Multivariate Approach to Benchmarking Quality Prediction Parameters in Building Maintenance Works

Observing quality etiquette on maintenance work is of essence when satisfying clients’ requirement is a priority. However, the quality etiquette comes in the form of framework and benchmarks. This study has therefore presented succinctly, multivariate approach to benchmarking quality prediction parameters in building maintenance works. The study used sixty-three (63) questionnaires retrieved which contains information on benchmarked parameters. The study used factor analysis to reduce the parameters to a sizeable number based on their coefficient and Eigen value. Resultant factors were used to dissect quality into quality dichotomies; the zero defect, medium quality and high quality work status. The model would assist building maintenance practitioners in quality monitoring on building maintenance works. Key words: Benchmark, Quality, Multi-variable, Rotation, Prediction

E-PAYCHEQUE FRAMEWORK WITH CONTACT ELECTRONIC CARD AND FINGERPRINT BIOMETRIC FOR CASHLESS SMART CAMPUSES

Identity theft in financial transactions is a very rampant problem among students in most institutions of learning. Currently, in order to minimize financial theft, most schools dole out paper based “paycheques” to students, which usually contain the name, personal identification number (PIN) and the value of money deposited by the students to the cashier. However, anybody bearing the PIN of another student can conveniently assume the identity and defraud the legitimate owner. This often generates a lot of rancor among students and it is a major concern for management especially in the high schools. In this work, we developed an e-Paycheque framework for secured cashless campuses. To be recognized on the web application within the framework, each student must possess a Smart ID card that is preconfigured with their unique fingerprint template and the value of deposited cash for transaction purposes. Since no two humans have the same fingerprint, financial transactions will only be possible for the legitimate owners of cards on the platform. This will in no small measure curb identity theft with respect to financial transactions on the campuses and also fast track the pace of achievement of the cashless policy in Nigeri

Multivariate Approach to Benchmarking Quality Prediction Parameters in Building Maintenance Works

Observing quality etiquette on maintenance work is of essence when satisfying clients’ requirement is a priority. However, the quality etiquette comes in the form of framework and benchmarks. This study has therefore presented succinctly, multivariate approach to benchmarking quality prediction parameters in building maintenance works. The study used sixty-three (63) questionnaires retrieved which contains information on benchmarked parameters. The study used factor analysis to reduce the parameters to a sizeable number based on their coefficient and Eigen value. Resultant factors were used to dissect quality into quality dichotomies; the zero defect, medium quality and high quality work status. The model would assist building maintenance practitioners in quality monitoring on building maintenance work

Dietary and physical activity habits of All Saints University College of Medicine Students, St Vincent and the Grenadines

Background: The purpose of this research was to assess the dietary and physical activity habits of All Saints University College of Medicine students to determine if they were meeting the Saint Vincent and the Grenadines government’s dietary guidelines and to ascertain the prevalence of overweight and obesity among the students.Methods: Data were collected from the participants using a survey concerned with demographics, and self-assessment on dietary and physical activity habits. Descriptive statistics was used to report and analyse the data.Results: Study subjects consisted of 76 students. Eighty three percent of them were between the ages of 16 and 25 years. Sixty–one percent were female and 39% were male. The majority of the student respondents (76%) were aware of the importance of eating healthy and being physically active each day, and 50-66% of the respondents engaged in and enjoyed physical activity, achieved the recommended daily amount of vegetable intake, were at a normal body mass index (18.5-24.9 kg/m2) and reported satisfaction with their weight. However, majority (80%) of the respondents consumed fast food; about a third of them did not consume fruits nor exercise regularly, reporting lack of time, interest and self-discipline as major reasons.Conclusions: The results indicate that the majority of All Saints University Medical College students had high level of knowledge of overweight and obesity and were involved in some healthy behaviours that helped them achieve normal BMI. However, the poor nutritional and physical activity habits of many of the students could benefit from intervention programs to moderate the tendency for overweight and obesity in the student population

Environmental cadmium exposure: a possible factor in the pathogenesis of preeclampsia

Cadmium is a toxic metal, an environmental contaminant and a multi-organ poison which has been implicated in the derangement of a number of biological and molecular systems. Exposure to cadmium is a serious global health threat particularly in developing countries and pregnant women are at great risk, This is because they have increased gastrointestinal absorption and retention of cadmium and the tendency for increased risk of complications owing to its toxic effects. Preeclampsia is a pregnancy complication characterized by the development of onset of hypertension and significant proteinuria after 20 weeks of gestation or during labour and/or within 48 hours of delivery. This pregnancy-specific syndrome is a leading cause of maternal death particularly in developing countries. Several reports have provided evidence of remote association between preeclampsia and cadmium but the mechanism of the involment of this toxic metal in this disease is still surrounded with uncertainty. Some possible mechanistic pathways such as induction of oxidative stress, acting as an antimetabolite to zinc and deregulation of epigenetic mechanisms have been elucidated in this article may be interconnected, work synergistically or act independently. However, pertinent to understand them in a bid to possibly prevent the disease or forestall its devastating consequences. Environmental cadmium exposure may be considered a factor that merits further serious attention in the continuous search for the precise an etiology of preeclampsia particularly in developing countries that experience uncontrolled cadmium release into the environment

Factors Affecting the Competencies and Project Delivery of Small-Sized Indigenous Construction Firms in Lagos State

Every industry is prone to problems Performance is a general challenge affecting construction and most especially small-sized indigenous construction companies. The study focused on determining the likely factors affecting the competencies and project delivery of small-sized construction firms in Lagos. 60 questionnaires were designed and administered to professionals (15-Architects, 15-Builders, 15-Engineers, and 15-Quantity Surveyors) working in the construction companies in Lagos State and 48 questionnaires were retrieved. These questionnaires were analysed with SPSS and several findings were derived from this analysis. The various factors affecting the performance and project delivery at varying degrees are: high cost of plants, equipment, materials and labour, lack of skilled craftsmen, unavailability of funds, poor managerial skills, lack of government patronage, and poor communication among stakeholders. The study found out that the most prominent factors are poor managerial skills, lack of project planning and unavailability of funds. The main factors affecting the performance of small sized indigenous construction firms are based on three key elements namely time, quality and cost. These three elements when properly harnessed will increase the performance of small sized indigenous firms. The study recommended that the use of ICT would help improve performance by making work flow more easily. Access to bank loans and more machinery on site and sufficient government patronage would improve performance. It concluded that better management and project planning would go a long way in improving competencies and project delivery of small sized construction firms

Synergy of Siam weed (Chromolaena odorata) and poultry manure for energy generation: Effects of pretreatment methods, modeling and process optimization

The co-digestion of Chromolaena odorata with poultry manure was evaluated in this study. Two samples of the weed: (A: which was pre-treated with mechanical, chemical and thermal methods) and (B: which was pretreated using mechanical and chemical methods only) were separately digested with poultry manure. Biogas generation started from the 2nd to 4th and 4th to 7th day for samples ‘A’ and ‘B’ respectively. The most desired actual biogas yield from samples ‘A’ and ‘B’ were 3884.20 and 2544.70 (10�4 m3/kg VS) respectively and the gas composition was 68 ± 2% Methane and 20 ± 2% Carbon dioxide for sample A while it was 62 ± 3% Methane and 22 ± 2% Carbon dioxide for sample B. In all, there was a 38.06% increase in gas generation in ‘A’ over ‘B’. The coefficient of determination (R2) for the Response Surface Methodology (RSM) model (0.9009) was high suggesting high accuracy in the modeling and prediction. The worldwide usage of C. odorata is encouraged

Recycling of some selected building materials in the construction industry: Prospect and challenges

The importance of recycling cannot be overemphasized, it decongests items in environment which tends to constitutes pollution nuisance while providing opportunity for reuse of such items, also items recycling returns environment to the state of its naturalness. It is against this background that the study attempt at studying recycling of some selected building materials within the context of their benefits, conceptualization, and awareness about concept of recycling and waste generated. Random sampling technique was used to select the respondents sample and research location. Lagos State, Nigeria, was chosen as research location construction companies and landfills within the state and sample procedure would be as stated above. Seventy (70) Structured questionnaire was used to harvest opinion of people on the subject matter. Also, field research was conducted, field research entails taking data from existing landfills in sites of established waste collection organizations, that is, existing organizations that run recycling operation. Mean Item Score and simple percentage were used to process harvested data. In summary It was discovered that the response to the economic effect of recycling where the purchase of product made from recycled material ranked 1st with a 0.862 index, the next was the participation in recycling for the creation of jobs which ranked 2nd with an index of 0.837, next was their opinion on the construction industries benefits from the recycling industry which ranked 3rd with an index of 0.81 and Participation in recycling for financial reward which was ranked 4th with an index of 0.735. Also discovered was the quantity of materials wasted on the various sites and even though the quantity was low in most of the cases, it still reiterated the need for recycling of construction and renovation waste. From the above stated finding it is important to state that the study was extremely important as it provides information on the method of recycling all the wasted materials instead of carting them away to landfills. Approach to recycling of waste has been presented in this study, it is a believe that this could serve as an awareness about concept of recycling household and environmental wast

Mesophilic anaerobic co-digestion of poultry dropping and Carica papaya peels: Modelling and process parameter optimization study

The study evaluated anaerobic co-digestion of poultry dropping and pawpaw peels and the optimization of important process parameters. The physic-chemical analyses of the substrates were done using standard methods after application of mechanical, thermal and chemical pre-treatments methods. Gas chromatography analysis revealed the gas composition to be within the range of 66–68% methane and 18– 23% carbon dioxide. The study equally revealed that combination of the different pre-treatment methods enhanced enormous biogas yield from the digestion. Optimization of the generated biogas data were carried out using the Response Surface Methodology and the Artificial Neural Networks. The coefficient of determination (R2) for RSM (0.9181) was lower compare to that of ANN (0.9828). This shows that ANN model gives higher accuracy than RSM model for the current. Further usage of Carica papaya peels for biogas generation is advocated

Repositioning Technical Education a Panacea to Solving Globalization Challenges in Construction Sector

Globalization has created a wind of change that has eroded landscapes of economy of nations of the world. Globalization era has led to emergence of new engineering ideology, concepts, tools, machines as well as systems and procedure. In some places, private economy drive has been left to private sector while government provides policy and ideology formulation interphase. Technical education is one of the areas affected by this phenomenon and in turn, the construction sector, thus the need for its repositioning towards quality delivery. Technology education is at the forefront of providing landscape training towards individuals being produced by the sector having thorough understanding of their place in contributing to the economic growth of construction sector. Thus, technical education need to be repositioned further to enable more relevance of its products to their environment. Therefore, the study considered repositioning technical education towards solving globalization challenges in building sector. In order to achieve this, sampling technique was used in this study, 120 structured questionnaire, designed in Likert scale form, on scale 1 to 5, was used for the study. It was discovered that repositioning the technical education in developing economy like Nigeria would involve taking the following position; overviewing of the current curriculum, running technical-based education, introducing cutting edge equipment and tools, technology transfer, technical symbiotic relations among economic drivers, adjustment of government policy, training and retraining issue, preventing discriminatory tendencies between technical based vocations and non-technical based jobs, emphasizing technical competence and partnership between education institutions and industry. The study concluded by recommending the following as a solution: infrastructure, research, adequate funding, technology incubation center and training/retraining for the practitioner