Reliability and availability of the equipment or plants used in construction and civil engineering field is significant issue for all stakeholders. Unexpected breakdown and repairs could cause serious consequences such as extra cost and project period extension. Therefore, it is necessary to study the reliability of the construction equipment and predict the failures in time with a reasonable d...

Objectives: Because of the high rates of accidents, the construction industry has become a hazardous industry in Iran and therefore paying more attention is required. This paper investigates safety management in construction companies for improving workers’ safety as one of the ergonomics aims. Methods: In order to survey the safety management in construction companies a questionnaire was pr...

The performance of sound barriers was evaluated to determine their technical effectiveness and practicality in reducing noise exposures to operating engineers in construction. Commercially purchased sound dampening mats (SDMats) were installed inside three heavy-equipment engine compartments. Sound pressure levels (SPLs) were measured before and after installing the SDMats while the equipment w...

Scaffolds are temporary structures built to facilitate construction activities on site. A considerable amount of resources are allocated to scaffolding on industrial projects. Variability in geometrical features and space accessibility of structures on industrial projects, in addition to involvement of different trades that share the use of scaffolds, requires an extensive understanding of scaf...

Blind areas around construction equipment are a major contributing factor in incidents involving a piece of equipment striking a worker. In highway construction, these types of incidents result in an average of 22 deaths a year in the United States. The Spokane Research Laboratory of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, in cooperation with the Washington State Department o...

BACKGROUND In the genome era, characterizing the structure and the function of RNA molecules remains a major challenge. Alternative transcripts and non-protein-coding genes are poorly recognized by the current genome-annotation algorithms and efficient tools are needed to isolate the less-abundant or stable RNAs. RESULTS A universal RNA-tagging method using the T4 RNA ligase 2 and special ada...