An-Najah Staff

Travel delay (TD) denotes a time difference between the running time of vehicle with a normal speed and the travel time of vehicle with a reduced speed for traversing the same segment of roadway, and is sometimes used as a measure of time delayed in the junction or bottleneck areas of roadway. Urban freeways in the foreign countries are often suffering from traffic delay within the entrance and exit ramp junction influence areas, as a freeway with the speed limit of 80 km/h or higher only during the rush hours, but those in our country are especially experiencing severe traffic delay on the mainline segments as well as within the entrance and exit ramp junction influence areas, as a freeway with the speed limit of 80 km/h or less regardless of the rush hours. So, the purpose in this study is to develop the models that could predict the travel delay within the ramp junction influence areas of urban freeway having the geographical features which differ from the expressway, and also examine the validity of the travel delay predictive models developed.

This paper presents a modeling approach based on a geographic information system (GIS) to estimate the variability of on-ground nitrogen loading and the corresponding nitrate leaching to ground water. The methodology integrates all point and nonpoint sources of nitrogen, the national land cover database, soil nitrogen transformations, and the uncertainty of key soil and land use-related parameters to predict the nitrate mass leaching to ground water. The analysis considered 21 different land use classes with information derived from nitrogen sources such as fertilizer and dairy manure applications, dairy lagoons, septic systems, and dry and wet depositions. Simulations were performed at a temporal resolution of one month to capture seasonal trends. The model was applied to a large aquifer of 376 square miles in Washington State that serves more than 100,000 residents with drinking water. The results showed that dairy manure is the main source of nitrogen in the area followed by fertilizers. It was also seen that nitrate leaching is controlled by the recharge rate, and there can be a substantial buildup of soil nitrogen over long periods of time. Uncertainty analysis showed that denitrification rate is the most influential parameter on nitrate leaching. The results showed that combining management alternatives is a successful strategy, especially with the use of nitrification inhibitors. Also, change in the land use pattern has a noticeable impact on nitrate leaching.

In many countries, public concern over the deterioration of groundwater quality from nitrate contamination has grown significantly in recent years. This concern has focused increasingly on anthropogenic sources as the potential cause of the problem. Evidence indicates that the nitrate (NO3) levels routinely exceed the maximum contaminant level (MCL) of 10 mg/l NO3-N in many aquifer systems that underlie agriculture-dominated watersheds. Degradation of groundwater quality due to nitrate pollution along with the increasing demand for potable water has motivated the adoption of restoration actions of the contaminated aquifers. Restoration efforts have intensified the dire need for developing protection alternatives and management options such that the ultimate nitrate concentrations at the critical receptors are below the MCL. This paper presents a general conceptual framework for the management of groundwater contamination from nitrate. The management framework utilizes models of nitrate fate and transport in the unsaturated and saturated zones to simulate nitrate concentration at the critical receptors. To study the impact of different management options considering both environmental and economic aspects, the proposed framework incorporates a component of a multi-criteria decision analysis. To enhance spatiality in model development along with the management options, the utilization of a land use map is depicted for the allocation and computation of on-ground nitrogen loadings from the different sources.

This paper presents and implements a framework for modeling the impact of land use practices and protection alternatives on nitrate pollution of groundwater in agricultural watersheds. The framework utilizes the national land cover database (NLCD) of the United State Geological Survey (USGS) grid and a geographic information system (GIS) to account for the spatial distribution of on-ground nitrogen sources and corresponding loadings. The framework employs a soil nitrogen dynamic model to estimate nitrate leaching to groundwater. These estimates were used in developing a groundwater nitrate fate and transport model. The framework considers both point and non-point sources of nitrogen across different land use classes. The methodology was applied for the Sumas–Blaine aquifer of Washington State, US, where heavy dairy industry and berry plantations are concentrated. Simulations were carried out using the developed framework to evaluate the overall impacts of current land use practices and the efficiency of proposed protection alternatives on nitrate pollution in the aquifer.

In this paper, lumped-parameter models (LPMs) were developed and utilized to simulate nitrate concentration in the groundwater of Gaza City and Jabalia Camp (GCJC) in the Gaza Coastal Aquifer (GCA) in Palestine. In the GCJC area, nitrate levels exceed the maximum contaminant level (MCL) of 10 mg/L NO3-N (45 mg/L NO3) in many wells. Elevated nitrate concentrations in the groundwater of GCJC area are due to the disposal of untreated wastewater, the existence of heavy agriculture in the surrounding areas, and the use of cesspits for wastewater disposal. The developed LPMs utilize monthly time steps and take into consideration all the sources and sinks of water and nitrate in the study area. The main outcomes of the LPMs are the average temporal water table elevation and nitrate concentration. In order to demonstrate LPMs usability, a set of management options to reduce nitrate concentration in the groundwater of the study area were proposed and evaluated using the developed LPMs. Four broad management options were considered where these options tackle the reduction of nitrate concentration in the lateral inflow, rehabilitation of the wastewater collection system, reduction in cesspit usage, and the restriction on the use of nitrogen-based fertilizers. In addition, management options that encompass different combinations of the single management options were taken into account. Different scenarios that correspond to the different management options were investigated. It was found based on the LPMs that individual management options were not effective in meeting the MCL of nitrate. However, the combination of the four single management options with full rehabilitation and coverage of the wastewater collection network along with at least 60% reduction in both nitrate concentration in the lateral inflow and the use of nitrogen-based fertilizers would meet the MCL constraint by the end of the management period.

In this paper, we present a simulation study for a newly prepared organic solar cell, based on a composite of poly (2-methoxy-5-(2′-ethylhexyloxy)-1, 4-phenylenevinylene (MEH-PPV) with [6, 6]-phenyl C60 butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM). Photo-current density vs. voltage (J–V) characteristics, for the cell, which were experimentally studied earlier, have been revisited here. The results indicated that the conduction mechanism in the organic solar cell is strongly influenced by the excitonic diffusion. Sound correlation, between theoretical and experimental photo-current density vs. voltage (J–V) plots, has been achieved. Moreover, the simulation clearly demonstrates that the performance of the tested device can be described, with sound accuracy, by a two-diode-equivalent model.

The evaluation of using distributed systems DS in place of centralized systems has introduced the distribution of many services and applications over the network. However, this distribution has produced some problems such as the impacts of underlying networking protocols over the distributed applications and the control of the resources. In this paper we are interested particularly in manufacturing systems. Manufacturing systems are a class of distributed discrete event systems. These systems use the local industrial network to control the system. Several approaches are proposed to model such systems. However, most of these approaches are centralized models that do not take into account the underlying network. In this context, we propose the modeling of the distributed services and the underlying protocols with High-Level Petri Nets. Since the model is large, complex and therefore difficult to modify, we propose a component-based modeling approach. This approach allows the reuse of ready-to-use components in new models, which reduces the cost of development. To illustrate our approach and its reuse capabilities, we will implement it to model the link layer protocols of the norms IEEE 802.11b and IEEE802.3.