Membrane bioreactors (MBRs) can be broadly defined as systems integrating biological degradation of waste products with membrane filtration. They have proven quite effective in removing organic and inorganic contaminants as well as biological entities from wastewater. Advantages of the MBR include good control of biological activity, high quality effluent free of bacteria and pathogens, smaller...

The lithium bromide chillers supplied from solar collectors are used to provide proper environmental conditions into industrial and civil buildings. To maintain the appropriate values for the temperature into the chiller's boiler, a control unit is introduced to avoid crystallization of the absorbent. The liquid flow process of the absorbent within the pipes of the chiller is a non-linear proce...

In order to have better insight into the physics of the urban wind turbines, a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) flow solver has been developed for industrial applications by Uppsala University and SOLUTE Ingenieros. Urban wind resource assessment for small scale wind applications present several challenges and complexities for that are different from large-scale wind power generation. Urban b...

An area of interest in the modern age is the human migration from rural areas to cities. Cities are characterized by a dense concentration of buildings and key infrastructures. However, what has been lacking is a pervasive sensor technology that can monitor the performance of these structures. Partly, this is due to the fact that the information collected from sensors cannot be easily transport...

The existence of specific expansive minerals in the clay soil related to the climatological conditions, seasonable variation of rainfall precipitation (wet and dry periods) and fluctuation of water table in Mediterranean countries, has resulted to induce unexpected shrinkage and swelling movements with all the unfavourable consequences. It was observed that light industrial structures and small...

In this chapter, we review some of the previous proof-of-principle work done in this field. Examples of water, land and air monitoring experiments are examined. Four case studies are then presented. The first three demonstrate the ability of the e-nose to classify odors from animal confinement facilities (odor source determination, odorant threshold detection, and odor abatement evaluation). Th...

neering process for establishing and maintaining consistency of a product’s performance, functional and physical attributes with its requirements, design and operational information throughout its life.[1][2] The CM process is widely used by military engineering organizations to manage complex systems, such as weapon systems, vehicles, and information systems. Outside the military, the CM proce...

This Article considers the federal preemption of state standards for building appliances and places the issue within the ongoing federalism debate over the role of state standards for “nationwide products” such as automobiles, drugs, medical devices, and other consumer products sold on a nationwide basis. Notably, residential, commercial, and industrial buildings make up approximately forty per...

This paper describes a novel archaeological resource--preserved epiphytes on the timber structure of vernacular buildings--used, to our knowledge, for the first time to quantify a loss of biodiversity between pre-industrial and post-industrial landscapes. By matching the confirmed occurrence of epiphyte species for the pre-industrial period, with a statistical likelihood for their absence in th...