1,720,965 research outputs found
Towards sustainable residential buildings in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Get PDFResidential buildings are not only a major energy consumer, but also have considerable ecological impact. Quite often, architects can constitute a large part of the problem of tackling climate change. It is notable, however, that architects around the world have recently been encouraged to embrace the principles of sustainable design, which essentially aims to promote a suite of sustainable architectural practices such as those centred on enhancing household energy and water efficiency. Nonetheless, there seems to be a comparatively limited interest in pursuing the sustainability agenda among architects in the Middle East. In addition, there has been a corresponding dearth of academic research on this topic in spite of its apparent importance. This thesis considers the case of Saudi Arabia, and analyses the energy and water consumption of its current residential buildings in the context of two different climatic settings in the country, with the ultimate aim of establishing guidelines towards achieving sustainable architectural practices within the Saudi residential sector . An extensive literature review has been conducted in order to establish a broad understanding of existing sustainable architectural practices around the world. Using available literature, the thesis also examines both the current status of sustainability within the Saudi building sector, and the need for sustainable residential buildings in Saudi Arabia. Current energy and water consumption within two typical Saudi houses (an apartment complex and villa) were analysed using simulation software packages. Next, a number of design-oricntated energy and water conservation measures were suggested, and their serving potential assessed. In addition, especially as for this Ph.D. research, fourteen highly-informed Saudi stakeholders were interviewed in order to both validate the simulation results and to engage in in-depth discussions on ways of making residential buildings within Saudi Arabia more sustainable. Ultimately, a number of barriers that currently impede a transition towards a sustainable residential sector in Saudi Arabia have been identified. The thesis goes further and provides a number of design and non-design related strategies that have the potential to change the status quo with regard to the limited application of sustainable architectural principles within Saudi residential buildings.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
Natural ventilation as energy efficient solution for achieving low-energy houses in Dubai
No full textIn the hot climate of Dubai, there is potential for harnessing natural ventilation to maintain an acceptable indoor environment. This would also help in reducing costs, excessive use of energy and the consequential environmental effects of year-round air conditioning. Given the limited amount of relevant studies in this oil-rich region, this paper investigates the potential energy saving prospects of integrating natural ventilation with air conditioning systems into the residential buildings of Dubai. A real villa has been chosen to act as a case study for this research. A detailed analysis of the annual energy performance of the case study has been performed through the use of a computerised simulation, the results of which were verified with and checked against actual utility bills for a whole year. The energy consumption of the base case study has been compared with that resulting from different natural ventilation strategies. This was supplemented with a CFD analysis to examine wind circulation. All in all, the paper provides informed insights with regard to the potential savings of various ventilation strategies in a hot climatic context
Towards sustainable buildings in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
No full textThis paper assesses the energy and water use practices of existing residential buildings
in Saudi Arabia, with the ultimate aim of establishing guidelines for delivering
sustainable architecture in the near future. In order to achieve this overall aim, the
current status of a typical Saudi residence is thoroughly investigated, in terms of energy
and water consumption, using simulation software packages. The paper then examines
the prospects for applying various means to manage energy and consumption more
sustainably. In essence, this research identifies several design-related faults common to
Saudi Arabian house design. These faults contribute to an inefficient use of energy and
domestic water resources. Finally, the paper puts forward a set of recommendations
and guidelines, design-related and otherwise, in order to enhance the sustainability
level of Saudi residential building
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