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Distributing the train traction power over cars of modern High Speed trains, which represent one of the main loads of European electrical power systems, is considered and its effects on dependability are analyzed with reference to the daily duty‐cycle. Two different possible solutions for the traction systems, the former based on four converters and eight motors, the latter on six converters and 12 motors are compared in terms of service dependability, immobilizing risks and expected failure entity per day. Simplified Markov models are obtained by means of a proper selection of the most likely states. The models are also extended to represent the case of log‐normal distributions for repair times, and are solved separately for mission and idle times, by tuning the transition rates with the different duty‐cycle stages. Numerical applications give the opportunity of verifying the proposed approach suitability and of making quantitative comparisons between the two different considered trains.

The purpose of this study is to assess the perceptions of Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University's students and their household members about cultural heritage conservation in selected cities of Saudi Arabia. Cultural heritage conservation is increasingly important for sustainable tourism management, especially in Saudi Arabia that sets out to promote international tourism. However, a lack of awareness of heritage values among the local community could hinder the conservation efforts.

A structured questionnaire (n = 168) was employed for data collection and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics.

The finding of the t-test analysis indicates significant statistical relationship between occupation and community involvement (P (T ≤ t) one-tail = 0.0047 and two-tail = 0.0093, p < 0.05), and between educational level and community involvement (P (T ≤ t) one-tail = 0.0047 and two-tail = 0.0093, p < 0.05). The findings reveal that although almost more than half (54.2%) of the participants were students, 56.0% and 54.9% did not believe in participating and considering heritage conservation a national duty, respectively, while 57.1% of the public employees, 57.6% of the private employees, and 66.7% of the housewives indicate that they can personally participate in cultural heritage conservation and believed it to be a national duty.

The study concludes that cultural heritage courses should be offered as a core courses for college students in order to instill the importance of cultural heritage conservation in their minds.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the adoption of quantitative risk analysis techniques (QRAT) on construction projects in Nigeria with a view to providing better understanding on the state of these techniques.

Questionnaire survey was employed in gathering data for the study. The paper assessed the level of knowledge, awareness, utilization, success and the factors influencing the adoption of QRAT. The primary data employed were obtained by using multiple-choice questionnaire administered to the selected large construction companies in Nigeria.

The result of the study revealed a low level adoption of QRAT, and this inhibits Nigerian construction industry from taking full advantage inherent in QRAT. Also, it prevents the analysis of risks peculiar to construction projects. Furthermore, inadequate training and record keeping on risk management were identified as significant factors affecting the adoption/utilization of QRAT on construction projects.

Multiple-choice questionnaires administered to the respondents (architects, quantity surveyors, builders, structural engineers, civil engineers, and mechanical and electrical engineers) were limited to the selected large construction companies in the category D of the Nigerian Federal Tender Board.

This empirical inquiry provided strong evidence on the state of QRAT of construction projects in Nigeria. The findings revealed insightful perspectives to understand construction project QRAT in its entirety. For stakeholders, understanding and addressing the complexity help to improve project planning and implementation.

The “economic miracle” in postwar Italy was accompanied by a rapid increase in the industrial accident and illness rates. Italian workers demanded occupational safety and health enforcement mechanisms that would be more accessible to grass‐roots workers' groups and unions. In the early 1970s local “Occupational Medicine Services” were voluntarily established in many regions. The entire health care system was decentralised in 1978, giving regions exclusive authority to implement occupational safety and health standards within Local Health Units (USLs). The concrete results of these reforms are investigated and the validity of the assumptions of the calls for decentralisation. The difficulties encountered by leftist‐administered regions in attempting to translate their political commitments into significant health and safety improvements are documented. The track‐record of the USLs is examined. An ironic consequence of decentralisation has been that the concentration of all health care activities in the USL has swallowed up occupational safety and health. As a result it is less politically visible and less responsive to worker input.

Aims to investigate medical rapid prototyping (medical RP) technology applications and methods based on reverse engineering (RE) and medical imaging data.

Medical image processing and RE are applied to construct three‐dimensional models of anatomical structures, from which custom‐made (personalized) medical applications are developed.

The investigated methods were successfully used for design and manufacturing of biomodels, surgical aid tools, implants, medical devices and surgical training models. More than 40 medical RP applications were implemented in Europe and Asia since 1999.

Medical RP is a multi‐discipline area. It involves in many human resources and requires high skills and know‐how in both engineering and medicine. In addition, medical RP applications are expensive, especially for low‐income countries. These practically limit its benefits and applications in hospitals.

In order to transfer medical RP into hospitals successfully, a good link and close collaboration between medical and engineering sites should be established. Moreover, new medical applications should be developed in the way that does not change the traditional approaches that medical doctors (MD) were trained, but provides solutions to improve the diagnosis and treatment quality.

The presented state‐of‐the‐art medical RP is applied for diagnosis and treatment in the following medical areas: cranio‐maxillofacial and dental surgery, neurosurgery, orthopedics, orthosis and tissue engineering. The paper is useful for MD (radiologists and surgeons), biomedical and RP/CAD/CAM engineers.

This chapter assesses public administration in Paraguay. It argues that the country's public administration and public personnel structures have been shaped by a predominance of informal decision-making norms, patron–client relations, exceptional legislative interference in what elsewhere tend to be executive prerogatives, and weak accountability mechanisms of a state largely captured by a small oligarchy. In this context, administrative reform has been mostly instigated by external actors—donors and international financial institutions—and only achieved incremental progress in, in particular, the modernization of public finance institutions during periods of economic crises or political change when external demand coincided with domestic pressure. Except for some “pockets of efficiency,” Paraguay thus remains a benchmark case of a neopatrimonial state in a formally democratic Presidential system, in which informal patron–client relations trump formal bureaucratic structures—albeit one in which the legislature has exceptional influence over administrative matters and public sector jobs are exceptionally dominant in clientelist exchanges of state resources.

The purpose of this chapter is to illustrate the contribution made by migrants in the territory that hosts them, particularly when they transfer their knowledge to members of the community. In the specific case of the sea urchin fishery, it is described how the Morishita family in Baja California undertakes the sea urchin value chain, from the location of population banks to the commercialization of the product in the Japanese market and, by therefore, the promotion of development in rural places while starting a culture of export and currency generation. An adventure of opportunities that has been successful for more than 50 years, whose origin is the sustainable use of “a plague” that today is a delicacy for many.

For Colombia, cocaine is a product that is sold for profit in the United States. Mainstream political economy, let alone the other social sciences, has little to say about the process of extraction of surplus value in the production and distribution of cocaine, in other words, how cocaine is exploited for profit. The paper argues that the conventional framework, which locates profits generated from the cocaine trade in an economic model of crime shields a much deeper reality than simply ‘money laundering’ as a ‘legal problem.’ The central argument is that the cocaine trade in general, and the cocaine economy in particular, are a vital aspect of U.S. imperialism in the Colombian economic system. The paper tackles a critical problem: the place of cocaine in the re-colonization of Colombia – defined as ‘narcocolonialism’ – and the implications of the cocaine trade generally for U.S. imperialism in this context. The paper evaluates selected literature on the Colombian cocaine trade and offers an alternative framework underpinned by a political economy analysis drawn from Marx and Lenin showing that cocaine functions as an ‘imperial commodity’ – a commodity for which there exists a lucrative market and profit-making opportunity. It is also a means of capital accumulation by what could be termed, Colombia's comprador ‘narcobourgeoisie;’ dependent on U.S. imperialism. It is hoped that by analyzing cocaine with a Marxist interpretation and political economy approach, then future developments in understanding drugs in Colombia's complex political economy may be anticipated.

Although corporate social responsibility–corporate financial performance (CSR-CFP) research topics have been widely investigated, previous research has yet to examine the relationship between the specific dimension of CSR and CFP among Malaysian public-listed companies. Through literature review, it has been found that the CSR-CFP studies conducted in Malaysia have omitted the role of workplace diversity dimension in contribution to CFP. Failure to consider this variable may risk misrepresenting the relationship between CSR and CFP, thereby preclude consensus on the direction of the relationship between the variables. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between individual CSR dimensions and CFP.

By using the CSR dimension disclosure-scoring method and cross-sectional data analysis, this research has conducted a content analysis on annual reports of the sample companies to evaluate the influence of CSR practices on companies’ profitability during 2015.

The results show that companies displaying CSR behavior are associated with higher CFP. That is to say, there is a positive relationship between CSR and CFP. However, the result has further revealed that the five CSR dimensions in isolation would differently associate with the two proxies of CFP.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study in Malaysia that considers workplace diversity issues as one of the dimensions of CSR. The findings will thus bring new insights into CSR application in Malaysia and its association with the CFP.

This conceptual, multi-voiced paper aims to collectively explore and theorize family entrepreneuring, which is a research stream dedicated to investigating the emergence and becoming of entrepreneurial phenomena in business families and family firms.

Because of the novelty of this research stream, the authors asked 20 scholars in entrepreneurship and family business to reflect on topics, methods and issues that should be addressed to move this field forward.

Authors highlight key challenges and point to new research directions for understanding family entrepreneuring in relation to issues such as agency, processualism and context.

This study offers a compilation of multiple perspectives and leverage recent developments in the fields of entrepreneurship and family business to advance research on family entrepreneuring.