College of Art and Built Environment

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    Virtualization of knust’s tangible heritage: an Alternative medium to enhance access
    (KNUST, 2020-11) Asiamah, Kwabena Ofori
    Indisputably, museums provide research, educational and recreational benefits to mankind. This has been carried out manually for centuries. But with the emergence, and spread of Information Communication Technologies (ICT’s) this manual services are changing rapidly to virtual services; all because the current generation of students and researchers alike unconsciously resonate towards electronic platforms to access and utilize information. Not very mindful of this, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology attempted to establish a brick and mortar museum between 2002 -2012 to showcase her heritage but to no avail. Meanwhile huge sums of money, technical and managerial resources had gone into it. In order to salvage such investment and to be able to enjoy the benefits inherent in museum services, the idea of a virtual museum was hatched as an alternative medium to achieve the same goals. The study therefore, analyzed museum services in Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), designed, developed and implemented a demonstration virtual museum (Virtual Museum of KNUST– (VIMU KNUST) and finally evaluated the effectiveness and efficiency of VIMU KNUST in enhancing access to KNUST’s tangible Heritage. In advocating for the creation of such a resource, the Sequential Exploratory Design in (mixed method) was employed. Questionnaires, interviews, documentary reviews and observation were used to gather data. Initial assessment results were reinforced by a subsequent survey in order to be sure of the preference of the virtual museum by the University. Additionally, a demonstration virtual museum was designed for evaluation and the evaluated opinions were used to refine it for implementation. Analysis of Data revealed that, apart from access enhancement of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology’s (KNUST) heritage by the Virtual Museum (VIMU KNUST), it will also provide monetary, visibility and educational benefits. More so, it became evident that the preference of the university community was on a virtual museum where patrons could sit anywhere and access it via the internet. As a sequel to these, the study recommended among others that the University Management Committee prioritizes the creation of a virtual museum as needed by the University community while ensuring that, the resource is well advertised and that the interactivity as well as navigability features of the resource is up to task.
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    Health and safety knowledge transfer and diffusion From the construction industry to the community as a Corporate social responsibility
    (KNUST, 2020-06) Williams, Justice
    Clear evidences have shown that poor state of health and safety cultural practices have existed among Ghanaian citizenry. This has created much debate among government, academics, religious bodies, opinion leaders and the media, thereby calling for immediate action to improve the situation. Reports from some national institutions like The National Statistical Service Report, (2016) and the Ghana National Fire Service Incident Report, (2016) have pointed out the urgent need to improve the state of Health and safety in the country. The reports have acknowledged that ignorance and negligence rank high as causes of most health and safety problems reported in the country. In recent years, awareness of Health and safety in the construction industry has increased. Meanwhile, these construction companies operate in the communities and are socially expected to go beyond the execution of their projects and engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a give back to society. However, contractors complain about several factors that affect their ability to fulfil this expectation. Therefore, the aim of this study is to develop a framework for the transfer of health and safety knowledge and its diffusion into Ghanaian communities by construction companies as a corporate social responsibility. In order to facilitate the understanding of the processes of transferring knowledge from a construction company to the Ghanaian communities, two theories were integrated: innovation diffusion theory and knowledge transfer and conversion theory. Through a questionnaire survey and semistructured face-to-face interviews, both quantitative and qualitative data were collected from road and building contractors of all classes across the country. The data were analysed using chi-square test of independence, one sample t-test, cumulative scale analysis and factor analysis for the quantitative data while thematic analysis was used for the qualitative data. Findings from both the quantitative and qualitative studies confirmed the improvement of health and safety knowledge in the Ghanaian construction industry. The study found that road contractors are better performers in Health and safety than building contractors. Furthermore, the study established that the maturity of health and safety culture in the Ghanaian construction industry is at its first stage of the health and safety culture maturity ladder. The study further found six major challenges confronted by Ghanaian contractors engaged in corporate social responsibility. Topmost among these are the view that Ghanaian contractors have of i v CSR as avoidable expense, the absence of a legal framework to guide CSR implementation and lack of incorporation of CSR into the Vision and Mission Statements of organisations. The study also identified five knowledge transfer enablers and four barriers to knowledge transfer from the Ghanaian construction firms to the communities. Six enablers were also found to be significant in diffusion of knowledge in the Ghanaian communities by contractors with four associated barriers. The findings from the study resulted in the development of stage by stage knowledge transfer and diffusion framework for facilitating transfer of knowledge and its subsequent diffusion from construction companies to the communities as a corporate social responsibility to construction companies. The study contributed immensely to the academia where it tests, extends and integrates innovation diffusion theory and Nonaka and Takeuchi’s knowledge conversion and transfer theory to a new context thereby helping to better explain external knowledge transfer and diffusion from the construction company to the community. Practically, the dynamic factors in integrating innovation decision processes, knowledge transfer and conversion processes, knowledge transfer influencers and complexities and knowledge diffusion influencers and complexities would assist researchers to understand external knowledge transfer from the perspectives of construction companies to the communities. Further, the framework proposed provides a practical step towards actions and activities required to be institutionalised to enhance the transfer process. Therefore, the findings of this study can be used as a practical guide for construction companies to transfer knowledge from the industry to any community in which they find themselves.
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    Adaptive selection and behavioural conditioning framework for the attitudinal change of construction workers towards the use of safety helmets and goggles
    (KNUST, 2020-10) Adade-Boateng, Anita Odame
    Construction workers are constantly faced with several hazards due to the nature of their work environment. Head traumas and eye injuries on construction sites are of great concern to industry stakeholders in the efforts to improve health and safety performance of the construction industry. Like most PPE, Safety helmets and goggles are a statutory requirement in most countries to protect the head and face regions which are the most vulnerable in the event of an accident. Safety helmets protect the head against the impact of lateral objects or the impact of falling objects on construction sites. Similarly, safety goggles protect the eyes and the face region from severe injury from flying particles and or other hazards encountered during construction work when used appropriately. Despite their importance, construction workers are reluctant to use safety helmets and goggles due to several discomforts experienced and thus are continuously faced with exposure to several hazards at the workplace. While using these PPE may prevent injury and or fatalities on the construction site, providing workers with poor fitting PPE may introduce other forms of strain that may contribute to avoidable incidents on site. This research employed a combination of adaptive selection and behavioural conditioning principles to remedy the discomforts associated with safety helmets and goggles to improve their use on construction sites. A preliminary investigation was initially conducted through the personal administration of questionnaires to one hundred and twenty-three (123) construction operatives to find out why construction workers do not use given PPE. Data for the main study was obtained through semi-structured interviews and a physiological strain field experiment (using physiological indicators of heart rates and body temperatures) involving sixteen (16) male construction workers, a comparative analysis of linear anthropometric head and face measurements of one hundred and twenty-seven (127) male construction workers and dimensions of construction helmets and goggles available in Ghana within a multiple case study. A questionnaire survey of seventy – four (74) large construction firms in the country was also conducted to identify selection considerations made in the procurement of helmets and goggles. A content analysis on interviewee data indicated that hotness and poor fit are the top two discomforts associated with safety helmets while blurred vision and poor fit are prevalent among safety goggle users. Workers were found to experience little or no physiological strain while using uncomfortable safety helmets in hot weather, when values of physiological indicators were entered into a physiological strain equation and interpreted on a universal scale. A two-sampled T-Test indicated statistically significant differences between helmet and head dimensions, as well as safety goggles and face measurements. Descriptive analysis of the likert data indicated that construction firms consider several factors aimed at ensuring the procurement of comfortable safety helmets and goggles. The study recommends a behaviour-based framework with a three – tier intervention plan, that combines a selection criteria consisting of anthropometric characteristics, ambient temperature, consideration of standards (aimed at improving the comfort experience of users), with activities such as user- involvement in the procurement process, safety inductions with audio-visuals, participatory toolbox meetings and selection of safety champions to stimulate the preferred behaviour of appropriate use of the PPEs. The conditioning theory is then applied in Tier three of the framework to maintain the acceptable behaviour. The proposed framework is intended to ensure the procurement of comfortable safety helmets and goggles for construction work and simultaneously improve the attitude of workers towards these PPE.
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    Construction of a novel convolution based fractional derivative mask for image edge analysis
    (KNUST, 2016-08) Appati Justice Kwame
    This thesis presents a new approach in constructing a more efficient fractional derivative mask for image edge analysis based on the definition and properties of convolution. By the definition of convolution, the generalised Strivastiva-Owa’s operator was rewritten with its order restricted to the Riemann-Liouville fractional derivative. Applying linearity, commutative and derivative properties of convolution to the resultant expression, a new mask with higher efficiency, memory effect and computational equivalence to the classical edge detector is developed as per the experimental results obtained. From the experimental results, it is observed that, the new mask has the potency to find edges in details quite significantly as well as hidden edges which is a deficiency of the classical edge detectors. It can also be used on a region growing algorithm during region segmentation acting as an edge function in its termination process. The experiments conducted on the mask were done using some selected well known synthetic and medical images with realistic geometry. Using visual perception and performing both mean square error and peak signal-to noise ratios analysis, the method demonstrated significant advantages over other known methods
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    Divergence regularization method for solving ill-posed Helmholtz equation
    (KNUST, 2016-06) Barnes,Benedict
    n this work, we introduce Divergence Regularization Method (DRM) for regularizing the Cauchy problem of the Helmholtz equation where the boundary deflection is not equal to zero in Hilbert space H. The DRM incorporates a positive integer scaler which homogenizes inhomogeneous boundary deflection in Cauchy problem of the Helmholtz equation to ensure the existence and uniqueness of solution for the equation. The DRM employs its regualarization term (1 + α2m)em to restore the stability of the regularized Helmholtz equation, and guarantees the uniqueness of solution of Helmholtz equation when it is imposed by Neumann boundary conditions in the upper half-plane. The DRM gives better stability approximation when compared with other methods of regularization for solving Cauchy problem of the Helmholtz equation where the boundary deflection is zero. In the process, we introduce Adaptive Wavelet Spectral Finite Difference (AWSFD) method to obtain the approximated solutions of the regularized Helmholtz equation with regularized Cauchy boundary conditions, regularized Neumann boundary conditions in the upper half-plane, and finally with regularized both Dirichlet and Cauchy boundary conditions where the boundary deflection is equal to zero. The AWSFD method captures the boundary points to obtain approximated solution of Helmholtz equation. This method reduces the Helmholtz equation in two dimensions to one dimension which is then solve spectrally using a suitable wavelet basis. The solutions by AWSFD method confirms the analytic solutions of regularized Helmholtz equation by DRM. The norm of relative error between the analytic solution by DRM and the approximated solution by AWSFD method is minimal. Moreover, we introduce interpolation scheme in the AWSFD method to obtain the approximated solutions of the regularized Helmholtz equation with above boundary conditions.