12 research outputs found

    Challenges confronting construction project management system for sustainable construction in developing countries: professionals perspectives (a case study of Nigeria)

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    The success of the Nigerian construction industry can be aligned with the use of construction project management systems, although, the industry has been maligned by issues such as building collapse, incessant delays, abandonment and cost overrun. It is therefore imperative to examine the challenges confronting construction project management system in Nigeria. In this study the descriptive survey method was adopted and data were obtained by means of inquiries using questionnaires. A sample size of fifty nine (59) construction professionals was used for the study. The study reveals that location of a project majorly influences Project Manager’s decision making on project planning. It asserted the crucial importance of Management skills required in practicing construction project management. In conclusion, the result identified that passive participation from Project Manager, lack of client involvement in making decisions, provision of substandard materials, design error, lack of effective communication and poor treatment of workforce are challenges hampering the use of construction project management. The study recommends the institutionalization of construction project management practice, compulsion of adequate training and skill modification programs for construction professionals to aid the sustainability of construction project management systems in Nigeria

    The design of a hybrid model-based journal recommendation system

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    There is currently an overload of information on the internet, and this makes information search a challenging task. Researchers spend a lot of man-hour searching for journals related to their areas of research interest that can publish their research output on time. In, this study, a recommender system that can assist researchers access relevant journals that can publish their research output on time based on their preferences is developed. This system uses the information provided by researchers and previous authors' research publications to recommend journals with similar preferences. Data were collected from 867 respondents through an online questionnaire and from existing publication sources and databases on the web. The scope of the research was narrowed down to computer science-related journals. A hybrid model-based recommendation approach that combined Content-Based and Collaborative filtering was employed for the study. The Naive Bayes and Random Forest algorithms were used to model the recommender. WEKA, a machine learning tool, was used to implement the system. The result of the study showed that the Naïve Bayes produced a shorter training time (0.01s) and testing time (0.02s) than the Random forest training time (0.41) and testing time (0.09). On the other hand, the classification accuracy of the Random forest algorithm outperformed the naïve Bayes with % correctly classified instance of 89.73 and 72.66; kappa of 0.893 and 0.714; True Positive of 0.897 and 0.727 and ROC area of 0.998 and 0.977, respectively, among other metrics. The model derived in this work was used as a knowledge-base for the development of a web-based application, named "Journal Recommender" which allowed academic authors to input their preferences and obtain prompt journal recommendations. The developed system would help researchers to efficiently choose suitable journals to help their publication quest. © 2020 ASTES Publishers. All rights reserved

    Assessment of Physio-chemical and Bacteriological Quality of Water Supply for Domestic Use in Student Hostels in Nigerian University

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    The study examined the consistency in quality of water supply within the student halls of residence in a Nigerian University. The water samples were collected at four different points along the supply chain for three months and both physico-chemical and bacteriological tests were conducted on the samples based on World Health Organization (WHO) and Nigeria Standard for Drinking Water (NSDW) standards concurrently. The results of the physico-chemical test showed that all the samples were within the WHO and NSDW specified permissible range except their pH (4.57-6.00). However, the bacteriological results revealed that the Escherichia Coli (E. coli) of all samples (2, 2, 4 and 28cfu/100ml) were not acceptable. In addition, the fecal coliform results of two samples (0cfu/100ml) were within WHO and NSDW permissible limit values while other samples (1,2 cfu/100ml) were contaminated by some measure of fecal element. Nevertheless, the results of Total Coliform samples of two points were 0&3cfu/100ml therefore within the acceptable limit range but, the remaining two samples points (TNTC) were not acceptable. One of the influences on the result of the bacteriological is the closeness of the water supply pipes to the sewage pipes. In conclusion, bacteriological standard required by both WHO and NSDW was not satisfied in the water supply to the halls of residents. Therefore there is urgent need for the treatment of water supply against the presence of fecal elements to forestall liable diseases for sustainable health

    Pulverized Calcined Clay and Carbide Waste as Alternative Binder in Concrete and Mortar Applications for Sustainable Construction

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    Portland cement (PC) based concrete is the world’s most consumed man-made material and this consequently puts lots of demand on cement as a binder. The CO2 gas emission during cement clinker production has placed this important material into non-environmental-friendly classification with quest for greener alternatives being on the rise. A recent study showed combination of Pulverized Calcined Clay (PCC) and Calcium Carbide Waste (CCW) as possible alternative for total PC replacement with resulting appreciable mortar strength but delayed setting times and lower strength than PC mortars. This paper reports on effects of PCC-CCW as alternative binder on strength properties of mortars. The mortar mixes had superplasticizers added to reduce water/binder ratio while the CCW was treated to reduce impurities with a view to improving the strength development and a bid to mitigate the observed setbacks of earlier study. The pozzolanic activity indices of the PCC was determined via X-Ray Fluorescence(XRF) and strength determination (strength activity index). The PCC was combined with Purified CCW to determine the binder’s strengths at varying PCC:CCW replacements to determine the prescribed mix combination for optimum strength. Improved optimised mortar strength of 13.11MPa was achieved compared to 11.89MPa in the previous stud

    Vocational Skill Mobility and Its Effect on Occupational Engagement Among Tradesmen and Craftsmen in Building Sector

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    Building sector in Nigeria has suffered skill erosion overtime. Foreigners with special skill has mobilized their skill into the sector and there had been mass exodus of imported skills into the sector thereby forcing citizens to jettison idea of engaging indigenous artisans in the face of superior skills and knowledge. The aim of the study is to appraise the vocational skills and competence of the indigenous and foreign artisans, vocational mobility in building sector, job mobility pattern among artisans, sectors involved, attendant effects, both favorable and unfavorable, and possible ways of addressing identified threat. The study engaged 120 questionnaire using random sampling technique. The questionnaire was designed in Likert scale, structured on sematic rating scale 1 to 5. The study identified the following reasons among others reasons behind the disparity in occupational engagement among artisans in Nigeria building sector, the reasons include: inadequate skill and knowledge by indigenous artisans, no vocational focus, half -baked knowledge of the work, poor workmanship and poor finishing and poor education background or lack of former education among others. The study recommended the following factors as panacea to the problem; reinvigoration of artisans competence, continuous training of the artisans, value reorientation of artisans, promoting technology transfer among indigenous artisans and foreign artisans
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