Termite Damage to Buildings: Nature of Attacks and Preventive Construction Methods
Notice bibliographique
Résumé
Problem statement: Termites are an essential member of the soil ecosystem and are found throughout the world.In their natural environment, they improve soil pH, organic carbon content, water content and porosity by cycling dead organics.However, they can negatively impact human welfare by causing damage to unprotected timber structures, underground cables, earthen dams, irrigation ditches and farming equipment.Globally, the annual economic cost of termite damage and termite prevention is estimated in the billions.However, in underdeveloped countries data on damage is unavailable and it is difficult to estimate the cost of repair as funds are also not available.This study aimed at addressing termite damage in Zambia as a model underdeveloped country by: (a) identifying the injurious species of termites found in the country, (b) reviewing the factors affecting the natural durability of wood, (c) determining the nature of termite damage to timber, (d) determining the most common faulty construction practices which lead to termite entry and infestation in buildings, (e) reviewing chemical and biological techniques for prevention of damage to wood and (f) developing construction methods that will prevent termite entry to buildings.Approach: Several houses in selected villages, towns and cities in different locations in Zambia were chosen for study (ten houses in each location).The injurious species of termites and the natural durability of construction wood were assessed.The damage to timber was evaluated and the faulty construction practices that allowed termite entry to buildings were identified.Results: The interior of each house and the surrounding area were examined for the presence of termites and termite related damage.Termites were found to gain entry to buildings by a number of paths.These included creating bore holes through walls, crawling through cracks in the foundation and climbing through the roof.Conclusions: To prevent termite entry into buildings multiple approaches must be used.Before construction begins all nests and palatable wood must be cleared from the site.Once clearing is completed and before construction begins, wood should be selected based on its natural repellency.If no naturally repellent timber is available wood should be impregnated with a chemical preservative.A chemical barrier must be created by treating all exposed wood in the structure with termiticides and all wood should be placed above a concrete footing.Once materials have been selected additional constructional preventative measures consisting of internal preventive measures within the plinth and external preventive measure in the form of concrete grooves and interlocking apron floors around the periphery building should be put in place.Educational and promotional activities will further lead to prevention of termite attack to buildings.
Récupéré en direct depuis OpenAlex et désinversé. Les résumés ne sont pas conservés dans cette base de données : les index inversés représentent 8,6 Go des 9,3 Go de texte de la base, et le serveur dispose de 13 Go libres.
Comment cette classification a été obtenuedéplier
Prédiction machine sur la base complète
Imitation des enseignantsNi prévalence calibrée, ni vérité terrain. Validation humaine à venir. Le volet Gemma est une étiquette directe du modèle pour chaque travail de la base, lue sur la notice réduite au titre. Le volet Codex est un classifieur appris des 10 348 étiquettes directes de Codex et calibré sur les taux pondérés de l'échantillon; les champs sans appui suffisant ne portent aucun appel Codex. Le mode candidate est l'union des deux volets; le consensus est leur intersection. Ces sorties portent le statut machine_predicted_unvalidated et ne sont pas des étiquettes humaines.
Scores du classifieur distillé par catégorie (deux têtes)
| Catégorie | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Métarecherche | 0,001 | 0,005 |
| Méta-épidémiologie (sens strict) | 0,000 | 0,000 |
| Méta-épidémiologie (sens large) | 0,000 | 0,000 |
| Bibliométrie | 0,002 | 0,001 |
| Études des sciences et des technologies | 0,001 | 0,002 |
| Communication savante | 0,002 | 0,001 |
| Science ouverte | 0,001 | 0,001 |
| Intégrité de la recherche | 0,001 | 0,001 |
| Charge utile insuffisante (le modèle a refusé de juger) | 0,003 | 0,000 |
Scores machine (provisoires)
Les deux têtes enseignantes du modèle étudiant, lues sur ce travail. Un score ordonne la base pour la relecture; il n'affirme jamais une catégorie, et le statut de validation accompagne chaque rangée tel quel.
Scores de référence d'un modèle non mature (critères de maturité non atteints, 7 itérations). Un score ordonne; il n'affirme jamais une catégorie.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · tel quel depuis la passe de notation : score_only signifie que le nombre peut ordonner les travaux, et qu'aucune étiquette de catégorie n'en découleClassification
machine, non validéePrédiction automatique; un appel candidat d’une seule source (Gemma direct ou Codex distillé), pas un consensus.
Le détail, modèle par modèle et score par score, se trouve en fin de page sous « Comment cette classification a été obtenue ».