3,511 research outputs found
Building information modeling (BIM) and green building index (GBI) assessment framework for non-residential new construction building (NRNC)
The global construction industry endorsed Building Information Modeling (BIM)
and its many advantages. However, despite this endorsement, BIM still failed to
attract Malaysian companies to use BIM in green building assessment, especially for
the assessment of Green Building Index (GBI), and maintain GBI certification during
building occupancy using BIM features. The main issue of utilizing BIM as a GBI
assessment tool is the applicability of BIM Tools to digitalize GBI credit by design
team, which results in the digitization of GBI criteria into BIM Model. This study
aims to identify common components related to the capability of BIM to digitalize
and assess GBI criteria. These components include BIM uses and tools and GBI
criteria and processes. This study applied quantitative and qualitative approaches to
collect data. The quantitative approach used questionnaires, which were distributed
to 900 GBI members, i.e. GBI certifiers and facilitators. The survey generated a
response rate of 32% during eight months of data collection. The results were
analyzed using SPSS and SmartPLS. Four model categories were identified, namely,
BIM uses, BIM tools, GBI criteria and GBI certification process. These categories
were used to assess the BIM–GBI framework. The results obtained from the
questionnaire showed that only 16 BIM uses must be included in the BIM execution
plan of the GBI project for assessment purposes. The results also showed that the
BIM tools present different levels of effect on the GBI criteria. The capability of
BIM to assess GBI could be stronger in the design assessment (DA) than in the
operation assessment, which supports the suggested BIM–GBI assessment
framework. The second data collection was conducted through a focus group
interview with BIM and GBI experts. Two interview sessions were conducted.
Results show that the assessment method has a significant correlation in the BIM–
GBI framework. The following categories were identified for the BIM assessment
framework: BIM uses, BIM tools, and control, which were based on the GBI criteria
for scoring and certification. Findings from the BIM and GBI assessment method
framework show that GBI credits can be digitalized using different BIM uses directly
and indirectly assessed by BIM tools for each GBI credit in both GBI assessment
process. Based on the qualitative result of this research showed that BIM can help the
design team to achieve 55% point in design assessment (DA) only and this helps the
building to achieve GBI certification in level 4 of certified rating. On the other hand,
45% points of GBI credits can be digitals in completion and verification assessment
(CVA). The framework provides a guide for the design team and facility
management in digitalizing and assessing GBI criteria using BIM application during
design assessment (DA) and completion and verification assessment (CVA) for new
nonresidential constructions. The framework also offers and provides insights that
will enable designers to understand the relationship between BIM and GBI criteria,
which will contribute to BIM integration in Stage 3 and automate GBI assessment for
the Malaysian construction industry
Slavery and human trafficking international law and the role of the World Bank
This paper reviews the international legal framework applicable to the World Bank and member states on contemporary forms of slavery, in particular, trafficking. The Palermo trafficking protocol is specially analyzed. Moreover, the paper refers to the preventive framework constituted by human rights obligations, particularly those of international labor law. The World Bank's mandate appears to permit preventive action. The articles expressly refer to the goal of improving conditions of labor. On one hand, the Bank's present practice includes work in areas linked to human rights, which reveals tacit agreement by member states. In addition, human rights obligations have been widely accepted by the international community, though implementation is poor. Moreover, poverty causes vulnerability to slavery-like practices, and they perpetuate poverty. A modest set of recommendations and areas in which further research is needed are included. The paper encourages mainstreaming the issues analyzed strategically in the Bank's core operations (concerning processes and results), with country-led and country specific efforts, identifying the issues important for poverty reduction and growth.Human Rights,Population Policies,Child Labor,Gender and Law,Post Conflict Reconstruction
Railway track condition assessment at network level by frequency domain analysis of GPR data
The railway track system is a crucial infrastructure for the transportation of people and goods in modern societies. With the increase in railway traffic, the availability of the track for monitoring and maintenance purposes is becoming significantly reduced. Therefore, continuous non-destructive monitoring tools for track diagnoses take on even greater importance. In this context, Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) technique results yield valuable information on track condition, mainly in the identification of the degradation of its physical and mechanical characteristics caused by subsurface malfunctions. Nevertheless, the application of GPR to assess the ballast condition is a challenging task because the material electromagnetic properties are sensitive to both the ballast grading and water content. This work presents a novel approach, fast and practical for surveying and analysing long sections of transport infrastructure, based mainly on expedite frequency domain analysis of the GPR signal. Examples are presented with the identification of track events, ballast interventions and potential locations of malfunctions. The approach, developed to identify changes in the track infrastructure, allows for a user-friendly visualisation of the track condition, even for GPR non-professionals such as railways engineers, and may further be used to correlate with track geometric parameters. It aims to automatically detect sudden variations in the GPR signals, obtained with successive surveys over long stretches of railway lines, thus providing valuable information in asset management activities of infrastructure managers
Formal vs self-organised knowledge systems: a network approach
In this work we consider the topological analysis of symbolic formal systems
in the framework of network theory. In particular we analyse the network
extracted by Principia Mathematica of B. Russell and A.N. Whitehead, where the
vertices are the statements and two statements are connected with a directed
link if one statement is used to demonstrate the other one. We compare the
obtained network with other directed acyclic graphs, such as a scientific
citation network and a stochastic model. We also introduce a novel topological
ordering for directed acyclic graphs and we discuss its properties in respect
to the classical one. The main result is the observation that formal systems of
knowledge topologically behave similarly to self-organised systems.Comment: research pape
Life, Death and Preferential Attachment
Scientific communities are characterized by strong stratification. The highly
skewed frequency distribution of citations of published scientific papers
suggests a relatively small number of active, cited papers embedded in a sea of
inactive and uncited papers. We propose an analytically soluble model which
allows for the death of nodes. This model provides an excellent description of
the citation distributions for live and dead papers in the SPIRES database.
Further, this model suggests a novel and general mechanism for the generation
of power law distributions in networks whenever the fraction of active nodes is
small.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure
Spaces of Memory: Performing Identity in Travels in the Scriptorium
[Abstract] As Michel Foucault said in his text Of Other Spaces, ―the great obsession of the nineteenth century was, as we know, history‖ (22). Although with the turn of the century this obsession has been gradually diluted, giving rise to a balanced equilibrium between the studies of time and space, there are still many authors in whom this change of perspective has not been studied. In books such as The New York Trilogy, American author Paul Auster has discussed questions of space, but also of identity.
This Master‘s thesis studies how space and identity are applied in Auster‘s book Travels in the Scriptorium, a novel that has been briefly studied and whose main character, Mr. Blank, develops a fragmented identity within a contingent space. To this end, it will focus on two themes: first, memory, and second, the aforementioned space. The Master‘s thesis will attempt to articulate how a character with a fragmented memory in a closed and uncertain space can (or cannot) construct and deconstruct his own identity from different elements. Thus, firstly, it will be studied how his fragmented memory affects this character not in the recovery of his identity, but in the creation of a new one based on his lack of empathy and in the disruption of his personality. Secondly, it will be studied how the closed space in which Mr. Blank appears influences his construction of an identity, considering the concepts of spatiality and agency, and studying how fear manipulates space. Finally, it will be studied how the spaces created along the plot develop in a parallel way resulting in a series of heterotopias.Traballo fin de mestrado (UDC.FIL). Estudos ingleses avanzados e as súas aplicacións. Curso 2018/201
Many Attractors, Long Chaotic Transients, and Failure in Small-World Networks of Excitable Neurons
We study the dynamical states that emerge in a small-world network of
recurrently coupled excitable neurons through both numerical and analytical
methods. These dynamics depend in large part on the fraction of long-range
connections or `short-cuts' and the delay in the neuronal interactions.
Persistent activity arises for a small fraction of `short-cuts', while a
transition to failure occurs at a critical value of the `short-cut' density.
The persistent activity consists of multi-stable periodic attractors, the
number of which is at least on the order of the number of neurons in the
network. For long enough delays, network activity at high `short-cut' densities
is shown to exhibit exceedingly long chaotic transients whose failure-times
averaged over many network configurations follow a stretched exponential. We
show how this functional form arises in the ensemble-averaged activity if each
network realization has a characteristic failure-time which is exponentially
distributed.Comment: 14 pages 23 figure
- …