Perception Based Definition of Construction Quality in Pakistan

Awan, Muhammad Yousaf Sadiq,Awan, Dr Muhammad Maqbool Sadiq Korea Institute of Construction Engineering and Ma 2015 Journal of construction engineering and project ma Vol.5 No.2

The complexity arises in defining the construction quality due to its perception, based on inherent market conditions and their requirements, the diversified stakeholders itself and their desired output. A quantitative survey based approach was adopted in this constructive study. A questionnaire based survey was conducted, for the assessment of construction quality perception and expectations in the context of quality improvement technique. The survey feedback of professionals, from the leading construction organizations/companies of Pakistan were analyzed. The financial capacity, organizational structure, and construction experience of the construction firms formed basis for their selection. After statistical analysis of survey feedback it was found reliable and valid for the inferential purpose to the target population of construction professionals. The quality perception was found to be project scope oriented, considered as an excess cost for a construction project and keeping the rework minimum by qualifying the required quality tests, keeping the defects minimum by ensuring the specifications of supplied material. Any quality improvement technique was expected to address the financial aspects of the construction project for the employer and contractor, by increasing the profitability through reduction in overall cost, reduction in time, reduction in defects and improving the productivity in a construction project. The study is beneficial for the construction professionals to assess the prevailing construction quality perception and the expectations from implementation of any quality improvement technique in construction projects.

나노구조 MnO₂의 수열합성과 특성연구

Awan Zahoor,전정숙,Maria Christy,황윤주,남기석 한국에너지학회 2013 한국에너지공학회 학술발표회 Vol.2013 No.5

Improving ANFIS Based Model for Long-term Dam Inflow Prediction by Incorporating Monthly Rainfall Forecasts

Awan, Jehangir Ashraf,Bae, Deg-Hyo Springer-Verlag 2014 Water resources management Vol.28 No.5

Development of ANFIS-based model for prediction of droughts

Awan, Jehangir Ashraf,Bae, Deg-Hyo 한국방재학회 2015 한국방재학회 학술발표대회논문집 Vol.14 No.-

Drought prediction is of significance importance for drought disaster risk management and mitigation. The regression based statistical models and physical process based models are commonly used for drought prediction. The statistical models assume stationarity of data which limits their ability to capture highly non-linear patterns of droughts. On the other hand, reliable long-range rainfall forecast is necessary for drought prediction using physical process based models. However, the long-range rainfall prediction especially in the Asian monsoon regions is quite challenging for climate models. In this study, the use of Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) was explored to develop a model for prediction of droughts over the East Asia monsoon region (20oN–50oN,103oE–149oE) by employing Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) as a drought index. Most of the drought studies in the East Asia have been focused on basin or country scale. In this study, we identified homogeneous rainfall zones in the East Asia monsoon region using cluster analysis methods and analyzed the impact of global Sea Surface Temperature Anomalies (SSTA) on drought in each zone. The ANFIS-based model was developed and evaluated with different configurations to identify optimal model architecture and suitable predictor variables for drought prediction. The performance of the proposed model was assessed by comparison of observed and predicted values of the drought index using different statistical measures.

Identification and trend analysis of homogeneous rainfall zones over the East Asia monsoon region

Awan, Jehangir Ashraf,Bae, Deg‐,Hyo,Kim, Kyung‐,Joong John Wiley Sons, Ltd 2015 International journal of climatology Vol.35 No.7

<P><B>ABSTRACT</B></P><P>Rainfall is a complex phenomenon with high spatiotemporal variability. Identification of homogeneous rainfall zones to better analyse the rainfall intensity and extent is of vital significance for water resources management and mitigation of potential hazards from extreme events, i.e. droughts and floods. Appropriate zoning of homogeneous rainfall regions may give better understanding of rainfall patterns by resolving small scale variations. Although homogeneous rainfall zones have been established at country scale based on climatological mean behaviour, there has been little attempt to identify zones over broader scale with consistently homogeneous rainfall variability. This study employed K‐means and Hierarchical clustering methods to establish homogeneous rainfall zones in the East Asia monsoon region (20°N–50°N, 103°E–149°E) using 30 years (1978–2007) monthly rainfall data at 0.5° grid resolution. Various cluster validation indices were used to assess the optimal number of homogeneous rainfall zones. The comparison of K‐means and Hierarchical clustering showed that although both methods were able to define the homogeneous rainfall zones well with spatial contiguity, the K‐means clustering outperformed the Hierarchical clustering in identifying more distinct zones with diverse rainfall characteristics. Mann‐Kendall and linear regression tests were used for seasonal and annual rainfall trend analysis in the homogeneous rainfall zones. The study revealed that the region experiences distinct rainfall regimes over different zones. Furthermore, significant increasing and decreasing trends were observed over different zones with strong seasonal variation that indicate the aggravated stress of climate induced disasters, i.e. droughts and floods over the East Asia monsoon region.</P>

The Antitermitic and Antifungal Activities and Composition of Vinegar from Durian Wood (Durio sp.)

Awan SUPRIANTO,Hasan Ashari ORAMAHI,Farah DIBA,Gusti HARDIANSYAH,M. Sofwan ANWARI 한국목재공학회 2023 목재공학 Vol.51 No.4

Chemical characterization of vinegars obtained from Durian wood (Durio sp.) and their termicidal activity against Coptotermes curvignathus and antifungal activity against Schizophyllum commune were evaluated. The process of pyrolysis produced wood vinegars at three distinct temperature: 350℃, 400℃, and 450℃. To determine their effectiveness against fungal growth, the vinegars were tested using a Petri dish with 1.0%, 2.0%, 3.0%, and 4.0% (v/v) against S. commune. In the experiment, termicidal activities were evaluated using a no-choice test for C. curvignathus with 3.0%, 6.0%, 9.0%, and 12.0% (v/v). The wood vinegar exhibited antitermitic activity to C. curvignathus workers in the no-choice experiment; For vinegar produced at 450℃, a 6% concentration was required to achieve 100% mortality against C. curvignathus. In addition, a 12% vinegar produced at 450℃ resulted in the lowest mass loss of treated filter paper, which was 20.00%. Furthermore, all the wood vinegars exhibited antifungal activities against S. commune at concentration of 2.0%. The dominant chemical components of wood vinegar produced at temperature of 350℃, 400℃, and 450℃ were 2-methoxy-phenol, 4-ethyl-2-methoxy-phenol, 4-ethyl-2-methoxy-phenol, 3.5-dimethoxy-4-hydroxytoluene, and creosol.

The effect of pH on the morphological transformation of nanocrystalline hydroxyapatite during wet chemical synthesis

Awan Anum Ayub,Liaqat Usman,Hussain Zakir 한국세라믹학회 2023 한국세라믹학회지 Vol.60 No.6

Hydroxyapatite (HAP) is a prominent bioceramic, notably used in the biomedical field. Fundamental properties of the biomaterials are size and shape dependent. High purity, morphology, and size are the main properties to be addressed for clinical application. Therefore, this work reports the effect of pH and annealing temperature on HAP's shape, crystallite, and particle size. Morphologically different hydroxyapatite nanostructures are synthesised by wet chemical precipitation. Furthermore, the pH of the solution varied from 6 to 11, and the calcination temperature was changed from 300 °C to 900 °C. Various morphologies of hydroxyapatite nanopowders, such as spherical, distorted boxes, aggregated rods, flakes, and beaded rods-like clusters, have been achieved. Moreover, small crystallite and particle sizes of HAP were observed in an alkaline medium. The spherical-shaped hydroxyapatite with particle size between 21.54 nm to 78.89 nm was obtained at pH 11. In contrast, beaded rods, nanorods, nanoflakes and distorted boxes-like morphology with an average particle size between 28.28 nm and 202.43 nm were successfully synthesised in neutral to moderately basic pH. Moreover, the crystallite size between 8.4 to 77.7 nm was achieved by changing the pH and annealing temperature. The synthesised products were analysed by XRD, FTIR, Raman spectroscopy and SEM to determine the crystallinity, purity, chemical composition, vibrational modes, morphology, and particle size.

Metal oxide graphene nanocomposite for the lithium air batteries

Awan Zahoor,MariaChristy,JeongSukJeon,HoSaengJang,KeeSukNahm 한국에너지학회 2013 한국에너지공학회 학술발표회 Vol.2013 No.11

Features and interdecadal variability of droughts in the homogeneous rainfall zones over the East Asian monsoon region

Awan, Jehangir Ashraf,Bae, Deg‐,Hyo John Wiley Sons, Ltd 2016 International journal of climatology Vol.36 No.4

<P><B>ABSTRACT</B></P><P>Features and interdecadal variability of droughts were assessed over the East Asian monsoon region (20°–50°N, 103°–149°E) using the standardized precipitation index (SPI) and the gridded rainfall data set (1978–2007) at 0.5° resolution. To assess the spatial and temporal patterns of droughts, seven homogeneous rainfall zones that exhibit unique rainfall regimes and long‐term variability over the region were used. The statistical analysis method known as the theory of runs was used to identify and characterize drought events. A run was defined as a portion of SPI drought series in which all values were below the selected threshold level. Run‐length and run‐sum were used to define the drought duration and drought severity, respectively. The study revealed unique drying and wetting patterns for different zones in the region. Interdecadal analysis of droughts over the past three decades revealed a significant increase in drought duration and severity in the low rainfall zones, whereas a significant decrease appeared in the high rainfall zones. In particular, the duration and severity dwindled to zero with no major drought event over the eastern and the East Sea coastal region of Japan during the last decade (1998–2007). These patterns pose serious threats of increasing droughts in the low rainfall zones and flooding in the high rainfall zones. The spectral analysis, using the Fast Fourier Transform, was performed to identify the cyclic patterns of SPI time series in each zone, which revealed dominant cycles of 15, 7.5, and 3.4 years in the different zones. These results suggest the possible influence of interdecadal Pacific Oscillations and North Atlantic Oscillations on droughts in the region, although these relations remain a challenging task.</P>

Five Most Common Prognostically Important Fusion Oncogenes are Detected in the Majority of Pakistani Pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Patients and are Strongly Associated with Disease Biology and Treatment Outcome

Awan, Tashfeen,Iqbal, Zafar,Aleem, Aamer,Sabir, Noreen,Absar, Muhammad,Rasool, Mahmood,Tahir, Ammara H.,Basit, Sulman,Khalid, Ahmad Mukhtar,Sabar, Muhammad Farooq,Asad, Sultan,Ali, Agha Shabbir,Mahmoo Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2012 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.13 No.11

Background and Objectives: Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is a complex genetic disease involving many fusion oncogenes (FO) having prognostic significance. The frequency of various FO can vary in different ethnic groups, with important implications for prognosis, drug selection and treatment outcome. Method: We studied fusion oncogenes in 101 pediatric ALL patients using interphase FISH and RT-PCR, and their associations with clinical features and treatment outcome. Results: Five most common fusion genes i.e. BCR-ABL t (22; 9), TCF3-PBX1 (t 1; 19), ETV6-RUNX1 (t 12; 21), MLL-AF4 (t 4; 11) and SIL-TAL1 (del 1p32) were found in 89/101 (88.1%) patients. Frequency of BCR-ABL was 44.5% (45/101). BCR-ABL positive patients had a significantly lower survival ($43.7{\pm}4.24$ weeks) and higher white cell count as compared to others, except patients with MLL-AF4. The highest relapse-free survival was documented with ETV6-RUNX1 (14.2 months) followed closely by those cases in which no gene was detected (13.100). RFS with BCR-ABL, MLL-AF4, TCF3-PBX1 and SIL-TAL1 was less than 10 months (8.0, 3.6, 5.5 and 8.1 months, respectively). Conclusions: This is the first study from Pakistan correlating molecular markers with disease biology and treatment outcome in pediatric ALL. It revealed the highest reported frequency of BCR-ABL FO in pediatric ALL, associated with poor overall survival. Our data indicate an immediate need for incorporation of tyrosine kinase inhibitors in the treatment of BCR-ABL+ pediatric ALL in this population and the development of facilities for stem cell transplantation.