Pre-project Planning Process Study of Green Building Construction Projects in Thailand

Project effectiveness is a challenge in sustainable building construction projects. Lack of experience, knowledge, and skills in sustainable projects have been highlighted as the main barriers to using sophisticated and innovative techniques. Based on the literature, the pre-project planning effort directly influences a project’s success. Nevertheless, the differences in planning efforts for green projects have not been fully determined, especially in Thailand where sustainability just has been only recently considered in this context. This study investigated the status of pre-project planning for green building construction projects located in Thailand to promote sustainable construction. The analyses were performed based on two main objectives: (1) to compare the overall planning effort and (2) to address dissimilar planning factors between green and conventional projects. The concept of a project definition rating index (PDRI) was applied to evaluate the level of pre-project planning effort in 40 sample projects. An independent t-test was used for data analysis. The findings from this study indicated the importance of pre-project planning for green building construction that contributes all stakeholders to understand which aspects were differently implemented during the planning process in green compared to conventional programs

PREPARATION AND EVALUATION OF SIMVASTATIN TRANSDERMAL FILM

Objective: The objective of the study was to prepare simvastatin transdermal films for the treatment of atherosclerosis and to evaluate the effect of concentration of polymer on penetration enhancement. Methods: Solvent evaporation technique was employed for the preparation of films and the prepared films were evaluated for various physicochemical properties of films such as tensile strength, thickness, surface pH, swellability, drug content, moisture content and folding endurance. In vitro drug, release study and release kinetics were also studied. Results: Tensile strength ranged from 3.56±0.343 to 4.56±0.12 (N/mm²). The films were of uniform weight. Thickness varied from 0.2±0.3 mm to 0.2±0.8 mm. Surface pH ranged from 6.6±0.14 to 6.9±0.16. Percentage swellability ranged from12.1±0.36 to 16.3±0.22. Percentage drug content ranged from 88.4±0.7% to 90.5±0.6% in all the formulation. Percentage moisture content ranged from 0.864 to 1.03%. Moisture uptake was from 2.6±0.24 to 2.9±0.072. The folding endurance test gave satisfactory results and F3 formulation showed maximum drug release. Conclusion: From the study, it was concluded that out of various formulations, the F3 formulation was found to be the optimum formulation with 88% drug release at the fourteenth hour

HIV prevention programmes for female sex workers in Andhra Pradesh, India: outputs, cost and efficiency

BACKGROUND: Female sex workers and their clients play a prominent role in the HIV epidemic in India. Systematic data on the outputs, cost and efficiency for HIV prevention programmes for female sex workers in India are not readily available to understand programme functioning and guide efficient use of resources. METHODS: Detailed output and cost data for the 2002–2003 fiscal year were obtained using standardised methods at 15 HIV prevention programmes for female sex worker in the state of Andhra Pradesh in southern India. The services provided and their relation to the total and unit economic costs were analysed using regression techniques. The trends for the number of sex workers provided services by the programmes since inception up to fiscal year 2004–2005 were examined. RESULTS: The 15 programmes provided services to 33941 sex workers in fiscal year 2002–2003 (range 803–6379, median 1970). Of the total number of contacts with sex workers, 41.6% were by peer educators and 58.4% by other programme staff. The number of sex worker contacts in a year by peer educators varied 74-fold across programmes as compared with a 2.7-fold variation in sex worker contacts by other programme staff. The annual economic cost of providing services to a sex worker varied 6-fold between programmes from Indian Rupees (INR) 221.8 (US$4.58) to INR 1369 (US$ 28.29) with a median of INR 660.9 (US$13.66) and mean of INR 517.8 (US$ 10.70). Personnel salaries made up 34.7% of the total cost, and recurrent goods made up 38.4% of which 82.1% was for condoms. The cost per sex worker provided services had a significant inverse relation with the number of sex workers provided services by a programme (p < 0.001, R(2 )= 0.75; power function). There was no correlation between the full time equivalents of programme staff and the number of sex workers provided services by the programmes, but there was a modest inverse correlation between the number of sex workers served and the average time spent with each sex worker in the year adjusted for the full-time equivalents of programme staff (p = 0.011, R(2 )= 0.40; exponential function). The average number of sex workers provided services annually by the first batch of 7 programmes started in early 1999 plateaued after the fourth fiscal year to 3500, whereas the 8 second-batch programmes started in late 2000 reached an average of 2000 sex workers in 2004–2005 with an increasing trend up to this fourth fiscal year. CONCLUSION: The HIV prevention efforts in this Indian state would benefit from standardisation of the highly variable services provided by peer educators, who form an important part of the sex worker programmes. The cost per sex worker served decreases with increasing number of sex workers served annually, but this has to be weighed against an associated modest trend of decrease in time spent with each sex worker in some programmes

Why are the δ 13 C org values in Phanerozoic black shales more negative than in modern marine organic matter?

The δ 13 C org values of Phanerozoic black shales average −27‰, whereas those of modern marine organic matter average −20‰. The black shale isotopic values mimic those of continental organic matter, yet their organic geochemical properties mandate that they contain predominantly marine organic matter. Hypotheses that proposed to explain the low δ 13 C values of black shales include diagenetic losses of isotopically heavier organic matter components, releases of isotopically light carbon from methane clathrates or extensive magmatic events, greater photosynthetic discrimination against 13 C during times of higher atmospheric p CO 2 , and greenhouse climate stratification of the surface ocean that magnified photic zone recycling of isotopically light organic matter. Although the last possibility seems contrary to the vertical mixing that leads to the high productivity of modern oceanic upwelling systems, it is consistent with the strongly stratified conditions that accompanied deposition of the organic carbon‐rich Pliocene‐Pleistocene sapropels of the Mediterranean Sea. Because most Phanerozoic black shales contain evidence of photic zone anoxia similar to the sapropels, well‐developed surface stratification of the oceans was likely involved in their formation. Existence of isotopically light land plant organic matter during several episodes of extensive magmatism that accompanied black shale deposition implies massive release of mantle CO 2 that added to the greenhouse conditions that favored oceanic stratification. The 13 C depletion common to most Phanerozoic black shales apparently resulted from a greenhouse climate associated with elevated atmospheric p CO 2 that led to a strongly stratified ocean and photic zone recycling of organic matter in, augmented by magmatic CO 2 releases. Key Points Photic zone recycling of organic carbon is responsible for their low δ 13 C values Black shales deposited during periods of strong surface ocean stratification Periods of greenhouse climate established conditions for black shale depositionPeer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/108327/1/ggge20506.pd

Epsilon-Rotation Invariance using Approximate Euclidean Spheres Packing Algorithm for Cancer Treatment Planning

Cancer treatment planning using SRS (Stereotactic Radio Surgery) uses approximate sphere packing algorithms by guiding multiple beams to treat a set of spherical cancerous regions. Usually volume data from CT/MRI scans is used to identify the cancerous region as set of voxels. Computationally optimal Sphere Packing is proven NPComplete. So usually approximate sphere packing algorithms are used to find a set of non-intersecting spheres inside the region of interest (ROI). We implemented a greedy strategy where largest Euclidean spheres are found using distance transformation algorithm. The voxels inside of the largest Euclidean sphere are then subtracted from the ROI, and the next Euclidean sphere is found again from the subtracted volume. The process continues iteratively until we find the desired coverage. In this paper, our goal is to analyze the rotational invariance properties of resulting sphere-packing when the shape of the ROI is rotated. If our sphere packing algorithm generate spheres of identical radius before and after the rotation, then our algorithm could also be used for matching and tracking similar shapes across data sets of multiple patients. In this paper, we describe unique shape descriptors to show that our sphere packing algorithm has high degree of rotation invariance within ±epsilon. We estimate the value of epsilon in the data set for 30 patients by implementing these ideas using Slicer3D™ platform

Roles and Autonomous Motivation of Safety Officers: The Context of Construction Sites

Safety officers have been underlined as key individuals in the implementation of safety programmes at construction sites. However, previous research mentioned that some project managers predominantly focus on other aspects, such as the productivity of construction and the management of time and cost. Such emphases may potentially demotivate safety officers from fully engaging in safety initiatives for construction projects. Moreover, scholars have devoted piecemeal discussions to the motivation of such practitioners. These problems were addressed in the current work through the development of a conceptual paradigm that captures the actual situation between project managers and safety officers. To this end, four constructs were extensively examined: (1) autonomy-oriented support from project managers; (2) the motivation of safety officers; (3) the engagement of safety officers in safety programmes (covering four major categories of safety-related tasks); and (4) safety performance. From August to September 2022, valid data from 195 safety officers working in construction projects were considered, after which the proposed paradigm was analysed via structural equation modelling. The results showed that the autonomous motivation of safety officers was activated by autonomy-oriented support from project managers (β = 0.520, sig. = 0.000). Such motivation significantly affected their safety performance (β = 0.231, sig. = 0.007) and levels of engagement with safety initiatives (β = 0.529, sig. = 0.000). These findings indicate that in the implementation of safety programmes, the autonomous motivation of safety officers serves as the engine, while autonomy-oriented support from project managers functions as the ignition key. Policymakers in construction companies can use the results as a reference for decision-making on initiating safety policy that highlights methods of training project managers in supporting safety officers