bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Harnessing phenological traits of wild ancestor Chenopodium hircinum to improve climate adaptation of quinoa
Authors: Curti Ramiro N. , Ortega-Baes Pablo , Ratto Santiago , Bertero Daniel
Published: October 2022

Context Cultivation of quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) is rapidly expanding worldwide. Characterisation of populations of Chenopodium hircinum Schard., its wild ancestor, which thrives in some of the hottest environments in South America, may provide adaptations to new environments. Aims This study evaluated the developmental patterns of populations of C. hircinum collected from a range of agroecological environments in Argentina, in order to quantify variability among sites of origin and to explore the association between climatic data from environments of provenance and variation in development. Methods Thirty-three populations of C. hircinum from contrasting sites of origin in Argentina were multiplied in a common-garden experiment under non-limiting conditions of water and nutrient availability. Plants were sampled once or twice weekly (according to parameter) for estimation of the duration of developmental phases, leaf number, and dates of initiation of branching on the main stem. Key results Significant variation was detected for all phenological traits, and populations were categorised into six groups based on similarity of patterns of variation. We found positive association of the duration of development phases and the number of leaves on the main-stem with maximum temperature during the growing season, and negative association with altitude of origin, consistent with variation in growing-season duration. Conclusions The finding that late-flowering populations are associated with warmest climates reveals that longer vegetative growth is an adaptive strategy to cope with heat stress in Chenopodium spp. Implications Time to flowering should be considered in attempts to improve quinoa performance under heat-stress conditions. Further work is needed to understand the genetic basis controlling this response in wild populations of C. hircinum.
Reinventing identity and resistance ideology in protest narratives
Authors: Aminu PraiseGod , Chiluwa Innocent
Published: October 2022

The Oduduwa secessionist group is a good reminder that Nigeria’s nationhood is still highly contested. Unfortunately, there appears to be very little or no linguistic research on the discourses produced by this emerging group of activists. This study examines Oduduwa agitators’ Facebook activism as a form of political communication in order to identify their prevalent ideology and techniques for constructing their group’s identity and activities.

Facebook data are studied by applying Critical Discourse Analysis, more specifically van Dijk’s ideological framework, to investigate the rhetorical and discourse structures of the campaign narratives. Findings indicate that, since the Oduduwa agitators are a group of individuals determined to secede from Nigeria, the structures of their campaign discourse contain crucial metaphorical expressions that construct the group’s identity. Among those expressions, we find prejudicial generalisations, emphasis on victimisation of ‘Us’, the use of number games to stress victimhood and ideological polarisation of individuals and groups.
A text typology of social media
Authors: Berber Sardinha Tony
Published: October 2022

This paper introduces an initial text typology of social media posts from a multi-dimensional (MD) perspective. Text types are “[g]roupings of text that are similar in their linguistic form” (Biber 1989: 13). This text typology is based on a new MD analysis of social media messages presented in the paper. The corpus consists of 60,000 social media messages in English compiled from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, Telegram, and YouTube. After the texts were cleaned up, the corpus was tagged with the Biber Tagger and post-processed with the Biber Tag Count. Three dimensions of variation were determined, each representing an underlying parameter of variation. Once the texts were scored on each of the dimensions, a k-means cluster analysis was carried out, and the optimal number of clusters was determined using the Cubic Clustering Criterion statistic. A two-way typology was developed based on the dimensional characteristics of each cluster and on careful qualitative analysis of text samples.
Translation as crisis (mis)communication for culturally and linguistically diverse communities
Authors: Qi Lintao
Published: October 2022

Australia claims to be “the most successful immigration nation” in the world. With language services being a daily necessity, the country has a well-established translator accreditation system. To prepare for crises, Australia has also published multiple official documents with clearly laid-out management plans. All these factors seem to have contributed to Australia’s successful fight against the first two COVID-19 waves in 2020 and 2021. However, the country’s crisis communication has actually experienced constant failures to reach its culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities. Taking the Australian state of Victoria as a case study, this article examines the inadequacy of COVID-19 related translation services and analyses its impact on CALD communities. Based on analysis through the lens of the 4-A principle (namely, availability, accessibility, acceptability and adaptability), the article argues that crisis translation is a specialised area, and any effective crisis communication in multicultural contexts needs to consider language experts as an essential part of the crisis response team.
Nucleoplasmic lamin C rapidly accumulates at sites of nuclear envelope rupture with BAF and cGAS
Authors: Kono Yohei , Adam Stephen A. , Sato Yuko , Reddy Karen L. , Zheng Yixian , Medalia Ohad , Goldman Robert D. , Kimura Hiroshi , Shimi Takeshi
Published: October 2022

In mammalian cell nuclei, the nuclear lamina (NL) underlies the nuclear envelope (NE) to maintain nuclear structure. The nuclear lamins, the major structural components of the NL, are involved in the protection against NE rupture induced by mechanical stress. However, the specific role of the lamins in repair of NE ruptures has not been fully determined. Our analyses using immunofluorescence and live-cell imaging revealed that the nucleoplasmic pool of lamin C rapidly accumulated at sites of NE rupture induced by laser microirradiation in mouse embryonic fibroblasts. The accumulation of lamin C at the rupture sites required both the immunoglobulin-like fold domain that binds to barrier-to-autointegration factor (BAF) and a nuclear localization signal. The accumulation of nuclear BAF and cytoplasmic cyclic GMP-AMP synthase (cGAS) at the rupture sites was in part dependent on lamin A/C. These results suggest that nucleoplasmic lamin C, BAF, and cGAS concertedly accumulate at sites of NE rupture for rapid repair.
Hydrothermally synthesized 2H-MoS2 under optimized conditions – A structure and morphology analysis
Authors: R Manikandan , Raina Gargi
Published: October 2022

In this study, we obtained the optimized conditions to synthesize pure semiconducting 2H-MoS2 nanomaterial, using a facile and scalable hydrothermal route under the variation of growth parameters such as reaction temperature, reaction time and sulfur precursors. The structural and phase identification of obtained MoS2 powders was analysed using XRD and raman spectroscopy. The reproducible formation of pure 2H-MoS2 phase is reported for the optimized reaction time of 22 h at a temperature of 200 °C using thiourea as sulfur source, with a high yield of 77.4%. FESEM analysis revealed nanoflower-like morphology of average diameter of 300–400 nm with identifiable petals of thickness ∼25 nm for the formed 2H-MoS2 under the optimized conditions. The crystallite size, strain and dislocation density were estimated theoretically using Williamson-Hall plots for the MoS2 formed under the variation of growth temperatures. Tensile strain values were obtained for MoS2 formed using thiourea, which correlated only with phase transitions from mixed 1 T/2H-MoS2 to pure 2H-MoS2. In contrast, only mixed 1 T/2H-MoS2 phase were obtained for MoS2 powders using L-Cysteine, and correspondingly the strain values were extremely small, which may be due to no phase transition observed and presence of nanosheets without curved petal-like features. The results of this study provide optimized condition for the formation of semiconducting 2H-MoS2 nanomaterial by a scalable route. This is useful for low-cost fabrication of flexible nanoelectronic devices such as non-volatile ReRAMs, supercapacitors and sensors based on 2H-MoS2.
A wavelet-based collocation technique to find the discontinuous heat source in inverse heat conduction problems
Authors: Ahsan Muhammad , Lei Weidong , Ahmad Masood , Hussein M S , Uddin Zaheer
Published: October 2022

This paper is devoted to an inverse problem of determining discontinuous space-wise dependent heat source in a linear parabolic equation from the measurements at the final moment. In the existing literature, a considerably accurate solution to the inverse problems with an unknown space-wise dependent heat source is impossible without introducing any type of regularization method but here we have to determine the unknown discontinuous space-wise dependent heat source accurately using the Haar wavelet collocation method (HWCM) without applying the regularization technique. This HWCM is based on finite-difference and Haar wavelets approximation to the inverse problem. In contrast to other numerical techniques, in HWCM, we used Haar functions that create a well-conditioned system of algebraic equations. The proposed method is stable and convergent because the numerical solution converges to the exact solution without observing any difficulty. Finally, some numerical examples are presented to verify the validity of the HWCM for different cases of the source term.
Estimating energy levels of a three-level atom in single and multi-parameter metrological schemes
Authors: Hosseiny Seyed Mohammad , Rangani Jahromi Hossein , Radgohar Roya , Amniat-Talab Mahdi
Published: October 2022

Finding the energy levels of a quantum system is a significant task, for instance, to characterize the compatibility of materials or to analyze reaction rates in drug discovery and catalysis. In this paper we investigate quantum metrology, the research field focusing on the estimation of unknown parameters investigating quantum resources, to address this problem for a three-level system interacting with laser fields. The performance of simultaneous estimation of the levels compared to independent one is also studied in various scenarios. Moreover, we introduce the Hilbert-Schmidt speed (HSS), a mathematical tool, as a powerful figure of merit for enhancing the estimation of the energy spectrum. This measure can be easily computed, since it does not require diagonalizing the density matrix of the system, verifying its efficiency to enhance quantum estimation in high-dimensional systems.
Real single-channel color image encryption method based on computational ghost imaging
Authors: Bai Xing , Li Jinxi , Yu Zhan , Yang Zhongzhuo , Wang Yujie , Chen Xingyu , Yuan Sheng , Zhou Xin
Published: October 2022

A real single-channel color image encryption method based on computational ghost imaging is proposed. Compared with the currently proposed color single-channel encryption scheme, the method does not decompose the color image into three gray-scale images or encode it into a grayscale image for encryption. Instead, the color speckle patterns are used as the key to directly encrypt. The ciphertext is a grayscale image and thus has camouflage properties to a certain extent. Furthermore, the optical encryption setup is easy to be implemented and the key is generated by a chaotic system, which not only guarantees security but also reduces the volume of key transmission. The feasibility and high security of this method are supported by both computer simulations and optical experiments.
Dual-channel fiber-optic surface plasmon resonance sensor with cascaded coaxial dual-waveguide D-type structure and microsphere structure
Authors: Li Ling-Ling , Wei Yong , Liu Chun-Lan , Ren Zhuo , Zhou Ai , Liu Zhi-Hai , Zhang Yu
Published: October 2022

To address the restriction of fiber-optic surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensors in the field of multi-sample detection, a novel dual-channel fiber-optic SPR sensor based on the cascade of coaxial dual-waveguide D-type structure and microsphere structure is proposed in this paper. The fiber sidepolishing technique converts the coaxial dual-waveguide fiber into a D-type one, and the evanescent wave in the ring core leaks, generating a D-type sensing region; the fiber optic fused ball push technology converts the coaxial dual waveguides into microspheres, and the stimulated cladding mode evanescent wave leaks, producing the microsphere sensing region. By injecting light into the coaxial dual-waveguide middle core alone, the sensor can realize single-stage sensing in the microsphere sensing area; it can also realize dual-channel sensing in the D-type sensing area and microsphere sensing area by injecting light into the ring core. The refractive index measurement ranges for the two channels are 1.333–1.365 and 1.375–1.405, respectively, with detection sensitivities of 981.56 nm/RIU and 4138 nm/RIU. The sensor combines wavelength division multiplexing and space division multiplexing technologies, presenting a novel research concept for multi-channel fiber SPR sensors.
Polarization sensitive photodetector based on quasi-1D ZrSe3
Authors: Wang Xingang , Xiong Tao , Xin Kaiyao , Yang Juehan , Liu Yueyang , Zhao Zeping , Liu Jianguo , Wei Zhongming
Published: October 2022

The in-plane anisotropy of transition metal trichalcogenides (MX3) has a significant impact on the molding of materials and MX3 is a perfect choice for polarized photodetectors. In this study, the crystal structure, optical and optoelectronic anisotropy of one kind of quasi-one-dimensional (1D) semiconductors, ZrSe3, are systematically investigated through experiments and theoretical studies. The ZrSe3-based photodetector shows impressive wide spectral response from ultraviolet (UV) to near infrared (NIR) and exhibits great optoelectrical properties with photoresponsivity of 11.9 mA·W-1 and detectivity of ~106 at 532 nm. Moreover, the dichroic ratio of ZrSe3-based polarized photodetector is around 1.1 at 808 nm. This study suggests that ZrSe3 has potential in optoelectronic applications and polarization detectors.
A review of thermal rectification in solid-state devices
Authors: Malik Faraz Kaiser , Fobelets Kristel
Published: October 2022

Thermal rectification, or the asymmetric transport of heat along a structure, has recently been investigated as a potential solution to the thermal management issues that accompany the miniaturization of electronic devices. Applications of this concept in thermal logic circuits analogous to existing electronics-based processor logic have also been proposed. This review highlights some of the techniques that have been recently investigated for their potential to induce asymmetric thermal conductivity in solid-state structures that are composed of materials of interest to the electronics industry. These rectification approaches are compared in terms of their quantitative performance, as well as the range of practical applications that they would be best suited to. Techniques applicable to a range of length scales, from the continuum regime to quantum dots, are discussed, and where available, experimental findings that build upon numerical simulations or analytical predictions are also highlighted.
A deep trench super-junction LDMOS with double charge compensation layer
Authors: Wu Lijuan , Su Shaolian , Chen Xing , Zeng Jinsheng , Wu Haifeng
Published: October 2022

A deep trench super-junction LDMOS with double charge compensation layer (DC DT SJ LDMOS) is proposed in this paper. Due to the capacitance effect of the deep trench which is known as silicon–insulator–silicon (SIS) capacitance, the charge balance in the super-junction region of the conventional deep trench SJ LDMOS (Con. DT SJ LDMOS) device will be broken, resulting in breakdown voltage (BV) of the device drops. DC DT SJ LDMOS solves the SIS capacitance effect by adding a vertical variable doped charge compensation layer and a triangular charge compensation layer inside the Con. DT SJ LDMOS device. Therefore, the drift region reaches an ideal charge balance state again. The electric field is optimized by double charge compensation and gate field plate so that the breakdown voltage of the proposed device is improved sharply, meanwhile the enlarged on-current region reduces its specific on-resistance. The simulation results show that compared with the Con. DT SJ LDMOS, the BV of the DC DT SJ LDMOS has been increased from 549.5 to 705.5 V, and the R
on,sp decreased to 23.7 mΩ·cm2.
A lightweight, user-configurable detector ASIC digital architecture with on-chip data compression for MHz X-ray coherent diffraction imaging
Authors: Strempfer Sebastian , Zhou Tao , Yoshii Kazutomo , Hammer Mike , Babu Anakha , Bycul Dawid , Weizeorick John , Cherukara Mathew J. , Miceli Antonino
Published: October 2022

Today, most X-ray pixel detectors used at light sources
transmit raw pixel data off the detector ASIC. With the availability
of more advanced ASIC technology nodes for scientific application,
more digital functionalities from the computing domains (e.g.,
compression) can be integrated directly into a detector ASIC to
increase data velocity. In this paper, we describe a lightweight,
user-configurable detector ASIC digital architecture with on-chip
compression which can be implemented in 130 nm technologies in a
reasonable area on the ASIC periphery. In addition, we present a
design to efficiently handle the variable data from the stream of
parallel compressors. The architecture includes user-selectable
lossy and lossless compression blocks. The impact of lossy
compression algorithms is evaluated on simulated and experimental
X-ray ptychography datasets. This architecture is a practical
approach to increase pixel detector frame rates towards the
continuous 1 MHz regime for not only coherent imaging techniques
such as ptychography, but also for other diffraction techniques at
X-ray light sources.
Bacterial collagen-templated synthesis and assembly of inorganic particles
Authors: Abdali Zahra , Aminzare Masoud , Chow Amy , Dorval Courchesne Noémie-Manuelle
Published: October 2022

Collagen has been used as a common template for mineralization and assembly of inorganic particles, because of the special arrangement of its fibrils and the presence of charged residues. Streptococcal bacterial collagen, which is inherently secreted on the surface of Streptococcus pyogenes, has been progressively used as an alternative for type I animal collagen. Bacterial collagen is rich in charged amino acids, which can act as a substrate for the nucleation and growth of inorganic particles. Here, we show that bacterial collagen can be used to nucleate three different inorganic materials: hydroxyapatite crystals, silver nanoparticles, and silica nanoparticles. Collagen/mineral composites show an even distribution of inorganic particles along the collagen fibers, and the particles have a more homogenous size compared with minerals that are formed in the absence of the collagen scaffold. Furthermore, the gelation of silica occurring during mineralization represents a means to produce processable self-standing collagen composites, which is challenging to achieve with bacterial collagen alone. Overall, we highlight the advantage of simply combining bacterial collagen with minerals to expand their applications in the fields of biomaterials and tissue engineering, especially for bone regenerative scaffolds.
Advocating the Urban Nexus of Water, Food and Energy through Laguna Lake: The Case of Sta. Rosa
Authors: Deabanico Eden Gay M. , Pinugu Jasmine Nadja
Published: October 2022

Sta. Rosa, Laguna, Philippines is part of the project Integrated Resource Management in Asian Cities: The Urban Nexus commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (GIZ) in a term from 2013-2015. The Urban Nexus was created to tackle issues on the exhaustion of land, food, water, energy, and sanitation caused by the ever-rising Asian population. This is a pressing issue in the local and international scene but due to its immediate accessibility to people, municipalities have the advantage of solving the problems upfront. Still, due to the departmental management system, typical in Asian countries, municipalities have “struggled to make the most of the opportunity” for the community according to World Bank (Ellis, et. al., 2016). Municipalities in Asia are managed through divisions, Sta. Rosa, as an example, has 27 departments, 15 assistant departments and 10 other departments under the office of the mayor (Municipality of Sta. Rosa, 2021). This type of system solves problems under their department as a single, disconnected element thus blurring the impact and interrelationships or nexus of water, food, and energy. This paper adds to the limited studies that analyse the implementation, progress, and measurements of The Urban Nexus. Drawn from a multiple case study approach, results showed that there was no tangible effect of The Urban Nexus project 6 years after its execution, specifically to those who will benefit the most – the informal settler families along Laguna Lake in Sta. Rosa. And because it takes dedication from all levels of the society to participate and perform their roles to achieve the urban nexus, recommendation of the interconnected responsibilities of schools to municipalities are described.
Retrofitting Makerspace: Unifying Outdoor-Indoor activities for Civic Engagement at Sentul Park, Kuala Lumpur
Authors: Ahmad Raziah , Rahman Zainuddin Ab , Nasir Mohamed Anuar Mohamed Ikhwan , Zakaria Muhammad Adam , Mohd. Anuar Nurul Nadhirah
Published: October 2022

A contemporary approach of makerspace that combines art, technology, learning and collaboration has been widely integrated into the 21st-century civic infrastructures. However, it has resembled chiefly the maker movement of indoor spaces compared to outdoor or hybrid indoor-outdoor spaces. Hence, this paper intends to explore the potential of retrofit makerspaces that merges the usage of the outdoors-indoor spaces for civic engagement. The objectives of this paper are threefold: (1) To examine a learning-design partnership in hybrid spaces through community’s engagement; (2) To explore a wide range of creative civic spaces that would foster business start-ups, job opportunities, products, services, and income generation; and (3) To develop a working, learning, and recreational space design concept that is more tactile and outdoor environment-oriented. The primary data was gathered through site observation and participation in the workshops and events at Sentul Park. Limited access to the perimeter of the private areas of Sentul Park became a setback in this study. Thus, the data collected for the inaccessible areas was derived mainly from reports published by the local authority, the site’s developer, and previously published researchers. The three types of retrofitted makerspaces created for education, community, and workplace, which unify the outdoor and indoor spaces, could become a trendsetter and potential platform for future civic engagement in Malaysia. More significant efforts and attention are needed to understand a community’s needs and preferences in the city’s ever-evolving physical and cultural aspect to make makerspaces a new form of civic infrastructure.
The seen and unseen: Exploring place identity of market place in Peninsular Malaysia
Authors: Ahmad Raziah , Nasir Mohamed Anuar Mohamed Ikhwan , Rahman Zainuddin Ab , Zakaria Muhammad Adam , Abdullah Jamalunlaili
Published: October 2022

The roles of the marketplace in promoting place identity have been the central focus of the UN- Habitat and stakeholders around the globe. The notion of marketplace relating to place identity, place attachment and sense of place have gained attention by Malaysian researchers but much focused on the overt of the marketplaces compared to the covert. This study aims to explore how the seen and unseen elements coexist and enhance place identity. The objective is to discover the influence of overt and covert parameters on marketplace identity through the cultural mapping among four different regions in Peninsular Malaysia. This study employs a qualitative approach through direct non-participant observation and cultural mapping at the four selected marketplaces: Pantai Suri floating market in Tumpat, Kelantan,Pasar Bisikin Penaga, Penang,Pasar Jeramiin Sungai Besar, Selangor andPasar Borneoin Masai, Johor. The overt and covert of each market were carefully observed and mapped, where three substantial outcomes were revealed. First, the social interaction and transaction, social activities and social connectivity at the market portray the covert aspect as vital for place identity. Second, marketplaces have the potentials as dynamic community public spaces to get fresh daily products and promote local heritage and tourism. Third, marketplaces face threats from climate change, pandemic Covid-19, and the diminishing local culture and traditions. In conclusion, the covert and overt of marketplaces should be equally preserved as they become primary components for developing a regional place identity.
A Systematic Literature Review on Rainwater Harvesting Implementation Fidelity
Authors: Suki N M , Latif H M , Zainol H
Published: October 2022

Rainwater harvesting has long been introduced as a green approach, followed by numerous established guidelines and policies to encourage its implementation. Policy implementation can be explored by assessing fidelity by utilizing a consensus reporting format and model/ framework. This paper exhibits a systematic review of the literature to synthesize the available knowledge on frameworks ideal for assessing implementation fidelity. PRISMA and forward snowballing technique were used to conduct an advanced search on the Web of Science and Scopus databases. Content analysis was performed primarily to identify the focal area, research questions and methods employed by previous studies that complement the StaRI reporting standard. The findings indicate that there is a scarcity of implementation strategies studies, not only in the built environment field, but also in implementation studies in general. While there are 28 implementation research frameworks/ models that have been used together with StaRi reporting guidelines, only two evaluation frameworks are found to be appropriate to the scope of the current study. The findings provide a basis of knowledge for determining the best framework for assessing fidelity in rainwater harvesting implementation.
Methodology of Classifying and Characterising Architectural Styles of Malay Classical Buildings
Authors: Rj Ab Kadir Tg Anis Qarihah , Jahn Kassim Puteri Shireen , Salleh Elias , Abdullah Alias
Published: October 2022

This study attempts to classify and characterise Malay aristocratic architectural styles through the elements and language of its frontages as the guidance of designing, conserving, and identifying Malay rules and languages. It is vital to recognise, bridge and restructure the Malay architectural language, which ruptured historically because of the impact of colonialism. The focus is to find visual and formal similarities distributed within a specific common region of the Malay world which span the years of colonisation between the 1700s to 1930, and overcome the enormous diversity of this typology and phenomena across the region and eras. The historical and cultural mapping of 60 palaces and aristocratic buildings were conducted to classifies the architectural styles based on the visual, language and typological similarities. The studies then argue that the hybrid forms found in the later eras of colonisation represent the Malay stylistic categories. This study aims to identify a standard set of rules or vocabulary that can aid regionally appropriate design and appreciation of the palaces studied through field observations, measured drawings, and surveys of regional palatial and mansion types. This vocabulary will prove helpful to designers, preservationists, conservationists, heritage agencies, historians, academics, and architects. The findings will contribute to developing a formal taxonomy of style that spans traditional to modern and contributes to defining the ‘generic’ and the ‘variant’ in a classification based on archetypes. This can be the initial reference for developing the identity-making of future urbanscape with the essences of the traditional Malay world.
Unauthorised Instructions in Civil Engineering Project: Contributing Factors
Authors: Ismail W N W , Adnan H , Masrom M A N , Baharuddin H E A , Ismail N A A
Published: October 2022

The civil engineering project, by its very nature, is a big user of natural resources. Nevertheless, with growing concerns on the climate change and the limit nature of these resources, there is increasing pressure to ensure the implementation of the construction to be completed within the stipulated quality, cost and time. This is due to the severity impacts on the environment it causes in the event that there is prolongation in the construction duration or face abandonment. Hence, this study looks upon the occurrence of unauthorised instructions as it is among the significant factor causing the project problems and delay. This paper aims to investigate the occurrence of unauthorised instruction in civil engineering projects and to determine the significant factors causing it. The data was obtained from professional civil engineers and Grade G7 contractors registered with their respective organisations i.e Board of Engineers Malaysia (BEM) and the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB). From 288 questionnaire survey returns, this study determined that the occurrence of unauthorised instructions in civil engineering projects in Malaysia was at a moderate level. There were seven significant factors contributing to it namely poor in complying with the condition of contract, level of understanding condition of contract, ground uncertainty, the familiarity of procurement method used, tight project milestone, clarity of SFoC and project complexity. These seven factors if properly understood and be put more concern by all parties at the onset of every project may ensure the project can be successfully completed on time and eventually could reduce damage to the environment.
Challenges in Conducting Strategic Decisions in Tendering among Contractors in Malaysia.
Authors: Mohd Kamil Abdul `Izz , Mokhtar Badruddin , Saidin Mohamad Tajudin , Ejau Ruth Lua , Zaki Zulkhairy Affandy , Hassan Ahmad Arzlee
Published: October 2022

Malaysia’s construction industry is rapidly growing from time to time. The bidding decision of construction projects is a very complex decision-making process which affected by several factors. Usually, to obtain good quality, cost, time, and safety is the primary goal of the construction project, which the contractors will compete in the tendering process to get a project, and most of the construction work in Malaysia was awarded based on competitive tendering. With the limited information and time, the contractor has to decide whether to tender or vice versa. The paper aims to explore the challenges in conducting strategic decisions in tendering among contractors in Malaysia. A set of questionnaires are used to collect the data for the study. The sampling method used in this study was random sampling and quota sampling. The study only focuses on the contractors in Klang Valley as Klang valley is known as the heartland of Malaysia’s industry and commerce. The data was gathered and analysed by using SPSS. The result of this study was in the form of ranking with the mean value as the ranking indicator. As a result of the questionnaire, most respondents agree that the biggest Challenges in conducting strategic decisions in tendering are the need of the contractor to win a project. The contractor must have sufficient data in deciding to tender. Adequate information regarding the project is vital as it acts as a reference for an estimator to estimate the project cost. Estimating is a critical factor that influences the contractor’s success in the tendering and ensures that the contractor can do the work diligently as stated in the contract.
The moderating effect of project complexity on the relationship between organizational controls and cost estimation performance: A conceptual model
Authors: Fazil M W , Lee C K , Tamyez P F M
Published: October 2022

Cost overrun in construction projects is high and expected to rise. The improvement of cost estimation performance is vital as it provides a better chance for the construction projects to avoid cost blowouts. In this paper, an extensive literature review is conducted from online databases such as Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar which focus on organization controls and its mechanisms to improve cost estimation performance in the construction industry. While many prior studies on cost estimation emphasized investigating cost estimation methods to improve the performance of cost estimation, less attention was given to organizational and project factors. Several studies have explored the effects of organizational control on performance but failed to include project complexity in the relationship between organizational controls and performance. Therefore, this paper conceptualizes the effect of organizational controls on cost estimation performance with project complexity as a moderator. This proposition suggests project complexity has advantages and disadvantages on organizational controls. Each control mechanism has its feature and effectiveness in high complexity projects. Hence, managers should select appropriate control mechanisms, such as input control and output control that have high effectiveness on the performance.
Enhancing Projects’ Sustainability Through Value Management Approach for The Malaysian Construction Industry: A Literature Review
Authors: Yassin Muhammad Shahfarhan , Jaapar Aini , Marhani Mohd Arif
Published: October 2022

Recently, the Construction Strategic Plan (CSP) 2021-2025 announced by the Construction Industry Development Board of Malaysia (CIDB) highlighted several fundamentals towards achieving sustainable construction. Value management (VM) is one of the best tools that may be used to assist the sustainability success of the Malaysian construction industry. VM is well known to control the time, cost, and quality at once, fulfilling the client’s requirement in the construction industry. However, it is discovered that lack of knowledge, awareness of stakeholders and weak support from the government made it unable to practice VM thoroughly in many construction projects. This article aims to provide the current situation on VM and emphasize its usage in the construction industry in Malaysia. A snowballing method has been used as a research method to gather knowledge on VM from relevant sources such as articles and papers. VM can be implemented by using several techniques and phases to eliminate or reduce the current issues faced by construction projects. This study discovered that the SMART technique is the most compatible technique for a building project as it poses a simple and detailed solution. In addition, it was observed that there is a need for a more specific principle of VM to be adopted for specific construction fields, i.e., residential projects. Systematic training and proper planning are also vital to provide knowledge to the stakeholders to enhance VM incorporation in the Malaysian construction industry. Thus, this paper substantially contributes to a deeper grasp of current literature knowledge and a clearer picture of VM practices that may help our national construction industry in tandem with the foundations outlined by CSP 2021-2025 towards sustainable construction.
Rental Determination Factors of Super Regional Malls in Greater Kuala Lumpur
Authors: Huri Norulelin , Hwa Ting Kien , Ismail Hafiszah , Arif Adibah
Published: October 2022

Rental rate is significant benchmarking and decision-making indicator for the banking and retail sectors. Determining accurate rental rates for shopping mall is essential and should be given a high priority. There are many opinions on the factors affecting rental rates for retail spaces in shopping malls. Rental data collected from tenancies show differential rental rates for the same type of tenants even though they are located at the same retail floor. This research aims to determine the factors affecting the rental of retail space of selected super regional shopping malls using secondary rental data obtained from NAPIC which are originally collected from property managers returns. Verifications on the rental data are made to ensure consistency with existing tenants before regression analyses are conducted. Two regression analyses using ENTER and STEPWISE methods are carried out. Out of twenty-eight factors examined only ten factors significantly affect retail rentals of super regional malls. Among the key significant factors are size, mall’s characteristics (KLCC, My Town, IOI City Mall Mid Valley), business category (food and beverage), tenancy period and location of retail outlets (corner, atrium and intermediate). The findings of the research may guide property valuers on the significant factors that affect the rental values of regional shopping malls and may improve real estate investors’ decision making.
A Bibliometric Study of Industry 4.0 in Construction Industry Using Oesterreich and Teuteberg (2016) As A Key Marker
Authors: Mansour Husam , Aminudin Eeydzah , Mansour Tahseen , Binti Zainal Abidin Nur Izie Adiana , Roslan Ahmad Farhan
Published: October 2022

This study examines how Industry 4.0 has been discussed in the construction industry and construction management (CM) research over the past four years using Oesterreich and Teuteberg’s (2016) article as a key marker. The techniques adopted in this paper were Bibliometric analysis. Citation, co-citation, and co-occurrence analyses were applied to the articles published between 2016-2019 in the WoS database. This study concluded that most CM research themes had been impacted by Industry 4.0. Also, CM scholars, journal editors, and decision-makers have expressed significant interest in Industry 4.0. Finally, this research has focused on research themes that have been less examined by scholars and have identified areas for future research on how CM literature may benefit from Industry 4.0. Twenty-one main research themes were identified, a co-occurrence network was constructed and examined. The results indicate that there are a sufficient number of references to Industry 4.0 in the themes of management, smart factory, and digitisation. On the other hand, other themes have received less scholarly attention, such as performance, simulation, and supply chain management. Those less explored themes possibly require additional studies.
A Review on Issues Confronted By Safety Team In Managing Safety Practices At Malaysian Construction Industry
Authors: Azil N A S , Jabar I L
Published: October 2022

There are several issues in managing safety practices in Malaysian construction industry which lead to project delay, cost overrun and greatly causes increase in of injuries and accident, not only to workers, but also affected to public nearby. Managing safety practices are widely known as responsibilities of safety team compared to other organizations involved in project management of construction industry. The purpose of this study is to analyze the issues confronted by safety teams in the construction industry in managing safety practices. As a consequence, the researcher has devised two (2) objectives in order to accomplish the study’s purpose; 1) to explore the role of safety team in managing safety practices in construction industry, and, 2) to identify the issues confronted by safety team in managing safety practices in Malaysian construction industry. By focusing on the issue, the safety team will have a better understanding of the situation and will be able to deal with it throughout the construction project. This study provides issues encountered in the Malaysian construction industry when it comes to managing safety practices. The issues recognized will serve as a basis for the safety team and assist them spot unnecessary dangers and risks. The conclusions of this study will raise awareness and assist safety teams in comprehending issues that emerge in the construction industry.
A Comparative Study on Risk Allocation for Different Procurement Type in Malaysian Industry
Authors: Zainudin Nurhuda Athira , Adnan Hamimah , Azrin Baharuddin Har Einur , Rosman Muhammad Redza , Wan Ismail Wan Norizan
Published: October 2022

Risk allocation is one of the important aspects in risk management. However, there is a tendency that risks in construction are being allocated to parties that are least able to resist taking on the risk rather than parties that are more capable to manage the risks. There are different types of procurement that led to different approaches in settling risk allocation between contracting parties. This paper aims to identify risk allocation for different procurement types in construction projects focusing on traditional, design-build and public-private partnership procurement. For this research, a quantitative method was used, where 354 sets of questionnaires were distributed to selected construction firms in Klang Valley. Ninety-two (92) sets of questionnaires were returned and analyzed and the respondents were asked to rate the probability of risk occurrence. The result indicated that the top ranked risk factors are ‘unstable government’, ‘delay in project approvals and permits’, ‘fluctuation of material cost’, ‘poorly written contract’ and ‘inadequate specification in contract’. The recommended risk allocation by respondent for each procurement is presented and found that client and contractor in Traditional procurement, the risks are allocate based on its nature of work. In Design-build, risk factors are mainly allocated to contractor. While in PPP, both contracting parties prefer the majority of the risk factors to be shared. The results of this research will assist practitioners in allocating risks to the party that most qualified to analyze, control, and manage these risks.
Understanding the Effect of Movement Control Order during Covid-19 Pandemic on Contractors
Authors: Ahmad Rashid Zul Zakiyuddin , Adnan Hamimah , Hanafi Hanizun , Ismail Noor Akmal Adillah , Mohamad Yusuwan Nor Azian
Published: October 2022

Series of Movement Control Order (MCO), also known as - Perintah Kawalan Pergerakan (PKP) were issued by Malaysian government with the intention of flattening the spread of Coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic. The series of MCO, though successfully flattened the curve of Covid-19 spread in the country, has affected all areas of life, including the construction industry. This paper aims to investigate the impacts as well as collisions of Covid-19 Pandemic and the handling of MCO effects from contractors’ perspectives. Representative from 2 major contractors association were interviewed. The method adopted was joint In-depth interview or paired interview and was conducted online. Data collected was coded and thematic analysis ensued. The findings exposed those various impacts were inflicted on the contractors namely financial, time and human resource because of Covid-19 and MCO. Several proposals namely introduce stimulus package and lunch new projects to get the economy running, legalize illegal foreign workers as immediate and short- term solution, and emphasizing new ways of construction, particularly by adopting the Industrialized Building System (IBS) and automated or digital construction were raised, to cushion the impact and sustain the industry in the long haul.
Impacts of COVID-19 Pandemic to the Contractor Organizations in the Construction Industry.
Authors: Binti Sany Abdillah Nurul Haziqah Adilah , Isnaini Janipha Nurul Afida , Judi Siti Suhana
Published: October 2022

The outbreak of the COVID-19 virus in late December 2019 has led to the closure of Wuhan, China, where the disease was first discovered and has spread to Malaysia in January 2020. The Malaysian Government’s initiative to limit people’s daily movement since March 2020 prevents the coronavirus from spreading even more as the virus can be transmitted through touch and air. The public health systems faced a burden; hence there is a need to flatten the curve of the COVID-19. However, due to the pandemic and the Movement Control Order (MCO) imposed by the Government, the construction industry has faced huge losses since all construction projects are put on hold for the people to prioritize more on their safety and health. Although delay issues commonly arise as an impact of a pandemic where force majeure is seen as an excusable risk that entitles contractors to time extensions, none of the parties can have monetary compensation to recover from the damages incurred due to the delay. Hence, this study focuses on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Malaysian contractors. A stratified random sampling method is to be used to provide practical means of enabling the data collection and for the research components to be carried out. 205 numbers of G7 Contractors in Klang Valley are the research participants. However only 63 feedbacks obtained which contributed to 30% response rates. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software was used to analyze the data. Findings revealed that there were five major impacts criteria faced by the contractors during pandemic. Therefore, the construction industry should be able to take preventive measures so that construction projects can still be executed whilst maintaining the well-being of all the parties involved during these uncertain times.
Financial Risk in managing Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Project
Authors: Ramli Nabila Huwaina , Adnan Hamimah , Azrin Baharuddin Har Einur , Bakhary Nor Azmi , Rashid Zul Zakiyuddin Ahmad
Published: October 2022

The implementation of Public Private Partnership (PPP) initiatives in Malaysia aims to improve the delivery of infrastructure facilities and services for the public sectors. However, there are failure in financial risk due to lack of financial risk control between Government and SPV. This paper aims to identify the financial risk in Public- Private Partnership (PPP) projects. The questionnaire was prepared in Google Form and sent at randomly 80 industry players experienced in PPP projects; however, only 66 questionnaires were answered with an 83 percent response rate. Based on the result and findings, most of the respondents are well experienced on financial risk management in the PPP projects. Risk management knowledge is essential in managing the financial risk on the PPP projects. In term of classification of financial risk, majority of the respondent agreed on the statement of construction cost overruns in PPP projects. It was found that risk analysis, identification and management to deal with uncertainty and unexpected event in term of scope, time, cost, and quality are proposed as the most agreed for financial risk management in PPP projects. The findings of this study may benefit practitioners to further improve financial risk in PPP and its source of financing towards successful PPP projects.