Barriers to promoting prefabricated construction in China : a cost-benefit analysis

Prefabricated construction has attracted worldwide concern because of its significant role in the creation of sustainable urbanization. In Mainland China, the practice of applying prefabrication technology in the construction industry still lags behind. In fact, the economic benefit is a key concern of various stakeholders involved in the construction process and is expected to influence the delivery of prefabricated buildings significantly. Therefore, this study established a cost–benefit analysis framework to explore the basic cost composition of prefabrication and examined the effect of adopting prefabrication on the total cost of real building projects. Results show that the concrete and steel used in the typical prefabricated components were responsible for 26% to 60% of the total cost, followed by labor cost (17%–30%) and transportation (10%). The average incremental cost is highly linearly correlated with the prefabrication rate, which ranged from 237 yuan/m2 to 437 yuan/m2, in eight building projects. To fully gain the economic benefits from the precast construction, the future focus should lie in providing financial support for promoting the development of prefabrication technology, optimizing the structure integrity of prefabricated buildings, and improving the maturity of the precast market.Department of Building and Real Estat

Effects of socks and shoes on normal foot skin temperature

AHFE 2017 International Conference on Physical Ergonomics and Human Factors, July 17-21, 2017, The Westin Bonaventure Hotel, Los Angeles, California, USAThe skin is the major organ of integumentary system of human body and helps to maintain the body temperature, excretes the waste through sweating, protects deepest structures of the human body, and prevent from various problems such as water loss, infection. However, excessive sweating leads to infection in human body especially in the foot such as dermatophyte infection. This study aimed to investigate the foot skin temperature and humidity after wearing socks with shoes. It is a pre-post experimental design study. Ten subjects were selected for this study by convenience sampling methods. In this experiments, humidity and temperature, infrared images were recorded at baseline and post experiment. For this experiment, Infrared camera, HC 520 IN/OUT Temperature/ humidity, and the thermometer were used as outcome measurement and the total duration of pre and post-session consists of 3 h. The results revealed that the foot skin temperature was slightly increased in the left foot: 97.02 (mn), 2.51 (SD). Thus, there was no difference observed in temperature changes. However, humidity level increased in socks with shoes experiment in the post-experiment results. At the same time, we observed in the infrared thermal image analysis that there were physiological changes and post-test temperature changes on the skin of foot. In conclusion, this study revealed that socks with shoes are altered the humidity and foot skin temperature.Institute of Textiles and Clothing2016-2017 > Academic research: refereed > Chapter in an edited book (author)bcw

Women’s clothing choices are being inhibited by poor fit

AHFE 2017 International Conference on Physical Ergonomics and Human Factors, July 17-21, 2017, The Westin Bonaventure Hotel, Los Angeles, California, USAClothing is expected to conform to our body shape, to fit closely, and deform in synchronization with our body movement [1]. Although ergonomics with regard to fashion is still little discussed, it is understood that this scientific discipline is of fundamental importance in the design and development stage of a project, since it makes it possible to ensure clothing meet the different demands of users [2]. This study will test the hypothesis that introducing bra cup sizes as an additional independent measurement into the standard sizing model will markedly improve the fit of the clothing, and lead to an increase in comfort and consumer satisfaction. The focus will be on fitted clothing, made from non-stretch fabric, where the pattern cutting of the garment needs to conform to body anthropometric data and the ergonomics of movement.Institute of Textiles and Clothing2016-2017 > Academic research: refereed > Chapter in an edited book (author)bcw

Interband absorption enhanced optical activity in discrete au@ag core–shell nanocuboids : probing extended helical conformation of chemisorbed cysteine molecules

Detailed understanding of the interaction between a chiral molecule and a noble metal surface is essential to rationalize and advance interfacial self-assembly of amino acids and metal-mediated anchoring of proteins. Here we demonstrate that individual Au@Ag core–shell nanocuboids can serve as a plasmonic reporter of an extended helical network formed among chemisorbed cysteine molecules, through generating an interband absorption enhanced, Ag-surface-exclusive circular dichroism (CD) band in the UV region. The observed unusual, strong CD response in the hybrid Au@Ag–cysteine system can be used to probe in real time conformational evolution and structural rearrangement of biomolecules in general and also monitor the interfacial interaction between a metal surface and an adsorbed molecule, opening up the possibility of using Ag nanostructures as promising stereochemically attuned nanosensors.Department of Applied PhysicsDepartment of Applied Biology and Chemical Technolog

Economic analysis of air-cooled chiller with advanced heat rejection [Analyse économique d'un refroidisseur à air avec système de rejet thermique avancé]

This study analyses economic benefits of an air-cooled chiller retrofitted with advanced heat rejection features. The rated capacity was 282 kW and operating variables were monitored comprehensively to develop random forest models. The top five variables to ensure model accuracy were identified. Electricity savings were predicted by the models with 3 advanced operating modes: variable speed control for condenser fans with an adjustable condensing temperature (the VSD mode), mist precooling of condenser air (the Mist mode), and their composites (the VSD + Mist mode). The integrated part load value (IPLV) was 2.90, 3.31, 2.93 and 3.34 for the normal mode, VSD mode, Mist mode, and the VSD + Mist mode, respectively. For a chiller system serving an office building, the VSD mode gave the highest economic benefit with a simple payback of 10.83 yrs and an internal rate of return of 4.38% over a 15-yr life cycle.Hong Kong Community CollegeDepartment of Building Services Engineerin

Spatial distributions of airborne di-carbonyls in urban and rural areas in China

Gaseous glyoxal and methylglyoxal concentrations were characterized in nine cities of China during 2010–2011. The average summer (winter) glyoxal and methylglyoxal concentrations were 36.4–178.4 (12.3–241.4) and 67.8–359.4 (28.4–530.0) ng/m3, respectively. In summer, the highest average glyoxal concentration was in Guangzhou (GZ), while the lowest was in Shanghai (SH). In winter, Xiamen (XM) showed the highest average methylglyoxal concentration and Yantai (YT) reported the lowest. Both di-carbonyls showed distinct seasonal variations. The maximum average methylglyoxal concentration was approximately twice as much as glyoxal, which is consistent with the results of other studies. Glyoxal-to-methylglyoxal ratios showed that there was a consistent direct source of emissions in remote areas such as Qinghai Lake and Lhasa in both seasons (r ≥ 0.9). Pearson's correlation analysis suggested possible similar sources formation (R ≥ 0.7) for the two di-carbonyls in winter. Multiple linear regression analyses demonstrated that every 1 °C temperature increase could lead to a > 2% increase in the concentration of the di-carbonyls in both seasons. There was a greater percentage gain for glyoxal in winter than in summer for the same temperature increase. The northeast monsoon occurs in winter, and for every 1 ms− 1 increase in wind speed, > 20% of the di-carbonyls can be transferred out of China. This study is useful to understand about the secondary organic aerosol formation in the areas, the statistical analysis can provide information about the relationships between these carbonyls in atmosphere.Department of Civil and Environmental Engineerin

Translating 'others' as 'us' in Huckleberry Finn : dialect, register and the heterogeneity of standard language

Studies on the translation of literary dialects have devoted much attention to linguistic features used in the recreation of source text dialects. Only limited discussions can be found on what strategies have been used in the translation of the source text (ST) standard language that the ST dialect is contrasted with. This is because studies on dialect translation have often rested on two assumptions: that standard language in the ST is always translated into a standard neutral target variety and that the use of standard language invariably leads to the erasure of literary effect in the target text (TT). Both assumptions are related to the misconception that standard language is a single neutral register. This article challenges these assumptions by proposing that translating dialect requires translating both sides of the dialect variation, that is to say, translating both the dialect itself and the standard language against which it is set in relief. Drawing particular attention to the translation of the standard side of the variation, this article sets out to achieve two purposes: (1) to explain how register varieties from standard language can function as sociolects in dialect translation, and (2) to build a dynamic model that incorporates both sides of the linguistic variation into the translation process. The following case study on the canonized Chinese translation of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Zhang Yousong and Zhang Zhenxian shows how social hierarchies and power structures in Twain's work have been reversed in the translation so as to construct social 'others' as 'us' and a socially elevated version of 'us' - a 'better us'.Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studie

Workplace context and its effect on individual competencies and performance in work teams

The purpose of this study was to understand the effect of workplace context on competencies and performance in work (project) teams. This study was conducted at seven technology-based companies in Hong Kong and China. The results of the study provide companies with important knowledge on how to encourage the right competencies to achieve high performance in a workplace. This paper attempts to propose a holistic approach on improving individual and team performance in companies. The empirical evidence obtained confirms the importance of the contextual factors as predictors of individual competencies and performance level of team members. Specifically, the study conducted for industry integrated the concepts of organisational culture, team climate and managing skills into one model that allowed the prediction of the level of competencies and the performance of team members in work teams.Department of Industrial and Systems Engineerin

Impact of contact stress distribution on skid resistance of asphalt pavements

In order to obtain the actual contact area and stress distribution between tire and asphalt pavement, a pressure-sensitive film was conducted and adopted for measuring radial tire contact stress. In this study, the fractal dimension of the fracture surface was estimated to describe the surface roughness of four types of track boards in terms of utilizing the improved projective covering method. The results showed that Weibull distributions were applicable to describing the contact stress distribution between tire and pavement, and the Weibull expectation could effectively characterize the stress level. In addition, it was found that greater stress expectations indicated more significant stress concentration effects on the pavement surface. The stress distribution increased with an increase of pavement texture depth or tire load or a decrease of the tire inflation pressure. The influence of pavement roughness and tire load was more significant than tire inflation pressure on the stress concentration. Compared to the general pavement texture depth (sand patch method), the surface fractal dimension adequately described the surface roughness including macro-texture and micro-texture, and it was directly affected by the proportion of coarse aggregate. The pavement skid-resistance performance was mainly influenced by its high stress regions (>1.8 MPa) at the top of asperities. The skid-resistance performance of asphalt pavement was proved to be better with a high-level average effective stress.Department of Civil and Environmental Engineerin

Flexoelectricity in low densification materials and its implication

Coupling between the strain gradient and the electric polarization, also named flexoelectricity, is a fundamental but often overlooked property in solid dielectrics. The past ten years has witnessed its great potential in sensing and actuating applications, especially in nanomaterials or nanostructures. The recently discovered giant flexoelectricity in barium strontium titanate (BST) perovskite above its Curie temperature has boosted the research interests on flexoelectricity to a new height. The possible interpretation of the enhanced flexoelectricity in BST was initially attributed to the non-crystalline polar-phases or polar nano-regions existing in the perovskites, then to the inner micro strain generated from the material densification process. In this paper, we analyzed the origin of flexoelectricity in this kind of materials by using both analytical mechanics method and finite element simulation method. Our results suggested the inner micro defect generated during the material densification process would weaken the flexoelectricity of the materials. The observed polarization in the studied materials was likely induced by other mechanisms rather than the pure flexoelectricity.Department of Applied Physic