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The main aim of the current study is to investigate the effect of Anti-Crack HP 67/36 glass fibre on the mechanical performance of mortars made of cement, with a focus on post-cracking evaluations using the digital image correlation (DIC) technique.

Experimental tests were carried out on 36-mm long fibres at 0.8% by volume and added to the normal strength (NSM), high strength (HSM) and high strength mortar with fly ash (HSMFA) mortars. CEM I 52.5 CP2 NF, CEM II/A-L 42.5 NF and CEM III/C 32.5 N-SR PM were used for each series of mortar to assess the performance of the glass fibres with the types of cement. F-class fly (FA) ash was used to reduce global CO₂ emissions.

The mortar’s strength decreased as the cement types changed from CEM I to CEM II and III. However, due to changes in the portlandite content of the cement, water porosity increased for both types of mortar, without and with fibre. It was also found that using glass fibre increased flexural strength more than compressive strength, regardless of the type of cement used. For all the strength classes, it was found that the mortar mixes with CEM I had the highest critical crack opening (w_c) and fracture energy (G_F), followed by CEM II and III. No significant effects were observed in the mortar’s property by replacing fly ash (12%).

Only mortars were formulated in this study, but the results must be verified at the concrete scale.

Validation of the DIC technique to characterize the post-cracking behaviour of cement-based material. Use of glass fibres to improve the material’s resistance to cracking.

Use of CEM II and CEM III cements with low CO₂ footprint instead of CEMI without altering the mechanical performance of the material.

The work is a further contribution to studying the cracking behaviour of several series of variable mortars depending on the resistance class and the type of cement used.

The study aims to examine the impact of migration on household consumption expenditures in Bangladesh.

The paper uses coarsened exact matching methods to examine the causal impact between migration and household welfare using the dataset on Bangladesh Household Income and Expenditure Survey 2010 on 12,213 households.

The study reveals that migration has a positive impact on household welfare improvement through increases in their consumption expenditures. Households with migration status are found to spend more on food, non-food (housing, durable goods, fuel, cosmetics, cleaning, transport, clothing, taxes, insurance, recreation) items and medical. However, the authors do not find any evidence of impacts on education expenditures.

The availability of panel data and the use of other variables (e.g. household investment expenditures, household budget allocation for agricultural input expenses, etc.) would have been able to provide vivid results.

This paper adds to the Bangladeshi migration literature by offering a novel empirical assessment of the Bangladeshi migrants and its impact on household welfare by drawing upon a recently published, nationally representative sample of Bangladeshi households.

The purpose of this paper is devoted to present an accurate assessment for determine natural frequencies for uniform and non-uniform Euler-Bernoulli beams and frames by an adaptive generalized finite element method (GFEM). The present paper concentrates on developing the C1 element of the adaptive GFEM for vibration analysis of Euler-Bernoulli beams and frames.

The variational problem of free vibration is formulated and the main aspects of the adaptive GFEM are presented and discussed. The efficiency and convergence of the proposed method in vibration analysis of uniform and non-uniform Euler-Bernoulli beams are checked. The application of this technique in a frame is also presented.

The present paper concentrates on developing the C1 element of the adaptive GFEM for vibration analysis of Euler-Bernoulli beams and frames. The GFEM, which was conceived on the basis of the partition of unity method, allows the inclusion of enrichment functions that contain a priori knowledge about the fundamental solution of the governing differential equation. The proposed enrichment functions are dependent on the geometric and mechanical properties of the element. This approach converges very fast and is able to approximate the frequency related to any vibration mode.

The main contribution of the present study consisted in proposing an adaptive GFEM for vibration analysis of Euler-Bernoulli uniform and non-uniform beams and frames. The GFEM results were compared with those obtained by the h and p-versions of FEM and the c-version of the CEM. The adaptive GFEM has shown to be efficient in the vibration analysis of beams and has indicated that it can be applied even for a coarse discretization scheme in complex practical problems.

Outlines the development of Mercosur (South American economic bloc) and considers the assertion that it protects inefficient Brazilian industries and has failed to create extra trade. Analyses selected 1990‐1997 data for Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay to show that trade and foreign investment have increased since its formation in 1991; and compares the impact on trading patterns and trade balances for all four countries. Admits that Mercosur has some way to go in establishing a common market and has not increased exports to the rest of the world to the extent expected, but regards it as a qualified success.

The purpose of this paper is to use the concepts of the multi-attribute utility theory to develop a model to evaluate the design of low-density residential units to increase the profit of the company from a certain design, by assessing the changes in the market shares as a result of the built unit’s attributes.

The proposed platform consists of two stages: Stage I or relational model development and Stage II or design evaluation. Stage I is concerned with developing a mathematical model that links design variables (e.g. the R-Value of the building envelope and construction material) with the assessment attributes (e.g. price and carbon emissions). Stage II ensures the fulfillment of the corporation’s goals in maximizing profit and market shares using multi-attribute utility theory.

The application of the proposed model on a case study – a single-family house – shows that reducing the selling price of the unit is not always the best marketing strategy builders should pursue to increase their sales and accordingly their profit, as accounting for other attributes (e.g. performance, operational cost and environmental impact) leads to larger changes in the market shares and accordingly in profit.

The limitations of this research are manifested in the following points: it does not account for the impact of the marketing campaigns on the market shares; it considers the profit as a percentage of the construction cost; and it has not been validated on high-density residential buildings.

This research provides speculative builders with a platform that allows the objective evaluation of houses’ designs prior to introducing them to the market so builders can increase their market shares and consequently their profit. The proposed platform also contributes to increasing the sustainable performance of the housing industry, as it allows for the assessment of the design against economic, environmental and social attributes concurrently, which ensures a balanced consideration of the built houses on sustainability pillars.

The proposed platform for design evaluation extends the assessment attributes beyond the traditionally considered economic and environmental attributes. By doing so, it assists decision-makers in evaluating the potential social influence of the proposed design and, as a result, reduces the unwanted impact.

This research combines the concepts of multi-attribute utility with market studies to develop an objective decision support tool for evaluating the design of speculative houses to increase the sustainable performance of the builders without compromising on their profit.

Previous research on automation and job disruption is only marginally related to the real estate industry and its characteristics. This study investigates the effects of digitization on jobs in German real estate sector, in order to assess the proportion of jobs threatened to be replaced by automation. Since Germany is the largest EU economy insights for the German real estate market allow a first approximation for Europe.

An extensive database of the German Federal Employment Agency containing job definitions and occupation titles is matched with real estate criteria to create a subset with the relevant real estate occupations. This data is combined with a database of the German Institute of Employment Research reflecting to what extent tasks within jobs can be automated by current technical capabilities.

For the 286 identified occupations within the real estate sector a weighted average of 47 percent substitution probability through current technological capabilities is derived for tasks within the examined occupations.

This contribution indicates the extent of the structural change the real estate sector has to face due to digitization: One out of two real estate jobs will have to be re-created.

This research quantifies the magnitude of the job killer aspect of digitization in the real estate sector.

Historical and institutional influences on the backgrounds of business élites have received little attention despite the fact that they are closely related to corporate governance issues. The present study aims to examine the issue of continuity and change in the characteristics of the business élite over a period of some 60 years between 1923 and 1980 in Turkey, a late‐industrializing country, where significant changes have taken place in the politico‐economic environment of business and the context of industrial development has evolved from étatisme towards family‐dominated big business.

This paper attempts to substantiate the arguments on the institutional roots of business élite characteristics by drawing upon all previous studies conducted on Turkish business élites for the period 1923‐1980. For comparative purposes the study also makes reference to other élite groups in the country, namely, managers of state economic enterprise and upper echelons in the state bureaucracy.

Continuity and change in business élites seem to be closely related to alterations in the politico‐economic environment. For the “managerial” class, while business experience might have been most important in the early years of the republic, high‐level education has clearly been a pre‐condition in the latter period. High education level and political capital of “bureaucrat‐managers” may have eased one‐way flow of professionals from state to private sector, especially following the “ruralizing elections” in this state‐dependent context.

This paper thus especially aims to unravel the genesis and development of business professionals, a subgroup of business élites who have been neglected so far in Turkish management literature.

The inclusion of pozzolans like pulverised fuel ash (PFA), silica fume (SF) and metakaolin (MK) enhances the properties of concrete both in fresh and hardened states. In the case of high performance concrete (HPC), their role in enhancing the workability, strength and durability is extremely significant. However HPC has been observed to be more vulnerable than normal strength concrete when exposed to elevated temperatures. This paper presents an overview and discusses the strength and durability performance of high‐performance pozzolanic concretes incorporating PFA, SF, and MK subjected to elevated temperatures. Various researchers have demonstrated that addition of silica fume causes HPC to perform poorly when subjected to elevated temperatures. Higher loss of strength and spalling risks are also associated with it. Addition of PFA and MK has been found to improve the fire performance of HPC both in terms of residual strength and durability.

This paper aims to research the lubrication performance of large-size rectangular oil pad in hydrostatic thrust bearing for heavy computer numerical control (CNC) vertical lathe.

The research establishes the mathematical models of velocity, flux and pressure fields, etc., for lubrication performance distribution, and analyzes its load-bearing behavior.

When hydrostatic thrust bearing’s rotating speed is within ω₁-ω₂, the oil flow generated by plate’s relative motion is greater than that generated by pressure difference and centrifugal force, and in the opposite direction, making it not easy to emit friction heat, so the rotating speed range ω₁-ω₂ should be avoided for bearing.

The research provides powerful theoretical basis for the structure design, operating reliability and practical application of large size rectangular oil pad hydrostatic thrust bearing, and realizing the prediction of its lubrication performance.