BIM Enabled Sustainable Facility Management

The scope of facility management spans from traditional activities like repair & maintenance, health & safety, through to real estate management, financial management, change management, and even contract management, tender and procurement, construction, and demolition and disposal of the constructed facility. It therefore requires considering sustainability aspects of construction, which are better addressed through sustainable design strategies. A consolidated but holistic framework has been conceptualized to ensure sustainability in facility management, especially to practice in building and AEC (architecture, engineering and construction) sectors. Although testing and validation is needed, the conceptualized framework is expected to achieve sustainability in the relevant sectors

２分子型グループⅠリボザイムのモジュール工学によるRNA ナノ構造体の構築とその RNA 進化への応用

富山大学・富生命博甲第112号・MD. MOTIAR RAHMAN・2019/03/26富山大

Greening Existing Buildings in Brunei Darussalam

Building is the largest consumer of resources and the biggest polluter of the environment, including energy consumption and greenhouse gas emission. Greening existing buildings, an extension of green building concept to existing buildings, can potentially help to improve such issues. Greening process can considerably reduce energy consumption in buildings and thereby reduce the carbon dioxide emission. On the basis of a recent study on energy consumption in residential buildings in Brunei Darussalam, this paper demonstrates the potential savings in energy consumption and reduction of energy cost, if modern and energy-efficient electrical appliances are used in place of the existing conventional features/appliances. The results show that an average household can potentially reduce its yearly energy consumption by 32.74% and they can save annual energy cost of up to 52.20%. It is also seen that the appliances with higher energy consumption, like air conditioners and refrigerators, can offer higher savings of both energy consumption and energy cost, with relatively smaller extra initial replacement costs. A favourable awareness programme by appropriate authority is likely to motivate people to use such practices and help to reduce energy consumption and emission of greenhouse gases

Human Resource is being Trafficked by Luring in the World instead of Using as a Resource: An Empirical Study of Human Trafficking in Bangladesh

At present human resource is being trafficked by luring in the world instead of using as a resource. This heinous crime and social scar have become a global concern recently. The uneducated and innocent feeble people are illegally immigrated seeking a better future abroad but they are abused. Data have been collected from primary and secondary sources by questionnaire and interview method. The development of any country depends on the development of human resource. But today the traffickers consider human trafficking as a profitable industry. They target some illiterate workers and take them abroad by promising lucrative job as well as an attractive salary that dreams the workers standard life leading opportunity. But the workers are not given the promised job abroad. They are used as a slave, forced or bonded labor or commercial sexual exploitation. Even the workers often face isolation, sexual abuse, fear, rape that can be caused by death. But if this human resource is used properly instead of abuse, they will be a great resource for any country

Adopting Industry 4.0 in Construction Industry

Industries are often restrained to meet their aim in relation to productivity. This is due to the complexities and capabilities such as to cope with changing environment, for example technological developments and digitisation. Low productivity and ability for innovation are argued to be caused by the traditional nature of some industries. Hence, modern technology and/or concept like Industry 4.0 were developed for such industries to succeed in the modern world. This includes construction industry that demands for improvements to meet the clients’ needs such as faster production, increased quality and budget control. Thus, construction industry may benefit greatly by adapting to Industry 4.0 environment. This paper aims to address how construction industry and Industry 4.0 converge together, by focusing on the managerial efforts in construction industry: project management and strategic management. This paper is based on review of literature to examine the managerial efforts and relevant sets of critical success factors that have greater influence on construction industry, and establishing the importance of Industry 4.0 to construction industry. A framework has been conceptualised to show how construction industry links to Industry 4.0 by focusing on the managerial efforts. Future study in real life environment is required to support the components of the proposed framework, as well as to test and validate its application amongst practitioners

Field evaluation of drainable bases in Oklahoma (FHWA-OK-96-04) 2181

The Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT) Research and Development Division (R&D) installed field data acquisition systems in 1992 on five test pavement sections with a view to evaluate the performance of the drainable base and edge drain systems in Oklahoma. Rainfall, outflow and other data have been collected continuously since that time. The University of Oklahoma (OU), in association with ODOT, analyzed the field data, developed appropriate computer programs (written in SAS 6.08 language) to analyze the data, developed a simple, quick and efficient field test scheme to evaluate the drainage efficiency of the existing pavement sections, and conducted a number of field tests for this purpose. This report presents the results of these studies. The useful data, containing rainfall values and the corresponding outflow values reflecting the drainage characteristics of the pavement drainage system. were identified and grouped into a number of"events." The events were studied to establish any relationship between outflow and rainfall magnitudes, flow rates, time required to initiate flow in different types of pavements, and time required for drainage. This information was combined to determine the drainage efficiency of the corresponding drainable base and edge drain system . Finally, the time for 50% drainage was computed and compared with the AASHTO guidelines to determ ine the drainage quality of the pavements under investigation. This report presents the steps involved in grouping, analyzing and interpreting the field data, and explains the findings with appropriate textual and graphical illustrations. A field test procedure was developed to facilitate a quick examination of the quality of a pavement drainage system . The procedure for this field test, results of the field tests performed, and a comparison with regular rainfall and outflow data are also presented in this report.Final Report October 1991-September 1995N

Green Roof Retrofit: A Case Study

Retrofitting green roofs on existing buildings efficiently reduces building energy consumption, and variation of indoor temperature. Despite such clear benefits, green roof is not widely practiced, probably due to a number of reasons. Different types of green roofs vary from as simple and thin as 5-cm thick grass covering to as complex as a fully designed park with trees, with weight varying from 15 kg/m2 to over 350 kg/m2, and significantly different installation cost. Moreover, the load capacity may be the predominant constraint, and a structural survey may be required to allow the retrofit. In other words, a thorough investigation is needed to examine roof load capacity, identify green roof type, and determine the cost involvement. Therefore, this paper demonstrates a step-wise decision-making process for a green roof retrofit/construction project, through a case study, in terms of accessibility to roof, structural capacity, type of green roof, ease of construction and maintenance and cost involvement, to suit the prevailing conditions of existing building. Within the allowable load capacity and availability in the local market, the study revealed that semi-intensive type of green roof is the cheapest, with installation cost of Brunei $208/m2 and monthly maintenance cost of Brunei$1/m2, compared to ‘modular extensive’ and ‘intensive’ types. The outcomes ae expected to allow policy makers to devise suitable program in Brunei for undertaking green roof retrofit projects to improve energy performances of existing buildings. Although the outcomes cannot be generalized elsewhere, the methodology developed can be applied for investigating specific cases under certain condition and targeting suitable solutions

Natural Products for Neurodegeneration: Regulating Neurotrophic Signals

Neurodegenerative disorders (NDs) are heterogeneous groups of ailments typically characterized by progressive damage of the nervous system. Several drugs are used to treat NDs but they have only symptomatic benefits with various side effects. Numerous researches have been performed to prove the advantages of phytochemicals for the treatment of NDs. Furthermore, phytochemicals such as polyphenols might play a pivotal role in rescue from neurodegeneration due to their various effects as anti-inflammatory, antioxidative, and antiamyloidogenic agents by controlling apoptotic factors, neurotrophic factors (NTFs), free radical scavenging system, and mitochondrial stress. On the other hand, neurotrophins (NTs) including nerve growth factor (NGF), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), NT4/5, and NT3 might have a crucial neuroprotective role, and their diminution triggers the development of the NDs. Polyphenols can interfere directly with intracellular signaling molecules to alter brain activity. Several natural products also improve the biosynthesis of endogenous genes encoding antiapoptotic Bcl-2 as well as NTFs such as glial cell and brain-derived NTFs. Various epidemiological studies have demonstrated that the initiation of these genes could play an essential role in the neuroprotective function of dietary compounds. Hence, targeting NTs might represent a promising approach for the management of NDs. In this review, we focus on the natural product-mediated neurotrophic signal-modulating cascades, which are involved in the neuroprotective effectsThis work was funded by the Deanship of Scientific Research at Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University through the Fast-track Research Funding ProgramS

Revitalising construction project procurement through joint risk management

published_or_final_versionCivil EngineeringDoctoralDoctor of Philosoph