Factors that influence the facilities management construction sites in the Brazilian Amazon region

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors that influence the facilities management (FM) in construction sites in the Brazilian Amazon. Design/methodology/approach The study used structured questionnaires, with the participation of 136 facilities professionals in construction sites in the Brazilian Amazon. These sites were selected with help of 17 facilities managers. The survey achieved a total response rate of 76.5 per cent. The factorial analysis was performed after checking the adequacy of the sample to the technique. The results allowed the continuation of data processing and the use of exploratory factorial analysis to summarize the variables and identify the influencing factors. Findings The results indicated five factors that influence the FM on construction sites in the Brazilian Amazon, namely: negotiation with local entities; weather; local suppliers; manpower; and logistical infrastructure. With the proper understanding of these factors, facilities professionals could plan actions to minimize negative impacts over the FM on construction sites. Research limitations/implications The influence of factors on FM was studied from the professionals’ viewpoint. It is possible that there are other perspectives or other influencing factors. However, this work is limited to the analysis of the variables that make up the five dimensions presented. Practical implications Organizations and FM professionals might be interested in the results of this research to enhance the FM performance on the construction sites existed and to plan the implementation of the FM on upcoming construction sites. Originality/value This paper is the first large research about FM in construction sites conducted in the Brazilian Amazon and serve as a basis to other research works that promote the development of FM in Brazil.

A Novel Covariant Approach to Gravito-Electromagnetism

“…It was also verified that both of the formulations are related through a symmetry operation. The main technical point of the analysis is the introduction of the τ µν tensor (21), and this demonstrates the originality of the results presented in this article. In [36], it is hypothesized that these formulations may describe identical gravities, but our results do not enable us to comment on this.…”

“…These relationships were observed and reported during the second half of the nineteenth century, and we recommend [1,2] for historical review and references. Various approaches to GEM have recently been proposed, and we quote a non-exhaustive list of papers concerning, by way of example, gravitomagnetic effects [3][4][5][6], the relation of GEM to special relativity [2,7], tidal tensors [8,9], weak-field approximation [10][11][12], the Lorentz violation [13,14], teleparallel gravity [15,16], the Mashhoon-Theiss effect [17], quantum gravity [18,19], gravitational waves [20,21], the relation of GEM to electro-dynamics in curved spacetime [22,23], gravitational field of astrophysical objects [24,25], the Sagnac effect [26,27], torsion gravity [28], the Schrödinger-Newton equation [29], non-commutative geometry [30], spin-gravity coupling [31], gravity and thermodynamics [32], the Casimir effect [33], gauge transformations [34] and, quantum field gravity [35,36]. It is commonly known that GEM is a source of new ideas and a guide for research into new physics.…”