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ObjectivesTo investigate whether and how inflammatory disease in the intestine influences the development of arthritis, considering that organ-to-organ communication is associated with many physiological and pathological events.MethodsFirst, mice were given drinking water containing dextran sodium sulfate (DSS) and then subjected to inflammatory arthritis. We compared the phenotypic symptoms between the cohoused and separately-housed mice. Next, donor mice were divided into DSS-treated and untreated groups and then cohoused with recipient mice. Arthritis was then induced in the recipients. The fecal microbiome was analyzed by 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. We obtained type strains of the candidate bacteria and generated propionate-deficient mutant bacteria. Short-chain fatty acids were measured in the bacterial culture supernatant, serum, feces, and cecum contents using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Mice fed with candidate and mutant bacteria were subjected to inflammatory arthritis.ResultsContrary to expectations, the mice treated with DSS exhibited fewer symptoms of inflammatory arthritis. Intriguingly, the gut microbiota contributes, at least in part, to the improvement of colitis-mediated arthritis. Among the altered microorganisms, Bacteroides vulgatus and its higher taxonomic ranks were enriched in the DSS-treated mice. B. vulgatus, B. caccae, and B. thetaiotaomicron exerted anti-arthritic effects. Propionate production deficiency further prevented the protective effect of B. thetaiotaomicron on arthritis.ConclusionsWe suggest a novel relationship between the gut and joints and an important role of the gut microbiota as communicators. Moreover, the propionate-producing Bacteroides species examined in this study may be a potential candidate for developing effective treatments for inflammatory arthritis.

The use of a 4D schedule as technological advancement has brought significant improvement to the planning and execution of construction projects, through visualizing step-wise construction progress, following a sequence of pre-planned activities, and finalizing a baseline schedule with necessary changes. Moreover, the application of immersive virtual reality (IVR) to create an interactive 4D BIM schedule of a planned structure has made it possible to create a detailed plan of any construction project. Because of these benefits, the use of 4D schedules and immersive virtual reality in the construction industry has increased, leading to improved planning and execution. However, past studies have given little attention to the applications of such technologies on modular projects. Thus, this research applied a 4D schedule, along with immersive virtual reality, on a modular project, and verified their benefits and effectiveness. The results showed that most of the participants who experienced a 4D BIM schedule, along with immersive virtual reality (4D/IVR), strongly agreed that it is an easy and straightforward way to visualize the project, understand the schedule, and find any errors. Moreover, while fewer than half of the participants scheduled the assembly sequence correctly with conventional schedule and 2D drawings, almost all of them sequenced the assembly successfully with 4D/IVR. Based on the findings, this research concludes that the implementation of a 4D BIM schedule, along with virtual reality technology, can enhance the fabrication and assembly performance of modules.

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a metabolic liver disease with a complex underlying mechanism that has not been completely understood. Thus, effective and safe drugs for this disease are not yet available. Artemisia annua L. is a medicinal plant with potent antimicrobial and antioxidant activities. In this study, we prepared a water extract of A. annua (WEAA) and examined its potential for NAFLD treatment. First, we pretreated HepG2 cells (human hepatocarcinoma cell line) with WEAA and then treated the cells with oleic acid or tert-butylhydroperoxide to examine the effect of WEAA on the lipid accumulation and the cytotoxicity, respectively. WEAA not only inhibited lipid accumulation within HepG2 cells but also protected cells from oxidative stress-mediated damage through the activation of antioxidant enzymes (such as activation of superoxide dismutase and production of glutathione) and its own scavenging activity. Next, to confirm protective effect of the WEAA in in vivo, mice were intragastrically administered with WEAA, extract of Silybum marianum or water once a day, and simultaneously provided with high-fat diet to induce fatty liver and hepatic steatosis. Oral administration of WEAA ameliorated weight gain and hepatic lipid accumulation in high-fat diet-fed mice. Moreover, the plasma levels of triglyceride, aspartate aminotransferase, and alanine aminotransferase were reduced in the WEAA-treated group. Our findings indicated that WEAA may be a potential intervention for preventing or treating hepatic lipid accumulation and liver damage.

Not only are many Mycobacteria pathogens, but they can act as strong non-specific immunopotentiators, generating beneficial effects on the pathogenesis of some diseases. However, there has been no direct evidence of the effect of mycobacterial species on colorectal cancer (CRC). Herein, we showed that there may be a meaningful inverse correlation between the incidence of tuberculosis and CRC based on global statistics and that heat-killed Mycobacterial tuberculosis and live Mycobacterium bovis (Bacillus Calmette-Guérin strain) could ameliorate CRC development. In particular, using a faecal microbiota transplantation and a comparison between separate housing and cohousing, we demonstrated that the gut microbiota is involved in the protective effects. The microbial alterations can be elucidated by the modulation of antimicrobial activities including those of the Reg3 family genes. Furthermore, interleukin-22 production by T helper cells contributed to the anti-inflammatory activity of Mycobacteria. Our results revealed a novel role of Mycobacteria involving gut microbial alterations in dampening inflammation-associated CRC and an immunological mechanism underlying the interaction between microbes and host immunity.

RNA metabolism plays a central role in regulating of T cell-mediated immunity. RNA processing, modifications, and regulations of RNA decay influence the tight and rapid regulation of gene expression during T cell phase transition. Thymic selection, quiescence maintenance, activation, differentiation, and effector functions of T cells are dependent on selective RNA modulations. Recent technical improvements have unveiled the complex crosstalk between RNAs and T cells. Moreover, resting T cells contain large amounts of untranslated mRNAs, implying that the regulation of RNA metabolism might be a key step in controlling gene expression. Considering the immunological significance of T cells for disease treatment, an understanding of RNA metabolism in T cells could provide new directions in harnessing T cells for therapeutic implications.

Currently, facility design standardization is a well-established and quotidian strategy, especially in the manufacturing and shipbuilding industries. Even so, the construction industry, spe...

Natural Disasters cause major adverse social and financial effects by destroying homes and infrastructures. For example, Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 damaged over 214,700 homes in New Orleans and forced over 800,000 citizens to live outside of their homes due to flooding. Thus, these disasters require a quick and efficient response to post-disaster housing issues and provide resources for temporary houses for short-term disaster relief and reconstruction of destroyed and damaged housing for full rehabilitation. Reconstruction of permanent housing for disaster victims is one of the most time-consuming activities in the post-disaster recovery process. However, time is a critical factor which should be minimized for the restoration of affected communities. Modularized construction is a promising solution for improving the process of post-disaster housing reconstruction because of its inherent characteristic of time-efficiency. This paper aimed to evaluate prefabricated modular construction potentials as an approach that can facilitate the design and construction phase of post-disaster reconstruction. An extensive literature review has been carried out to identify the features of modularized construction which can add value to the post-disaster recovery process. To investigate the suitability and feasibility of implementing modular construction for post-disaster reconstruction and also identify major barriers of its implementation, a survey has been conducted in 2018 among AEC experts who were experienced in the prefabricated construction industry and/or involved in post-disaster reconstruction projects. The results of the study indicate that prefabricated modular construction is a promising approach to improve time-efficiency of post-disaster reconstruction and tackle challenges of current practices by its unique benefits such as reduced demand for on-site labor (overcome local labor pool constraints impacted by the disaster) and resources (overcome shortage of equipment and materials), shorter schedule (due to concurrent & non-seasonal), reduced site congestion, and improved labor productivity (due to assembly line-like and controlled environment).

Modularization is a well-known construction technique where sections of the job are moved from on-site to a fabrication shop. Previously, the researchers identified the 21 most influential Critical Success Factors (CSFs) for successful modularization and quantified the degree of each CSF’s accomplishment by conducting a survey with 19 subject matter experts, and a case study with three modular projects. Through this methodology, the findings relied on the experience of experts. However, still missing from the understanding of modularization CSFs is a validation of the current degree of each CSF’s accomplishment by examining actual modular projects using a sufficient number of samples. This paper presents a comparison of CSF accomplishment degree between 25 actual sample projects (project based) and the industry experts’ survey results (experience-based estimation). The study results indicate that the industry experts made a good estimation of the current occurrence degree of each CSF. The study did identify, however, three significantly overestimated CSFs and three underestimated CSFs. The three most overestimated CSFs are Owner-Furnished/Long Lead Equipment Specification, Cost Savings Recognition, and O&M Provisions. The three most underestimated CSFs are Contractor Experience, Management of Execution Risks, and Transport Delay Avoidance. This study will help the industry to 1) better understand modularization CSFs and their accomplishment statuses; 2) achieve higher modular project performance by accomplishing the CSFs

Accelerated bridge construction (ABC) is an innovative construction technique used to accelerate the construction of new bridges, as well as the renovation/replacement of existing bridges. Due to the benefits offered by ABC, transportation authorities have a higher preference in executing an accelerated approach over conventional bridge construction. The execution of an accelerated approach has differences when compared to the conventional approach, and it is important to identify such differences for the successful implementation of ABC projects. However, there have been no studies to identify such execution differences. Therefore, this study was conducted to identify execution plan differences relevant to ABC. For this purpose, an extensive literature review was conducted to prepare a preliminary list of execution plan differences. Then, a questionnaire survey was administered with the industry experts, who were previously involved in the execution of ABC projects, to validate the preliminary list. Based on the literature review and the responses from questionnaire survey, this study identified 61 execution plan differences relevant to ABC in different phases of execution. This study is expected to benefit owners, contractors, and road/bridge users for successful execution of ABC projects.

Purpose Facility design standardization strategy has considerable advantages, highlighted by its widespread and consistent use in the shipbuilding and manufacturing industries. However, capital projects have failed to realize these benefits. The primary rationale behind this problem is the lack of proper understanding of design standardization, more specifically the benefits and equally importantly, the trade-offs of design standardization in capital projects. Therefore, this study highlights 13 benefits and six trade-offs of standardization in connection to design standardization, along with specific examples. Design/methodology/approach To achieve the study objectives, the researchers identified the most impactful benefits and trade-offs in terms of economic impact by surveying prominent players in the industry. Furthermore, the researchers examined 43 actual case projects (a case study) executed with the standardization strategy to evaluate the industry's status in terms of the levels of advantage achievement and disadvantage incurrence. Findings The results of this survey show that design once, reuse multiple times and design and procurement in advance are the most impactful benefits. Similarly, susceptible to changes in the market conditions is one of the top trade-offs that can be incurred in capital projects when implementing standardization. The results also highlight that design once, reuse multiple times is one of the most achieved benefits in standardized capital projects today, while cost of establishing the design standard is the most incurred trade-off. Originality/value This study provides important insight into how standardization strategy can be advantageous while also enriching the literature about pitfalls expected from standardization. Moreover, this study's results will help the industrial sector achieve higher levels of design standardization by providing a better understanding of the benefits and trade-offs of design standardization.

Many industrial projects have experienced significant operability problems and failed to achieve capital project investment objectives during the commissioning and start-up (CSU) phase. To ...

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a metabolic liver disease with a complex underlying mechanism that has not been completely understood. Thus, effective and safe drugs for this disease are not yet available.

Making a decision regarding whether an owner should implement a facility design standardization strategy for their future facilities is not easy. It is a complex process because the replica...

Standardization is a familiar concept today that helps organizations achieve higher value for money. However, the implementation of design standardization in the capital projects sector has...

Over the last recent decades, the economic status of women has been changed significantly. Gender segregation levels have decreased, and women have started participating in male-dominated o...

Widespread destruction from large-scale disasters results in lengthy and costly recovery of damaged infrastructure and communities, with societal and economic impacts persisting many years ...

Standardization is a commonplace idea today; however, capital projects have not been able to achieve high levels of facility design standardization. The Construction Industry Institute (CII...

The construction industry has insufficient interest and participation from women, as well as an existing gender wage gap. To address these issues, a better understanding of the recent situa...

When properly implemented, modular construction offers considerable opportunity to improve project performance. However, the construction industry continues to struggle to achieve higher levels of ...

The construction industry, one of the largest job providers in the U.S., is suffering from critical problems pertaining to labor shortage in the workforce. The researchers have recognized as a critical issue an insufficient interest and poorly sustained participation in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry by underrepresented demographic groups. To address the issue of workforce income inequality and bias, the industry must be able to understand the current situation regarding inequality and pinpoint some of the basic problems. To address this need, this study analyzes current inequality within the construction workforce by race/ethnicity and gender. The preliminary results of the study show that White construction workers are, in average, 16.2 times more than African Americans and 3.6 times more than Hispanics in average, African Americans being the least in number in the construction workforce. Also, the study shows that men in construction workforce, on average, earn 4.2% more than women in the years sampled. Our trend analysis shows that these gaps relating to the number of employed personnel and median weekly earnings did not change.

Chitinase-3-like-1 (Chi3l1) is known to play a significant role in the pathogenesis of Type 2 inflammation and cancer. However, the function of Chi3l1 in T cell and its clinical implications are largely unknown. Here we show that Chi3l1 expression was increased in activated T cells, especially in Th2 cells. In addition, Chi3l1-deficient T cells are hyper-responsive to TcR stimulation and are prone to differentiating into Th1 cells. Chi3l1-deficient Th1 cells show increased expression of anti-tumor immunity genes and decreased Th1 negative regulators. Deletion of Chi3l1 in T cells in mice show reduced melanoma lung metastasis with increased IFNγ and TNFα-producing T cells in the lung. Furthermore, silencing of Chi3l1 expression in the lung using peptide-siRNA complex (dNP2-siChi3l1) efficiently inhibit lung metastasis with enhanced Th1 and CTL responses. Collectively, this study demonstrates Chi3l1 is a regulator of Th1 and CTL which could be a therapeutic target to enhance anti-tumor immunity., Chitinase-3-like-1 (Chi3l1) has been involved in inflammation and pulmonary metastasis. Here the authors show that Chi3l1 inhibits the T cell response by negatively regulating their activation and that, in a mouse model of melanoma, T cell-targeted silencing of Chi3l1 results in reduced lung metastasis.

Incorporating sustainability in construction can result in desirable building attributes and project life cycle. The Leadership in Engineering and Environmental Design (LEED®) Rating System helps project teams make the right green building decisions for their projects through a process. However, in current practice, project teams do not have a systematic procedure or tool for choosing the LEED credits appropriate for a particular project. The researchers have developed a tool, which support the LEED integrative process during a charrette, and developed an optimization model that can be utilized to assist project teams determine which credits to pursue for LEED certification, taking into account potential benefits associated with any LEED credit. The tool enables owners to incorporate sustainability in construction by helping the project teams make the right green building decisions for their projects through an integrated procedure.

Modularization is a method of enhancing project value by exporting a portion of site work to fabrication/assembly shops/yards. Maximizing modularization’s benefits, however, is something the industry is still struggling to achieve. To achieve it, the construction industry needs a new modularization business case analysis approach and an associated computational tool. Thus the Construction Industry Institute’s (CII) Research Team (RT) 283 has developed a business case process to identify the optimum proportion of work hours to be moved offsite via module scope; the process also identifies the drivers of modularization. An optimal decision-making process is thereby established. Still missing from modularization business case analysis is a tool to support this process. This study develops just such a tool with the support of the CII Modularization Community of Practice. The tool manages information on module project drivers and, to the different parts of a module job, assigns a cost/factor/productivity. In developing the tool, researchers collected existing business case analysis tools from different companies and from the literature. The most suitable elements from these have been incorporated into a new modularization business case analysis tool. The tool identifies the optimum level of work hours to move offsite, providing specific savings, not just an indicative value. The tool, set up in three layers, permits details to be added and can be used, as a project is further developed, at successive phases with increasing rigor. This tool was subsequently reviewed by CII Modularization Community of Practice. This tool, by selecting optimum level of modularization, should help the construction industry maximize the benefits of modularization.

Modularization is a well-known method of enhancing project value by exporting a portion of site work to one or more local or distant fabrication or assembly shops/yards. Still, the industry is in need of additional guidance on how to more effectively exploit modularization. To help achieve wider and more effective use of modularization, the researchers and the Construction Industry Institute’s (CII) Research Team 283 develops here a new modularization business case process for developing the modularization drivers (and for determining the degree to which modularization will be implemented). The result is an optimal decision-making process as these drivers are compared with the owner’s objectives and evaluation criteria for cost, schedule, risk and other project objectives. This paper presents this new modularization business case process and lays out the major considerations that pertain to per-project phases. The findings provide guidelines along with a flowchart that should impose rigor on the decision process, helping owners and avoiding poor outcomes.

The keys to capital facility project success are developing a sound project plan or schedule and then carrying out the project according to the plan. The construction industry, however, has major difficulties accomplishing schedule goals, and construction professionals struggle to develop reasonable baseline schedules. The objective of this paper is, by applying the industry-recognized schedule quality metrics to baseline schedules used for higher-education capital facility projects at the University of Texas at Austin, to understand the current quality of baseline schedule, identify problems, and provide recommendations for future higher-education capital facility projects. The evaluation results show that among 49 collected industry-recognized metrics, all the projects passed 27 metrics, with one project failing to pass all of the remaining 22 of the 49 metrics. The industry should pay particular attention to the following commonly occurring issues when developing a baseline schedule: (1) dividi...

Commissioning and start-up (CSU) must be accomplished before a facility can initiate initial operations and begin meeting commercial objectives. Actions necessary for successful CSU are often not well planned or executed, resulting in poor CSU performance. Recognizing this significant shortfall, the purpose of this study is to determine critical activities necessary to increase the likelihood of successful CSU performance on capital projects. Utilizing input from CSU experts, objective data collection, and subsequent data analysis, 16 critical success factors (CSFs) were identified through this research. Further elements developed include CSF’s timing of CSF implementation, support of safety and quality, and current frequency of CSF achievement. The researchers recommend the industry to pay particular attention to these six laggard CSFs: CSU value recognition, adequate funding for CSU, CSU leadership continuity, system milestone acceptance criteria and deliverables, CSU systems engineering during ...

Modularization is a well-established method that can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the construction industry. However, the industry continues to struggle with its implementati...

Low trust negatively affects the efficiency, schedule performance, and administrative cost functions of construction project team. However, trust is seldom taken into consideration during contract formation; in particular, in the dispute resolution method (DRM) clauses. The objective of this paper is to investigate how trust influences contract terms and conditions related to the DRM clauses. Data from 27 construction projects were collected and 11 DRM experts participated in the study. The results show that although experts recommend the choice of DRMs based on the trust level between parties, the DRM actually used on construction projects is not affected by the trust level between partners. Negotiation was the most recommended DRM for high-trust projects, but was the least used DRM in practice on such projects. The conclusion of this research is an incremental step to rethink social factors that are overlooked in construction management and that proved influential on how contracts are drafted.

High levels of modularization have yet to be generally achieved by the construction industry. To suggest how such levels might be achieved, this study identified needed changes or adaptations in conventional project work processes. It did so by identifying and analyzing differences in how modular projects should be planned and executed. Nineteen research team members and two academic researchers identified, classified, and grouped 107 differences in how modular projects should be planned and executed. Later, three modularization case studies were conducted, and the findings were subsequently validated by an external validation committee. At the topic level, nearly 37% of the planning differences pertained to one of four topics: planning and cost estimating; modularization scoping, layout process, and plot plan; basic design standards, models, and deliverables; or detailed design deliverables. The industry may need to pay attention to these four topics to achieve higher levels of modularization. T...

Modularization is a well-established technique in which a portion of site-based work is exported to fabrication shops, thereby contributing to an improved construction. When modularization is combined with design standardization, according to the literature of the shipbuilding and manufacturing industries, the result is a leveraging opportunity. Such an approach can incorporate all the benefits from both design standardization and modularization and can constitute a strategy for augmenting modularization. This paper addresses a leveraging opportunity for modularization augmentation by examining how modularization and design standardization relate to one another in the industrial sector. A research team comprised of industrial and academic members identified standard modules as well as a modular standardized plant (MSP) as distinct approaches to combining modularization and design standardization. The research further identified 10 types of economic advantages and 3 types of economic disadvantages ...

Modularization is a well-established technique that can improve the construction industry by exporting a portion of site-based work to fabrication shops. However, its application in the ind...

Modular construction techniques can not only significantly contribute to improved project cost, schedule, and quality performance, but also sustainability by reducing site disruption and waste generated, creating better relocatability and reusability. However, there are still difficulties in developing and implementing modularization in a hospitality centric environment. Thus, the primary goal of this research is to identify the opportunities and challenges of implementing sustainable modular construction techniques in a hospitality-centric environment. In this study, the approach includes the formulation of a survey, which was distributed to 600 industry professionals in Las Vegas and completed by 63 industry professionals, followed by three personal interviews. The results showed that: 1) 85% percent of survey participants expected an improvement in schedule, and 65% of that elected to use a form of modularization actually experienced an improved schedule; 2) 62% of the participants claimed that they would keep using modular methods in the next 12 months, whereas 44% of the participants claimed they would increase their use of modularization in the next five years; 3) two of the top five expected benefits achieved included less site disruption (noise/traffic and dust) and reduced waste, which contribute towards sustainable construction; 4) transportation/logistics was selected by industry professionals as a key barrier in the implementation of modular construction; 5) to implement more sustainable construction, practitioners require additional research to improve and overcome the key barrier of transportation/logistics; 6) if construction professionals gain more modular project experience, their perceived benefits and barriers could increase and decrease, respectively. The results from this research provide valuable insights for implementing sustainable modular methods in hospitality-centric environments.