International Facility Research Articles

Awareness and utilisation of building information modelling (BIM) for facility management (FM) in a developing economy

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the awareness and utilisation of building information modelling (BIM) for facility management (FM) among FM companies in Lagos, Nigeria. This was with a view of increasing the awareness level and promoting adoption of BIM in FM practice.Design/methodology/approachPrimary data used for the study were sourced through questionnaire administered on the 37 FM companies that are corporate members of International Facility Management Association in Lagos, Nigeria. Frequency distribution and relative significance index were used for data analysis.FindingsFindings of the study suggest a low level of awareness and adoption of BIM for FM in the study area. Only 2 of the 31 FM companies surveyed were using BIM for their FM services. Also, the majority of the respondents (n = 22, 71 per cent) perceived that the awareness of BIM in the facilities management industry in Nigeria is very low.Practical implicationsThe findings of this study provided industry stakeholders with information on the level of awareness and utilisation of BIM for FM practice in Nigeria, thereby giving insights on the possible integration of BIM with FM practices in developing countries.Originality/valueThe paper is a pioneer research on the awareness and utilisation of BIM for facilities management from the perspective of an emerging property market like Nigeria.

The Impact of Digitization and Digital Data Mobilization on Biodiversity Research and Outreach

The first two decades of the 21st Century have seen a rapid rise in the creation, mobilization, research, and educational use of digital museum data, especially in the natural and biodiversity sciences. This has thrust natural history museums and especially the biodiversity specimen collections they hold into the forefront of biodiversity research in systematics, ecology, and conservation, underscoring their central role in the modern scientific enterprise. The advent of such digitization and data mobilization initiatives as the United States National Science Foundation’s Advancing the Digitization of Biodiversity Collections program (ADBC), Australia’s Atlas of Living Australia (ALA), Mexico’s National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity (CONABIO), Brazil’s Centro de Referência em Informação (CRIA), Europe’s SYNTHESYS, and China’s National Specimen Information Infrastructure (NSII) has led to a rapid rise in regional, national, and international digital data aggregators and has precipitated an exponential increase in the availability of digital data for scientific research. The international Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) now serves about 130 million museum specimen records, and Integrated Digitized Biocollections (iDigBio), the U.S. national biodiversity portal, has amassed over 109 million records representing over 300 million specimens that are international in scope. These digital resources raise the profiles of museums, expose collections to a wider audience of systematic and conservation researchers, provide the best biodiversity data in the modern era outside of nature itself, and ensure that specimen-based research remains at the forefront of the biodiversity sciences. Here we provide a brief overview of worldwide digital data generation and mobilization, the impact of these data on biodiversity research, new data underscoring the impact of worldwide digitization initiatives on citation in scientific publications, and evidence of the roles these activities play in raising the public and scientific profiles of natural history collections.

Developing facilities management (FM) competencies for Malaysia

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the significance of facilities management (FM) competency levels from three different stages, namely, strategic, tactical and operational levels, to propose a set of FM competencies for an enhanced FM industry in Malaysia.Design/methodology/approachThe overall focus for this paper is to discuss on the area for each level of competencies for asset and facilities management (AFM). This is done through a questionnaire survey focusing on the competency areas posed by FM companies in Malaysia and a comparison review of all FM levels as outlined by the international professional bodies, namely, International Facility Management Association, British Institute of Facilities Management and Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors. This paper also looks at formulating a holistic framework for an effective AFM for the benefit of FM industry in general and Malaysian FM industry specifically.FindingsThe findings indicate that among the significant factors for the respective strategic, tactical and operational practice of FM are strategic: managing change, benchmarking and strategic facilities planning; tactical: risk management, emergency preparedness, FM technology, service-level agreement and supply management; and operational: space planning and management. This study also proposes a set of holistic FM competency areas which can be implemented by the FM industry in Malaysia.Originality/valueThis research sets a baseline for a set of FM competencies, an area of FM which has not been regulated in the FM practice in Malaysia.

Speculative Volcanology

In 2009, exploratory drilling of geothermal wells in Iceland’s Krafla volcanic caldera unexpectedly struck magma. The fact that the encounter didn’t have catastrophic consequences has excited considerable interest - and an international research facility is now being set up to explore energy generation and other possibilities of closer engagement with magma. We take this event as an incitement to explore how the Earth-changing `violence’ of volcanic or igneous processes might be seen not simply as happening in time, but as both generative and destructive of time itself. We approach volcanism through the construct of a `speculative geology’ that draws on a recent return to metaphysical themes in philosophy as well as a growing interest in geological processes in the arts, humanities and popular culture. In this way, alongside cause-effect relations, we explore the more enigmatic processes through which subterranean geological forces offer an excessive potentiality from which humans and other life forms select and actualise a narrower range of creative or generative possibilities. The paper explores three significant volcanic episodes: a series of massive magma extrusions around 1.9 billion years ago linked to the ascendance of multicellular life, volcanism present in the East African Rift during pivotal phases of human evolution and the volcanic activity of the early-mid Holocene viewed as a contextual factor in the emergence of ancient practices of artisanal pyrotechnology. Our reading of the dynamic and violent interchange between the inner and outer Earth in these examples points to a non-self-identical planetary condition, on which the very structure of temporality emerges through a play of destruction and generativity. In this light, we circle back on the Krafla project to consider questions of risk, uncertainty and responsibility that attend the potential new interface with the underworld of magma.

Optimization of the Radiation Resistant Quadrupole Magnets for the SIS100 Accelerator of the FAIR Project

The SIS100 is a charged particle accelerator developed as a part of the challenging international project Facility for Anti-proton and Ion Research taking place in Darmstadt, Germany. The ion optics of the SIS100 accelerator includes superconducting and normal conducting quadrupole magnets. To fulfill the requirements of the field quality in the magnet aperture, it is necessary to find an optimal pole tip shape as well as an optimal configuration of the coil system. Requirements for radiation resistant magnets installed in the extraction section of the SIS100 accelerator combine high quality of the field distribution, maximum field intensity at the pole tip of more than 1.3 T, and a wide range of the flux density variation. We used a specially developed optimization procedure for designing the magnet cross section. The pole border line is described by a superposition of hyperbolic functions corresponding to different Fourier components of the magnetic field expansion. Strong correlation between amplitudes of the pole shape and field harmonics enables high performance of the optimization algorithms. The developed procedures have been used for designing a quadrupole magnet with especially wide range of the flux density variation. Integral 3-D properties of the developed quadrupoles were ensured by optimization of the magnet end chamfers.

Pre-Analysis of Service Quality Design for Intercultural Care Service Facilities by International Medical Aid

This paper presents a rough design of service system for international care service facilities proposed to be constructed in developing areas or countries by the financial and technical aid from developed areas or countries. A main problem is how to fill the cultural gap between care providers and care recipients, both in human service aspects and information-technological aspects. Here, "culture” includes language, food, custom, art, value system, religion, and the views of life and death. Information technology is expected to narrow the medico-technical gap between developed and developing areas or countries. Further, information exchange or frequent communication with the homeland or home countries of care service recipients is expected to mitigate their loneliness in distance from their homeland. Further, the administrative, legal and other formal barriers like the health insurance and the visa system are discussed

Adherence of physical therapy with clinical practice guidelines for the rehabilitation of stroke in an active inpatient setting

Background: Clinical guidelines are systematically developed statements designed to help practitioners and patients to make decisions about appropriate health care. Clinical practice guideline adherence analysis is the best way to fine tune the best practices in a health care industry with international benchmarks.Objective: To assess the physical therapist’s adherence to structured stroke clinical practice guidelines in an active inpatient rehabilitation center in Qatar.Setting: Department of Physical therapy in the stroke rehabilitation tertiary referral hospital in Qatar.Method: A retrospective chart audit was performed on the clinical records of 216 stroke patients discharged from the active inpatient stroke rehabilitation unit with a diagnosis of stroke in 2016. The audit check list was structured to record the adherence of the assessment, goal settings and the management domains as per the “Physical Therapy After Acute Stroke” (PAAS) guideline.Result: Of the 216 case files identified during the initial search, 127 files were ultimately included in the audit. Overall adherence to the clinical practice guideline was 71%, a comparable rate with the studies analyzing the same in various international health care facilities. Domains which were shared by interdisciplinary teams than managed by physical therapy alone and treatments utilizing sophisticated technology had lower adherence with the guideline. A detailed strength and weakness breakdown were then conducted.Conclusion: This audit provides an initial picture of the current adherence of physical therapy assessment and management with the stroke physical therapy guideline at a tertiary rehabilitation hospital in the state of Qatar. An evaluation of the guideline adherence and practice variations helps to fine tune the physical therapy care to a highest possible standard of practice.Implications for Rehabilitation • An evaluation of the guideline adherence and practice variations helps to fine tune the rehabilitation care to the highest possible standard of practice. • Proper assessments of the relationship between the process of rehabilitation care and outcomes with a comprehensive set of process indicators will improve the quality of the care. • An agreement needs to be established between rehabilitation teams engage in interdisciplinary stroke care regarding the shared responsibilities and team functioning. • It is recommendable to develop a specialty based clinical practice guidelines that can be aligned at a higher ‘comprehensive rehabilitation level’ to provide the best possible and evidence based stroke care.

The PANDA Barrel DIRC

The PANDA experiment at the international accelerator Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research in Europe (FAIR) near GSI, Darmstadt, Germany will address fundamental questions of hadron physics. Excellent Particle Identification (PID) over a large range of solid angles and particle momenta will be essential to meet the objectives of the rich physics program. Charged PID for the barrel region of the PANDA target spectrometer will be provided by a DIRC (Detection of Internally Reflected Cherenkov light) detector. The Barrel DIRC will cover the polar angle range of 22̂–140̂ and cleanly separate charged pions from kaons for momenta between 0.5 GeV/c and 3.5 GeV/c with a separation power of at least 3 standard deviations. The design is based on the successful BABAR DIRC and the SuperB FDIRC R&D with several important improvements to optimize the performance for PANDA, such as a focusing lens system, fast timing, a compact fused silica prism as expansion region, and lifetime-enhanced Microchannel-Plate PMTs for photon detection. This article describes the technical design of the PANDA Barrel DIRC and the result of the design validation using a “vertical slice” prototype in hadronic particle beams at the CERN PS.

Engineering survey planning for the alignment of a particle accelerator: part II. Design of a reference network and measurement strategy

The building blocks of particle accelerators are magnets responsible for keeping beams of charged particles at a desired trajectory. Magnets are commonly grouped in support structures named girders, which are mounted on vertical and horizontal stages. The performance of this type of machine is highly dependent on the relative alignment between its main components. The length of particle accelerators ranges from small machines to large-scale national or international facilities, with typical lengths of hundreds of meters to a few kilometers. This relatively large volume together with micrometric positioning tolerances make the alignment activity a classical large-scale dimensional metrology problem. The alignment concept relies on networks of fixed monuments installed on the building structure to which all accelerator components are referred. In this work, the Sirius accelerator is taken as a case study, and an alignment network is optimized via computational methods in terms of geometry, densification, and surveying procedure. Laser trackers are employed to guide the installation and measure the girders’ positions, using the optimized network as a reference and applying the metric developed in part I of this paper. Simulations demonstrate the feasibility of aligning the 220 girders of the Sirius synchrotron to better than 0.080 mm, at a coverage probability of 95%.

Modeling international facility location under uncertainty: A review, analysis, and insights

ABSTRACTIn this article, we focus on international facility location models. First, we conduct an extensive literature review on the subject and we propose a classification of the surveyed papers. The classification includes the modeling approach used, international factors, as well as dynamic and stochastic aspects of the approach. Based on the literature review, we find that international facility location problems received little attention. In particular, dynamic facility location models under uncertainty have been hardly studied. Therefore, we develop a stochastic dynamic international facility location model, using a Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP) formulation. Through a case study, we show that international factors, as well as the dynamic and stochastic components of the problem, might influence strategic location decisions. We also quantify the added value of using a stochastic model instead of a deterministic counterpart and we derive insights regarding policies that governments can use to attract investments.

Stellarator Research Opportunities: A Report of the National Stellarator Coordinating Committee

This document is the product of a stellarator community workshop, organized by the National Stellarator Coordinating Committee and referred to as Stellcon, that was held in Cambridge, Massachusetts in February 2016, hosted by MIT. The workshop was widely advertised, and was attended by 40 scientists from 12 different institutions including national labs, universities and private industry, as well as a representative from the Department of Energy. The final section of this document describes areas of community wide consensus that were developed as a result of the discussions held at that workshop. Areas where further study would be helpful to generate a consensus path forward for the US stellarator program are also discussed. The program outlined in this document is directly responsive to many of the strategic priorities of FES as articulated in “Fusion Energy Sciences: A Ten-Year Perspective (2015–2025)” [1]. The natural disruption immunity of the stellarator directly addresses “Elimination of transient events that can be deleterious to toroidal fusion plasma confinement devices” an area of critical importance for the US fusion energy sciences enterprise over the next decade. Another critical area of research “Strengthening our partnerships with international research facilities,” is being significantly advanced on the W7-X stellarator in Germany and serves as a test-bed for development of successful international collaboration on ITER. This report also outlines how materials science as it relates to plasma and fusion sciences, another critical research area, can be carried out effectively in a stellarator. Additionally, significant advances along two of the Research Directions outlined in the report; “Burning Plasma Science: Foundations—Next-generation research capabilities”, and “Burning Plasma Science: Long pulse—Sustainment of Long-Pulse Plasma Equilibria” are proposed.

Status of the NICA project at JINR

The NICA (Nuclotron-based Ion Collider fAcility) is the new international research facility under construction at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna. The main targets of the facility are the following: 1) study of hot and dense baryonic matter at the energy range of the maximum baryonic density; 2) investigation of nucleon spin structure and polarization phenomena; 3) development of JINR accelerator facility for high energy physics research based on the new collider of relativistic ions from protons to gold and polarized protons and deuterons as well with the maximum collision energy of √SNN ~11GeV (Au79+ +Au79+) and ~ 27 GeV (p+p). Two collider detector setups MPD and SPD are foreseen. The setup BM@N (Baryonic Matter at Nuclotron) is commissioned for data taken at the existing Nuclotron beam fixed target area. The MPD construction is in progress whereas the SPD is still at the beginning design stage. An average luminosity of the collider is expected at the level of 1027 cm-2 s-1 for Au79+ and 1032 cm-2 s-1 for polarized protons at 27 GeV. The status of NICA design and construction work is briefly described below.

Status of NICA

The NICA (Nuclotron-based Ion Collider fAcility) is the new international research facility under construction at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna. The main targets of the facility are the following: 1) study of hot and dense baryonic matter at the energy range of the maximum baryonic density; 2) investigation of nucleon spin structure and polarization phenomena; 3) development of JINR accelerator facility for high energy physics research based on the new collider of relativistic ions from protons to gold and polarized protons and deuterons as well with the maximum collision energy of sqrt(sNN) ~11GeV (Au79+ +Au79+) and ~ 27 GeV (p+p). Two collider detector setups MPD and SPD are foreseen. The setup BM@N (Baryonic Matter at Nuclotron) is commissioned for data taken at the existing Nuclotron beam fixed target area. The MPD construction is in progress whereas the SPD is still at the beginning design stage. An average luminosity of the collider is expected at the level of 1027 cm-2 s-1 for Au (79+) and 1032 cm-2 s-1 for polarized protons at 27 GeV. The status of NICA design and construction work is briefly described below.

Detection of inter-turn faults in transformer winding using the capacitor discharge method

AbstractThe paper presents results of an analysis of inter-turn fault effects on the voltage and current waveforms of a capacitor discharge through transformer windings. The research was conducted in the frame of the Facility of Antiproton and Ion Research project which goal is to build a new international accelerator facility that utilizes superconducting magnets. For the sake of electrical quality assurance of the superconducting magnet circuits, a measurement and diagnostic system is currently under development at Gdansk University of Technology (GUT). Appropriate measurements and simulations of the special transformer system were performed to verify the proposed diagnostic method. In order to take into account the nonlinearity and hysteresis of the magnetic yoke, a novel mathematical model of the transformer was developed. A special test bench was constructed to emulate the inter-turn faults within transformer windings.

Orbital effect of the magnetic field in dynamical mean-field theory

The availability of large magnetic fields at international facilities and of simulated magnetic fields that can reach the flux-quantum-per-unit-area level in cold atoms, calls for systematic studies of orbital effects of the magnetic field on the self-energy of interacting systems. Here we demonstrate theoretically that orbital effects of magnetic fields can be treated within single-site dynamical mean-field theory with a translationally invariant quantum impurity problem. As an example, we study the one-band Hubbard model on the square lattice using iterated perturbation theory as an impurity solver. We recover the expected quantum oscillations in the scattering rate and we show that the magnetic fields allow the interaction-induced effective mass to be measured through the single-particle density of states accessible in tunneling experiments. The orbital effect of magnetic fields on scattering becomes particularly important in the Hofstadter butterfly regime.

U.S. FDA targets illegal online drug sales

As part of the International Internet Week of Action Sept. 12–19, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration cracked down on fraudulent websites selling illegal prescription drugs, including opioids. These are some of the results of FDA’s actions. 13 warning letters sent to website operators 401 websites targeted ~100 website domains seized ~500 parcels at international mail facilities confiscated

Medical Tourism as a New Form of Niche Tourism in Egypt

Medical Tourism is an occasion where people who live in one country travel to another country to receive medical treatment, dental or surgical care. It is a growing new niche market in developing countries, where they can expand tourism products and maximize revenues. Recently, Egypt has emerged as a new medical destination through the innovation ‘Tour n' Cure’, which motivates patients of Hepatitis ‘C’ to visit Egypt to receive affordable medical tourism packages. The study primary aim is to examine the contemporary growth of ‘medical tourism’, where medical treatment is deliberately associated with tourism. Moreover, the research explored international tourists’ perception of medical tourism in Egypt. A questionnaire survey was conducted among a random sample drawn from tourists who used medical services in Egypt. The findings indicated that most of the tourists who visited Egypt for medical purpose were from Arab and Muslim countries, where they receive high quality medical services at international standards medical facilities at affordable prices, while staying in a first class accommodation and enjoying Egypt tourists’ attractions.

The Global Imaginary of International School Communities: a Case Study from Germany

This thesis explores the ‘global imaginary’ of an international school community located in Germany. It examines how globally-oriented social imaginaries are constructed, negotiated and contested within such gated communities comprised of both expatriates and host country nationals. It highlights the role of the international school market and the role of the ‘local’ in the production of these ‘global’ imaginaries that not only impact community membership, but also its members’ residential life in Germany. International schools have developed into a thriving, lucrative educational network –offering an English-medium, ‘international’ education to facilitate internationally-mobile families as they move from country to country. Not only are international schools educational facilities, they are also strong ‘international’ communities comprised of both expats and host country nationals. Where international school literature is typically focused on the educational experience of expats (or ‘Third Culture Kids’) attending international schools, little has been written on the extent to which membership impacts residential life, not only for expats, but also for host country nationals. Moreover, the role of the ‘local’ in the construction of ‘global’ imaginaries and international school community membership has not been thoroughly investigated. It is argued in this thesis that while international schools place a particular emphasis on the distant local to uphold institutional globally-oriented principles and branding, the immediate local is not only eclipsed, but this overshadowing plays a role in the construction of the ‘global’ orientation. There is also a gap in literature concerning large-scale ethnographic projects looking into international schools located in Europe – a gap which this thesis aims to fill through the use of participant observations, semi-structured interviews and focus group sessions that took place in Germany between 2012 and 2015.

Development of a model to analyze HEI image: a case based on a private and a public university

ABSTRACTEducation is considered a fundamental element in society's development, and higher education institutions (HEIs) must direct a part of their activity towards supporting countries’ social, economic and cultural progress. It is crucial that HEIs develop diverse marketing and management strategies, above all image management, since this will make them competitive in the market and provide their managers with decision-making capacity. Regarding the image of HEIs, the literature presents different measurement models, with no consensus about the variables to include in them. The main aim of this research is to analyze studies presenting models of university image, search for synergies among the models’ variables and develop a model that combines all of them. Other variables not found in these studies have been included, since the bibliography on the subject considers them relevant. The sample is formed of 438 students from two universities, a private university in Spain and a State university in Portugal. The results show that image has a conceptualization formed of four constructs: external communication and values, national and international recognition, economic value, and facilities. We conclude with confirmation of a model that measures university image with variables that are significant in previous studies, but with some added variables.

The PANDA DIRC detectors at FAIR

The PANDA detector at the international accelerator Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research in Europe (FAIR) addresses fundamental questions of hadron physics. An excellent hadronic particle identification (PID) will be accomplished by two DIRC (Detection of Internally Reflected Cherenkov light) counters in the target spectrometer. The design for the barrel region covering polar angles between 22̂ to 140̂ is based on the successful BABAR DIRC with several key improvements, such as fast photon timing and a compact imaging region. The novel Endcap Disc DIRC will cover the smaller forward angles between 5̂ (10̂) to 22̂ in the vertical (horizontal) direction. Both DIRC counters will use lifetime-enhanced microchannel plate PMTs for photon detection in combination with fast readout electronics. Geant4 simulations and tests with several prototypes at various beam facilities have been used to evaluate the designs and validate the expected PID performance of both PANDA DIRC counters.