Application of a neural network model to short-term water demand forecasting

This is the final version. Available from MDPI via the DOI in this record. Data Availability Statement: The original data presented in the study are openly available at https://wdsa-ccwi2024.it/battle-of-water-networks/ (accessed on 13 March 2024).Relationships between water demand, pressure, and leakage highlight the need for accurate supply to match demand. This study addresses the challenges of forecasting short-term water demand and was part of the Battle for Water Demand Forecasting competition involving 10 real-world District Metered Areas in Italy. A nine-layer convolutional neural network model was proposed that considers demand from previous time steps, time of the day, weather conditions, day type, and other deterministic temporal factors to predict water demand. Bayesian optimization was used for hyperparameter tuning. The model can predict and forecast short-term water demand with reasonable accuracy

Designing a Paved Road Using Geogrids to Reduce the Thickness of the Pavement Layers

This is a proceeding paper presented at the 9th South African Young Geotechnical Engineers Conference, 13, 14 & 15 September 2017 – Salt Rock Hotel, Dolphin Coast, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal 575 on Designing a Paved Road Using Geogrids to Reduce the Thickness of the Pavement Layers.Performance and durability of road pavements are significantly dependent on the strength and stability of the underlying soil layers, most especially the subgrade pavement layer. Currently, in Uganda most roads are constructed through low lying areas characterized by soft, hence weak, clay soils. The main practice, of improving the strength of such subgrade layers, has been to import stronger lateritic soils and dump them in layers over the weaker soils in thicknesses of more than 1.0 m. This is expensive, especially in terms of the haulage costs, and not environmentally friendly. Additionally, the lateritic soils are also getting depleted. Hence the need to utilize alternative means of increasing the strength of weak subgrades. This study focused on the application of Geogrids in pavement layers to reduce their overall thickness and life cycle costs of the road. A low-lying section on the Bajjo road, a bypass connecting Mukono to Seeta, was used as a case study. According to the AASHTO classification system of subgrade materials, the subgrade soils fell under the soil ranges of A-7, A-7-6, and A-6 group, therefore a poor subgrade material requiring stabilization. The average CBR was determined as 19%. The inclusion of the Geogrid reduced the overall layer works thickness by 25% and it’s cost effective by 42% over the whole lifecycle of the road

The World Health Organization Quality of Live assessment (WHOQOL): Position paper from the the World Health organization

This paper describes the World Health Organization's project to develop a quality of life instrument (The WHOQOL). WHOQOL)It outlines the reasons that the project was undertaken, the thinking that underlies the project, the method that has been followed in its development and the current status of the project. The WHOQOL assesses individuals' perception of their position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards and concerns. It has been developed collaboratively in several culturally diverse centres over four years. Piloting of the WHOQOL on some 4500 respondents in 15 cultural settings has been completed. On the basis of this data the revised WHOQOL Field Trial Form has been finalized, and field testing is currently in progress. The WHOQOL produces a multi-dimensional profile of scores across six domains and 24 sub-domains of quality of life

The World Health Organization Quality of Live assessment (WHOQOL):Position paper from the the World Health organization

This paper describes the World Health Organization's project to develop a quality of life instrument (The WHOQOL). WHOQOL)It outlines the reasons that the project was undertaken, the thinking that underlies the project, the method that has been followed in its development and the current status of the project. The WHOQOL assesses individuals' perception of their position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards and concerns. It has been developed collaboratively in several culturally diverse centres over four years. Piloting of the WHOQOL on some 4500 respondents in 15 cultural settings has been completed. On the basis of this data the revised WHOQOL Field Trial Form has been finalized, and field testing is currently in progress. The WHOQOL produces a multi-dimensional profile of scores across six domains and 24 sub-domains of quality of life