Ranking of Factors Causing Construction Project Changes in UAE Mega Construction Projects

Many construction projects are facing changes along its life cycle due to different reasons. Once the project faces change, it has a negative impact on the concerned parties. This paper presents a study on identifying main reasons/causes to construction changes in UAE Mega projects. Literature review conducted identified 58 causes of changes which were categorized in three groups which are namely client, consultant and contractor groups. These lists of causes were used to develop questionnaire to uncover the significant causes to the changes from the UAE construction practitioners’ perspective. A questionnaire survey was conducted and 218 valid responses were considered for the analysis using mean score index. It was found that lack of coordination is the most significant cause in client group, then poor site management team for consultant group and finally, poor inspection & supervision by contractor in contractor group. It is hope that the result of this study can minimize the potential changes during implementation of the project’s construction

Study and design of an ultrasonic flow tomographic front-end multi level measurement system

With the rapid evolution of electro-acoustical technology, ultrasonic tomography has made considerable progress in industry. An ultrasonic tomography system provides non-invasive and non-intrusive flow visualisation that enhances the understanding of fluid flow processes. The function of ultrasonic tomography is to continuously monitor the dynamics of liquid flow without interrupting the flow. The ultrasonic tomography technique is fully supported by a front-end hardware system. The front end is defined as all the hardware circuitries, including the ultrasonic transducer up to the Analogue-to-Digital Convertors (ADCs), even though the primary focus is the analogue signal processing components. We present here the challenges and trade-offs in the implementation of a front-end system by first explaining the basic operation of such a system, and then indicating what particular performance parameters are needed to ensure optimal system operation. Based on the results from our research studies, we propose an improved front-end multi-level solution that is more accurate than previous solutions and provides real-time measurement capability

Performance profiling of UV-grafted forward osmosis polyethersulfone membrane using multivariate classical scaling technique

In this work, Classical Scaling (CMDS) method was used to develop a set of membrane profile performance for various types of UV-grafted polyethersulfone (PES) membrane. Previously, there is no such profiling has been considered. The main motivation of the profiling is to determine what is the most preference impact factor which significantly influence the membrane strength during application. Initially, nine (9) different samples of modified PES membranes were prepared mainly by adopting numerous characterization parameters of acrylic acid monomer concentration and grafting time. Three (3) performance indicators namely water permeability (A), solute permeability (B) and structural parameter (S) were used as representing the foundation of membrane performance profile. In particular, the Euclidean and City-block scales were utilized to build up the multivariate profile based on two dimension configurations. The key finding suggests that the modified membranes were easily clustered based on its grafting mechanism. From the general observation on the compressed CMDS dimensional space, samples that fall above the x-axis in Euclidean scale configuration and those scattered samples in the City-block scale have relatively larger pores. Thus, the CMDS profiling tends to favor the pore size as the dominant impact factor in characterizing the membrane performance based on the three specified parameters that investigated

Isoprene hotspots at the Western Coast of Antarctic Peninsula during MASEC′16

Isoprene (C5H8) plays an important role in the formation of surface ozone (O3) and the secondary organic aerosol (SOA) which contributed to the climate change. This study aims to determine hourly distribution of tropospheric isoprene over the Western Coast of Antarctic Peninsula (WCAP) during the Malaysian Antarctic Scientific Expedition Cruise 2016 (MASEC′16). In-situ measurements of isoprene were taken using a custom-built gas chromatography with photoionization detector, known as iDirac. Biological parameters such as chlorophyll a (chl-a) and particulate organic carbon (POC) were compared to the in-situ isoprene measurements. Significant positive correlation was observed between isoprene and POC concentrations (r2 = 0.67, p < 0.001), but not between isoprene and chl-a. The hotspots of isoprene over maritime Antarctic were then were investigated using NAME dispersion model reanalysis. Measurements showed that isoprene mixing ratio were the highest over region of King George Island, Deception Island and Booth Island with values of ∼5.0, ∼0.9 and ∼5.2 ppb, respectively. Backward trajectory analysis showed that air masses may have lifted the isoprene emitted by marine algae. We believe our findings provide valuable data set of isoprene estimation over the under sampled WCAP

Exploratory Study on Malaysia Construction Leadership

This paper presents an exploratory study on insight issues of leadership quality in Malaysia construction industry. It was conducted using an open interview session which focussed on three main elements which are challenges faced by construction leaders, leader’s role to sustain organization’s competitiveness and qualities to be an outstanding construction leader. Even though only four senior construction leaders were selected for this qualitative study, but the selection was properly scrutinised based on their expertise as construction leader. During the interview session, leaders were given ample time to express their opinions on the elements with minimum interference. Information revealed was recorded, analysed and synthesized to deduce findings of the study. It was found that significant challenges faced by construction leaders are ensuring project runs smoothly, managing cash flow and ability to manage large number of worker. For ensuring their organization remains competitive, leaders must be creative and persistence in handling construction project and not merely completing the task. To be outstanding, leaders should possess good leadership attributes as problem solver, communicator and motivator in their organizations. This study forms a basis for further exploration on leadership quality for construction industry

Exploratory Study on Malaysia Construction Leadership

This paper presents an exploratory study on insight issues of leadership quality in Malaysia construction industry. It was conducted using an open interview session which focussed on three main elements which are challenges faced by construction leaders, leader’s role to sustain organization’s competitiveness and qualities to be an outstanding construction leader. Even though only four senior construction leaders were selected for this qualitative study, but the selection was properly scrutinised based on their expertise as construction leader. During the interview session, leaders were given ample time to express their opinions on the elements with minimum interference. Information revealed was recorded, analysed and synthesized to deduce findings of the study. It was found that significant challenges faced by construction leaders are ensuring project runs smoothly, managing cash flow and ability to manage large number of worker. For ensuring their organization remains competitive, leaders must be creative and persistence in handling construction project and not merely completing the task. To be outstanding, leaders should possess good leadership attributes as problem solver, communicator and motivator in their organizations. This study forms a basis for further exploration on leadership quality for construction industry

Leadership Quality for Malaysia Construction Leader to Steer a Success Construction Project

Issues that dominate the construction industry for the long time such as time overrun, cost overrun, quality of construction and also safety during the construction process are difficult to resolve because of several factors involved which amongst them are leadership quality in the industry. Solving these issues can make the industry more sustainable in nature. This paper presents the need of leadership quality among construction parties involved to steer a construction project successfully. Literature work found that 11 leadership qualities to ensure construction project success. From the frequency analysis, five most dominant leadership qualities are team building, communication skill, visioning, planning & strategy skill, and decision making. Beside the literature, this study also seeks an opinion from a senior leader of a successful construction company regarding the need of these qualities amongst parties to resolve the construction issues. The results from an interview session indicate that he fully agreed with the need of all the qualities in the construction industry. This shows that there is a strong relationship between solving the issues with the leadership quality in ensuring construction project success. These qualities should be further investigated to acquire a better representation of leadership quality in resolving construction issues for Malaysia construction industry

Green synthesis of silver nanoparticles using coffee extract for catalysis

The green synthesis method for producing metal nanoparticles has become more popular because it is more environmentally friendly and low cost. This study used a green approach to synthesize silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) using coffee Arabica bean's extract to reduce and stabilizing agents. The coffee extract was analyzed using GC-MS to identify the bioactive compounds in the extract, and Folin-Ciocalteu colorimetric test was done to find the total phenols in the extract. Later, the extract was used in the synthesis of AgNPs. Effects of synthesis parameters such as temperature, reaction time, pH, and amount of coffee extract on the formation of AgNPs were investigated. The formation of AgNPs was mainly observed using UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy. It was found that pH influenced the size of particles produced in which higher pH produce smaller particles than lower pH while other synthesis parameters mainly affected the yield of the AgNPs. The catalytic application of as-synthesized AgNPs was then evaluated in reducing methylene blue (MB) dye in a solution using NaBH4 as a reducing agent. The results show that the green-synthesized AgNPs were capable of catalyzing the reduction of MB dye in the solutio