Construction Domain Research Articles

Who is responsible for construction safety in Australia? A STAMP analysis

Limitations surrounding knowledge of the construction safety operating system have contributed to a failure to understand and prevent fatal incidents. The aim of this paper is to present a control structure model of construction in Australia to provide an improved understanding of the construction operating system. The model was developed by applying and extending the Systems Theoretic and Accident Model and Processes (STAMP) method to show the actors, organisations, controls, communication loops and relationships that are involved in managing safety throughout the Australian construction industry. The control structure was validated by subject matter experts from across all levels of the system. The analysis highlights a disconnect between the upper and lower levels of the system in terms of feedback mechanisms and relationships that limit the understanding and effectiveness of safety controls. To demonstrate the limitations of current approaches to understanding accident causation in the construction domain, the model is used to represent the findings from a recent Coronial investigation into a fatal construction incident. The benefits of applying systems thinking in accident analysis and countermeasure development by construction organisations, clients, regulators and law makers are discussed.

Exploratory study of user-perceived effectiveness of unmanned aircraft system (UAS) integration in visual inspections of transportation agency

This research assesses the effectiveness of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and provides further implications and recommendations for UAS-based visual inspections in the construction and infrastructure environment. This study includes field tests at infrastructure projects provided by Georgia DOT, as well as semi-structured interviews and survey questionnaires after the field tests. A total of three field test locations were selected, including an airport, bridge, and road. During the field tests, eight UAS platforms were used to collect various data, including still images, infrared images, and video. Interviews with and a survey of industry professionals participating in the field tests were employed to measure the effectiveness of UAS integration into their construction-related task environments. The results of this study will assist in implementing UAS in infrastructure construction and operations. Since only a small number of potential UAS users from the field tests and post-test interviews, this study qualitatively describes further implications based on users’ perceptions, prompting the integration of UAS into the domain of infrastructure construction and operation.

Construção e validação de um instrumento para avaliação clínica e psicossocial de sobreviventes da UTI

Objetivos: Descrever a elaboração de um instrumento de avaliação clínica e psicossocial de pacientes pós alta da UTI, submetê-lo ao processo de validação de conteúdo e, verificar a aplicabilidade do instrumento na população alvo. Metodologia: Estudo de desenvolvimento metodológico, fundamentado no modelo de validação de conteúdo de Pasquali (1998), realizado em três etapas: construção dos itens, avaliação do instrumento por um painel de especialistas nas áreas de enfermagem, fisioterapia, nutrição, psicologia e serviço social e, por fim, a análise das respostas dos avaliadores por meio do Índice de Validade de Conteúdo (CVI) e o Índice de Concordância Interavaliadores (IRA). Após a validação, o instrumento foi aplicado na população alvo. Resultados: A maioria dos avaliadores possui título de doutorado (67%), com tempo médio de experiência de 17,6 ± 8,38 anos, estando a maior parte atuando na área de docência e assistência. Houve pouca discordância entre os especialistas na análise das questões de acordo com os domínios do construto. A maioria dos itens foi avaliada positivamente, recebendo uma pontuação acima de 80%, obedecendo ao critério de validação do instrumento. Os itens que não atingiram esta pontuação foram reformulados e/ou excluídos. A versão final do inquérito foi aplicada em um grupo de pacientes pós alta da UTI e mostrou-se satisfatoriamente compreensível indicando validade semântica. Conclusão: O instrumento obteve uma avaliação global positiva em relação aos quesitos propostos sendo considerado válido no que se refere ao conteúdo e à aplicabilidade na população de pacientes seis meses após a alta da UTI.

Patterns and trends in Internet of Things (IoT) research: future applications in the construction industry

PurposeThe Internet of Things (IoT) provides exciting opportunities for the construction industry to solve its time and resource constraints and frequent defaults. This study seeks to identify and rank the perceived importance level of principal research areas associated with the IoT and the construction industry by utilising a scientific mapping tool (i.e. VOSviewer). Such knowledge would enable key drivers for successful adoption of the IoT and digitisation technologies to be outlined. An analysis of key drivers and research trends that facilitates the development of a roadmap for applying the IoT and digital technologies in the construction sector is therefore much needed.Design/methodology/approachAn interpretivist philosophical lens was adopted to analyse published work as secondary data, where each publication represented a unit of analysis. A total of 417 peer-reviewed journal review articles covering the IoT within the construction domain were systematically reviewed using a mixed-methods approach, utilising qualitative-scientometric analyses techniques.FindingsThe results revealed a field of study in a fledgling stage, with a limited number of experts operating somewhat in isolation and offering single-point solutions instead of taking an integrated “holistic” approach. Key publication outlets were identified and the main focus of research undertaken being in the technical areas of smart buildings, smart construction objects and environmental sustainability. The major effects of adopting the IoT within the construction industry were identified as high-speed reporting, complete process control, data explosion leading to deep data analytics, strict ethical and legal expectations. Key drivers of the IoT adoption were outlined: interoperability; data privacy and security; flexible governance structures; proper business planning and models.Practical implicationsThe study benefits researchers and industry practitioners alike. For researchers, the identified gaps reveal areas of high priority in future research. For construction companies, particularly small to medium-sized businesses, the study raises awareness of the latest developments and potential applicability of the IoT in the industry. For government agencies and policymakers, this study offers a point of reference in directing the adoption of the IoT smoothly in the construction sector and provides guidelines and standards for maximising the potential benefits.Originality/valueThe study is the first scientometric review of the existing body of knowledge in the context of application of the IoT in the construction industry. Findings expose knowledge gaps in contemporary research, specifically, a broader consideration of organisational adjustments needed to accommodate the IoT usage, economic analyses and impediments to wider acceptance.

D-linked and non-d-linkedwh-questions in L2 French and L3 English

AbstractThis study considers L2 French and L3 English ultimate attainment among L1 Moroccan Arabic adult learners. It contrasts the acquisition of two types ofwh-questions: discourse-linked and non-discourse-linked questions in root and embedded forms. The results of two acceptability judgment tasks indicate that the advanced learners in L2 French and L3 English are nativelike on d-linkedwh-questions but less accurate on non-discourse-linked interrogatives. They successfully unlearn resumption as an L1 strategy to form discourse-linked questions. Therefore, contra the prediction of the Interface Hypothesis, discourse-linking is acquirable though it is a property of the syntax-discourse interface. It does not pose more learning difficulty than quantification (formalwh-feature) of narrow syntax. The study indicates that embedding and thereby the processing cognitive load are the deterministic variables, not the language domain of constructions.

DIGITAL TWINNING OF THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT – AN INTERDISCIPLINARY TOPIC FOR INNOVATION IN DIDACTICS

Abstract. The concept of a Digital Twin (DT) takes an increasingly important role in the construction industry and related research fields. It is a concept associated with Industry 4.0; however, the scientific literature does not provide a unique and clear definition of this concept. This paper aims to analyse the definitions of the digital twin to clarify this concept in the related fields of architecture, engineering and construction (AEC). Moreover, this work proposes and employs the concept of a Digital Twin as an objective for a project-based learning approach in a didactical setting. As an interdisciplinary approach, this work demonstrates the potential impact on the traditional didactical frameworks in the educational domain of construction and its value as an opportunity to introduce interdisciplinary expertise to all students in these fields. This work presents a use case applying the concept at the School of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geomatics of FHNW.

Comparative Analysis of BIPV Solutions to Define Energy and Cost-Effectiveness in a Case Study

The built environment remains a strategic research and innovation domain in view of the goal of full decarbonization. The priority is the retrofitting of existing buildings as zero-emission to improve their energy efficiency with renewable energy technologies pulling the market with cost-effective strategies. From the first age of photovoltaics (PV) mainly integrated in solar roofs, we rapidly moved towards complete active building skins where all the architectural surfaces are photoactive (Building Integrated Photovoltaics - BIPV). This change of paradigm, where PV replaces a conventional building material, shifted the attention to relate construction choices with energy and cost effectiveness. However, systematic investigations which put into action a cross-disciplinary approach between construction, economic and energy related domains is still missing. This paper provides the detailed assessment of a real multifamily building, taking into account retrofit scenarios for making active the building skin, with the goal to identify the sensitive aspects of the energetic and economic effectiveness of BIPV design options. By assuming a real case study with monitored data, the analysis will consider a breakdown of the main individual parts composing the building envelope, by then combining alternative re-configurations in merged clusters with different energy and construction goals. Results will highlight the correlation between building skin construction strategies and the energy and cost parameters by identifying the cornerstones for enhancing efficiency. The outcomes, related to the total life cost, self-consumption/sufficiency, in combination with different building design options (façade, roof, balconies, surface orientations, etc.), provide a practical insight for researchers and professionals to identify renovation strategies by synergistically exploiting the solar active parts towards lower global costs and higher energy efficiency of the whole building system.

Domain knowledge graph-based research progress of knowledge representation

Domain knowledge graph has become a research topic in the era of artificial intelligence. Knowledge representation is the key step to construct domain knowledge graph. There have been quite a few well-established general knowledge graphs. However, there are still gaps on the domain knowledge graph construction. The research introduces the related concepts of the knowledge representation and analyzes knowledge representation of knowledge graphs by category, which includes some classical general knowledge graphs and several typical domain knowledge graphs. The paper also discusses the development of knowledge representation in accordance with the difference of entities, relationships and properties. It also presents the unsolved problems and future research trends in the knowledge representation of domain knowledge graph study.

Exploring the Impact of Information and Communication Technology on Team Social Capital and Construction Project Performance

AbstractThis study aims to assess the impact of information and communication technology (ICT) on team social capital (SC) and project performance in the construction domain. A theoretical model of...

Horizontal directional drilling (HDD) alignment optimization using ant colony optimization

Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) is a trenchless method that consists in drilling an inclined and curved bore from an entry point to an exit point. In practice, HDD is designed iteratively by trial and error, to minimize the cost under geometric and mechanical constraints. In this paper, we optimize the drill path with continuous implementations of an Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) algorithm that sets the depth of the alignment and its entry and exit angles as the design parameters to optimize, to ensure minimal drill path length (cost), avoid collapse or instability (mechanical constraints) and remain in the construction domain (geometric constraint). We compare the ACO results to the drill paths designed in practice in two different scenarios: one in which the entry and exit points are fixed, and one in which the geometry of the central segment is constrained. Results show that ACO can be used to automate the otherwise time-consuming design process while minimizing the drill path length and the costs associated to it.

Dimensions over categories: a meta-analysis of taxometric research.

Taxometric procedures have been used extensively to investigate whether individual differences in personality and psychopathology are latently dimensional or categorical ('taxonic'). We report the first meta-analysis of taxometric research, examining 317 findings drawn from 183 articles that employed an index of the comparative fit of observed data to dimensional and taxonic data simulations. Findings supporting dimensional models outnumbered those supporting taxonic models five to one. There were systematic differences among 17 construct domains in support for the two models, but psychopathology was no more likely to generate taxonic findings than normal variation (i.e. individual differences in personality, response styles, gender, and sexuality). No content domain showed aggregate support for the taxonic model. Six variables - alcohol use disorder, intermittent explosive disorder, problem gambling, autism, suicide risk, and pedophilia - emerged as the most plausible taxon candidates based on a preponderance of independently replicated findings. We also compared the 317 meta-analyzed findings to 185 additional taxometric findings from 96 articles that did not employ the comparative fit index. Studies that used the index were 4.88 times more likely to generate dimensional findings than those that did not after controlling for construct domain, implying that many taxonic findings obtained before the popularization of simulation-based techniques are spurious. The meta-analytic findings support the conclusion that the great majority of psychological differences between people are latently continuous, and that psychopathology is no exception.

Competency and performance measures for organizations in the construction industry

Organizations operating in the construction industry seek to understand how to successfully identify and manage competencies, given the significant influence they have on performance. Thus, organizations need to explore new approaches for assessing and enhancing their competencies to improve their performance. This paper presents a review of past studies and identifies the most common organizational competency and performance measures. A focus group was conducted to evaluate and verify the list of identified competency and performance measures. The contributions of this paper are threefold. First, this paper addresses the lack of studies on organizational-level competencies specifically for the construction domain. Second, this paper identifies, categorizes, and ranks organizational competency and performance measures. Third, the categorization of competency and performance measures, verified by the focus group, provides organizations with a systematic method to evaluate their competencies and improve their performance.

Public and private blockchain in construction business process and information integration

Blockchain as an emergent decentralized digital technology has been widely explored in many sectors to remedy the deficiencies of centralized solutions It has been recognized that blockchain technology has great potential to facilitate business activities spanning the whole life cycle of a building project in the construction industry, such as better communication or understanding, documents sharing, stage transition and quality endorsement. A comprehensive review of the literature regarding the application of blockchain in the construction domain found that there are few studies and applications of blockchain in construction practices, and most of the current research involves qualitative studies only. In this paper, we aim to explore the feasibility of applying both public blockchain and private blockchain technologies in the construction industry using two industry cases. Two business process cases (i.e., Case 1 and Case 2) were selected and used to drive the blockchain-based software system architecture design. The proposed architectures were demonstrated using Hyperledger Fabric (a private, permissioned and open source blockchain platform) and Ethereum (a public blockchain platform) respectively, to reflect the different requirements of the two use cases. This pilot study also illustrates the process, benefits, and challenges of adopting private and public blockchain technologies in construction domain. This research provides insights to researchers and practitioners regarding the adoption of blockchain technology, especially in construction industry.

Exhausting all exact solutions of BPS domain wall networks in arbitrary dimensions

We obtain full moduli parameters for generic non-planar BPS networks of domain walls in an extended Abelian-Higgs model with $N$ complex scalar fields, and exhaust all exact solutions in the corresponding $\mathbb{C}P^{N -1}$ model. We develop a convenient description by grid diagrams which are polytopes determined by mass parameters of the model. To illustrate the validity of our method, we work out non-planar domain wall networks for lower $N$ in $3+1$ dimensions. In general, the networks can have compact vacuum bubbles, which are finite vacuum regions surrounded by domain walls, when the polytopes of the grid diagrams have inner vertices, and the size of bubbles can be controlled by moduli parameters. We also construct domain wall networks with bubbles in the shapes of the Platonic, Archimedean, Catalan, and Kepler-Poinsot solids.

Methodology for design decision support of cost-optimal zero-energy lightweight construction

The interest to find cost-optimal zero-energy solutions for building, using multi-objective optimization, has risen dramatically over the last decade. Accordingly, several studies have been carried out, proposing new methods and tools. None, however, has introduced a simplified approach that is viable by a broader range of users. This study addresses this lack, offering a methodology that supports the decision making process on cost-optimal zero energy building, using a novel approach, namely Multi-Objective Parametric Analysis (MOPA), rather than optimization algorithms. This study adds to the domain of roof stacking construction by setting the weight of construction as a third objective. The current methodology is applied to a newly developed theoretical Reference Building (RB) for a Belgian passive roof stacking house. Different options of the building’s superstructure components (walls, roof, and windows) have been examined. MOPA follows three consecutive steps: modeling setup, parametric simulation, and ends up with evaluation and selection. The results show cost-optimal zero-energy and lightweight packages of design variables for the building envelope.

Enabling Automatic LCA at Any Stage of the Building Based on Its BIM Model

The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of a whole building is a well-known process used to assess its environmental impact. The construction domain does not use this process at this time because it requires too much information and collecting it is very labor intensive. This paper identifies the information needed to perform an LCA at any level of development of a Building Information Modelling (BIM) model and proposes some solutions to fill the information gap of an early stage BIM model. After the required information is identified, the interoperability strategy is analyzed to propose a framework introducing a way to organize the LCA of a whole building, as well as a new file format to share information between BIM and LCA software. The proposed framework enables an LCA to be performed, without manual input, at every iteration of the BIM model. This framework was previously presented at the Creative Construction Conference 2019 and this paper is an extended version of that paper.

Determinants of Consumers' Perceived Experience Value in Relation to Online Organic Food Purchase

Organic food buying behavior is high involvement purchase and related to consumers' deeper value system. The decision-making is quiet complex due to its high price and lack of trustworthiness. Therefore, there is a need for separate and more engaging shopping platform, which can co-create a delightful and enjoyable shopping experience for the consumers. Literature does not give a clear understanding about the factors which can influence Consumers' Perceived Experience Value (CPEV). Hence the study aims to identify the drivers or the determinants of CPEV in relation to online organic food purchase. The objectives of this study are to identify the domain of constructs along with their respective items for CPEV and their relation through qualitative exploration and validate the items for respective construct through Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analysis. The study contributes a scale which can measure the constructs like Cognitive Engagement, Emotional Engagement, Behavioral Engagement, Telepresence, Willingness to co-create, Willingness to pay for Experience and Ease of Use in relation to online organic food purchase which was not available in the existing literature. This will be beneficial for the organic food producers to develop a digital marketing strategy and penetrate the market. The study will also help the service and experience designers to explore these opportunities and create a platform for the small-scale farmers and contribute in their livelihood development.

Cross-domain ontology construction and alignment from online customer product reviews

Online reviews often contain detailed sentiment towards different aspects of products and these opinions help consumers to be familiar with products. The introduction of domain ontology from online reviews may help consumers to obtain relevant information about products quickly. Nonetheless, they may compare products in multiple domains for purchase decisions. On this basis, the comparison of products in different domains induces that ontology alignment becomes a fundamental task to form a cross-domain ontology. However, due to large-scale text data and complex alignment mapping relations, many alignment algorithms are far from performing effectively. In this paper, a series of natural language processing approaches are applied to construct domain ontologies from online product reviews. Next, a new ontology alignment method is proposed to make purchase decisions regarding cross-domain product comparisons, in which a semantic-based algorithm and a structure-based algorithm are integrated to form a cross-domain ontology. Categories of experiments were conducted on reviews of smartphone and digital camera. Compared with benchmarked alignment tools, it shows that the proposed method yields to more accurate results. Finally, a case study with a customer friendly website is illustrated to present how the alignment of cross-domain ontology is able to help consumers on purchase decision support.

Marxism and the Debate on the Transition to Capitalism in Prewar Japan

After the Meiji Restoration in 1868, Japan rapidly industrialized, greatly raising its level of economic productivity. However, the peasants were kept in a state of hunger under a semifeudal agricultural system. How should this semi-feudality be understood? About this question arose a debate among Japanese Marxists in prewar Japan: the Debate on Japanese Capitalism. This article examines the methodologies of three analysists of Japanese capitalism focusing on the level of abstraction of the analysis of capitalism, whose ideas were derived from Hegel’s Logic and Marx’s methodology of downward analysis and upward development: Moritarō Yamada of Kōzaha, Itsurō Sakisaka of Rōnōha, and Kōzō Uno, who distanced himself from both sides. Uno criticized Yamada and Sakisaka for directly analyzing a particular Japanese capitalism with a highly general theory such as Capital, and proposed the Three-Stage Theory: the Pure Theory, which is based on the assumption of a pure capitalism, such as Marx’s Capital; the Stage Theory, which clarifies the historical developmental stage of capitalism, such as Lenin’s Imperialism (1917); and the Empirical Analysis, which analyzes capitalism in each country at a given time. However, Uno’s main concern was to analyze Japanese capitalism in the Stage Theory, doing little to further advance it in the Empirical Analysis. Therefore, this article divided the Empirical Analysis into two levels of abstraction: the domain of theoretical construction of Japanese Capitalism, such as Lenin’s Development of Capitalism in Russia (1899), and of data analysis of specific conditions of Japanese capitalism, such as Engels’ The Condition of the Working Class in England (1844), and thus proposed the Four-Stage Theory. It is a hypothesis for complementing Uno’s Three-Stage Theory, which should be further developed by data. Finally, such methodological consideration for analyzing capitalism is applicable to non-Japanese capitalist societies.

Field Test-Based UAS Operational Procedures and Considerations for Construction Safety Management: A Qualitative Exploratory Study

Current studies have focused on the exploration of the unmanned aircraft system (UAS) applications in the construction and infrastructure domains, such as progress monitoring, condition inspections, and particularly safety inspection. While their works have had significant contributions to highlighting the potential of the UAS technology, there are still gaps in the lack of operational considerations and workflows established to integrate the UAS into the current safety management program. To fill this gap, this study conducted field tests at commercial building construction worksite by adopting conceptually developed UAS flight protocol. A total of eight flights were performed to collect visual assets and provide for safety professionals at the jobsite with the insight of how this technology can be utilized in accordance with the developed workflow. A total of eight project personnel participated in the UAS flight test at their jobsite as well as post-flight interview to discuss how this technology can meet their safety management task goals. As the qualitative study, this paper narratively described the conceptual procedures consist of three different decision-making processes for ensuring the safe flight of the UAS: pre-flight, flight, and post-flight decision makings. Based on the potential users’ perceptions obtained during the field testing, this presented study focused on three different operational considerations: involving project-based, UAS’s capability and hardware specifications and UAS and project team-based aspects. The main goal of this study proposes a decision-driven workflow for UAS-integrated safety management that encourages sustainable and continuous improvement and documents the operational considerations related to this application. As the qualitative exploratory study, this research is limited to employ only one test-bed environment and the small number of interviewees. However, this study can contribute to a better understanding of the concerns, processes, and further recommendations to safely and effectively implement the UAS into the construction safety management program.