Papers by Akmal Abdelfatah
Journal of Cleaner Production, 2019
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Designs
The deterioration module (DM) is one of the four major modules necessary for any bridge managemen... more The deterioration module (DM) is one of the four major modules necessary for any bridge management system (BMS). Environmental conditions, structural systems, bridge configuration, geographic location, and traffic data are some of the major factors that affect the development of deterioration modules. This emphasizes the need for the development of deterioration models that reflect the local conditions. In this article, some of the most important factors that could help in developing deterioration models in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) were identified. The research was conducted in three phases; in the first phase, an extensive literature search was conducted to identify factors adopted in different deterioration models, and in phase two, the most relevant factors to the GCC environment were selected and these factors were further reduced based on input from local bridge experts. The result from the second phase is a list of factors identified by the experts. The identified li...
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Sustainable Energy, Grids and Networks, Jun 1, 2023
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The Journal of Public Transportation, 2004
This research examines the impacts of a number of traffic parameters on the effectiveness of a Tr... more This research examines the impacts of a number of traffic parameters on the effectiveness of a Transit Signal Priority (TSP) application. TSP is tested with the 98 B-line rapid buses along Granville Street in the City of Vancouver as a case study. VISSIM, a micro-simulation software, is used to simulate TSP operation on the corridor. The traffic parameters studied include: bus approach volume, cross street volume/capacity (v/c) ratio, bus headway, bus stop location, bus check-in detector location, left turn condition, and signal coordination. Based on results from these experiments, recommendations are provided for TSP application on Granville Street. In general, it is found that a TSP application would be most effective under a traffic condition that has moderate to heavy bus approach volume, little or no turning volume hindering bus movement, slight to moderate cross street v/c ratio, farside bus stop, and signal coordination for traffic running in peak direction.
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Advances in Civil Engineering, 2011
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Proceedings of the 2nd World Congress on Civil, Structural, and Environmental Engineering, Apr 1, 2018
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European Transport Conference, 2010Association for European Transport (AET), 2010
This paper will discuss how transportation impact fees are the contributions of investors in the ... more This paper will discuss how transportation impact fees are the contributions of investors in the cost of the needed infrastructure for their developments. The growth of Dubai during the past few years has been phenomenal. Accordingly, the need for highway infrastructure has been increasing rapidly. In order to provide some guidelines for calculating the transportation impact fees, Dubai‟s Roads & Transport Authority (RTA), issued Law #6 in 2006, provides the basis and legal cover for charging equitable impact fees for transportation projects to the beneficiaries of the projects. However, a detailed mechanism that covers the technical aspects in calculating impact fees is still not standardized in Dubai. The lack of clear procedure for calculating the transportation impact fees has created many disputes between RTA and transportation consultants in the city. The objective of this paper is to prescribe a cost-sharing mechanism and a transportation impact fee calculation method that are technically justifiable, equitable and proportional to the beneficiary parties and the government of Dubai represented by RTA. Six different procedures for transportation impact fee estimation were identified and tested. These procedures include the RTA proposed methodology or the “Development Trips/Total Volume” approach for distributing the cost of transportation projects in Dubai. Another is the proposed modified RTA approach, which is a variation of the RTA‟s traffic impact study manual. Others are transportation impact fee procedures discussed in the literature, including the facility-based approach, “Development Regional Impact (DRI) Trips/Capacity” approach, consumption-based approach and inductive fee approach. These procedures were tested on 15 different scenarios that representing different trip generation levels, and origin/destination trip combinations for the Business Bay project, a case study project in Dubai that has been selected to test the impact fee procedures in Dubai. Based on the results and analysis of the tests, the “DRI trips/capacity” approach is recommended for calculating transportation impact fees in Dubai because of its fairness, equitability and comprehensiveness to both RTA and developers.
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Journal of civil engineering and architecture, Jun 28, 2012
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Engineering faculty were surveyed on issues related to academic dishonesty by students affiliated... more Engineering faculty were surveyed on issues related to academic dishonesty by students affiliated with their college at an American university located in the United Arab Emirates. The survey addressed perceived frequency of plagiarism, unauthorized collaboration, cheating, copyright violations and complicity in academic integrity. As expected, the majority of the faculty think that dishonesty is more common in-of-class work compared to proctored exams. They think that applying tougher penalties and using more proctors are the most effective methods in decreasing academic dishonesty. The authors believe that it would be helpful if faculty members follow the university’s policy on cheating rather than make up their own rules in order to have consistent approach in dealing with academic dishonesty violations across the whole university. Ideally, the best way to combat dishonest acts at an institution is by educating students through seminars and workshops about the virtues of academic integrity and the benefits it brings to society. But until our campuses become free of dishonest behavior by students, some practical measures should be undertaken by the faculty to safeguard the institution against unethical behavior by students. For example, faculty members are recommended to either make their own assignments or modify the end-of-chapter problems from textbooks because students may have access to solution manuals. They are encouraged to give different homework problems and projects from one semester to another since students may have access to graded past work. While test banks provided to faculty by publishers may be used as a guide when creating exams, problems from such sources should not be put verbatim on exams by faculty because they are often available for purchase by students on the internet. Furthermore, the weight of-of-class assignments relative to the total course grade should be a small fraction of the total weight to discourage students from cheating on homework. Wireless signal jamming devices can combat some acts of e-cheating that utilizes the internet by disrupting communication between a smart phone and the cell-phone base station.
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Journal of Traffic and Logistics Engineering, 2014
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Journal of Traffic and Logistics Engineering, 2015
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Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering, Jun 1, 2017
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Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Feb 1, 2006
This paper presents numerical experimental results for testing a simulation-based combined dynami... more This paper presents numerical experimental results for testing a simulation-based combined dynamic traffic assignment and signal optimisation algorithm under incident conditions. The algorithm utilises a path-based signal optimisation procedure, which uses vehicle paths information from a dynamic traffic system optimal assignment model to optimise the signals. The use of vehicle path in the signal optimisation procedure makes it much easier to interact with the path-based dynamic traffic assignment models. The algorithm is implemented and tested under normal and incident conditions. The experiments consist of implementations of the solution algorithm under different congestion levels for the test networks. Some experiments, under incident conditions for the test network, were used to examine the robustness of the solution algorithm. The algorithm is shown to reach convergence in all experiments, and to result in significant improvements over the system optimal assignment solution under different congestion levels.
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Quality Assurance in Education, Sep 4, 2017
Purpose This paper aims to survey students and faculty from the College of Engineering at an Amer... more Purpose This paper aims to survey students and faculty from the College of Engineering at an American university in the United Arab Emirates about their perception on different issues related to academic dishonesty. Opinions were sought on plagiarism, inappropriate collaboration, cheating on exams, copyright violations and complicity in academic dishonesty. Reasons for students to commit dishonest acts and ways to reduce academic misconduct were also included. Design/methodology/approach A survey involving 11 questions with multiple choice answers was developed and distributed to engineering students and faculty at the institution to get their perception of the considered issues. Findings Results of the study showed that while faculty and students were generally in agreement in their perception of the frequency of academic dishonesty among students, they greatly differed on the courses of action needed to reduce them. Most faculty members favored applying tougher penalties and using more proctors in exams. On the other hand, students preferred softer approaches such as educating them on academic integrity issues, applying lenient deadlines for assignments and reducing the difficulty of exams. Research limitations/implications The conclusions and recommendations of the study are applicable to colleges of higher education having similar characteristics and culture to the surveyed institution. Practical implications The findings can be used to understand students’ behavior and faculty’s attitude toward academic dishonesty, and to assess the effectiveness of current strategies addressing the issue at similar universities in the region. Originality/value The conducted literature review indicated that this work is believed to be a pioneering case study in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries.
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Construction and Building Materials, Feb 1, 2009
Many structures in the middle-east’s Gulf region are now either reaching the end of their design ... more Many structures in the middle-east’s Gulf region are now either reaching the end of their design life or were not constructed according to the specifications. Demolition or maintenance work on such structures results in large amount of concrete rubbles. Recycling concrete wastes will lead to reduction in valuable landfill space and savings in natural resources. The objective of this study
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Papers by Akmal Abdelfatah