Effect of Fly Ash and Un-crushed Coarse Aggregates on Characteristics of SCC

This research paper discusses the change in the workability and strength characteristics of Self Compacting Concrete (SCC) due to addition of fly-ash and use of un-crushed Coarse Aggregate (CA). Laboratory based experimental work was carried out by preparing 12 SCC mixtures among which six mixtures contained crushed aggregate and other six mixtures contained un-crushed coarse aggregate. A total of 550 kg/m3 binder content and fixed Water-Binder (W/B) ratio as 0.35 were used. Two mixtures were controlled by using Portland Cement (PC) and other ten mixtures contained PC and Fly Ash (FA). Slump flow time, slump flow diameter and J-ring height tests were conducted to study the fresh properties of SCC. Furthermore, compressive strength was calculated at 7, 14 and 28 days of curing. The outcomes indicated that the slump flow time, slump flow diameter and J-Ring height for all the mixes are within the limits specified by EFNARC guidelines. The compressive strength of SCCs depends upon dosage of fly ash. Compressive strength for SCCs with crushed CA was better than obtained in case of un-crushed CA. The maximum compressive-strengths were observed as 64.58 MPa and 58.05 MPa for SCC with crushed and un-crushed CA respectively

Pakistan lags behind in technical textile

This paper highlights and demonstrates the technical and economical impact of technical textiles in the industrially developed countries and their future contribution to the development of economics of newly developing countries, such as China, South East Asia, and North Africa etc. Pakistan still lags behind in technical textile products as neither the government nor the textile industry has made any serious efforts towards synchronizing textile products with the emerging needs of the world market by developing higher value-added products. Although the textile sector is the backbone of Pakistan’s economy, the Government as well as the textile industry has kept their focus on conventional textiles, ignoring technical textiles and knowledge-based products. A special focus is placed on the application of technical textiles related automotive, medical, construction/civil engineering and sportswear’s fields.

A Criteria Catalog of Innovation Facilities at Higher Education Institutes: An Observational Approach

[EN] The present paper deals with designing a criteria catalog for the definition and characterization of academic innovation facilities established within premises of higher education institutes. The in-depth content analysis of available scientific literature on the topic and web description of existing innovation facilities from their official websites is carried out following a purposive observational approach. As a result, a criteria catalog of 12 aspects including 6 functional and 6 structural aspects along with their possible field configurations is devised and proposed herein. The proposed catalog should assist in defining a particular innovation facility in more standardized manner and thereby serve as a guideline for planning and establishing new academic innovation facilities. The catalog should also enable to cross-compare and distinguish multiple innovation facilities across different geographies in order to reveal their relative strengths and weaknesses.Memon, AB.; Memon, SA. (2022). A Criteria Catalog of Innovation Facilities at Higher Education Institutes: An Observational Approach. Multidisciplinary Journal for Education, Social and Technological Sciences. 9(2):103-122. https://doi.org/10.4995/muse.2022.176831031229

Novel active sweat pores based liveness detection techniques for fingerprint biometrics

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Liveness detection in automatic fingerprint identification systems (AFIS) is an issue which still prevents its use in many unsupervised security applications. In the last decade, various hardware and software solutions for the detection of liveness from fingerprints have been proposed by academic research groups. However, the proposed methods have not yet been practically implemented with existing AFIS. A large amount of research is needed before commercial AFIS can be implemented. In this research, novel active pore based liveness detection methods were proposed for AFIS. These novel methods are based on the detection of active pores on fingertip ridges, and the measurement of ionic activity in the sweat fluid that appears at the openings of active pores. The literature is critically reviewed in terms of liveness detection issues. Existing fingerprint technology, and hardware and software solutions proposed for liveness detection are also examined. A comparative study has been completed on the commercially and specifically collected fingerprint databases, and it was concluded that images in these datasets do not contained any visible evidence of liveness. They were used to test various algorithms developed for liveness detection; however, to implement proper liveness detection in fingerprint systems a new database with fine details of fingertips is needed. Therefore a new high resolution Brunel Fingerprint Biometric Database (B-FBDB) was captured and collected for this novel liveness detection research. The first proposed novel liveness detection method is a High Pass Correlation Filtering Algorithm (HCFA). This image processing algorithm has been developed in Matlab and tested on B-FBDB dataset images. The results of the HCFA algorithm have proved the idea behind the research, as they successfully demonstrated the clear possibility of liveness detection by active pore detection from high resolution images. The second novel liveness detection method is based on the experimental evidence. This method explains liveness detection by measuring the ionic activities above the sample of ionic sweat fluid. A Micro Needle Electrode (MNE) based setup was used in this experiment to measure the ionic activities. In results, 5.9 pC to 6.5 pC charges were detected with ten NME positions (50μm to 360 μm) above the surface of ionic sweat fluid. These measurements are also a proof of liveness from active fingertip pores, and this technique can be used in the future to implement liveness detection solutions. The interaction of NME and ionic fluid was modelled in COMSOL multiphysics, and the effect of electric field variations on NME was recorded at 5μm -360μm positions above the ionic fluid.This study is funded by the University of Sindh, Jamshoro, Pakistan and the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan

Impact of Brand Recall on Customer Purchase Intention

This study analyzes customers brand Recall and its elements including brand awareness, brand association, and brand recognition. The purpose of this research is to identify the impact of brand recall on customer purchase intention. In this research we also identify the relationship between the dependent and independent variables. This is the primary research and data has been collected through questionnaire and for analysis purpose SPSS software has been used. In this study samples of 400 respondents has been collected and tested the reliability of the model. The result of the study indicates that Brand recognition and association have a positive impact on the customers purchase intention. Customers mostly buy and prefer those products which they recognize and have some positive association or link with that brands

Adjustment speed towards target capital structure and its determinants in Pakistan

This study investigates the dynamism of the capital structure of the non-financial listed firms in Pakistan for the period from 2003 to 2012. Specifically, the main objectives of the study are to estimate the adjustment speed towards target capital structure, determining the factors affecting the adjustment speed towards target capital structure, and identifying the factors affecting the target capital structure. Firm specific and country specific factors are used to investigate the determinants of adjustment speed and target capital structure. Difference Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) is used as the estimation technique to avoid the endogeneity and serial correlation problems. The study confirms the existence of optimal capital structure for Pakistani non-financial listed firms, and concludes that firms make full adjustment towards optimal capital structure in 1.46 years to 2.03 years, depending upon the proxy of target debt used. Similarly, factors affecting adjustment speed towards target are also found to be dependent upon the proxy of debt used. Firms’ profitability, stock market development, and distance are found to be relatively consistent determinants of the adjustment speed. Firm and country specific factors affecting target capital structure are also found to vary across the proxies of debt used. However, tangibility, earning volatility, cash, and industry median leverage appear consistently and significantly affecting the target leverage. Interest rate, the only country specific factor, is found to affect target debt when total liabilities to total assets and total debt to total assets are used as measure of the debt. This study contributes in the existing literature of the capital structure by providing evidence regarding the existence of target capital structure in Pakistan. In addition, this is the first attempt that estimates the adjustment speed towards target capital structure, and identifies factors affecting adjustment speed towards target capital structure for Pakistan using four different proxies of leverage

DEVELOPMENT AND MECHANICAL BEHAVIOUR OF SELF-COMPACTING GEOPOLYMER CONCRETE

High consumption of natural resources, environmental concern of CO2 emission due to cement production and improvement on concrete performance has become a driving force behind the search for alternative materials. An effort made in this regard is the development of self-compacting geopolymer concrete (SCGC). SCGC is a novel material that involves innovation in the production and casting of concrete. It is a type of concrete that does not require compaction for placing it and can be produced by completely eliminating ordinary Portland cement. So far several studies have been done on the characteristics of self-compacting concrete and that of geopolymer concrete in both fresh and hardened state. However, no work has been conducted on SCGC

A systematic approach for monitoring and evaluating the construction project progress

A persistent problem in construction is to document changes which occur in the field and to prepare the as-built schedule. In current practice, deviations from planned performance can only be reported after significant time has elapsed and manual monitoring of the construction activities are costly and error prone. Availability of advanced portable computing, multimedia and wireless communication allows, even encourages fundamental changes in many jobsite processes. However a recent investigation indicated that there is a lack of systematic and automated evaluation and monitoring in construction projects. The aim of this study is to identifytechniques that can be used in the construction industry for monitoring and evaluating the physical progress, and also to establish how current computer technology can be utilised for monitoring the actual physical progress at the construction site. This study discusses the results of questionnaire survey conducted within Malaysian Construction Industry and suggests a prototype system, namely Digitalising Construction Monitoring (DCM). DCM prototype system integrates the information from construction drawings, digital images of construction site progress and planned schedule of work. Using emerging technologies and information system the DCM re-engineer the traditional practice for monitoring the project progress. This system can automatically interpret CAD drawings of buildings and extract data on its structural components and store in database. It can also extract the engineering information from digital images and when these two databases are simulated the percentage of progress can be calculated and viewed in Microsoft Project automatically. The application of DCM system for monitoring the project progress enables project management teams to better track and controls the productivity and quality of construction projects. The use of the DCM can help resident engineer, construction manager and site engineer in monitoring and evaluating project performance. This model will improve decision-making process and provides better mechanism for advanced project management