to purchase counterfeit products. Additionally, users’ demographic measures, such as religiosity, cultural background and socioeconomic status, do not have a significant impact on the intent to purchase counterfeit products. This study provides a new theoretical foundation for studying the purchase of counterfeit products in a non-Western culture, and also provides companies with a number of factors that might help in discouraging counterfeit product consumption

Comprehensive study of wind loads on parapets

The current thesis aims at defining and evaluating the local (components and cladding) wind loads on parapets. For the first time, it was attempted to measure such loads in full-scale, in order to address the issues encountered in previous wind tunnel studies. Field testing was carried out using the full-scale experimental building (3.97 m long, 3.22 m wide and 3.1 m high) of Concordia University (located near the soccer field at the Loyola Campus). In order to define individual surface pressures as well as their combined effect from both parapet surfaces, simultaneous peak and mean wind-induced pressures were measured on both exterior and interior surfaces of a uniform perimeter parapet with a height of 0.5 m. Roof edge and comer pressures were also recorded. In addition, a complete wind flow simulation was performed in the Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel (BLWT) of Concordia University using a 1/50 scale model of the experimental building with two different parapet heights, equivalent to 0.5 and 1 m. The choice of geometric scale based on correctly modeling the turbulence intensity at the roof height. The wind tunnel results were compared with the field data for validation purposes. In general, the comparison shows good agreement, although some discrepancies were identified for critical wind directions. In the past, it was difficult to directly model and record the parapet surface pressures, due to modeling limitations. Therefore, wind loads on parapets were mainly estimated from pressures measured on the wall and the roof of the building in the vicinity of a parapet. The current results demonstrate, in general, that the design method provided in the ASCE 7-05 overestimates the total load on the parapet. In addition, design recommendations are provided and can be considered by the standards. Numerical simulation of the wind flow over the test building model with the parapet was also performed by using the CFD code Fluent 6.1.22. The steady-state RANS equations were solved with two modified k -[varepsilon] turbulence models, namely the RNG k -[varepsilon] model and the RLZ k -[varepsilon] model. Considering the current state-of-the-art, peak pressures are not predicted reliably by computational approaches. Therefore, in the present study only mean wind-induced pressures on the roof and on parapet surfaces were computed. The computational results show that parapets act to reduce high negative pressures on the leading edge and to make the distribution of mean pressures on the roof more uniform. The simulated pressures are generally in good agreement with the corresponding wind tunnel dat