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This research aims to systematically review studies on significant risks for Critical Infrastructure Projects (CIPs) from selected top-tier academic journals from 2011 to 2023.

In this research, a three-step systematic literature review methodology was employed to analyse 55 selected articles on Critical Infrastructure Risks (CIRs) from well-regarded and relevant academic journals published from 2011 to 2023.

The findings highlight a growing research focus on CIRs from 2011 to 2023. A total of 128 risks were identified and grouped into ten distinct categories: construction, cultural, environmental, financial, legal, management, market, political, safety and technical risks. In addition, literature reviews combined with questionnaire surveys were more frequently used to identify CIRs than any other method. Moreover, oil and gas projects were the subjects most often explored in the reviewed papers. Furthermore, it was observed that publications from Iran, the USA and China dominated CIRs research, making significant contributions, accounting for 49.65% of the analysed articles.

This research specifically focuses on five types of CIPs (i.e. roadways, bridges, water supply systems, dams and oil and gas projects). Other CIPs like cyber-physical systems or electric power systems, were not considered in this research.

Governments and contracting firms can benefit from the findings of this study by understanding the significant risks associated with the execution of CIPs, irrespective of the nation, industry or type of project. The results of this investigation can offer construction professionals valuable insights to formulate and implement risk response plans in the early stages of a project.

As a novel literature review related to CIRs, it lays the groundwork for future research and deepens the understanding of the multi-faceted effects of these risks, as well as sets practical response strategies.

This study aims to evaluate the caffeinated drinks, levels of vitamin D and calcium in the blood, and their relationship to bone mineral density (BMD) in osteoporotic women in Al-Ahsa Saudi Arabia.

This study included 85 women over approximately 18 months with ages ranging from 40 to 70 years who were evaluated in the laboratory via blood analysis. Moreover, sociodemographic data and information on health and nutritional awareness were collected via a questionnaire. The BMD was measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) and considered osteopenia when the T value total of the lumbar spine or hip was between −1 and −2.5 and osteoporosis < −2.5. Blood levels of vitamin D and calcium were measured via blood analysis.

There were 54.1% and 45.9% of women who suffered from osteoporosis and low BMD, respectively. There was a significant difference in the number of osteoporotic, and low bone mineral mass groups in marital status (p = 0.04), but no difference was found in age and educational level. A significant difference (p = 0.01) between low bone mass and osteoporosis groups in heights. BMD was significantly and negatively correlated with vitamin D in the blood in individuals with osteoporosis (r = −0.358, P = 0.014). In addition, there was a significant negative correlation between calcium in the blood and total samples (r = −0.355, P = 0.0578). There was a negative significant relationship between calcium supplements and BMD in individuals with low BMD (rt = −0.279, P = 0.041). There was a significant association between cola intake with the occurrence of low BMD (p = 0.027), whereas tea drinking was not associated with risk in both groups.

The study indicated that there is a direct relationship between osteoporosis and low bone mass with different variables. This study was conducted to address the lack of research related to the levels of vitamin D and calcium in the blood and their relationship with BMD in women with low BMD and osteoporosis in Al-Ahsa province-KSA.

It is a well-accepted note that to enhance safety performance in a project by preventing hazards, recognizing the safety leading indicators is of paramount importance.

In this research, the relationship between safety leading indicators is determined, and their impacts on the project are assessed and visualized throughout the time of the project in a proactive manner. Construction and safety experts are first interviewed to determine the most important safety leading indicators of the construction industry, and then the relationships that may exist between them are identified. Furthermore, a system dynamics model is generated using the interviews and integrated with an add-on developed on the building information modeling (BIM) platform. Finally, the impacts of the safety leading indicators on the project are calculated based on their time of occurrence, impact time and effective radius.

The add-on generates a heat-map that visualizes the impacts of the safety leading indicators on the project through time. Moreover, to assess the effectiveness of the developed tool, a case study is conducted on a station located on a water transfer line. In order to validate the results of the tool, a survey is also conducted from the project's staff and experts in the field. Previous studies have so far focused on active safety leading indicators that may result in a particular hazard, and the importance of the effects that safety leading indicators have on another is not considered. This study considers their effects on each other in a real-time manner.

Using this tool project's stakeholders and staff can identify the hazards proactively; hence, they can make the required decisions in advance to reduce the impact of associated events. Moreover, two other potentially contributions of the presented work can be enumerated as: firstly, the findings provide a knowledge framework of active safety leading indicators and their interactions for construction safety researchers who can go on to further study safety management. Secondly, the proposed framework contributes to encouragement of time-based location-based preventive strategies on construction sites.

This study empirically tests a model of human capital (HC) factors affecting the organisational competitiveness (OC) of automotive parts suppliers in the Industry 4.0 framework, including concepts such as Toyota Kata (TK), Kaizen and Quality 4.0, during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.

An instrument was created to measure emotional intelligence (EI) and analytical skill (AS) as input variables and OC as the output variable. The instrument was distributed electronically to Tier 1 non-technical employees in Nuevo León and Querétaro, México. A total of 195 surveys were obtained. The instrument used stepwise multiple linear regression.

This study proposes a model to strengthen the OC of Tier 1 automotive parts supply industry from the perspective of HC factors. Furthermore, it is shown that EI and AS have a positive and significant impact on OC.

From an HC perspective, this study provides a useful basis to improve OC for researchers, industry experts and managers at different levels of the automotive industry, including the triple helix (academia, industry and the government).

No studies simultaneously test the relationship of EI and AS to OC; therefore, this study fills a gap in the literature. Furthermore, the study explored the literature on individual Kaizen (IK) and TK, leading to a contrast between the definitions of EI and AS. Finally, for EI, a reference to motivation was found in the IK. In the case of AS, an orientation to ability of problem solving was found in TK.

The purpose of this paper is to examine and compare the trend of intellectual capital disclosures (ICD) of Islamic banks under the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) regimes over a seven-year period (2012–2018).

A self-developed checklist was developed to measure the extent of ICD practices of Islamic banks in both regimes.

The results revealed a moderate increase in ICD practices over the period of the study. However, there is no significant difference in ICD between the two financial reporting regimes i.e. IFRS and AAOIFI-based banks. In fact, most of the IFRS-based banks have better ICD than AAOIFI-based banks throughout the analysis period. This study contributed to the ICD literature by introducing Shariah capital as a new category of information to disclose besides the common disclosure on human capital, relational and structural related information by the Islamic banks.

It is important for Islamic banks to distinguish themselves from conventional banks and ICD can be a conduit to show their uniqueness. The introduction of Shariah capital in this study reflects the main objective of Islamic bank’s existence, and it should become an important element in ICD. In fact, some form of guidelines or policy by regulating agencies could facilitate the ICD by Islamic banks and reflect the truth about their ability to capitalize on Intellectual capital and disclose about these practices to their stakeholders.

The introduction of Shariah capital as a new component to the existing components (i.e. human capital, structural capital and relational capital) of intellectual capital brings a new perspective to the research on ICD of Islamic banks. This paper further contributes to the scarce evidence of ICD of Islamic banks globally.

The purpose of this study was to review the information on the scientific efforts and achievements in sustainable industrial textile applications of natural colourants. Then the paper suggests the ways of improving the industrial textile applications of plant-based colourants.

The literature on the chemistry, sources and extraction of plant-based natural colourants was reviewed. The reviewed information was analysed and synthesised to provide techniques for selecting sustainable extraction methods, possible sustainable textile applications of natural colourants and the challenges which hinder industrial textile applications of plant-based natural colourants. The ways of overcoming the challenges of the industrial textile applications of plant natural colourants were suggested. Lastly, the current situation of industrial application of natural dyes in textiles is presented.

Despite the scientific achievement to overcome the challenges of natural colourants for textiles, the global industrial application of natural colourants is still low. Inadequate knowledge of the dyers results into poor performance of the natural dyed textile. The natural dyed textiles are expensive due to the scarcity of raw materials for manufacturing of natural colourants. The selection of suitable extraction, application methods and type of substrate should consider the chemistry of the particular colourant. The society should be educated about the benefits of natural dyed textiles. Cultivation of colourant-bearing plants should be promoted to meet the industrial material demand.

The paper provides a synthesized collection of information about the source, chemistry, extraction, textile application and challenges of plant-based natural colourants. The reviewed information was analysed and synthesised to provide techniques for selecting sustainable extraction methods, possible sustainable textile applications of natural colourants and the challenges which hinder industrial textile applications of plant-based natural colourants. The ways of overcoming the challenges of the industrial textile applications of plant natural colourants were suggested.

Content analysis was used to measure corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting. The ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions with robust standard errors are used to examine the relationships for a sample of 168 firm-year observations listed on the Palestine Exchange during 2018–2021. A logistic regression is also utilized as an alternative measurement for CSR quantity disclosure and to ensure the robustness of the author’s main findings.

Based on 168 observations listed on the Palestine Exchange (PEX) between 2018 and 2021, this study examines the impact of women's representation on the CSR reporting of Palestinian firms' boards. Moreover, the moderating effect of ownership concentration on the relationship between BGD and CSR reporting is examined. In order to test the hypotheses, the author’s employ OLS regressions with robust standard errors. A logistic regression is also utilized as an alternative measurement for CSR quantity disclosure and to ensure the robustness of the author’s main findings.

The results reveal that Palestinian companies with more women on their boards have higher CSR practices and disclosure levels. In addition to the validity of agency, stakeholder and legitimacy theories, the findings show the relevance of gender socialization and critical mass theories in explaining the favorable influence of women's presentation on boards in promoting best practices among Palestinian firms, such as CSR disclosure.

The study contributes to the limited literature in the MENA and Arab region countries by examining the influence of BGD on CSR reporting in Palestine, an emerging economy characterized by highly political and economic instability. The study offers a novel contribution by examining the impact of BGD, on not only the CSR reporting quantity but also the reporting quality. However, the generalizability of the study is limited due to the small sample size.

The findings of the study may bring the issues of CSR disclosure and female representation on board of directors to the attention of Palestinian firms' board of directors and managers, investors, professional associations, policymakers and regulators. While listed firms are only required to provide general information that falls under the scope of CSR in their annual reports under the Palestinian code of corporate governance, women representation on boards of directors is not addressed.

This study adds to the very limited literature on the role of the BGD in promoting CSR reporting in the Middle Eastern and Arabic markets in general, and in the Palestinian context in particular. This paper not only investigates but also seeks to theorize this role.

In recent times, stakeholders have called on corporate organizations especially those charged with governance to embrace full disclosure on non-financial issues, especially sustainability reporting. Based on this premise, this study aims to examine the influence of corporate board and assurance on sustainability reporting practices (SRP) of selected 80 firms from 8 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

To measure the corporate board, the authors use both board variables and audit committee variables. Also, the authors adapted the sustainability score model as used by previous authors in the field of sustainability disclosure to measure SRPs. The analysis was done using both ordered logistic regression and probit regression models.

The results show that the combination of board corporate and assurance has a positive and significant impact on the sustainability reporting practice of selected firms in sub-Saharan Africa.

The study places emphasis on the need for strong collaboration between the corporate board and external assurance in evaluating and enhancing the quality of sustainability disclosure.

The study bridged the gap in the literature in the area of corporate board, assurance and SRP of corporate firms which has received little attention within sub-Saharan Africa.

The purpose of this paper is to build a relationship between the quantitative and structural indicators of maqashid sharia studies produced from bibliometric analysis and the conceptual discussion developed through a thorough review of selected key literature.

The study uses bibliometric analysis, collecting information drawn from 219 articles published in 68 journals during the period of 2006–2022. This study uses VOSviewer, RStudio, Microsoft Excel, and an examination of research time periods using the Scopus database to illustrate the citation analysis and keyword map. It is also strengthened by content analysis of selected studies.

The main research theme found in this study is the application of maqashid sharia in Islamic banks, with Islamic banks and Islamic finance among the most frequently used keywords. Meanwhile, the geographical spread of maqashid sharia research has reflected its universal acceptance, as it has spread across both Muslim-dominant and non-Muslim-dominant countries. Besides, maqashid sharia is found to be an extremely important subject for ensuring the ethical dimension of Islamic finance products and services, a more inclusive human development index, and contributing to the international agenda of Sustainable Development Goals. Lastly, future research is expected to broaden it into a multi-dimensional horizon, with several recommendations offered to enrich the understanding of maqashid sharia.

The findings of this study can be beneficial to multiple stakeholders in Islamic finance industry, including the management of Islamic banks, who can enhance the values of maqashid sharia in designing their products/services, and the regulators, who can formulate regulatory frameworks which are reflective of maqashid sharia principles.

This study will assist future scholars in this field to formulate and design exciting research ideas and models to address the deficiencies found in the current implementation of maqashid sharia within Islamic finance industry.

The primary contribution of this study is to provide comprehensive review and discussion of selected significant literature on maqashid sharia and give direction for future research. In addition, this study also extends and incorporates the results of bibliometrics using the recent maqashid sharia studies published at the end of 2022.

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the European Union (EU) was passed to protect data privacy. Though the GDPR intended to address issues related to data privacy in the EU, it created an extra-territorial effect through Articles 3, 45 and 46. Extra-territorial effect refers to the application or the effect of local laws and regulations in another country. Lawmakers around the globe passed or intensified their efforts to pass laws to have personal data privacy covered so that they meet the adequacy requirement under Articles 45–46 of GDPR while providing comprehensive legislation locally. This study aims to analyze the Malaysian and Saudi Arabian legislation on health data privacy and their adequacy in meeting GDPR data privacy protection requirements.

The research used a systematic literature review, legal content analysis and comparative analysis to critically analyze the health data protection in Malaysia and Saudi Arabia in comparison with GDPR and to see the adequacy of health data protection that could meet the requirement of EU data transfer requirement.

The finding suggested that the private sector is better regulated in Malaysia than the public sector. Saudi Arabia has some general laws to cover health data privacy in both public and private sector organizations until the newly passed data protection law is implemented in 2024. The finding also suggested that the Personal Data Protection Act 2010 of Malaysia and the Personal Data Protection Law 2022 of Saudi Arabia could be considered “adequate” under GDPR.

The research would be able to identify the key principles that could identify the adequacy of the laws about health data in Malaysia and Saudi Arabia as there is a dearth of literature in this area. This will help to propose suggestions to improve the laws concerning health data protection so that various stakeholders can benefit from it.