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Risks play an important role in the success of construction projects. Failure in identification and assessment of risks can lead to inadequacy in the process of managing risks, which in turn can critically affect the projects’ resources. A formal risk management is rarely practised in construction projects due to the lack of contractors’ awareness of key risks. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the investigation of risk factors in construction projects in Italy from contractors’ perspective.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect data, based on which a total of ten key risks were ascertained. The identified risks were compared with the findings of the surveys conducted in the Australian and Chinese construction industry to address the unique risks associated with construction projects in Italy.

The key risks included delays in payments, client variations, design variations, inaccurate cost estimates, and tight project schedules. The comparison between those three countries specified the delays in payments and project funding problems as the most critical factors that are related to cultural influences and behaviour of clients. The findings assist contractors in the risk identification process, and can be applied to the development of a risk management framework for construction projects.

The findings of this study cannot be generalised statistically for the whole of Italy as it was constrained geographically, with respondents drawn only from a self-selection sample of construction projects in the Veneto region of Northern Italy. The findings represent a snapshot of the key potential internal and external risks from the perspective of contractors.

The results of the study specified the key risks of construction projects from the perspective of contractors which can contribute to risk management for construction projects.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the outsourcing process in the public sector, determine the effective factors involved in this process and their priorities. The aim is to develop a generic conceptual model for the outsourcing process in public sectors.

This paper is based on the results of literature review and conducting binominal and Friedman tests. The model consists of the following steps and components: considering the organization's basic activities, evaluation of organizations' existing potentials and analyzing organizational processes, studying general outsourcing patterns, implementing and monitoring outsourcing process in terms of some critical success factors; and evaluation of outsourcing process of the organization and identifying feedbacks.

The paper determines the main components and influence factors involving in the process of outsourcing in public sectors. The generic model developed in this paper as a framework can be used to increase the efficiency and the effectiveness of the outsourcing process of organizations in public sector.

The authors believe that the proposed model and results of this research can aid public sector managers to implement their outsourcing process in a more efficient and effective manner in their organizations.

This paper develops a new generic conceptual model based on literature review, field resaech and using binominal and Frideman test. This model is unique and can be considered as an aid in the outsourcing process of organizations.

The competition and challenges facing construction firms during the recent recession have brought risk management (RM) to the fore in people’s minds. Examination of the difficulties of implementing RM in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the UK construction industry has been relatively untouched. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

As part of on-going research to facilitate RM processing aimed at improving the competitiveness of SMEs, the difficulties in RM implementation were identified through a literature review of RM implementation in SMEs. Postal questionnaire were sent to SMEs who have experience of construction management.

Of the 153 of SMEs responding, most highlighted that the main difficulty experienced is how to scale RM process to meet their requirements. None of the available standards explain the fundamental principle of applying RM to the situations that SMEs find themselves in. This difficulty is further exacerbated by a lack of management skills and knowledge in the adoption of RM tools or techniques to identify and analyse the business’ risks.

The identified difficulties can be considered to develop a process to facilitate RM process within SMEs.

The purpose of this paper is to study numerically thermosolutal natural convection within an inclined rectangular cavity in the presence of Soret effect and heat generation. The enclosure is heated and salted from its long sides with constant but different temperatures and concentrations. The study focuses on the effects of three main parameters which are, the Soret parameter (Sr = 0 and –0.5), the internal to external Rayleigh numbers ratio 0 ≤ R ≤ 80 and the cavity inclination γ, varied from 0° (vertical position) to 60°. The combined effects of these parameters on fluid flow and heat and mass transfer characteristics are examined for the external Rayleigh number Ra_E = 10⁵, the Prandtl number Pr = 0.71, the buoyancy ratio N = 1, the Lewis number Le = 2 and the aspect ratio of the cavity A = 2.

A hybrid lattice Boltzmann-finite difference method (LBM-FD) was used to tackle the problem under consideration. The LBM with the simple relaxation time was used for the fluid flow in the presence of the gravity force, while the temperature and concentration equations were solved separately using an explicit finite-difference technique at the Boltzmann scale.

The monocellular nature of the flow, obtained for R = 0 is not destroyed by varying the cavity inclination and the Soret parameter but rather by the increase of the parameter R. The Soret parameter and the cavity inclination become perceptible at high values of R. The inclination γ = 60° leads to high mean temperatures compared to the other inclinations. The effect of R on mean concentration is amplified in the presence of Soret effect but limited in the absence of the latter. The negative Soret parameter combined with high internal heat generation and a relatively high inclination is important when the objective is to maintain the fluid at a high concentration of species. The presence of bicellular flow combined with the important elevation undergone by the fluid temperature, makes both the cold and hot walls playing a cooling role with the most important exchanges taking place at the upper part of these walls. The analysis of the mean mass transfer shows that the increase of the inclination may lead to an increase or a decrease of the mass transfer depending on the range of R, in the case of Sr = 0. However, for Sr = −0.5, it is observed that the increase of γ is generally accompanied by a reduction of the mass transfer.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the hybrid LBM-FD was not used before to study such a problem. Combined effect of R and inclination may be useful in charging the fluid with species when the objective is to maintain high concentrations in the medium.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of green coffee extract on anthropometric index and lipid profile, fasting blood sugar, chemerin and malondialdehyde on subjects with metabolic syndrome.

A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial was conducted in Sheikh Al Raise Clinic from September 2016 to March 2017. The participants were randomly divided into green coffee group and placebo group. Green coffee group (n = 24) received green coffee extract (GCE), while placebo group (n = 24) took cellulose as a placebo, two capsules (400 mg) two times each day for eight weeks. The anthropometric index and lipid profile, fasting blood sugar, chemerin and malondialdehyde were measured at the beginning of the study and after eight weeks of treatment with GCE. Blood samples were collected before and after eight weeks of supplementation.

Significant weight loss, from 84.80 ± 2.12 kg to 80.94 ± 2.10 kg (ptime = 0.030, pGC = 0.007), as well as decreases in body mass index (ptime = 0.034, pGC = 0.006) were detected in the green coffee group after eight weeks. Also, the green coffee group has significant lower (pgroup = 0.029, ptime = 0.013) malondialdehyde (MDA) compared to the placebo group, and there was a significant difference between two groups at the insulin level and homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) (ptime = 0.001, pgroup = 0.048), (ptime = 0.012, pgroup = 0.007). However, there was no significant difference in lipid profile, fasting blood sugar and serum chemerin between two groups after eight weeks of supplementation.

This paper showed the statistical difference in body weight, malondialdehyde, insulin and insulin resistance after eight weeks of treatment. GCE might be associated to reduction in the carbohydrate absorption and the enhancement of lipid metabolism.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of product market competition and corporate governance on firm’s management performance in the Tehran Stock Exchange market. According to the research literature, the governance mechanisms used in this study consist of ownership structure, structure of the board of directors and capital structure. In addition, Herfindahl–Hirschman Index and market size were used to measure the product market competition.

This study used one selected sample among the firms in the capital market of Iran from 2004 to 2012.

The results of this study indicated that there is a significant relation among the major governance mechanisms (including ownership concentration, independence of the board of directors and debt ratio) and product market competition and management performance. The findings of this study also showed that product market competition is effective on the relation between corporate governance and the performance, and this is what has been ignored in most of the conducted studies.

In general, the results of this study supported the idea that product market competition is effective on implementation and efficiency of governance mechanisms.

This study aims to empirically examine the relationship between Six Sigma and organisational performance of the Dubai Police Force (DPF). Moreover, this study further explores the role of innovation culture as a mediating variable between this relationship.

A questionnaire survey was conducted to collect research data. The population of the study was composed of head section officers of the DPF. A total of 388 questionnaires were distributed amongst respondents in which 252 of them were returned. Structural equation modelling was performed to test the hypothesised model.

Central findings confirmed the effect of Six Sigma and innovation culture on organisational performance. Additionally, innovation culture was found to partially mediate the effects of Six Sigma on organisational performance.

Findings from this study may enlighten managers, practitioners and academicians on the importance of using Six Sigma in the policing field. This study advocates taking into account preparing appropriate culture when implementing Six Sigma projects given its role in facilitating the implementation of these projects and achieving success. Six Sigma with innovation culture provides a key opportunity for the creation of uniqueness and has the potential to significantly influence organisational performance.

This study adds to the current knowledge on the role of Six Sigma on organisational performance of police agencies. This study is the first to provide empirical evidence on the mediating role of innovation culture on the relationship between Six Sigma and organisational performance in policing context.

This chapter analyses the strategies employed by women and youth political activists in Iran in the context of changes engendered by the neo-liberal policies pursued by successive governments since the end of the Iran-Iraq war.

The analysis in this chapter is based on semi-structured interviews conducted by the author with women and youth activists in Iran in 2015. This qualitative data is contextualised within a theoretical discussion of the nature of the Iranian state, the impact of neo-liberal policies, and debates surrounding gender and neo-liberalism.

Contrary to the view of politics in Iran as a battle between hard-line religious fundamentalists and moderates, this chapter argues that it is not the religious nature of the state but its neo-liberal policies that have made it more difficult for women and youth activists to mobilise against the exclusionary policies of the state. In response activists in Iran have developed and articulated strategies of resistance to and accommodation with the Islamic Republic’s neo-liberal project.

The chapter breaks with prevailing socio-cultural analyses of women’s rights in Iran and provides a critique of prevalent ideas of women’s rights as innately connected to liberal and specifically neo-liberal forms of politics and governance.

This paper aims to simulate the steady laminar mixed convection incompressible viscous and electrically conducting hybrid nanofluid (CuO-Cu/blood) flow near the plane stagnation-point over a horizontal porous stretching sheet along with an external magnetic field and induced magnetic field effects that can be applicable in the biomedical fields like the flow dynamics of the micro-circulatory system and especially in drug delivery.

The basic partial differential equations (PDEs) are altered to a set of dimensionless ordinary differential equations (ODEs) with the help of suitable similarity variables which are then solved numerically using bvp4c scheme from MATLAB. Inasmuch as validation results have shown a good agreement with previous reports, the present novel mass-based algorithm can be used in this problem with great confidence. Governing parameters are both nanoparticle masses, base fluid mass, empirical shape factor of both nanoparticles, suction/injection parameter, magnetic parameter, reciprocal magnetic Prandtl number, Prandtl number, heat source parameter, mixed convection parameter, permeability parameter and frequency ratio. The effect of these parameters on the flow and heat transfer characteristics of the problem is discussed in detail.

It is shown that the use of CuO and Cu hybrid nanoparticles can reduce the hemodynamics effect of the capillary relative to pure blood case. Moreover, as the imposed magnetic field enhances, the velocity of the blood decreases. Besides, when the blade shapes for both nanoparticles are taken into account, the local heat transfer rate is maximum that is also compatible with experimental observations.

An innovative mass-based model of CuO-Cu/blood hybrid nanofluid has been applied. The novel attitude to one-phase hybrid nanofluid model corresponds to considering nanoparticles mass as well as base fluid mass to computing the solid equivalent volume fraction, the solid equivalent density and also solid equivalent specific heat.

The purpose of this paper is to study and analyze the converging/diverging channel flow and heat transfer with the multiple slips effect, which is a development of the Jeffery–Hamel problem using the mass-based hybrid nanofluid algorithm. Whereas transferring biological liquid by arteries is a vital issue, mathematical modeling of hybrid nanofluid flow containing titanium dioxide and silver as nanoparticles and blood as base liquid through a converging/diverging duct, which can be a useful analysis for the fields of drug delivery, has been investigated.

The present approach is based on the Tiwari–Das nanofluid method. In this modeling, the volume fraction of nanoparticles is replaced with nanoparticles masses. The partial differential equations of the mass, momentum and energy conservations are changed to the system of ordinary differential equations through the similarity solution method. The final governing equations are solved by Runge–Kutta–Fehlberg procedure and shooting method.

The effect of emerging parameters on the temperature, the velocity, the Nusselt number and the skin friction have been analyzed by graphical and tabular reports. It is observed that the opposition to hybrid nanofluid flow in the attendance of particles of nonspherical shapes is more enhanced than those in the attendance of particles of spherical shapes. This issue demonstrates that the rheology of a hybrid nanofluid is dependent on the shape of particles. Besides, backflow regimes form in the divergent channel for high values of Reynolds number, m₂ and a. Indeed, this modeling for the hybrid nanofluid can be useful in different technologies and industries such as biological ones. It is worth mentioning that the excellent achievement of the mass-based algorithm for heat transfer and hybrid nanofluid flow is the most important success of this study.

The main originality is related to the development of the Jeffery–Hamel problem using the mass-based hybrid nanofluid algorithm. This new mass-based method is a single-phase hybrid nanofluid approach that the inputs are masses of nanoparticles and base liquid. Besides, considering the multiple slips effect and also pure blood as base fluid in this problem are also new.