background: the phenomenon of dust is a serious environmental problem in dry and semi dry regions. it has a destructive effect for the residents of such regions. over two-thirds of iran is in areas of dry and semi-dry climate conditions. methods: in this research, dust fall measurements were taken in 41 stations across yazd city using a marble dust collector (mdco) located in different parts of...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to investigate whether a secular trend in growth occurred during the last century in Pygmies from Cameroon (West Pygmies) and in Bantu rural farmers, the latter being studied to serve as controls. DESIGN The evolution in height of West Pygmies and Bantu farmers from 1911 to 2006 was evaluated using data from the literature as well as data gathered by our re...

This paper presents a new method for segmentation of LIDAR point cloud data for automatic building extraction. Using the ground height from a DEM (Digital Elevation Model), the non-ground points (mainly buildings and trees) are separated from the ground points. Points on walls are removed from the set of non-ground points by applying the following two approaches: If a plane fitted at a point an...

rational knowledge-claims, consisting of theoretical propositions expressing a judgment about complex urban problems, are not new. the audiences, i.e. the public whose lives are affected by such claims, have begun to question the claims of rationality in urban planning. in response, each urban planner, believing in a particular theory or point of reference, endeavors to challenge competing theo...

in some climates, massive buildings made of stone, masonry, concrete, earth and … can be utilized as one of the simplest and most effective ways of reducing building heating and cooling loads. very often such savings could be achieved in the design stage of the building and with a relatively low-cost. such declines in building envelope heat losses combined with optimized material configuration ...

Shape memory alloys (SMAs) are unique smart materials that have many advantages, such as ability to resist large strains without leaving residual strains and ability to recover original form. However, the high costs of SMAs have limited their usage. This paper evaluates the behavior of concrete structures equipped with SMAs in an optimal manner as they are being used along the plastic hinge of ...

To control problematic vole species in organic orchards farmers can choose between different measures. Some methods like gassing, trapping and even the support of natural vole antagonists target to reduce vole population by killing individuals. Other methods like protective guards or migration barriers exclude voles from single trees or whole orchards. Recent combinations of the two approaches ...