The effect of brisk walking exercise on immune function, intestinal fatty acid binding protein, fatigue and severity scores in patients with irritable bowel syndrome : a randomised controlled trial

Background: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is the most prevalent functional gastrointestinal disorder, which is challenging to treat as no specific treatment are available. It has been shown that fatigability increases in physically active IBS patients; it is associated with the pro-inflammatory process, which takes place in the muscles. Physical activity has proven to increase the anti-inflammatory process and maybe a potential in IBS treatment. Method: This is a randomized controlled intervention study, involving IBS subjects of more than 18 years old and less than 70 years old whom meet the ROME III criteria were recruited between June 2019 till August 2019 from Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kubang Kerian, Kelantan. Subjects subsequently assigned into two groups, control and exercise groups where the exercise group underwent moderate intensity exercises for four weeks. Measurements were taken twice, which is before and after the completion of the four-week intervention period. Results: A total of 44 participants were analyzed. There was a significant difference between two randomization factors in IL-6 between exercise group compared with control group among IBS patients (P < 0.001; 95% CI 14.70 – 27.80). There was no significant difference observed among two groups for TNF-α (P = 0.274; 95% CI - 20.57 – 70.61) as well as intestinal cell damage markers (iFABP) (P = 0.288; 95% CI -71.04 – 21.65). In the IBS-SSS comparison, there was no significant difference noted between two randomization factors (P=0.157; 95% CI -6.09 – 36.37). Similarly, no Background: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is the most prevalent functional gastrointestinal disorder, which is challenging to treat as no specific treatment are available. It has been shown that fatigability increases in physically active IBS patients; it is associated with the pro-inflammatory process, which takes place in the muscles. Physical activity has proven to increase the anti-inflammatory process and maybe a potential in IBS treatment. Method: This is a randomized controlled intervention study, involving IBS subjects of more than 18 years old and less than 70 years old whom meet the ROME III criteria were recruited between June 2019 till August 2019 from Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kubang Kerian, Kelantan. Subjects subsequently assigned into two groups, control and exercise groups where the exercise group underwent moderate intensity exercises for four weeks. Measurements were taken twice, which is before and after the completion of the four-week intervention period. Results: A total of 44 participants were analyzed. There was a significant difference between two randomization factors in IL-6 between exercise group compared with control group among IBS patients (P < 0.001; 95% CI 14.70 – 27.80). There was no significant difference observed among two groups for TNF-α (P = 0.274; 95% CI - 20.57 – 70.61) as well as intestinal cell damage markers (iFABP) (P = 0.288; 95% CI -71.04 – 21.65). In the IBS-SSS comparison, there was no significant difference noted between two randomization factors (P=0.157; 95% CI -6.09 – 36.37). Similarly, no significant difference was found with regards to fatiguability using MFSI-SF score among two groups (P=0.212; 95% CI -1.46 – 6.41). Conclusion: Inflammatory markers such as IL-6, TNF-α, and iFABP have some role in determining cellular inflammation and injury. Still, there is a lack of accuracy in terms of the evidence showing that physical activity has some role in reducing these inflammatory markers. No significant difference was demonstrated in fatigability between the exercise and control groups among IBS patients

Assessing BIM Adoption towards Reliability in QS Cost Estimates

BIM technology has been evolving around the world in recent years. As in Malaysia, the country has initiated BIM in its current Construction Industry Transformation Programme (CITP) 2016-2020. One of the CITP agenda is to encourage BIM usage to assist the construction players in improving their current practices towards better productivity, hence better sustainability within the construction industry. In quantity surveying field, the technology potentially helps the Quantity Surveyors to accelerate the process of taking-off building quantities, subsequently establishing more reliable and sustainable cost estimates. Although BIM is claimed to upgrade the conventional methods of the measurement tasks, there are still some limitations of BIM innovation, with previous studies lacking explanation in identifying those issues. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the effectiveness of using BIM to aid Malaysian Quantity Surveyors primarily in cost estimating towards composing sustainability elements in the construction industry. To achieve this, a series of focus group discussions were conducted amongst BIM and non-BIM users. Through content analysis, it resulted that the capabilities of estimators in occupying BIM is critical to accomplish the sustainable benefits of the technology. It engages skills in both technology usage and traditional methods of measurement to achieve holistic knowledge of building construction. Thus, it enhances the performance of the estimators to likely generate reliability and sustainability in their cost estimates. This study contributes towards better understanding of cost estimating incorporating BIM and sustainability settings in quantity surveying practice

Relative importance index of sustainable design and construction activities criteria for green highway

Highway development and redevelopment inherently contributes to environmental impacts such as stimulation of urban sprawl, loss of open space, and noise and air pollution. Improvement to sustainable highway development is needed, as it will lead to green highway, minimal usage of fuel and greenhouse gas reduction. It is also necessary to have an indicator to reduce greenhouse gases during highway construction. The ideology of 'green' itself shows the connotation towards environment whenever the communities worldwide are concerned. The aim of this paper is to determine the relative importance index analysis in order to rank the criteria to their relative importance. Relative importance index analysis allows identifying most of the important criteria based on participants' replies and it is also an appropriate tool to prioritise indicators rated on Likert-type scales. 22 concessionaires with 140 respondents had been chosen to complete the questionnaires. The data had been analysed through formula of relative index analysis method from previous related studies. The finding showed that site maintenance was ranked first (RII = 0.836), warranty clause is provided in the contract specifications to incorporate construction quality was ranked second (RII = 0.830) and construction personnel training was ranked third (RII = 0.826). It was revealed that the site management which is responsible by the contractors and authorities is the most important factor towards promoting the concept of sustainable development and achieving green highway in Malaysia

Barriers Impeding the Adoption of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Construction Project Management

In today's world, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) adoption is one of the most critical factors influencing project stakeholders' ability to effectively coordinate and collaborate construction activities. The construction industry and its stakeholders are often confronted with a large volume of data and serious communication. Unlike other sectors, the building industry's use of ICT has not been extensively studied. Consequently, it adds to a range of obstacles to completely using ICT. As a result, the study aimed to investigate the barriers of ICT in managing construction project. The objectives for this study were to identify the current state of ICT use in the construction industry and to investigate the barriers to ICT use in construction project management. The data for this analysis was gathered using both secondary and primary data collection methods. Secondary data was gathered using a literature review of previous studies and documents on ICT for construction project management. The study used a quantitative research design that included a questionnaire survey. To explain the respondents, a non-probability sampling approach was used. A total of 40 people responded to the questionnaire survey, which included members of different project teams. Statistical Program for Social Sciences applications was used to complete the data analysis (IBM SPSS). The results were produced using critical and descriptive analysis. Computers and email were found to be among the most widely used ICT methods for managing construction projects, according to the findings. One barrier to ICT implementation in construction project management was resistance to reform and the high cost of ICT adoption. Resistance to change and the high cost of ICT adoption were among the challenges to ICT implementation in construction project management

Sustainable design and construction elements in green highway

Sustainable development principles have been implemented in various sectors including construction. Proper development and operation of infrastructure projects such highways can contribute significantly to the mission of sustainable development. Previous studies shown that most of conventional highways are unsustainable in many ways. Highways are facing severe challenge such as deteriorating condition, congestion, energy supply, and shortfall of funding for maintenance and capacity expansion to meet increasing demand. However at the same time, they consume huge amount of natural minerals and energy and generate waste and emission which contributing to climate changes and global warming. Therefore, sustainable design, construction, operation and maintenance have become priority these day. The aim of this paper is to determine critical elements for sustainable design and construction based on ranking of the priority level of the weighted value of each criteria. The questionnaires survey were developed and distributed to related respondents in order to obtain the agreement level for the element. The data was analysed using SPSS with factor analysis method. Result from the analysis shown the criteria, weightage and score for main criteria for sustainable design and construction activities for green highway

Multi-criteria decision analysis for evaluating sustainable lifts design of public hospital buildings

Sustainability is a big trend in today's building industry. For instance, energy use, resource efficiency, materials selection, safety, and life-cycle management are all important considerations in making the transition to greener buildings. In the past, lifts have been overlooked in green building planning yet including them is a useful way to improve overall building functionality and efficiency. Lifts use a relatively small amount of energy compared to the overall energy consumption of a building yet they provide both daily carrier service for user and so they should be included in sustainability planning. With so many building products being marketed with a sustainable angle, lifts also need to be included in this improvement. Building process has become complex due to the involvement of multiple benchmark like social, economic and environmental dimensions. A significant challenge for those involved in the building industry is identifying and incorporating sustainable features into each of the building stage. This in turn puts constrains to decision makers in selecting the finest decision in achieving sustainable goal for every aspect of building processes. This paper investigates the multi-criteria decision analysis for sustainable lifts design, namely; criteria selection, criteria weighting, evaluation and final aggregation. Decision analysis plays a vital role for designing the systems by considering various criteria. The criteria were grouped based on economic, environmental and social dimensions. Technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) methods were employed to rank the most important criteria that need to be considered in making the decision. A design team from hospital project specifically from mechanical and electrical department have been chosen for this study due to their expertise in planning and designing the mechanical aspects for a project. As a result, it shows the process of decision analysis and provides the direction for sustainable lifts criteria selection which has a significant effect on the design. The result shows the preference dimension for sustainable lift design is economic aspect including its criteria required as decision analysis output for planning and designing lifts systems for public hospital buildings

Key influencing factors for green public hospital building development in Malaysia

The green hospital movement began years ago, following by several countries release their green rating system for the hospital buildings. In the past few years, a few newly constructed private hospital buildings in Malaysia have strived for the green building index certification. Paucity studies demonstrate that public hospital buildings have established for certifying the index. Despite the recognition of the importance of green building in achieving sustainability goal and the existence of many studies on issues associated with green innovations adoption in general, few have specifically examined factors influencing the development of green public hospital building. As a result, with the intent to enhance green building promotion efforts, the primary objective of this study is to investigate the key factors influencing the development of green public hospital building. A review of literature has been conducted and a set of factors were identified. A questionnaire survey was carried out based on the literature review to solicit experts’ opinions. The experts were requested to evaluate the degree to which factor was an important in the implementation of green public hospital buildings. Feedbacks from 82 design experts were collected and analysed using descriptive analysis. The findings indicate that several factors were identified as key factors for the development of green public hospital buildings. The identified factors have incorporated with the accomplishment of environmental stewardship, social responsibility and economic prosperity

A Review on Green BIM Potentials in Enhancing the Construction Industry Practice

The construction industry environment nowadays is becoming more complex with more issues to be resolved with the agreeable approaches amongst the team. Nevertheless, the Building Information Modelling (BIM) innovation is acknowledged to disentangle those prevalent issues towards delivering a better project performance. With the emergence of BIM technology, various concerns such as constant errors and reworks, team-miscommunication, construction waste, energy inefficiencies, and many more in the industry practices, could be refined. Specifically, BIM capabilities mainly facilitate the design and construction operations. Albeit the processes involved demand an early planning and profound decision-making, the BIM mechanism helps the project team to execute the proposed construction projects effectively. With regards to maintaining the sustainability in the industry, “Green BIM” term is introduced to describe the manipulation of BIM technology to be incorporated along with the sustainable design and construction techniques. Therefore, this paper reviews the potentials of “Green BIM” in improving the traditional practices of project stakeholders throughout the project life cycle, particularly focusing on the design and construction phases. It discusses the previous studies on “Green BIM”, “Green BIM” concepts, and “Green BIM” approaches concerning its benefits and challenges in enhancing the construction industry practices. Significantly, through the appropriate “Green BIM” resolution, the procedures initiated with the green settings and completed with the green requirements, could empower more sustainable construction industr

An assessment tool of sustainable design and construction activities for green highway

The construction industry is one of the major contributors to the CO2 emission which cause environmental impacts on the earth‘s climate. Malaysian government is committed in reducing the CO2 by 40% in 2020 and 45% by 2030 as compared to the levels in 2005. Hence, there is a need to reduce the impact on the environment. Currently, there is no specific tool or standard of green highway assessment for the tropical region. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to develop an assessment tool for sustainable design and construction activities for highway development. Basically, the approach used in this study is to identify the significant criteria for sustainable design and construction activities and to determine the weightage and score for each criterion. The development of an assessment tool was based on the score for each criterion and the validation of an assessment tool was carried out by using the case studies. The significant criteria on established sustainable design and construction activities for green highway consist of construction management plan, noise mitigation control, equipment and machinery efficiency, quality management, context-sensitive design, erosion and sedimentation control, alignment selection, reused and recycled non-hazardous materials, recycled materials for subgrade improvement/soil stabilization and usage of local materials generated through survey and expert discussion. Questionnaires were developed and distributed to 140 respondents consisting of highways experts from concessionaires company, consultants, and engineers to obtain the agreement levels of listed criteria of sustainable design and construction activities for green highways. The weightage and score point were obtained on analyzed data using factor analysis from the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 20 software. The weightage of each criterion was used to rank the criteria based on the importance of the criteria at the design and construction activities stages. The results showed that there are seven main criteria of design and construction activities for green highway development. Construction management plan is the most important criteria for achieving green highway development in Malaysia and followed by noise mitigation, equipment and machinery, quality management, context sensitive design, erosion and sedimentation control and alignment selection. All the main criteria and sub criteria had been developed into an assessment tool as a scorecard. In conclusion, the development of scorecard as an assessment tool of sustainable design and construction activities had been validated and is essential for green highway in Malaysia

An evaluation of sustainable design and construction criteria for green highway

Sustainability has been widely debated in the construction industry in recent years. Though various assessments have previously been developed to help improving sustainability of construction projects, those assessments seem missed the base network for cities and buildings which are highways. Therefore, there is the need to select variety of design and construction activities criteria for green highway and determine the weightage factor for every criterion in order to categorize which criteria that most contribute to the green practices based on the priority. The aim of this paper is to explain the determination of weightage for criteria of design and construction activities. The methodology processes begin with data collection by using questionnaires distribution to the expertise who involve in highway development and also green issues. There were 140 respondents had been chosen to fill in the questionnaires survey. The data had been analysed using SPSS with factors analysis method. Results from the analysis show the evaluation of the criteria base on the important criteria in design and construction action of green highwa