Investigating atrium in hot and humid climate and providing strategies for improving its quality in administrative use (case study: Bank of Shanghai, China)

The energy crisis at present time has made the importance of paying attention to sustainable architecture and reduction of renewable energy consumption inevitable. Given that architecture plays an important role in urban construction, it has a heavy responsibility because more than 50% of the world's energy is devoted to this area. Therefore, paying attention to reducing energy consumption and promoting saving technologies to reduce environmental pollution should be placed on the agenda of designers. The present study aims to investigate performance of atrium as an example of sustainable architecture in hot and humid climate and to identify strategies to improve its performance in the mentioned climate. Atrium has thermal comfort space since the old time by two methods of greenhouse effect and chimney effect. Now these questions are raised: What impact does atrium have in terms of performance in reducing energy consumption in buildings and how is the performance of atrium in the hot and humid climate, and how it can be improved? The presented research investigates atrium and its role in reducing energy consumption by benefiting library studies and analytical method. Research findings indicate that performance of lateral atrium in humid and moderate climates is better than upper side atrium and its performance can be improved using delay spray and shadow system methods.Keywords: Sustainable architecture, Atrium, hot and humid climate, administrative use

Effects of window position on natural cross ventilation in vernacular architecture of mazandaran (case study: SARI)

Among the most effective architectures is vernacular architecture of Mazandaran whose incorporation in nature is so delicate that appears to be an essential part of it. Paying more attention to vernacular architecture and promoting it can be helpful in reducing energy consumption. Increasing use of fossil fuels in heating and cooling systems of buildings that come with excessive costs can result from inattention to vernacular architecture principles. However taking them into consideration can be an effective solution for reducing energy consumption. This research aimed to study the effects of window position on natural cross ventilation in Vernacular architecture of Mazandaran applying Descriptive - analytical approach. For this reason, a number of vernacular buildings, located in Sari, were studied regarding numbers and sizes of bilateral opening and its function in ventilation. Variables in this research were tested using SPSS and Regression correlation coefficient; additionally, all 3 formulas suggested in the results were evaluated to achieve an optimal model. In this study, for a desirable ventilator, for every percent added to the room area, the windows showed a 0.87 percent increase in size, and for every additional story, the optimal ventilation grew 30 percent. On the other hand, in high-rise apartments, the protrusion contribution in ventilation system was highlighted. This research study aims to clarify the principles of proper ventilation in vernacular architecture which have long been forgotten. Keywords: natural ventilation; window; vernacular architecture; temperate and wet climate

Severity of acute hepatitis and its outcome in patients with dengue fever in a tertiary care hospital Karachi, Pakistan (South Asia)

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Liver injury due to dengue viral infection is not uncommon. Acute liver injury is a severe complicating factor in dengue, predisposing to life-threatening hemorrhage, Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation (DIC) and encephalopathy. Therefore we sought to determine the frequency of hepatitis in dengue infection and to compare the outcome (length of stay, in hospital mortality, complications) between patients of Dengue who have mild/moderate (ALT 23-300 IU/L) v/s severe acute hepatitis (ALT > 300 IU/L).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A Cohort study of inpatients with dengue viral infection done at Aga Khan University Hospital Karachi. All patients (≥ 14 yrs age) admitted with diagnosis of Dengue Fever (DF), Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever (DHF) or Dengue Shock Syndrome (DSS) were included. Chi square test was used to compare categorical variables and fischer exact test where applicable. Survival analysis (Cox regression and log rank) for primary outcome was done. Student t test was used to compare continuous variables. A p value of less than or equal to 0.05 was taken as significant.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Six hundred and ninety nine patients were enrolled, including 87% (605) patients with DF and 13% (94) patients with DHF or DSS. Liver functions tests showed median ALT of 88.50 IU/L; IQR 43.25-188 IU/L, median AST of 174 IU/L; IQR 87-371.5 IU/L and median T.Bil of 0.8 mg/dl; IQR 0.6-1.3 mg/dl. Seventy one percent (496) had mild to moderate hepatitis and 15% (103) had severe hepatitis. Mean length of stay (LOS) in patients with mild/moderate hepatitis was 3.63 days v.s 4.3 days in those with severe hepatitis (P value 0.002). Overall mortality was 33.3% (n = 6) in mild/moderate hepatitis vs 66.7% (n = 12) in severe hepatitis group (p value < 0.001). Cox regression analysis also showed significantly higher mortality in severe hepatitis group (H.R (4.91; 95% CI 1.74-13.87 and P value 0.003) and in DHF/DSS (5.43; CI 1.86-15.84 and P value 0.002). There was a significant difference for the complications like Bleeding (P value < 0.001), Acute Renal failure (ARF) (P value 0.002), Acalculus cholecystitis (P value 0.04) and encephalopathy (P value 0.02) in mild/moderate and Severe hepatitis groups respectively.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Severe hepatitis (SGPT>300IU) in Dengue is associated with prolonged LOS, mortality, bleeding and RF.</p

The effects of Nano-Fe2O3 on the mechanical, physical and microstructure of cementitious composites

In this study, properties of cement composites and mortars were investigated in presence of Nano-Fe2O3 as their modifier. Cement composites were synthesized using the sol-gel method with tetraethylammonium orthosilicate as the complex legend. Subsequently, Nano-Fe2O3 was added at 2, 4, and 6 wt% dosages to the cement composite, while for mortars 2, 3 and 4 wt% of Nano-Fe2O3 dosages were used. FTIR and XRD tests were conducted to analyze the phase composition, molecular, and microstructure of cement composites, additionally, the effects of adding Nano-Fe2O3 on compressive and flexural strengths of mortars were investigated. The results indicated a change in the phase composition of the molecular-structure of cement composites, leading to stronger bonds in silicate network with more ordered arrangement in the presence of nanoparticles. The formation of three-membered silicate rings was also evident in composite samples containing higher amounts of Nano-Fe2O3 (i.e. 4 and 6 wt%). The microstructure analysis revealed that samples with Nano-Fe2O3 had a denser structure with a smaller pore size in comparison with control samples. The mechanical performance of mortar samples were enhanced with the incorporation of Nano-Fe2O3, where 3 wt% dosage was identified as the optimum

English to Persian Translation Accuracy of “Rules and Regulations” of International Banking System

This study comparatively analyzed the English to Persian translations of “rules and regulations” of the International banking system, at lexicon, phrase, sentence and paragraph levels to find out if the translations had been semantically comparable to their English versions. The translated texts, together with their English scource texts, were handed in to raters to assess and score semantically based on a three-point scale of “incorrect”, “fair” and “correct”. According to the results, the majority (96%) of lexicons had been translated correctly into Persian, while a small percentage of translated lexicons (3%) had a fair quality and an even smaller percentage (1%) were incorrectly translated. As for the phrases, most of them (86%) had been translated correctly into Persian, while a small percentage of translated phrases (8%) had a fair quality and an even smaller percentage (6%) had been incorrectly translated. Regarding sentences, 44% of their translations had a good and 44% had fair quality, whereas some smaller numbers (12%) had been incorrectly translated. Compared to previous components, i.e. lexicon and phrases, the percentage of incorrect translations had noticeably increased at the level of sentence. Yet, the mean words in Persian sentences (i.e., 23.48) were rather similar to the source language sentences (i.e., 25.72). Regarding paragraphs, 40% of the translations had a good and 40% had a fair quality, but a significant number (20%) had incorrect translations. So, unlike the lexicons and phrases, a significant number of sentences and paragraphs had semantically been inaccurately translated. In addition, the mean number of words in Persian paragraphs (64.6) was considerably smaller than the mean words in English paragraphs (71.1). &nbsp; &nbsp; Keywords: Semantic accuracy in translation, English to Persian, Banking rules and regulation

Group Therapy for Adults with Hip Replacements

The purpose of our critically appraised topic is to synthesize the best current evidence regarding the feasibility of group occupational therapy and outcomes related to ADL performance. The final portfolio contains a total of four research articles. Study designs include two randomized control trials, one cohort design, and one systematic review. All studies related directly to the PICO question and were used to determine best evidence for the feasibility of group therapy of the older adult population who have hip replacements in a rehabilitation setting

A multilevel inverter topology using diode half-bridge circuit with reduced power component

This paper presents a new multilevel converter with a reduced number of power components for medium voltage applications. Both symmetric and asymmetric structures of the presented multilevel converter are proposed. The symmetric topology requires equal dc source values, whereas the asymmetric topology uses minimum switch count. However, both structures suffer from high blocking voltage across the switches. To reduce the blocking voltage on switches, an optimal topology is presented and analyzed for the selection of the minimum number of switches and dc sources, while maintaining a low blocking voltage across the switches. A comparative analysis with recently published topologies was performed. The simulation results, as well as the comparative analysis, validated the robustness and effectiveness of the proposed topology in terms of the reduced power loss, lowered number of components, and cost. Furthermore, in addition to the simulation results, the performance of the proposed topology was verified using experimental results of 9, 17, and 25 evels.