Monitoring of public and private sites is increasingly becoming a very important and critical issue, especially after the recent flurry of terrorist attacks including the one on the Word Trade Center in September 2001. It is, therefore, imperative that effective multisensor surveillance systems be developed to protect the society from similar attacks in the future. The new generation of surveillance systems to be developed have a specific requirement: they must be able to automatically identify criminal and terrorist activity without sacrificing individual privacy to the extent possible. Privacy laws concerning monitoring and surveillance systems vary from country to country but, in general, they try to protect the privacy of their citizens. Monitoring and visual surveillance has numerous other applications. It can be employed to help invalids or handicapped and to monitor the activities of elderly people. It can be used to monitor large events such as sporting events, as well. Nowadays, monitoring is employ d in several different contexts including transport applications, such as monitoring of railway stations and airports, dangerous environments like nuclear facilities or traffic flows on roads and bridges. The latest generation of surveillance systems mainly rely on hybrid analog-digital, or completely digital video communications and processing methods and take advantage of the greater of flexibility offered by video processing algorithms that are capable focusing a human operator's attention on a set of interesting situations.

The weathering of historical buildings and, indeed, of monuments and sculptures of natural stone is a problem that has been encountered for hundreds of years. However a dramatic increase in deterioration in the structure of our built heritage has been observed during the past century. To understand the complex interaction that the stone in a building suffers with its near environment (the building) and the macro environment (the local climate and atmospheric conditions) requires an interdisciplinary approach and the application of many disciplines. Climate change over the next 100 years is likely to have a range of direct and indirect impacts on many natural and physical environments, including the built environment.

The protection of our architectural heritage has both cultural and historical importance, as well as substantial economic and ecological value. Large sums of money are being spent world-wide on measures for the preservation of monuments and historical buildings. The past few decades has seen an unprecedented level of research activity in this area, the result of whichis often difficult to access and are summarized in the new edition of STONE IN ARCHITECTURE.

The 4th edition of Stone in Architecture: Properties, Durability, is a sophisticated and thorough exploration of stone its properties, performance and conservation in monumental contexts. The current editors, Siegfried Siegesmund and Rolf Snethlage, note the pioneering work of Erhard Winkler who wrote the first edition in 1973 when so little information could be found in the literature on the subject. This new edition, also published by Springer, nearly doubles the size of Winkler s 1994 effort. If you are familiar with the field and need to know little more than this statement, you can put aside this review and go buy the book.

George Wheeler, Department of Scientific Research, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York."

This book presents a study for the determination of environmental load factors for Jacket Platforms in Malaysia and a methodology to determine the life extension of aging platforms. The simplified methods described here could be used for determining not only structural reliability but also safety factors. Its content is particularly interesting to design and maintenance engineers who are working in offshore or onshore industry.

The response of structures and structural elements to explosive shock or high speed impact is of growing interest to scientists, research engineers and designers throughout the world. Attacks on civil and military buildings, bridges and transport vehicles by terrorists mean that more attention has to be given at the design stage to the effects of explosions and impact, and to high speed penetration of attack weapons. This book brings together the experience of specialists in the behaviour of concrete and metal structures, both above and below the ground, to actions of blast, penetration and high speed collisions.

The volume is devoted to the dynamics of rods, which is a branch of mech- ics of deformable bodies. The main goal of the book is to present systema- cally theoretical fundamentals of the mechanics of rods as well as numerical methods used for practical purposes. Linear and nonlinear equations governing a rod's oscillations are p- sented. Methods of determining eigenvalues and eigenfunctions in conser- tive and non-conservative problems along with numerical methods dealing with forced, parametric, and random oscillations of rods are given. Some - sues of interaction of rods with air (liquid) flows and the dynamics of spa- curved rods containing flows of liquid are considered. The book consists of nine chapters and appendices and may be conv- tionally divided into two parts. That is, Chapters 1 to 6 contain, in the main, theoretical material, whereas Chapters 7 to 9 illustrate the application of the theoretical results to problems of practical interest. Problems for self-study are found in Chapters 3, 5, and 7. The solutions to most of the problems are given in Appendix B. The monograph is addressed to undergraduate and postgraduate students and teaching staff of technical universities. It may also be useful for scientists and mechanical engineers working in a wide range of industries. I wish to express my deep appreciation to my colleagues, Dr. S.A. Voronov and C.B. Danilenko, for their help in preparing the manuscript.

This book is devoted to two primary objectives. The first is to present the errors, inadaptability and mistakes arising when the current theory on concrete is applied to explaining practical construction of concrete; the second is to put forward viewpoints in modern concrete science. Taking a number of engineering cases as examples, we experimentally studied and theoretically analyzed the errors, inadaptability, and mistakes when the current theory on concrete is applied to explaining practical construction of concrete. Moreover, we investigated the use of mixing ratios, aggregates, cement, high-performance concrete and fibers, as well as the frost resistance, cracking behavior, durability, dry shrinkage and autogenous healing to address and remedy the shortcomings in today's concrete science, put forward new proposals and make a number of innovative achievements in the field, particularly in modern theory on concrete science. The results and topics which will be of particular interest to engineers and researchers include: corrections to several one-sided, even mistaken views on concrete construction in the field and a new theory that can be adopted to improve the durability of concrete projects, to control and improve the implementation quality of concrete projects and to guide teaching in universities. Wenke Yang is a distinguished senior engineer at China Airport Construction Group Corporation, General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC).

The main purpose of this book, Hygrothermal, Building Pathology and Durability, is to provide a collection of recent research works to contribute to the systematization and dissemination of knowledge related to construction pathology, hygrothermal behaviour of buildings, durability and diagnostic techniques and, simultaneously, to show the most recent advances in this domain. It includes a set of new developments in the field of building physics and hygrothermal behaviour, durability approach for historical and old buildings and building pathology vs. durability. The book is divided in several chapters that are a resume of the current state of knowledge for benefit of professional colleagues, scientists, students, practitioners, lecturers and other interested parties to network.

The First African InterQuadrennial ICF Conference "AIQ-ICF2008" on Damage and Fracture Mechanics - Failure Analysis of Engineering Materials and Structures," Algiers, Algeria, June 1-5, 2008 is the first in the series of InterQuadrennial Conferences on Fracture to be held in the continent of Africa. During the conference, African researchers have shown that they merit a strong reputation in international circles and continue to make substantial contributions to the field of fracture mechanics. As in most countries, the research effort in Africa is und- taken at the industrial, academic, private sector and governmental levels, and covers the whole spectrum of fracture and fatigue. The AIQ-ICF2008 has brought together researchers and engineers to review and discuss advances in the development of methods and approaches on Damage and Fracture Mechanics. By bringing together the leading international experts in the field, AIQ-ICF promotes technology transfer and provides a forum for industry and researchers of the host nation to present their accomplishments and to develop new ideas at the highest level. International Conferences have an important role to play in the technology transfer process, especially in terms of the relationships to be established between the participants and the informal exchange of ideas that this ICF offers.

BUDGETING DESIGN TO COST EVALUATION COST REDUCTION PRE-CONSTRUCTION ACTIVITIES BIDDING / NEGOTIATING GMP CONTRACTS CHANGE ORDER MANAGEMENT IN-HOUSE PROJECT MANAGEMENT CONTROLLED BIDDING POLICY SAMPLE FORMS

Dear Colleagues, We are pleased to organize the Sixth International RILEM Symposium on SCC and the Fourth North-American Conference on the Design and Use of SCC, held on Sept 26-29, 2010 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The RILEM series of symposia started in 1999 in Stockholm, followed by Tokyo in 2001, Reykjavik in 2003, Chicago in 2005, and Ghent in 2007 with a steadily increasing number of papers, participants, and interest from across the globe. Due to the growing success of SCC, regional conferences have been organized, such as the North-American Conference on the Design and Use of SCC held in Chicago in 2002, 2005, and 2008; the International Symposium on Design, Performance and Use of SCC held nd in Changsa, China in 2005 and in Beijing, China in 2009; as well as the 2 International Conference on Advances in Concrete Technology in the Middle East: SCC held in Abu Dhabi in 2009. It can be concluded that these regional Conferences and Symposia were highly successful and reached a far more international audience than anticipated. Nearly 100 papers were submitted for these proceedings from which the International Scientific Committee selected 37 contributions covering a wide range of timely and original subjects from around the world. We would like to acknowledge the input of the International Scientific Committee for providing critical input to guarantee high quality of these peer-reviewed proceedings. We invite you to explore a wealth of information in the electronic proceedings.

Masonry constructions are the great majority of the buildings in Europe's historic centres and the most important monuments of its architectural heritage. Given the age of these constructions, the demand for safety assessments and restoration projects is pressing and constant; still within the broad studies in the subject it is not yet recognised, in particular within the seismic area, a unitary approach to deal with Masonry structures. This successful book contributes to clarify the issues with a rigorous approach offering a comprehensive new Statics of Masonry Constructions. This third edition has been driven by some recent developments of the research in the field, and it gives the fundamentals of Statics with an original and rigorous mathematical formulation, further in-depth inquired in this new version. With many refinements and improvements, the book investigates the static behaviour of many historic monuments, such as the Gothic Cathedrals, the Mycenaean Tholoi, the Pantheon, the Colosseum, the domes of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence and St Peter's in Rome, as well as the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The last chapter - the 11th - regarding the behaviour of masonry buildings under seismic actions, has been modified and integrated in order to take into account the numerous recent achievements of the research in the dynamic and seismic analysis. The focal point is that there's no dissipation of energy during the deformation of masonry structures, even if accompanied by cracks. If properly reinforced, masonry constructions have the sole resource to escape the seismic action developing the rocking without failure, under alternate seismic action. In this context, the rocking of pier walls, the main resistant components of the masonry structure, has been here thoroughly examined. Furthermore, the out of plane and the in-plane seismic strengths of masonry walls with openings has been investigated within the framework of Limit Analysis. Through an interdisciplinary approach, involving Mathematics, Engineering and Architecture, this book highlights the tight connection existing between the Statics of Masonry constructions and the principles that ruled the history of constructions, since the beginnings as far as the Seventeenth century.

By the beginning of the nineteenth century, over ninety-five percent of all the productive land in Ireland was in the hands of Anglo-Irish landowners. They lived in the 'big houses', some of which still exist today, resplendent within their walled estates. Many others are now only gaunt ruins silhouetted against somber Irish skies, victims of 'the troubles' in the 1920s. There is a continuing fascination with the history of the big house in Ireland. Much of this interest stems from the Anglo-Irish living in places apart, in their estates, often in remote areas of an undeveloped and hostile land. Part of the appeal is in the characters, neither wholly English nor Irish, who made up this landowning class in Ireland. However, another part, largely ignored until this study, is how many of these landowners not only met these challenges but achieved remarkable levels of self-sufficiency. It was their exploitation of technology that hugely bolstered their status and independence and enabled them to lead an exotic lifestyle in Ireland. Although much has been written regarding the social and political history of the Anglo-Irish in Ireland, little research has been conducted into the practical problems of living there. At a time when there were few roads, no railways, and sailing ships were the unreliable connection with England, existence might have been very basic indeed. Charles Carson uncovers and explains in simple terms the technologies employed, to not only make life bearable, but in some case to become a triumph over seemingly impossible odds. An appreciation of this background helps to explain the sense of status and independence that emanates from the big house in Ireland until their demise in the late twentieth century. Interdisciplinary investigative methods were used in this work. These included extensive archival research of estate papers throughout Ireland; fieldwork involving examination and photography of still-extant big house technology; and the use of published fictional and biographical big house material. Much additional insight, and suggestions for further research, resulted from visits to various big house locations. Owners, often descendants of the original families, or managers and ground staff, provided important local knowledge. Climbing amongst stored artefacts in cellars, barns, and subterranean tunnels helped to bring the past alive. Something of the ambiance of these explorations informs this book, thus helping towards an understanding of the fundamental importance of technology in underpinning the status and independence of the big house in Ireland. By examining the range, costs, and changing nature of the technologies employed, this book makes an important contribution to a deeper understanding of life in the big house in Ireland circa 1800 to circa 1930. Brief descriptions, accompanied by drawings or photographs, are employed to explain the operation, limitations, and improvements of many of the installations and techniques. These include water closets, pumps, cisterns, boilers, and firefighting equipment; open fires, hot air stoves, and central heating; walled gardens, hot walls and beds, warm air, steam, and hot water heating of glasshouses; the construction, location, stocking, and use of ice houses and ice; daylight enhancement, candle, oil, gas, and electric lighting; an optical telegraph, a church spire, engine driven equipment on the estate farm as well as mapping of bogs and their reclamation by wooden railways. Technology and the Big House in Ireland, c. 1800-c. 1930 is an important reference source for Irish study groups worldwide.

This book presents the latest developments in biometrics technologies and reports on new approaches, methods, findings, and technologies developed or being developed by the research community and the industry. The book focuses on introducing fundamental principles and concepts of key enabling technologies for biometric systems applied for both physical and cyber security. The authors disseminate recent research and developing efforts in this area, investigate related trends and challenges, and present case studies and examples such as fingerprint, face, iris, retina, keystroke dynamics, and voice applications . The authors also investigate the advances and future outcomes in research and development in biometric security systems. The book is applicable to students, instructors, researchers, industry practitioners, and related government agencies staff. Each chapter is accompanied by a set of PowerPoint slides for use by instructors.

Cementitious materials, rocks and fibre-reinforced composites commonly termed as "quasibrittle," need a different fracture mechanics approach to model the crack propagation study because of the presence of significant size of fracture process zone ahead of the crack-tip. Recent studies show that concrete structures manifest three important stages in fracture process: crack initiation, stable crack propagation and unstable fracture or failure. Fracture Mechanics concept can better explain the above various stages including the concepts of ductility, size-effect, strain softening and post-cracking behavior of concrete and concrete structures.

The book presents a basic introduction on the various nonlinear concrete fracture models considering the respective fracture parameters. To this end, a thorough state-of-the-art review on various aspects of the material behavior and development of different concrete fracture models is presented. The development of cohesive crack model for standard test geometries using commonly used softening functions is shown and extensive studies on the behavior of cohesive crack fracture parameters are also carried out. The subsequent chapter contains the extensive study on the double-"K" and double-"G" fracture parameters in which some recent developments on the related fracture parameters are illustrated including introduction of weight function method to Double-"K" Fracture Model and formulization of size-effect behavior of the double-"K" fracture parameters. The application of weight function approach for determining of the "KR"-curve associated with cohesive stress distribution in the fracture process zone is also presented. Available test data are used to validate the new approach. Further, effect of specimen geometry, loading condition, size-effect and softening function on various fracture parameters is investigated. Towards the end, a comparative study between different fracture parameters obtained from various models is presented."

In this volume scientists from different disciplines present their experience and their scientific work in progress. These concern the properties of a series of stones that have been used for the erection of some of the most important stone monuments of international cultural heritage and are also used today for substitution of missing parts or completion of damaged ones. It deals with the subject globally and contains unpublished research results.

When Seon (Zen) Buddhism was first introduced to Korea around Korea's late Silla and early Goryeo eras, the function of the "beopdang" (Dharma hall) was transfused to the lecture hall found in ancient Buddhist temples, establishing a pivotal area within the temple compound called the "upper monastic area." By exploring the structural formation and dissolution of the upper monastic area, the author shows how Korea established its own distinctive Seon temples, unlike those of China and Japan, in the course of assimilating a newly-introduced foreign culture as its own. To accomplish this, the author analyzed the inscriptions on stone monuments which recorded the lives of eminent monks and also numerous excavated temple ruins. These analyses give us a new perspective on the evolution of the upper monastic area, which had the beopdang as its center, at a time when early Seon temples were being established under very adverse and unstable circumstances. The exploration of the spatial organization and layout of Korean Seon temple architecture has illuminated the continuity between Korean Buddhist temples of both the ancient and medieval eras.

This book discusses the development, types and application principles of portable air purifiers in China. It analyzes the theoretical characteristics of air purifiers under various operational conditions, and points out that the term "Clean Air Delivery Rate" cannot be used to precisely reflect the problems that occur under various operational conditions. By comparing theoretical and measured data, it highlights the mainfeatures of air purifiers and key points in the design process for different applications. Calculation methods for the indoor particle concentration and the self-purification time are also provided. The book describes the conditions for window opening in smog and for selecting air purifiers, and proposes a newmethod for improvingtheir measurement. In closing, it includes a new assessment index.

This study presents exploratory work and seeks to identify and evaluate the success and failure factors that could form a guideline for further study and to some extent help professionals to understand some critical aspects that impact project performance concerning construction in India. A total of 55 attributes affecting the performance of construction projects are analysed in terms of their level of influence on four key performance criteria - schedule, cost, quality, and no disputes - using a two-stage questionnaire survey. These attributes are then further analysed, interpreted and evaluated. Based on the critical success factors obtained from the study, a neural network model-based predictive model for project performance has been developed. The performance prediction models have been derived for all four project performance criteria. Further, a hypothesis that 'project success' is influenced by 'success traits' has also been formulated. The hypothesized positive inter-relationships between success traits and project success have been tested using the structural equation modelling technique. Besides supporting the intuition of past researchers in recognizing 'coordination' as a key success factor, this study has revealed that coordination is not an isolated and independent activity, but is a typical management function with an inherent role in all major management activities. Key elements affecting coordination have also been identified and their influence on coordination effort has been studied. Furthermore, the present study has also identified three broad skill groups required of effective project coordinators. The results are validated through case studies of live projects and structured interviews with experts in the field of construction management.

These proceedings include most of the available information on this major seismic event and its consequences. With an estimated moment magnitude of 7.7 and a heavy toll in terms of human and economic losses, it ranks as the largest intermediate-depth earthquake in Europe in the twentieth century. Nevertheless, because of the difficult conditions in the 1940s, the lessons learnt after the Vrancea earthquake were not extensively shared with the international scientific community and thus, this book fills a gap in the literature discussing the knowledge acquired after major disasters. Past experience together with current understanding of the 1940 Vrancea earthquake are presented along with the latest information on Romanian seismicity, seismic hazard and risk assessment, and seismic evaluation and rehabilitation of buildings and structures. Moreover, it includes excerpts from Romanian post-disaster reports and textbooks concerning the earthquake.

This book describes step-by-step the entire building process of a passive, energy-efficient house in a Mediterranean climate. It chronicles the creation of the Fiorita Passive House in Cesena, Italy, offering designers valuable tips and practical advice for their own projects. Written as a logbook, it not only provides essential technical information but is also an exciting story of the challenges encountered and the solutions that were found. "How and where do I start when building a passive house? Do I need consultants? Will it cost too much? What precautions should I take in a Mediterranean region? What tools do I need? I want to build in wood, but what technical solutions should I use? What must I do regarding plants and equipment? And then, finally, will it really work?" These and many other questions filled the head of the author and designer when he tried his hand at building a passive house in the Mediterranean. The designer, S. Piraccini, had long sought a book that would answer these answers - in vain. So he decided to brave these dangerous waters alone, and after successfully completing his project, he decided to write a book to help others in the same situation. The book is accompanied by detailed information on building physics and HVAC systems by his fellow architect, K. Fabbri.

Optimization techniques offer immense potential for the improvement of performance-driven design, since they allow the adoption of an holistic approach. This can lead to great advantages: optimal design solutions can be properly identified only if all criteria are considered at the same time, rather than separately. There are two barriers which obstruct optimization from being applied to building design: a technological barrier (applying the algorithms is not easy and can be quite time-consuming) and a cultural one (architects and engineers are required to change their perspectives as the design process has to be handled in a new way). This book explores these barriers from the perspective of both engineers and architects, and proposes a change in the attitudes of these two "actors": an engineer and an architect develop a dialog which helps them understand each other's perspective; in this way they find how they must both make a step forward.

This timely book introduces architects, engineers, builders, and urban planners to a range of contemporary community design concepts and illustrates them with outstanding case studies from around the world. Drawing on successful projects from London, New Mexico, Austria, and the Netherlands, "Innovative Sustainable Communities" presents planning concepts that minimize developments' carbon footprint through compact communities, adaptable and expandable dwellings, edible landscape, and smaller-sized yet quality designed housing.

Effective 1 July 2013. This edition is updated in the light of the European Construction Products Regulations 2011, and particularly confirms the requirement that building products covered by a harmonised European standard should normally have CE marking. Guidance on resistance to moisture and substances in the subsoil has been deleted as it is in Approved Document C, as have examples of materials susceptible to changes in their properties. This Approved Document has a fresh new look and has been totally re-designed into a single column format to make reading. It has also been subject to a thorough editorial review to make the text/content more reader-friendly and simpler to assimilate and understand. Contracts and Management Publications Update Service: To ensure that you have the most up-to-date Approved Document or Amendment to an Approved Document to hand, you can now join our CAMPUS service. RIBA Bookshops will automatically send you copies of new releases as and when they are published. Visit our CAMPUS page for further details.

This book expounds on progress made over the last 35 years in the theory, synthesis, and application of triboluminescence for creating smart structures. It presents in detail the research into utilization of the triboluminescent properties of certain crystals as new sensor systems for smart engineering structures, as well as triboluminescence-based sensor systems that have the potential to enable wireless, in-situ, real time and distributed (WIRD) structural health monitoring of composite structures. The sensor component of any structural health monitoring (SHM) technology - measures the effects of the external load/event and provides the necessary inputs for appropriate preventive/corrective action to be taken in a smart structure - sits at the heart of such a system. This volume explores advances in materials properties and structural behavior underlying creation of smart composite structures and sensor systems for structural health monitoring of critical engineering structures, such as bridges, aircrafts, and wind blades.

This book provides a general introduction to the topic of buildings for resistance to the effects of abnormal loadings. The structural design requirements for nuclear facilities are very unique. In no other structural system are extreme loads such as tornadoes, missile and loud interaction, earthquake effects typical in excess of any recorded historical data at a site, and postulated system accident at very low probability range explicitly, considered in design. It covers the whole spectrum of extreme load which has to be considered in the structural design of nuclear facilities and reactor buildings, the safety criteria, the structural design, the analysis of containment. Test case studies are given in a comprehensive treatment. Each major section contains a full explanation which allows the book to be used by students and practicing engineers, particularly those facing formidable task of having to design complicated building structures with unusual boundary conditions.