A Meta-frontier method of decomposing long-term construction productivity components and technological gaps at the firm level: evidence from Malaysia

There is a need for a better approach to measure construction productivity rigorously, multilaterally, longitudinally and decomposed into its components. In response, this paper offers a robust approach to analysing construction productivity at the firm level that has been lacking in the industry to date, by measuring the Total Factor Productivity (TFP) of 37 public-listed Malaysian construction firms over 14 years (2003–2016), based on the Färe-Primont index. In comparing different groups of building, civil and specialist construction firms, this is the first application of a meta-frontier framework to capture the technological gaps involved. Based on the construction firms’ financial data, it is found that TFP improvement generally occurs due to Technical Efficiency (TE) and Scale-Mix Efficiency (SME) (largely scope economies), and significant technological gaps exist among different groups. Moreover, the industry suffered a decline in technologically related production environment over the period – prompting the conclusion that long-term policy engagement should focus on technological improvements. The paper provides a robust approach to analysing construction productivity at the firm level that also can be used for accessing productivity components and technological gaps in construction and other industries.     

硅烷涂层对316L不锈钢耐腐蚀性能的影响

目的提高316L不锈钢的耐腐蚀性能。方法在316L不锈钢样品表面涂覆主要成分为1,2-二(三乙氧基硅基)乙烷(BTSE)的硅烷涂层。通过电化学分析测试,评价涂覆硅烷涂层的316L不锈钢的耐蚀性,并通过扫描电子显微镜和扫描电化学显微镜对其表面形貌进行分析。结果在相同的腐蚀环境下,与未涂覆硅烷涂层的316L不锈钢样品相比,涂覆硅烷涂层样品的表面更加光滑,点蚀现象明显好转。电化学测试结果显示,涂覆硅烷涂层的316L不锈钢样品的腐蚀电位为?565.02m V,未涂覆硅烷涂层样品的腐蚀电位为?796.01 mV,前者明显高于后者,其腐蚀倾向明显减小。另外,涂覆硅烷涂层的316L不锈钢样品的腐蚀电流为2.5177μA,未涂覆硅烷涂层样品的腐蚀电流为5.4291μA,涂覆硅烷涂层样品的腐蚀电流明显更小,表现出了更好的耐腐蚀性能。通过观察扫描电化学显微镜图像可以得出,未涂覆硅烷涂层的316L不锈钢样品的电流范围为?3.144×10?9～?1.957×10?9 A,涂覆硅烷涂层的316L不锈钢样品的电流范围为?3.004×10?9～?1.975×10?9A,涂覆硅烷涂层样品的电流范围更窄,腐蚀程度明显减轻。结论在316L不锈钢表面涂覆硅烷涂层可以在一定程度上减缓样品的腐蚀程度,硅烷涂层起到了物理屏障的作用,显着提高了316L不锈钢的耐腐蚀性。     

纳米TiO2对D16T铝合金微弧氧化膜耐磨性的影响及机理

目的 提高D16T铝合金的耐磨损性能。方法 通过向硅酸盐和磷酸盐混合电解液体系中添加2 g/L纳米TiO2添加剂,利用微弧氧化技术在其表面制备微弧氧化陶瓷膜。采用X射线衍射仪（XRD）、扫描电镜（SEM）、能谱分析仪（EDS）、显微硬度计、厚度测试仪、摩擦磨损试验机等,研究了纳米TiO2添加剂对D16T铝合金微弧氧化膜的结构和耐磨损性能的影响及机理。结果 纳米TiO2的添加使得微弧氧化膜层的表面变得更加平整、致密,具有更少的微孔和裂纹,大大改善了膜层结构。相比于未添加纳米TiO2的电解液中制得的微弧氧化膜,在含纳米TiO2的电解液中所制得的微弧氧化膜中有新相TiO2生成,并且促使更多的α-Al2O3相和γ-Al2O3相生成,使膜层厚度得到明显增加,膜厚达31.2 μm,显微硬度也得到显著提高,达510HV。纳米TiO2的添加,降低了D16T微弧氧化膜层试样的摩擦系数,平均摩擦系数为0.45,明显低于不含纳米TiO2的D16T微弧氧化膜层试样的摩擦系数（0.75）。结论 加入到电解液中的纳米TiO2在微弧氧化反应过程中已进入到所形成的氧化膜层,并且填充了膜层中的微孔和裂纹,改善了膜层结构,增加了膜层厚度,显著提高了微弧氧化膜层的显微硬度和耐磨损性能。     

Microbial fuel cell-based sensor for Enterobacter sp. KBH6958 activity monitoring during hydrogen production: the effects of pH and glucose concentration

Journal of Applied Electrochemistry - A microbial fuel cell (MFC) is an electricity-generating device utilising electrochemically active microorganisms as biocatalysts. Using MFC as a biosensor to...     

Synthesis of polyamidoxime chelating ligand from polymer‐grafted corn‐cob cellulose for metal extraction

A conventional free‐radical initiating process was used to prepare graft copolymers from acrylonitrile (AN) with corn‐cob cellulose with ceric ammonium nitrate (CAN) as an initiator. The optimum grafting was achieved with corn‐cob cellulose (anhydroglucose unit, AGU), mineral acid (H₂SO₄), CAN, and AN at concentrations of 0.133, 0.081, 0.0145, and 1.056 mol/L, respectively. Furthermore, the nitrile functional groups of the grafted copolymers were converted to amidoxime ligands with hydroxylamine under basic conditions of pH 11 with 4 h of stirring at 70°C. The purified acrylic polymer‐grafted cellulose and polyamidoxime ligand were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and field emission scanning electron microscopy analysis. The ligand showed an excellent copper binding capacity (4.14 mmol/g) with a faster rate of adsorption (average exchange rate = 7 min), and it showed a good adsorption capacity for other metal ions as well. The metal‐ion adsorption capacities of the ligand were pH‐dependent in the following order: Cu²⁺ > Co²⁺ > Mn²⁺ > Cr³⁺ > Fe³⁺ > Zn²⁺ > Ni²⁺. The metal‐ion removal efficiency was very high; up to 99% was removed from the aqueous media at a low concentration. These new polymeric chelating ligands could be used to remove aforementioned toxic metal ions from industrial wastewater. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2014 , 131, 40833.     

Microwave irradiated and thermally heated olive stone activated carbon for nickel adsorption from synthetic wastewater: A comparative study

In attempt to compare the removal efficiency and yield of the activated carbon prepared using the conventional and microwave‐assisted heating is the focus of this work. Toward this olive stone (a biomass precursor) is activated using the popular activating agent potassium hydroxide. The process optimization exercise is carried out by using the standard full factorial statistical design of experiments (response surface methodology). The activated carbons prepared under the optimized conditions are compared based on the adsorption capacity and yield. The adsorption capacity was found higher using microwave heating as compared with conventional heating. The microwave heating requires significantly lesser holding time as compared to conventional heating method to produce activated carbon of comparable quality, with higher yield. The BET surface area of carbon using microwave heating is significantly higher than the conventional heating. Although the mesopore surface area of carbon is not vary significantly, the activation time, power, and nitrogen gas consumption are significantly lower than the conventional heating rendering that the activation process via microwave is more economical than that via conventional heating. The adsorption isotherm data fitted the Langmuir isotherm well and the monolayer adsorption capacity was found to be 12.0 and 8.42 mg/g for microwave and thermally heated activated carbon, respectively. Regeneration studies showed that microwave‐irradiated and thermally heated olive stone could be used several times by desorption with an HCl reagent. Both carbons can be used for the efficient removal of Ni²⁺ (>99%) from contaminated wastewater. © 2013 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 60: 237–250, 2014     

Structural development and magnetic phenomenon in Zn–Cr–Fe multi oxide nano-crystals

The Cr³⁺ ions doped multi-oxide ZnFe_2−xCr_xO₄ ferrite nanoparticles have been synthesized by chemical co-precipitation method. Site occupancies of Zn²⁺, Cr³⁺ and Fe³⁺ ions were analyzed using X-ray diffraction data and Buerger's method. The effect of the constituent phase variation on the magnetic hysteresis behavior was examined by saturation magnetization which decreases with the increase in Cr³⁺ content in place of Fe³⁺ ions at octahedral B-site. Typical blocking temperature (T_B) around 90 K was observed by zero field cooling and field cooling magnetization study. Room temperature Mössbauer spectra show two paramagnetic doublets (tetrahedral and octahedral sites). The isomer shifts of both doublets decrease whereas quadrupole splitting and relative area of tetrahedral A-site increases with increasing Cr³⁺ substitution. The dielectric constant (measured on compositions x=0, 0.4, 0.8 and 1.0) increases when the temperature increases as in the semiconductor. This behavior is attributed to the hopping of electrons between Fe²⁺ and Fe³⁺ ions with a thermal activation.     

Performance analysis of three advanced controllers for polymerization batch reactor: An experimental investigation

The performances of three advanced non-linear controllers are analyzed for the optimal set point tracking of styrene free radical polymerization (FRP) in batch reactors. The three controllers are the artificial neural network-based MPC (NN-MPC), the artificial fuzzy logic controller (FLC) as well as the generic model controller (GMC). A recently developed hybrid model (Hosen et al., 2011a. Asia-Pac. J. Chem. Eng. 6(2), 274) is utilized in the control study to design and tune the proposed controllers. The optimal minimum temperature profiles are determined using the Hamiltonian maximum principle. Different types of disturbances are introduced and applied to examine the stability of controller performance. The experimental studies revealed that the performance of the NN-MPC is superior to that of FLC and GMC.     

Fabrication of oxide pellets containing lumped Gd2O3 using Y2O3‐stabilized ZrO2 for burnable absorber fuel applications

In this paper, the fabrication of novel burnable absorber fuel concepts with oxide pellets, containing either a lumped Gd₂O₃ rod, a mini‐pellet, or a spherical particle in the centerline of the oxide pellet, is investigated to propose the lumped Gd₂O₃ burnable absorber fuel concept to improve nuclear fuel performance with longer fuel cycle lengths and better fuel utilization. The unique characteristic of the lumped Gd₂O₃ burnable absorber fuel is its high spatial self‐shielding factor that reduces its burnout rate and, therefore, improves the reactivity control. Oxide pellets containing lumped Gd₂O₃ were fabricated by using a combination of cold isostatic pressing and microwave sintering at 1500°C to understand the potential technical issues in the fabrication of duplex burnable absorber fuel. The effect of the sintering temperature on the densification and phase transformation of 8 wt.% yttria‐stabilized zirconia, a surrogate for UO₂, was investigated. Spherical Gd₂O₃ particles were fabricated by the drip casting of a Gd₂O₃‐based Na alginate solution. The fabrication of duplex oxide pellets by using presintered Gd₂O₃ mini‐pellets resulted in internal cracks at the interface between the Gd₂O₃ and 8 wt.% yttria‐stabilized zirconia layers because of the mismatch of their densification. However, the formation of interfacial cracks was eliminated by controlling the initial sintered density of the lumped Gd₂O₃.