Users\u27 obstacles to ICT adoption in Egyptian construction companies.

Construction companies often face resistance from some employees when adopting a new Information and Communication Technology “ICT†at the workplace. Technology Acceptance Models in the literature indicated the factors affecting the employees’ behavior. However, none of these models were applied in the Egyptian Construction Industry context to test their validity. In this thesis, 10 factors were collected from different Technology Acceptance models and their validity were tested in the Egyptian Construction Industry context through questionnaires survey. The behavior of employees in Egyptian Construction companies was validated to be consistent with the described behavior in the literature. The 10 factors were synthesized to develop a simple “Evaluation toolâ€, consisting of a series of easy to comprehend questions, to be used by managers to evaluate each employee’s likelihood to accept or reject a new ICT. The Evaluation tool was validated through interviewing experts who indicated its usefulness in detecting obstacles standing in the way of ICT acceptance. Then the validated factors were represented in the form of logical causal chains. The causal chains were further extended by adding more “causes of the causes†to develop a “Causal Loop Diagram Modelâ€. In order to extend the causal chains, knowledge from psychology, communication and management domains had to be added to the model. The added pieces of knowledge enriched the model with new aspects of the ICT acceptance problem that were not explored in the traditional widely used technology acceptance models. The model was validated through expert interviews. By careful analysis of the big picture of the ICT acceptance problem, three analogies were concluded that compared employees’ behavior in reaction to new ICT to “Investorsâ€, “Kids†and “Cavemenâ€. It is concluded that employees resist new ICT if it didn’t provide a technical advantage (saving time or effort) or a psychological advantage (making the employee have higher social or importance rank inside the company). It is recommended that managers give more attention to the psychological implications of a new ICT rather than focusing most of their efforts on improving technical aspects of the new ICT

Proposed Model to Study Effect of Lighting Parameters on Construction Sites

Inadequate lighting plans for the operations performed at night on construction sites can affect the quality of the implemented work, labor productivity, safety, as well as the project\u27s overall cost. Accordingly, to avoid inadequate lighting conditions, the location of the luminaries utilized to illuminate the chosen construction area and its configuration, including luminaire height and luminary angle, are crucial choices in the design of the lighting plan. Besides making sure that the chosen installation pattern is cost-effective and as much as possible meets the lighting levels needed for each point according to the nature of the implemented work and safety considerations, In this way, a maximal coverage location model using LINGO software is developed in order to investigate the best locations of luminaires, taking into account gradual and cooperative covering. The objective is to ensure that the selected allocation of luminaires minimizes the summation of the received illuminance by the points that exceed the demand and the received illuminance that is below the demand. The optimized results refer to that smaller luminary angles lead to large coverage and minimizes the objective function. Making sure that the selected luminaire height leads to the desired illuminance levels according to the inverse relationship between the height and the illuminance

Proposed Model to Study Effect of Lighting Parameters on Construction Sites

Inadequate lighting plans for the operations performed at night on construction sites can affect the quality of the implemented work, labor productivity, safety, as well as the project\u27s overall cost. Accordingly, to avoid inadequate lighting conditions, the location of the luminaries utilized to illuminate the chosen construction area and its configuration, including luminaire height and luminary angle, are crucial choices in the design of the lighting plan. Besides making sure that the chosen installation pattern is cost-effective and as much as possible meets the lighting levels needed for each point according to the nature of the implemented work and safety considerations, In this way, a maximal coverage location model using LINGO software is developed in order to investigate the best locations of luminaires, taking into account gradual and cooperative covering. The objective is to ensure that the selected allocation of luminaires minimizes the summation of the received illuminance by the points that exceed the demand and the received illuminance that is below the demand. The optimized results refer to that smaller luminary angles lead to large coverage and minimizes the objective function. Making sure that the selected luminaire height leads to the desired illuminance levels according to the inverse relationship between the height and the illuminance

Mitral valve annuloplasty with a homemade single-sized polytetrafluoroethylene band in degenerative mitral regurgitation

Background: Although mitral annuloplasty is an essential component of mitral repair, there remains little agreement on the ideal device to be used or the ideal sizing method.Objectives: The purpose of this study was to report the early clinical and echocardiographic outcomes of patients undergoing repair for degenerative mitral regurgitation using a homemade single-sized (65 mm) Polytetrafluoroethylene band, and comparing it to the use of commercially available complete rigid rings.Patients and methods: This is a retrospective study including 106 patients, who underwent mitral repair for degenerative mitral regurgitation at Cairo University Hospitals between February 2013 and July 2019. These patients were divided into 2 groups. Group (A) included 69 patients who underwent repair with a single-sized band, and group (B) included 37 patients whose repair included the use of a commercial rigid ring. The primary endpoint was freedom from significant mitral regurgitation at one-year follow-up. Secondary endpoints included mean mitral valve gradient measured postoperatively, and freedom from reoperation at one year.Results: There was no statistically significant difference between both groups in any of the above-mentioned endpoints being examined.Conclusion: The use of a single-sized Polytetrafluoroethylene band for annuloplasty in degenerative mitral disease showed satisfactory results comparable to the commercial rigid rings. Further studies with longer follow-up are needed to confirm the durability of mitral repair using this technique

Geometrical Effect of Under-reamed Pile in Clay under Compression Load Numerical-Study

Recently, the use of deep foundations has increased as a result of the expansion in the construction of high-rise buildings, train tracks, and port berths. As a result of this expansion, it was necessary to use deep foundations that have low cost, high bearing loads, low settlement, and construction time, and such foundations are subjected to different types of loads such as lateral, vertical compression, and tension loads. This research paper will present one of the most important types of deep foundations that are aptly used in such structures and the most important factors affecting their bearing capacity and settlement in stiff clay. This type of deep foundation is called an under-reamed pile. The factors used in this study are pile length to diameter ratio L/D = 30, bulb diameter ratio (Du/D = 1.5, 2, 2.25, and 2.5), number of bulbs (N = 1, 2, and 3), and spacing ratio (S/D = 2 to 8). To investigate the effects of these parameters and obtain optimal results, the PLAXIS 3D was used. The analysis shows that the increase in bulb diameter increases the bearing load by 43%. Bulb spacing controls the failure mechanisms, whether cylindrical shear failure or individual failure and increases the capacity by 66% and 99%, respectively, for two and three bulbs when the bulb spacing becomes S/D = 8. When the number of bulbs increases to three, the capacity increases by 90%. If each bulb works individually, the bearing capacity double

Roles of Drop-in Centers in Street Children Interventions: Design Guidelines and Humanitarian Emergency Architecture Adaptations

For decades, numerous countries have been witnessing the Street Children phenomenon where millions of children worldwide are subjected to risks. Despite the crucial role of intermediate non-residential interventions - using drop-in centers- in protecting and rehabilitating street children, there is a paucity of research addressing the quality of design of these centers and how architecture might influence their operational process. Those observations invite investigating drop-in centers used in practice from a design perspective and question adapting architectural applications for humanitarian emergencies, focusing on “Child-Friendly Spaces”. The study aims to provide solutions for better quality design, facilitating operational challenges. The methodology undertakes the investigation through primary and secondary axes. This involves conducting literature and international precedents review and secondarily, an Egyptian contextual first-hand documentation and qualitative analysis of selected centers.

Properties of Cement Composites Utilizing of Bentonite: A Review

The use of bentonite clay slurries in civil and geotechnical engineering dates back to Veder\u27s pioneering work in 1953. Since then, bentonite has been used for various applications such as the construction of bored piles and diaphragm walls. Plastic concrete walls also require sufficient strength and modulus to adapt to the surrounding environment, and the characteristics and different forms of bentonite commercially available were reviewed in this paper.This paper reviews the properties and applications of bentonite, including its use in cement-bentonite composites for remedial cut-off wall construction. Cement-bentonite grouts offer advantages over bentonite grouts in terms of ease of use and adjustability of strength.Cement-bentonite composites were found to be promising materials for remedial cut-off wall construction due to their ability to meet requirements for strength, stiffness, and permeability. By regulating the mix proportions, the strength of the set grout can be adjusted to match that of the surrounding ground. Cement-bentonite grouts also offer advantages over traditional bentonite grouts, as they are easier to use, offer a longer working period before setting, and can be forgiving if the user deviates from the design formula or the mixing technique. This paper provides useful information for those working with bentonite and cement-bentonite composites in civil and geotechnical engineering applications

Properties of Cement Composites Utilizing of Bentonite: A Review

The use of bentonite clay slurries in civil and geotechnical engineering dates back to Veder\u27s pioneering work in 1953. Since then, bentonite has been used for various applications such as the construction of bored piles and diaphragm walls. Plastic concrete walls also require sufficient strength and modulus to adapt to the surrounding environment, and the characteristics and different forms of bentonite commercially available were reviewed in this paper.This paper reviews the properties and applications of bentonite, including its use in cement-bentonite composites for remedial cut-off wall construction. Cement-bentonite grouts offer advantages over bentonite grouts in terms of ease of use and adjustability of strength.Cement-bentonite composites were found to be promising materials for remedial cut-off wall construction due to their ability to meet requirements for strength, stiffness, and permeability. By regulating the mix proportions, the strength of the set grout can be adjusted to match that of the surrounding ground. Cement-bentonite grouts also offer advantages over traditional bentonite grouts, as they are easier to use, offer a longer working period before setting, and can be forgiving if the user deviates from the design formula or the mixing technique. This paper provides useful information for those working with bentonite and cement-bentonite composites in civil and geotechnical engineering applications