This paper describes the results from a 12-month study of two prototype low energy dwellings built for Glasgow Housing Association (GHA). The houses are intended for mainstream and social tenure within Glasgow and contain a range of energy reducing features including one house with a thermally heavy clay block wall and one house using a conventional timber frame and both houses have sunspaces, ...

Low-income residents are among the most vulnerable groups to climate change in urban areas, particularly regarding heat stress. However, their perceptions about heat and the impacts they face go often undocumented, and are seldom considered in decision-making processes delivering adaptation. This paper presents a robust tool to allow the integration of perception, concerns and impacts of differ...

The RAINS (Regional Air Pollution Information and Simulation) model (Alcamo et al., 1990. The RAINS Model of Acidification. Science and Strategies in Europe. Kluwer. Dordrecht) was developed at llASA as an integrated assessment tool 10 assist policy advisors in evaluating options for reducing acid rain . Such models help to build consistent frameworks for the analysis of abatement strategies. T...

This paper considers the use of scenarios to treat uncertain attribute evaluations in the outranking methods. The scenario-based approach allows the decision maker to think deterministically about the problem by attaching causal links to a small number of potential outcomes, instead of using probability distributions. The scenario approach can be expressed as a simplified version of the compreh...

This study aims to show that application of Time-Driven Activity Based Costing (TDABC) to the management of cost of Information Technology (IT) Services operations and how it can be used to achieve significant cost reduction. To achieve this; a case study organization was used and the scope of activities was limited to Technical Services department Operations units. Interviews were conducted wi...

Determination of optimum location for drilling a new well not only requires engineering judgments but also consumes excessive computational time. Additionally, availability of many physical constraints such as the well length, trajectory, and completion type and the numerous affecting parameters including, well type, well numbers, well-control variables prompt that the optimization approaches b...

background: simulation can be used for educating, evaluating and assessing psychometric properties of an instrument. the aim of this study was to contextualize and assess the validity and reliability of the interprofessional collaborative assessment tool (icar) in an iranian context using simulation.   methods: in this descriptive study, contextualization of the icar was assessed through severa...

this paper proposes a new smart antenna beamforming scheme based on electronically steerable parasitic array radiator (espar). the proposed method is capable of providing better capacity compared to the conventional espar. the termination of each antenna element in this structure comprises a pin diode in addition to a varactor. using pin diode besides the varactor provides more degrees of freed...

a medium scale structural macroeconometric model is constructed to investigate the effects of energy price liberalization on the main macroeconomic variables. the analysis is conducted under 3 different scenarios of increasing the price of energy sources to the level prevailed in the countries of the persian gulf region. these 3 scenarios are a sudden increase, a gradual increase within a 5 yea...

Simulation provides an opportunity for a trainee to practice skills in an interactive and reactive virtual environment. We present a technique for social and cultural leader training through simulation based on a combination of interactive synthetic agents and intelligent scenario direction and adaptation. Social simulation through synthetic characters provides an engaging and believable experi...