Numerical Study of the Thermal Efficiency of a School Building with Complex Topology for Different Orientations

In this work a numerical model that simulates the thermal behavior of a building with complex topology and evaluates the indoor thermal and air quality, in transient conditions, is used for a school building thermal project. The program calculates the building surfaces solar radiation field, the building's temperatures, the internal environmental variables, and the occupant's comfort levels. Initially, after the numerical model is validated, the software is used to evaluate the school building's thermal response for four different orientations, either in winter or summer conditions. The work then aims to identify uncomfortable spaces in order to propose, as an example, several solutions that could be introduced for each orientation, that would improve the thermal comfort and air quality levels to which the occupants are subjected, and decrease the building's energy consumption levels. The information obtained from this study could be used to help a designer choose which thermal systems and solutions function best for a preferred school building orientation

Cognitive radio-enabled Internet of Vehicles (IoVs): a cooperative spectrum sensing and allocation for vehicular communication

Internet of Things (IoTs) era is expected to empower all aspects of Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) to improve transport safety and reduce road accidents. US Federal Communication Commission (FCC) officially allocated 75MHz spectrum in the 5.9GHz band to support vehicular communication which many studies have found insufficient. In this paper, we studied the application of Cognitive Radio (CR) technology to IoVs in order to increase the spectrum resource opportunities available for vehicular communication, especially when the officially allocated 75MHz spectrum in 5.9GHz band is not enough due to high demands as a result of increasing number of connected vehicles as already foreseen in the near era of IoTs. We proposed a novel CR Assisted Vehicular NETwork (CRAVNET) framework which empowers CR enabled vehicles to make opportunistic usage of licensed spectrum bands on the highways. We also developed a novel co-operative three-state spectrum sensing and allocation model which makes CR vehicular secondary units (SUs) aware of additional spectrum resources opportunities on their current and future positions and applies optimal sensing node allocation algorithm to guarantee timely acquisition of the available channels within a limited sensing time. The results of the theoretical analyses and simulation experiments have demonstrated that the proposed model can significantly improve the performance of a cooperative spectrum sensing and provide vehicles with additional spectrum opportunities without harmful interference against the Primary Users (PUs) activities

Cultural Appropriation and the Limits of Identity: A Case for Multiple Humanity(es)

examine the dominant conversations on cultural appropriation. The first part of the essay will examine the ideological configuration of what constitutes cultural appropriation (hereafter as CA) first, as the politics of the diaspora and second, within a normative understanding of culture and its diachronic contradictions. This will be followed by a critical reevaluation of our subject theme as primarily a discourse of power with multiple implications. Framed as a discourse of power, CA is equally exposed to ideological distortions, and its critics becoming afflicted with the same virus they set out to cure in the first place. I am interested in the aspect of culture as a constant location of tensions and rupture, yet constitutive of core credential in the making of modern identity. I argue that the failure of dominant criticisms of cultural appropriation is precisely because they do not leave epistemic space for prior commitments: the internal variation of culture. If as critics have argued that CA enables cultural violence, we need to understand the epistemic space where cultural violence occurs in order to make a meaningful proposal for identity discourse and conversation. I will make a case for what may be termed multiple humanity (ies) as a way of transcending the homogenous claims imposed upon cultural memories

Timely and reliable packets delivery over Internet of Vehicles (IoVs) for road accidents prevention: a cross-layer approach

With the envisioned era of Internet of Things (IoTs), all aspects of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) will be connected to improve transport safety, relieve traffic congestion, reduce air pollution, enhance the comfort of transportation and significantly reduce road accidents. In IoVs, regular exchange of current position, direction, velocity, etc., enables mobile vehicles to predict an upcoming accident and alert the human drivers in time or proactively take precautionary actions to avoid the accident. The actualization of this concept requires the use of channel access protocols that can guarantee reliable and timely broadcast of safety messages. This paper investigates the application of network coding concept to increase content of every transmission and achieve improved broadcast reliability with less number of retransmission. In particular, we proposed Code Aided Retransmission-based Error Recovery (CARER) scheme, introduced an RTB/CTB handshake to overcome hidden node problem and reduce packets collision rate. In order to avoid broadcast storm problem associated with the use of RTB/CTB packet in a broadcast transmission, we developed a rebroadcasting metric used to successfully select a vehicle to rebroadcast the encoded message. The performance of CARER protocol is clearly shown with detailed theoretical analysis and further validated with simulation experiments

Effect of abattoir waste on the physicochemical and bacteriological qualities of new-artisan river in Enugu, Nigeria

The effects of abattoir wastewater pollution at New Artisan River in New Artisan, Enugu East, Enugu State of Nigeria were investigated. The study involved the collection of water samples at the designated points from the New Artisan River where the abattoir waste waters are discharged. The physical, chemical and bacteriological analyses of the waste water samples were conducted using standard analytical methods. Results of the laboratory tests were analyzed using statistical tests. The results obtained were compared with World Health Organization (WHO) and other international standards. The results obtained were pH; 6.54 at 25.0oC, biochemical oxygen demand(BOD); 5009(mg/L) , chemical oxygen demand (COD); 3820(mg/L) , total suspended solids (TSS); 97.3(mg/L) , total dissolved solids (TDS); 56.7(mg/L) , conductivity; 113(µS/cm) , , dissolved oxygen (DO); 8.60(mg/L) , turbidity; 24.0(NTU) , colour; 117(Pt - Co) , total solids (TS); 154(mg/L) , total hardness (TH); 42.0(mg/L) , calcium; 10.4(mg/L) , coliforms; 9000(cfu/ml) and E - coli; 7500(cfu/ml) . Analyses of the results showed that the samples were highly polluted. Hence, appropriate measures are herein suggested as a means to control pollution discharge in New - Artisan River in order to enhance the quality of human and aquatic life Keywords: Abattoir, wastewater, river, pollution, drinking wate