Measuring material wastage on construction sites: a case study of local authority highway projects

The construction industry in the UK is vast. It is one of the largest sectors of the economy with an output of over £100 billion, representing approximately 8% of the country’s GDP. The enormous amount of resources the industry consumes and produces coupled with the large number of construction companies in the market place has resulted in a growing awareness of the environmental impact of the construction industry. Construction produces more than 100 million tonnes of waste a year, representing more than 50% of the total waste production of the country. Of this waste, more than 60 million tonnes goes straight to landfill, three times more than all the domestic waste produced by the UK’s twenty one million homes. Increasing pressure on landfill sites coupled with the growing awareness of the environmental impact of the industry has made the minimisation of construction waste absolutely essential. The research project outlined in this paper attempts to measure material wastage occurring on selected Local Authority highway construction sites. To achieve this, a review will be undertaken to determine the main areas of interest in sustainable construction, construction waste production, and waste minimisation. Primary data will be collected in the form of measurements taken of theoretical and actual quantities of construction materials used during the course of selected highway projects. The results will be used to compare actual on-site material quantities against theoretical material quantities. The difference in these quantities will then be calculated, giving the amount of wastage occurring on site. The findings from this paper are drawn from both the secondary and the primary data analysis and statistical testing. The research concludes by suggesting a waste minimisation strategy for use on highway construction sites to try and reduce, re-use, and recycle the amount of construction waste local authority highway projects generate

Suzaku Observation of the Radio Halo Cluster Abell 2319: Gas Dynamics and Hard X-ray Properties

We present the results of Suzaku observation of the radio halo cluster Abell 2319. The metal abundance in the central cool region is found to be higher than the surrounding region, which was not resolved in the former studies. We confirm that the line-of-sight velocities of the intracluster medium in the observed region are consistent with those of the member galaxies of entire A2319 and A2319A subgroup for the first time, though any velocity difference within the region is not detected. On the other hand, we do not find any signs of gas motion relevant to A2319B subgroup. Hard X-ray emission from the cluster is clearly detected, but its spectrum is likely thermal. Assuming a simple single temperature model for the thermal component, we find that the upper limit of the non-thermal inverse Compton component becomes $2.6 \times 10^{-11}$ erg s$^{-1}$ cm$^{-2}$ in the 10-40 keV band, which means that the lower limit of the magnetic field is 0.19 $\mu$G with the radio spectral index 0.92. Although the results slightly depend on the detailed spectral modeling, it is robust that the upper limit of the power-law component flux and lower limit of the magnetic field strength become $\sim 3 \times 10^{-11}$ erg s$^{-1}$ cm$^{-2}$ and $\sim 0.2 \mu$G, respectively. Considering the lack of a significant amount of very hot ($\sim 20$ keV) gas and the strong bulk flow motion, it is more likely that the relativistic non-thermal electrons responsible for the radio halo are accelerated through the intracluster turbulence rather than the shocks.Comment: 12 pages, 15 figures, accepted for publication in PAS

The Commons Concept and Intellectual Property Rights Regime: Whither Plant Genetic Resources and Traditional Knowledge?

[Excerpt] The classification of plant genetic resources (PGRs) as the common heritage of humankind continues to generate controversies. The debate is between developing countries that are the primary sources of these resources and industrialized, biotechnologically advanced countries that appropriate and utilize PGRs as raw materials for various commercial products, such as medicine, seed variety, or pesticides. Scholars of diverse backgrounds express various opinions on whether PGRs obtained from plants found within a territory of a sovereign state should properly be designated “common heritage of humankind” or regarded as part of the “commons,” and therefore freely accessible. The debate also extends to and challenges the status of traditional knowledge on the uses of PGRs. The dominant but not necessarily the correct view is that such knowledge is information in the public domain, incapable of private ownership or control

The state of the art in e-business: A case study from the Chinese construction industry

In the 21st century, e-business is seen as the new frontier. Currently e-business has been widely used in other industry and to some extent in global construction market, particularly in developed countries, such as UK, EU and USA. Evidence of performance and success stories shows that the implementation of e-business is already delivering high improvement and innovation in construction project planning, design, delivery and management. However, the current performance of e-business in the emerging market, such as India and China is limited. China, as the world’s second largest economy after the United States, has the world fastest growing economy, averaging 10% growth of the past 30 years. The domestic construction industry is booming in both infrastructure and building construction sectors. It is predicted that nearly half of the world’s new building construction will be in China by 2015. In a similar way to other countries, there is a great potential for China to implement e-business in the construction industry in order to improve its productivity and competitiveness. This paper initially explains the concept of e-Business and its impacts in construction industry and reviews the development of Chinese construction industry over last two decades. A case study of one of the largest Chinese construction IT Companies is carried out to further analyse benefits, challenges and the market potential of e-business in China. This study provides a better and deeper understanding of the different characteristics of the implementation and capability of e-business in Chinese construction industry

Genuine lab experiences for students in resource constrained environments: The RealLab with integrated intelligent assessment.

Laboratory activities are indispensable for developing engineering skills. Computer Aided Learning (CAL) tools can be used to enhance laboratory learning in various ways, the latest approach being the virtual laboratory technique that emulates traditional laboratory processes. This new approach makes it possible to give students complete and genuine laboratory experiences in situations constrained by limited resources in the provision of laboratory facilities and infrastructure and/or where there is need for laboratory education, for large classes, with only one laboratory stand. This may especially be the case in countries in transition. Most existing virtual laboratories are not available for purchase. Where they are, they may not be cost friendly for resource constrained environments. Also, most do not integrate any form of assessment structure. In this paper, we present a very cost friendly virtual laboratory solution for genuine laboratory experiences in resource constrained environments, with integrated intelligent assessment

Three ways to solve critical ϕ4\phi^4 theory on 4−ϵ4-\epsilon dimensional real projective space: perturbation, bootstrap, and Schwinger-Dyson equation

We solve the two-point function of the lowest dimensional scalar operator in the critical $\phi^4$ theory on $4-\epsilon$ dimensional real projective space in three different methods. The first is to use the conventional perturbation theory, and the second is to impose the crosscap bootstrap equation, and the third is to solve the Schwinger-Dyson equation under the assumption of conformal invariance. We find that the three methods lead to mutually consistent results but each has its own advantage.Comment: 24 pages; v2: some references added; v3: Typos correcte

ANALISIS FAKTOR-FAKTOR YANG MEMPENGARUHI KONSUMSI RUMAH TANGGA PETANI DI KECAMATAN JAMBU KABUPATEN SEMARANG

ABSTRAK Penelitian bertujuan untuk menganalisis pengeluaran konsumsi rumah tangga dan mengkaji faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi konsumsi rumah tangga petani di Kecamatan Jambu Kabupaten Semarang. Penelitian dilaksanakan pada bulan Desember 2016 di Desa Bedono dan Desa Genting Kecamatan Jambu Kabupaten Semarang. Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah metode survei dengan teknik wawancara. Metode penentuan lokasi dengan purposive sedangkan untuk pengambilan sampel menggunakan metode multistage random sampling dengan jumlah sampel sebanyak 100 responden. Data dianalisis menggunakan analisis one sample t test untuk membandingkan jumlah pengeluaran konsumsi rumah tangga petani perbulan dengan indeks kemiskinan Kabupaten Semarang dan analisis regresi linier berganda untuk menganalisis faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi pengeluaran konsumsi rumah tangga petani. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan rata-rata pengeluaran konsumsi rumah tangga petani Rp 1.087.121,00/bln dengan persentase konsumsi pangan sebesar 60,17% dan non pangan sebesar 39,83%. Tingkat kesejahteraan rumah tangga petani tergolong rendah dibandingkan dengan indeks garis kemiskinan Kabupaten Semarang. Faktor-faktor yang berpengaruh terhadap konsumsi rumah tangga petani yaitu pendapatan rumah tangga, jumlah anggota keluarga, persepsi harga barang dan variabel dummy konsumsi pangan dan non pangan sedangkan tingkat pendidikan kepala keluarga tidak berpengaruh terhadap konsumsi rumah tangga. Kata kunci : konsumsi, non pangan, pangan, pendapatan, rumah tangga petan