An Empirical comparison of life cycle cost of green school buildings and non-green school buildings

One of the major economic concerns today of the world is reduction of energy consumption because of depleting energy sources in the world. The construction sector in the United States is also contributing in reducing the energy consumption and construction cost of the buildings by constructing cost and energy efficient buildings with energy efficient materials and techniques. The U.S Department of Energy introduced the Building Technologies Program that develops techniques, tools and technologies for making buildings more energy efficient. Other private bodies like the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), which is developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), have conducted numerous researches on techniques and methods to reduce energy consumption in buildings. Apart from providing certification to the buildings, this program also focuses on using strategies in reducing the energy consumption and improving the life and environment in the building. This study focuses on comparing the construction cost, speed and energy consumption of Green School Buildings (GSB) with Non-Green School Buildings (NGSB). Similar type of sample size of 30 GSB and 30 NGSB data located under Clark County School District, Las Vegas, Nevada was collected to conduct the statistical analysis. The final part of the study will compare and the life cycle cost of GSB and NGSB. The results of the statistical analysis showed that the mean energy consumption of GSB is significantly less than the mean energy consumption of NGSB. However, the mean construction cost of GSB is significantly more than the mean construction cost of NGSB. The construction speed of GSB is significantly slower than the construction speed of NGSB. The life cycle cost analysis showed that the life cycle cost of GSB is significantly higher than that of NGSB

The effect of grinding seed heads on the nutritive value of sorghum silage

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1964 N21Master of Scienc

Digital watermarking : applicability for developing trust in medical imaging workflows state of the art review

Medical images can be intentionally or unintentionally manipulated both within the secure medical system environment and outside, as images are viewed, extracted and transmitted. Many organisations have invested heavily in Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS), which are intended to facilitate data security. However, it is common for images, and records, to be extracted from these for a wide range of accepted practices, such as external second opinion, transmission to another care provider, patient data request, etc. Therefore, confirming trust within medical imaging workflows has become essential. Digital watermarking has been recognised as a promising approach for ensuring the authenticity and integrity of medical images. Authenticity refers to the ability to identify the information origin and prove that the data relates to the right patient. Integrity means the capacity to ensure that the information has not been altered without authorisation. This paper presents a survey of medical images watermarking and offers an evident scene for concerned researchers by analysing the robustness and limitations of various existing approaches. This includes studying the security levels of medical images within PACS system, clarifying the requirements of medical images watermarking and defining the purposes of watermarking approaches when applied to medical images

Trends of EOM, B(a)P, sulfates, and nitrates in air-borne particulate matter in eleven proximate locations in New Jersey during 1988

Air-borne particulate matter was collected at eleven proximate locations in New Jersey during the year 1988. Particulate matter was extracted in cyclohexane and acetone to separate non-polar and polar components. Particulate matter was also analyzed for B(a)P, Sulfates and Nitrates. This report presents the inter-site and intra-site variation of concentrations of pollutants between summer and winter seasons. Levels of B(a)P varied from 0.12 to 0.03 ng/M3 between urban and rural sites. During winter, B(a)P concentrations were 5 times more than summer. Concentrations of Cyc which represent mostly primary pollutants, were found 3 times lower in rural sites. Ace fractions were higher during peak summer months due to the occasional photochemical smogs. Sulfates are relatively stable at all the locations. Nitrate concentrations went down in warmer months due to photochemical breakdown. Interrelationships between inhalable particulate matter (IP10) and total suspended particulate matter(TSP) were also studied. From these studies it was found that, in general, organics were settling down heavily on larger air-borne particles. Mutagenicity of particulate matter was estimated to be higher during summer

A novel watermarking technique for medical image authentication

Medical images are stored in PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication Systems) that are accessed over the intranet by radiologists for diagnosis. These days the trend is shifting towards a web based interface for accessing PACS (image) data. This calls for thorough security measures in the information system of the hospital to ensure integrity of medical image data that is being transferred over the public network. The paper analyses various watermarking techniques with a perspective of applying them to medical images stored on the PACS. It discusses the applicability of invertible watermarking technique for ensuring integrity of medical images. Any modification to the watermarked DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) image can be detected with high reliability using invertible fragile watermarking system. A unique content based digital signature can be generated from the image data (pixel data) which would be embedded inside the image in an imperceptible way without increasing the data size that need to be transferred. This signature can be extracted at the radiologist viewer work stations and used for the authentication while the modified pixel data is restored back to original if the image is found to be authentic. This kind of distortion free (erasable) embedding procedure would ensure image retrieval without any modification to pixel data after the authentication process that caters to the unique need of medical images for diagnosis. 1

A study of cryptographic key management techniques for the cloud computing environment

Cloud computing has grown from being a promising business concept to one of the fastest growing segments of the IT industry. Benefits of storing data on cloud are: easy access of data, scalability, cost efficiency, and resilience. While there are benefits there are also privacy and security concerns. It is vital to ensure that the data is safe and only authorized persons have access to it. The most widely used technique for securing the data is based on cryptography. Using cryptographic techniques, data can be encrypted, thereby making the data inaccessible to unauthorized persons. Most of the cryptographic algorithms make use of cryptographic keys. The effectiveness of these algorithms are, to a large extent, determined by the efficiency of key management systems, which manage all the operations involving keys, from their creation to the time they are discarded. The main objective of the research reported in this thesis is to determine the effectiveness of various Key Management Systems (KMS) which are used by Cloud Service Providers by analyzing them on the bases of guidelines specified by standards bodies such as National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Cloud Security Alliance (CSA). The analysis indicates which KMS conforms to most of the guidelines and is, therefore, recommended for use

Biomass for Cooling System Technologies: A Feasibility Guide

AURI is a non-profit research institute established by the Minnesota Legislature in order to improve the economy of rural Minnesota. AURI provides scientific technical assistance, technology transfer, applied research services, product development assistance, and innovative networking to foster value-added development and process improvement for agricultural products and coproducts. A student research assistant is need to help research existing absorptive cooling technologies and evaluate economic feasibility and business assistance associated with implementing identified technologies.Prepared in partnership with the Agricultural Utilization Research Institute by the Community Assistantship Program (CAP), which is administered by the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA) at the University of Minnesota