Measuring experiential qualities of urban public spaces: users’ perspective

This paper presents an index for measuring experiential qualities (EQs) of urban public spaces through users’ perspective. The index is underpinned by interrelated qualities of comfort, diversity and vitality, inclusiveness, and image and likeability. It is then applied to two public spaces in the Australian city of Brisbane: Queen Street Mall and South Bank Parklands. The index extends the user-centred measuring tools and can be used by practitioners, authorities and scholars to highlight users’ needs and concerns. Findings from case spaces revealed deficiencies and provided a deeper insight into EQs through integrating urban design qualities, perception and management measuring items.     

Exploration of connectivity with SEM: An fMRI study of resting state

In this era, the neuroscientists get attention to find a network of brain which is activated in resting state of mind. It is challenging for any analytical technique to find out the connectivity among Brodmann areas of brain in resting state. To find network, a study was conducted in which brains are scan by functional magnetic resonance imaging of four healthy right handed individuals. Exploratory factor analysis was used to explore that which Brodmann areas are related to each other and then structural equation model has applied on explored factors (lobes) to find a network of activated brain in resting state. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Imaging Syst Technol, 26, 264–269, 2016     

Measuring research performance of Iraqi universities using Scopus data

Scientometrics - This study investigates the research performance of the Iraqi public and private universities using the Scopus citation database. The investigation consists of three stages. The...     

Thermo-mechanical characterization of polyurea variants

Mechanics of Time-Dependent Materials - The aim of this study is to investigate the role of chain length and hard segment dispersion within the soft segment on thermo-mechanical properties of a...     

Low Temperature Hall Effect Investigation of Conducting Polymer-Carbon Nanotubes Composite Network

Polypyrrole (PPy) and polypyrrole-carboxylic functionalized multi wall carbon nanotube composites (PPy/f-MWCNT) were synthesized by in situ chemical oxidative polymerization of pyrrole on the carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The structure of the resulting complex nanotubes was characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The effects of f-MWCNT concentration on the electrical properties of the resulting composites were studied at temperatures between 100 K and 300 K. The Hall mobility and Hall coefficient of PPy and PPy/f-MWCNT composite samples with different concentrations of f-MWCNT were measured using the van der Pauw technique. The mobility decreased slightly with increasing temperature, while the conductivity was dominated by the gradually increasing carrier density.     

Continuous size-based focusing and bifurcating microparticle streams using a negative dielectrophoretic system

Dielectrophoresis (DEP) is an electrokinetic phenomenon which is used for manipulating micro- and nanoparticles in micron-sized devices with high sensitivity. In recent years, electrode-based DEP by patterning narrow oblique electrodes in microchannels has been used for particle manipulation. In this theoretic study, a microchannel with triangular electrodes is presented and a detailed comparison with oblique electrodes is made. For each shape, the behavior of particles is compared for three different configurations of applied voltages. Electric field, resultant DEP force, and particle trajectories for configurations are computed by means of Rayan native code. The separation efficiency of the two systems is assessed and compared afterward. The results demonstrate higher lateral DEP force, responsible for particle separation, distributed wider across the channel width for triangular shape electrodes in comparison with the oblique ones. The proposed electrode shape also shows the ability of particle separation by attracting negative DEP particles to or propelling them from the flow centerline, according to the configuration of applied voltages. A major deficiency of the oblique electrodes, which is the streamwise variation of the lateral DEP force direction near the electrodes, is also eliminated in the proposed electrode shape. In addition, with a proper voltages configuration, the triangular electrodes require lower voltages for particle focusing in comparison with the oblique ones.