Examining Costs and Project Variable Relationships in Determining Project Success Factors in Ghanaian Construction
In developing countries, 60% of project management professionals appear to lack knowledge that timely completion, budget fidelity, and high quality are critical success factors for completion of construction initiatives. The purpose of this correlational study was to examine the relationship between project budget and the independent variables of safety, environmental impact, and site disputes in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana, using the underpinning of the theories of accident causation, scientific management, and strategic management. One hundred and sixteen project managers, randomly selected from the population of construction professionals in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana, completed the survey entitled the Six Key Performance Indicators developed by Ngacho and Das (2014). The application of multiple linear regression for the analysis of data, indicated a weak positive correlation between the independent variables (safety, environmental impact, and site disputes) and project budget, F(1, 114) = 37.08, p < 0.001. Site dispute recorded the highest beta (? = .29) followed by environment (? = .22), quality (? = .06), and safety (? = .04). Attention to key performance indicators associated with dispute and environmental impact could improve project outcomes in the Ghanaian construction sector. The study findings could be useful to improve the quality of projects and may benefit the lives of professionals and community members in the area.
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Experimental (FT-IR, FT-Raman, NMR) and computational (NLO, FMO, MEPS) investigation of methyl 2, 4-dihydroxy-6-methyl benzoate
Extensive quantum chemical calculations of energy, geometrical structure, harmonic vibrational frequencies and the construction of theoretical spectrograms of IR and Raman spectra of the molecule, methyl 2,4-dihydroxy-6-methyl benzoate(methyl orsellinate) have been carried out by Hartree-Fock (HF) and Density Functional Theory (DFT/B3LYP) method with 6311++G(d, p) basis set. The assignments of normal modes of the vibration of the title molecule along with the observed frequencies (FT-IR and FT-R) and scaled frequencies have been obtained by HF/DFT computation. The simulated NMR spectra are obtained by (GIAO) gauge independent atomic orbital method and their chemical shifts are compared with the experimental 13C NMR and 1H NMR spectra. Molecular geometric parameters, dipole moment, mullikan charge, thermodynamic properties, FMO analysis and NLO properties have also been computed and discussed in a detailed manner.The electrostatic potential surface and the mullikan charge analysis indicates that the oxygen atoms of the molecule act as reactive centers for nucleophilic attack .The temperature dependence of the thermodynamic properties such as entropy (S), enthalpy (H) and heat capacity (Cp) from 50K to 700K were also determined.
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Experimental Study of Slot Jet Flow on Flat and Curved Surfaces
In the present work experimental setup is planned, designed and fabricated for the study on jet impingement heat transfer on flat and curved surfaces of radius of curvature 0.5, 0.725, 1.3. Experiment was conducted for the varying Reynolds number of 3500, 5500 and 9000. The heat transfer characteristics of a slot jet obtained from nozzle designed is impinged on concave and flat surfaces with constant heat flux have been analyzed experimentally. The effects of surface curvature R/L, the dimensionless nozzle to surface distance and Reynolds number on average Nusselt number of plate is obtained. It is found that Reynolds number has greater influence on heat transfer from the plates as the H/W ratio varies. The findings of the present study can be utilized to investigate the curvature of the blade for which heat transfer is more and to optimize the cooling rates in the surfaces for the better design of the gas turbine blades.
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Financial development and economic growth nexus: ARDL and VECM Analysis
This study examines the short and long run causal relationship between financial sector development and economic growth in Nigeria using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach to cointegration analysis, Vector Error Correction Model (VECM), on yearly data over the period 1981 to 2017. Two factors from Cobb Douglas production function (labor and capital), and oil prices are used including an index of financial intermediary development constructed from six indicators of financial intermediary development using principal component analysis. The results show that financial sector development index; both capital market and banking sector development are insignificant in influencing economic growth in Nigeria. In general, the results highlight the weakness of the Nigerian financial sector in stimulating economic growth through resource mobilisation and allocation and presents oil sector as the dominant factor driving economic activities in Nigeria. The study recommends the need to establish financial institutions that would strengthen and resolve the institutional and structural problems in the economy and create structures that would sustain other causal factors that mediates growth and financial intermediation where appropriate.
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Fingero-Imbibition Phenomenon in Double Phase Flow through Homogeneous Porous Media with Magnetic Field Effect
In this article, the phenomenon of fingero-imbibition in a particular displacement method concerning two immiscible fluids through a dipping homogeneous porous media with a magnetic field effect has been discussed analytically under certain conditions. This phenomenon provides a nonlinear partial differential equation as a governing equation, which can be solved by Homotopy Perturbation Sumudu transform method (HPSTM). The numerical and graphical results are discussed using MATLAB.
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Food security in Punjab: the case of Pakistan
Prime Minister Aziz has approved the export of an additional 500,000 tons of wheat this year in the hope of making inroads into the lucrative Indian market. The export will be undertaken by the private sector by sea and by railways. A bumper harvest of 23 million tons is expected this 2006-07 crop year. Last year, the country also had a bumper crop of 21.7 million tons of wheat. The surplus harvest of wheat, however, does not guarantee food security in the country. The traders mafia (that includes ministers, influential parliamentarians and the private traders plus few industrialists) in our country is very strong and the common consumer suffers the net impact of such malpractices. Government takes decisions in the name of consumers but in actual effect, these are the traders who benefit from exports/ imports and not the consumers. The profiteering tendency of the global food producers and distributors even at the cost of people’s survival is bound to create social and political upheavals. This is a harsh reality which the business people and policy makers have chosen to ignore so far. Food insecurity amidst plenty is the name of the game in food politics. Despite the fact that global economy is a food surplus economy, 852 million people (17 % of the world population) go hungry every day in the world because they do not have access to food. The chronic hunger kills more people every day than disasters, disease or war. But, all this is when there is enough food to feed the entire population of the world twice. Women in rural areas go hungry the most despite doing the bulk of the work to grow food and feed their families. Women produce up to 80 per cent of the food in developing countries, but they own only one per cent of the land. The continuation of hunger is directly related to a lack of access or entitlement to food, and to the natural resources essential to the provision of food. Food sovereignty is the right of people to define their own food and agriculture, and to protect and regulate domestic agricultural production and trade.
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Forecasting of E-waste quantity in Bangalore city by Obsolescence Rate Method
The aim of this paper is to forecast the quantity of potential annual e-waste generation in Bangalore city for the period 2019-2020 based on obsolescence rate method. E-waste comprises of many items but the present study is limited to seven products Personal computer, Printer, Television, Mobile phone, Refrigerator, Air conditioner and Washing machine for quantification and composition of e-waste produced. The average weight of EEE and obsolescence rate of each product was taken as per E-Waste Volume I, Inventory Assessment Manual, and UNEP. The field data were collected through questionnaire-based survey followed up with interviews where the target respondent groups and e-waste categories were predetermined to determine the e-waste flow purchasing pattern, recycling and disposal practices, and to understand the existing measures for e-waste management in Bangalore. There are three main target respondents included in the survey. The three main categories are Households, Offices (business entities and institutions) and Recyclers (Including importers and exporters, manufacturers, collectors, second-hand shops, repair shops, dismantlers, and processors of recyclable materials from used WEEE). It can be observed that the total quantity e-waste generation in each year is increasing on logarithmic scale. However, the composition of e-waste in each year is varying according to the activities in household, office and recyclers sectors. The generation of E-waste among household sector depends on the lifestyle and socio- economic status. With the increase in income there is an increase in the generation rate, but the generation rate if we observe there is a decrease in e-waste quantity due to inflation rate in the products. In business sector, the projection shows that due to advancement in technology, obsolescence rate and increasing urbanization there will be inevitable trend among increase in generation of waste in the commercial sector.
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Fuzzy Soft Connectedness on Fuzzy Soft Topological Spaces
In this paper fuzzy soft connectedness on fuzzy soft topological spaces are defined. Some related properties regarding the newly defined concepts are proved.
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Genetic Diversity Analysis in Jatropha (Jatropha curcas L.) genotypes
Steady decrease in crude petroleum oil reserve from earth and increasing demand of petroleum oil as source of generating energy for automobile and other sectors of industry, has led to adopt an alternative strategies for the production of bio-fuel from plants genetic resources to avert the risk of impaired supply of fuels, in future, from resource countries. Jatropha curcas is known as bio-fuel production crop. The oil present in its seeds used for extraction of bio-fuel. Genetic diversity analysis was performed during 2015-16 on 10 years old plants of 20 Jatropha curcas genotypes that were collected from different regions of India. The seeds were planted in randomized block design with three replications during 2005. Observations were recorded on 14 morphological characters. Field data were used for computation of ANOVA, estimation of genetic parameters and Mahalanobis D2 statistics. Significant differences were registered for all traits. Days to flowering, number of fruit clusters per plant and 100 seed weight showed additive genetic effect. Twenty genotypes were grouped into 3 clusters comprised of three, sixteen and one genotypes respectively and suggested that geographical diversity not related to the genetic diversity. Seed yield per plant, fruits per cluster, post floral period and secondary branches per plant contributed maximum towards genetic divergence. Three lines were found promising for the development of superior genotype.
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Haematology and serum biochemistry of laying birds fed with graded levels of fumonisin B1 with and without Vitamin C
An experiment was conducted with One hundred and five (105) point-of-lay Isa brown breed at 18 weeks and twenty-one (21) cocks at 25 weeks to assess the haematology and serum biochemistry of laying birds fed with graded levels of Fumonisin with or without vitamin C. The birds (layers) were assigned to Seven (7) dietary treatments of 15 birds each at three (3) birds per replicate. The treatments were classified according to inclusion level of Fumonisin B1 and Vitamin C. Treatment A served as the control, B (10 mg/kg of FB1), C (20 mg/kg of FB1), D (30 mg/kg of FB1), E (10 mg/kg of FB1 + Vitamin C), F (20 mg/kg of FB1 + Vitamin C), and G (30mg/kg of FB1 + Vitamin C). Significant differences were observed in PCV, Hb, WBC and Eos for levels of FB1 inclusion. Glucose and AST, showed significant differences (P<0.05) in levels of inclusion of FB1 in the diets. Meanwhile, the result shows that Vitamin C can effectively ameliorated the toxic effect of the FB1.
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