Trumping Laminated Inquiry: Intellectual Honesty Reconsidered

This short review examines Chapter 5 of Sarah M. Stitzlein’s Teaching Honesty in a Populist Era: Emphasizing Truth in the Education of Citizens, concentrating on “The Role of Honesty in Teaching About Controversial Issues.” Emphasizing what I call “zetetic avoidance creep” (ZAC), the review explores how teachers may either consciously or unconsciously drift from open inquiry toward more superficial, more palatable educational discourse to maintain harmony. Stitzlein’s chapter offers a compelling case for preserving honest engagement — even with divisive topics — to bolster democratic and intellectual endeavors. By analyzing three key passages, I underscore Stitzlein’s emphasis on transparency and robust debate, concluding with reflections on ZAC’s broader implications for educational practice

Business and Financial Management and Audit Control for Large Research Proposals

Overview of the Purdue University business, financial, and human resources operations as evidence of support for faculty to manage externally funded research

The Absurdity of Liberation in Moroccan Prison Narratives

Moroccan prison narratives have been credited with major political and social changes, yet their existential value is equally worth acknowledging. The prison narratives of Aziz Binebine, Mohamed Raiss, Malika Oufkir, and Fatna El Bouih, to mention but a few, are fraught with existentialist patterns that are uncovered upon reading them comparatively. One pattern that persists through these narratives is the absurdity of liberation. Borrowing Camus’ concept of the absurd, this article highlights the absurdity of the post-prison chapter for being nothing more than an extension of the prison episode that makes the impossibility of freedom acutely felt. The absurdity of liberation is especially manifested in the clash between the prisoner’s post-prison expectations and the world’s bitter indifference. This article paints the post-prison prisoner as an authentic being who emerges existentially conscious from the unbearable darkness of the prison ordeal. It also shows how such authenticity, although intensifying the sense of alienation, offers the prisoner two diametrically opposed antidotes to alienation; “integrative” and “antagonistic” authenticity. By borrowing and applying existentialist concepts in its reading of the abovementioned narratives, this article gives prison narratives a new reading to foreground the existentialism of the post-prison experience

Efficient Accessibility Analysis in Floor Plans Using Semantic Segmentation

Accessibility features are critical for creating inclusive spaces and supporting diverse mobility needs in architectural design. Extracting these features from raster floor plans supports compliance checking, emergency evacuation planning, and renovation, which makes it a vital process in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. However, existing research on analysis of raster floor plans remains limited because raster plans pose challenges due to their lack of semantics and high variability. Furthermore, existing machine learning-based approaches rely heavily on large-scale datasets, which are scarce in the AEC industry.This paper proposes a novel approach to extract accessibility features from raster floor plans by segmenting and classifying room and door objects using as few as five reference samples. The approach employs similarity maps and a clustering algorithm to generate visual prompts for the Segment Anything Model to segment rooms and doors. The resulting masks are then classified by GPT-4 to facilitate accessiblity featrue extraction. Validated on the CubiCasa5K dataset and demonstrated through a case study, the method effectively addresses raster floor plan analysis challengeswith minimal data requirements

Analysis of Labor Productivity for Steel Assembly in Construction Projects in Hot and Humid Climate Zones Based on the RUP Methodology

The construction industry only increased its labor productivity by 1% over the past two decades, significantly lagging other industries\u27 development. Several factors influence productivity on construction sites, including ineffective workforce management, outdated technologies, and environmental factors, such as heat and humidity. Construction projects in countries experiencing high temperatures and humidity presented even lower productivity rates when compared with countries with mild temperatures. Thus, there is a need to analyze productivity in these regions, identify the factors impacting it, and establish baseline values to optimize construction processes in these challenging environments. Moreover, the steel assembly process comprises almost 30% of the total cost of the conventional reinforced concrete structure, underscoring the significance of enhancing productivity performance. Therefore, this work aims to analyze labor productivity in construction projects within hot and humid climate zones, specifically focusing on the steel assembly process during the foundation and superstructure stages. Data was collected in two empirical studies conducted in northeast Brazil and east Saudi Arabia. The productivity rates of the studied projects were calculated using a standardized methodology developed in Brazil named RUP. The findings highlight the main factors influencing productivity in hot and humid climate zones, including workforce, heat, production planning and control, construction site logistics, and typology. This paper\u27s primary contributions include analyzing key factors that influence productivity in these climate regions and proposing baseline values for steel assembly productivity in hot and humid zones. Future research may expand data collection across different countries using the same methodology to establish more precise baselines

Integrating Vegetation into Urban Design in Cape Town: The Status Quo

The City of Cape Town has a rapid urbanization rate leading to environmental challenges and a pressing need to incorporate vegetation into buildings. The objectives are to determine the challenges associated with the integration of vegetation into building design, the policies relate to it and the current practices used. Qualitative data was collected through semi-structured interviews with six experts in green buildings, followed by a thematic analysis. Challenges to implement vegetation into buildings include the need for water, a proper irrigation system, production of pollen, the risk for non-native plants being introduced, invasive pests, fire, road view restrictions due to trees, regulations, community mind set, higher costs, lack of experienced experts or contractors, lack in education and research, low marked demand, Cape Town climate, maintenance, and security. Green buildings are feasible in the long term. The City of Cape Town have identified seven activities in the short- medium term, that focus on sustainability and green buildings. While these goals are in place, there is a prominent lack of detailed regulations and design practices that could be followed to implement vegetation in buildings. The implementation of vegetation in buildings in Cape Town are limited. There have also been failures in the attempt to do so. Cape Town boasts with greenery at the Cape Town Station, The Fynbos building is under construction and the professional members have experience in living boundary walls. The way forward is to focus on getting regulations, policies, guides, and education in place to assist the industry

A Data-as-an-Asset Facility Management Framework to Support Hybrid Workplaces and Advance Sustainable Development: Case Studies at Hospitals in China

Hybrid working that combines home, remote, and in-office working has surged after the COVID-19 pandemic. This working model is disrupting existing facility management practices to (re)shape people-centered hybrid workplaces and advance sustainable development. Collecting, integrating, processing, sharing and analyzing volume and variety of facilities and workspaces data, behavioral and activity data of occupants, environmental data and operational analytics insights remains a major challenge for stakeholders to leverage emerging technologies and digital solutions including digital twin and artificial intelligence to enhance the productivity, operational intelligence, and sustainability of hybrid workplaces. This research proposed a data-as-an-asset facility management framework to support the management and decision-making of hybrid facilities and workplaces. The framework consists of a digital twinning methodology for encoding, processing and managing static and dynamic data and domain knowledge; a service-oriented, asset-based mechanism to share and exchange hybrid workplaces data; a method to evaluate the value of collected data assets; and a cloud-based software reference architecture. The framework is developed through desktop research; interview and focus group meetings with industry leaders, facility managers and professionals; field trips; prototype development; and pilot projects. Case studies are being conducted at the hybrid workplaces of two hospitals to verify the practicality and limitations of the framework. The preliminary results show that the proposed framework can assist the stakeholders in harvesting data essentials for improving the total performance and productivity of hybrid workplaces and facilitate the engagement and contribution of various industries for achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals

Ethical Risks of Human–Robot Interaction in the Construction Industry: A Systematic Review

Robotics is increasingly deployed on construction sites, enhancing efficiency, safety, and quality. However, the form of human–robot interaction (HRI) poses various ethical challenges, and insufficient attention has been paid to the ethical aspects of HRI in the construction industry within the academic community. To bridge this gap, this study aims to identify, analyze, and evaluate ethical risks across various HRI patterns in the construction industry through an agent-relationship-scenario three-tier ethical lens. This lens includes three types of agents: managers, workers, and robots, as well as five interaction patterns: remote monitoring, proximity manipulation, non-collaborative coexistence, non-wearable collaboration, and wearable collaboration. This study conducts a systematic literature review based on the PRISMA protocol and develops a systematic ethical risk classification framework. Additionally, the characteristics of ethical risks across different HRI models and scenarios are further analyzed. Finally, based on the analysis of ethical risks, this study proposes ethical guidelines and normative recommendations. The findings reveal six dimensions of ethical risks:overtrust or distrust, human misconduct, robot system misdesign, physical risks, psychological risks, and regulation and accountability risks. This study offers new insights into ethical aspects of HRI in the construction industry, provides suggestions for future research, and lays a foundation for developing administrative guidelines

Integrating Nature-Based Solutions for Urban Resilience in the Pursuit of Sustainable Built Environments

Urban areas increasingly face climate-related challenges such as extreme heat, flooding, and biodiversity loss, that demand innovative, resilient solutions. Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) have emerged as a transformative approach for adapting urban areas, by integrating natural processes into urban planning process to enhance resilience and sustainability. In this paper, the role of NBS in promoting urban resilience is examined, aligning closely with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 11, which is intended to alter cities to become inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable. Key NBS strategies—such as green roofs, urban forests, bioswales, permeable pavements, sustainable building materials having high solar reflectivity— offer climate adaptation benefits such as temperature regulation and stormwater management, improved air quality, carbon sequestering, encouragement of biodiversity, and the promotion of social well-being. The implementation of NBS faces however, multiple challenges, including policy, financial, technical, and social barriers. In this paper each of these obstacles are addresses and the need for a paradigm shift is emphasized to overcome such barriers that would involve policy incentives, hybrid solutions, and community-driven strategies. Through a review of case studies, taken from Toronto, Detroit, Singapore, Malmö, and Rotterdam, are used to illustrates how hybrid NBS approaches, in which ecological processes have been combined with traditional engineering, have successfully used to address specific urban challenges. These cases demonstrate the potential of NBS to deliver multifunctional benefits, especially when implemented through cross-sector collaboration and supported by adaptive management frameworks. By providing useful outcomes that can be turned directly into actionable insights for policymakers, urban planners, and stakeholders, the results described in this permit advocating for the integration of NBS as a pathway to sustainable, resilient urban landscapes. Indeed, it is shown that the implementation of NBS enhance urban adaptability and contribute significantly to global sustainability goals, offering scalable models for cities worldwide

Developing a Circular Economy Checklist for Designing Modular Buildings: A Case Study in Sri Lanka

Climatic change and its impact on humankind is increasingly evident. Being the species that brought about this devastation, our interventions are now needed to proactively and paradigmatically change production and consumption patterns. Circular Economy (CE) is one such sustainability-friendly goal that is gaining traction in the Building Construction Industry (BCI). Given the massive negative impact that BCI has on the environment in terms of resource consumption, carbon emissions and waste generation, design practices must be shifted from object-centric thinking to a systemic & systematic endeavour. Even though Off-Site Construction (OSC) and Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DfMA) have circular potential given their inherent features of resource efficiency, the question remains as to whether the Whole Life Cycle of a modular building is factored in, in incorporating CE principles in the modular building design. Hence, this study proposes a circular planning and designing checklist for a modular building to be characterised as a Circular Modular Building. For this purpose, a literature review was conducted to identify the Design for Circular Manufacturing and Assembly (DfCMA) checklist items and to consolidate the different terms associated with the DfCMA concept. Following the literature review, empirical data was collected from a case study of a Sri Lankan modular construction project. Given the rapid growth of OSC and its continuing demand, it is timely that more such mechanisms are injected towards incorporating CE principles in modular building design to decouple economic development from environmental sustainability