Structural Behaviour of Prestressed Concrete Hollow Beams

This thesis is concerned with the primary objective of studying the structural behaviour of prestressed concrete hollow beams. Ten simply supported rectangular hollow beams and one rectangular solid beam were tested on an effective span of 2.80m subjected to two third point loadings. The variables in the study were the percentage of self weight reduced and the amount of prestressing wires. Eight beams were tested unbonded while the other two beams were fully bonded.Ultimate loads, cracking loads, crack widths and deflections were recorded at various loadings and crack propagations were observed. The results obtained were compared with theoretical values. It was observed that due to the absence of material in the hollow portion, compared to a solid beam with similar outside dimensions, the ultimate moment carrying capacity of prestressed hollow beam is reduced if neutral axis of the beam at failure is located below the top flange. However, if the neutral axis of the beams at failure is located within the top flange, then the ultimate moment carrying capacity is at least equivalent to that of a solid beam. It was also observed that the theory on the ultimate moment carrying capacity presented in this thesis gives a fairly good prediction. However, the theory used to predict cracking load as well as deflection was found not suitable for unbonded beams as it greatly underestimates the deflection and overestimates the cracking load. It was also observed that bonding has a great influence on crack widths and deflections. Bonded beams show more uniform crack distribution with reduced maximum crack width and increased ultimate load capacity. From test results, it is recommended that prestressed hollow beams should be made bonded in order to achieve at least the predicted cracking load

Can auditory icons induce food intake mimicry?

This research hypothesized that auditory icons that represent eating can be used to induce mimicry in food intake behavior.Numerous studies show that, when two people are eating together, they mimic each other’s eating behavior.To test this hypothesis, participants were asked to eat diced apples.While eating, they can hear auditory icons that represent other people’s eating sound.In reality, the auditory icons used were a sound loop.Their food intake was monitored. If eating occurred within 5 seconds after the participants heard the auditory icons, they were considered to mimic the sound.It was found that, auditory icons that represent eating cause food intake mimicry in human.In the future, results gained from this research may be applied in the design and development of persuasive technology to persuade people to eat slowly since it is beneficial to health

Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) management systems: towards development of safety and health culture

The unsatisfactory OSH record of the construction industry has always been highlighted. It is because the OSH management system is a neglected area and a function that has not been pursued systematically in the construction industry. Safety is an important issue, but many employers do not feel it is vital to the success of companies. For a long time, the construction industry has been labeled as with poor OSH culture and performance. But a mature construction company is still able to perform well in safety area. This type of company usually set their OSH goals for the continuous improvement in overall. Understanding the concept of the OSH management system will help us to understand the application of OSH management system in Malaysia and legislation needs to follow by industry. The rules and legislation are always protecting the worker safety and ensuring healthy workplaces. The main purpose of the rules and legislation is to prevent accidents, ill health and injury at workplaces. This paper will discuss theoritical review on OSH management in construction industry towards development of safety culture

Effective Criteria for Seismic Rehabilitation Planning of Road Transportation Infrastructures

While seismic rehabilitation process for road infrastructures has been traditionally based on seismic factors, consideration of non-seismic factors is necessary for reliable project ranking. Non-seismic factors include socioeconomic criteria, determining the value of a project to its users’ community. Based on the information obtained from a questionnaire survey and literature review, this paper identifies a set of effective rehabilitation criteria (ERC) for seismic rehabilitation decision-making to develop a priority index that is applied to determine the rehabilitation priority. The identified RC will then be weighted for four types of road structures including bridges, tunnels, retaining walls, and buildings. The results can be generalized to provide valuable insights for policy makers concerned with transportation infrastructure planning, especially in developing countries where project prioritization is often an issue. To underline the value of the study, the weighted RC are applied in ranking road rehabilitation projects in an illustrative example

History of Islamic political movements in Turkey

This article investigates the history of Islamic political movements in Turkey. The time period of the article cover the time after the establishment of the Republic of Turkey in 1923 to the year 2000. It is argued in the article that Islamic movements were largely suppressed in the period between 1923-1945 when the country was ruled with a single party regime led by the Republican Peoples Party. With the introduction of multi-party political system in 1945, political Islam found the opportunity for political activism in the body of Democrat Party. But the political Islam found a more organized opportunity with the establishment of National Order Party in 1970 and National Salvation Party in 1971 by Necmettin Erbakan. Based on a programme of National View, the Turkish political Islam was known for its aim to support material development with a parallel moral and spiritual development with a reaction to the west in interstate relations. Turkish political Islam expressed itself with Welfare Party in 1983 to function until 1998 with some clear changes in its programme particularly in its agreement with contemporary political institutions and later support for Turkey’s integration with the west. Turkish political Islam experienced its first great electoral success during the WP period. However, the WP is closed down in 1998 by the Constitutional Court due to allegations about anti-secularism and driven to a process of breakdown. © 2015, Canadian Center of Science and Education. All rights reserved

Comparing information technology adoption between developing and developed countries

Information technology adoption is critically important because it is a fundamental element of successful project management. Although some studies have been carried out to investigate the use of information technology in the construction industry, there is no comprehensive literature to compare the information technology adoption among different countries. This research aims at investigating the current extent of information technology use between developing and developed countries. To achieve this aim, a questionnaire was sent to 800 construction professionals from 20 countries. From those, 151 completed and reliable responses were selected to be analyzed. The result of the research reveals that there is no significant difference between developing and developed countries in information technology adoption; however, developed countries are more advanced in information technology use compared to developing countries. The results of this study are useful to provide directions in research, training, and development of strategies that will respond to the needs of the construction industry in the area of information technology selection

Preliminary findings of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) application by the G7 contractors in the Malaysian construction industry

The research described in this paper investigates the application of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) by the Malaysian CIDB G7 registered construction contractors. The objective of the research is to analyse the application of ADR in the Malaysian construction industry in term of quantity, trend and obstacles. This research adopted quantitative methodology based on cross sectional survey instrument to 1000 contractors from the available sampling frame consists of 2,834 building and civil engineering contractors nationwide and the response rate was 231 (23%) which is acceptable rate for social science research. The data collected has been analysed using descriptive analysis and nonparametric statistics using SPSS 15. It was found that currently ADR is not very applicable in the Malaysian construction industry. At the same time the application of ADR is not strongly influenced by the years of establishment of the construction organisations, experience and designation of respondents, value of contract price and project duration. Overall, the level of application of ADR by the G7 construction contractors are generally low due to the characteristics, perceptions and understanding on the overall process of dispute resolution. These preliminary research findings will form a basis for the establishment of a construction ADR framework for practical utilisation in the Malaysian construction industry

Identifying causes of construction waste - case of central region of Peninsular Malaysia

Construction waste becomes a global issue facing by practitioners and researchers around the world. Waste can affects success of construction project significantly. More specifically, it has major impact on construction cost, construction time, productivity and sustainability aspects. This paper aims to identify various factors causing construction waste in Malaysia. Study was carried out through structured questionnaire focusing three major parties (i.e. clients, consultants and contractors) involved in construction project. Data was analyzed with Statistical Software Package SPSS. Reliability of data was found as 0.917 which showed that data collected was highly reliable. The calculation of Mean Rank of the construction waste causes found that the 5 key causes are Poor site management and supervision, Lack of experience, inadequate planning and scheduling, Mistakes and errors in design and finally Mistakes during construction. Spearman correlation analysis showed that Mistakes during construction was highly correlated with Rework (with 0.829 correlation value) and Slow information flow between parties (with a value of 0.60) and vice versa. Through identifying the causes and its correlation of the construction waste it gives better understanding to the construction community for future construction projects which benefit not only in term of economy but also the environment

Young Corn Ear Addition Improves Some Nutrients and Lowering Glycemic Index of Chiffon Cake

The effects of partial replacement of wheat flour with young corn ear (YCE) on sensory properties and glycemic index (GI) of chiffon cake were investigated. Dried YCE was processed into powdered form and added in chiffon cake formulations to replace wheat flour partially at concentrations of 0 (control), 10%, 20% and 30%. Protein, ash and dietary fibre contents of chiffon cake added with YCE powder were increased in line with the levels of YCE used. Even though protein content of YCE-based cakes increased in line (13.3% to 15.7%) with the levels of YCE (10% to 30%), but there was no significant difference compared to control. Sensory evaluation results indicate that partial replacement of wheat flour with up to 10% is satisfactory as compared to other levels of wheat flour replacement. Interestingly, addition of YCE at 10% to partially replace wheat flour resulted in reduction of postprandial blood glucose response. The GI value for chiffon cake added with YCE was 49 lower than control cake which recorded GI value at 60. In conclusion, novel food ingredient of YCE can be incorporated in selected bakery products to enhance nutritional composition while at the same time help in reducing the GI value. Further investigation on the addition of YCE into other bakery products in relation to nutrition and glycemic response effects can also be explored