No description available.

No description available.

Ph.D.

Masonry arch bridges have been used throughout the world. Many thousands exist in Europe. The number of arch bridges in the United Kingdom has been estimated at 75,000 with approximately equal numbers occurring within the road and railway networks. The arch is very pleasing to the eye. Many arch bridges are listed structures so that replacement schemes are not options. In 1880 Baker was commissioned to report on the deterioration of Telford's Bridge at Over. Baker wrote, "The abutments had gradually gone over, and had been continuing to go over for sixty years. The result was that certain barbarians were actually urging the magistrates to take down the bridge...". He continued, "... cracks in the spandrels were big enough to walk through quite comfortably. It would be a disgrace to the country if they pulled down Telford's historical work and substituted a hideous iron latticebridge", (Heyman & Threlfall, 1973). Masonry arch bridges were built to carry a road, a railway or sometimes a waterway over an obstacle. A right arch bridge was used where the crossing could be perpendicular to the obstacle. In contrast, a skewed arch was built wherever the obstacle and over-road intersected at any angle other than 90°. Thus, a right arch is a special case of the more general class of skewed arch. The extent of existing knowledge of the behaviour of arch bridges is limited to the right arch in which many effects have either been omitted or have been simplified. These effects include the spandrel walls, the backfill, irregular geometry, and eccentric loading. Clearly, there is scope for an advancement of knowledge so that these effects may be considered and ultimately the behaviour of the skewed arch bridge can be described. The construction of arch bridges in Great Britain reached its zenith at around the beginning of the Nineteenth century. At this time, if conditions prevailed, there was a general desire for each new bridge to exceed the span of any that had gone before (Ruddock, 1979). However, Sejourne (1913) could only find eight structures in the United Kingdom that had at least one span with a clear opening of more than 40.0 m.

Due to increased globalisation of markets and liberalisation of local economies, businesses all over the world are developing increasingly competitive strategies. Management development is central to the success of these strategies. Therefore there is an increasing interest in management development and human resources development in Libya. The hope being that these forms of development can improve, and upgrade, the performance of Libyan human resources to achieve the required level of effectiveness, and to attain competitiveness in the world economy. The main objectives of this research are to develop the framework to implement management development programmes and to analyse the current management development practices in Libyan organisations and explore the extent to which transference of Western management development practices, if such transference is possible, has in fact occurred. The study carried out was essentially an evaluation to assess the value of management development; the specific focus of this evaluation was on two comparative cases in the Libyan oil Industry. The research project was carried out in the oil sector which has a particular importance to Libya’s economic prosperity and should be the first place that management development takes place, but equally would be the best place for the transfer of Western management practice to occur. A case study design was used which involved an empirical investigation of a particular contemporary phenomenon within its real life context using multiple sources of evidence. The main data collection tool was a questionnaire which meant that all the completed responses could be collected within a short period of time and any initial doubts that the respondents might have on any question were clarified on the spot. This also allowed the introduction of the research topic and meant the respondents could be motivated to offer their frank answers. Telephone interviews were used in retrospectively to gather specific information regarding management development within the companies which allowed triangulation. Reliability analyses using Cronbach’s alpha as well as univariate analysis were carried out as were multivariate analyses such as factor analysis (FA) and multiple logistic regression. The non parametric Mann-Whitney test was used to evaluate the association between the instruments (scale). The results of this study show that there is no priority given to manager development at a strategic level in either of the companies. There is no senior endorsement of management development via a written management development policy and no systematic mechanisms for accurately diagnosing group/individual training needs nor any evaluation processes to ensure training remains high quality and business-focused in place at Waha or Repsol either. The Libyan environment and Arab culture have negative effects on perceptions of training in general, and management development in particular, which leads to no serious attention being given to the implementation of management development activities.

No description available.

While the politics of the institutional location and physical environment of the writing center is not a new issue, the majority of this scholarship does not adequately consider tutors' and tutees' perceptions regarding these issues. The purpose of my study, then, was to understand if and how the institutional location and / or physical environment within a writing center affects the tutors' and tutees' perception of the writing center and / or affects the dynamic of a peer tutoring session. The participants in my study were volunteer tutors and tutees who had worked or been tutored at one or more of the three Writing Center locations at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale during the Fall 2008 semester. The instruments used in my research were surveys for both tutors and tutees that included fact-based as well as open-ended questions. In addition, some participants in my study also volunteered for a follow-up interview. Given the low number of participants involved in my study, the results do not provide sufficient evidence to make specific claims regarding my research questions; however, the results do have implications for future research on the institutional location and / or physical environment of the writing center. Specifically, consideration for writing center scholarship to offer more contextualized discourse on the institutional location and physical environment of a writing center, as well as the inclusion of tutors' and tutees' perceptions of these issues.

Road infrastructures play an important role in the economic improvement of the community in the surrounding area. The better speed, flexibility, and accessibility to reach virtually all points are the distinct features that road infrastructure offers compared with other transport systems. In major disasters, road transportation infrastructure is one of the largest sectors which frequently suffer the most damage and losses. Road transport disruptions are also suggested as the critical constraints to providing effective and efficient responses in an emergency, and that the limited access results in high transport costs and procurement lead times. Accordingly, the reconstruction of the road infrastructure is among the highest post-disaster reconstruction priorities and is expected to help accelerate the overall disaster-recovery process. To achieve the maximum benefit of the investment made in the reconstruction, the road infrastructure requires adequate maintenance. Road maintenance offers significant benefits to the road users through the provision of better access, comfort, and lower vehicle operating costs. Road maintenance neglect may therefore result in increased vehicle costs, accelerated deterioration due to the heavier and more frequent traffic, and severe damages requiring early reconstruction of road. In the case of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami in Aceh, Indonesia, the pledges made to Aceh exceeded the required amount to restore the affected areas to their original conditions. Accordingly, more than 3600 km of roads were reconstructed whilst initially around 2700 km of roads were destroyed by the disaster. Most of the local roads were reconstructed either by the national government or a donor agency, which were transferred back to the local governments for the operational and maintenance needs. As nearly 80% of the road networks in Indonesia are district roads, the overall quality and sustainability of the road infrastructure are significantly dependent on the capacity of the local governments in road maintenance. Accordingly, this study aimed to evaluate the capacity of the local governments in the maintenance of the road infrastructure assets within the context of the post-disaster reconstruction process. In order to achieve the aim and objectives of the research, this study implemented a pure qualitative method. Multiple case study was selected as the research strategy. Three districts xix were included as the case studies, the district of Aceh Besar, Aceh Jaya and Aceh Barat Daya. Semi-structured interviews with high-level officials, policy makers, and the stakeholders of post-disaster road infrastructure reconstruction at the national, provincial, and the local level were conducted as the primary data collection methods. The data was analysed using the content analysis technique, with the aid of NVivo version 10 software. The findings of the research were validated by the means of the literature review and expert interviews. The findings suggest that the road infrastructure was generally neglected from maintenance. The local governments of the case studies lacked the preventive maintenance culture, and their general responses to preserve the road infrastructure were to postpone the maintenance need by using the more expensive high standard pavement types (HMA) and to repair the roads when they have broken. This condition was affected by a number of internal and external factors. The local political condition, the socio-economic condition, the conflict of authorities between government agencies involved in road maintenance, and the poor financial capacity of the districts, were exacerbated by the poor capacity of the road authorities’ personnel. A framework for the reconstruction and maintenance of road infrastructure assets was also suggested indicating the different phases of road infrastructure life cycle in a post-disaster context.

The purpose of this research is to develop an assessment framework in the TQM perspective for a blended learning environment in the higher education sector. Blended learning is a specialized field in learning, i.e., combination of face to face learning and e-learning. This research is an attempt to bring a logical approach in assessing the quality feature of the blended learning environment. The quality of the BLE can be easily enhanced if the implementation of important parameters of quality in the blended learning environment is undertaken at all levels of the institution: individual level, organizational level, and at external stakeholders (employers, government, parents, etc.) level. The six major factors are deduced that affect the quality of the blended learning environment in the HES through exploratory factor analysis. To check the intertwining effects of the derived factors/underlying criteria, the DEMATEL technique is applied. This technique has resulted in the formation of the cause group and effect group out of the derived factors/underlying criteria. This group formation has led to high quality in the BLE. The criterion, Qualification and experience of the tutor of the cause group, influences the other criteria in the most significant way and is the master influencer. The criterion, appropriate use of delivery methods, is identified as the most related criterion. Furthermore, the ranking of alternatives (by applying the MOORA method) to improve the quality of the cause criteria has resulted in the formation of effective quality implementation strategy in the higher education sector. The use of the EFQM model on cause criteria is once again a step to bring effectiveness in assessment related activities of the BLE and eventually leading to high quality in the HES. This research involves a mixed method approach to deal with quantitative and qualitative data. The human perceptions and expectations are dealt with by the use of mathematical techniques. A combination of subjectivism and objectivism is seen in the development of this framework. The result of this study has offered a framework to attain superior quality learning environment in the HES.

The government of Abu Dhabi made a decision to change the focus of the government from executer of the project to manager of projects in 2008. More and more work was sub-contracted and government departments just project managed the operations. Due to this change in focus the demand for project managers increased. Most of these project managers were not specially trained or educated in project management competencies. They primarily were employees from older operations who were reassigned for project management purposes. What has been realised now is that it is important to have a look at the competencies of these employees and make sure they are suitable to be project managers. In addition to them being suitable for project management positions, it is also important that there is a specific progression path and well defined expectations to be promoted to the next level. Therefore, there is a need to clearly identify the career path of a project manager from the inception of their careers until they retire. The path has to have identifiable objective points which could be used to decide if the project manager is ready to move to the next level. A framework is needed that can facilitate the progression of a project manager in their career paths in the Abu Dhabi government departments; and therefore, is the main aim of this thesis. In order to accomplish the aim, a mixed methods approach was taken. The Use of initial interviews established the context for Abu Dhabi. Use of statistical techniques such as multiple regression and mathematical technique of DEMATEL helped identify the career path from an entry level project coordinator position to a programme director position through the end of the career. The major findings of this research in addition to the development of the framework are: 1) the career path of a project manager is quite linear; 2) it is not an add-on role but a career in itself; 3) At the entry level of a project an individual should have high level of behavioural competencies; 4) There is a relationship between project success criteria and programme success factors; Since project success leads to programme success, this relationship could be used to establish the transition between a project manager and a programme manager’s role. 5) The technical and contextual competencies of a project manager should be used to promote them during their time as project managers; and 7) Within the programme management there are some competencies that can be regarded as the cause group of competencies and others that could be regarded as the effect group of competencies. There are several major implications of this work. First of all, the framework developed will act as a good starting point for all the government departments to establish their own project management progression framework which could be modified with their own discipline specific information. This research also establishes the importance of behavioural competencies for project management at the outset of the career itself. The framework also provides an objective way of assessing when an individual is ready to move to the next level of responsibilities within the organisation. This framework will further make the promotion process more transparent and the job of evaluating a promotion application easier.