Using Urban Green Systems as an Approach for Future Climate Change Adaptation in London

The main investigation of this thesis is to determine the thermal effect of different urban green systems (UGS) (as trees, living facades) and high albedo pavement at Pedestrian street level in mitigating urban heat island (UHI) and Carbon Dioxide (CO2) reductions in London, the UK. This thesis quantifies the critical contribution by changing different urban greenery-covering densities (25% and 50%) or applying high albedo pavement in 2018 and future climate scenarios for the 2050 and the 2080 based on London climate change plans. Therefore, this strategy is designed to motivate pedestrians to walk for more extended periods and further distances during the summer season following the Health Streets Initiative introduced by Transport for London and turning London to the world's biggest national park by the 2050s based on the Mayor of London Plan. However, the influence of different UGS is based on their thermal improvement and CO2 reduction performance is mostly lacking, particularly for future climatic scenarios. The main aim of this research is to quantify the benefits and how they will influence pedestrians with streets. Different methodologies’ phases were tackled in order to investigate the performance and the benefits of different urban green systems’ interventions. This was achieved by ENVI-met software simulations, field measurements to validate the results, and a questionnaire survey. All these together have helped to achieve the objectives and to reach the required outcome of the research. First, a simulation for the current case of a typical central London neighbourhood with no vegetation (0%) is carried out, followed by simulating the same neighbourhood by applying urban green systems with 25% and 50% living facade and tree alternatives in addition to applying high albedo material on all pavements which represents 66% of the canyon area. This simulation of different interventions was applied for 2018, 2050 and 2080 during the summer months in order to measure their influence on pedestrian thermal comfort and CO2 reduction. Subsequently, first, a real field analysis was carried out to validate ENVI-met simulation calculations that have shown a great index of agreement. Second, a questionnaire survey analysis was formatted to determine the intangible benefits of urban green systems and how these would influence pedestrians’ activities within the streets after applying them, in addition to determining the preferred UGS alternative (Living façade or Trees) with the preferred covering percentage (25% or 50%) for pedestrians. The ENVI-met simulations results determine that the outdoor thermal comfort was measured based on physiological equivalent temperature (PET) as a reference to evaluate modification benefits towards outdoor comfort level. These results confirmed that, across the three different climatic scenarios – 2018, the 2050s and the 2080s, for best thermal comfort increase, the recommendation was 50% trees followed by 25% trees. While LF with both 25%and 50% coverage did not have a noticeable influence on pedestrians, high albedo pavement has increased thermal stress as it reflects the solar radiation to pedestrians, acting as a second source of radiation. There was not a significant reduction in CO2 levels from trees, while LF did not change the level at all. This reflects that oceans are the primary source of CO2 sequestration and oxygen production. However, to eliminate CO2, the CO2 sources should be limited and UGS cannot act solely to sequestrate it. Different canyon orientation in London requires different UGS percentage. For instance, North-South canyons do not require high UGS percentage because buildings self-shade on the canyon and hence receive lower solar radiation, leading to decreased thermal stress. On the other hand, East-West canyons need higher UGS coverage to reach higher thermal comfort levels. Therefore, it is advised to apply UGS coverage of 50% trees for East-West street canyon and 25% trees for North-South street canyon across all years to reach the ideal thermal comfort performance. However, the ENVI-met software determined the physiological effect; the survey was required to determine pedestrian’s perception of different UGS so as to evaluate the psychological effect. The survey reflected that pedestrians are willing to spend 30% more time walking outdoors after applying UGS. Pedestrians also preferred 50% trees as their top favourite preference. While 25% trees and 50% LF had similar preference, the UGS percentage is not the main factor determining the preferred UGS alternative. One of the most important and crucial findings from the survey is that pedestrians’ top reasons for choosing UGS was its aesthetic value and its air pollution reduction. This was followed by relaxation, connecting to nature and biodiversity increase. Thermal comfort increase ranked fifth which reflects that it is not a priority for pedestrians. This reflects the pedestrians’ priority when they are looking at UGS. The outcomes based on the ENVI-met simulation and survey analysis including correlations and cross-tabulation propose the adequate UGS percentage and type for each canyon orientation in London. That will be able to provide the maximum thermal comfort level in order to achieve psychological satisfaction and physical heat stress relief, which motivates the city walkability through improving the overall comfort

High band gap 2-6 and 3-5 tunneling junctions for silicon multijunction solar cells

A multijunction silicon solar cell of high efficiency is provided by providing a tunnel junction between the solar cell junctions to connect them in series. The tunnel junction is comprised of p+ and n+ layers of high band gap 3-5 or 2-6 semiconductor materials that match the lattice structure of silicon, such as GaP (band gap 2.24 eV) or ZnS (band gap 3.6 eV). Each of which has a perfect lattice match with silicon to avoid defects normally associated with lattice mismatch

ANN Model For SiGe HBTs Constructed From Time-Domain Large-Signal Measurements

We construct a large-signal artificial neural network (ANN) model for SiGe HBTs, directly from time-domain large-signal measurements. It is known that HBTs are very sensitive to self-heating and therefore we explicitly study the effect on the model accuracy of the incorporation of the self-heating effect in the behavioural model description. Finally, we show that this type of models can be accurate at extreme operating conditions, where classical compact models start to fail

Penyelesaian Sengketa Antara Bank Syariah Dan Nasabah Pada Pembiayaan Berdasarkan Akad Mudharabah Di PT. Bank Syariah Mandiri

Di antara Bank Syariah dengan nasabahnya terdapat suatu hubungan hukum yang erat sekali yang juga menimbulkan hak dan kewajiban yang bersifat timbal Balik. Apabila di kemudian hari timbul persengketaan antara Bank Syariah dengan nasabahnya, maka berdasarkan Undang-Undang No. 21 Tahun 2008 tentang Perbankan Syariah, disebutkan pada Pasal 55 ayat-ayatnya, sebagai berikut: 1) Penyelesaian sengketa Perbankan Syariah dilakukan oleh pengadilan dalam lingkungan Peradilan Agama. 2) Dalam hal para pihak telah memperjanjikan penyelesaian sengketa selain sebagaimana dimaksud pada ayat (1), penyelesaian sengketa dilakukan sesuai dengan isi akad. 3) Penyelesaian sengketa sebagaimana dimaksud pada ayat (2) tidak boleh bertentangan dengan Prinsip Syariah. Jenis atau tipologi penelitian ini ialah penelitian hukum normatif atau juga disebut sebagai penelitian hukum kepustakaan. Penulis menggunakan beberapa pendekatan di dalam penelitian ini yang meliputi pendekatan peraturan Perundang-undangan, pendekatan konseptual, dan pendekatan perbandingan. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa penyelesaian sengketa khususnya dalam sengketa bisnis, secara teoritis ada dua cara yang dapat ditempuh dalam menghadapi atau menyelesaikan sengketa, yaitu secara adversarial atau litigasi (arbitrase atau pengadilan), dan secara kooperatif (negosiasi, mediasi, atau konsiliasi). Penyelesaian sengketa bisnis secara litigasi, berarti sebagai penyelesaian sengketa bisnis melalui lembaga peradilan. Dalam rangka sengketa bisnis di lingkungan Perbankan Syariah, ditentukan pada Pasal 55 ayat (1) Undang-Undang No. 21 Tahun 2008 yang menyatakan penyelesaian sengketa Perbankan Syariah dilakukan oleh pengadilan dalam lingkungan Peradilan Umum. Pasal 24 ayat (2) Undang-Undang Dasar Negara Republik Indonesia Tahun 1945, menjelaskan landasan konstitusional dari Peradilan Agama sebagaimana yang dimaksud oleh ketentuan Pasal 55 ayat (1) Undang-Undang No. 21 Tahun 2008 tentang Perbankan Syariah, yang menyatakan kewenangan atau kompetensi Peradilan Agama dalam menyelesaikan sengketa Perbankan Syariah. Persengketaan antara Bank Syariah khususnya PT. Bank Syariah Mandiri dengan nasabahnya, pasca berlakunya Putusan Mahkamah Konstitusi yang telah disebutkan sebelumnya, tidak lagi diselesaikan melalui Peradilan Umum (Pengadilan Negeri), melainkan sudah menjadi kompetensi absolut Peradilan Agama untuk menyelesaikannya. Dari hasil penelitian dapat ditarik kesimpulan bahwa Penyelesaian sengketa Perbankan Syariah mengalami Perubahan dengan diberlakukannya kompetensi absolut Peradilan Agama di dalam menyelesaikan sengketa di bidang Perbankan Syariah pasca-putusan Mahkamah Konstitusi No. 93/PUU-X/2012, sehingga penyelesaian sengketa meliputi penyelesaian melalui peradilan (agama) (litigasi) dan melalui non-litigasi yakni musyawarah, mediasi perbankan dan Basyarnas. Sengketa Perbankan Syariah pada PT. Bank Syariah Mandiri apabila objek sengketanya adalah Akad Pembiayaan Mudharabah, tidak sepenuhnya dibebankan kepada nasabah melainkan ada pula yang menjadi tanggungjawab PT. Bank Syariah mandiri, seperti situasi perekonomian yang bergejolak yang berpengaruh bagi kegiatan USAh

Train Support Vector Machine Using Fuzzy C-means Without a Prior Knowledge for Hyperspectral Image Content Classification

In this paper, a new cooperative classification method called auto-train support vector machine (SVM) is proposed. This new method converts indirectly SVM to an unsupervised classification method. The main disadvantage of conventional SVM is that it needs a priori knowledge about the data to train it. To avoid using this knowledge that is strictly required to train SVM, in this cooperative method, the data, that is, hyperspectral images (HSIs), are first clustered using Fuzzy C-means (FCM); then, the created labels are used to train SVM. At this stage, the image content is classified using the auto-trained SVM. Using FCM, clustering reveals how strongly a pixel is assigned to a class thanks to the fuzzification process. This information leads to gaining two advantages, the first one is that no prior knowledge about the data (known labels) is needed and the second one is that the training data selection is not done randomly (the training data are selected according to their degree of membership to a class). The proposed method gives very promising results. The method is tested on two HSIs, which are Indian Pines and Pavia University. The results obtained have a very high accuracy of the classification and exceed the existing manually trained methods in the literature

Space transportation nodes assumptions and requirements: Lunar base systems study task 2.1

The Space Transportation Nodes Assumptions and Requirements task was performed as part of the Advanced Space Transportation Support Contract, a NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) study intended to provide planning for a Lunar Base near the year 2000. The original task statement has been revised to satisfy the following queries: (1) What vehicles are to be processed at the transportation node; (2) What is the flow of activities involved in a vehicle passing through the node; and (3) What node support resources are necessary to support a lunar scenario traffic model composed of a mix of vehicles in an active flight schedule. The Lunar Base Systems Study is concentrating on the initial years of the Phase 2 Lunar Base Scenario. The study will develop the first five years of that phase in order to define the transportation and surface systems (including mass, volumes, power requirements, and designs)

Baysian and NonBaysian Methods to Estimate the two parameters of Logistic Distribution

In this paper ,the problem of point estimation for the two parameters of logistic distribution has been investigated using simulation technique. The rank sampling set estimator method which is one of the Non_Baysian procedure and Lindley approximation estimator method which is one of the Baysian method were used to estimate the parameters of logistic distribution. Comparing between these two mentioned methods by employing mean square error measure and mean absolute percentage error measure .At last simulation technique used to generate many number of samples sizes to compare between these methods

Colorizing gray level images by using wavelet filters

© 2019 IEEE. This paper discusses a new algorithm to produce colored version of gray scale natural still images. This algorithm employs artificial neural network (ANN) to predict RGB channels using the Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT). A group of natural color images are used to train three ANNs. The trained networks estimate low resolution RGB layers of the gray scale image which are the best match to the trained images. The colored version of the image is produced form the predicted RGB layers and information form grayscale image. The performances of the new algorithm are analyzed subjectively and objectively using the peak signal to noise and Structural Similarity, as well as it is compared to similar algorithm based on discrete cosine transform. Acceptable colorized images were obtained from different still images

The effect of music on pain perception in women scheduled for elective cesarean section: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective: To study the effect of music on pain perception in women scheduled for elective cesarean section (CS) Search Strategy: We used the following keywords (“music” or “music therapy” and any of the following: cesarean section OR cesarean delivery OR CS OR cesarean OR Caesarean OR "post-op*) Selection Criteria: We included all studies satisfying the following criteria: (1) Population: pregnant women scheduled for cesarean section. (2) Intervention: the addition of any type of music to routine care compared with routine care alone. (3) Study design: randomized controlled trials (RCTs). We excluded the following: (1) non-randomized trials, (2) in vitro and animal studies, (3) studies in languages other than English, and (4) studies whose data were unreliable for extraction and analysis. Data Collection and Analysis: Data extraction was independently performed using a standardized form. In case of discrepancies, a consensus was reached after the involvement of the senior investigator. Then, data were extracted from assessed articles and entered RevMan software for meta-analysis. Main Results: Pooled data significantly favored the music group over the non-music one in terms of pain and anxiety scores (p<0.001). Heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure did not differ significantly between both groups. Conclusion: Music can be used during, before, and after cesarean section to reduce associated pain and anxiety