Factors affecting intention to adopt Green Building Practices: A Journey towards meeting Sustainable Goals

Abstract Purpose The construction industry and its activities harmfully affect the environment. Hence, adopting green building (GRB) practices can be helpful in achieving sustainable development goals. Therefore, this study aims to identify the factors affecting the intention to adopt GRB practices by extending theory of planned behavior (TPB). Design/methodology/approach Using non-probability purposive sampling technique, data was gathered from consultant and contractor engineers in the construction industry through a questionnaire. The analysis was done using partial least square-structural equation modeling technique on a useful sample of 290. Findings Findings revealed that the core constructs of TPB [i.e. attitude (AT), subjective norms (SUBN) and perceived behavioral control (PBC)] significantly affect the intention to adopt GRB practices. Moreover, government support and knowledge of green practices (KNGP) were found to be critical influencing factors on AT, SUBNs and PBC. Lastly, the findings confirmed that environmental concerns (ENC) play as a moderating between SUBN and intention to adopt GRB practices, as well as AT and intention to adopt GRB practices. Practical implications This study contributes to existing knowledge on GRB, offering evidence base for policy choices regarding climate change adaptation and mitigation in the construction industry. Originality/value This study provides insights from the perspective of a developing economy and confirms the applicability of TPB in the adoption of GRB practices. Moreover, this study confirms the moderation role of ENC in between TPB constructs and intention to GRB that is not tested earlier in the context of GRB. This study also confirms that government sustainable support positively affects PBC, and KNGP significantly affects SUBNs

An investigation of a deep learning based malware detection system

We investigate a Deep Learning based system for malware detection. In the investigation, we experiment with different combination of Deep Learning architectures including Auto-Encoders, and Deep Neural Networks with varying layers over Malicia malware dataset on which earlier studies have obtained an accuracy of (98%) with an acceptable False Positive Rates (1.07%). But these results were done using extensive man-made custom domain features and investing corresponding feature engineering and design efforts. In our proposed approach, besides improving the previous best results (99.21% accuracy and a False Positive Rate of 0.19%) indicates that Deep Learning based systems could deliver an effective defense against malware. Since it is good in automatically extracting higher conceptual features from the data, Deep Learning based systems could provide an effective, general and scalable mechanism for detection of existing and unknown malware.Comment: 13 Pages, 4 figure

Examining the Impact of Job Security, Organizational Climate and Engagement on Motivation Level of Employees at IMC PVT LTD

The aim of this paper is to find out the relationship of Motivation with organization climate, engagement, and job security in a service organization, where the company is going through rightsizing. Moreover the company is also utilizing temp staff. This study finds out as to how employees working in the organization perceive it and how much they feel connected to it. Is there any variation on their Motivation regarding job security keeping in view the economic crises in the Country

Study of Solitons on submanifolds of Kenmotsu statistical manifolds

The differential geometry of Kenmotsu manifold is a valuable part of contact geometry with nice applications in other fields such as theoretical physics. Theoretical physicists have also been looking into the equation of Ricci soliton and Yamabe soliton in relation with Einstein manifolds, Quasi Einstein manifolds and string theory. In this research servey, we examine the Ricci solitons and Yamabe soliton on statistical counterpart of a Kenmotsu manifold, that is, Kenmotsu statistical manifold with some related examples. We investigate some statistical curvature properties of Kenmotsu statistical manifolds. Also, we study the almost $\eta$-Ricci solitons on submanifolds of Kenmotsu statistical manifold with concircular vector field. Furthermore, we have also discuss the behavior of almost quasi-Yamabe soliton on subamnifolds of Kenmotsu statistical manifolds endowed with concircular vector field and concurrent vector filed. Finally, we have furnish an example of $5$-dimensional Kenmotsu statistical manifolds admitting the $\eta$-Ricci soliton and almost quasi-Yamabe soliton as well.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1902.0929

Subharmonic and Endoscopic Contrast Imaging of Pancreatic Masses: A Pilot Study.

OBJECTIVES: To use subharmonic imaging (SHI) to depict the vascularity of pancreatic masses compared to contrast-enhanced endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) and pathologic results. METHODS: Sixteen patients scheduled for biopsy of a pancreatic mass were enrolled in an Institutional Review Board-approved study. Pulse-inversion SHI (transmitting/receiving at 2.5/1.25 MHz) was performed on a LOGIQ 9 system (GE Healthcare, Milwaukee, WI) with a 4C transducer, whereas contrast harmonic EUS (transmitting/receiving at 4.7/9.4 MHz) was performed with a radial endoscope (GF-UTC180; Olympus Corporation, Tokyo, Japan) connected to a ProSound SSD α-10 scanner (Hitachi Aloka, Tokyo, Japan). Two injections of the contrast agent Definity (Lantheus Medical Imaging, North Billerica, MA) were administrated (0.3-0.4 and 0.6-0.8 mL for EUS and SHI, respectively). Contrast-to-tissue ratios (CTRs) in the mass and an adjacent vessel were calculated. Four physicians independently scored the images (benign to malignant) for diagnostic accuracy and inter-reader agreement. RESULTS: One patient dropped out before imaging, leaving 11 adenocarcinomas, 1 gastrointestinal stromal tumor with pancreatic infiltration, and 3 benign masses. Marked subharmonic signals were obtained in all patients, with intratumoral blood flow clearly visualized with SHI. Significantly greater CTRs were obtained in the masses with SHI than with EUS (mean ± SD, 1.71 ± 1.63 versus 0.63 ± 0.89; P = .016). There were no differences in the CTR in the surrounding vessels or when grouped by pathologic results (P \u3e .60). The accuracies for contrast EUS and SHI were low (\u3c53%), albeit with a greater κ value for SHI (0.34) than for EUS (0.13). CONCLUSIONS: Diagnostic accuracy of contrast EUS and transabdominal SHI for assessment of pancreatic masses was quite low in this pilot study. However, SHI had improved tumoral CTRs relative to contrast EUS

A Wormhole Attack Detection and Prevention Technique in Wireless Sensor Networks

Security is one of the major and important issues surrounding network sensors because of its inherent liabilities, i.e. physical size. Since network sensors have no routers, all nodes involved in the network must share the same routing protocol to assist each other for the transmission of packets. Also, its unguided nature in dynamic topology makes it vulnerable to all kinds of security attack, thereby posing a degree of security challenges. Wormhole is a prominent example of attacks that poses the greatest threat because of its difficulty in detecting and preventing. In this paper, we proposed a wormhole attach detection and prevention mechanism incorporated AODV routing protocol, using neighbour discovery and path verification mechanism. As compared to some preexisting methods, the proposed approach is effective and promising based on applied performance metrics

Demonstration of a cavity-enhanced optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification system

Cataloged from PDF version of article.The use of a low finesse enhancement cavity resonant with a low average power (< 1W) and a high repetition rate (78MHz) pump source is shown to achieve 55% conversion efficiency into signal and idler from the coupled pump in an optical parametric process, whereas an equivalent amount of pump power in a single-pass configuration leads to negligible conversion. Careful comparison of the intracavity conversion process to the single-pass case is performed to assess the underlying impedance matching that yields the high conversion results. (C) 2011 Optical Society of Americ

Integrated Process Targeting And Product Uniformity Model For Three-Class Screening

In this paper a process targeting model for three class screening problem is developed. The model developed, extends the work in the literature by incorporating product uniformity. The product uniformity is introduced via a Taguchi type quadratic loss function. Two cases for the process Targeting are considered. In addition, an illustrative example is presented. Sensitivity analysis is also conducted to study the effect of model parameters on expected profit and optimal process mean