• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• v.2 no.2
• /
• pp.105-121
• /
• 2011

Objectives: This paper presents the framework and protocol design for a construction industry risk management toolbox. The construction industry needs a comprehensive, systematic approach to assess and control occupational risks. These risks span several professional health and safety disciplines, emphasized by multiple international occupational research agenda projects including: falls, electrocution, noise, silica, welding fumes, and musculoskeletal disorders. Yet, the International Social Security Association says, "whereas progress has been made in safety and health, the construction industry is still a high risk sector." Methods: Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) employ about 80% of the world's construction workers. In recent years a strategy for qualitative occupational risk management, known as Control Banding (CB) has gained international attention as a simplified approach for reducing work-related risks. CB groups hazards into stratified risk 'bands', identifying commensurate controls to reduce the level of risk and promote worker health and safety. We review these qualitative solutions-based approaches and identify strengths and weaknesses toward designing a simplified CB 'toolbox' approach for use by SMEs in construction trades. Results: This toolbox design proposal includes international input on multidisciplinary approaches for performing a qualitative risk assessment determining a risk 'band' for a given project. Risk bands are used to identify the appropriate level of training to oversee construction work, leading to commensurate and appropriate control methods to perform the work safely. Conclusion: The Construction Toolbox presents a review-generated format to harness multiple solutions-based national programs and publications for controlling construction-related risks with simplified approaches across the occupational safety, health and hygiene professions.

• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• v.6 no.1
• /
• pp.39-45
• /
• 2015

Background: Health and safety (H&S) on a construction site can either make or break a contractor, if not properly managed. The usage of Building Information Modeling (BIM) for H&S on construction execution has the potential to augment practitioner understanding of their sites, and by so doing reduce the probability of accidents. This research explores BIM usage within the construction industry in relation to H&S communication. Methods: In addition to an extensive literature review, a questionnaire survey was conducted to gather information on the embedment of H&S planning with the BIM environment for site practitioners. Results: The analysis of responses indicated that BIM will enhance the current approach of H&S planning for construction site personnel. Conclusion: From the survey, toolbox talk will have to be integrated with the BIM environment, because it is the predominantly used procedure for enhancing H&S issues within construction sites. The advantage is that personnel can visually understand H&S issues as work progresses during the toolbox talk onsite.

• Journal of Construction Engineering and Project Management
• /
• v.7 no.3
• /
• pp.39-55
• /
• 2017

Preeminent performance of construction industry are unattainable with poor productivity resulting in time and cost over runs. Enhancement in productivity cannot be achieved without identifying and analyzing factors that adversely affect productivity. The objective therefore is to propose a productivity analysis model to quantify the probability of effect of factors influencing productivity by using fuzzy logic incorporated with relative importance index method, for various types of construction projects. To achieve this objective, a questionnaire survey was carried out targeting respondents of Indian construction industry, from four distinct projects, namely, residential, commercial, infrastructure and industrial projects. Based on questionnaire administered, the relative importance and ranks of factors demonstrated using relative importance index method. Probability assessment model to analyze productivity was then developed by using Fuzzy Logic Toolbox of MATLAB. The applicability of the proposed model was tested in seven construction projects and the probability of impact of factors on productivity evaluated. The results of application of model in the construction firms infers that the most contributing factor groups for most of the projects were discerned to be manpower, motivation and time group.

• Progress in Medical Physics
• /
• v.18 no.1
• /
• pp.20-26
• /
• 2007

It is expected that synaptic construction and electrical characteristics In degenerate retina might be different from those In normal retina. Therefore, we analyzed the retinal waveform recorded with multielectrode array in normal and degenerate retina using principal component analysis (PCA) and Independent component analysis (ICA) and compared the results. PCA Is a well established method for retinal waveform while ICA has not tried for retinal waveform analysis. We programmed ICA toolbox for spatiotemporal analysis of retinal waveform. In normal mouse, the MEA spatial map shows a single hot spot perfectly matched with PCA-derived ON or OFF ganglion cell response. However In rd/rd mouse, the MEA spatial map shows numerous hot and cold spots whose underlying interactions and mechanisms need further Investigation for better understanding.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.17-29
• /
• 2019

The present study aims to present a comprehensive understanding of the performance of neighboring multi-story buildings with different dynamic characteristics under blast loads. Two different scenarios are simulated in terms of explosion locations with respect to both buildings. To investigate the effect of interaction between the neighboring buildings in terms of the induced responses, the separation gap is set to be sufficiently small to ensure collisions between stories. An adequately large separation gap is set between the buildings to explore responses without collisions under the applied blast loads. Several blast loads with different peak pressure intensities are employed to perform the dynamic analysis. The finite-element toolbox Computer Aided Learning of the Finite-Element Method (CALFEM) is used to develop a MATLAB code to perform the simulation analysis. The dynamic responses obtained in the scenarios considered herein are presented comparatively. It is found that the obtained stories' responses are governed mainly by the location and intensity of the applied blast loads, separation distances, and flexibility of the attacked structures. Moreover, explosions near a light and flexible building may lead to a significant decrease in blast resistance because explosions severely influence the dynamic responses of the building's stories.

• Journal of Drive and Control
• /
• v.16 no.2
• /
• pp.30-35
• /
• 2019

EPPR (Electro-hydraulic Proportional Pressure Reducing) valves are pressure control valves. In this study, an independent metering valve (IMV), which is a combination of a spool valve opened and closed with the help of an EPPR valve, was discussed. The overall performance of the valve (IMV) was obtained by the respective modeling and simulation of the system. The valve investigated in this study is to be used for independent metering of hydraulic excavator actuator e.g. boom, arm, bucket etc. To design the model, continuity equations and force balance equations were used. The set of differential equations were then simulated in Simulink using ODE45 option in the configuration toolbox. The valve has to be able to control the flow rate going in and out of the cylinder separately, which is why the particular configuration was needed and selected.

• Journal of Drive and Control
• /
• v.15 no.4
• /
• pp.67-73
• /
• 2018

The paper deals with an approach to time domain simulation for closed end at the downstream of pipe, hydraulic lines terminating into a tank and series lines with change of cross sectional area. Time domain simulation of a fluid power systems containing hydraulic lines is very complex and difficult if the transfer functions consist of hyperbolic Bessel functions which is the case for the distributed parameter dissipative model. In this paper, the magnitudes and phases of the complex transfer functions of hydraulic lines are calculated, and the MATLAB Toolbox is used to formulate a rational polynomial approximation for these transfer functions in the frequency domain. The approximated transfer functions are accurate over a designated frequency range, and used to analyze the time domain response. This approach is usefully to simulate fluid power systems with hydraulic lines without to approximate the frequency dependent viscous friction.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.7 no.3
• /
• pp.349-365
• /
• 2014

The dynamic response of structures under extremely short duration dynamic loads is of great concern nowadays. This paper investigates structures' response as well as the associated structural damage to explosive loads considering and ignoring the supporting soil flexibility effect. In the analysis, buildings are modeled by two alternate approaches namely, (1) building with fixed supports, (2) building with supports accounting for soil-flexibility. A lumped parameter model with spring-dashpot elements is incorporated at the base of the building model to simulate the horizontal and rotational movements of supporting soil. The soil flexibility for various shear wave velocities has been considered in the investigation. In addition, the influence of variation of lateral natural periods of building models on the obtained response and peak response time-histories besides damage indices has also been investigated under blast loads with different peak over static pressures. The Dynamic response is obtained by solving the governing equations of motion of the considered building model using a developed Matlab code based on the finite element toolbox CALFEM. The predicted results expressed in time-domain by the building model incorporating SSI effect are compared with the corresponding model results ignoring soil flexibility effect. The results show that the effect of surrounding soil medium leads to significant changes in the obtained dynamic response of the considered systems and hence cannot be simply ignored in damage assessment and response time-histories of structures where it increases response and amplifies damage of structures subjected to blast loads. Moreover, the numerical results provide an understanding of level of damage of structure through the computed damage indices.

• Mycobiology
• /
• v.49 no.6
• /
• pp.599-603
• /
• 2021

CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing systems have been established in a broad range of eukaryotic species. Herein, we report the first method for genetic engineering in pyogo (shiitake) mushrooms (Lentinula edodes) using CRISPR/Cas9. For in vivo expression of guide RNAs (gRNAs) targeting the mating-type gene HD1 (LeA1), we identified an endogenous LeU6 promoter in the L. edodes genome. We constructed a plasmid containing the LeU6 and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (LeGPD) promoters to express the Cas9 protein. Among the eight gRNAs we tested, three successfully disrupted the LeA1 locus. Although the CRISPR-Cas9-induced alleles did not affect mating with compatible monokaryotic strains, disruption of the transcription levels of the downstream genes of LeHD1 and LeHD2 was detected. Based on this result, we present the first report of a simple and powerful genetic manipulation tool using the CRISPR/Cas9 toolbox for the scientifically and industrially important edible mushroom, L. edodes.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.31 no.6
• /
• pp.545-559
• /
• 2023

Nanoparticle strips (NPS) are widely used as external reinforcers for two-way reinforced concrete slabs. However, the Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) of these slabs is a very important issue and was evaluated in this study. This study has been done analytically and numerically to optimize the placement of sensors. The properties of slabs and carbon nanotubes as composite sheets were considered isotopic and orthotropic, respectively. The nonlinear Finite Element Method (FEM) approach and suitable optimal placement of sensor approach were developed as a new MATLAB toolbox called DECOMAC by the authors of this paper. The Suitable multi-objective function was considered in optimized processes based on distributed ECOMAC method. Some common concrete slabs in construction with different aspect ratios were considered as case studies. The dimension and distance of nano strips in retrofitting process were selected according to building codes. The results of Optimal Sensor Placement (OSP) by DECOMAC algorithm on un-retrofitted and retrofitted slabs were compared. The statistical analysis according to the Mann-Whitney criteria shows that there is a significant difference between them (mean P-value = 0.61).