Factors Affecting Occurrence of Claims in Building Projects in Lagos State, Nigeria

The occurrence of claims prevails in all projects, making the successful completion of projects within the predetermined budget a mirage. This is recognized to have added to costs of projects and adversely affected project performance. This paper aims at investigating critical factors influencing occurrence of claims in building projects in Lagos State, Nigeria. Forty-three (43) construction project attributes affecting project performance were identified through literature and presented to the key stakeholders in the study area using questionnaire survey. Two hundred and seventy-six (276) copies of the questionnaire were randomly administered to key stakeholders involved in the building construction process. One hundred and fifty-one (151) were retrieved representing 57.61% response rate. Principal component analysis of responses to a set of 43 characteristics identified through literature review extracted four components. The results indicated important factors such as: ‘Project Participant Characteristics’, ‘Basic Project Characteristic’, ‘Procurement Characteristics’, along with ‘Complexity Characteristics’ were factors influencing the occurrence of claims. It was concluded that the construction stakeholders should effectively manage these factors in minimising claims occurrence and thereby improving building projects delivery.

Development of Framework for Estimating Fatality-Related Losses in the Korean Construction Industry

The number of fatalities in the construction industry is highest among all industries; thus, various losses in the form of fatalities in construction represent a significant factor for safety management. If a fatality occurs, it is important to estimate the overall loss, as a significant financial loss occurs for each project participant. However, in studies of the cost of accidents involving a fatality conducted abroad, the framework cannot be applied as it is because insurance types, systems, and legal cost systems differ by country. Therefore, we developed a framework for calculating the fatality loss considering various aspects of labor, industry, and regulations in Korea. This was done in four steps: (i) data collection and criteria selection; (ii) proposed framework development; (iii) conduct of questionnaire surveys for the case study; and (iv) analysis and evaluation of the case study. As a result of the data analysis after the case study of general construction companies, the total fatality loss was estimated to be 2,198,260 USD/person. The contributions of this study are the development of a framework composed of newly discovered items that can acquire reliable data in consideration of the properties of the construction industry.

Stories About Ourselves: A Collaborative, International Materials and Teacher Development Project

Bangladeshi English teachers indicate that learners struggle with English reading materials because of unfamiliar cultural content presented simultaneously with unfamiliar target language. They report that emphasis on foreign texts and a lack of culturally relevant materials result in demotivated learners and poor classroom participation. Local research into this led to the design of an international collaborative teacher/materials’ development project with Bangladeshi English teachers. An initial teacher-training event evolved into a long-term project, aimed at online publication of “homegrown” graded stories with a Bangladesh content focus, using high frequency English vocabulary and controlled grammatical structures. The goals were to create a bank of free, culturally appropriate graded materials for Bangladeshi learners, to train Bangladeshi teachers how to develop these, to improve participants’ English and professional competencies, and to strengthen ties between participants within Bangladesh and internationally. The presentation outlines the project and provides insights from one Bangladeshi project participant. バングラデシュの英語教師達は、馴染みの無い文化コンテンツが登場する為に、学習者が英語のリーディング教材と格闘している現状、また海外で作られた教科書の重用や文化的に適切な教材の不足が、学習者のやる気をそぎ、授業への低参加率を招いていることを指摘する。この問題を現地で調査した結果、現地の英語教師との国際共同教師・教材開発プロジェクトが考案され、バングラデシュに焦点を合わせた内容で、使用頻度の高い英語の語彙と統制された文法構造を用いた「自国産」のレベル別読本のオンライン出版が目的とされた。このプロジェクトの目標は、バングラデシュの学習者向けに文化的に適切な無料のレベル別教材バンクを作成すること、バングラデシュの教師がこれらの教材を開発する方法をトレーニングすること、参加者の英語と職業的能力を向上させること、バングラデシュ国内および海外の参加者との繋がりを強化することである。本稿は、バングラデシュのプロジェクト参加者の一人として、プロジェクトの概要とその考察を述べる。

Application of gamification elements in the training of students – future specialists in the field of information security

Currently, the training of students-future specialists in information security is significantly modified. The necessary skills of such a specialist now include "soft skills", super-professional skills that are responsible for the effectiveness of participation in the work process. Information security itself is becoming an integral part of business modeling. This raises the question of choosing the most effective technologies for developing such skills, expressed in the relevant competencies of an information security specialist. The purpose of the study is to evaluate the use of gamification elements in the process of training students-future information security specialists. The research was conducted at the Siberian State University of Science and Technology, at the Department of Information technology security, as well as in the framework of the project «Development of a package of game cases for the discipline «Information security management»». In total, 182 students of the 3rd-5th year of specialty, 1-2 year of master's degree, as well as students of the 4th year of bachelor's degree in Information security took part in pedagogical and experimental work. The study shows that the time required to complete tasks to master the competence decreases (the time is reduced by up to 30% during the semester), and it is also noted that students who are able to master the competence received results at the beginning of the course. At the same time, the share of passively participating in the course elements in small groups is reduced to no more than 10%, and the number of non-participants in the development is practically reduced to zero. The results of the study selective response of participants in networked collaboration showed that the involvement and study of the material remains at a consistently high level as in previous years, and the time slice at the end of the experiment. For example, the assessment of the project organizers ' communication in the social network Vkontakte for 4 years of the project: 100% of participants are connected directly through at least one project participant; 93.75% are listed as friends of at least one project participant, the share of high-intensity information connections was 21.87%.

Cleone’s Story

In this chapter, Cleone, a project participant, writes about how acquiring a physical disability in her early adulthood impacted on her sense of femininity and sexuality. Cleone was a model prior to acquiring a physical disability and she writes about attractiveness and the body, and her journey to reclaim her sense of femininity and sexuality.

Exploring Shared Effects of Multisensory Impairment, Physical Dysfunction, and Cognitive Impairment on Physical Activity: An Observational Study in a National Sample

Multisensory, physical, and cognitive dysfunction share age-related physiologic disturbances and may have common health effects. We determined whether the effect of multisensory impairment on physical activity (PA) is explained by physical (timed up and go) or cognitive (Short Portable Mental Status Questionnaire) dysfunction. A National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project participant subset (n = 507) underwent objective sensory testing in 2005–2006 and wrist accelerometry in 2010–2011. We related multisensory impairment to PA using multivariate mixed-effects linear regression and compared the effect magnitude after adjusting for physical then cognitive dysfunction. Worse multisensory impairment predicted lower PA across three scales (Global Sensory Impairment: β = −0.04, 95% confidence interval [−0.07, −0.02]; Total Sensory Burden: β = −0.01, 95% confidence interval [−0.03, −0.003]; and Number of Impaired Senses: β = −0.02, 95% confidence interval [−0.04, −0.004]). Effects were similar after accounting for physical and cognitive dysfunction. Findings suggest that sensory, physical, and cognitive dysfunction have unique mechanisms underlying their PA effects.

Vic’s Story

In this chapter, Vic, a project participant, writes about getting married and becoming a father after having acquired a serious physical disability in an accident. He writes about how he and his wife underwent IVF to have 2 children. He also writes about the at times inappropriate reactions and questions from others about his wife’s pregnancy and his sexuality. Vic’s story is tied to current scholarship relevant to thinking about reproductive rights and disability.

Use of visual culture in visual arts courses: Opinions of participating teachers after TUBITAK-4005 Project

The objective of this research is to evaluate the process and school applicability of teacher training program designed and applied on Visual Culture Theory in visual arts courses in line with opinions of project participant teachers. In this research, we used the “holistic multi-stage” sampling since we examined visual culture studies in visual arts courses in line with the opinions of classroom teachers and visual arts teachers. The study group in this research consisted of a total of 508 teachers who participated in the teacher training workshop organized under TÜBİTAK 4005 Science and Society Innovative Education Practices. We collected data using participant diaries and focus group interviews. The data were analyzed by content analysis and presented under five main themes formed by visual culture theory; “Learning Experiences”, “Inquiries”, “Concerns”, “Needs” and “New Ideas for Learning and Teaching”. Suggestions were presented on extending pre-service and in-service training programs to teach new approaches such as visual culture theory in art education and on increasing number of practices involving student-teacher and parent interaction taking such approaches in the scope of lifelong learning.

ANALYSIS OF THE RESULTS OF THE PROJECT TO SUPPORT THE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS OF RUSSIAN SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS

In the period 2014–2020 with the support of the Russian Ministry of Education and Science, an interesting project was carried out to support Russian scientific journals in their implementation of their development programs. This article describes the main stages of the project and the results achieved by the project participant. The data on the project participants in various aspects (goals, tasks, quotas on topics) are given. The main objectives of the project were: increasing the number of Russian journals in the WoS and Scopus and improving their bibliometric indicators. The article provides an analysis of changes in the bibliometric indicators of project participants, and shows that on average their indicators improved and many project participants were either included in the WoS and Scopus or submitted applications for inclusion and are awaiting expert decision.