Optimising the use of Materials for Construction MSMEs: Building a Comprehensive Framework for Decision-Making and Resource Allocation through an Analytic Hierarchy Process

The efficiency, governance, and compliance with environmental ideals in construction is made possible thanks to a decision support system that ensures Materials, Models, and Methods (3Ms) are adaptable and integrated. Recent advances in Information Technology (IT), for instance, facilitate the visualisation of sequences and production stages in construction. Yet, this falls short in giving compatibility among the 3Ms, their suitability and workability, and their financial and legislative viability. To this end, this manuscript rethinks the concept of productivity, and lays the foundation for a new decision support system that is simple, affordable, and portable enough to attract large enterprises and MSMEs. Ideally, an efficient construction project has good flow of workstreams, is least complex, cost minimised but with added value, timely and in symbiosis with natural health provisions of the ecosystem. A mixed methodology based on gathering data from document reviews, semi-structured interviews, and observations of selected construction MSMEs, will allow to carry out longitudinal research and then code, group, link and analyse the collected raw data through the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) Multi Criteria Decision Making technique. This technique is chosen to develop overall priorities for ranking the alternatives, measure, and monetise the impacting factors to draw out the main impediments to achieve good levels of efficiency. The outputs of the AHP analysis feeds into the novel decision support system, the concepts of which are introduced in this contribution

Understanding the complexity of materials procurement in construction projects to build a conceptual framework influencing supply chain management of MSMEs

Purchasing is a fundamental step of materials procurement in the construction sector, and since materials can represent up to 70% of the project's construction costs, reducing wastage and improving productivity can have big benefits, both for the environment and the economy, especially for Micro, Small, and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs). This manuscript will focus on the process of purchasing materials from these companies’ perspective, seeking to investigate the impact of effective materials management on site. In light of the acknowledged absence of system thinking for MSMEs, this research aims to build a new conceptual framework that illustrates the complexity of the materials purchasing process in construction and embodies the risks linked to materials, relationships, information, and cash flows. The conceptual framework aims to influence supply management in construction and is based on the recognition of five main levels, going from the specification of materials to data management and feedback. It is designed to illustrate the sequence, logical structure, and complexities of the purchasing process. Data from the literature, followed by on-site observations, feeds into the framework

Micromorphological studies on leaf, fruit and pollen of four species from Typhaceae (Typha laxmannii, T. azerbaijanensis, T. minima and T. lugdunensis) from Iran, and their thematic significance

Previous research has made it clear that the intrinsic taxonomy encountered difficulties in identifying speciesin the genus Typha. Therefore, in the present study we have tried to investigate the micromorphological characteristics of pollens, achenes and leaves as well as their systematic utility. Four Typha species identified from the Iranian flora i.e. Typha minima Funk in Hoppe, Typha lugdunensis Chab., Typha azerbaijanensis Hamdi & Assadi and Typha laxmannii Lepechin were taken into consideration. Three of them are easily distinguishable with their closest relative i.e. T. laxmannii Lepechin. Scanning electron microscopy was used to examine pollens, achenes and leaves of the four taxa of the proposed Typha from Iran. A part of these micromorphological studies attempted to investigate achenes, pollens and leaf characteristics of these species under SEM. Interestingly, Typha martini Jordan is also considered as a synonym of T. lugdunensis. The study does not only discuss relationships between close species but it also clarifies their geographical patterns. Finally, a diagnostic key is provided for the distribution of the four Typha species in Iran. The results show that the ornamentation characters of pollens, achenes and leaf cells prove to be very helpful. Ornamentation of pollens and achenes could be used to distinguish between the four morphological types. Micromorphological studies on achenes, pollens and leaves of Typha were found useful with respect to taxa differentiation, hence it provides a key to make distinctions between species orgroups of species

Modeling of Substrate Noise Effects in Dynamic CMOS Circuits

The decrease in the feature size has led to the integration of both digital and analog circuits on the same silicon die which has led to many crosstalk issues. The crosstalk due to the substrate interactions also plagiarizes complete digital systems. This paper lays emphasis on this fact and because of the vulnerability of dynamic CMOS circuits to noise; a brief study of the effects of substrate variations on the performance of the dynamic CMOS circuits is carried out in this paper. The effects of substrate noise at very high frequencies (above 10 GHz) are also depicted in this paper. In order to accurately estimate the effects of substrate noise a substrate model is proposed and verified for functionality in the last section of this paper

A study of the time of hospital discharge of differentiated thyroid cancer patients after receiving iodine-131 for thyroid remnant ablation treatment

The aim of this study was to measure the radiation exposure rate from differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC) patients who had received iodine-131 (131I) treatment, and to evaluate hospital discharge planning in relation to three different sets of regulations. We studied 100 patients, 78 females and 22 males, aged 13 to 79 years (mean 44.40±15.83 years) with DTC, in three Groups who were treated with 3.7, 5.5 or 7.4GBq of 131I, respectively. The external whole-body dose rates following oral administration of 131I were measured after each one of the first three hospitalization days. A multivariant linear analysis was performed, considering exposure rates as dependent variables to the administered dose for treatment, age, gender, regional and/or distant metastases, thyroglobulin (Tg), antibodies to Tg and thyroid remnant in the three dose groups. We found that the exposure rates after each of the three first days of hospitalization were 30, 50 and 70μSvh-1 at 1m. All our DTC patients had an acceptable dose rate on days 2 and 3 that allowed their hospital discharge. After only 1 day of hospitalization, just 3/11 cases showed not permissible exposure rates above 70μSvh-1. In conclusion, it is the opinion of the authors that after measuring the exposure rates, most treated, DTC patients could be discharged after only one day of hospitalization, even some of those treated with high doses of 131I (7.4GBq). Patients, who received the higher doses of 131I, should not be released before their individual exposure rate is measured

The utility and prognostic value of dipyridamole technetium-99m sestamibi myocardial perfusion imaging SPECT in predicting perioperative cardiac events following non-cardiac surgery

Objective: A perioperative cardiac events is one of the most important medical concerns for both surgeons and patients. The purpose of the current study was to determine the prognostic value of myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI), using dipyridamole 99m Tc-MIBI, for the prediction of perioperative cardiac events. Materials and methods: This study included 253 patients who were candidates for non-cardiac elective surgery and underwent scanning with dipyridamole 99m Tc-MIBI. Based on normal or abnormal MPI, patients were divided into two groups and all preoperative cardiac events were recorded. Risk factors, including diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, hypertension, smoking and age .70 years, were compared between patients with normal and abnormal MPI and, also, in patients with or without cardiac events. Results: There were 197 patients with normal and 56 patients with abnormal MPI. In total, 14 patients had perioperative cardiac events, which included myocardial infarction (MI), hypotension, arrhythmia and death; of the 14 patients with perioperative cardiac events, 12 had abnormal and two had normal MPI. There were statistically meaningful differences between the two groups (p<0.001). Based on these findings, we determined that MPI had a sensitivity of 85.7%, a specificity of 81.6%, an accuracy of 81.8%, a positive predictive value of 21.4 % and a negative predictive value of 98.9%. Conclusion: The incidence of perioperative cardiac events is higher in patients with abnormal MPI. Dipyridamole 99m Tc-MIBI myocardial perfusion imaging can accurately detect the preoperative cardiac risk of patients undergoing major non-cardiac surgery. Based on these findings, the occurrence of perioperative cardiac events in patients with abnormal MPI should be considered, especially in the older age population (age ≥70). © The Author(s) 2013

Design and FPGA Prototyping of a Flood Prediction System

This paper explains the chip design of a flood prediction system based on piezoelectric pressure sensors, and its FPGA prototyping. The sensors are placed at different water levels and can dependably predict the occurrence of a flood. The main criteria considered in design of the system are low cost, low power consumption, ease of installation, autonomy, reliability, and most importantly, provision of early alerts. Predicting the flood before its actual occurrence can buy sufficient time for residents to evacuate nearby areas, preventing loss of life and property. The design has been prototyped on Altera\u27s Cyclone DE2 FPGA board

The Minimum Shared Edges Problem on Grid-like Graphs

We study the NP-hard Minimum Shared Edges (MSE) problem on graphs: decide whether it is possible to route $p$ paths from a start vertex to a target vertex in a given graph while using at most $k$ edges more than once. We show that MSE can be decided on bounded (i.e. finite) grids in linear time when both dimensions are either small or large compared to the number $p$ of paths. On the contrary, we show that MSE remains NP-hard on subgraphs of bounded grids. Finally, we study MSE from a parametrised complexity point of view. It is known that MSE is fixed-parameter tractable with respect to the number $p$ of paths. We show that, under standard complexity-theoretical assumptions, the problem parametrised by the combined parameter $k$, $p$, maximum degree, diameter, and treewidth does not admit a polynomial-size problem kernel, even when restricted to planar graphs

The comparison between two methods of basic life support instruction: Video self-instruction versus traditional method

Introduction: Medical education is changing and evolving. Teachers need to re-evaluate their medical teaching practice to enhance student learning. The data about the ideal training method of Basic Life Support (BLS) is lacking. The goal of this study was to analyse the use and performance of video self-instruction (VSI) method in BLS, in order to develop an efficient BLS training method. Methods: Eighty-one undergraduate medical interns were enrolled in a prospective clinical study in 2011. They were divided into VSI group and traditional group. We provided the first group with a DVD containing a 20-minute training video while the second group took part in a 4-hour training class of BLS. Subjects participated in a pre-test and post-test based on 2010 American Heart Association Resuscitation guideline. Results: The average scores of VSI group and the traditional group before training were 8.85±2.42 and 8.57±2.22 respectively (p=0.592). After training, the average scores of the VSI and the traditional group were 20.24±0.83 and 18.05±1.86 respectively. VSI group achieved slightly better scores compared with the traditional group (p<0.001). Conclusions: Training through VSI achieves more satisfying results than the traditional lecture method. VSI method can be considered a useful technique in undergraduate educational programs. Developing VSI can increase significantly the access to the BLS training. © 2015, Medcom Limited. All rights reserved