An Overview of Drone Energy Consumption Factors and Models

At present, there is a growing demand for drones with diverse capabilities that can be used in both civilian and military applications, and this topic is receiving increasing attention. When it comes to drone operations, the amount of energy they consume is a determining factor in their ability to achieve their full potential. According to this, it appears that it is necessary to identify the factors affecting the energy consumption of the unmanned air vehicle (UAV) during the mission process, as well as examine the general factors that influence the consumption of energy. This chapter aims to provide an overview of the current state of research in the area of UAV energy consumption and provide general categorizations of factors affecting UAV's energy consumption as well as an investigation of different energy models

Bike Share's Impact on COVID-19 Transmission and Bike Share's Responses to COVID-19: A case study of Washington DC

Due to the wide-ranging travel restrictions and lockdowns applied to limit the diffusion of the SARS-CoV2 virus, the coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had an immediate and significant effect on human mobility at the global, national, and local levels. At the local level, bike-sharing played a significant role in urban transport during the pandemic since riders could travel outdoors with reduced infection risk. However, based on different data resources, this non-motorized mode of transportation was still negatively affected by the pandemic (i.e., relative reduction in ridership). This study has two objectives: 1) to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the numbers and duration of trips conducted through a bike-sharing system -- the Capital Bikeshare in Washington, DC, USA; and 2) to explore whether land use and household income in the nation's capital influence the spatial variation of ridership during the pandemic. Towards realizing these objectives, this research looks at the relationship between bike sharing and COVID-19 transmission as a two-directional relationship rather than a one-directional causal relationship. Accordingly, this study models i) the impact of COVID-19 infection numbers and rates on the use of the Capital Bikeshare system and ii) the risk of COVID-19 transmission among individual bike-sharing users. In other words, we examine i) the cyclist's behavior as a function of the COVID-19 transmission evolution in an urban environment and ii) the possible relationship between the bike share usage and the COVID-19 transmission through adopting a probabilistic contagion model. The findings show the risk of using a bike-sharing system during the pandemic and whether bike sharing remains a healthier alternative mode of transportation in terms of infection risk

Critical government strategies for enhancing building information modeling implementation in indonesia

Building information modeling (BIM) enables substantial improvement in the architect, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. To enhance BIM implementation, policymakers should develop appropriate strategies addressing local AEC industry needs. However, prior works that have explored government strategies to enhance BIM implementation in Indonesia are scarce. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the critical government strategies to enhance BIM implementation in Indonesia. A systematic literature review and semi-structured interviews with AEC professionals yielded 12 potential government strategies. The data were analyzed using mean score ranking, normalization, overlap, agreement, and correlation analyses. The findings illustrate that six strategies are critical for enhancing BIM implementation in Indonesia. Two of the six strategies overlapped between all main construction project stakeholders (i.e., consultants, contractors, and clients): (1) develop programs to integrate BIM into education curricula and academia, and (2) develop BIM implementation guidelines. These two strategies were highly correlated, and all project stakeholders had consistent views on their criticality for enhancing BIM implementation in Indonesia. The findings benefit policymakers by highlighting specific strategies that should take place to enhance BIM implementation in Indonesia

Factors, Challenges and Strategies of Trust in BIM-Based Construction Projects: A Case Study in Malaysia

Implementing building information modeling (BIM) in construction projects can provide team members with an effective collaboration process. Therefore, organizations are implementing BIM to acquire the benefits. However, project members still use traditional collaborative approaches due to the lack of trust. Therefore, this study aims to identify the factors, challenges, and strategies of trust in BIM-based construction projects. To achieve this aim, semi-structured interviews were conducted with twenty industry professionals, and thematic analysis was used to analyze the collected data. The results suggest that the factors affecting trust in BIM-based construction projects are knowledge, skills, awareness, behavior, policy, system, cost, and management. Moreover, the challenges to creating trust in BIM-based construction projects are policy, cost, cooperation, system, service, behavior, expertise, and knowledge. Finally, the strategies used to create trust in BIM-based construction projects are management, preparation, capability, cooperation, awareness, individuals, education, and government. In summary, this study provides insights that can help industry practitioners to improve construction projects by reducing unnecessary distrust among team members

Improving Emergency Training for Earthquakes Through Immersive Virtual Environments and Anxiety Tests: A Case Study

Because of the occurrence of severe and large magnitude earthquakes each year, earthquake-prone countries suffer considerable financial damage and loss of life. Teaching essential safety measures will lead to a generation that can perform basic procedures during an earthquake, which is an important and effective solution in preventing the loss of life in this natural disaster. In recent years, virtual reality technology is a tool that has been used to educate people on safety matters. This paper evaluates the effect of education and premonition on the incorrect decision-making of residents under the stressful conditions of an earthquake. For this purpose, a virtual model has been designed and built from a proposed classroom in a school of the city of Tehran. Accordingly, two educational scenarios, presented in reality and the virtual model respectively, were conducted on a statistical sample of 20 students within the range of 20 to 25 years of age. Within the mentioned sample, the first group of 10 students were taught safety measures in a traditional classroom. The second group of 10 students participated in a virtual classroom. Evaluation tests on safety measures against earthquakes were distributed after two weeks. Furthermore, two self-reporting tests of Depression, anxiety, stress test (DASS), and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) were assigned to the second group to evaluate the effect of foresight under two different scenarios. The results show that educating through virtual reality technology yields a higher performance level relative to the traditional approach to education. Additionally, the ability to detect earthquakes ahead of time is an influential factor in controlling stress and determining the right decisions should the event occur

A New Hybrid Multi-Objective Scheduling Model for Hierarchical Hub and Flexible Flow Shop Problems

Technologies and lifestyles have been increasingly geared toward consumerism in recent years. Accordingly, it is both the price and the delivery time that matter most to the ultimate customers of commercial enterprises. Consequently, the importance of having an optimal delivery time is becoming increasingly evident these days. Scheduling can be used to optimize supply chains and production systems in this manner, which is one practical method for lowering costs and boosting productivity. This paper suggests a multi-objective scheduling model for hierarchical hub structures (HHS) with three levels of service. The factory and customers hub (second level) and central are on the first level in which the factory has a Flexible Flow Shop (FFS) environment. The noncentral hub (third level) is responsible for the delivery of products made in the factory to customers. Customer nodes and factories are connected separately to the second level, and the non-central hubs are connected to the third level. The model's objective is to minimize transportation and production costs and product arrival times. To validate and evaluate the model, small instances have been solved and analyzed in detail with the weighted sum and e-constraint methods. Consequently, based on the ideal mean distance (MID) metric, the two methods were compared for the designed instances. As NP-hardness causes the previously proposed methods to solve large-scale problems to be time-consuming, a meta-heuristic method was developed to solve the large-scale problem

Improving Emergency Training for Earthquakes through Immersive Virtual Environments and Anxiety Tests: A Case Study

Because of the occurrence of severe and large magnitude earthquakes each year, earthquake-prone countries suffer considerable financial damages and loss of life. Teaching essential safety measures will lead to a generation that can perform basic procedures during an earthquake, which is an essential and effective solution in preventing the loss of life in this natural disaster. In recent years, Virtual Reality (VR) technology has been a tool used to educate people on safety matters. This paper evaluates the effect of education and premonition on the incorrect decision-making of residents under the stressful conditions of an earthquake. For this purpose, a virtual model has been designed and modeled based on a proposed classroom in a school in the city of Tehran to simulate a virtual learning experience. In contrast, the classroom represents a realistic method of learning. Accordingly, each educational scenario, presented in reality and the virtual model, respectively, was conducted on a statistical sample of 20 students within the range of 20 to 25 years of age. Among the mentioned sample, the first group of 10 students was taught safety measures in a physical classroom. The second group of 10 students participated in a virtual classroom. Evaluation tests on safety measures against earthquakes were distributed after two weeks. Two self-reporting tests of Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale (DASS) and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) tests were assigned to the second group to evaluate the effect of foresight under two different scenarios. The results indicate that teaching through VR technology yields a higher performance level than the in-person education approach. Additionally, the ability to detect earthquakes ahead is an influential factor in controlling anxiety and determining the right decisions should the event occur

Improving Emergency Training for Earthquakes through Immersive Virtual Environments and Anxiety Tests: A Case Study

Because of the occurrence of severe and large magnitude earthquakes each year, earthquake-prone countries suffer considerable financial damages and loss of life. Teaching essential safety measures will lead to a generation that can perform basic procedures during an earthquake, which is an essential and effective solution in preventing the loss of life in this natural disaster. In recent years, Virtual Reality (VR) technology has been a tool used to educate people on safety matters. This paper evaluates the effect of education and premonition on the incorrect decision-making of residents under the stressful conditions of an earthquake. For this purpose, a virtual model has been designed and modeled based on a proposed classroom in a school in the city of Tehran to simulate a virtual learning experience. In contrast, the classroom represents a realistic method of learning. Accordingly, each educational scenario, presented in reality and the virtual model, respectively, was conducted on a statistical sample of 20 students within the range of 20 to 25 years of age. Among the mentioned sample, the first group of 10 students was taught safety measures in a physical classroom. The second group of 10 students participated in a virtual classroom. Evaluation tests on safety measures against earthquakes were distributed after two weeks. Two self-reporting tests of Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale (DASS) and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) tests were assigned to the second group to evaluate the effect of foresight under two different scenarios. The results indicate that teaching through VR technology yields a higher performance level than the in-person education approach. Additionally, the ability to detect earthquakes ahead is an influential factor in controlling anxiety and determining the right decisions should the event occur

Key Assessment Criteria for Organizational BIM Capabilities: A Cross-Regional Study

Building information modeling (BIM) is an emerging process for managing the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of a facility. While BIM has developed in diverse aspects, the lack of organizational BIM capabilities remains a barrier to its implementation across the global architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. Accordingly, AEC organizations need to understand their organizational BIM capabilities and those of other organizations to realize the benefits of implementing BIM. This study examines the key criteria for assessing organizational BIM capabilities across two countries—Malaysia and Iran. For this purpose, the study compares the assessment criteria for BIM capabilities among the two countries based on the following elements: (1) criticality of the criteria; (2) degree of centrality of the criteria; and (3) underlying groups of the criteria. A systematic literature review of 26 articles and semi-structured interviews with BIM professionals provided nineteen criteria. A total of 121 and 126 BIM professionals evaluated the criticality of the criteria through a survey in Malaysia and Iran. The collected data were analyzed using the contextual disparities test (Mann–Whitney U test, Kruskal–Wallis H test, and rank agreement factor), network analysis, and exploratory factor analysis (EFA). The leading key criteria in both countries are “the company has the necessary infrastructure to implement BIM”, “the company has a good attitude towards new technology”, and “the company understands its expertise”. However, the subsequent key criteria differ between countries. Furthermore, while the level of agreement on the ranking of the criteria is at a neutral level, the Mann–Whitney U test indicates that the level of criticality significantly differs between countries for most criteria. There are also changes in the level of criticality of the criteria between countries. Finally, criteria with a high degree of centrality differ between countries. On the contrary, although the criteria slightly differ between countries, the overarching groups of the criteria are similar (i.e., the criteria are related to organizational BIM capabilities and organizational capabilities). Understanding these criteria can help researchers and industry practitioners develop the optimal tool for assessing organizational BIM capabilities for the local industry