This research work was carried out on concrete specimens made with different proportion of Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag (GGBFS) as a cement substitution in concrete. To accomplish the goal of the research work, overall 75 cubes and 60 cylinders were made. Out of 75 cubes and 60 cylinders, 15 cubes and 12 cylinders were cast for control concrete, and 60 cubes and 48 cylinders were cast by replacing 5,10,15 and 20% of cement with GGBFS. The cubes and cylinder specimens were 100x100x100 mm and 100x200 mm respectively, and mix design was done for 28 Mpa. All specimens were tested at 3. 7, 28 and 90 days of curing ages. The fresh properties such as workability and hardened properties such as compressive and tensile strength of all mixes were determined. Tests results showed that the workability of the concrete mixes made with GGBFS was higher than control mix. As the percentage of GGBFS increased the workability also increased. Hardened properties of concrete mixes made with GGBFS was lower than control concrete at early ages of curing. At the later age, hardened properties of GGBFS made concrete was more than control concrete. Furthermore, water absorption and density of GGBFS made concrete was lower than control concrete.

Significant infrastructure such as roads, prisons, schools, rail tracks and train systems, among others are currently developed through the involvement of Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangements which have been acknowledged internationally in recent time. The poor management of end-user stakeholder during PPP projects in developing nation like Nigeria has been established as one of the major factor affecting the successful growth and development of PPP projects. Due to the paucity in research on end-user stakeholder management on PPP projects in Nigeria, informs this study aim to expose the main strategic factors that can accommodate end-user stakeholder’s management in any PPP road project in Nigeria. The professionals that have worked on the project cum the end-user of the project area were used as targeted respondents for the adopted case study and survey strategies method approach. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the eighteen (18) interviews that were conducted having completed and analysed total number of 282 questionnaires using reliability and factor analysis approach. Seven valid underlying factors were revealed from 28 variables that were left on the questionnaire data with the aid of factor analysis which were used later as factors affecting end-user stakeholders’ management in PPP road project in Nigeria. A proposed framework was created with the seven underlying factors as a template for any successful PPP road project in developing country like Nigeria. These will quench the agitation of enduser stakeholders’ quarrels on PPP toll road projects.

As anti-import sentiment and protectionism have been increasing, more papers have focused on using theories to explain or resolve them. However, most research has focused on disputes involving larger nations such that there is not much relatable information for disputes such as the one between South Africa and Zimbabwe. The aim of this paper was to bridge the knowledge gap by using the graph model for conflict resolution and the decision support software GMCRII to simulate possible responses to this regional trade conflict. This thirdparty intervention model will assist in investigating and prescribing a diplomatic solution with fair compromise to resolve the unequal trade problem between Zimbabwe and South Africa without harming the economies of both the countries. This research found that a peaceful resolution of the disagreement could be found by the addition of a third-party to help in the conflict resolution thereby ending the prolonged trade conflict. This undertaking will serve as a template for modelling and predicting an outcome in the event of third-party intervention for future trade disputes involving regional trade partners with emerging or developing economies such as those that exist in Africa.

The goal of this research is to evaluate the efficiency of GDP in Thailand from the past years and provide suggestions for government and policy-makers on ways to manage inputs and improve outputs in the future while enhancing the GDP of Thailand. The paper analyzed the data collected from Office of the National Economic and Social Development of Thailand through a period of 25 years ranging from 1993 to 2017. The results show that the year 2017 was the worst years in terms of efficiency. In order to achieve the research goal, data envelopment analysis (DEA) was used. Theoretically, research has found that evaluation of GDP can be improved by eradicating the negative values of slack movement. In economic terms, the research proposed the promotion of export-led growth, business incubators, and entrepreneurship to boost not only the inputs but also the GPD of the country. In general, the GDP of Thailand is quite efficient. This research can provide strategic advice for Thai Government to improve the Gross Domestic Product thoroughly.

In the fields of artificial intelligence, automatic narrative generation has attracted considerable interest. Lots of studies on narrative generation have been reported such as novel, comic, and picture book. However, most of those reuse original stories, pictures, and sentences. As a result, there is a problem that generated narratives infringe on copyright. In this paper, we focus on the picture book as the narrative because picture book is a mix of images and language. As a first step of automatic story generation without representation mediums, we propose a novel semi-automatic picture book generation method based on story model and agent-based simulation. The computational experiments are carried out to confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method.

The study was conducted to determine workplace relationship between employer and employees and among employees of Divine Word Colleges in Ilocos Sur, Philippines and its effect on the job satisfaction. Literatures and studies were reviewed, and questionnaires were used to gather the data related to workplace relationship and job satisfaction. The respondents of the study are employees of the colleges of Ilocos region which include Ilocos Sur and Ilocos Norte. The study is a descriptive study involving survey and fact-finding inquiry. Weighted mean and Pearson r were used to determine the workplace relationship and its correlation with job satisfaction. The study found that there is a significant correlation between workplace relationship and job satisfaction. Therefore, the study recommends that management need to monitor and improve workplace relationship between employer and employees and among employees and also improve and monitor factors that affect job satisfaction.