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Digital construction and information management workflow. Part 2 – Information requirements
No full textThe construction industry's sudden increase in digitalisation necessitates a rapid transformation of traditional processes; thus, the development of executable practical guidance is critical. With the emergence and publication of a large number of Building Information Modeling (BIM) standards in recent months, a large suite of international guidance documents supplementing the ISO 19650 framework has been developed to explain concepts and principles for digitisation, classification and organisation of information, and digital processes used in the construction industry. A comparison of these standards and guidance documents reveals ideas that are repeated or introduce uncertainty. This paper assesses appointment information needs and process dependencies. Based on the ISO 19650 framework, this paper provides practical guidance for asset owners and all parties involved in the delivery or operation of an asset
Benchmarking the research performance of United Arab Emirates with gulf cooperation council countries – A bibliometric study
Get PDFThe research performance of a country is an indicator of its scientific progress and benchmarking it with regional countries is critical to assess a country’s regional competitiveness. This study aims to assess and benchmark the research productivity of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) against other member nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), namely with Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, and Bahrain, who have similar macroeconomic and socio-cultural characteristics. Scopus was used as the data source to extract the research output of each of the six countries studied for the period 1995–2019. Bibliometric indicators covering both quantity and impact of research such as publication output, citation, and collaboration indicators were used to assess the research performance of UAE and other GCC countries. The findings indicate good progress in the UAE’s overall research performance during the period of study. Also, UAE’s research performance in most of the bibliometric indicators is comparable or superior to the other GCC countries. This study is the first of its kind and addresses the dearth of bibliometric studies assessing UAE’s research productivity and GCC countries in general. The findings are useful for administrators and policymakers to benchmark the performance of the UAE with other GCC countries, including its impact, growth, and trajectories. For researchers, the study indicators and methods can be replicated to assess the overall research performance of other countries
Robot Operating System (ROS) controlled anthropomorphic robot hand
Get PDFThis paper presents a new design of a dexterous robot hand by incorporating human hand factors. The robotic hand is a Robot Operating System (ROS) controlled standalone unit that can perform key tasks and work independently. Hardware such as actuators, electronics, sensors, pulleys etc. are embedded within or on the hand itself. Raspberry Pi, a single board computer which runs ROS and is used to control the hand movements as well as process the sensor signals is placed outside of the hand. It supports peripheral devices such as screen display, keyboard and mouse. The hand prototype is designed in Solid Works and 3D printed/built using aluminum sheet. The prototype is similar to the human hand in terms of shape and possesses key functionalities and abilities of the human hand, especially to imitate key movements of the human hand and be as dexterous as possible whilst keeping a low cost. Other important factors considered while prototyping the model were that the hand should be reliable, have a durable construction, and should be built using widely available off-the-shelf components and an open-source software. Though the prototype hand only has 6 degrees-of-freedom (DOF) compared to the 22 DOF of the human hand, it is able to perform most grasps effectively. The proposed model will allow other researchers to build similar robotic hands and perform specialized research
Impacts of sea-level rise on coastal zones of Mauritius: insights following calculation of a coastal vulnerability index
Get PDFWhilst climate change has been regarded as a growing concern in recent years due the disruptive and detrimental effects experienced across the globe, one of its most compelling and threatening evidence is Sea Level Rise (SLR). This phenomenon is more prominent in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and such islands are already facing escalating associated environmental threats, causing social and economic disruptions as well as insecurities. Amongst the SIDS, the coastal areas of Mauritius are considered among the most vulnerable to SLR, where statistics showed that between the years 1987 and 2007, an annual increase of 2.1mm in the sea level has been observed around Mauritius. Although SLR has various associated impacts, limited work has been undertaken to assess the coastal vulnerability of the impacts of SLR for Mauritius and to compute the Coastal Vulnerability Index (CVI) of the island. Taking cognizance of this limitation, the purpose of this paper is to quantify, prioritize and critically assess the vulnerability of key impacts of sea level rise on the coastal areas of Mauritius following computation of a CVI. In this process, five key research questions are answered towards calculating the CVI of the island to eventually conceptualize a framework with the aim to reduce the adverse impacts of SLR on coastal zones of Mauritius. Findings of this study aim at the advancement of resilience and increased sustainability of coastal areas to the impacts of SLR
Do people with musculoskeletal pain differ from healthy cohorts in terms of global measures of strength? A systematic review and meta-analysis
Get PDFObjective
It is currently unknown if people with musculoskeletal pain display different multi-joint strength capacities than healthy cohorts. The aim was to investigate whether people with musculoskeletal pain show differences in global measures of strength in comparison to healthy cohorts.
Data sources
A systematic review was conducted using three databases (Medline, CINAHL and SPORTDiscus) and PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines.
Review methods
Studies involving participants with painful musculoskeletal conditions and multi-joint strength assessment measured at baseline were included. A meta-analysis was also performed to compute standardized mean differences (± 95% confidence intervals), using Hedge’s g, and examined the differences in multi-joint strength at baseline between participants with painful musculoskeletal conditions and healthy participants.
Results
5043 articles were identified, of which 20 articles met the inclusion criteria and were included in the qualitative analysis. The available evidence revealed that multi-joint strength values were limited to knee osteoarthritis, fibromyalgia, chronic low back pain, and rheumatoid arthritis. Only four studies were included in the quantitative synthesis and revealed that only small differences in both chest press (g= -0.34, 95% CI [-0.64, -0.03]) and leg press (g= -0.25, 95% CI [-0.49, -0.02]) existed between adult women with fibromyalgia and active community women.
Conclusion
There is a paucity of multi-joint strength values in participants with musculoskeletal pain. Quantitative comparison with healthy cohorts was limited, except for those with fibromyalgia. Adult women with fibromyalgia displayed reduced multi-joint strength values in comparison to active community women
Intentionality for inclusivity - the journey at Middlesex University
No full textEducation has changed in a myriad of ways over the millennia, but one of the most noticeable areas is the makeup of the groups being taught. Centuries ago, learners were grouped based on their local area. Their backgrounds and ethnicities would usually be similar and in many cases, even their genders would be the same. Fast forward to the current day, and we find that across education settings, local learners make up a smaller percentage of the total group than those from further afield. In higher education especially, the number of students studying outside the country they were born in is notably high. Indeed, lecturers share anecdotes of their cohorts being made up of learners from over 60 nationalities. The variety of countries represented in a group of learners is not the only difference to consider in teaching today. Consideration needs to be given now to the different genders of learners, their sexuality, their marital and employment status, their mental health, their ability level and their preferred method of assessment, to name a few.
As such, issues of diversity are integral to teaching in 2022. The discourse around it and its sister topics, equity and inclusion, has become increasingly pertinent in the learning and education space. As a result, many institutions are years into their thinking about how best to support diversity, equity and inclusivity (DEI). In this paper, we shine a light on how DEI efforts at one university in the UK are being combined strategically with something else: intentionality. By definition, intentionality is the act of being deliberate or taking an action with purpose. At Middlesex University, it is explained as the difference between thinking about a topic passively and thinking about it proactively and then acting upon those thoughts.
In this paper, we look at how the institution has built a robust and holistic approach to DEI, blending intentionality with action, which has had excellent results
Multinational evaluation of the measurement invariance of the level of personality functioning scale–brief form 2.0: comparison of student and community samples across seven countries
Get PDFDSM-5’s Level of Personality Functioning Scale (LPFS) was introduced as a dimensional rating of impairments in self- and interpersonal functioning, and the LPFS – Brief Form (LPFS-BF) was the first published corresponding self-report. The updated LPFS-BF 2.0 has been translated into several languages and international research supports many of the instrument’s psychometric properties; however, its measurement invariance has only been evaluated across a few countries. This study expands previous studies as an introductory step in a global evaluation of the LPFS-BF 2.0’s measurement invariance. Archival data (N = 5,618, 57% female) from seven countries (Canada, Chile, Denmark, Germany, Italy, United Arab Emirates, United States of America) were used for this study. Participants were recruited from both community (n = 4,677) and student (n = 941) populations. After confirming adequate model fit separately in the community and student samples, we evaluated a series of increasingly stringent model comparisons to test three aspects of measurement invariance (configural, metric, scalar) and then examined latent mean differences across countries. Full scalar invariance was supported in the community sample and partial scalar invariance was supported in the student sample. Evaluation of latent mean differences revealed multiple significant differences. Overall, the LPFS-BF 2.0 appears to assess self- and interpersonal functioning impairment similarly across the included countries. Findings are discussed through the lenses of the cultures from which participants were recruited, as well as in the context of alternative explanations. Limitations, plans for future research, and implications for both research and clinical practice are offered
Helpful or not? Appraisal and mechanisms of prosociality in the dark triad
No full textThe Dark Triad (DT) is associated with maladaptive interactions in their social and interpersonal relationships as well as defection in social situations. However, it is unclear how DT traits perceive helpfulness. We conducted a two part study to understand whether individuals high on DT traits are able to perceive help from others. DT traits were measured using the Short Dark Triad scale. In Study 1, vignettes were presented to the participants (N = 679) to assess perception of help which depicted situations that differentially benefitted them. Findings revealed that situations wherein others were objectively unhelpful, those with high levels of psychopathy and Machiavellianism uniquely perceive others as helpful and when others are objectively helpful, those with high psychopathy perceive others as less helpful. Study 2 explored the perception of helpfulness and defection through an ultimatum game at different levels of helpfulness (high- and low- help condition). Data from 1059 participants showed that individuals with high scores on psychopathy are less likely to recognize others' helpfulness towards them. High scores on narcissism predicted a greater likelihood of accepting a high help offer. Machiavellianism did not predict perception of help and defection in either of the conditions. Limitations and future scope are discussed
On the power-splitting relaying protocol for SWIPT with multiple UAVs in downlink NOMA-IoT networks
Get PDFUnmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) communication and non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) are two promising technologies for wireless 5G networks and beyond. The UAVs can be used as flying base stations to form line-of-sight communication links to the Internet of things devices (IDs) and to enhance the performance of usual terrestrial cellular networks. Moreover, the UAVs can also be deployed as flying relay nodes for forwarding data from a base station (BS) to the IDs. On the other hand, non-orthogonal resource sharing for many concurrent users is exploited in NOMA, thus improving spectrum efficiency (SE) and supporting massive connections. The NOMA combined with energy harvesting (EH) in an amplify-and-forward (AF) with cooperative UAV systems is researched. Specifically, the UAVs act as rotary-wing relays to forward data from the BSs to two IDs. This paper focuses on the analysis of outage probabilities (OPs), system throughput, and energy efficiency (EE) for two IDs. Besides, we also do the asymptotic analysis of OPs at high signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). Furthermore, this paper also inspects the impacts of the UAV-based relaying on the OP, system throughput, and EE of the proposed NOMA scheme. The derived asymptotic expansions show that the suggested model can enhance user fairness and the analytical results match the simulation results
