Sustainable development within music education is essential, particularly in ensuring that popular music can continually and effectively serve educational systems. This research aims to 1) examine pop music chord progression, 2) develop a chord progression book specifically for teaching music students, and 3) evaluate the effectiveness of this educational tool in improving music composition skills. A mixed-methods approach, incorporating both qualitative and quantitative research, was used. Research tools included an interview guide, Ioc forms, a textbook, and a performance assessment form. Interviews were conducted with five experts in pop music composition, while a group of 14 undergraduate music students participated in the experimental study. These methods evaluated how teaching popular music chord composition enhances students’ practical composition abilities. The findings indicate that 1) chord composition in popular music primarily involves five aspects: melody, rhythm, chord structure, music form, and melody development techniques, with melody and chord as the foundational elements; 2) the chord progression textbook for popular music differs from traditional composition theory texts, combining theory and practical application with a focus on chord progression techniques; and 3) instruction in popular music chord composition significantly enhances students’ skills in melody creation, production, and listening, ultimately fostering practical music creation abilities. This study supports the sustainable integration of popular music in both music infrastructure construction and music education system development, offering insights into how such integration can drive long-term advancements in music education.
Since the systematic approach of the processes and their interactions, the aim is to establish the configuration of a construction project for the housing of the Weenhayek indigenous people. Applied from the theoretical research of various authors on a group of methodologies, phases and tools for project management, through rational scientific methods, such as descriptive, analytical, comparative, analytical-synthetic, inductive-deductive, historical-logical, analogies, modeling, systemic-structural-functional, systematization; and empirical methods, such as interpretivism that involves inductive, qualitative, phenomenological and transversal research, and the interview technique; the way in which the implementation processes are organized, interacted and structured is established. This reveals an alternative for the detailed configuration of a construction project for Weenhayek houses, based on phases, activities, actions and work tasks with characteristics in accordance with the needs of the project.
Employees’ loyalty is essential for improving the organization’s performance, thus aiding sustainable economic growth. The study examines the relationship between employee loyalty, organizational performance, and economic sustainability in Malaysian organizations. The results indicate a robust positive correlation between organizational performance and employee loyalty, suggesting loyalty drives productivity, profitability, and operational efficiency. Additionally, the study highlights organizational performance as a mediator that connects loyalty to aggregate-level economic consequences, such as resilience and adaptability under volatile market conditions. The research emphasizes the role of leadership, company culture, and work environments that support cultivating loyalty. It also highlights how loyal employees can be a cornerstone of innovation and corporate social responsibility, which aligns with Malaysia’s sustainable development agenda. By addressing this, organizations are encouraged to adopt measures that can foster loyalty and ensure long-term economic sustainability, including employee engagement initiatives, talent management, and recognition systems. Research to come should investigate longitudinal dynamics, cross-cultural comparisons, and sector-specific factors to cement a better base of understanding about the impact of employee loyalty on organizational and economic outcomes.
In response to the challenges of climate change, this study explores the use of moringa pod powder as reinforcement in the manufacture of compressed earth bricks to promote sustainable building materials. The objective is to evaluate the impact of African locust bean pod powder on the mechanical properties of the bricks. Two types of soils from Togo were characterized according to geotechnical standards. Mixtures containing 8% African locust bean pod powder at various particle sizes (0.08 mm, 2 mm, and between 2 and 5 mm) were formulated and tested for compression and tensile strength. The results show that the addition of African locust bean pod reduces the mechanical strength of the bricks compared to the control sample without pods, with strengths ranging from 0.697 to 0.767 MPa, compared to 0.967 to 1.060 MPa for the control. However, the best performances for the mixtures were obtained with a fineness of less than 2 mm. This decrease in performance is attributed to several factors, including inadequate water content and suboptimal preparation and compaction methods. Optimizing formulation parameters is necessary to maximize the effectiveness of African locust bean pods. This work highlights the valorization of agro-industrial waste, paving the way for a better understanding of bio-based materials and future research for sustainable construction.
Sustainability in road construction projects is hindered by the extensive use of non-renewable materials, high greenhouse gas emissions, risk cost, and significant disruption to the local community. Sustainability involves economic, environmental, and social aspects (triple bottom line). However, establishing metrics to evaluate economic, environmental, and social impacts is challenging because of the different nature of these dimensions and the shortage of accepted indicators. This paper developed a comprehensive method considering all three dimensions of sustainable development: economic, environmental, and social burdens. Initially, the economic, environmental, and social impact category indicators were assessed using the Life cycle approach. After that, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method and Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) were utilized to prioritize the alternatives according to the acquired weightings and sustainable indicators. The steps of the AHP method involve forming a hierarchy, determining priorities, calculating weighting factors, examining the consistency of these assessments, and then determining global priorities/weightings. The TOPSIS method is conducted by building a normalized decision matrix, constructing the weighted normalized decision matrix, evaluating the positive and negative solutions, determining the separation measures, and calculating the relative closeness to the ideal solution. The selected alternative performs the highest Relative Closeness to the Ideal Solution. Lastly, a case study was undertaken to validate the proposed method. In three alternatives in the case study (Cement Concrete, Dense-Graded Polymer Asphalt Concrete, and Dense-Graded Asphalt Concrete), option 3 showed the most sustainable performance due to its highest Relative Closeness to the Ideal Solution. Integrating AHP and TOPSIS methods combines both strengths, including AHP’s structured approach for determining criteria weights through pairwise comparisons and TOPSIS’s ability to rank choices based on their proximity to an ideal solution.
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