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Qualitative system dynamics approach to modelling cost escalation determinants in Nigerian public sector projects
No full textCost escalation has been identified as one of the most significant challenges and recurring issues in the delivery of social and economic infrastructure in the Nigerian public sector. Like many other countries in the Global South, the Nigerian public sector projects suffer from poor cost performance. Thus, this study aims to analyse the dynamics of construction cost escalation determinants and produced a conceptual system dynamic model that captures the intricate interactions among these determinants. This study includes a literature review and qualitative approach using semi-structured interviews. Data were obtained from 17 stakeholders involved in the delivery of Nigeria public sector projects, including Project managers, Architects, Civil engineer, Quantity surveyors and Construction managers. The data were analysed using a coding framework informed by case study approach, the principles of thematic analysis and saliency analysis framework, enabling the modelling of intricate interactions among various determinants of cost escalation
A 10-year experiential journey in developing a multi-pronged approach to tutoring, advising and mentoring
No full textWaViT-CDC : wavelet vision transformer with central difference convolutions for spatial-frequency deepfake detection
No full textThe increasing popularity of generative AI has led to a significant rise in deepfake content, creating an urgent need for generalized and reliable deepfake detection methods. Since existing approaches rely on either spatial-domain features or frequency-domain features, they struggle to generalize across unseen datasets, especially those with subtle manipulations. To address these challenges, a novel end-to-end Wavelet Central Difference Convolutional Vision Transformer framework is designed to enhance spatial-frequency deepfake detection. Unlike previous methods, this approach applies the Discrete Wavelet Transform for multi-level frequency decomposition and Central Difference Convolution to capture local fine-grained discrepancies and focus on texture variances, while also incorporating Vision Transformers for global contextual understanding. The Frequency-Spatial Feature Fusion Attention module integrates these features, enabling the effective detection of fake artifacts. Moreover, in contrast to earlier work, subtle perturbations to both spatial and frequency domains are introduced to further improve generalization. Generalization cross-dataset evaluations demonstrate that WaViT-CDC outperforms state-of-the-art methods, when trained on both low-quality and high-quality face images, achieving an average performance increase of 2.5% and 4.5% on challenging high-resolution, real-world datasets such as Celeb-DF and WildDeepfake
Experimental investigation on thermal and mechanical performance of alkali-activated coal gangue foam materials doped with phosphogypsum
No full textUsing low-grade solid wastes to prepare building foam insulation materials can effectively reduce environmental pollution and building energy consumption. However, their poor gelling activity results in poor mechanical and thermal insulation properties. In this study, alkali activated foam material was successfully prepared using coal gangue (CG) as the main component, with phosphogypsum (PG) added to improve activation and pore quality. An orthogonal experiment with six factors and five levels was designed to comprehensively explore the influence mechanism and optimal dosage of polypropylene fibers (PPF), expandable polystyrene (EPS) particles, and alkali activators. The results show that: (I) An appropriate amount of PG can effectively promote the reaction and assist in the formation of pores in the foam, which is attributed to the fact that PG can preferentially and rapidly dissolve and participate in the reaction to generate ettringite under strong alkaline environment. (II) An alkali activator with a modulus of 1.1 and a Na₂O content ranging from 10 to 12% optimizes both the mechanical and thermal insulation properties. It enables foam materials with a density of 536 kg/m3 to achieve a compressive strength of 3.68 MPa while maintaining a thermal conductivity of 0.1033 W/(m·K). (III) EPS particles and PPF further enhance compressive strength and thermal insulation by stabilizing the foam and maximizing PPF tensile properties utilization. These results indicate that the combination of EPS particles with PPF and PG can effectively improve the performance of alkali-activated solid waste foam materials
Quinoid to benzenoid transition-driven glutathione sensing : dual-emission carbon dots and smartphone-based ratiometric fluorescence analysis
No full textInvestigating the effectiveness of received offline word of mouth : role of acquired and ascribed homophily
Full text linkThis research examines how similarities in educational and ethnic backgrounds (status homophily), between word of mouth (WOM) participants, influences the effectiveness of received offline WOM on the recipient’s behavioural intentions. The educational similarity between individuals is conceptualized as acquired homophily, whereas ethnic similarity is defined as ascribed homophily. This study employs scenario-based experiments, and the results suggest that positive and negative WOM received from homophilous sources is more effective in influencing the recipient’s purchase and WOM re-transmission intentions than recommendations received from heterophilous sources. This research expands the literature about offline WOM and the multidimensional status-homophily construct by providing insights on the differential influence of positive and negative recommendations received from WOM sources similar or dissimilar to the WOM recipients in terms of their educational and ethnic backgrounds. This is important from both the theoretical and practitioner perspective as the recent focus of scholarly research is on understanding the relationship between online homophily and e-WOM at the expense of offline WOM-homophily relationship
Asymmetric price formation in UK electricity markets : examining the influence of brexit, geopolitical risk and fossil fuel prices
No full textThe role of rehabilitation services in the academic and social emotional development of children and young people with neurodevelopmental disorders : a case study of vision impairment
No full textThe current chapter discusses the positive role of rehabilitation services in the lives of children and young people with neurodevelopmental disorders such as sensory impairments and also identifies gaps in current research and practice. Despite the increasing number of children and young people with neurodevelopmental disorders, current research on the effects of rehabilitation support on the academic achievement and social emotional development of this population remains very limited. However, financial investment in providing such support to vulnerable student populations may avoid future costs to both the health and social care budgets. To further highlight the impact of rehabilitation support on children and youth with neurodevelopmental disorders, findings from a case study conducted in a UK-based rehabilitation service is presented and discussed. The findings highlight the benefits of habilitation and rehabilitation support in daily life, academic learning and social emotional development of children and adolescents with vision impairment and additional needs
How supervisor’s life-span related HRM practices drive flow and employability of teachers : the moderating role of leader-member exchange
No full textMany public organizations are challenged by demographic changes that require attention in order to safeguard all workers’ sustainable employability. This study aims to increase our understanding of how SLS-HRM practices (i.e. measures that a supervisor takes to foster an employee’s career sustainability) are linked to teachers’ employability via work-related flow, and to examine whether LMX quality moderates this relationship. SEM analyses among 698 teachers in 51 educational institutions across the Netherlands reveal that SLS-HRM practices are positively related to several dimensions of employability, through work-related flow, and that LMX quality determines the effectiveness of these practices