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The road damage assessment methodology in this paper utilizes an artificial neural network that reconstructs road surface profiles from measured vehicle accelerations.The paper numerically demonstrates the capabilities of such a methodology in the presence of noise, changing vehicle mass, changing vehicle speeds and road defects. In order to avoid crowding out understanding of the methodology, a simple linear pitch plane model is employed. Initially, road profiles from known roughness classes were applied to a physical model to calculate vehicle responses. The calculated responses and road profiles were used to train an artificial neural network. In this way, the network renders corresponding road profiles on the availability of fresh data on model responses.The results show that the road profiles and associated defects can be reconstructed to within a 20% error at a minimum correlation value of 94%.

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The term 'learning organization' has entered the vocabulary of many managers and is providing an alternative basis for evaluating the performance of construction companies. However, there is a long way to go before organizational learning is fully implemented to gain competitive advantage, attain a state of readiness for change and build a capacity to respond and identify future business possibilities. This paper outlines the importance and the principles that underlie organizational learning, and presents a framework for measuring organizational learning as one of the strategies for improving construction business processes. The framework identi es ten dimensions for learning and eight factors that promote organizational generative learning. It provides a methodology for assessing whether organizational learning practices and the factors that induce organizational generative learning are in place and current best practice that characterizes learning organizations. The paper also outlines how a construction contractor can self/third-party audit its organizational learning, which could then act as a catalyst for implementing an organizational learning culture.L'expression 'organisation intelligente' fait désormais partie du vocabulaire de nombreux responsables et constitue une nouvelle base d'évaluation des performances des industriels de la construction. Mais on est encore loin du jour où l'apprentissage organisationnel sera généralisé et permettra d'acquérir un avantage compétitif, d'atteindre un niveau d'aptitude au changement et de construire une capacité permettant de repérer les futures possibilités commerciales et d'y répondre. Cette communication met l'accent sur l'importance et les principes sous-jacents à l'apprentissage organisationnel et propose un cadre dans lequel mesurer cet apprentissage en tant que stratégie d'amélioration des procédures de l'industrie de la construction. Ce cadre met en valeur dix dimensions pour l'apprentissage et huit facteurs qui favorisent l'apprentissage organisationnel génératif. Il offre une méthodologie qui devrait permettre d'évaluer si les pratiques d'appretissage organisationnel et les facteurs qui induisent l'apprentissage organisationnel génératif sont en place ainsi que les meilleures pratiques actuelles qui caractérisent l'organisation intelligente. Cette communication rappelle également comment un contractant du secteur industriel de la construction peut se contrô ler lui-même ou contrô ler des tiers en ce qui concerne l'apprentissage organisationnel, ce qui pourrait ensuite agir comme catalyseur dans la perspective de la mise en oeuvre d'une culture de l'apprentissage organisationnel.

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -The need for capacity building of construction industries in developing countries cannot be over-emphasised in order to ensure quality of services and products as well as the application of innovative ways for delivering construction services. Accordingly, using systems institutional paradigm approach as a conceptual premise, this paper aims to make the case for a fundamental turnaround for construction developmental approach in developing countries, that identify levels which should be considered as instrumental for capacity building of the construction industry in the Sub-Saharan region, for example Malawi. Design/methodology/approach -To ascertain a quad-level framework which should be considered essential for capacity building of the construction industry, a questionnaire survey was employed. Data were elicited from prominent heads of sections from five stakeholders of the construction industry that operated in Malawi on the constructs for capacity building of a construction industry. Sixty completed questionnaires were received with a response rate of 90 per cent to the designed sample size. Findings -The quad-level framework for capacity development of a construction industry for developing countries was validated by an overall level of 77 per cent of agreement from key and prominent heads of sections of the five stakeholders of the construction industry. The rankings of the variables for capacity building for each level of the framework have provided the key foci and orientations of the industry for one of the Southern African countries of the Sub-Saharan region.Research limitations/implications -The study forms the basis for further research; future research could be directed towards other developing countries to further enrich the industry on the dynamics of capacity building of construction industries in developing countries. Originality/value -This paper is the first to critically examine the antecedents and invoke a quad-level framework for capacity development of construction industries.