Search results for: building services

Authors: Mohammad Qasim Mohammadi, Mohammad Arif Rohman

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Although socially sustainable building is becoming increasingly popular worldwide, past studies indicate that when policymakers support sustainable building development, the social dimension is often given insufficient attention or entirely disregarded. There are not many studies that focus on the problems of socially sustainable buildings in Afghanistan. This research investigates the factors that may hinder social sustainability implementation in residential building construction. The study will gather data from construction professionals by purposive sampling and employ Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Varimax for analysis. The results will undergo rigorous examination and thorough discussion. The expected results in this research will analyze the underlying barrier structure (factors) that hinder social sustainability, and each of these factors will represent a set of observed variables. In addition, the factor loadings show which barriers pose the greatest challenges. The primary goal of this study is to provide valuable insights into the impediment factors of social sustainability within the residential building environment, aiming to inform decision-making in the industry and encourage the adoption of more socially sustainable construction practices.

Keywords: social sustainability, residential building, barriers, drivers, afghanistan, factor analysis

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Authors: Johnnie Hay

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New Zealand is well known for its natural beauty, diversity of people but also for its strong focus on mental health through the provision of a vast network of psycho-social support services. South African-trained psychologists often make New Zealand their new home when emigrating - as it is relatively simple to slot into the well-established mental health system. South Africa is bigger in size, population, GDP and probably people diversity than New Zealand but struggles to provide adequate educational and psychological support services to schools. This is mainly due to budgetary pressures brought about by the imperative to first ensure that the approximately 13 million learners all have a teacher in front of their classes and at an average ratio of not more than 40 learners per class. In this paper, perspectives on educational and psychological support in New Zealand and South African schools will be shared. Through basic qualitative research encompassing semi-structured interviews with two South African educational psychologists who returned from New Zealand, supplemented by document analysis, the New Zealand situation will be scrutinized. South African perspectives will be obtained through a number of semi-structured interviews and questionnaires administered by education support services specialists working in district-based support teams in three provinces of the country. This research is in process, but preliminary findings indicate large disparities between the two countries' emphasis, funding, post provisioning and structure regarding educational and psychological support services.

Keywords: educational psychological support services, support for learners experiencing special needs, education support services, diverse learner population

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Authors: Argaw T. Gurmu, Muhammad N. Mahmood

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The objective of this research is to identify the architecture and construction management students’ learning challenges of the building measurement. This research used the survey data obtained collected from the students who completed the building measurement unit. NVivo qualitative data analysis software was used to identify relevant themes. The analysis of the qualitative data revealed the major learning difficulties such as inadequacy of practice questions for the examination, inability to work as a team, lack of detailed understanding of the prerequisite units, insufficiency of the time allocated for tutorials and incompatibility of lecture and tutorial schedules. The output of this research can be used as a basis for improving the teaching and learning activities in construction measurement units.

Keywords: building measurement, construction management, learning challenges, evaluate survey

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Authors: A. W. Chalmers, O. M. van den Broek

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This article examines the relationship between the global financial crisis and corporate social responsibility activities of financial services firms. It challenges the general consensus in existing studies that firms, when faced with economic hardship, tend to jettison CSR commitments. Instead, and building on recent insights into the institutional determinants of CSR, it is argued that firms are constrained in their ability to abandon CSR by the extent to which they are subject to intense public scrutiny by regulators and the news media. This argument is tested in the context of the European sovereign debt crisis drawing on a unique dataset of 170 firms in 15 different countries over a six-year period. Controlling for a battery of alternative explanations and comparing financial service providers to firms operating in other economic sectors, results indicate considerable evidence supporting the main argument. Rather than abandoning CSR during times of economic hardship, financial industry firms ramp up their CSR commitments in order to manage their public image and foster public trust in light of intense public scrutiny.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility (CSR), public scrutiny, global financial crisis, financial services firms

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Authors: Jelena Zivkovic, Haidar Mohammed, Elaf Saeed

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Student affairs services play a critical role in contributing to the wholistic development and success of students as they progress through their academic careers. The study encompasses a multifaceted examination of student affairs service offerings amongst 10 private and 3 public Baghdad universities. Student affairs administrators (13) were surveyed along with over 300 students to determine university-sponsored services and student satisfaction and awareness. The student affairs service research findings varied significantly between private and public institutions and those that followed a national and international curriculum. Universities need to persist to adapt to changing demographics and technological advancements to enhance students' personal and academic successes, and student affairs services are key to preparing graduates to thrive in a diverse global world.

Keywords: student affairs, student success, higher education, Iraq, universities, Baghdad

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Authors: Rattakorn Poonsuph

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Technological innovation plays a crucial role in virtual healthcare services. A growing number of telehealth platforms are concentrating on using digital tools to improve the quality and availability of care. As a result, telehealth represents an opportunity to redesign the way health services are delivered. The research objective is to discover a new business model for digital health services and related industries to participate with telehealth solutions. The business opportunity is valuable for healthcare investors as a startup company to further investigations or implement the telehealth platform. The paper presents a digital healthcare business model and business opportunities to related industries. These include digital healthcare services extending from a traditional business model and use cases of business opportunities to related industries. Although there are enormous business opportunities, telehealth is still challenging due to the patient adaption and digital transformation process within a healthcare organization.

Keywords: telehealth, Internet hospital, HealthTech, InsurTech

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Authors: R. Padmini, G. V. Manoj Kumar

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Structural insulated panels (SIPs) are a high-performance building system for residential and light commercial construction. The panels consist of an insulating foam core sandwiched between two structural facings, typically oriented strand board (OSB). SIPs are manufactured under factory controlled conditions and can be fabricated to fit nearly any building design. The result is a building system that is extremely strong, energy efficient and cost effective. Building with SIPs will save you time, money and labor. Building with SIPs generally costs about the same as building with wood frame construction when you factor in the labor savings resulting from shorter construction time and less job-site waste. Other savings are realized because smaller heating and cooling systems are required with SIP construction. Structural insulated panels (SIPs) are one of the most airtight and well-insulated building systems available, making them an inherently green product. An airtight SIP building will use less energy to heat and cool, allow for better control over indoor environmental conditions, and reduce construction waste. Green buildings use less energy, reducing carbon dioxide emissions and playing an important role in combating global climate change. Buildings also use a tremendous amount of natural resources to construct and operate. Constructing green buildings that use these resources more efficiently, while minimizing pollution that can harm renewable natural resources, is crucial to a sustainable future.

Keywords: high performance, under factory controlled, wood frame, carbon dioxide emissions, natural resources

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Authors: Pinar Dogan, Merve Tarhan, Ahu Kurklu

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Syrian refugees who sheltering due to war has protected by the Government of Turkey since 2011. Since Syria was a medium-low income country prior to the war, it is known that chronic health problems weren’t common among citizens. However, it is also known that they frequently use health services in our country because of the spread of infectious and acute diseases due to insufficient sanitation and crowding after the war. This study was planned to compare the social distances of the community against the Syrian refugees and the perceptions of accessing health care services. The descriptive-cross sectional study was carried out on 1262 individuals living in Istanbul. A questionnaire form consisted of Personal Information Form, The Bogardus Social Distance Scale (BSDS) and The Survey of Access to Healthcare Services (AHS) was used as data collection tool. Descriptive tests and chi-square test were used for statistical analysis. It was found that the majorities of participants was satisfied with the health services and were waiting for more than 40 minutes to be examined. It was determined that participants have high scores from BSDS. At the same time, the majority of participants stated that their level of access to health care is diminishing due to refugees. Participants who experienced disruption in access to health services due to refugees were found to have higher scores from BSDS. The data collection process in the study will continue until 2400 individuals are reached. With these conclusions, it is considered necessary that the effect of the presence of the refugees in reaching the health services and nursing care of the society should be revealed through extensive researches to be conducted in Turkey.

Keywords: health care services, nursing care, social distances, Syrian refugees

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Authors: Merna Ibrahim

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Designing buildings which are sustainable and can control and reduce the solar radiation penetrated from the building facades is such an architectural turn. One of the most important methods of saving energy in a building is carefully designing its facade. Building’s facade is one of the most significant contributors to the energy budget as well as the comfort parameters of a building. Responsive architecture adapts to the surrounding environment causing alteration in the envelope configuration to perform in a more effective way. One of the objectives of the responsive facades is to protect the building’s users from the external environment and to achieve a comfortable indoor environment. Solar radiation is one of the aspects that affects the comfortable indoor environment, as well as affects the energy consumption consumed by the HVAC systems for maintaining the indoor comfortable conditions. The aim of the paper is introducing and comparing between four different proposed responsive facade designs in terms of solar radiation reduction on the west facade of a building located in the hot arid region. In addition, the paper highlights the reducing amount of solar radiation for each proposed responsive facade on the west facade. At the end of the paper, a proposal is introduced which combines the four different axis of movements which reduces the solar radiation the most. Moreover, the paper highlights the definition and aim of the responsive architecture, as well as the focusing on the solar radiation aspect in the hot arid zones. Besides, the paper analyzes an international responsive façade building in Essen, Germany, focusing on the type of responsive facades, angle of rotation, mechanism of movement and the effect of the responsive facades on the building’s performance.

Keywords: kinetic facades, mechanism of movement, responsive architecture, solar radiation

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Authors: Sayed Hadi Sadeghi

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This research study examines the current state of support services for e-network practice in an Australian and an American university. It identifies information that will be of assistance to Australian and American universities to improve their existing online programs. The study investigated the two universities using a quantitative methodological approach. Participants were students, lecturers and admins of universities engaged with online courses and learning management systems. The support services for e-network practice variables, namely academic support services, administrative support and technical support, were investigated for e-practice. Evaluations of e-network support service and its sub factors were above average and excellent in both countries, although the American admins and lecturers tended to evaluate this factor higher than others did. Support practice was evaluated higher by all participants of an American university than by Australians. One explanation for the results may be that most suppliers of the Australian university e-learning system were from eastern Asian cultural backgrounds with a western networking support perspective about e-learning.

Keywords: support services, e-Network practice, Australian universities, United States universities

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Authors: Jin Woo Hwang, Byung Kwan Oh, Yousok Kim, Hyo Seon Park

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As greenhouse effect has been recognized as serious environmental problem of the world, interests in carbon dioxide (CO₂) emission which comprises major part of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have been increased recently. Since construction industry takes a relatively large portion of total CO₂ emissions of the world, extensive studies about reducing CO₂ emissions in construction and operation of building have been carried out after the 2000s. Also, performance based design (PBD) methodology based on nonlinear analysis has been robustly developed after Northridge Earthquake in 1994 to assure and assess seismic performance of building more exactly because structural engineers recognized that prescriptive code based design approach cannot address inelastic earthquake responses directly and assure performance of building exactly. Although CO₂ emissions and PBD approach are recent rising issues on construction industry and structural engineering, there were few or no researches considering these two issues simultaneously. Thus, the objective of this study is to minimize the CO₂ emissions and cost of building designed by PBD approach in structural design stage considering structural materials. 4 story and 4 span reinforced concrete building optimally designed to minimize CO₂ emissions and cost of building and to satisfy specific seismic performance (collapse prevention in maximum considered earthquake) of building satisfying prescriptive code regulations using non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-II (NSGA-II). Optimized design result showed that minimized CO₂ emissions and cost of building were acquired satisfying specific seismic performance. Therefore, the methodology proposed in this paper can be used to reduce both CO₂ emissions and cost of building designed by PBD approach.

Keywords: CO2 emissions, performance based design, optimization, sustainable design

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Authors: Arne Koschel

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This article discusses event monitoring options for heterogeneous event sources as they are given in nowadays heterogeneous distributed information systems. It follows the central assumption, that a fully generic event monitoring solution cannot provide complete support for event monitoring; instead, event source specific semantics such as certain event types or support for certain event monitoring techniques have to be taken into account. Following from this, the core result of the work presented here is the extension of a configurable event monitoring (Web) service for a variety of event sources. A service approach allows us to trade genericity for the exploitation of source specific characteristics. It thus delivers results for the areas of SOA, Web services, CEP and EDA.

Keywords: event monitoring, ECA, CEP, SOA, web services

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Authors: Eman Mayah, Raid Hanna

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This study presents the use of daylight in the case study of the Reid building at the Glasgow School of Art in the city of Glasgow, UK. In Nordic countries, daylight is one of the main considerations within building design, especially in the face of long, lightless winters. A shortage of daylight, contributing to dark and gloomy conditions, necessitates that designs incorporate strong daylight performance. As such, the building in question is designed to capture natural light for varying needs, where studios are located on the North and South façades. The study’s approach presents an analysis of different façade scenarios, where daylight from the North is observed, analyzed and compared with the daylight from the South façade for various design studios in the building. The findings then are correlated with the results of daylight levels from the daylight simulation program (Autodesk Ecotect Analysis) for the investigated studios. The study finds there to be a dramatic difference in daylight nature and levels between the North and South façades, where orientation, obstructions and designed façade fenestrations have major effects on the findings. The study concludes that some of the studios positioned on the North façade do not have a desirable quality of diffused northern light, due to the outside building’s obstructions, area and volume of the studio and the shadow effect of the designed mezzanine floor in the studios.

Keywords: daylight levels, educational building, Façade fenestration, overcast weather

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Authors: E. K. Soyele

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This study is on capacity building and motivation as determinants of productivity among library personnel in colleges of education in South West, Nigeria. This study made use of a descriptive research design of survey type. A total enumeration sampling technique was used for the selected sample. The research sample consisted of 40 library personnel. The instrument used for the study was a structured questionnaire divided into four parts. Statistics data analysis used were descriptive statistics with frequencies, percentages, and regression statistics analysis. Findings from this study revealed that capacity building and motivation have positive impact on library personnel productivity with their percentages greater than 50% acceptance level. A test of null hypotheses at P < 0.05 significant level was tested to see the significance between capacity building and productivity, which was positive at P < 0.05 significant level. This implies that capacity building and motivation significantly determine productivity among library personnel in selected college libraries in Nigeria. The study concluded that there is need for institutions to equip their library personnel via training programmes, in-service, digital training, ICT training, seminars, and conferences, etc. Incentives should be provided to motivate personnel for high productivity. The study, therefore, recommends that government, institutions and library management should fund college libraries adequately so as to enhance capacity building, staff commitment and training for further education

Keywords: capacity building, library personnel, motivation, productivity

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Authors: Gopinath Ganapathy, Chellammal Surianarayanan

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Services are growing rapidly and generally they are aggregated into a composite service to accomplish complex business processes. There may be several services that offer the same required function of a particular task in a composite service. Hence a choice has to be made for selecting suitable services from alternative functionally similar services. Quality of Service (QoS)plays as a discriminating factor in selecting which component services should be selected to satisfy the quality requirements of a user during service composition. There are two categories of approaches for QoS based service selection, namely global and local approaches. Global approaches are known to be Non-Polynomial (NP) hard in time and offer poor scalability in large scale composition. As an alternative to global methods, local selection methods which reduce the search space by breaking up the large/complex problem of selecting services for the workflow into independent sub problems of selecting services for individual tasks are coming up. In this paper, distributed architecture for selecting services based on QoS using local selection is presented with an overview of local selection methodology. The architecture describes the core components, namely, selection manager and QoS manager needed to implement the local approach and their functions. Selection manager consists of two components namely constraint decomposer which decomposes the given global or workflow level constraints in local or task level constraints and service selector which selects appropriate service for each task with maximum utility, satisfying the corresponding local constraints. QoS manager manages the QoS information at two levels namely, service class level and individual service level. The architecture serves as an implementation model for local selection.

Keywords: architecture of service selection, local method for service selection, QoS based service selection, approaches for QoS based service selection

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Authors: Annisa Dewanti Putri, Wang Juan, Y. Qing Shan

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The structural assessment is one of a crucial part for ancient timber structure, in which this phase will be the reference for the maintenance and preservation phase. The mechanical properties of a structure are one of an important component of the structural assessment of building. Feiyun as one of the particular preserved building in China will become one of the Pioneer of Timber Structure Building Assessment. The 3-storey building which is located in Shanxi Province consists of complex ancient timber structure. Due to condition and preservation purpose, assessments (visual inspections, Non-Destructive Test and a Semi Non-Destructive test) were conducted. The stress wave measurement, moisture content analyzer, and the micro-drilling resistance meter data will overview the prediction of Mechanical Properties. As a result, the mechanical properties can be used for the next phase as reference for structural damage solutions.

Keywords: ancient structure, mechanical properties, non destructive test, stress wave, structural assessment, timber structure

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Authors: Alireza Taghdiri, Sara Ghanbarzade Ghomi

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Existing buildings are permanently subjected to change, continuously renovated and repaired in their long service life. Old buildings are destroyed and their material and components are recycled or reused for constructing new ones. In this process, the importance of sustainability principles for building construction is obviously known and great significance must be attached to the consumption of resources, resulting effects on the environment and economic costs. Utilization strategies for extending buildings service life and delay in destroying have a positive effect on environment protection. In addition, simpler alterability or expandability of buildings’ structures and reducing energy and natural resources consumption have benefits for users, producers and the environment. To solve these problems, by applying theories of open building, structural components of some conventional building systems have been analyzed and then, a new geometry adaptive building system is developed which can transform and support different imposed loads. In order to achieve this goal, various research methods and tools such as professional and scientific literatures review, comparative analysis, case study and computer simulation were applied and data interpretation was implemented using descriptive statistics and logical arguments. Therefore, hypothesis and proposed strategies were evaluated and an adaptable and reusable 2-dimensional building system was presented which can respond appropriately to dwellers and end-users needs and provide reusability of structural components of building system in new construction or function. Investigations showed that this incremental building system can be successfully applied in achieving the architectural design objectives and by small modifications on components and joints, it is easy to obtain different and adaptable load-optimized component alternatives for flexible spaces.

Keywords: adaptability, durability, open building, service life, structural building system

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Authors: Soo-yeon Seo, Seol-ki Kim, Su-jin Jung

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In the construction of a building, it is necessary to minimize construction period and secure enough work space for stacking of materials during the construction especially in city area. In this manner, various top-down construction methods have been developed and widely used in Korea. This paper investigates the stress variation of underground structure of a building constructed by using SPS (Strut as Permanent System) known as a top-down method in Korea through an analytical approach. Various types of earth pressure distribution related to ground condition were considered in the structural analysis of an example structure at each step of the excavation. From the analysis, the most high member force acting on beams was found when the ground type was medium sandy soil and a stress concentration was found in corner area.

Keywords: construction of building, top-down construction method, earth pressure distribution, member force, stress concentration

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Authors: H. Cha, J. Kim, D. Kim, J. Shin, K. Lee

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Since 1980's, the rapid economic growth resulted in so many aged apartment buildings in South Korea. Nevertheless, there is insufficient maintenance practice of buildings. In this study, to facilitate the building maintenance the authors classified the building defects into three levels according to their level of performance and developed a mobile application tool based on each level's appropriate feedback. The feedback structure consisted of 'Maintenance manual phase', 'Online feedback phase', 'Repair work phase of the specialty contractors'. In order to implement each phase the authors devised the necessary database for each phase and created a prototype system that can develop on its own. The authors expect that the building users can easily maintain their buildings by using this application.

Keywords: building defect, maintenance practice, mobile application, system algorithm

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Authors: Benjaporn Yaemjamuang, Sasitorn Jetanont

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The three star hotels in Sukhumvit area of Bangkok and the potential to be in the tourism industry joining the ASEAN Community were studied. The findings revealed that the representative samples satisfy the potential of hotel services at a high level in all aspects. The level of service satisfaction by gender is not different. On the other hand, for different ethnic origins, ages, occupations, levels of education, the satisfaction on the services varies in significance level of 0.05. Factors associated with satisfaction in the services of the hotel include a potential location and environment. It was also found that satisfaction with the service aspects are related as follows: services (r = .810), food (r = .807), booking service (r = .768), room condition (r = .762) and security (r =.756) which is aligned with the coefficient .826.

Keywords: three star hotel, ASEAN community, potential in tourism industry, Bangkok

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Authors: Jacques Wels

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Japan has one of the highest average retirement ages within the OCDE and is paving the way to raise the retirement age to 70. However, the Japanese labour market is facing two main issues that can have detrimental effects on health: non-standard employment forms are widespread among the ageing workforce, and poor working conditions can contribute to explain poor health in late career. To assess such a relationship, the study uses data from JSTAR. Using mediation analysis, it particularly looks at the association between job dissatisfaction, employment status, self-perceived health (SPH), and use of health care services. Results show that work quality and employment status are associated with SPH. Contract work has a particularly negative impact and therefore contributes to explain the use of health care services but is not significantly associated with lower job satisfaction levels. SPH is a good predictor of the use of health care services.

Keywords: self-reported health, occupational health, employment, older workers, mediation

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Authors: Nasrin Akter, Prem Chhetri, Shams Rahman

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The present study tested Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) model to explain the formation of business customers’ intention to use 3PL services in Bangladesh. The findings show that the TPB model has a good fit to the data. Based on theoretical support and suggested modification indices, a refined TPB model was developed afterwards which provides a better predictive power for intention. Consistent with the theory, the results of a structural equation analysis revealed that the intention to use 3PL services is predicted by attitude and subjective norms but not by perceived behavioral control. Further investigation indicated that the paths between (attitude and intention) and (subjective norms and intention) did not statistically differ between 3PL user and non-user. Findings of this research provide an evidence base to formulate business strategies to increase the use of 3PL services in Bangladesh to enhance productivity and to gain economic efficiency.

Keywords: Bangladesh, intention, third-party logistics, Theory of Planned Behavior

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Authors: Rosalie Menon, Angela Reid

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Building integrated photovoltaic systems with air collectors (hybrid PV-T) have proved successful however there are few examples of their application in the UK. The opportunity to pull heat from behind the PV system to contribute to a building’s heating system is an efficient use of waste energy and its potential to improve the performance of the PV array is well documented. As part of Glasgow School of Art’s estate expansion, the purchase and redevelopment of an existing 1950’s college building was used as a testing vehicle for the hybrid PV-T system as an integrated element of the upper floor and roof. The primary objective of the feasibility study was to determine if hybrid PV-T was technically and financially suitable for the refurbished building. The key consideration was whether the heat recovered from the PV panels (to increase the electrical efficiency) can be usefully deployed as a heat source within the building. Dynamic thermal modelling (IES) and RetScreen Software were used to carry out the feasibility study not only to simulate overshadowing and optimise the PV-T locations but also to predict the atrium temperature profile; predict the air load for the proposed new 4 No. roof mounted air handling units and to predict the dynamic electrical efficiency of the PV element. The feasibility study demonstrates that there is an energy reduction and carbon saving to be achieved with each hybrid PV-T option however the systems are subject to lengthy payback periods and highlights the need for enhanced government subsidy schemes to reward innovation with this technology in the UK.

Keywords: building integrated, photovoltatic thermal, pre-heat air, ventilation

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Authors: Omid Khabiri, Maryam Ghavami

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Buildings designed and built as high performance, sustainable or green are the vanguard in a movement to make buildings more energy efficient and less environmentally harmful. Although Heating, Ventilating, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems offer many opportunities for recovery and re-use of thermal energy; however, the amount of energy used annually by these systems typically ranges from 40 to 60 percent of the overall energy consumption in a building, depending on the building design, function, condition, climate, and the use of renewable energy strategies. HVAC systems may also damage the environment by unnecessary use of non-renewable energy sources, which contribute to environmental pollution, and by creating noise and discharge of contaminated water and air containing chemicals, lubricating oils, refrigerants, heat transfer fluids, and particulate (gases matter). In fact, HVAC systems will significantly impact how “green” a building is, where an efficient HVAC system design can result in considerable energy, emissions and cost savings as well as providing increased user thermal comfort. This paper presents the basic concepts of green building design and discusses the role of efficient HVAC system and practical strategies for ensuring high performance sustainable buildings in design and operation.

Keywords: green building, hvac system, design strategies, high-performance equipment, efficient technologies

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Authors: Adebayo A. Abimbola, Anifowose O. Joseph, Olanrewaju S. Taiwo

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Green building (GB) practices have the potential to save energy, save money, and improve the quality of human habitat. They can also contribute to water conservation, more efficient use of raw materials, and ecosystem health around the globe. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) singled out the building sector as having the most cost-effective opportunities for reducing carbon emissions—in fact, many building-related opportunities are cost-neutral, or even cost-positive, to the building owner. These benefits have made green building practices the fastest-growing trend in the building industry, but they still represent only a fraction of new construction, and the enormous stock of existing buildings has barely been touched at all. To effectively deliver the kind of (GB) that can become a force for positive change at global, regional and local scales, all workforce sectors need new skills that are both technical and interpersonal in nature. A prominent bottleneck is seen to be education and training. This paper investigates the major gaps in current GB education and training offerings in Nigeria. A questionnaire survey was developed to capture the perception of construction professionals and academics in relevant professions regarding the significance of the identified gaps as it affects GB education and training. Based on Likert scale ranking, research result shows that perception of training in specific technical fields and financial benefits and evaluation are identified as the top gaps in GB training and education offerings. The paper concludes with suggestions and actions that can enhance capabilities of the GB workforce in Nigeria.

Keywords: education and training, gaps, green building, workforce

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Authors: Fanny Guay

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Building resilience, sustainable buildings, urbanization, climate change, resilient cities, are just a few examples of where the focus of research has been in the last few years. It is obvious that there is a need to rethink how we are building our cities and how we are renovating our existing buildings. However, the question remaining is how can we assure that we are building sustainable yet resilient cities? There are many aspects one can touch upon when discussing resilience in cities, but after the event of Grenfell in June 2017, it has become clear that fire resilience must be a priority. We define resilience as a holistic approach including communities, society and systems, focusing not only on resisting the effects of a disaster, but also how it will cope and recover from it. Cities are an example of such a system, where components such as buildings have an important role to play. A building on fire will have an impact on the community, the economy, the environment, and so the entire system. Therefore, we believe that fire and resilience go hand in hand when we discuss building resilient cities. This article aims at discussing the current state of the concept of fire resilience and suggests actions to support the built of more fire resilient buildings. Using the case of Grenfell and the fire safety regulations in the UK, we will briefly compare the fire regulations in other European countries, more precisely France, Germany and Denmark, to underline the difference and make some suggestions to increase fire resilience via regulation. For this research, we will also include other types of resilience such as technological resilience, discussing the structure of buildings itself, as well as community resilience, considering the role of communities in building resilience. Our findings demonstrate that to increase fire resilience, amending existing regulations might be necessary, for example, how we performed reaction to fire tests and how we classify building products. However, as we are looking at national regulations, we are only able to make general suggestions for improvement. Another finding of this research is that the capacity of the community to recover and adapt after a fire is also an essential factor. Fundamentally, fire resilience, technological resilience and community resilience are closely connected. Building resilient cities is not only about sustainable buildings or energy efficiency; it is about assuring that all the aspects of resilience are included when building or renovating buildings. We must ask ourselves questions as: Who are the users of this building? Where is the building located? What are the components of the building, how was it designed and which construction products have been used? If we want to have resilient cities, we must answer these basic questions and assure that basic factors such as fire resilience are included in our assessment.

Keywords: buildings, cities, fire, resilience

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Authors: Anthonia Emmanuel Inaja

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The role of the counseling services by Special Educators, Guidance Counsellors and psychologists alike to Families and Parents of children with special needs cannot be over-emphasized. This paper examined the vital role of counseling services and its impact on the emotional and physical readiness of parents to initiate and support the education and rehabilitation needs of their children. The paper considered the importance of counseling, when counseling services are best required preparing the mindset of parents and family members as well as the immediate community of the social needs child.

Keywords: counseling, families, special, needs, children, problems, prospect

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Authors: Sultan Aldaihani, Eiman Al-Fadhli

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Internet of Things (IoTs) expected to change the future of academic libraries operations. It enables academic libraries to be smart libraries through, for example, the connection of the physical objects with the Internet. The implementation of IoTs will improve library resources and services. Therefore, this research aims to investigate the applications of Internet of Things (IoTs) for information resources and services. Understanding perceptions of academic librarians toward IoTs before adopting of such applications will assist decision-makers in academic libraries in their strategic planning. An online questionnaire was administered to academic librarians at Kuwait University. The findings of this study showed that academic librarians have awareness for the IoTs. They have strongly believed that the IoTs contributes to the development of information resources, services, and understanding of the user's information behavior. Identifying new applications of the IoTs in libraries was the highest possible reason for future adoption. Academic librarians indicated that lack of privacy and data penetration were the greatest problem in their future adoption of IoTs. Academic libraries need to implement the IoTs for enhancing their information resources and services. One important step in the success of future adoption is to conduct awareness and training programs for academic librarians. They also need to maintain higher security and privacy measurements in their implementation for the IoTs. This study will assist academic libraries in accommodating this technology.

Keywords: academic libraries, internet of things, information resources, information services

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Authors: Carlos Alves

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This research paper demonstrates how payments for environmental services (PES) can be an effective mechanism to combat food insecurity and reduce environmental degradation in developing countries. The paper begins by discussing how environmental services affect each one of the pillars of food security: availability, access, and utilization of food. However, due to numerous global environmental challenges, a new pillar of food security based on environmental sustainability is proposed and discussed. An argument is then made that PES can usefully combat food insecurity. It can provide an extra income to those who take on environmental service and help them to have a better access to food. In order to be successful in addressing food insecurity, PES schemes should target on the poor and redress issues that can prevent their effectiveness. Finally, the research presents a case study that discusses how several developing countries addressed problems and successfully developed PES programs.

Keywords: environmental sustainability, food security, nutrition, payments for environmental services

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Authors: Yaner Yan, Ning Li, Yajun Qiao, Shuqing An

Abstract:

Although most studies have focused on assessing and mapping terrestrial ecosystem services, there is still a knowledge gap on coastal ecosystem services and an urgent need to assess them. Lau (2013) clearly defined five types of costal ecosystem services: carbon sequestration, shoreline protection, fish nursery, biodiversity, and water quality. While high-resolution remote sensing can provide the more direct, spatially estimates of biophysical parameters, such as species distribution relating to biodiversity service, and Fluorescence information derived from remote sensing direct relate to photosynthesis, availing in estimation of carbon sequestration and the response to environmental changes in coastal wetland. Here, we review the capabilities of high-resolution and fluorescence remote sesing for describing biodiversity, vegetation condition, ecological processes and highlight how these prodicts may contribute to costal ecosystem service assessment. In so doing, we anticipate rapid progress to combine the high-resolution and fluorescence remote sesing to estimate the spatial pattern of costal ecosystem services.

Keywords: ecosystem services, high resolution, remote sensing, chlorophyll fluorescence

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