1,720,955 research outputs found
The construction industry in Yemen : towards economic sustainability
No full textThe construction industry is one of the most important components in the economic development of a developing country, being a major contributor to the national economy of many such countries. This industry is largely responsible for the physical provision of housing and infrastructure and, as such, can be the backbone of prosperous economies, providing social development and employment. \ud
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The construction industry in the developing economy of Yemen is plagued by difficult economic and technical problems, which permeate most aspects of the industry. In addition, construction procedures in Yemen consume excessive capital, time and resources that have a direct flow-on effect for the national economy and the nation's socio-economic development. Macroeconomic problems in unemployment, inflation and an inequitable balance-of-payments all add to the existing difficult economic situation in the construction industry. Further, the lack of appropriate infrastructure, weak and inefficient legal, administrative and financial institutions are also major contributors. \ud
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The recent global shift to sustainable development also requires that the construction industry in Yemen initiate important strategic developmental policies in order to meet future demand for economical and sustainable development. \ud
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This research uses a comprehensive literature review to design and conduct a survey into the existing local development barriers and then obtains a census of expert opinions using the Delphi methodology to rank a set of sustainable developmental policies and strategies. The research then establishes a comprehensive list of recommendations for achieving economicly sustainable industry. Proposed policies and strategies are formulated from various international studies, including Agenda 21 for Sustainable Development. The proposed policies and strategies are specifically chosen as they are considered to be compatible with the Yemen case and are also seen to more readily integratable with cultural aspects of Yemen, particularly in focusing on the hardships of its local needs and capabilities.\ud
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The construction industry in the developing nation of Yemen appears aligned in many ways to the needs of other developing economies and, as such, it is expected that the findings of this research will be of great interest to professionals involved in the construction economies of other such developing nations
Policies for Economic Sustainability for the Construction Industry in Yemen
No full textThe construction industry in Yemen and other developing countries are now coming under more pressure to meet future demand for sustainable and economical development and this will necessitate changes in cultures and the formulation of appropriate policies and strategies to spearhead these changes.\ud
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This paper presents a census of expert opinion, using a Delphi questionnaire methodology to rank a set of selected strategies and policies required for realizing economic sustainability in the construction industry. The proposed policies and strategies are derived from various international reports such as Agenda 21 for Sustainable Development. The proposed policies and strategies are specifically chosen as they are considered to be compatible with the Yemen construction industry and are also seen to more readily integrate with cultural aspects of Yemen, particularly in focusing on the hardships of its existing local needs, capabilities, priorities, and the willingness for development. The paper proposes, ranks and discusses the most needed policies and strategies to develop a suitable framework able to sustain the construction economy in Yemen. Within the course of this investigation it was intended to bring awareness to professional groups and experts about sustainable development
The behaviour of construction costs and affordability in developing countries: A Yemen case study
No full textConstruction affordability is identified in Agenda 21 for Developing Countries as one of the main issues associated with sustainable construction and sustainable development. Despite international awareness of sustainable construction, the cost rates for construction activities and resources have been continuously increasing. Due to these increases the approaches to be used to achieve sustainable construction through efficient and affordable techniques can be difficult to determine. This paper will examine the behaviour of the main construction costs and building rates, concurrently with ocioeconomic behaviour, for the purpose of identifying some of the deficits in construction activities in developing countries, such as Yemen. This is achieved by examining past and current trends in the construction industry over the last two decades.\ud
Comparisons with other developing and regional countries are established to allow for a\ud
scale of international development to be established. This scale, based on a proposed Construction Development Index (CDI), will enable the industry to be more responsive in relation to construction costs and affordability in a particular country
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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