Search results for: Off-site construction benefits

Authors: R. Kozik, A. Leśniak A., E. Plebankiewicz

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Contracting authorities in the public sector are obligated to apply the principles provided for in the Polish law for the evaluation and selection of contractors. In order to analyse the methods of contractors selecting applied in practice by public clients, the notices of contract award results for construction works were analysed. The analysis shows that the procedure selected more and more often is open competitive bidding, where the assessment of the competence of contractors is not very precise, as well as noncompetitive bidding, i.e. single source procurement. The share of procurement procedures, where the only criterion is price, is increasing. The solution to the problems existing here might be the introduction of one of the forms of pre-selection of contractors. The article also briefly discusses verification systems for companies applying for public contracts used in EU countries.

Keywords: Certification, contractors selection, open tendering, public investors.

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Authors: Nwakaego C. Onyenokporo

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Cement is the most extensively used construction material due to its strength and versatility of use. However, the production of Portland cement has become unsustainable because of high energy usage, reduction of natural non-renewable resources and emissions of greenhouse gases. Production of cement contributes to anthropogenic greenhouse gases emissions annually. The growing concerns for the environment resulting from this constant and excessive use of cement has therefore raised the need for more green materials and technology. The use of supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) is considered as one of the many alternatives suited to address this issue and serve as a sustainable partial replacement for cement in construction. This paper will examine the reuse of these waste materials to partially replace Portland cement. It provides a critical review of literature analysing various supplementary cementitious materials which are applicable in the building industry as either partial replacement for cement or aggregates. These materials have been grouped based on source into industrial wastes, domestic/general wastes, and agricultural wastes. The reuse of these waste materials could potentially reduce the negative effects of cement production and reduce landfills which constitute an environmental nuisance. This paper seeks to inform building industry professionals and researchers in the field on the applicability of these waste materials in construction.

Keywords: cement, greenhouse gases, landfills, sustainable, waste materials

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Authors: Nwakaego C. Onyenokporo

Abstract:

Cement is the most extensively used construction material due to its strength and versatility of use. However, the production of Portland cement has become unsustainable because of high energy usage, reduction of natural non-renewable resources and emissions of greenhouse gases. Production of cement contributes to anthropogenic greenhouse gases emissions annually. The growing concerns for the environment resulting from this constant and excessive use of cement has therefore raised the need for more green materials and technology. The use of supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) is considered as one of the many alternatives suited to address this issue and serve as a sustainable partial replacement for cement in construction. This paper will examine the reuse of these waste materials to partially replace Portland cement. It provides a critical review of literature analysing various supplementary cementitious materials which are applicable in the building industry as either partial replacement for cement or aggregates. These materials have been grouped based on source into industrial wastes, domestic/general wastes, and agricultural wastes. The reuse of these waste materials could potentially reduce the negative effects of cement production and reduce landfills which constitute an environmental nuisance. This paper seeks to inform building industry professionals and researchers in the field on the applicability of these waste materials in construction.

Keywords: Cement, greenhouse gases, landfills, sustainable, waste materials.

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Authors: Ali Mithad Emre

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In military aviation, the use of flight simulators has proliferated recently in order to train fifth generation fighter pilots. With these simulators, pilots can carry out real-time flights resulting in seeing their faults and can perform emergency drills prior to real flights. Since we cannot risk losing the aircraft and the pilot himself/herself in the flight training process, flight simulators are of great importance to adapt the fighter pilots competently to real flights aboard the fifth generation aircraft. The real flights are impossible to simulate thoroughly on the ground. To some extent, the fixed-based simulators may assist the pilot to steer aircraft technically and visually but flight simulators can’t trick the pilot’s vestibular, sensory, and perceptual systems without motion platforms. This paper discusses the benefits of motion simulators for fifth generation fighter pilots’ training in preference to the fixed-based counterparts by analyzing their pros and cons.

Keywords: Centrifuge, g-loc, military, pilot, sickness, simulator, VMS.

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Authors: Sanghyeok Oh, Yunli Lee, Kwangjin Hong, Kirak Kim, Keechul Jung

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This paper proposes view-point insensitive human pose recognition system using neural network. Recognition system consists of silhouette image capturing module, data driven database, and neural network. The advantages of our system are first, it is possible to capture multiple view-point silhouette images of 3D human model automatically. This automatic capture module is helpful to reduce time consuming task of database construction. Second, we develop huge feature database to offer view-point insensitivity at pose recognition. Third, we use neural network to recognize human pose from multiple-view because every pose from each model have similar feature patterns, even though each model has different appearance and view-point. To construct database, we need to create 3D human model using 3D manipulate tools. Contour shape is used to convert silhouette image to feature vector of 12 degree. This extraction task is processed semi-automatically, which benefits in that capturing images and converting to silhouette images from the real capturing environment is needless. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach with experiments on virtual environment.

Keywords: Computer vision, neural network, pose recognition, view-point insensitive.

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Authors: Bernice V. Y. Wong, Kong Fah Tee

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Cross-laminated timber is increasingly being used in the construction of high-rise buildings due to its simple manufacturing system. In term of fire resistance, cross-laminated timber panels are promoted as having excellent fire resistance, comparable to that of non-combustible materials and to heavy timber construction, due to the ability of thick wood assemblies to char slowly at a predictable rate while maintaining most of their strength during the fire exposure. This paper presents an overview of fire performance of cross-laminated timber and evaluation of its resistance to elevated temperature in comparison to homogeneous timber panels. Charring rates for cross-laminated timber panels of those obtained experimentally were compared with those provided by Eurocode simplified calculation methods.

Keywords: Timber structure, cross-laminated timber, charring rate, timber fire resistance.

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Authors: Samart Homthong, Wutthipong Moungnoi

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Critical success factors (CSFs) and the criteria to measure project success have received much attention over the decades and are among the most widely researched topics in the context of project management. However, although there have been extensive studies on the subject by different researchers, to date, there has been little agreement on the CSFs. The aim of this study is to identify the CSFs that influence the performance of construction projects, and determine their relative importance for different objectives across five stages in the project life cycle. A considerable literature review was conducted that resulted in the identification of 179 individual factors. These factors were then grouped into nine major categories. A questionnaire survey was used to collect data from three groups of respondents: client representatives, consultants, and contractors. Out of 164 questionnaires distributed, 93 were returned, yielding a response rate of 56.7%. Using the mean score, relative importance index, and weighted average method, the top 10 critical factors for each category were identified. The agreement of survey respondents on those categorised factors were analysed using Spearman’s rank correlation. A one-way analysis of variance was then performed to determine whether the mean scores among the various groups of respondents were statistically significant. The findings indicate the most CSFs in each category in procurement phase are: proper procurement programming of materials (time), stability in the price of materials (cost), and determining quality in the construction (quality). They are then followed by safety equipment acquisition and maintenance (health and safety), budgeting allowed in a contractual arrangement for implementing environmental management activities (environment), completeness of drawing documents (productivity), accurate measurement and pricing of bill of quantities (risk management), adequate communication among the project team (human resource), and adequate cost control measures (client satisfaction). An understanding of CSFs would help all interested parties in the construction industry to improve project performance. Furthermore, the results of this study would help construction professionals and practitioners take proactive measures for effective project management.

Keywords: Critical success factors, procurement phase, project life cycle, project performance.

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Authors: Bogdan Bogdanov, Irena Markovska, Yancho Hristov, Dimitar Georgiev

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Lightweight ceramic materials in the form of bricks and blocks are widely used in modern construction. They may be obtained by adding of rice husk, rye straw, etc, as porous forming materials. Rice husk is a major by-product of the rice milling industry. Its utilization as a valuable product has always been a problem. Various technologies for utilization of rice husk through biological and thermochemical conversion are being developed. The purpose of this work is to develop lightweight ceramic materials with clay matrix and filler of rice husk and examine their main physicomechanical properties. The results obtained allow to suppose that the materials synthesized on the basis of waste materials can be used as lightweight materials for construction purpose.

Keywords: lightweight ceramic materials, properties, agro-waste

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Authors: Karolina Porada

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Over the last 40 years, there has been a trend in landscape architecture which supporters do not perceive the role of pro-ecological or postmodern solutions in the design of public green spaces as an essential goal, shifting their attention to the 'sculptural' shaping of areas with the use of slopes, hills, embankments, and other forms of terrain. This group of designers can be considered avant-garde, which in its activities refers to land art. Initial research shows that such applications are particularly frequent in places of former post-industrial sites and landfills, utilizing materials such as debris and post-mining waste in their construction. Due to the high degradation of the environment surrounding modern man, the brownfields are a challenge and a field of interest for the representatives of landscape architecture avant-garde, who through their projects try to recover lost lands by means of transformations supported by engineering and ecological knowledge to create places where nature can develop again. The analysis of a dozen or so facilities made it possible to come up with an important conclusion: apart from the cultural aspects (including artistic activities), the green areas formally referring to the land are important in the process of remediation of post-industrial sites and waste recycling (e. g. from construction sites). In these processes, there is also a potential for applying the concept of Natural Based Solutions, i.e. solutions allowing for the natural development of the site in such a way as to use it to cope with environmental problems, such as e.g.  air pollution, soil phytoremediation and climate change. The paper presents examples of modern parks, whose compositions are based on shaping the surface of the terrain in a way referring to the land art, at the same time providing an example of brownfields reuse and application of waste recycling.  For the purposes of object analysis, research methods such as historical-interpretation studies, case studies, qualitative research or the method of logical argumentation were used. The obtained results provide information about the role that landscape architecture can have in the process of remediation of degraded areas, at the same time guaranteeing the benefits, such as the shaping of landscapes attractive in terms of visual appearance, low costs of implementation, and improvement of the natural environment quality.

Keywords: Brownfields, landscape architecture, contemporary parks, remediation.

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Authors: Kazeem K. Adewole, Joy-Felicia O. Oladejo, Wasiu O. Ajagbe

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The use of low quality concrete has been identified as one of the main causes of the incessant collapse of buildings in Nigeria. Emphasis has been on the use of poor quality aggregates, poor workmanship and the use of lean concrete mix with low cement quantity as the reasons for the low quality of concrete used for building construction in Nigeria. Surveys conducted revealed that in the construction of most privately owned buildings where concrete trial mixes and concrete compressive strength quality assurance tests are not conducted, concretes used for building constructions are produced using the 1:2:4 mix ratio irrespective of the cement grade/strength class. In this paper, the possible role of the use of inappropriate cement grade/strength class as a cause of the incessant collapse of building in Nigeria is investigated. Investigation revealed that the compressive strengths of concrete cubes produced with Portland-limestone cement grade 32.5 using 1:2:4 and 1:1.5:3 mix ratios are less than the 25MPa and 30MPa cube strengths generally recommended for building superstructures and foundations respectively. Conversely, the compressive strengths of concrete cubes produced with Portland-limestone cement grade 42.5 using 1:2:4 and 1:1.5:3 mix ratios exceed the 25MPa and 30MPa generally recommended for building superstructures and foundations respectively. Thus, it can be concluded that the use of inappropriate cement grade (Portland-limestone cement grade 32.5), particularly for the construction of building foundations is a potential cause of the incessant collapse of buildings in Nigeria. It is recommended that the Standards Organisation of Nigeria should embark on creating awareness for Nigerians, particularly, the home owners and the roadside craftsmen that Portland-limestone cement grade 32.5 should not be used for the construction of building load-carrying members, particularly, building foundations in order to reduce the incessant incidence of collapsed building.

Keywords: Cement grades, Concrete strength class, Collapsed building, Concrete mix ratio, Portland-limestone cement.

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Authors: Rong-Terng Juang

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Autonomous vehicles offer the possibility of significant benefits to social welfare. However, fully automated cars might not be going to happen in the near further. To speed the adoption of the self-driving technologies, many governments worldwide are passing laws requiring data recorders for the testing of autonomous vehicles. Currently, the self-driving vehicle, (e.g., shuttle bus) has to be monitored from a remote control center. When an autonomous vehicle encounters an unexpected driving environment, such as road construction or an obstruction, it should request assistance from a remote operator. Nevertheless, large amounts of data, including images, radar and lidar data, etc., have to be transmitted from the vehicle to the remote center. Therefore, this paper proposes a data compression method of in-vehicle networks for remote monitoring of autonomous vehicles. Firstly, the time-series data are rearranged into a multi-dimensional signal space. Upon the arrival, for controller area networks (CAN), the new data are mapped onto a time-data two-dimensional space associated with the specific CAN identity. Secondly, the data are sampled based on differential sampling. Finally, the whole set of data are encoded using existing algorithms such as Huffman, arithmetic and codebook encoding methods. To evaluate system performance, the proposed method was deployed on an in-house built autonomous vehicle. The testing results show that the amount of data can be reduced as much as 1/7 compared to the raw data.

Keywords: Autonomous vehicle, data recording, remote monitoring, controller area network.

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Authors: P. Chitman, N. Charoenpokaraj

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This research aims to study the species, feeding behavior and activity characteristics of birds which reap benefits from the research area in boat touring routes in Klong Kone Sub-district, Muang District, Samut Songkram Province, Thailand from October 2013 – May 2014. The results from the survey of birds on all three routes found that there are 11 families and 22 species. Route 1 (Klong Kone canal) had the most species, 20 species. According to feeding behavior, there were insectivorous, piscivorous and aquatic invertebrate feeder birds. Activity characteristics of birds which reap benefits from the research were finding food, nesting and raise nestlings along boat touring routes.

Keywords: Bird species diversity, boat touring routes, Samut Songkram.

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Authors: Zahra Banakar, Farzad Tahriri

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It has often been said that the strength of any country resides in the strength of its industrial sector, and Progress in industrial society has been accomplished by the creation of new technologies. Developments have been facilitated by the increasing availability of advanced manufacturing technology (AMT), in addition the implementation of advanced manufacturing technology (AMT) requires careful planning at all levels of the organization to ensure that the implementation will achieve the intended goals. Justification and implementation of advanced manufacturing technology (AMT) involves decisions that are crucial for the practitioners regarding the survival of business in the present days of uncertain manufacturing world. This paper assists the industrial managers to consider all the important criteria for success AMT implementation, when purchasing new technology. Concurrently, this paper classifies the tangible benefits of a technology that are evaluated by addressing both cost and time dimensions, and the intangible benefits are evaluated by addressing technological, strategic, social and human issues to identify and create awareness of the essential elements in the AMT implementation process and identify the necessary actions before implementing AMT.

Keywords: Advanced Manufacturing Technology (AMT), Justification and Classification.

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Authors: N. Veerasamy, C. J. Cheyne

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Users of computer systems may often require the private transfer of messages/communications between parties across a network. Information warfare and the protection and dominance of information in the military context is a prime example of an application area in which the confidentiality of data needs to be maintained. The safe transportation of critical data is therefore often a vital requirement for many private communications. However, unwanted interception/sniffing of communications is also a possibility. An elementary stealthy transfer scheme is therefore proposed by the authors. This scheme makes use of encoding, splitting of a message and the use of a hashing algorithm to verify the correctness of the reconstructed message. For this proof-of-concept purpose, the authors have experimented with the random sending of encoded parts of a message and the construction thereof to demonstrate how data can stealthily be transferred across a network so as to prevent the obvious retrieval of data.

Keywords: Construction, encode, interception, stealthy.

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Authors: Ali N. Suri, Ahmad A. Al-Makhlufi

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Sandwich construction is widely accepted as a method of construction especially in the aircraft industry. It is a type of stressed skin construction formed by bonding two thin faces to a thick core, the faces resist all of the applied edge loads and provide all or nearly all of the required rigidities, the core spaces the faces to increase cross section moment of inertia about common neutral axis and transmit shear between them provides a perfect bond between core and faces is made.

Material for face sheets can be of metal or reinforced plastics laminates, core material can be metallic cores of thin sheets forming corrugation or honeycomb, or non metallic core of Balsa wood, plastic foams, or honeycomb made of reinforced plastics.

For in plane axial loading web core and web-foam core Sandwich panels can fail by local buckling of plates forming the cross section with buckling wave length of the order of length of spacing between webs.

In this study local buckling of web core and web-foam core Sandwich panels is carried out for given materials of facing and core, and given panel overall dimension for different combinations of cross section geometries.

The Finite Strip Method is used for the analysis, and Fortran based computer program is developed and used.

Keywords: Local Buckling, Finite Strip, Sandwich panels, Web and foam core.

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Authors: Halleh Nejadriahi, Kamyar Arab

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Computer-aided design (CAD) tools have been extensively used by the architects for the several decades. It has evolved from being a simple drafting tool to being an intelligent architectural software and a powerful means of communication for architects. CAD plays an essential role in the profession of architecture and is a basic tool for any architectural firm. It is not possible for an architectural firm to compete without taking the advantage of computer software, due to the high demand and competition in the architectural industry. The aim of this study is to evaluate the impacts of CAD on the architectural design process from conceptual level to final product, particularly in architectural practice. It examines the range of benefits of integrating CAD into the industry and discusses the possible defects limiting the architects. Method of this study is qualitatively based on data collected from the professionals’ perspective. The identified benefits and limitations of CAD on the architectural design process will raise the awareness of professionals on the potentials of CAD and proper utilization of that in the industry, which would result in a higher productivity along with a better quality in the architectural offices.

Keywords: Architecture, architectural practice, computer aided design, CAD, design process.

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Authors: Bogdan Walek, Jiri Bartos, Cyril Klimes

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This article deals with the conceptual modeling under uncertainty. First, the division of information systems with their definition will be described, focusing on those where the construction of a conceptual model is suitable for the design of future information system database. Furthermore, the disadvantages of the traditional approach in creating a conceptual model and database design will be analyzed. A comprehensive methodology for the creation of a conceptual model based on analysis of client requirements and the selection of a suitable domain model is proposed here. This article presents the expert system used for the construction of a conceptual model and is a suitable tool for database designers to create a conceptual model.

Keywords: Conceptual model, conceptual modeling, database, methodology, uncertainty, information system, entity, attribute, relationship, conceptual domain model, fuzzy.

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Authors: Faraj El Dabee, Romeo Marian, Yousef Amer

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Just-In-Time (JIT) is a lean manufacturing tool, which provides the benefits of efficiency, and of minimizing unnecessary costs for many organisations. However, the risks arising from these benefits have been disregarded. These risks impact on system processes disrupting the whole supply chain. This paper proposes an inventory model that can simultaneously reduce costs and risks in JIT systems. This model is developed to ascertain an optimal ordering strategy for procuring raw materials by using regular multi-external and local backup suppliers to reduce the total cost of the products, and at the same time to reduce the risks arising from this cost reduction within production systems. Some results that will be illustrated in the second part of this paper are presented.

Keywords: Lean manufacturing, Just-in-Time (JIT), production system, cost-risk reduction, inventory model, eternal supplier, local backup supplier.

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Authors: Hsun Su, Yuan-Kang Shih, Shin-Shin Kao

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Many well-known interconnection networks, such as kary n-cubes, recursive circulant graphs, generalized recursive circulant graphs, circulant graphs and so on, are shown to belong to the family of cycle composition networks. Recently, various studies about mutually independent hamiltonian cycles, abbreviated as MIHC-s, on interconnection networks are published. In this paper, using an improved construction method, we obtain MIHC-s on cycle composition networks with a much weaker condition than the known result. In fact, we established the existence of MIHC-s in the cycle composition networks and the result is optimal in the sense that the number of MIHC-s we constructed is maximal.

Keywords: Hamiltonian cycle, k-ary n-cube, cycle composition networks, mutually independent.

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Authors: Balgaisha G. Mukanova, Yelbek B. Utepov, Aida G. Nazarova, Alisher Z. Imanov

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The problem of identifying local noise sources on a construction site using a sensor system is considered. Mathematical modeling of detected signals on sensors was carried out, considering signal decay and signal delay time between the source and detector. Recordings of noises produced by construction tools were used as a dependence of noise on time. Synthetic sensor data was constructed based on these data, and a model of the propagation of acoustic waves from a point source in the three-dimensional space was applied. All sensors and sources are assumed to be located in the same plane. A source localization method is checked based on the signal time delay between two adjacent detectors and plotting the direction of the source. Based on the two direct lines' crossline, the noise source's position is determined. Cases of one dominant source and the case of two sources in the presence of several other sources of lower intensity are considered. The number of detectors varies from three to eight detectors. The intensity of the noise field in the assessed area is plotted. The signal of a two-second duration is considered. The source is located for subsequent parts of the signal with a duration above 0.04 sec; the final result is obtained by computing the average value.

Keywords: Acoustic model, direction of arrival, inverse source problem, sound localization, urban noises.

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Authors: Kong-Seng, Lai, Nor'Aini Yusof

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Organizational culture fosters innovation, and innovation is the main engine to be sustained within the uncertainty market. Like other countries, the construction industry significantly contributes to the economy, society and technology of Malaysia, yet, innovation is still considered slow compared to other industries such as manufacturing. Given the important role of an architect as the key player and the contributor of new ideas in the construction industry, there is a call to identify the issue and improve the current situation by focusing on the architectural firms. In addition, the existing studies tend to focus only on a few dimensions of organizational culture and very few studies consider whether innovation is being generated or adopted. Hence, the present research tends to fill in the gap by identifying the organizational cultures that foster or hinder innovation generation and/or innovation adoption, and propose a model of organizational culture and innovation generation and/or adoption.

Keywords: Innovation adoption, innovation generation, architectural firm, organizational culture

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Authors: Saeed Sedighizadeh, Abbas Mansoori, Mohammad Reza Pirestani, Davoud Sedighizadeh

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The usual method of river flow diversion involves construction of tunnels and cofferdams. Given the fact that the cost of diversion works could be as high as 10-20% of the total dam construction cost, due attention should be paid to optimum design of the diversion works. The cost of diversion works depends, on factors, such as: the tunnel dimensions and the intended tunneling support measures during and after excavation; quality and characterizes of the rock through which the tunnel should be excavated; the dimensions of the upstream (and downstream) cofferdams; and the magnitude of river flood the system is designed to divert. In this paper by use of the cost of unit prices for tunnel excavation, tunnel lining, tunnel support (rock bolt + shotcrete) and cofferdam fill the cost function was determined. The function is then minimized by the aid of PSO Algorithm (particle swarm optimization). It is found that the optimum diameter and the total diversion cost are directly related to the river flood discharge (Q). It has also shown that in addition to optimum diameter design discharge (Q), river length, tunnel length, is mainly a function of the ratios (not the absolute values) of the unit prices and does not depend on the overall price levels in the respective country. The results of optimization use in some of the case study lead us to significant changes in the cost.

Keywords: Diversion Tunnel, Optimization, PSO Algorithm

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Authors: Zhi Teng, Ye Liu, Fuji Ren

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The main aim of this research is to investigate a novel technique for implementing a more natural and intelligent conversation system. Conversation systems are designed to converse like a human as much as their intelligent allows. Sometimes, we can think that they are the embodiment of Turing-s vision. It usually to return a predetermined answer in a predetermined order, but conversations abound with uncertainties of various kinds. This research will focus on an integrated natural language processing approach. This approach includes an integrated knowledge-base construction module, a conversation understanding and generator module, and a state manager module. We discuss effectiveness of this approach based on an experiment.

Keywords: Conversation System, integrated knowledge-base construction, conversation understanding and generator, state manager

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Authors: K. Bouchbout, Z. Alimazighi

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The importance of inter-organizational system (IOS) has been increasingly recognized by organizations. However, IOS adoption has proved to be difficult and, at this stage, why this is so is not fully uncovered. In practice, benefits have often remained concentrated, primarily accruing to the dominant party, resulting in low rates of adoption and usage, and often culminating in the failure of the IOS. The main research question is why organizations initiate or join IOS and what factors influence their adoption and use levels. This paper reviews the literature on IOS adoption and proposes a theoretical framework in order to identify the critical factors to capture a complete picture of IOS adoption. With our proposed critical factors, we are able to investigate their relative contributions to IOS adoption decisions. We obtain findings that suggested that there are five groups of factors that significantly affect the adoption and use decision of IOS in the Supply Chain Management (SCM) context: 1) interorganizational context, 2) organizational context, 3) technological context, 4) perceived costs, and 5) perceived benefits.

Keywords: Business-to-Business relationships, buyer-supplier relationships, Critical factors, Interorganizational Information Systems, IOS adoption and use.

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Authors: Michael Johnson, Vincenzo Oliveri

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This work considers an interdisciplinary Problem-Based Learning (PBL) project developed by lecturers from the Aeronautical and Electronic and Computer Engineering departments at the University of Limerick. This “CANSAT” project utilises the CanSat can-sized satellite platform in order to allow students from aeronautical and electronic engineering to engage in a mixed format (online/face-to-face), interdisciplinary PBL assignment using a real-world platform and application. The project introduces students to the design, development, and construction of the CanSat system over the course of a single semester, enabling student(s) to apply their aeronautical and technical skills/capabilities to the realisation of a working CanSat system. In this case study, the CanSat kits are used to pivot the real-world, discipline-relevant PBL goal of designing, building, and testing the CanSat system with payload(s) from a traditional module-based setting to an online PBL setting. Feedback, impressions, benefits, and challenges identified through the semester are presented. Students found the project to be interesting and rewarding, with the interdisciplinary nature of the project appealing to them. Challenges and difficulties encountered are also addressed, with solutions developed between the students and facilitators to overcoming these discussed.

Keywords: Problem-Based Learning, Online PBL, Electronic Engineering, Aeronautical Engineering, Interdisciplinary Project, CanSat.

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Authors: Zeeshan Hamid, Asher Ramish

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The purpose of this paper is to focus on security and safety issues facing by pharmaceutical industry globally when counterfeit drugs are in question. Hence, there is an intense need to secure and authenticate pharmaceutical products in the emerging counterfeit product market. This paper will elaborate the application of radio frequency identification (RFID) in pharmaceutical industry and to identify its key benefits for patient’s care. The benefits are: help to co-ordinate the stream of supplies, accuracy in chains of supplies, maintaining trustworthy information, to manage the operations in appropriate and timely manners and finally deliver the genuine drug to patient. It is discussed that how RFID supported supply chain information sharing (SCIS) helps to combat against counterfeit drugs. And a solution how to tag pharmaceutical products; since, some products prevent RFID implementation in this industry. In this paper, a proposed model for pharma industry distribution suggested to combat against the counterfeit drugs when they are in supply chain.

Keywords: Supply chain, RFID, pharmaceutical industry, counterfeit drugs, patients care.

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Authors: Faris Elghaish, Sepehr Abrishami, Mark Gaterell, Richard Wise

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The collaboration and integration between all building information management (BIM) processes and tasks are necessary to ensure that all project objectives can be delivered. The literature review has been used to explore the state of the art BIM technologies to manage construction materials as well as the challenges which have faced the construction process using traditional methods. Thus, this paper aims to articulate a framework to integrate traditional material planning methods such as ABC analysis theory (Pareto principle) to analyse and categorise the project materials, as well as using independent material planning methods such as Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) and Fixed Order Point (FOP) into the BIM 4D, and 5D capabilities in order to articulate a dependent material planning cycle into BIM, which relies on the constructability method. Moreover, we build a model to connect between the material planning outputs and the BIM 4D and 5D data to ensure that all project information will be accurately presented throughout integrated and complementary BIM reporting formats. Furthermore, this paper will present a method to integrate between the risk management output and the material management process to ensure that all critical materials are monitored and managed under the all project stages. The paper includes browsers which are proposed to be embedded in any 4D BIM platform in order to predict the EOQ as well as FOP and alarm the user during the construction stage. This enables the planner to check the status of the materials on the site as well as to get alarm when the new order will be requested. Therefore, this will lead to manage all the project information in a single context and avoid missing any information at early design stage. Subsequently, the planner will be capable of building a more reliable 4D schedule by allocating the categorised material with the required EOQ to check the optimum locations for inventory and the temporary construction facilitates.

Keywords: Building information management, BIM, economic order quantity, fixed order point, BIM 4D, BIM 5D.

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Authors: Donepudi Jagadish

Abstract:

In the view of current requirements of power generation and the increased interest on renewable energy sources, many options are available for generation of clean power. Solar power generation would be one of the best options in this context. The solar pond uses the principle of conversion of solar energy into heat energy, and also has the capability of storing this energy for certain period of time. The solar ponds could be best option for the regions with high solar radiation throughout the day, and also has free land availability. The paper depicts the significance of solar pond for conversion of solar energy into heat energy with a sight towards the parameters like thermal efficiency, working conditions and cost of construction. The simulation of solar pond system has been carried out for understanding the trends of the thermal efficiencies with respect to time.

Keywords: Renewable Energy, Solar Pond, Energy Efficiency, Construction of Solar Pond.

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Authors: Aysin Sev, Meltem Ezel

Abstract:

Sustainability, being the urgent issue of our time, is closely related with the innovations in technology. Nanotechnology (NT), although not a new science, can be regarded relatively a new science for buildings with brand new materials and applications. This paper tends to give a research review of current and near future applications of nanotechnology (NT) for achieving high-performance and healthy buildings for a sustainable future. In the introduction, the driving forces for the sustainability of construction industry are explained. Then, the term NT is defined, and significance of innovations in NT for a sustainable construction industry is revealed. After presenting the application areas of NT and nanomaterials for buildings with a number of cases, challenges in the adoption of this technology are put forward, and finally the impacts of nanoparticles and nanomaterials on human health and environment are discussed.

Keywords: Nanomaterial, self-healing concrete, self-cleaning sensor, nano sensor, steel, wood, aerogel, flexible solar panel.

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Authors: Ilya Kavalchuk, Mehdi Seyedmahmoudian, Ben Horan, Aman Than Oo, Alex Stojcevski

Abstract:

The power electronic components within Electric Vehicles (EV) need to operate in several important modes. Some modes directly influence safety, while others influence vehicle performance. Given the variety of functions and operational modes required of the power electronics, it needs to meet efficiency requirements to minimize power losses. Another challenge in the control and construction of such systems is the ability to support bidirectional power flow. This paper considers the construction, operation, and feasibility of available converters for electric vehicles with feasible configurations of electrical buses and loads. This paper describes logic and control signals for the converters for different operations conditions based on the efficiency and energy usage bases.

Keywords: Electric Vehicles, Electrical Machines Control, Power Electronics, Powerflow Regulations.

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