Frequent Inspection Research Articles

Leveraging Technology in Advancing Construction Workers Safety

Construction worker safety is a top priority in the construction business. It refers to the procedures, protocols, and practises put in place to ensure the safety and physical well-being of construction workers. Because of the presence of heavy gear, high work zones, and possible exposure to different dangers such as falls, equipment accidents, toxic chemicals, and structure collapses, construction sites are inherently hazardous settings. Safety for construction workers cannot be stressed. Construction safety is a guideline that construction safety managers follow and implement. It is the consequence of proper equipment use, worker safety, frequent site inspections, and risk assessments. Compliance with regional safety and health requirements is a critical component of construction safety. In many nations, ensuring worker safety is not just a moral imperative, but also a legal necessity. Construction businesses must offer a safe working environment and follow safety regulations and guidelines to avoid accidents, injuries, and fatalities. To reduce the occurrence of construction accidents and enhance the safety record of construction projects, dangerous elements must be identified by monitoring construction workers' behaviours. The aim of this study is to look at the implementation and adoption of technologies for construction workers safety as well as the opinions and perspectives of the construction industry towards these technologies.

Outcomes of pharmacy facility inspections: implications on pharmaceutical services

Abstract Objectives Good Pharmacy Practice (GPP) ensures access to quality medicines, a well-trained and adequate workforce of health professionals, and affordable healthcare. The Namibia Medicines Regulatory Council ensures the sale of medicines and the premises in which such sales are carried out comply with the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act of 2003. The purpose of this study was to report facility inspection outcomes. Methods This was a retrospective review of inspection records archived over a period of 5 years (2017–2021) by the Namibia Medicines Regulatory Council. Compliance by facilities to 13 indicators as stipulated in the Namibia Medicines Regulatory Council inspections checklist adopted from international GPP guidelines was the main measure of outcomes. Results were summarized using descriptive statistics such as median, range, and percentages in R. The Mann–Whitney U test was used to compare medians. Key findings General compliance by community pharmacies (operated by pharmacists) was statistically higher (P = .0043) than dispensaries at clinics (mostly operated by nurses) with median (range) values of 84% (30.8–100) and 38% (0.0–100), respectively. There was an improvement in compliance over the 5 years for both pharmacies and clinics. Conclusions The Ministry of Health & Social Services should implement policies that will ensure appropriately trained pharmaceutical cadres are stationed at all levels of the healthcare system to improve the delivery of pharmaceutical services. In addition, more inspectors need to be recruited for more frequent inspections.

Development of Artificial Stingless Bee Hive Monitoring using IoT System on Developing Colony

The trend of stingless bees’ farm in Malaysia has increased recently as it has been proven that its honey gives various benefits to human beings. This trend requires beekeepers to do more frequent inspections of beehives. However, the current practice of opening the cover to inspect the colony and honey will disrupt colony activity. According to a recent study, these stingless bees can only survive between 22 and 38 degrees Celsius, and harsh weather conditions might lead to the collapse of bee colonies. In order to ensure a consistent honey production, the IoT monitoring system will be implemented on an artificial stingless beehive. The system is equipped with an embedded system that utilizes a NodeMCU ESP8266, temperature and humidity sensors, and load cell sensors. Next, honey compartment weight, temperature and humidity inside stingless beehive, and temperature and humidity outside stingless beehive will be uploaded to the Internet of Things (IoT) platforms, namely Thingspeak and Cayenne. The data is sent to Thingspeak via the REST API while to Cayenne by the MQTT API. All data from the artificial stingless bee hive indicating the occurrence of colony rising and has been uploaded to the IoT platform. By analysing the data that were recorded for 13 days, all of the input data such as the weight of the honey compartment, the temperature in the hive, and the humidity in the hive, display its respective characteristics. For the honey compart weight, it has been found that the stingless bee colony is rising as a result of the increasing honey and colony in the compartment weight. Regarding the hive temperature, it has been determined that the temperature inside the hive is stable around 26°C to 38°C in normal weather conditions. Whereas for humidity inside the hive, it is remained between 76.5% and 85.6% due to the moisture from the honey inside the compartment. Lastly, these results indicate that the colony living in the artificial hive of stingless bees is healthy and growing.

Automated classification of “cluttered” construction housekeeping images through supervised and self-supervised feature representation learning

Construction housekeeping is crucial for safety, but frequent manual inspections are difficult to maintain. A computer vision approach to automatically monitor housekeeping can overcome these issues. However, it requires labelling large number of “cluttered” construction housekeeping images that are difficult to label, even by experts. Thus, this paper presents an alternative approach that evaluates the use of self-supervised learning feature extraction to classify “cluttered” construction housekeeping images. The most suitable (84% accuracy) backbone architecture for supervised classification of housekeeping images was found to be Swin-transformer. In addition, the experiments show that self-supervised learning approach can perform better (1–4% improvement in prediction accuracy, precision, and recall) than the supervised learning approach in a non-transfer learning context and when the number of training images is reduced.

Application of hybrid cement in passive fire protection of steel structures

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to determine the thermal conductivity of a protective layer of alkali-activated cement and the possibility of performing fire protection with fireclay sand and Lightweight mortar. Unprotected steel structures have generally low fire resistance and require surface protection. The design of passive protection of a steel element must consider the service life of the structure and the possible need to replace the fire protection layer. Currently, conventional passive protection options include intumescent coatings, which are subject to frequent inspection and renewal, gypsum and cement-based fire coatings and gypsum and cement board fire protection.Design/methodology/approachAlkali-activated cements provide an alternative to traditional Portland clinker-based materials for specific areas. This paper presents the properties of hybrid cement, its manufacturability for conventional mortars and the development of passive fire protection. Fire experiments were conducted with mortar with alkali-activated and fireclay sand and lightweight mortar with alkali-activated cement and expanded perlite. Fire experiment FE modelling.FindingsThe temperatures of the protected steel and the formation of cracks in the protective layer were investigated. Based on the experiments, the thermal conductivities of the two protective layers were determined. Conclusions are presented on the applicability of alkaline-activated cement mortars and the possibilities of applicability for the protection of steel structures. The functionality of the passive fire layer was confirmed and the strengths of the mortar used were determined. The use of alkali-activated cements was shown to be a suitable option for sustainable passive fire protection of steel structures.Originality/valueEco-friendly fire protection based on hybrid alkali-activated cement of steel members.

Experimental Study of the Effect of Patrol Inspection Strategy for Improving Detection Rate of Abnormality of Industrial Plants

Safe and stable operation is very important in large-scale plants. Patrol inspections are comprehensive and frequent on-site inspections and are indispensable works because early detection of a malfunction or failure of a component is desirable to achieve safe and stable operations. This study supposed that the detection rate of anomalies by patrol inspections is related with not only the amount of knowledge about plants but also the modalities such as vision and listening that are conscious during inspections. This study experimentally examined the difference in the detection rate of anomalies depending on patrol inspection strategies. In the experiment, a simulated small plant using the devices that are similar to plant components was constructed as a site for patrol inspections, and two types of patrol inspection strategies were examined: visual strategy that focuses on watching component conditions and auditory strategy that focuses on listening abnormal sounds. Fifteen volunteers participated in the experiment. The relationship between patrol inspection strategies and the approach and performance of patrol inspections were investigated by observing patrol inspection behaviors of participants and measuring their anomaly detection rates. As the results, although there was a small difference in the detection rate for visually detectable anomalies, the effect of the auditory strategy was suggested to improve the detection rate for not only auditory detectable anomalies but also visually detectable anomalies.

Innovative orthotropic deck strengthening design for the Suurhoff lifting bridge

AbstractFrom 2018, a significant amount of deck plate cracks have been discovered on the movable part of the Suurhoff bridge. These cracks reduce the strength of the bridge and might lead to unplanned hindrance and costly repairs. Renovation of the ortho‐tropic steel deck was chosen instead of frequent inspections and repairs or replacing the structure from a risk and cost perspective.The innovative strengthening scheme consists of the addition of a steel plate which is connected to the top of the existing deck plate by a combination of preloaded‐injection bolts and epoxy. The strengthening steel plate reduces the stress in the existing deck plate thereby improving the fatigue performance. The new and old steel work compositely due to the combined effect of bolts and epoxy resulting in a relatively light‐weight strengthening scheme. The design followed a risk‐based approach in which Arup closely collaborated with Rijkswaterstaat, contractors and research institutions to finish the full design and implementation in less than a year. The design objective is to provide at least 15 years additional fatigue life for the existing deck.The design was developed with the help of a combined numerical and experimental campaign. The novelty of the strengthening scheme and the use of different materials required experimental validation on small and large scale. The extensive validation resulted in sufficient confidence for the Rijkswaterstaat to implement this innovative scheme on an important bridge in The Netherlands. This scheme is especially beneficial from a weight and construction time perspective and therefore suitable for further implementation on other bridges.

Real-time instance-level detection of asphalt pavement distress combining space-to-depth (SPD) YOLO and omni-scale network (OSNet)

Pavements function as protective layers for roads and require frequent inspection and maintenance throughout their service life. This paper describes an intelligent pavement distress inspection system that uses an enhanced version of the ‘you only look once’ (YOLO) model and an omni-scale network (OSNet) to instantly capture road surface distress images and their precise locations. The YOLO model was evaluated on a dataset comprising 9749 pavement distress images, with the detected distress serving as an input for feature extraction and instance-level recognition through OSNet. The OSNet model achieved a mean average precision (mAP) of 99.4% for a dataset containing 398 individual distress instances. The proposed methods were successfully integrated into a pavement distress inspection vehicle. Field experiments demonstrated the real-time capability and high efficiency of the system, with significant improvement in road maintenance inspection efficiency

Low-cost inspection tool for identifying illegal tapping

Pipelines for fuel transportation range in length from hundreds to thousands of kilometers, with part of their length underground. Due to the high cost of the fluids and products transported an increasing number of criminal activities are taking place all over the world. In addition to causing great economic and environmental losses the illegal activity brings risks to the surrounding population. For example, the accident in Tlahuelilpan, Mexico, due to illegal tapping, resulted in the tragedy of hundreds of deaths. In order to combat such activities, many efforts have been employed to early detect and locate illegal tapping in pipelines. The great challenge of such inspections is the unpredictable activity of the clandestine taps, requiring frequent inspections. Usual pipeline inspection tools, such as ultrasound or MFL (Magnetic Flux Leakage) PIG’s, are sensitive for detecting and positioning the anomalies, however, the high operating costs make the recurring application of such tools unfeasible. Focusing on these challenges, a low-cost inspection tool embedded with a minimalist eddy current instrumentation was developed. The results achieved show the capability to detect and differentiate the components existing in the pipeline and illegal taps of different diameters as well as, in a complementary way, the detection of corrosion on the internal surface of the pipelines.

Effects of regulatory burden and corruption on firm performance: Evidence from Moldova

AbstractFirms in Moldova face a high level of regulatory burden, as proxied by the number of inspections by public authorities. At the same time, they face high levels of corruption. We examine the effect of frequent inspections on four measures of firm performance: labour and total factor productivity, and levels of tangible and intangible assets. We also investigate how corruption affects the relationship between inspections and firm performance. We perform panel data analysis using firm‐level administrative data and survey data from Moldova in 2005–2015. The results show that inspections and corruption each affect firm productivity negatively, but corruption moderates the negative effect of inspections. We also find that inspections and intangible assets are positively correlated, but this correlation is weaker for higher levels of corruption. Finally we examine whether these results differ by industry, firm size and ownership types. Inspections and corruption affect medium and large firms, and state‐owned enterprises differently from micro and small firms and private firms respectively.

Surface Defect Detection for Automated Tape Laying and Winding Based on Improved YOLOv5.

To address the issues of low detection accuracy, slow detection speed, high missed detection rate, and high false detection rate in the detection of surface defects on pre-impregnated composite materials during the automated tape laying and winding process, an improved YOLOv5 (You Only Look Once version 5) algorithm model was proposed to achieve the high-precision, real-time detection of surface defects. By leveraging this improvement, the necessity for frequent manual interventions, inspection interventions, and subsequent rework during the automated lay-up process of composite materials can be significantly reduced. Firstly, to improve the detection accuracy, an attention mechanism called "CA (coordinate attention)" was introduced to enhance the feature extraction ability, and a Separate CA structure was used to improve the detection speed. Secondly, we used an improved loss function "SIoU (SCYLLA-Intersection over Union) loss" to replace the original "CIoU (Complete-Intersection over Union) loss", which introduced an angle loss as a penalty term to consider the directional factor and improve the stability of the target box regression. Finally, Soft-SIoU-NMS was used to replace the original NMS (non-maximum suppression) of YOLOv5 to improve the detection of overlapping defects. The results showed that the improved model had a good detection performance for surface defects on pre-impregnated composite materials during the automated tape laying and winding process. The FPS (frames per second) increased from 66.7 to 72.1, and the mAP (mean average precision) of the test set increased from 92.6% to 97.2%. These improvements ensured that the detection accuracy, as measured by the mAP, surpassed 95%, while maintaining a detection speed of over 70 FPS, thereby meeting the requirements for real-time online detection.

Field Efficacy, Sub-lethal, and Biochemical Effects of Certain Biorational Insecticides Against the New Intruder, Spodoptera frugiperda in Bani-Suef, Upper Egypt

Frequent inspections on sorghum and maize crops during seasons of 2021 and 2022 in some regions in Bani-Suef governorate, Egypt, discovered unprecedented invasions of Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith). Accordingly, our study on Beauveria bassiana and spinetoram was supporter to the Food and Agriculture Organization’s tendency in adopting biorational insecticides against S. frugiperda in Egypt. Exposure toxicity of LC25 values at 48 h of B. bassiana were 2.7 × 106 and 5.2 × 106 conidia mL−1 and spinetoram were 0.019 and 0.048 mg L−1 against the 2nd and 4th instar larvae laboratory strain of S. frugiperda, respectively. Sub-lethal effects (LC25) were accomplished on biological parameters against both instar larvae. LC25 of B. bassiana reduced adult emergency (89.91 and 91.05%) more than spinetoram (75.99 and 79.49%) against the 2nd and 4th instar larvae, respectively. The 2nd instar larvae exposed to LC25 of B. bassiana suppressed female fecundity (0.00 eggs) more than spinetoram (19.74 eggs). Enzymatic activity of lipase in hemolymph, fat bodies, and mid-gut of the 4th instars at 48 h showed significant drop in B. bassiana more than spinetoram. Glutathione-S-transferase (GST) levels in hemolymph for both insecticides were equal and exceeded the control. Fat bodies and mid-gut possessed the highest GST activity in B. bassiana followed by spinetoram and the control. Residual efficacy of spinetoram exceled B. bassiana at their field rates under semi-field condition in Bani-Suef along the two seasons of maize crop against both instars. Eventually, B. bassiana alongside spinetoram could afford good control especially on early instar larvae of S. frugiperda.

Barriers and Facilitators Related to Nasal Injury Among Preterm Neonates in Selected Neonatal Units of a Tertiary Care Centre, North India

Introduction Preterm neonates require Non-invasive Respiratory Support (NiRS) because of underdeveloped lungs to administer pressurized oxygen for a long duration. The interface used to deliver NiRS can cause pressure injury at the nasal surface, septum, and bridge. Preterm neonates are more vulnerable to such injuries due to immature skin and septum. It is the responsibility of Health Care Professionals (HCPs) to prevent nasal injury through the implementation of evidence-based practices and innovative techniques to secure nasal interfaces. Objectives (1) To find out the barriers and facilitators related to nasal injury among preterm neonates in selected neonatal units of a Tertiary Care Centre, in North India. (2) To seek the remedial measures suggested by HCPs to prevent nasal injury. Methodology After obtaining permission from the head of the department of neonatology, covert participatory observations related to existing practices were made using an observation checklist. Focused Group Discussions (FGDs) were conducted with HCPs (Nursing Officers-43 and Physicians-10) and audio-recorded. Out of the total of eight FGDs, three were conducted with physicians in a group of 2–4 members and the remaining five with nursing officers in a group of 8–9 members, each of 15–20 min duration. FGD guide was used as a tool to guide the discussion. The qualitative data were analyzed by using Van Manen’s approach. Result The barriers identified were related to supplies, staff, and administration. Supplies include limited hospital supply of RAM cannula, reuse of hard ethylene oxide sterilized RAM cannula, lack of adequate size head caps; staff includes lack of awareness regarding the implications and effect of nasal injury among healthcare professionals, variable documentation of nasal injury; administration: no standard guidelines and lack of regular audits to prevent nasal injury. The facilitator suggested were motivated healthcare professionals. Suggested remedial measures were the availability of appropriate size RAM cannula, stockinette head caps, self-motivation, frequent inspection and early identification of nasal injury, staff education, and standard protocol of measures for nasal injury prevention. Conclusion There are concrete barriers and limited facilitators. There is a need to incorporate the suggested remedial measures to address barriers to preventing nasal injury among preterm neonates.

Data mining hive inspections: more frequently inspected honey bee colonies have higher over-winter survival rates

Honey bee colonies frequently suffer from high over-winter losses attributed to various factors, including management, poor nutrition, pests, pathogens, and parasites. Most beekeepers have only limited control over these factors. This study looks at the role of the number and timing of hive inspections in relation to over-winter losses, which beekeepers can largely control. The impact of hive inspections on over-winter survival is usually difficult to measure in traditional studies due to confounding factors, including geography, sample size, and variability in practices. This study mines data collected, anonymized and shared from an apiary management software system and includes data from 4,072 hives managed by 717 beekeepers across the continental United States (U.S.) over a five-year period from (2013–2018), consisting of 60,920 inspections to identify the relationship between hive inspections and over-winter survival. Hives are grouped into nine climate zones deemed similar by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA), and inspections were grouped by season for analysis. Results suggest that more frequent hive inspections are associated with higher over-winter survival rates across most U.S. regions. Unexpectedly, this also includes having relatively more inspections during the winter months in every region. Also, surprisingly only one of the nine climatic regions had significantly different average over-winter survival rates despite the significant geographic and climate difference across the continental U.S. This finding suggests that other factors like management actions may be more important to over-winter survival rates than climate. Finally, this inspection analysis shows that the number of inspections performed by beekeepers is a relevant factor in predicting over-winter hive mortality.

BIM interoperability in the maintenance planning process for existing buildings

One of the main difficulties inherent to the process of maintenance and management of existing assets is the lack of plans and project documents that allow a study and even an understanding of how the structure of the building works. In addition to the lack of records of changes made that may have altered the structure of heritage buildings over time. This makes it difficult to analyze interventions, to treat possible problems that may evolve into more worrying pathologies that put at risk the useful life of the property. Older buildings require more frequent inspections in order to carry out interventions that can extend their service life. Having all records of maintenance and inspections is essential for better planning future interventions. The usage of BIM technology in maintenance planning and management of existing buildings is becoming increasingly popular. This study proposes a methodology to efficiently use BIM technology in the phase of use, operation, and maintenance of buildings. Navisworks Manage software is used as a key alternative for information visualization and management, taking advantage of the interoperability inherent in the BIM process through IFC. The methodology involves the collection of data, modeling of the structure, linking maintenance sheets to each respective structural element of the 3D model, visualization of the 3D model in Navisworks Manage, and generation of 2D projects with indications of problems identified in the field. The proposed methodology improves the accuracy and dynamic nature of the maintenance planning process, allowing better control of inspection and maintenance records over time. The ease and security of data stored in real-time in online spreadsheets ensure the recording of information in an accessible and integrated way, which can be used in planning and reform processes over time. It enables the adoption of a preventive approach that favors and provides essential information for future maintenance. The proposed methodology can be adapted and reproduced for application in other design disciplines like architecture and complementary designs. The proposed methodology was used for the visualization and documentation of the 3D model referring to the as-built of SG-12. This case study is part of the set of General Services Sheds of the University of Brasília, which besides being an old building in the process of being listed as cultural heritage, has undergone several changes over time. The methodology developed and the result of the documentation of the data are presented in detail.

Getting Ready for Foot Care Certification: Implementing Off-loading Interventions to Prevent or Manage Injury.

Getting Ready for Foot Care Certification: Implementing Off-loading Interventions to Prevent or Manage Injury.

Probabilistic condition assessment of reinforced concrete sanitary sewer pipelines using LiDAR inspection data

Frequent inspections of reinforced concrete sanitary sewer pipelines (RCSSPs) are crucial for performing a proper life cycle management strategy; however, due to the large inventory of SSPs, only limited inspection data is typically available. In this work, a data-driven method for condition assessment of RCSSPs is developed in a probabilistic framework, wherein the pipe wall erosion is evaluated using LiDAR inspection data. Results indicate that the deteriorated inner concrete wall geometry of RCSSPs is best characterized by the half-normal probability density function (PDF). The final product of the proposed condition assessment algorithm is a probabilistic estimate of remaining service life using the inspection LiDAR point cloud data (PCD). The effect of different reliability methods are compared with the proposed methodology. The results are validated using available closed-circuit television (CCTV) images, previous research that employs the same inspection data, and Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS) method. The proposed algorithm provides an automated framework that can be utilized with any PCD associated with non-destructive inspections.

Landscaping Methods to Prevent Pests from Entering Your Home

Pests can damage your home and harm your health. Two important ways to reduce pest entry into your home are frequent inspections and proper landscaping practices. To ensure complete success, Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program must be implemented. IPM resources for common landscape pests are provided at the end of this publication for further information and convenience. This publication is intended for homeowners, Extension professionals, and anyone interested in preventing pests from entering the built environment.

Longitudinal assessment of the impact of aging on wastage, productivity and welfare of ewes

Retention of aging ewes is a strategy producers may use to maintain or increase flock size. Older ewes can have a higher risk of mortality and health issues, but these may be minimised with early intervention and culling. This retrospective study examined the incidence and causes of mortality and culling in a flock of Merino ewes as they aged from 4.5 to 5.5 until 9.5 to 10.5 years. The annual rate of ewe mortality ranged from 6.2% to 9.9%, with lambing complications being the major source of reported loss. Annual culling rates ranged from 1.6% to 42.8%, the larger rates reflecting opportunistic replacement with younger ewes rather than essential culling to maintain welfare and productivity. The major reasons for culling were low condition score, worn or missing teeth or faulty udders. The incidence of other faults was low. Only 18.3% of ewes remained when aged 9.5-10.5 years and these were fertile (89% pregnant) with a high proportion of multiple fetuses (52%) in their final year, although fleece weight had declined. Younger ewes born in 2004/2005 tended to have lower annual mortality rates than the aged ewes, but 8%-12% were still culled annually. It is concluded that an annual inspection pre-joining of all ewes and preventative culling for health issues is necessary to minimise any increase in mortality and risk to ewe welfare from retaining aging ewes. More frequent inspection will be required as potential health issues develop during the year, as these may not be evident pre-joining.

Environmental Pollution from Injudicious Application of Pesticides: Bangladesh Context

The recent trend of Pesticide use is accelerating for agricultural production purposes. Its importance is immense for controlling pests in developing countries like Bangladesh. But the imprudent application is increasing at an alarming rate due to which environmental degradation is increasing, which is not still under investigation. Despite the various pest control methods, chemical pesticides (hereafter pesticides) are more popular among Bangladeshi farmers because of their low cost and rapid action. The continuous popularity of pesticides application adversely affects the environment, and eventually, human throughout the country. Hence a systematic review was initiated utilizing the secondary information to overview the hazardous impact or prevailed pollution due to the application of pesticides in the context of the environment, related organisms, and human health. The analysis revealed that pollution-related problem arises mostly due to the unregulated use of pesticides. Therefore, excessive pesticide usage such as pollutes the air, soil, and water and kills non-target organisms, causing an ecological imbalance. Lack of protection exposes farmers to acute illnesses, toxic compounds in the food cycle, and the mass population to chronic health issues. Thus, to minimize pesticides' environmental, and health effects, concerns should be given on the judicious application of pesticides, raising awareness regarding pesticide use. Policymakers should focus on raising awareness regarding the use of pesticides, implementing effective pesticide usage laws at the root level, optimizing reasonable use, participatory program implementation for farmers' training, good governance and regulatory mechanisms, frequent inspection at the field level, and appropriate actions and strategies for promoting eco-friendly methods.