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Problems and related causes of public procurement process to achieve sustainability in developing countries
No full textPublic Procurement Process (PP Process) in construction industry has identified as integral part to achieve sustainability in developing countries. Sustainability links with the social, environmental, and economic indicators. The PP Process contributes largely to the budget of developing nations. However, existing PP Processes of developing countries have shown lagging features to achieve sustainability due to a number of problems. Further, the depth and gravity of the problems depend on the impact of root causes throughout the activities and stages of procurement lifecycle of a project. Hence, this paper aims to identify the problems and related root causes during the various activities in the stages of PP Process to achieve sustainability in construction projects in developing countries.
In order to achieve the aim, this study started with a comprehensive literature review to identify the stages, activities, problems and related root causes in PP Process to achieve sustainability. Subsequently, interviews with 14 subject matter experts were carried out to identify and verify the stages, activities, problems and related root causes to achieve sustainability in PP Process in developing countries. The data were analysed using manual content analysis. The findings of the study identified 10 problems and 22 root causes that affect the 39 activities in 05 stages of PP process in project procurement lifecycle in construction industry. The outcome of this paper will be beneficial to relevant authorities, funding agencies and policy makers in taking necessary steps to update the existing guidelines, bidding documents, procedures and protocols to address the identified problems and root causes to achieve sustainability of developing countries
Consumption of chilled water stored in a PET bottle multiple times: are we quenching thirst or gulping phthalates?
No full textThe statistics forecast that the production of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles worldwide in 2016 was about 485 billion, and the same in 2021, has been approximately 583 billion. Although such productions in many countries have the ear of prominent political and social leaders, high production rates still reign the global market. In parallel, revered scientists globally conflate plausible and incontrovertible medical canons against the use of PET bottles for the protection of public health
Microalgae : a promising bioresource for a sustainable future
No full textMicroalgae are highly diverse unicellular photosynthetic organisms found in aquatic environments. Microalgae produce oxygen during their proliferation, contributing to nearly 50% of the total oxygen production in the world. Concurrently, microalgae consume carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, thereby serving as carbon sinks to alleviate the effects of global warming. In comparison to terrestrial plants, microalgae exhibit rapid growth rates, higher photosynthetic efficiency, shorter harvesting time and higher biomass productivities. Moreover, they do not require arable land or potable water to facilitate their growth, hence becoming a more sustainable feedstock as compared to conventional crops. Altogether, microalgae have been identified as a bioresource with great industrial potential due to their ability to accumulate commercially valuable metabolites that can be extracted and subsequently processed into diverse bioproducts such as biofuels, pharmaceuticals/nutraceuticals, biofertilizer and animal feed
Growing urban green movement: evaluate the reinforcement of community garden for renewal community
No full textAs per the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) “Sustainable cities & Communities” is vital for the healthy planet by 2030. Because nontackle population growth at city level causing to deforestation and it is outstripping for unsustainable cities as such for better livability. Since, 1990s, the decrement of non-built-up areas due to rapid urbanization directly cause for interrupting socio- ecological interaction & social ties among community in Sri Lanka. Recently, there is an emerging tendency on continuing community based agricultural sites as a social space for community gathering and interacting with variety of active physical activities as well to increase the urban fabric. The aim of the research is to investigate reinforcement of community garden for renewal community by studying diverse social and physical factors, evaluating functioning community garden in Colombo. The methodology of the study was comprised with onsite observations and in-depth interview and the data were qualitatively analyzed by using NVvio software. Accordingly derived 15 different social and 9 different physical factors from the community perceptions. Particularly, respondents having a desire to create a village and sense of place within the urban setting as SDGs rely
Thermal performance comparison on flooring materials
No full textNew building materials and technologies that provide thermal comfort are expected to gain popularity in the recent past. Hence, efforts to incorporate new building material solutions are needed to protect potential populations from the threats of thermal stress that cause an increase in temperatures due to climate change. The earth is identified as the most effective building material to improve the thermal comfortability inside the building. Among several building construction materials, the flooring material provides a more effective role with respect to thermal comfort in a building. This paper present the evaluation and comparison work carried out to investigate the thermal performance of newly invented soil based flooring material with other common floorings in Sri Lanka. Temperature measurements were taken on the top surface of flooring materials and were compared the surface temperature of each other and indoor air temperature. The results reveal that the soil floor shows a lesser temperature at a significant level than the other floorings. Hence, it can be proved that the building construction materials play an important role and earth is the best sustainable material with respect to the indoor thermal comfortability thus, end-user
Emergence of informal learning space in university campus: a comparative scenario in the context of Khulna city
No full textAncient education system was developed from a semi-outdoor environment. While developing the learning spaces it developed into indoor environment to ensure controlled environment, focus, discipline and compactness. These properties lead to formal education and formal learning space which replaced the informal learning environment. Formal learning space usually drive students towards a single expertise or knowledge. The limitations and boredom of formal education often causes depression and annoy towards education that result in limited learning and one-sided education. This research indicates the role of “informal learning environment” which helps university students to achieve multi-disciplinary knowledge through a simple, contextual and informal way. To establish the emergence, we tried to do a quantitative analysis among the students studying different universities in Khulna city. We have tried to understand the perspective of the students whether they feel the importance of informal learning or not in their daily life. While working on this paper, we have experienced unique scenario for each university but by any means Khulna University and Khulna University of Engineering & Technology serves their student the environment where students can meet and share knowledge with their natural flow of gossiping with food or drinks while Northern University of Business & technology and North-Western University have shown different scenario
Development of a web-based smart power extension device for domestic applications
No full textWith the development of science and technology, the energy demand in the world increases day by day and it is an important fact to save that energy. Everything today is becoming smart devices by various concepts and smart plug is such one topic. Features like power monitoring, consumption of power, mobile controllable ability and web control can be found on such kind of devices.
The following project was about development of a Smart Power Extension Device for domestic uses. This device has the ability to measure real-time power measuring, automatic turn on or off at a given time, remote control via the internet of things (IoT) and protect equipment and user from high voltages. As an external remote controlling device for this smart power extension device, developed a web page and a mobile application for both android and IOS operating systems that are connected to an internet of things (IoT) cloud server.
This article reviews extant literature relevant to the design of smart devices in the globe providing existing devices with their limitations. Then the paper discusses the status of the new device, how the innovation and smart thinking can be applied while achieving the intended objectives. Finally, the results of the smart device highlight how IoT concept can help save energy in domestic level and the improvements are needed to be done to make the smart device a perfection
Examining the influences of cognitive and conative perspectives on individual adaptive behavior
No full textHigh percentage of mobile app users uninstall downloaded apps without continuing the usage. Moreover, empirical literature provides evidences on the importance of conative perspectives on adaptive behaviour. However, in light with Theory of Mind (TOM), Innovation Diffusion Theory (IDT) focuses only about cognitive perspectives and lacks incorporation of conative perspectives in understanding adaptive behaviour. Accordingly, the purpose of the study is to examine how cognitive and conative perspectives influence adaptive behaviour. Accordingly, quantitative research approach was adopted taking a sample of individual mobile app users who are in the age group of 21 to 30 years and use more than 60% of their digital time on mobile apps. The findings have revealed that cognitive, and conative perspectives of an individual user influence adaptive behaviour positively. Further, it can be identified that conceptualization of mobile app adaptive behaviour and developing a scale based on cognitive and conative perspectives to measure this construct is a significant research and theoretical implication of the current study
The Relationship between family supportive supervisor behavior and the work-family-conflicts of employees in logistics sector Sri Lanka
No full textWork-family conflict has been shown/highlighted in numerous studies to have a negative impact on both physical and psychological health with many consequences. Most jobs in the logistics sector requires working round the clock and involve high job pressure. Under these grounds, the employees in this sector require committing themselves more to work, therefore face work-life conflict which consequently this leads to family conflicts. This is mainly due to lack of time for family matters and subsequently leading to poor outcomes at the workplace as well. The purpose of this study is to identify the relationship between Family Supportive Supervisors Behavior and the Work-Family-Conflicts of employees in logistics sector Sri Lanka, thereby to provide them with the required level of assistance to overcome their Work-Family-Conflicts. This is a quantitative research and a total of 250 employees belonging to various sections of the logistics sector such as procurement, shipping, warehousing, customer service was surveyed using convenient sampling method. A questionnaire method was deployed as the data collection technique. Since excessive working hours and high work pressure are mostly associated with the logistics’ sector operations employees, the questionnaire was distributed mainly among them. The results suggest that employees in the logistics sector of Sri Lanka experience high level of Work-Family-Conflicts, as a result of not having the required level of assistance and attention from their immediate supervisors. Subsequently, results reveal that there is a negative relationship between Family Supportive Supervisors Behavior and the Work-Family-Conflicts of employees in logistics sector Sri Lanka. The study findings can provide the Logistics sector managers with a better understanding of the required relationship between their supervisors’ behaviors, to overcome the work-family-conflicts of the employees in the logistics sector
Automatic vehicle number plate recognition : using deep learning algorithms to estimate the vehicle storage
No full textIdentification and tracking of vehicles are essential for control and surveillance of transport systems. It is important not only for traffic control but also to estimate vehicle storage within
a cordon of city