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Review of Handover Mechanisms to Support Triple Play in Mobile WiMAX
No full textHandover (HO) mechanism is one of the critical operations in mobile WiMAX. It takes place when a mobile station (MS) moves from a serving base station (BS) to another BS. However, the HO latency in mobile WiMAX is still an issue that may affect continuity of real-time application sessions such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). This paper presents performance comparison of some HO mechanisms for real-time applications in mobile WiMAX, including HO, cross-layer HO, pre-coordination HO, passport HO mechanisms and fast intra-network and cross-layer HO (FINCH). Each one of these mechanisms reduces HO latency, especially during downlink traffic; however, they still produce insufficient HO latency during uplink traffic. Except for FINCH, they do not consider the scenario of HO between BSs that belong to different access service network-gateways (ASN-GWs) or to different connectivity service networks (CSNs); these two cases cause extra layer 3 (L3) HO latency
High performance medical textiles: an overview
No full textThis chapter gives an overview of progress made in understanding fibre fundamentals and their subsequent development into targeted application areas. It describes the key roles that textiles play in maintaining health and hygiene in everyday life. In in vivo application, it differentiates between temporary and permanent implantable materials and their underlying functional requirements. It also elucidates the role grafts, sutures and tissue engineering play in repairing malfunctioning organs and damaged surface/subsurface layers. It concludes by highlighting the roles that new technologies, including e-textiles, will increasingly play in recording health statistics, wellbeing standards and in actively prompting action long before an alignment is due
Expected future precipitation in central Iraq using LARS-WG stochastic weather generator
No full textThe Middle East (ME) is characterized by its water shortage problem. This region with its arid climate is expected to be the most vulnerable in the world to the potential impacts of climate change.Iraq (located in ME) is seriously experiencing water shortage problem. To overcome this problem rain water harvesting can be used. In this study the applicability of the long-term weather generator model in downscaling daily precipitation Central Iraq is used to project future changes of precipitation based on scenario of seven General Circulation Models (GCMs) outputs for the periods of 2011-2030, 2046-2065, and 2080-2099. The results indicated that December-February and September-November periods, based on the ensemble mean of seven GCMs, showed an increasing trend in the periods considered; however, a decreasing trend can be found in March, April, and May in the future
A new perspective for strategic facilities management in sustainable community development
No full textFacilities management (FM) is well established in the corporate sector, driven by the big demand for cost efficiencies which has become standard for most FM strategies and plans. On the other hand, there is a new thinking focused on FM's role in the community setting, where a major emphasis has been placed on developing social approaches to FM. This new thinking is outlined by the emerging role of FM in providing the required quality and support that enable community facilities meet their social and economic objectives.In this research, the role of FM in the community setting is defined by stakeholder value rather than shareholder value, and therefore becomes crucial in translating the strategic plans of a community into operational reality. Hence, the aim of this study was to examine the role that FM could play in the community setting, focusing on developing a model for a facilities management approach to sustainable community development. This involved investigating new opportunities for FM to reshape regional growth, contribute to the social, environmental, and economic prosperity, enabled by the government's interest in empowering local communities.The research problem necessitated integrated between two multi-disciplinary topics, facilities management and community development, and thus the nature of knowledge creation in this research is conceptualized by theory building and knowledge development. This multi-layered investigation required the researcher to adopt a Grounded Theory approach, in which five Case Studies were explored, representing different types of communities. The data was collected and analysed through a triangulation of different tools.The emergent Codes, Themes, and Core Categories illustrated that the role of FM is an essential factor in the success of organisations and community facilities. The substantive theory of this research maps out the social structure of FM and its nexus with the practical applications. It provides a model for the use of FM in the community setting in order to increase the effectiveness of both Community-based Facilities and Community-based Organisations. Lastly, this model proposes a vision of the relationship between place, people, and process within the context of FM in the community setting
Thermo-physical performance of organoclay coatings deposited on the surfaces of glass fibre-reinforced epoxy composites using an atmospheric pressure plasma or a resin binder
No full textThis work reports the thermal barrier and flame retardant efficiency of an organically modified clay (organoclay, OC), when deposited on the surface of glass fibre-reinforced epoxy (GRE) composites.Two approaches were undertaken: 1) the OC was deposited on the surface of the epoxy composite and then polymerised using an atmospheric argon plasma in the presence and absence of a silicon containing monomer and 2) the OC was dispersed in a phenolic resin binder and applied as a surface coating. Fourier transform infrared spectrometry confirmed the polymerisation of the silicon containing monomer by plasma treatment. The adhesion between the coating and the substrate was measured using the tape pull method, which indicated that the OC was tightly embedded in the resin matrix after plasma treatment or with the resin binder. The surface morphology of coated surfaces was studied using scanning electron and digital microscopies. The thermal barrier effect of the OC containing coatings studied by a cone calorimeter at 35 kW/m2 heat flux was demonstrated by increase in time-to-ignition and time-to-peak heat release rate, and decrease in the peak heat release of the coated samples compared to the control sample. However, for the coatings to be effectiveenough to be self extinguishing, the presence of an additional flame retardant element in the coating or on the surface layer of the GRE composite and beneath the clay layered coating is required
BrainHex: A neurobiological gamer typology survey
No full text•BrainHex describes seven player archetypes: Seeker, Survivor, Daredevil, Mastermind, Conqueror, Socialiser, Achiever.•The study sample connects an interest in digital games with a preference for Introversion.•A clustering of player types in Thinking and Feeling suggests visceral or aesthetic reward preferences.•BrainHex provides a tool for designing gameplay and understanding motivations for play.
This paper briefly presents a player satisfaction model called BrainHex, which was based on insights from neurobiological findings as well as the results from earlier demographic game design models (DGD1 and DGD2). The model presents seven different archetypes of players: Seeker, Survivor, Daredevil, Mastermind, Conqueror, Socialiser, and Achiever. We explain how each of these player archetypes relates to older player typologies (such as Myers-Briggs), and how each archetype characterizes a specific playing style. We conducted a survey among more than 50,000 players using the BrainHex model as a personality type motivator to gather and compare demographic data to the different BrainHex archetypes. We discuss some results from this survey with a focus on psychometric orientation of respondents, to establish relationships between personality types and BrainHex archetypes
High Stability Fluorinated Zinc Oxide Thin Film Transistor and its Application on High Precision Active-Matrix Touch Panel
No full textWe present fluorinated ZnO (F-ZnO) TFT to overcome the native drawback of pure ZnO TFT. At a optimum F concentration of 10(20)/cm(3), it exhibits high field-effect mobility of 71cm(2)/Vs, low sub-threshold slope (SS) of 0.18V/decade, high reliability, good uniformity and light insensitivity, The improvement is attributed to the passivation effect of F. Based on the high performance F-ZnO TFTs, a novel active-matrix self-capacitive touch panel was firstly realized. This touch technology combined the functions of high precise stylus handwriting and sensitive multi-touch, which will be the trend of the development of the next-genaration high precision touch panel
An Empirical Analysis of Commitment to Health and Safety and its Effect on the Profitability of UK Construction SMEs
No full textThe construction industry contributes one in six industrial fatalities per year with approximately 60,000 deaths on construction sites around the world. Undeniably, health and safety in the UK construction industry has improved significantly; however the industry is still considered as one of the most dangerous, responsible for 39 fatalities in 2012/13. Unfortunately, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in construction account for 90% of these fatalities at work.However, some may assert although not at zero accidents, large companies have got health and safety ‘just as good as it can get’.Arguably, an average SME’s health and safety performance is often undermined by a rigid dichotomy between perceived need for commitment to health and safety and profitability. Some proponents of commitment to health and safety claim that upholding safety best practice is, without doubt, the most crucial investment that can be made. However, there is substantial cynicism by most SMEs as to this claim; and it is often the case that financial pressure and the disbelief about returns on commitment to safety make SMEs cut corners. Attempts by past studies to measure commitment to health and safety against the profitability of organisations, seem to be scarce. Thus, this study aim is to explore the role of organisations’ commitment to health and safety in the profitability of construction organisations. Construction firms that are committed to health and safety may reap the benefits of: having cleaner sites, better-motivated workers, reduced insurance premiums, avoid unexpected cost of safety, better productivity and thus better profitability.The study employed a mixed methods research design over two phases. The first phase was conducted using key SMEs operating in the UK to derive the influence of SMEs’ commitment to health and safety best practice against profitability. Eighty seven participants representing various firms completed a questionnaire. The profitability over five years of companies for whom the participants worked was determined by reference to company’s accounts published at Companies House Ltd. In the second phase, semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten industry practitioners and two academics; in order to support the development of discussion and conclusion. The research findings show that SMEs’ commitment to health and safety is good but falls short of being very good, excellent or outstanding. The study conclude that, there is a relationship between percentage commitment to health and safety and the profitability of organisations; in addition the study also inferred that remedial costs of safety (depending on severity of adverse safety incident) is likely to negatively affect the profitability of organisation