A domain specific software model for interior architectural education and practice

Interior architectural education and practice employ various general-purpose software packages. This study problematizes that as none of these packages is developed specifically for interior architectural design process and purposes, both interior architecture education and market seek ways to fulfill their specific needs. It is argued that currently interior architecture does not fully benefit from digital opportunities. A specific software package for interior architecture will enable the discipline to put forth its assets and manifest its existence. Consequently, this study proposes a domain specific model for interior architectural software. Initially, general-purpose and domain specific computer aided architectural design (CAAD) software used in interior architecture are determined. Then, selected software packages are analyzed according to Szalapaj's [1] set of features: 'drawing', 'transformation', 'view', 'rendering' and 'other'. Based on these analyses, domain specific requirements for interior architecture are obtained. Consequently, questionnaires and interviews are performed with interior architectural students and professionals in order to determine the user needs. Finally, based on the findings, a software model for interior architecture is proposed. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All Rights Reserved

Efficiency of closed loop geothermal heat pumps: A sensitivity analysis

Geothermal heat pumps are becoming more and more popular as the price of fossil fuels is increasing and a strong reduction of anthropogenic CO2 emissions is needed. The energy performances of these plants are closely related to the thermal and hydrogeological properties of the soil, but a proper design and installation also plays a crucial role. A set of flow and heat transport simulations has been run to evaluate the impact of different parameters on the operation of a GHSP. It is demonstrated that the BHE length is the most influential factor, that the heat carrier fluid also plays a fundamental role, and that further improvements can be obtained by using pipe spacers and highly conductive grouts. On the other hand, if the physical properties of the soil are not surveyed properly, they represent a strong factor of uncertainty when modelling the operation of these plants. The thermal conductivity of the soil has a prevailing importance and should be determined with in-situ tests (TRT), rather than assigning values from literature. When groundwater flow is present, the advection should also be considered, due to its positive effect on the performances of BHEs; by contrast, as little is currently known about thermal dispersion, relying on this transport mechanism can lead to an excessively optimistic desig

Microstructural, geochemical and geomechanical properties of caliche deposits from the Adana Basin, Turkey

The 1998 Ceyhan (Adana, Turkey) earthquake caused major damage to construction on caliche formations. Caliche (a heterogenous secondary calcium carbonate deposit formed in arid and semi-arid regions) is widespread in the Adana area. The paper distinguishes three types of caliche: massive, containing vegetation remains and containing gravel. The porosity, water absorption and unconfined compressive strength of these three groups of caliche were determined. The compressive strengths are low compared to caliches in other areas - an important consideration as Adana is the fourth largest city in Turkey. © Springer-Verlag 2008

The exponentiated phase measurement, and objective-function hybridization for adjoint waveform tomography

Seismic tomography has arrived at the threshold of the era of big data. However, how to extract information optimally from every available time-series remains a challenge; one that is directly related to the objective function chosen as a distance metric between observed and synthetic data. Time-domain cross-correlation and frequency-dependent multitaper traveltime measurements are generally tied to window selection algorithms in order to balance the amplitude differences between seismic phases. Even then, such measurements naturally favour the dominant signals within the chosen windows. Hence, it is difficult to select all usable portions of seismograms with any sort of optimality. As a consequence, information ends up being lost, in particular from scattered waves. In contrast, measurements based on instantaneous phase allow extracting information uniformly over the seismic records without requiring their segmentation. And yet, measuring instantaneous phase, like any other phase measurement, is impeded by phase wrapping. In this paper, we address this limitation by using a complex-valued phase representation that we call ‘exponentiated phase’. We demonstrate that the exponentiated phase is a good substitute for instantaneous-phase measurements. To assimilate as much information as possible from every seismogram while tackling the non-linearity of inversion problems, we discuss a flexible hybrid approach to combine various objective functions in adjoint seismic tomography. We focus on those based on the exponentiated phase, to take into account relatively small-magnitude scattered waves; on multitaper measurements of selected surface waves; and on cross-correlation measurements on specific windows to select distinct body-wave arrivals. Guided by synthetic experiments, we discuss how exponentiated-phase, multitaper and cross-correlation measurements, and their hybridization, affect tomographic results. Despite their use of multiple measurements, the computational cost to evaluate gradient kernels for the objective functions is scarcely affected, allowing for issues with data quality and measurement challenges to be simultaneously addressed efficiently

Dinoproston vajinal ovül ile doğum indüksiyonu; erken membran rüptürlü term gebelikte güvenli ve etkili midir?

Objective: Our aim in this study is to compare the efficacy and safety of controlledrelease dinoprostone vaginal insert in patients with intact membranes and premature rupture of membranes (PROM). Material and Methods: Eighty-six term pregnants with singleton pregnancy, with no prior uterine scar, vertex presentation, bishop score = 5, were included in the study. Patients were divided into two groups as PROM patients (n:27) and patients with intact membranes (n:59). Labor induction with controlled-release dinoprostone vaginal insert was performed to all cases. The groups were compared with each other in terms of cervical ripening, success of the induction, adverse neonatal outcomes and presence of maternal side effects. Results: In the PROM group and the intact membrane group, the cervical ripening was completed at 4th hours and at 6th hours, respectively (p=0.01 and p=0.001). The mean time to onset of active labor was 6,63 hours in the PROM group and 7,81 hours in the intact membranes group (p=0.1). There was no significant difference in low 1. and 5. minute Apgar scores, low umbilical artery pH, administration to neonatal intensive care unit, and operative vaginal delivery between the two groups. Maternal vomiting, diarrhea, uterine tachysystole were not observed and there was no case of maternal or neonatal death. Conclusion: These data overall suggest that controlled-release dinoprostone insert use is effective and safe in patients with PROM just like in patients with intact membranes.Bu çalışmada amacımız, Erken Membran Rüptürü (EMR) ve intakt membranlı hasta-- larda kontrollü salınımlı dinoproston vajinal ovülün güvenilirliğini ve etkinliğini karşılaştırmaktır. Gereç ve Yöntemler: Bishop skoru g5, baş geliş, önceden uterin skarı olmayan 86 term tekil gebe çalışmaya alındı. Hastalar EMR (n:27) ve intakt membranlı olarak (n59) iki gruba ayrıldı. Tüm va-- kalara kontrollü salınımlı dinoproston ile doğum indüksiyonu uygulandı. Gruplar servikal olgunla-- şma, indüksiyon başarısı, olumsuz yenidoğan sonuçları ve anneye ait yan etkiler açısından karşılaştırıldı. Bulgular: EMR ve membranları sağlam grupta, servikal olgunlaşma sırasıyla ve 6. saatlerde tamamlandı (p=0,01 and p=0,001). Aktif doğum fazının ortalama başlama süresi EMR gru-- bunda 6,63 saat ve membranları sağlam grupta 7,81 saaatidi (p=0,1). Düşük 1. ve 5. dakika Apgar skoru, düşük umblikal arter pH, yenidoğan yoğun bakım ünitesine başvuru ve operatif vajinal do-- ğumda iki grup arasında istatistiksel fark yoktu. Annede kusma, diyare, uterin taşisistol gözlenmedi ve maternal neonatal ölüm olmadı. Sonuç: Bu veriler kontrollü sahmli dinoproston ovül kullanımının intakt membranlı hastalarda olduğu gibi EMR hastalarda da etkili ve güvenli olduğunu göstermektedir

Global adjoint tomography—model GLAD-M25

Building on global adjoint tomography model GLAD-M15, we present transversely isotropic global model GLAD-M25, which is the result of 10 quasi-Newton tomographic iterations with an earthquake database consisting of 1480 events in the magnitude range 5.5 ≤ Mw ≤ 7.2, an almost sixfold increase over the first-generation model. We calculated fully 3-D synthetic seismograms with a shortest period of 17 s based on a GPU-accelerated spectral-element wave propagation solver which accommodates effects due to 3-D anelastic crust and mantle structure, topography and bathymetry, the ocean load, ellipticity, rotation and self-gravitation. We used an adjoint-state method to calculate Fréchet derivatives in 3-D anelastic Earth models facilitated by a parsimonious storage algorithm. The simulations were performed on the Cray XK7 ‘Titan’ and the IBM Power 9 ‘Summit’ at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility. We quantitatively evaluated GLAD-M25 by assessing misfit reductions and traveltime anomaly histograms in 12 measurement categories. We performed similar assessments for a held-out data set consisting of 360 earthquakes, with results comparable to the actual inversion. We highlight the new model for a variety of plumes and subduction zones