Detection of Suspended SARS-CoV-2 in Indoor Air Using an Electrostatic Sampler

A prototype virus sampler using electrostatic precipitation has been developed to investigate aerosol infection by SARS-CoV-2. The sampler consists of a discharge electrode placed inside a vial, and a thin layer of viral lysis buffer at the bottom, working as a collection electrode. The sampler was operated with the sampling air flow rate of 40 L/min. Collection efficiency of the sampler is about 80% for 25nm to 5.0µm diameter particles. We sampled the air of a food court of a commercial facility, a connecting corridor of a clouded train station, and two office rooms (A and B) in September 2021, just after the 5th peak of COVID-19 in Japan. The analysis using a RT-qPCR detected the virus RNA in the air of the office A, B and the food court. Estimated concentration of the virus in the air determined by calibration curve was 2.0 x 102, 7.8 x 102, and 0.6 - 2.4 x 102 copies/m3, in the office A, B, and the food court, respectively. These results indicate that the sampler using electrostatic precipitation can detect SARS-CoV-2 in indoor air. It could be developed as a risk assessment method for aerosol infection.

Górski gatunek Chamaenerion palustre (Onagraceae) w Wielkopolsce

Chamaenerion palustre is distributed in Poland mostly in mountains. It was found in the lowland of Wielkopolska at two ruderal localities on rocky substrates: in 2008 in the town of Buk on a railway siding, and in 2019 in the town of Głogów near railway tracks at the train station.

Towards a More Comprehensive Picture of Park-And-Ride: A Mixed Methods Study of Stakeholder Perspectives and Transport Behaviour in Greater Wellington

<p>In response to the environmental, economic and social costs associated with over-reliance on the private car, planners and policy-makers are promoting Park-and-Ride, or the combined use of car and public transport. Despite Park-and-Ride’s growing popularity, little has been written on the subject in the New Zealand context. This thesis addresses this gap. Its objective is to understand the behaviour of commuters in order to inform the development of policies to increase walking and cycling to and from the station. It uses a mixed methods approach, based on stakeholder interviews and an online survey conducted in Greater Wellington. Interviews with eight stakeholders involved in public transport planning and policy sought to provide insight into the challenges of implementing Park-and-Ride and how the concept can be developed in the future. More effective management of parking was seen as a key challenge for those tasked with making policy decisions. Stakeholders also discussed the potential for developing the concept, particularly by transitioning Park-and-Ride into interchanges for motorised and non-motorised transport modes, with priority given to walking and cycling access. A survey conducted among 295 respondents who commuted to Wellington City sought to explore the psychological and contextual factors in predicting the intention to walk and cycle to the train station. The usefulness of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), with the addition of personal norm, environmental concern, and problem awareness, in predicting intention was tested. All TPB constructs were significant predictors and explained 54% and 36% of the variance in intention to walk and cycle respectively. The additional constructs made a small but significant contribution in explaining variance in intention (together, an additional 6% and 4% respectively). Based on the between-subjects design, the acceptability levels of proposed Park-and-Ride policies was low. Perceived effectiveness and fairness significantly influenced the acceptability of policies. Policy-makers may find these results useful in considering how to increase the acceptability of Park-and-Ride policies in future.</p>

Towards a More Comprehensive Picture of Park-And-Ride: A Mixed Methods Study of Stakeholder Perspectives and Transport Behaviour in Greater Wellington

<p>In response to the environmental, economic and social costs associated with over-reliance on the private car, planners and policy-makers are promoting Park-and-Ride, or the combined use of car and public transport. Despite Park-and-Ride’s growing popularity, little has been written on the subject in the New Zealand context. This thesis addresses this gap. Its objective is to understand the behaviour of commuters in order to inform the development of policies to increase walking and cycling to and from the station. It uses a mixed methods approach, based on stakeholder interviews and an online survey conducted in Greater Wellington. Interviews with eight stakeholders involved in public transport planning and policy sought to provide insight into the challenges of implementing Park-and-Ride and how the concept can be developed in the future. More effective management of parking was seen as a key challenge for those tasked with making policy decisions. Stakeholders also discussed the potential for developing the concept, particularly by transitioning Park-and-Ride into interchanges for motorised and non-motorised transport modes, with priority given to walking and cycling access. A survey conducted among 295 respondents who commuted to Wellington City sought to explore the psychological and contextual factors in predicting the intention to walk and cycle to the train station. The usefulness of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), with the addition of personal norm, environmental concern, and problem awareness, in predicting intention was tested. All TPB constructs were significant predictors and explained 54% and 36% of the variance in intention to walk and cycle respectively. The additional constructs made a small but significant contribution in explaining variance in intention (together, an additional 6% and 4% respectively). Based on the between-subjects design, the acceptability levels of proposed Park-and-Ride policies was low. Perceived effectiveness and fairness significantly influenced the acceptability of policies. Policy-makers may find these results useful in considering how to increase the acceptability of Park-and-Ride policies in future.</p>

Reactivating Dynamic Architecture: A Strategy to Inject Relevant Bodily Imagery Back into Architecture

<p>The building-body analogy, which used to be crucial in the designing of buildings, to the exception of a few, is fading. This broken link leaves us with a melancholic yearning; a sense of loss. Reactivating Dynamic Architecture readdresses the use of the body in architecture by the application of an intervening design process. The processes we undertake in order to design architecture are too often assumed, and go unchallenged. In this thesis the design process is seen as a protagonist for change. Representation, both architectural and artistic, is a central theme as the thesis guides images of the human body through abstraction. Both the dynamic body and fragmented body are investigated for their potential to create a relevant expression for the human condition. Dalibor Vesely’s theory of the positive fragment is identified as a way forward for bodily fragmentation, and Analytical Cubism, which resonated with this theory, is explored. The thesis initially moves through the investigation of historical interpretations of the body before drawing on contemporary theory. Past depictions of the fragmented and dynamic body are assessed in order to establish what they can offer us for future analysis. A representational mode is established, based on Cubism’s methods, from here the transition from drawings to architecture begins. Rowe and Slutzky’s text Transparency: Literal and Phenomenal is used to unravel the intricacies of Le Corbusier’s Villa at Garches, and their reading of this building is used to channel a successful conversion process. The resulting architecture was created as a trial of the strategy and is posed as an expression, or speculation, for what can be achieved through this method. Three different scale interventions are explored within the chosen site of Ava Train Station, Wellington. Carlo Scarpa’s techniques guide the last transition to architecture, as his processes are recognised for their ability to fold meaning into design. The described design process gathers complexity as it gains momentum; there is much to negotiate through the realms of bodily perception, modern art and architectural representation. However, the architectural expression carries that density of meaning in a simple expression</p>

Reactivating Dynamic Architecture: A Strategy to Inject Relevant Bodily Imagery Back into Architecture

<p>The building-body analogy, which used to be crucial in the designing of buildings, to the exception of a few, is fading. This broken link leaves us with a melancholic yearning; a sense of loss. Reactivating Dynamic Architecture readdresses the use of the body in architecture by the application of an intervening design process. The processes we undertake in order to design architecture are too often assumed, and go unchallenged. In this thesis the design process is seen as a protagonist for change. Representation, both architectural and artistic, is a central theme as the thesis guides images of the human body through abstraction. Both the dynamic body and fragmented body are investigated for their potential to create a relevant expression for the human condition. Dalibor Vesely’s theory of the positive fragment is identified as a way forward for bodily fragmentation, and Analytical Cubism, which resonated with this theory, is explored. The thesis initially moves through the investigation of historical interpretations of the body before drawing on contemporary theory. Past depictions of the fragmented and dynamic body are assessed in order to establish what they can offer us for future analysis. A representational mode is established, based on Cubism’s methods, from here the transition from drawings to architecture begins. Rowe and Slutzky’s text Transparency: Literal and Phenomenal is used to unravel the intricacies of Le Corbusier’s Villa at Garches, and their reading of this building is used to channel a successful conversion process. The resulting architecture was created as a trial of the strategy and is posed as an expression, or speculation, for what can be achieved through this method. Three different scale interventions are explored within the chosen site of Ava Train Station, Wellington. Carlo Scarpa’s techniques guide the last transition to architecture, as his processes are recognised for their ability to fold meaning into design. The described design process gathers complexity as it gains momentum; there is much to negotiate through the realms of bodily perception, modern art and architectural representation. However, the architectural expression carries that density of meaning in a simple expression</p>

Optimization of Bolted Connection in Steel Corbel Attach to RC Column of MRT Viaduct

MRT is one of the backbones of a city’s public transportation system, capable of carrying large crowds. The use of a portal frame in the design of an MRT train station has raised significant concerns about how the portal frame’s load will be supported by the extended structure element known as a corbel. A corbel is a protruding structural element that supports weights like primary beams and girders. Engineers must then decide how to properly bolt the steel corbel structure to the concrete pier segment or columns. Generally, most corbel structure designs were constructed of concrete; however, in this study corbel design was made of steel so that the steel portal frame could rest on the corbel structure, allowing for more usable area on the platform, such as kiosks and other amenities. Optimization of end plate thickness and beam web thickness is carried out. Manual calculations are used in addition to FEA modeling to examine the bolt’s deflection, shear, bearing, tension, slip, and block tearing resistance. When using Eurocode, all three loadings, transverse force, vertical force, and transverse moment, produce values that are 10% lower than the British Standard. As a result, designers can optimize their designs using Eurocode.

Limiting COVID-19 infection by automatic remote face mask monitoring and detection using deep learning with IoT

During the current outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, controlling and decreasing the possibilities of infections are massively required. One of the most important solutions is to use Artificial Intelligence (AI), which combines both fields of deep learning (DL) and the Internet of Things (IoT). The former one is responsible for detecting any face, which is not wearing a mask. Whereas, the latter is exploited to manage the control for the entire building or a public area such as bus, train station, or airport by connecting a Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) camera to the room of management. The work is implemented using a Core-i5 CPU workstation attached with a Webcam. Then, MATLAB software is programmed to instruct both Arduino and NodeMCU (Micro-Controller Unit) for remote control as IoT. In terms of deep learning, a 15-layer convolutional neural network is exploited to train 1,376 image samples to generate a reference model to use for comparison. Before deep learning, preprocessing operations for both image enhancement and scaling are applied to each image sample. For the training and testing of the proposed system, the Simulated Masked Face Recognition Dataset ( SMFRD) has been exploited. This dataset is published online. Then, the proposed deep learning system has an average accuracy of up to 98.98 %, where 80 % of the dataset was used for training and 20 % of the samples are dedicated to testing the proposed intelligent system. The IoT system is implemented using Arduino and NodeMCU_TX (for transmitter) and RX (for receiver) for the signal transferring through long distances. Several experiments have been conducted and showed that the results are reasonable and thus the model can be commercially applied

Movement Patterns of Commuterline Users in the Medan City Train Station Area Based on Transit

At the time of this research, Medan City was threatened with the gridlock, a situation where the number of vehicles exceeds the available road capacity. To prevent the gridlock happens, Medan Train Station (Medan ts.) area as the center activity of Medan City, will be developed into an area based on the Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) concept by adding Light Rail Transit (LRT) and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). The addition is hoped to encourage walking and public transportation usage for visitors in Medan ts. area. This study aims to determine and mapping the movement patterns of commuterline users, in this case Medan – Binjai line which is the only line available, as the basis for the application of the concept of TOD in the Medan ts. area. The research uses observation and interview as the methods. The results of the study showed that the majority of commuterline users of the Medan ts. relied on paratransit when heading or leaving the station than walking. This can be seen from 70% of users (weekday) and 83.3% of users (weekends) using paratransit when heading to the station and 86.6% of users (weekday) and 66.6% of users (weekends) using paratransit when leaving the station.