The target date for achieving the 2030 UN Agenda [Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)] is fast approaching. The construction sector is critical to achieving many SDGs, including Goal 5. Studies regarding achieving Goal 5 (Gender Equality) in the construction industry, especially women’s consultancy participation in developing countries, are scarce and complexly interrelated. Societal problems and divergence may have contributed to this. Therefore, this study explores issues hindering gender equality and suggests measures to promote more women construction consultants through policy to improve achieving Goal 5 in Nigeria. The research employed face-to-face data collection via a qualitative mechanism to achieve this. The study covered Abuja and Lagos. It accomplished saturation at the 20th participant. The research utilised a thematic method to analyse the collected data from knowledgeable participants. The perceived hindrances facing Nigerian construction consultants’ gender equality were clustered into culture/religion-related, profession-related, and government-related encumbrances. Achieving Goal 5 will be a mirage if these issues are not addressed. Thus, the study recommended measures to motivate women to study construction-related programmes and employment opportunities, including consultancy services slots through programmes and policy mechanisms to achieve Goal 5. As part of the implications, the study suggests that Nigerian construction consultants and other stakeholders need to make feasible improvements to achieve gender equality (Goal 5).

The purpose of Vehicular Ad Hoc Network (VANET) is to provide users with better information services through effective communication. For this purpose, IEEE 802.11p proposes a protocol standard based on enhanced distributed channel access (EDCA) contention. In this standard, the backoff algorithm randomly adopts a lower bound of the contention window (CW) that is always fixed at zero. The problem that arises is that in severe network congestion, the backoff process will choose a smaller value to start backoff, thereby increasing conflicts and congestion. The objective of this paper is to solve this unbalanced backoff interval problem in saturation vehicles and this paper proposes a method that is a deep neural network Q-learning-based channel access algorithm (DQL-CSCA), which adjusts backoff with a deep neural network Q-learning algorithm according to vehicle density. Network simulation is conducted using NS3, the proposed algorithm is compared with the CSCA algorithm. The find is that DQL-CSCA can better reduce EDCA collisions.

This study examines the impact of state highway construction contracts on state spending efficiency controlling for production structure, service demands, and situational factors. The theoretical argument is that because highway construction projects are relatively large in scale, complex, and can be monitored through objective performance measurement, state highway construction programs may save government production costs through contracts. Contracting helps highway producers achieve efficiency by optimizing production size based on workload and task complexity. The unit of analysis is 48 state governments’ highway construction contracts from 1998 to 2008. Through a two-stage analysis method including a Total Function Productivity (TFP) index and system dynamic panel data analysis, the results suggest that highway construction contracts enhance state highway spending efficiency, especially for large-scale construction projects.

Cardiovascular imaging analysis is a useful tool for the diagnosis, treatment and monitoring of cardiovascular diseases. Imaging techniques allow non-invasive quantitative assessment of cardiac function, providing morphological, functional and dynamic information. Recent technological advances in ultrasound have made it possible to improve the quality of patient treatment, thanks to the use of modern image processing and analysis techniques. However, the acquisition of these dynamic three-dimensional (3D) images leads to the production of large volumes of data to process, from which cardiac structures must be extracted and analyzed during the cardiac cycle. Extraction, three-dimensional visualization, and qualification tools are currently used within the clinical routine, but unfortunately require significant interaction with the physician. These elements justify the development of new efficient and robust algorithms for structure extraction and cardiac motion estimation from three-dimensional images. As a result, making available to clinicians new means to accurately assess cardiac anatomy and function from three-dimensional images represents a definite advance in the investigation of a complete description of the heart from a single examination. The aim of this article is to show what advances have been made in 3D cardiac imaging by ultrasound and additionally to observe which areas have been studied under this imaging modality.

In the process of constructing and building the industry English curriculum system in the new era, higher education institutions should clarify the corresponding curriculum teaching focus and direction, analyze, optimize, and improve the defects and deficiencies in the English curriculum teaching system. They should also combine refined and beneficial teaching ideas and strategies, innovate existing teaching methods, and integrate more ideological and political elements into curriculum teaching, to achieve more efficient teaching guidance for students. This article briefly analyzes and explores the strategies for constructing the English course system for waterway transportation and maritime management majors at present.