Comparative study for assessing the OSH relationship to the quality of construction projects in Egypt

Background: Construction and architectural projects(CAPs) play a significant role in the economic development of most countries. The construction industry in Egypt has significantly grown in recent years. Due to this growth, the number of occupational accidents in the country’s construction industry has also increased. Methods: This study aimed to assess the Occupational Safety and Health(OSH) field. Then, the assessment effects on the construction project quality are evaluated. The statistical analysis of the question naire surveys conducted on project safety, quality, and executive management at construction companies based on the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences(SPSS). Results: After comparing two sites, the research results indicated differences in completion times and overall costs between the two sites.70% of the respondents agreed that the completion times, costs, and project qualities vary between the two sites. About 92% of the sample completely agreed and were willing to follow the international laws, which stipulate the principles of OSH in construction sites. They also agreed that there should be an increased understand in gof the importance of OSH management in sites, which can help prevent clashes between the two departments. Conclusions: Companies should hire a social worker to take care of the workers, help them solve their problems, and ensure that safety standards are being met in the construction sites. In addition, regular medical examinations of all workers must be conducted to ensure that the yare free from any occupational, non-infectious, or infectious diseases, such as the coronavirus.

Analysis of the Characteristics of Fatal Accidents in the Construction Industry in China Based on Statistical Data

Background: Construction activities not only provide the necessary conditions for citizens to live, but also cause fatal accidents. Methods: This study aimed to reveal the characteristics of fatal accidents in the construction industry in China based on statistical data. From 2010 to 2019, there were 6005 fatal accidents in China’s construction industry causing 7275 deaths. The important features of these fatal accidents, such as the type, time of occurrence, site location, severity, and geographical region of the accident, were carefully analyzed. Results: There were 258 major and severe construction accidents causing 1037 deaths, accounting for 4.3% and 14.25% of the total number of construction accidents and deaths in this period, respectively. As an important finding, more deaths occurred in August and on Mondays. The greatest number of construction accidents took place along openings and edges, accounting for 22.9% of all fatal accidents. Taking into account their economic development level and number of employees, Qinghai and Hainan experienced a higher mortality rate than Jiangsu. Falls from a high place were the dominant type of construction accident, accounting for 51.66% of all accidents. However, collapses were the primary type of major and severe construction accident, accounting for 60.09% of such accidents. The predicted number of construction deaths in 2020 is 887 according to the GM(1,1) model. Corresponding safety measures should be adopted to improve the working environment of the construction industry. Implications: The implications of these results with respect to the characteristics of construction accidents can be regarded as the foundation for accident prevention in practice.

Effective field theory for non-relativistic hydrodynamics

We write down a Schwinger-Keldysh effective field theory for non-relativistic (Galilean) hydrodynamics. We use the null background construction to covariantly couple Galilean field theories to a set of background sources. In this language, Galilean hydrodynamics gets recast as relativistic hydrodynamics formulated on a one dimension higher spacetime admitting a null Killing vector. This allows us to import the existing field theoretic techniques for relativistic hydrodynamics into the Galilean setting, with minor modifications to include the additional background vector field. We use this formulation to work out an interacting field theory describing stochastic fluctuations of energy, momentum, and density modes around thermal equilibrium. We also present a translation of our results to the more conventional Newton-Cartan language, and discuss how the same can be derived via a non-relativistic limit of the effective field theory for relativistic hydrodynamics.

Health seeking behaviour among construction workers in Kancheepuram district, Tamil Nadu: a descriptive study

Background: Construction workers form the second largest working group in the un-organized sector and their life depends on the daily wages they earn. This study was planned to assess the health seeking behaviour of construction workers in an urban area of Kancheepuram District in Tamil Nadu.Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was done among 302 male construction workers by random sampling from four construction sites using a pre-tested structured questionnaire. Data collected was analysed using SPSS Version 21 software and the result presented using descriptive statistics. Institutional ethical committee approval and informed consent were obtained.Results: Among construction workers, nearly 55% belonged to less than 40 years age. Majority were illiterates and more than half of them were working as helpers for masons, painters and centring workers. About 63.9% were smokers, 62.9% consuming alcohol and 57.6% use other form of tobacco. Nearly 69.9% were pre-hypertensive and 15% were hypertensive. About 87.4% had normal BMI, 5.3% were underweight and 7% were overweight. Nearly 78.8% of workers sought medical care and they preferred allopathic system (97.7%) for treatment. 87.4% preferred treatment from private hospitals while 8.8% preferred to get treatment at the construction site itself and remaining goes to government hospitals for treatment. Most workers (95.0%) preferred outpatient’s treatment.Conclusions: Majority of construction workers prefer private allopathic medical facilities for their medical treatment, even though it adds to their out of pocket expenditure. There seems to be a knowledge gap, convenience and financial burden in their health seeking behaviour.

Focus, exhaustivity and existence in Akan, Ga and Ngamo

This paper discusses the relation between focus marking and focus interpretation in Akan (Kwa), Ga (Kwa), and Ngamo (West Chadic). In all three languages, there is a special morphosyntactically marked focus/background construction, as well as morphosyntactically unmarked focus. We present data stemming from original fieldwork investigating whether marked focus/background constructions in these three languages also have additional interpretative effects apart from standard focus interpretation. Crosslinguistically, different additional inferences have been found for marked focus constructions, e.g. contrast (e.g. Vallduví, Enric & Maria Vilkuna. 1997. On rheme and kontrast. In Peter Culicover & Louise McNally (eds.), The limits of syntax (Syntax and semantics 29), 79–108. New York: Academic Press; Hartmann, Katharina & Malte Zimmermann. 2007b. In place – Out of place: Focus in Hausa. In Kerstin Schwabe & Susanne Winkler (eds.), On information structure, meaning and form, 365–403. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.; Destruel, Emilie & Leah Velleman. 2014. Refining contrast: Empirical evidence from the English it-cleft. In Christopher Piñón (ed.), Empirical issues in syntax and semantics 10, 197–214. Paris: Colloque de syntaxe et sémantique à Paris (CSSP). http://www.cssp.cnrs.fr/eiss10/), exhaustivity (e.g. É. Kiss, Katalin. 1998. Identificational focus versus information focus. Language 74(2). 245–273.; Hartmann, Katharina & Malte Zimmermann. 2007a. Exhaustivity marking in Hausa: A re-evaluation of the particle nee/cee. In Enoch O. Aboh, Katharina Hartmann & Malte Zimmermann (eds.), Focus strategies in African languages: The interaction of focus and grammar in Niger-Congo and Afro-Asiatic (Trends in Linguistics 191), 241–263. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.), and existence (e.g. Rooth, Mats. 1999. Association with focus or association with presupposition? In Peter Bosch & Rob van der Sandt (eds.), Focus: Linguistic, cognitive, and computational perspectives, 232–244. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.; von Fintel, Kai & Lisa Matthewson. 2008. Universals in semantics. The Linguistic Review 25(1–2). 139–201). This paper investigates these three inferences. In Akan and Ga, the marked focus constructions are found to be contrastive, while in Ngamo, no effect of contrast was found. We also show that marked focus constructions in Ga and Akan trigger exhaustivity and existence presuppositions, while the marked construction in Ngamo merely gives rise to an exhaustive conversational implicature and does not trigger an existence presupposition. Instead, the marked construction in Ngamo merely indicates salience of the backgrounded part via a morphological background marker related to the definite determiner (Schuh, Russell G. 2005. Yobe state, Nigeria as a linguistic area. Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society 31(2). 77–94; Güldemann, Tom. 2016. Maximal backgrounding=focus without (necessary) focus encoding. Studies in Language 40(3). 551–590). The paper thus contributes to the understanding of the semantics of marked focus constructions across languages and points to the crosslinguistic variation in expressing and interpreting marked focus/background constructions.

METHODOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF EVALUATION OF COMMERCIAL PREMISES LOCATED IN THE ARCHITECTURAL MONUMENT BUILDING

The components of value are determined. The ranking of factors, which influence the cost of buildings the monuments of architecture, is carried out. It is proved that such factors as the historical and artistic value of a buildings-monuments increase the value of the object of estimation and, at the same time, make expensive assessments, substantial expenses for restoration, repair and maintenance. It is substantiated that the prestige of the architectural monument increases the income from the use of commercial premises located in it. However, the more unique a monument, the more encumbrances and restrictions exist in the implementation of any transaction, in the conduct of economic activity in the premises that are located in such a building. The variant of classification of architectural monuments according to the method of use is suggested. The peculiarity of application of three generally accepted in the world practice of estimation of methodical approaches to determination of cost of architectural monument is analyzed. The main advantage of the cost approach is the ability to accurately determine the value of low-performing markets. Without cost analysis it is impossible to make informed decisions about the feasibility of projects for the reconstruction of architectural monuments. However, it is virtually impossible to determine accurately the cost of materials and construction technologies that existed at the time of construction of the monument. A comparable approach can only be used when assessing the premises located in buildings-monuments of urban background construction. In this case, the comparative approach will have a complementary character with respect to the results obtained by other approaches. It is proved that the use of an integral coefficient that takes into account the value of an architectural monument as an object of cultural heritage does not affect the final value of the value of the commercial premises in which it is located. It is substantiated that the main methodological approach for estimating the value of commercial premises located in monuments is the income approach. The main criterion for investment attractiveness of commercial real estate is profitability. In determining the value through the use of a return approach, in addition to a retrospective analysis, possible scenarios for future activities are modeled.

An epidemiological study on effect of occupational exposure of cement

Background: Construction industry chiefly depends on the cement. The constituents in the cement have various health effects in the exposed group. The present study focused to realize the health effects of cement exposure and duration of exposure.Methods: The sample size was 831 male workers. The labourers included were construction workers (masons, helpers and concrete mixers) and cement loading and unloading workers. They were categorized in to five groups which were 5-9, 10-14, 15-19, 20-24 and 25+ years based on the duration of exposure to cement. Health hazards among these labourers were categorized in to lung function impairment symptoms, cutaneous symptoms and other symptoms.Results: High frequency of respiratory tract ailments (persistent cough 54%, breathlessness 47%) was observed among loading workers as they were handling cement dust. Burning was the most observed one in concrete mixer (70%), hair loss and change in hair colour was observed in 60% of all categories of workers. Skin related ailments were more prevalent among masons, helpers and concrete mixers.Conclusions: The frequency symptoms had correlation with their nature of work in the construction industry. Prolonged exposure to hazardous substances will decline the efficiency of labourers by malfunctioning their physiological functions. Proper awareness about the hazardous substances and well taken precautions among these labours can enhance their efficacy and wellbeing.