Learning from the past in today's architectural design case study: architecture in hot and arid zone of Yazd in central Iran

Statement of the Problem – Inquadramento del problema Al giorno d’oggi si discute molto nella comunità scientifica mondiale circa le questioni riguardanti lo sviluppo sostenibile, la salvaguardia delle energie non rinnovabili e l’architettura sostenibile. Indubbiamente l’uso incoerente delle energie non rinnovabili quali i combustibili fossili metterà a rischio lo sviluppo ambientale mondiale nel prossimo futuro. Più di un terzo dell’energia consumata a livello globale viene impiegata nel settore delle costruzioni, pertanto con questa alta domanda di consumo energetico non c’è speranza di preservare le fonti energetiche per il futuro. La carenza di risorse energetiche evidenzia l’importanza di implementare l’architettura sostenibile. La maggior parte delle fonti non rinnovabili è stata consumata. Si prevede che il prezzo dei combustibili fossili continuerà a salire nei prossimi anni, pertanto, si è formata l’idea di edifici ad impatto energetico zero al fine di soddisfare i requisiti energetici di questo secolo e superare le preoccupazioni legate all’energie che sono sorte nell’era attuale. Certamente è nella speranza umana quella di realizzare idee creative quali edifici ad energia zero, edifici ad energia neutra o edifici indipendenti per molti anni. Con l’utilizzo delle tecnologie moderne il più grande sogno dell’umanità, preservare le risorse energetiche, può essere realizzato. L’architettura tradizionale Iraniana è uno dei migliori esempi di architettura sostenibile, rappresenta un uso efficace di energie non rinnovabili basato su regioni climatiche del passato. L’antica architettura Iraniana mostra l’esperienza degli Iraniani nell’utilizzo delle energie naturali non terrestri (né sotterranee) come l’energia del sole, vento, acqua etc. Le differenti situazioni geografiche e climatiche sono state integrate con la sapienza e l’intelligenza delle popolazioni del passato nell’utilizzo di energie naturali andando a costituire quel peculiare modello dell’architettura tradizionale Iraniana. Oggi è possibile utilizzare l’esperienza del passato e recuperare quei modelli tradizionali che per lungo tempo sono stati dimenticati, al fine di soddisfare i bisogni climatici di ogni regione e diminuire il consumo di carburanti fossili. In questa tesi, la regione Iraniana e le sue case vernacolari vengono esaminate come uno dei maggiori esempi di “architettura compatibile” alle condizioni climatiche. In questa tesi sono state analizzate le energie rinnovabili nelle case passive e negli edifici ad energia zero. Inoltre si è cercato di utilizzare i nuovi materiali, le tecnologie e le esperienze della tradizione nei nuovi complessi abitativi come parte della soluzione per un decrescente uso di energie consummabili e minori spese nelle case.Statement of the Problem Nowadays some of the important issues of the world scientific communities are the discussion on the sustainable development, saving the non-renewable energy and the sustainable architecture. Undoubtedly the irregular use of non-renewable sources such as the fossil fuels, will jeopardize the world’s environmental situation in the near future. More than one third of total consumed energy has been used In the buildings section , so with this high demand of energy consumption , there is no hope for preserving energy sources for the future. Lack of energy resources emphasize the importance of reaching the sustainable architecture. The main part of the non-renewable sources have been consumed. It is predicted that the price of fossil fuels continues to rise in the next years, therefore, the idea of the zero energy building has been formed in order to meet the energy needs of the current century and is used for removing the energy related concerns in the current era. Indeed, human hope to accomplish the creative ideas such as zero energy building, neutral energy building or independent building for many years. By using modern technology the biggest human dream, preserving energy resources, can be achieved. Iranian traditional architecture as one of the best sample of the sustainable architecture, represents the effective usage of non-renewable energies based on the climate region in the past. The ancient Iranian architecture indicates the experience of the Iranian in using the non-terrestrial (non underground) natural energies such as the energy of the sun, wind, water and etc. The different geographical and climatic situations have been integrated with the penchant and intelligence of the past people for using the natural energies in order to form the unique patterns of the Iranian traditional architecture. Today, it is possible to utilize the past experiences and restoration of those traditional patterns which have been forgotten in the current era, in order to meet the climatic needs of each region and decrease the consumption of the fossil fuels. In this thesis, the country of Iran and its vernacular houses have been investigated as the most notable samples of “adjusted architecture” per climatic conditions. In this thesis, the hot and arid climatic region of Yazd has been investigated. According to the investigations, the usage of the correct materials, accurate identification of the climatic specifications of each region and its related facilities can lead to creation of the appropriate spaces in order to meet the air conditioning and minimize the consumption of non-renewable energies. In this thesis, the renewable energies in the passive houses and zero energy buildings have been investigated. Meanwhile, it has been attempted to use the new materials and technologies and traditional experiences in the new building complexes as part of the solutions in decreasing consumable energy and expenses in the houses

Micromechanics of Human Bone: Role of Architecture and Tissue Material Properties

Knowledge of the biomechanical behavior and failure mechanisms of human bone is fundamental to understanding the etiology of bone fractures as well as the mechanisms by which aging, disease, and treatment can alter the mechanical competence of bone. In this context, the focus of this dissertation was to enhance the current understanding of the biomechanical mechanisms of bone strength, and more specifically, to elucidate the role of architecture and tissue material properties in overall bone strength and whole-bone failure behavior.Using the latest advances in micro-computed tomography and high-resolution finite element modeling, we investigated the effect of typical population-variations in tissue-level ductility on human vertebral strength. We found that compared to the reference case, varying both cortical and trabecular tissue ultimate strains by ±1 SD from their mean values changed vertebral strength by at most ±8%, an effect that was relatively uniform across all the specimens. Overall strength changed similarly for similar (±1 SD) changes in trabecular versus cortical ductility. Further analysis revealed that only a tiny proportion of tissue failed (< 2%) when the whole bone reached its point of structure-level failure, and that the failure mode and location of this tiny amount were relatively insensitive to typical variations in tissue ductility. These findings suggest that it is the overall load transfer within the whole vertebral body —determined by bone volume fraction and microstructure— that dictates where failure occurs rather than typical variations in the ductility of the tissue. Together these findings suggest that typical variations in tissue ductility might have a relatively modest impact on vertebral strength compared to the multiple-fold variations in vertebral strength that are typically observed across any elderly population.Combining micro-computed tomography, high-resolution finite element modeling and biomechanical testing, we sought to provide further insight into the tissue modulus of trabecular bone and better elucidate its relation with bone volume fraction and trabecular microarchitecture. Our results indicated that effective tissue modulus of vertebral trabecular bone varied greatly among the specimens and was negatively correlated with bone volume fraction of each vertebra (R2 = 0.51, p < 0.05). These results suggest that there can be 3X variation in tissue modulus across the elderly human vertebrae, about 50% of which may be explained by variations in bone volume fraction. Together these findings suggest that as trabecular bone becomes older and thus more porous due to an imbalance between bone formation and resorption, the tissue may become stiffer to compensate for the bone loss.The work presented in this dissertation has also provided substantial insight into the structure–function relations for trabecular bone from different anatomic sites. We investigated the main structure–function relation —characterized by bone volume fraction versus on-axis yield stress— for human calcaneal trabecular bone and compared this relation to that for trabecular bone from other anatomic sites. We found that the relation between yield stress and bone volume fraction of the calcaneus was most similar to that of the proximal tibia. Furthermore, our results demonstrated that while there was no universal yield stress–bone volume fraction relation for trabecular bone across different anatomic sites for on-axis loading, the general (normalized) yield stress–bone volume fraction relation was similar for all sites. This similarity in the normalized relation suggests that a given percentage deviation from the mean bone mass has the same mechanical consequence at the calcaneus as it does at the other anatomic sites.In closure, this dissertation provides answers to some of the fundamental questions regarding the role of architecture and tissue material properties in explaining the variations in overall bone strength across individuals, and provides new insight into the etiology of age-related fractures. This work also outlines potential areas of future research to further advance our current understanding of overall bone strength and fracture etiology

Cancer, stem cells and cancer stem cells: old ideas, new developments

It has been suggested that, at least in some forms of cancer, a sub-population of slow-cycling, therapy-resistant cancer stem cells exists that has the ability to reconstitute the tumor in its entirety. If true, this model implies that conventional therapies based on targeting highly cycling cells within the tumor will leave the slow-cycling stem cell population intact, giving them the opportunity to reinitiate the tumor at a later date. This review discusses the evidence for this model and the likely implications for cancer treatment

A Novel Computational Model for Social Isolation Detection in Social Networks

The human being is a social creature and needs to communicate with others to share information, emotions, and fulfill its basic needs. Social isolation can be considered as a serious health risk issue which not only has unignorably negative impacts on the well-being and quality of life of individuals, but also it is harmful to healthy human development. In this research, a computational model and a couple of novel algorithms are proposed to address social isolation detection in social networks. In our model, a given community is represented by a weighted-directed social graph. An algorithm, SBSID (Structure-based Social Isolation Detection), is proposed to detect socially isolated individuals based on the graph\u27s structure by finding the number of each individual\u27s active friends and their influence on each other. On the other hand, each individual\u27s demographic characteristics in our model are represented by a set of binary attributes. Consequently, another algorithm is proposed, FBSID (Feature-based Social Isolation Detection), to address social isolation based on the nodes\u27 features in the social graph.We propose a couple of metrics and formulas to calculate society\u27s norms based on the overall structure and attributes of the social graph. Structural characteristics and attributes of each individual are compared with the norm of society to identify socially isolated individuals. We have evaluated the performance of our proposed model and algorithms on a set of synthetic networks. The results show that our model is capable of finding socially isolated nodes in various sizes of graphs with high accuracy and efficiency

AN UNUSUAL PATHWAY IN DIAGNOSIS OF IMMUNE DISORDER THROUGH INVASIVE PULMONARY ASPERGILLOSIS WITH HEMOPTYSIS: CASE PRESENTATION

Invasive pulmonary aspergillosis is a fungal infection caused by aspergillus fumigates that transmitted through inhalation of air conidia in most cases. Since these conidia will be removed by phagocytes, they cause rarely any diseases in people who are not immunocompromised; therefore normal and also sufficient function of macrophages and neutrophils are necessary to prevent aspergillosis. On the other hand, immunocompromised patients like CGD (Chronic Granulomatous Disease) can easily be involved in such fungal infections through exposure to high amounts of these conidia. In this article, we will introduce a girl with interesting history of BCGitis, after awhile presented by hemoptysis discovered as a beginning sign of invasive pulmonary aspergillosis. Finally out evaluations showed immune disorder in this neglected child. Regarding high mortality of invasive aspergillosis as 30-50 %; effective management is achieved by on-time suspicion to fungal infection associated by finding risky hosts and also early initiation of antifungals for reduction of invasive aspergillosis

CHRONIC COUGH IN A 10- YEAR OLD BOY AS A FIRST PRESENTATION OF INFLAMMATORY MYOFIBROBLASTIC TUMOR (IMT): A CASE REPORT

An inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor (IMT) is a rare benign tumor with an unknown origin. Its clinical and radiological manifestations are variable and nonspecific, also half of them are asymptomatic while cough, hemoptysis, dyspnea are possible to see. Therefore the diagnosis is too hard to establish unless an exact evaluation by an expert pathologist on a biopsy from surgical resection. The standard treatment for diagnostic and therapeutic reasons is a complete resection whereas incomplete resection increases the risk of recurrence. Here we report a 10-year old boy with prolonged cough and collapse-consolidation in his chest x-ray who referred to our pediatric center in the northeast of Iran. Keywords: Inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor, cough, collapse, pediatric

LARYNGOTRACHEAL CLEFTS (LC) AS AN UNCOMMON CAUSE OF STRIDOR IN AN INFANT: CASE REPORT

Stridor is conventionally thought to be of inspiratory causes in nature and usually due to airway pathology which leads upper airway obstruction in infants. The present case report illustrates that stridor would be caused by Laryngotracheal clefts (LC) which can be resulted in respiratory distress, stridor, choking episodes, coughing and recurrent croup as well as recurrent aspiration and respiratory tract infections. Keywords: stridor, Laryngotracheal clefts (LC), Infants

Retail Brand Study Of The Factors Affect On Customer’s Attitude And Purcahase Intention: The Case Of Customers In Penang

Tujuan kajian ini adalah untuk menentukan kesan faktor persepsi pengguna seperti kesedaran tentang harga, persepsi variasi kualiti, perepsi mengenai pembungkusan dan kongruiti konsep kendiri sebagai pembolehubah luaran terhadap sikap terhadap jenama runcit. The purpose of this research is to determine the impacts of consumers’ perceptual factors like price consciousness, perceived quality variation, packaging perception and self-concept congruity as external variables on retail brand attitud

Life satisfaction and its determinants: a survey on Iranian nurses population

    Evaluation of life dissatisfaction should be one of the main components of managers’ efforts to perform appropriate policies for promoting quality of work life and improving productivity of nurses. Thus the aim of the present study was to examine life satisfaction level and its determinants among a sample of Iranian nurses.In this descriptive study, 309 nurses qualifying in medical care network, randomly selected from eight medical centers using stratified random sampling method were included. Information of different aspects of living and working situations were collected by a questionnaire and life satisfaction was also measured by the Life Satisfaction Index A (LSIA).Data were analyzed by descriptive and stepwise logistic regression model at p < 0.05 using SPSS 19. Mean score of the LSIA questionnaire was 25.47 ± 6.51; 253 (81.9%) nursing staffs reported were satisfied and only 56 (18.1%) dissatisfied. The satisfaction rate was higher in men compared with women (95.7% versus 80.8%). All nurses working in surgery and psychiatry wards satisfied in lives; whereas dissatisfaction rate was the highest among emergency ward (23.7%) and operating room (23.1%) nurses. There was a positive correlation between life satisfaction score and nurse’s income (R = 0.173, p = 0.002). In married ones, multivariable stepwise regression analysis showed that male gender was a main determinant of higher life satisfaction score (p = 0.027). Among single nurses, only higher workload as having a second job had an adverse correlation with life satisfactions score (p < 0.001). Life satisfaction among nurses can be potentially influenced by gender and high work load indicators as well as level of their income. The results also provide empirical support for a positive relationship between work condition and nurses life satisfaction

Bearing Fault Diagnosis Based on Multi-Scale CNN and Bidirectional GRU

This research received no external funding.Peer reviewedPublisher PD