Search

The building sector faces critical challenges such as negative impacts on the environment, high energy consumption, and cost inflation. With the development of digital technologies, BIM is increasingly being used in cooperation with other techniques to achieve sustainable building goals. This research aims to evaluate the current status of the sustainable building design strategies associated with BIM technologies. The most frequently cited sustainable building design strategies were identified by a comprehensive relevant literature review. A survey is conducted, focusing on a group of professionals in the sustainable construction sector, to measure the effectiveness of selected strategies. The results indicated that the “BIM-Based Life Cycle Assessment Method” and “BIM-Based Sustainability Rating Systems Method” were the most effective strategies. BIM can reduce the effort of performing various kinds of sustainability assessments. Thus, improving the performance of sustainable buildings during the design, construction, operation, and maintenance stages.

There are a limited number of case reports describing the division of a horseshoe kidney (HSK) during trans- peritoneal repair of an abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). We present case of a juxta-renal AAA overlaid by an L shaped HSK, repaired trans- peritoneal with division of the isthmus. This was complicated by post-operative urinoma which was successfully treated interventionally.This approach was chosen due to the presence of the juxta-renal AAA with the majority of the HSK being perfused by a large left renal artery originating at the neck of the AAA. Temporary bilateral ureteral stents were placed. The isthmus of the HSK was divided followed by open tube graft repair of the AAA. Postoperative workup revealed an abdominal urinoma, which was successfully treated by urinary diversion and selective renal arterial branch embolization. Two years later, patient remains well with no evidence of hydronephrosis or graft infection.

Literacy and Basic Skills (LBS) programs in many Ontario colleges offer adult learners who have low literacy and basic skills with opportunities to improve their employment skills as well as results on prerequisite courses for entrance into post-secondary education. LBS students encounter many challenges and require extra interpersonal instructional support, which may be overcome through a blended learning approach. Due to limited access to technology in LBS programs, little is known about adult learners' attitudes toward online learning. This study investigates learners' attitudes and perceived success in blended learning, and key factors contributing to individual differences. A survey was administered to 149 LBS student participants at three Ontario community colleges, along with interviews conducted with 37 students. The results of correlation and thematic analysis have shown that differences exist in their attitudes between face-to-face and online learning environments, 90% versus 40% positive respectively. Individual differences in their perceptions were found to be associated with their age, time out of formal education, education levels, and computer skills.

Core–shell gold–silver cuboidal nanoparticles were produced, with either concave or straight facets. Their incubation with a low concentration of chiral l-glutathione (GSH) biomolecules was found to produce near UV plasmonic extinction and induced circular dichroism (CD) peaks. The effect is sensitive to the silver shell thickness. The GSH molecules were found to cause redistribution of silver in the shell, removing silver atoms from edges/corners and re-depositing them at the nanocuboid facets, probably through some redox and complexation processes between the silver and thiol group of the GSH. Other thiolated chiral biomolecules (and drug molecules) did not show this effect. The emerging near UV surface plasmon resonance is a silver slab resonance, which might also possess some multipolar resonance nature. The concave-shaped nanocuboids exhibited stronger induced plasmonic CD relative to the nanocuboids with straight facets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here we investigate the possibility to create regular waves on falling liquid films that would survive for long distances. The flow is investigated in a 20-mm vertical pipe at the distance of 145-180 cm from the inlet for Reynolds numbers from 140 to 400. The regular waves were created by periodic pulsations of liquid flow rate with preset frequency and amplitude at the inlet. The spatiotemporal records of local instantaneous film thickness were obtained with brightness-based laser-induced fluorescence technique. Creation of regular waves is possible within a relatively narrow range of small (up to 10 Hz) frequencies, which expands as liquid flow rate is increased. These waves survive for at least 90 pipe diameters, in contrast to wider studied cases of high-frequency excited waves on low Reynolds number films. The excited waves are similar to the disturbance waves in gas-liquid annular flow, but they do not generate fast ripples on their surface and produce no entrainment.

This study examines the question of how much information one can extract from a tracer-based hydrograph separation in a remote and minimally gaged alpine catchment in Chile. We combine PCA-based endmember mixing analysis to identify the sources of flow contribution to the Diguillín River with a hierarchical Bayesian mixing model to integrate spatial and temporal variability in endmember concentration and quantify the source contributions to streamflow over time. The PCA-analysis shows that precipitation isotopes do not vary by elevation (e.g. snow and rainfall had identical signatures) but vary significantly by season, and that a third endmember is necessary to bound streamflow variability at the basin outlet, which was not captured by our field sampling. One of the main advantages of Bayesian methods is the quasi-machine learning capabilities, where we treated the third endmember as a parameter from which the mixing model could both estimate proportional contributions as well as posterior estimates for the tracer concentrations. The two tracer, three endmember hydrograph separation revealed groundwater to be the largest and precipitation (rain and snow) to be the smallest contributor, on average, to streamflow with the third unknown endmember contributing around 40% of streamflow during the Winter wet season. We hypothesize that interflow is occurring as the third endmember in the Alto Diguillín subwatershed, based on inferred tracer values and the presence of alluvium atop impermeable bedrock along certain reaches. More work is necessary to observe and sample these flowpaths, which was not possible during this study. The results of this work have implications for water resource management, since groundwater sustains the majority of streamflow in the Diguillín, and climate change will impact the timing and quantity of baseflow and interflow. Overall, we demonstrate the utility of combining PCA with Bayesian statistical modeling and inference to extract maximum information from a limited field dataset in a remote alpine catchment. The findings of this work can guide future water management in the Diguillín, but also provide clear questions for future research.

This study examines the question of how much information one can extract from a tracer-based hydrograph separation in a remote and minimally gaged alpine catchment in Chile. We combine PCA-based endmember mixing analysis to identify the sources of flow contribution to the Diguillín River with a hierarchical Bayesian mixing model to integrate spatial and temporal variability in endmember concentration and quantify the source contributions to streamflow over time. The PCA-analysis shows that precipitation isotopes do not vary by elevation (e.g. snow and rainfall had identical signatures) but vary significantly by season, and that a third endmember is necessary to bound streamflow variability at the basin outlet, which was not captured by our field sampling. One of the main advantages of Bayesian methods is the quasi-machine learning capabilities, where we treated the third endmember as a parameter from which the mixing model could both estimate proportional contributions as well as posterior estimates for the tracer concentrations. The two tracer, three endmember hydrograph separation revealed groundwater to be the largest and precipitation (rain and snow) to be the smallest contributor, on average, to streamflow with the third unknown endmember contributing around 40% of streamflow during the Winter wet season. We hypothesize that interflow is occurring as the third endmember in the Alto Diguillín subwatershed, based on inferred tracer values and the presence of alluvium atop impermeable bedrock along certain reaches. More work is necessary to observe and sample these flowpaths, which was not possible during this study. The results of this work have implications for water resource management, since groundwater sustains the majority of streamflow in the Diguillín, and climate change will impact the timing and quantity of baseflow and interflow. Overall, we demonstrate the utility of combining PCA with Bayesian statistical modeling and inference to extract maximum information from a limited field dataset in a remote alpine catchment. The findings of this work can guide future water management in the Diguillín, but also provide clear questions for future research.

The question of increasing the reliability and durability of reinforced concrete structures is a priority. One of the ways to increase the strength of concrete is using of dispersed reinforcement. The interest of using of fiber-reinforced concrete in Russia, as well as in Europe, Asia and the USA has increased significantly in recent ten years. The improvement of the physical and mechanical properties of concrete is noted to depend on the reinforcement parameters, such as the volume content of the fiber, the characteristics of the dispersed reinforcement, the structure of the concrete matrix, etc. Authors consider various types of fibers for dispersed concrete reinforcement, specifically polypropylene, polyethylene, nylon, acrylic, polyester, cotton, asbestos, glass, basalt, steel, carbon. Description of the main advantages and disadvantages of each type of fiber is given. Comparative characteristics are presented in terms of density, tensile strength, modulus of elasticity, elongation at fracture of the materials used to manufacture the fiber. The influence of fibers on crack strength of fiber-reinforced concrete under impact loads is studied. Analytical review of existing works found that it is possible to achieve a significant increase of strength of fiber-reinforced concrete in axial compression, tension, tension in bending, shear compared to ordinary heavy concrete.