Research Publications (Engineering and Built Environment)

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://ir-dev.dut.ac.za/handle/10321/215

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Green roofs and stormwater runoff quality in the urban landscape in South Africa
(National Research Council Canada, 2021-06-20) Sucheran, Arisha; Sucheran, Reshma
A number of sustainable urban drainage systems (SuDS), such as green roofs, are being developed and implemented in cities around the world to help reduce stormwater runoff and improve stormwater runoff quality. This study compares the water quality of green roofs with that of conventional roofs in the eThekwini region, South Africa. Samples of stormwater runoff from the different green roof systems on the eThekwini Green Roof Pilot Project were collected to test their level of contaminants and pollutants. The tests focused on all physical, aesthetic, chemical, and microbiological determinants pertaining to stormwater runoff. For all tests, the level of contaminants and pollutants were measured against the South African Water Quality Guidelines Volume 7 for Aquatic Ecosystems. The data revealed significant variations in pollutant concentrations between the green roofs and the conventional roof. Moreover, runoff water quality varied across the various roof types, which may indicate that the substrate composition has the greatest impact on green roof performance regarding rainwater quality. Overall, the results suggest that these green roof systems do not have the ability to filter pollutants out of stormwater runoff, but rather increase their levels of concentration.
Lighting up the future of ports with LED
(SAICE, 2016) Naicker, Rowen; Allopi, Dhiren
Ports and terminals compete fiercely for container traffic. Those with the most efficient operations stand to win the most business and generate the highest profits. Driving down costs is crucial to remaining competitive. Upgrading to the latest light emitting diode (LED) lighting technology contributes to terminal cost control. Light fixtures installed on port container cranes endure constant vibration, moisture and corrosion - elements always present in marine environments. These extreme conditions result in premature lighting fixture failure, demanding constant maintenance and increasing material and labour costs. Installing properly designed LED fixtures on port container cranes can immediately reduce energy usage, reduce crane maintenance costs and increase operator safety, while moving terminal operators closer to the universal goals of safety, sustainability and profitability (Hertel 2009: 70).
A meta-analysis of channel switching approaches for reducing zapping delay in internet protocol television
(Institute of Advanced Engineering and Science, 2021-06) Adeliyi, Timothy T.; Ogunsakin, Ropo E.; Adebiyi, Marion O.; Olugbara, Oludayo O.
Channel zapping delays are inconveniences that are often experienced by the subscribers of Internet protocol television (IPTV). It is a major bottleneck in the IPTV channels switching system that affect the quality of experience of users. Consequently, numerous channels switching approaches to minimize zapping delay in IPTV have been suggested. However, there is little knowledge reported in the literature on the determination of the strength of the evidence presented on the approaches of reducing zapping delay in IPTV, which is the prime purpose of this study. The extraction of the relevant articles was designed following the technique of preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA). All the included research articles were searched from the widely used databases of Google Scholar, and Web of Science. All statistical analyses were performed with the aid of the random-effects model implementation in Stata version 15. The overall pooled estimated delay component was presented in forest plots. Overall, thirteen studies were included in the meta-analysis and the overall pooled estimate was 10% (95% CI: 7%, 30%)). Experimental studies have shown that virtual elimination of IPTV zapping delay is possible for a relevant chunk of channel switching requests.
Reducing straddle carrier accidents at the Port
(IOSR Journals, 2015) Naicker, Rowen; Allopi, Dhiren
Abstract: The Straddle Carrier (SC) is a very popular piece of equipment. These carriers can undertake a variety of handling operations such as loading, unloading, stacking and transport of containers between the landside and waterside. Its popularity is due to its space efficiency and flexibility. Traffic incidents are a serious problem at marine terminals, where heavy equipment is used to load and unload ships and move freight from place to place in the terminal. The work is fast-paced, conducted at any time of the day or year, and often performed in inclement weather. Vehicular traffic endangers any worker walking in a marine terminal In a typical straddle carrier operation, what procedures/methods can be put in place to move towards a zero accident policy? It goes without saying that the operator should be properly trained. But how do you make sure that it is the trained operator that is driving, and what mechanisms can you put in place to monitor and review the safe operation of the equipment. Waiting for the next accident is not an option (Lambert 2009:1).
A taxonomy on smart healthcare technologies : security framework, case study, and future directions
(Hindawi Limited, 2022-07-05) Chaudhary, Sachi; Kakkar, Riya; Jadav, Nilesh Kumar; Nair, Anuja; Gupta, Rajesh; Tanwar, Sudeep; Agrawal, Smita; Alshehri, Mohammad Dahman; Sharma, Ravi; Sharma, Gulshan; Davidson, Innocent E.
There is a massive transformation in the traditional healthcare system from the specialist-centric approach to the patient-centric approach by adopting modern and intelligent healthcare solutions to build a smart healthcare system. It permits patients to directly share their medical data with the specialist for remote diagnosis without any human intervention. Furthermore, the remote monitoring of patients utilizing wearable sensors, Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, and artificial intelligence (AI) has made the treatment readily accessible and affordable. However, the advancement also brings several security and privacy concerns that poorly maneuvered the effective performance of the smart healthcare system. An attacker can exploit the IoT infrastructure, perform an adversarial attack on AI models, and proliferate resource starvation attacks in smart healthcare system. To overcome the aforementioned issues, in this survey, we extensively reviewed and created a comprehensive taxonomy of various smart healthcare technologies such as wearable devices, digital healthcare, and body area networks (BANs), along with their security aspects and solutions for the smart healthcare system. Moreover, we propose an AI-based architecture with the 6G network interface to secure the data exchange between patients and medical practitioners. We have examined our proposed architecture with the case study based on the COVID-19 pandemic by adopting unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for data exchange. The performance of the proposed architecture is evaluated using various machine learning (ML) classification algorithms such as random forest (RF), naive Bayes (NB), logistic regression (LR), linear discriminant analysis (LDA), and perceptron. The RF classification algorithm outperforms the conventional algorithms in terms of accuracy, i.e., 98%. Finally, we present open issues and research challenges associated with smart healthcare technologies