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Adobe buildings are popularly used in different universe regions and comprise an important characteristic of the worldwide cultural heritage. Moreover, in recent years, ecological construction materials like bricks of adobe have become more economically vital. The advantages of using adobe as a main construction material include environment, economy, friendliness, good thermal with sound insulation, and perfect indoor air quality. Therefore, it is vital to investigate the adobe’s mechanical properties. This research aims to investigate the effect of different sizes of bamboo straw on adobe bricks, which is considered a process of seeking high-performance bricks in terms of compressive strength and flexural strength. The mixture utilized in this experimental research contains sand, clay, silt, and bamboo straw. Adobe bricks with bamboo straw were prepared along with a control mix. The brick size is 227 x 115 x 75 mm which consists of different percentages of bamboo straw 0.5%, 1%, and 1.5%. Meanwhile, the bamboo straw has different lengths of 30 mm, namely, short bamboo and 60 mm as long bamboo. 70 samples were tested out of which, 35 bricks samples were tested for compressive strength, whereas 35 bricks samples were tested for flexural test. By adding the bamboo straw reinforcement, the adobe compressive strength increased also the addition of short bamboo straw recorded the maximum compressive strength up to 3.41 MPa. A solid conclusion can be made that the samples constructed with short bamboo straw throughout the mix performed better than the samples with long bamboo straw in compressive strength test and for flexural strength short bamboo marked the best performance to the 1.0%.

Recently, microalgae have emerged as a promising feedstock for biorefineries, offering significant potential for producing high-value bio-based products in areas such as biofuels, nutraceuticals, and environmental management. This study, therefore, undertook an in-depth bibliometric review of 535 articles out of 736 publications published between 2010 and 2024 and sourced from the Scopus database. With the use of the VOS-viewer software, this work identified the major trends within significant research areas in terms of focus and global collaboration networks that pertain to microalgae-based bioproducts. Also, it explored cutting-edge techniques for bioproduct extraction and processing that are both efficient and eco-friendly. This analysis also showed a remarkable growth in output, with peaks in the year 2022, reflecting an interest in renewable energy and methods of sustainable production. The main keywords identified deal with subject areas such as energy, environmental science, and chemical engineering. The dominant technologies referred to dealing with lipid extraction, bio-crude production, and nutrient recycling. While addressing cost, scale-up, and environmental concerns, there is still a need to improve extraction techniques like ultrasonic treatment, supercritical fluid treatment, and enzymatic treatment. Other emerging areas of research include genetic engineering and integrated biorefinery models, which are expected to provide a roadmap for future advancements in the field. The challenges innate in meeting this through innovation and optimization will be the key to realizing the full potential of microalgae to contribute to the circular bioeconomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction sector is increasingly shifting towards sustainable and efficient methodologies, with the industrialized building system (IBS) playing a pivotal role in this transformation. Despite this, the adoption of total quality management (TQM) in IBS projects faces significant challenges, including a lack of comprehensive understanding of TQM standards and resistance to change within the industry. This study addresses these gaps by developing a comprehensive framework for implementing TQM in sustainable IBS construction projects. The objective is to enhance project quality and sustainability by addressing critical issues such as limited stakeholder awareness and opposition to TQM adoption. Using qualitative methodology rooted in phenomenology, this study explores the lived experiences of key stakeholders involved in IBS projects, including project managers, construction professionals, and government officials. Data were collected through in-depth interviews to capture their perspectives on TQM integration in the IBS context. The findings highlight the crucial role of TQM in fostering continuous improvement, enhancing stakeholder collaboration, and ensuring adherence to quality standards throughout the project lifecycle. The proposed framework incorporates essential TQM principles such as process optimization, employee engagement, and customer focus, providing a structured approach to overcoming the barriers to effective implementation. Furthermore, the framework promotes sustainability by reducing waste and improving energy efficiency in IBS projects. This study offers valuable insights for construction professionals, policymakers, and industry stakeholders, presenting practical solutions to improve the quality and sustainability of IBS construction. Leadership, cultural transformation, and continuous improvement are identified as key factors for successful TQM integration, ultimately leading to more efficient and sustainable building processes in the construction industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing consumption of natural resources to meet the needs of road construction has become a significant challenge to environmental sustainability. Additionally, the increase in industrial by-products has raised global concerns due to their environmental impacts. The utilization of industrial by-products in asphalt mixtures offers an effective solution for promoting sustainable practices. The objective of this article is to conduct a bibliometric analysis and citation-based review to characterize and analyze the scientific literature on the use of steel slag aggregates, copper slag, phosphorus slag, bottom ash, fly ash, red mud, silica fume, and foundry sand in asphalt mixtures. Another aim is to identify research gaps and propose recommendations for future studies. The bibliometric analysis was conducted using VOSviewer software version 1.6.18, focusing on authors, co-authorship, bibliographic coupling, and countries. A total of 909 articles were selected for the bibliometric analysis. The findings indicate that more effort is needed to expand the application of industrial by-products in asphalt mixtures. Furthermore, these by-products should be utilized in different types of asphalt mixtures. The incorporation of industrial by-products into asphalt mixes also requires field validation and further laboratory investigations, particularly concerning aging and moisture resistance. In addition, the effects of chemical reactions involving industrial by-products on the long-term performance of asphalt layers should be evaluated. Finally, this article encourages engineers and researchers to intensify their efforts in utilizing industrial by-products for environmental sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Total quality management (TQM) is a systematic management technique for developing a process-driven culture inside an organization to achieve quality and customer and employee satisfaction. TQM has started to impact global business systems, and is extensively regarded as a management "revolution". The implementation of TQM in the industrialized building system (IBS) in Malaysian projects has not been treated in much detail, although it is essential. This research intended to assess TQM adoption in IBS projects and identify how TQM drivers will help to overcome TQM-implementation challenges. This study utilized the mixed method by developing a semi-structured interview and survey, while the respondents were experts from TQM and IBS consulting firms. The content-validity approach was used, depending on 14 interviews and 28 responses to a distributed questionnaire. The findings indicate that TQM adoption of IBS projects is extremely poor. According to experts, local firms are still unable to execute TQM because they are reluctant to implement the TQM system as a strategy implementation across the construction process. Furthermore, according to the content validity ratio (CVR), there was an agreement that TQM would provide substantial benefits to IBS projects, such as offering cooperative associations, excellent communication, enhanced customer gratification, cost reductions, and productivity improvements. This study provided practical evidence of the fact that if the organizations adopted these 23 drivers of TQM they could overwhelm the challenges of TQM implementation in IBS projects. Thus, the stated factors were trustworthy, as indicated in the transcripts of interviews, and relying on the plurality of expert assessments. This study offers a valuable list of challenges and drivers for managers of the projects as guidelines to help them adopt TQM in IBS projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building information modelling (BIM) is an inventive solution for enhancing the operation and maintenance (O&M) phase of construction projects. However, there is still a small and low level of BIM adoption in the O&M phase of construction projects in Malaysia. Hence, a framework is required for the Malaysian construction industry regarding the adoption of BIM in the O&M phase. The goal of this study is to examine the factors that influence the implementation of BIM technology during the O&M phase. A literature review was performed with more than 50 research papers from the past 10 years. This research was closely evaluated to create a list of barriers and drivers that might affect the application of BIM in the O&M phase. To ensure that these barriers and drivers match Malaysian conditions, a semi-structured interview was performed. Based on this interview, a refined questionnaire was created to gather feedback. Next, an online survey was conducted on 302 Malaysian construction professionals who work in the industry. The collected data were analysed for tests of reliability, validity, correlation, and a relative importance index. As per the findings, most of the respondents were familiar with the use of BIM technology, with 98.7% of the companies they worked at having more than 15 BIM engineers employed at the time of the survey. The lack of learning materials and equipment prepared by the academic institutions were identified as two main aspects requiring attention to improve the utilisation of BIM in the O&M stage. On the other hand, the utilisation of BIM, which increases the efficiency of data accessibility for the O&M personnel, has been rated as the most significant driver. Based on the findings, a conceptual framework was developed to provide insight into the matter and a future direction to overcome the matter. Therefore, this study managed to provide an in-depth perspective for future researchers into the factors that can enhance the implementation of BIM software during the O&M phase of a construction project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the attainment of digitization and sustainable solutions under Industry 4.0, effective and economical technology like photogrammetry is gaining popularity in every field among professionals and researchers alike. In the market, various photogrammetry tools are available. These tools employ different techniques and it is hard to identify the best among them. This study is an attempt to develop a methodology for the assessment of photogrammetry tools. Overall, 37 photogrammetry tools were found via literature review and open sources, out of which 12 tools were shortlisted. The evaluation process consisted of three steps, i.e., metadata and visual inspection, comparison with the ground truth model, and comparison with the averaged-merged point cloud model. In addition, a validation test was also performed on the final sorted photogrammetry tools. This study followed a sustainable construction progress monitoring theme for rebar and covered the maximum number of photogrammetry tools for comparison by considering the most authentic evaluation and validation techniques, which make it exclusive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable residential development requires a balance between the increasing demand for housing and the efficient use of materials and resources. The increasing use of industrialized building systems (IBSs) through new building techniques and materials holds high potential as an optimum construction alternative. Although considerable research has been conducted on industrialized buildings, very few studies have focused on low- and mid-rise residential buildings. Therefore, this paper aims to fill this gap. An extensive literature review was conducted to identify the critical success factors (CSFs) followed by an interview to discuss and validate the collected factors. This study resulted in twenty-six factors grouped into five CSFs comprising planning and control, roles and responsibilities, policies and incentives, industry maturity and technology advancement. In addition, 219 survey responses were collected and analyzed. Three factors were perceived differently among organizations including commitment toward IBS policy, implementation of preferential policy for IBSs and imposition of higher taxes on waste dumping. The top five CSFs were early planning to implement IBSs, extended training for local labor, effective communication among project players, project location evaluation and accessibility and standardized design concept adoption. The findings of this paper will help policymakers to review current practices and help develop a roadmap for sustainable IBS development for all industry organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aluminum waste-can management in Malaysia has recently become a serious environmental and public health issue, particularly in metropolitan areas. This has prompted the need to valorize these waste-cans into value-added products using the most economical and environmentally friendly techniques. In this study, the sol–gel technique was used to synthesize high-quality alumina from the aluminum waste-cans collected. From this method, the observed peaks of the synthesized alumina were identified as diaspore (α-AlO(OH)), boehmite (γ-AlO(OH)), aluminum oxide, or gamma-alumina (γ-Al2O3) crystalline structure and corundum. The morphological configuration, microstructure, and functional group properties of the synthesized alumina were evaluated. All the synthesized alumina exhibited a non-spherical shape and appeared to have hexagonal-like shape particles. Moreover, the XRD patterns of the synthesized alumina AL-6-30 and AL-12-30 exhibited a small angle (1–10°) with no XRD peak, which indicated a mesoporous pore structure with no long-range order. The overall results of γ-alumina synthesized from the aluminum waste-cans showed an optimal condition in producing a highly structured γ-alumina with excellent surface-area characteristics. The synthesized alumina exhibited stronger and highly crystalline functional characteristics almost comparable with the commercially available brands on the market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Post-disaster reconstruction (PDR) is a dynamic, complex system that is chaotic in nature, and represents many challenges and issues. Recently, building information modelling (BIM) has been commonly utilized in the construction industry to solve complex and dynamic challenges. However, BIM has not been thoroughly considered for managing PDR, and there is a lack of comprehensive scientometric analyses that objectively examine the trends in BIM applications in PDR. A literature search was performed considering studies published from 2010 to March 2021 using the Scopus database. A total of 75 relevant studies were found to meet the inclusion criteria. The collected literature was analyzed using VOSviewer through scientific journals, authors, keywords, citations, and countries. This is the first study in its vital significance and originality that aims to investigate the current states of research on BIM applications in PDR and provide suggestions for potential research directions. The findings showed that "Reconstruction" and "Safety Management" have emerged as mainstream research themes in this field and recently attracted scholars' interest, which could represent the directions of future research. Five major research domains associated with BIM were identified based on the most frequently used keywords, namely "Disasters", "Earthquakes", "HBIM", "Damage Detection", and "Life Cycle". Moreover, a proposed conceptual framework of BIM adoption for PDR is provided. Accordingly, the outcomes of this study will help scholars and practitioners gain clear ideas of the present status and identify the directions of future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modification of a cell's architecture can enhance the performance parameters. This paper reports on the numerical modeling of a thin-film organic solar cell (OSC) featuring distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) pairs. The utilization of DBR pairs via the proposed method was found to be beneficial in terms of increasing the performance parameters. The extracted results showed that using DBR pairs helps capture the reflected light back into the active region by improving the photovoltaic parameters as compared to the structure without DBR pairs. Moreover, implementing three DBR pairs resulted in the best enhancement gain of 1.076% in power conversion efficiency. The measured results under a global AM of 1.5G were as follows: open circuit voltage (Voc) = 0.839 V; short circuit current density (Jsc) = 10.98 mA/cm2; fill factor (FF) = 78.39%; efficiency (η) = 11.02%. In addition, a thermal stability analysis of the proposed design was performed and we observed that high temperature resulted in a decrease in η from 11.02 to 10.70%. Our demonstrated design may provide a pathway for the practical application of OSCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]