Assessing Black Carbon (BC) measurements in Europe for Air Quality

Pòster amb el resum gràfic de la tesi doctoral en curs, que forma part de l'exposició "Doctorat en Recursos Naturals i Medi Ambient de la UPC Manresa. 30 anys formant en recerca a la Catalunya Central 1992-2022".This study is supported by the CAIAC (Changes on Aerosol composition and their Implications for Air Quality and Climate in NE Spain; PID2019-108990PB-100) and RI-URBANS (Research Infrastructures Services Reinforcing Air Quality Monitoring Capacities in European Urban & Industrial Areas, European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, Green Deal, European Commission, contract 101036245) projects.Postprint (published version

Improvement of Forest Road Gravel Surfacing Quality by Nano-polymer CBR PLUS

In this study, CBR PLUS was used on gravel roads to reduce erosion and consequently maintenance costs of forest road network. Nano-polymer CBR PLUS with weight percentages of 0.25, 0.50, 0.75 and 1.00% in water were added to the surfacing materials of a forest road in Nekachoob Company of Iran. A comparative soil chemical and mechanical test for untreated and treated soil was carried out to observe variations in results. The results showed that by increasing the percentage of CBR PLUS, the soil fine particles content decreased. In addition, with increasing the CBR PLUS content, a decrease of the liquid limits was observed in soil. Soil treated with CBR PLUS, resulted in improvement of soil dry density and California bearing capacity (CBR). Moreover, the amount of Calcium, Magnesium, Potassium ions increased with the increasing CBR PLUS. Finally, it was concluded that 1.00% of nano-polymer CBR PLUS acted better in comparison with lower concentration. However, it is suggested that higher levels of this substance should be evaluated in future studies

Facilitating the implementation of neural network-based predictive control to optimize building heating operation

Simple neural network (NN) architecture is a reliable tool to transform reactive rule-based systems into predictive systems. Thermal comfort is of utmost importance in office buildings, which need the activation of heating systems at an optimal time. A high-performance NN predictive system requires a large training dataset. This can limit system efficiency due to the lack of enough historical data derived from thermal controllers. To address this issue, we generated, trained and tested a dataset of eight sizes using a calibrated building model. A set of key performance indicators (KPIs) was improved by studying the output performance. The effect of normalization and standardization preprocessing techniques on NN prediction ability was studied. Learning curves showed that a minimum of 1–4 months of data are required to obtain enough accuracy. Two heating seasons provide the optimal data size to calibrate the NN properly with high prediction accuracy. The results also revealed that building data from =two years slightly improve NN performance. The most accurate results in KPIs 90%) were obtained with preprocessed data. The effect of preprocessing on large training patterns was less than that of training patterns <100. Finally, NN model performance was less accurate in cold climate zonesThe authors gratefully acknowledge the support by Catalan agency AGAUR through their research group support program (2017SGR00227)Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

The variability of mass concentrations and source apportionment analysis of equivalent black carbon across urban Europe

This study is supported by the RI-URBANS project (Research Infrastructures Services Reinforcing Air Quality Monitoring Capacities in European Urban & amp; Industrial Areas, European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, Green Deal, European Commission, contract 101036245) . RI-URBANS is implementing the ACTRIS (https://actris.eu/) strategy for the development of services for improving air quality in Europe. The authors would like to also thank the support from "Agencia Estatal de Investigacion" from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation under the project CAIAC (PID2019-108990RB-I00) and the Generalitat de Catalunya (AGAUR, SGR-447) M. Savadkoohi would like to thank the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation for her FPI grant (PRE-2020-095498) . This study is also part funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Protection Research Unit in Environmental Exposures and Health, a partnership between UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and Imperial College London, and the UK Natural Environment Research Council. The views expressed are those of the author (s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR, UKHSA or the Department of Health and Social Care. The measurements in Stockholm (SE) were funded by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. The work performed in Rome (IT) was supported by ARPA Lazio, the regional Environmental Protection Agency.This work was also carried out through the Core Program within the Romanian National Research Development and Innovation Plan 2022-2027, with the support of MCID, project no. PN 23 05 and through the European Regional Development Fund through the Competitiveness Operational Programme 2014-2020, Action 1.1.3 Creating synergies with H2020 Programme, project Strengthen the participation of the ACTRIS-RO consortium in the pan-European research infrastructure ACTRIS, ACTRIS-ROC, MYSMIS code 107596 (ctr. no.337/2021) . Measurements at Granada urban station were possible thanks to the "Agencia Estatal de Investigacion" from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation under the projects PID2020-120015RB-I00 and PID2021-128757OB-I00, and ACTRIS-Espana (CGL2017-90884REDT) . Measurements at Burjassot Atmospheric Station are supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) though the projects: RTI2018-096548-B-I00, PID2021-123881OB-I00 and TED2021-129185B-I00; and the Valencia Autonomous Government project: AICO/2021/341. IMT Nord Europe acknowledges financial support from the Labex CaPPA project, which is funded by the French National Research Agency (ANR) through the PIA (Programme d'In-vestissement d'Avenir) under contract ANR-11-LABX-0005-01, and the CLIMIBIO and ECRIN projects, both financed by the Regional Council "Hauts-de-France" and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) . The ATOLL site is one of the French ACTRIS National Facilities and contributes to the CARA program of the LCSQA funded by the French Ministry of Environment.This study analyzed the variability of equivalent black carbon (eBC) mass concentrations and their sources in urban Europe to provide insights into the use of eBC as an advanced air quality (AQ) parameter for AQ standards. This study compiled eBC mass concentration datasets covering the period between 2006 and 2022 from 50 measurement stations, including 23 urban background (UB), 18 traffic (TR), 7 suburban (SUB), and 2 regional background (RB) sites. The results highlighted the need for the harmonization of eBC measurements to allow for direct comparisons between eBC mass concentrations measured across urban Europe. The eBC mass concentrations exhibited a decreasing trend as follows: TR > UB > SUB > RB. Furthermore, a clear decreasing trend in eBC concentrations was observed in the UB sites moving from Southern to Northern Europe. The eBC mass concentrations exhibited significant spatiotemporal heterogeneity, including marked differences in eBC mass concentration and variable contributions of pollution sources to bulk eBC between different cities. Seasonal patterns in eBC concentrations were also evident, with higher winter concentrations observed in a large proportion of cities, especially at UB and SUB sites. The contribution of eBC from fossil fuel combustion, mostly traffic (eBCT) was higher than that of residential and commercial sources (eBCRC) in all European sites studied. Nevertheless, eBCRC still had a substantial contribution to total eBC mass concentrations at a majority of the sites. eBC trend analysis revealed decreasing trends for eBCT over the last decade, while eBCRC remained relatively constant or even increased slightly in some cities.RI-URBANS project (Research Infrastructures Services Reinforcing Air Quality Monitoring Capacities in European Urban amp; Industrial Areas)Horizon 2020Green DealEuropean Union (EU) European Commission Joint Research CentreAgencia Estatal de InvestigacionSpanish Ministry of Science and Innovation under the project CAIACAgencia de Gestio D'Ajuts Universitaris de Recerca Agaur (AGAUR) Generalitat de CatalunyaSpanish Ministry of Science and Innovation for her FPINational Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Protection Research Unit in Environmental Exposures and HealthSwedish Environmental Protection AgencyARPA LazioEnvironmental Protection AgencyCore Program within the Romanian National Research Development and Innovation PlanMCID 101036245European Regional Development Fund through the Competitiveness Operational ProgrammeH2020 Programme, project Strengthen the participation of the ACTRIS-RO PID2019-108990RB-I00European research infrastructure ACTRIS SGR-447ACTRIS-ROC PRE-2020-095498MYSMISSpanish Ministry of Science and Innovation under the projectsACTRIS-EspañaLabex CaPPA projectAgence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) 2022-2027CLIMIBIO PN 23 05ECRIN projects 2014-2020Regional Council "Hauts-de-France"European Union (EU)French Ministry of Environment107596, 337/2021, PID2020-120015RB-I00, PID2021-128757OB-I00, AICO/2021/341, ANR-11-LABX-0005-0

Personalized online promotions : long-term Impacts on customer behavior

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2012.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 67-72).Personalization is widely used by marketers in today's world. It is not only a competitive advantage but is becoming a necessity for companies. Recent information technology advances have helped a lot to improve personalization methods. Companies could collect data about their customers through the Internet more easily and quickly. In return, companies create more values for their customers through personalization in performance as well as personalization in relationship. However, personalization may also bring new problems if customers are concerned about issues such as privacy, choice overload, and perceived fairness. This thesis examines the advantages and disadvantages of personalization from both customers' and companies' perspectives. It also studies how customer reactions to personalization change over time, and suggests a conceptual framework that shows how customer behavior affects companies' profitability. It concludes with recommendations about how companies should act in order to have successful online personalization strategies.by Farnaz Barary Savadkoohi.S.M

Evaluación del rendimiento del control basado en redes neuronales para gestionar calderas mediante el modelo de edificio de orden reducido

There is a growing need to optimize the heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems during building operations due to its high contribution to buildings' energy consumption and the willingness to meet the international energy and climate changes targets. Predictive and adaptive controls have arisen as proper tools to reduce the HVAC's energy consumption. They can predict future scenarios and determine the optimal strategy to manage HVAC systems. In this regard, control strategies based on neural networks (NN) to manage boilers and control the temperature setbacks are attracting significant attention. This study aims to use the reduced-order building descriptions as a benchmark model for building energy simulation to demonstrate an NN-based control's effectiveness in managing boilers in buildings. Reduced-order buildings will be simulated with different meteorological locations from various climate zones to determine if the proposed control system is more efficient than a schedule-based control or if certain zones have more potential to save energy. To carry out this analysis, a set of KPIs will be used to assess the performance of the proposed control and compare the results within the different scenarios and the baseline scenario, the scheduled-based control.Peer ReviewedObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::9 - Indústria, Innovació i InfraestructuraObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::11 - Ciutats i Comunitats SosteniblesPostprint (published version

Finite element model updating of a semi‐rigid moment resisting structure

Partial-strength composite steel–concrete moment-resisting frame structures can be designed to develop a ductile response in components of beam-to-column joints and column bases, including flexural yielding of beam end plates, shear yielding of column web panel zones and yielding of anchors. To evaluate the performance of a statically indeterminate structure under different earthquake intensities, a series of pseudo-dynamic, quasi-static cyclic and vibration tests were carried out at the European Laboratory for Structural Assessment of the Joint Research Centre at Ispra, Italy. The identified modal parameters from forced vibration tests at three different damage levels were used in order to quantify local and global damage indices by updating a 3D FE model of the structure with the non-linear Powell's Dog-Leg optimization method. Then, the Latin Hypercube Sampling technique, a variant of the Monte Carlo method, was employed to study the sensitivity of the updated parameters of the 3D model to modal inputs, caused by measurement noise. Rotations of beam-to-column joints and column bases, storey displacements and forces were employed during the final cyclic test in order to update a 2D FE model of the test structure. To avoid numerical instabilities during the detection of the non-linear behaviour of the structure, a novel technique based on the transformation of the origin coordinates in each half cycle was implemented. The identified joint behaviours allowed low-cycle fatigue energy-based damage indices to be applied. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Evaluation of the sustainability of rural areas and application of the Delphi fuzzy technique and the artificial neural network: A case study of rural areas of northern Savadkouh County

Nowadays, paying attention to the issue of sustainability, especially in rural areas, has become a pivot in the policies and plans of countries in the world. Identifying the status of rural areas in terms of sustainability can be of great help in this regard. The purpose of this study is to assess the sustainability of rural areas in northern Savadkouh. The study used a descriptive method to analyze and collect data through a questionnaire. The statistical population of the study consisted of the villagers living in the villages of northern Savadkouh. A combination of the Delphi fuzzy technique and the artificial neural network was used to analyze the data. At the first, using the Delphi fuzzy method, the stability indices were localized. Then, using the artificial neural network method, the rural areas were divided into two clusters. The results showed that there was proper and balanced stability in the rural areas of the study area (CV = 0.062). In addition, the results of the One-Sample T-test showed a significant difference among the indexes except for the empathy index and the gender ratio. Also, in all the three dimensions of sustainability, the human and natural supports of the rural areas of the northern Savadkouh region had a good balance and equality. Finally, the findings showed that the villages of Burkhill and Ikew ranked first and second, and the villages of Hajikla and Baikorka ranked 14th and 15th in this regard

Transfert d'énergie passif d'un système linéaire forcé vers une chaîne d'oscillateurs non linéaires

Le contrôle passif a pour but de réduire les vibrations d'une structure sans apport d'énergie afin de la protéger d'éventuels dégâts, voire de la rupture, ou plus simplement dans le but d'assurer le confort des usagers. L'amortisseur harmonique linéaire, ou Tuned Mass Damper (TMD) [1], est un système faisant partie des plus utilisés et des plus connus. Il est néanmoins avantageux d'utiliser des amortisseurs non linéaires (NES), qui permettent de diminuer sensiblement la masse ajoutée et de permettre un fonctionnement pour une gamme de fréquences de sollicitation plus large [2]. Récemment, des études ont prouvé l'efficacité d'un NES constitué de deux oscillateurs montés en série [3,4]. Le but de ce travail est d'étendre cette idée à l'étude d'une chaîne de NES. Un système linéaire, soumis à une sollicitation externe, est couplé à une chaîne de N oscillateurs non linéaires en série vers laquelle l'énergie vibratoire du système primaire est transférée. Les oscillateurs de la chaîne sont supposés très légers en comparaison du système principal. Une méthodologie analytique de traitement des équations de l'équilibre dynamique, issue de la généralisation d'une méthode appliquée à des systèmes à deux degrés de liberté [5], est présentée. Après l'utilisation d'une méthode dite de complexification-moyenne (complexification et méthode de Galerkine), une méthode d'échelles multiples en temps est mise en place. Des échelles de temps reliées entre elles par le faible ratio de masse entre oscillateurs non linéaires et système primaire sont introduites et le comportement du système est étudié à chacune de ces échelles. À l'échelle de temps rapide, la variété invariante lente, ou Slow Invariant Manifold (SIM), est calculée. Ce SIM rassemble tous les comportements asymptotiques vers lesquels le système pourrait tendre. À la première échelle de temps lente, les points d'équilibre et les points singuliers sont mis en évidence. Ils permettent de discriminer deux types de comportements asymptotiques que le système peut subir autour du SIM. Les points d'équilibre correspondent à des régimes périodiques, qui sont ici des modes non linéaires du système, et les points singuliers à des régimes quasi-périodiques caractérisés par des sauts répétés du système autour de zones instables du SIM, donnant lieu ici à des bifurcations entre modes. Ces points donnent une évaluation complète des amplitudes finales du système et permettent de vérifier qu'une part importante de l'énergie de la structure primaire est transférée vers la chaîne. Ces prédictions analytiques sont ensuite comparées et validées par des simulations numériques obtenues par intégration temporelle directe des équations initiales. Cette méthode peut par ailleurs s'appliquer par le biais de deux approches. La première considère la chaîne comme un assemblage discret d'oscillateurs quand la seconde l'appréhende comme un continuum. Cette approche continue remplace les N variables des masses de la chaîne par une fonction continue d'une variable d'espace, conduisant ainsi à l'étude d'équations aux dérivées partielles et non plus à un système de N équations.   [1] H. Frahm, Device for damping vibrations of bodies, US Patent 989,958 (1911). [2] O. V. Gendelman, A. F. Vakakis, Transitions from localization to nonlocalization in strongly nonlinear damped oscillators, Chaos, Solitons & Fractals 11 (2000) 1535?1542. [3] Quinn, D. D., et al., Equivalent modal damping, stiffening and energy exchanges in multi-degree-of-freedom systems with strongly nonlinear attachments, Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers Part K Journal of Multi-body Dynamics 226(K2) (2012) 122?146. [4] N.E. Wierschem, et al., Experimental Testing and Numerical Simulation of a Six-Story Structure Incorporating Two-Degree-of-Freedom Nonlinear Energy Sink, Journal of Structural Engineering 140 (2014) 04014027. [5] S. Charlemagne, et al., Interactions Between Two Coupled Nonlinear Forced Systems: Fast/Slow Dynamics, International Journal of Bifurcation and Chaos 26 (2016) 1650155