The Impact of Garage – House Interface Leakage on Contaminant Transport

Many contaminants such as carbon monoxide, benzene, toluene and ethyl benzene in the living area of a house originate from attached garages. As houses are designed and constructed more airtight and energy efficient, these contaminants are retained in indoor air, jeopardizing the occupants' health. In this study a multi-zone model for indoor air quality and contaminant transport analysis, CONTAM, was employed to analyze the impact of garage-house interface on the contaminant transport from attached garages to living area. Parametric studies of two buildings have been carried out based on the experimental data of five normalized Effective Leakage Area (ELA) of the garage-house interface. The parametric study indicates that both natural ventilation (wind direction and speed) and mechanical ventilation system influence the pressure difference in the house and consequently affect the contaminant transport from the garage to the house. For the simulations of wind directions for one of the modeled house, the highest and lowest concentration in the living room occurs with the wind directions of 135˚ and 270˚ respectively, regardless of garage-house ELA. Furthermore, the simulation results of wind speeds demonstrate that as the wind speed increases, the peak contaminant concentration indoors increases. However, as the wind speed increases, the infiltration increases. As a result, the exposure to the contaminant actually decreases. Moreover, seven different exhaust ventilation flow rates in different locations were evaluated. The result shows that the worst case scenario is when implementing 52 L/s exhaust ventilation (master bath (10 L/s), hall bath (10 L/s), bedroom2 (22 L/s), living room (10 L/s))

Copper Based Antifouling Paints for Prevention of Marine Growth on ship Hulls

"The mode of action and requirements of ingredients of copper based antifouling paints used in the country for the prevention of fouling, on ship-hulls have been described. The studies on performance of antifouling paints based on cuprous oxide-chlorinated rubber-rosin system have also been reported. Antifouling life improves with increase in concentration of cuprous oxide, 43 per cent by volume being the optimum toxic content. A minimum rosin to resin ratio of 3:1 is required to permit adequate release of copper for prolonged periods. Hydrolysable plasticizer namely tricresyl phosphate has been found to be superior to chlorinated paraffin wax for the design of antifouling compositions. The antifouling paint based on chlorinated rubber resin is expected to give a life of 15-18 months in service.

Robust estimation of axial loads sustained by tie-rods in historical structures using Artificial Neural Networks

[EN] Widely used simplified analytical methods for estimating the tensile force in tie-rods are clearly not applicable when they contain significant discontinuities or irregularities. A common example for which this fact becomes relevant in practice is the use of connectors to unify historical ties consisting of several segments. To address this challenge, a robust hybrid methodology is proposed which can be applied to any historical tie by employing a data-driven approach to a dataset generated using the finite element method. The methodology is applied to a real case study involving two historical ties.The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the Servei del Patrimoni Arquitectònic of the Generalitat de Catalunya through a project (managed by the City Council of Sant Cugat) aimed at monitoring the church of the Monastery of Sant Cugat (grant number C-10764); the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities of the Spanish Government and the ERDF (European Regional Development Fund) through the SEVERUS project (Multilevel evaluation of seismic vulnerability and risk mitigation of masonry buildings in resilient historical urban centres) (grant number RTI2018-099589-B-I00); and the AGAUR agency of the Generalitat de Catalunya in the form of the predoctoral grant of the first author.Makoond, NC.; Pelà, L.; Molins, C. (2023). Robust estimation of axial loads sustained by tie-rods in historical structures using Artificial Neural Networks. Structural Health Monitoring. 22(4):2496-2515. https://doi.org/10.1177/147592172211233262496251522

Study of System Identification method Using Adaptive Filter and Neural Network

System Identification is an important way of investigating the world around with proper understanding.This paper deals with the System Identification of a given Black box in which the inputs and outputs are known.It is a method of deriving a mathematical model of a pre-defined part the world,using observations. We aim at reducing the error of the system which is also the cost function. We deal with various methods of training the system according to the given inputs and outputs. System identification include mathematical tools and algorithms that build dynamic models from measured data. The learning paradigm for a given system allows a system to emulate the functions of the environment it is embedded in.We come across a number of neural networks and how it functions in the process.Simulation results exhibits least mean square algorithm using an adaptive filter system modelled and simulated in the MATLAB/Simulink environment

The Fallacy of the Chinese

A superpower is a country that dominates the global landscape in 4 major categories. These include military, economic, political and cultural. Superpowers have to ability to project immense power and whether it is countries that are trying to counter the impact of a superpower or gain from their strength, global hegemons are important aspects of contemporary international relations. Today, The United States is the only country that has all of these requirements and therefore, is the most powerful country in the world. However, a number of countries have begun to show potential for equaling or usurping the title of superpower. No one country exemplifies this more than China. Over the last three decades, China has grown significantly to become the second largest economy and it has begun to assert itself as a great power by exerting influence both regionally and globally. The rise of China has led many in the field of international relations, from scholars to journalists and politicians, to believe that China is poised to become the next global superpower, However, the ability of China to become the next global superpower is far from certain. This thesis will take a closer look at case for the Chinese superpower and argue that the country will not be able claim that role. I will show that despite popular notions of China’s global rise the country will not become a global superpower. To support the argument I will use theories from the Liberal and Realist perspective. I will also be using historical and empirical data, all of which will show the fallacy of Chinese superpower status. Understanding the limits of China’s rise is very important because it can help avoid creating policies and ideologies that could have disastrous consequences for the global community. In addition, understanding this issue may also provide a deeper understanding about how states can rise to become superpowers, as China is an evolving case

Dynamic elastic properties of brick masonry constituents

When subjected to dynamic loading, materials can exhibit a mechanical behaviour quite different from its static counterpart. The evaluation of dynamic properties is thus very useful in the assessment of existing masonry structures. This paper presents results of an experimental campaign to determine both the dynamic Young’s modulus and the shear modulus of brick masonry constituents through two non-destructive testing methods. Following a discussion on the reliability of the methods, a robust procedure is described and tested on a variety of samples. The results show that the techniques can be successfully applied to provide reliable estimates of the dynamic elastic properties of brick masonry constituents.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Robust estimation of axial loads sustained by tie-rods in historical structures using Artificial Neural Networks

Widely used simplified analytical methods for estimating the tensile force in tie-rods are clearly not applicable when they contain significant discontinuities or irregularities. A common example for which this fact becomes relevant in practice is the use of connectors to unify historical ties consisting of several segments. To address this challenge, a robust hybrid methodology is proposed which can be applied to any historical tie by employing a data-driven approach to a dataset generated using the finite element method. The methodology is applied to a real case study involving two historical ties.The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the Servei del Patrimoni Arquitect`onic of the Generalitat de Catalunya through a project (managed by the City Council of Sant Cugat) aimed at monitoring the church of the Monastery of Sant Cugat [grant number C-10764]; the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities of the Spanish Government and the ERDF (European Regional Development Fund) through the SEVERUS project (Multilevel evaluation of seismic vulnerability and risk mitigation of masonry buildings in resilient historical urban centres) [grant number RTI2018-099589-B-I00]; and the AGAUR agency of the Generalitat de Catalunya in the form of the predoctoral grant of the first author.Peer ReviewedObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::9 - Indústria, Innovació i InfraestructuraObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::9 - Indústria, Innovació i Infraestructura::9.1 - Desenvolupar infraestructures fiables, sostenibles, resilients i de qualitat, incloent infraestructures regionals i transfrontereres, per tal de donar suport al desenvolupament econòmic i al benestar humà, amb especial atenció a l’accés assequible i equitatiu per a totes les personesObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::11 - Ciutats i Comunitats SosteniblesObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::11 - Ciutats i Comunitats Sostenibles::11.4 - Redoblar els esforços per a protegir i salvaguardar el patrimoni cultural i natural del mónPostprint (author's final draft

Handling Adaptive Compromise for Practical Encryption Schemes

We provide a new definitional framework capturing the multi-user security of encryption schemes and pseudorandom functions in the face of adversaries that can adaptively compromise users\u27 keys. We provide a sequence of results establishing the security of practical symmetric encryption schemes under adaptive compromise in the random oracle or ideal cipher model. The bulk of analysis complexity for adaptive compromise security is relegated to the analysis of lower-level primitives such as pseudorandom functions. We apply our framework to give proofs of security for the BurnBox system for privacy in the face of border searches and the in-use searchable symmetric encryption scheme due to Cash et al. In both cases, prior analyses had bugs that our framework helps avoid

MEMS 411: In-Beach Pressure Sampler Design Report

Claudio would like a device to put into the beach sand, around nest-depth, tomeasure and record data that can determine pressure as waves crash and recede