94 research outputs found
Synthesis, Characterization and Optical Constants of Silicon Oxycarbide
No full textHigh refractive index glasses are preferred in integrated photonics applications to realize higher integration scale of passive devices. With a refractive index that can be tuned between SiO2(1.45) and a-SiC (3.2), silicon oxycarbide SiOC offers this flexibility. In the present work, silicon oxycarbide thin films from 0.1 - 2.0 μm thickness are synthesized by reactive radio frequency magnetron sputtering a silicon carbide SiC target in a controlled argon and oxygen environment. The refractive index n and material extinction coefficient k of the silicon oxycarbide films are acquired with variable angle spectroscopic ellipsometry over the UV-Vis-NIR wavelength range. Keeping argon and oxygen gases in the constant ratio, the refractive index n is found in the range from 1.41 to 1.93 at 600 nm which is almost linearly dependent on RF power of sputtering. The material extinction coefficient k has been estimated to be less than 10-4for the deposited silicon oxycarbide films in the visible and near-infrared wavelength regions. Morphological and structural characterizations with SEM and XRD confirms the amorphous phase of the SiOC films
Global Communications Newsletter
No full textPresents information and current topics of interest to the global communications industry
A review on the generation, determination and mitigation of Urban Heat Island
No full textabstract: Urban Heat Island (UHI) is considered as one of the major problems in the 21st century posed to human beings as a result of urbanization and industrialization of human civilization. The large amount of heat generated from urban structures, as they consume and re-radiate solar radiations, and from the anthropogenic heat sources are the main causes of UHI. The two heat sources increase the temperatures of an urban area as compared to its surroundings, which is known as Urban Heat Island Intensity (UHII). The problem is even worse in cities or metropolises with large population and extensive economic activities. The estimated three billion people living in the urban areas in the world are directly exposed to the problem, which will be increased significantly in the near future. Due to the severity of the problem, vast research effort has been dedicated and a wide range of literature is available for the subject. The literature available in this area includes the latest research approaches, concepts, methodologies, latest investigation tools and mitigation measures. This study was carried out to review and summarize this research area through an investigation of the most important feature of UHI. It was concluded that the heat re-radiated by the urban structures plays the most important role which should be investigated in details to study urban heating especially the UHI. It was also concluded that the future research should be focused on design and planning parameters for reducing the effects of urban heat island and ultimately living in a better environment.Corresponding Author:
Ahmed Memon Rizwan
University of Hong Kong
[email protected]
Corrigendum: Embedded remote group environment through modification in MACBETH - an application of contractor’s selection in construction
No full textAli Raza Khoso, Aminah Md Yusof, Zhen-Song Chen, Xian-Jia Wang, Mirosław J. Skibniewski, Nafees Ahmed Memon, authors of the article “Embedded remote group environment through modification in MACBETH – an application of contractor’s selection in construction”, published in Journal of Civil Engineering and Management, 27(8), 595–616, https://doi.org/10.3846/jcem.2021.15763 inform that several errors occur in affiliations. The correct affiliation of the first author Ali Raza Khoso should be 1) Department of Structure and Materials, School of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor Bahru, Malaysia and 2) Department of Civil Engineering, Mehran University of Engineering & Technology, Jamshoro, Pakistan. The correct affiliation of the second author Aminah Md Yusof should be 1) Department of Structure and Materials, School of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor Bahru, Malaysia.
The authors regret this error and would like to apologize for any inconvenience caused
Book Launch | Dimitri Van Den Meerssche's The World Bank's Lawyers
No full textOn Wednesday 16 November, the ESIL Interest Groups on History of Intentional Law and International Organisations and Völkerrechtsblog, hosted a book launch for The World Bank’s Lawyers by Dr. Dimitri van den Meerssche (Queen Mary University London).In addition to hearing from the author, discussants included Negar Mansouri (Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies), Dr Gail Lythgoe (University of Manchester), Dr. Tommaso Soave (Central European University) and Dr. Ahmed Memon (Cardiff School of Law and Politics). Florenz Volkaert (Ghent University) moderated.<br/
Book Launch | Dimitri Van Den Meerssche's The World Bank's Lawyers
No full textOn Wednesday 16 November, the ESIL Interest Groups on History of Intentional Law and International Organisations and Völkerrechtsblog, hosted a book launch for The World Bank’s Lawyers by Dr. Dimitri van den Meerssche (Queen Mary University London).In addition to hearing from the author, discussants included Negar Mansouri (Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies), Dr Gail Lythgoe (University of Manchester), Dr. Tommaso Soave (Central European University) and Dr. Ahmed Memon (Cardiff School of Law and Politics). Florenz Volkaert (Ghent University) moderated.<br/
Book Launch | Dimitri Van Den Meerssche's The World Bank's Lawyers
No full textOn Wednesday 16 November, the ESIL Interest Groups on History of Intentional Law and International Organisations and Völkerrechtsblog, hosted a book launch for The World Bank’s Lawyers by Dr. Dimitri van den Meerssche (Queen Mary University London).In addition to hearing from the author, discussants included Negar Mansouri (Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies), Dr Gail Lythgoe (University of Manchester), Dr. Tommaso Soave (Central European University) and Dr. Ahmed Memon (Cardiff School of Law and Politics). Florenz Volkaert (Ghent University) moderated.<br/
Stylistic Analysis of Ahmed Ali’s Short Story Our Lane
No full textThe undertaken study is based on stylistic analysis of Ahmed Ali’s short story Our Lane. The study analyzes how the author has used linguistic features like noun, adjective, conjunction, sentence complexity to portray the social, political, economic, religious, psychological and cultural conditions of the colonized natives of the Indian subcontinent in the wake of the British colonial rule. The story portrays how the colonial rule has deteriorated the people socially, economically, politically and psychologically. Ahmed Ali’s use of adjective is in consonant with the established norm of using 7 to 8% of the total text (Hofland & Johansson, 1987:6). Whereas, the median of 343 sentences is 13, which is shorter than the length of an average modern sentence, which according to Ellegard is 17.8 words. While rebutting colonial narrative, he deviates from the standards of English language: excessive use of coordinating conjunction ‘and’ is evidence to it. Most adjectives of positive characteristics qualify to the past, whereas the adjectives referring to present are either of negative or of neutral characteristics, and thus the writer recognizes the glory of the past and condemns the disintegrating present and uncertain future in the colonized land
Assessment of Sustainable Development of the Performance of Higher Education Credentials in the Transitive Labor Market
No full textGiven the transitive challenges in the labor market, education can provide a sustainable developmental map for worldwide economic prosperity. Deep understanding of the dynamics of human capital, reflecting earnings aspirations in the labor market, indicates the need for policy makers to monitor and modify pedagogical curricula to meet the supply/demand of markets based on scientific evidence. In this study, we propose a methodology based on a household integrated economic survey (HIES) and, using different models, assess the impact of attained education and returns on the practical utility of skills within the context of a transitive labor market. We observe that effort levels are snowballing and rejection rates are declining for people with higher education (HE), whereas wage offers decline for people with low education (LE). Our results reveal significant differences in the supply/demand factors of both the public and private markets’ one-shot and continual affiliations. We conclude the impact of sheepskin effects and the implication of our findings
IBA: Intelligent Bug Algorithm – A Novel Strategy to Navigate Mobile Robots Autonomously
No full textThis research proposes an intelligent obstacle avoidance algorithm to navigate an autonomous mobile robot. The presented Intelligent Bug Algorithm (IBA) over performs and reaches the goal in relatively less time as compared to existing Bug algorithms. The improved algorithm offers a goal oriented strategy by following smooth and short trajectory. This has been achieved by continuously considering the goal position during obstacle avoidance. The proposed algorithm is computationally inexpensive and is easy to tune. The paper also presents the performance comparison of IBA and reported Bug algorithms. Simulation results of the robot navigation in an environment with obstacles demonstrate efficacy and performance of the improved algorithm
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