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This paper aims to provide organizations with a new tool to make decisions related to a facility (building) selection process. Traditionally, value engineering (VE) applies the Value = Function/Cost formula to evaluate the worth of a product. In this paper, the VE-based facility-selection approach is proposed, where the cost of a facility is expressed in net present value (NPV) as it contains the net expense of purchasing or leasing a building as well as the time value of money. Also, a method of quantifying functions and involved risks of different facility choices is proposed.

The framework of the VE-based facility-selection process is broken down into three steps: preparation, calculation/analysis and assessment. In the latter part of this paper, the authors share a sample analysis by illustrating the analysis and decision-making process when three hypothetical facility-selection options are available.

The sample analysis indicates that companies can get the lowest cost and risk while improving their functions to achieve the highest value by using the modified VE formula to drive an optimal option for company’s business expansion and facility-selection process.

This paper provides organizations with a strategic system and process to select proper facilities or buildings for business expansion. The VE approach suggested in this study can allow facility/real estate portfolio decision-makers to analyze financial and functional aspects of the facility at the same time and obtain the value coefficient when they choose a new facility from different options. Finally, they can select the best option, which has the highest value coefficient, given financial and functional considerations.

This paper aimed to analyze the ways in which Niklas Luhmann's theory of the functional differentiation of society can be applied to historical studies. To achieve this, a semantic analysis of the development of modern insurance in Germany during the nineteenth century was conducted.

Through an examination of the significant features of Luhmann's theoretical frameworks in empirical objects, Luhmann's semantic analysis was reformulated as an approach based on a middle-range theory, similar to that of Robert K. Merton, where the potential of the theory can be maximized for empirical research. This paper embodies this proposal, citing several developments within organizations that imbued insurance technology with various ideas and values.

The theory of the functional differentiation of society can be reconstructed as a working hypothesis from a methodological perspective, instead of a general theory that explains every part of society. Applying this to empirical social practices leads to progress in historical studies conducting the semantic variations connected to the institutional formation and their boundary works.

This paper provides a practical research perspective for historical studies in the social sciences, employing a reinterpretation of sociological theory that may be understood only as a structural presupposition of modern society. Furthermore, the increased possibility of historical-comparative studies on modern insurance is indicated by illustrating the applicability of this framework to a detailed case study of modern insurance.

An optimal maintenance policy is key to the improvement of the availability and reliability of a system at an acceptable level without a significant increase in investment. However, the selection process is a complicated task because it requires in-depth knowledge on maintenance policies and on the technical requirements of maintenance. The difficulties and complexity of the selection process arise from the combination of conflicting maintenance constraints such as available spares, size of workforce, and maintenance skills. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The proposed maintenance policy selection (MPS) model is separated into three major phases. The first phase identifies the critical system (CS) based on failure frequency. The failure mechanism in the CS is then analyzed by using a failure mode and effect analysis in the second phase. In the third phase, a multi-criteria decision making method, called the technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution, is adopted to identify an optimal maintenance policy that can minimize the failures.

Through a case study, preventive maintenance was selected as the optimal maintenance policy for the reduction of system failures. The results obtained from the case study not only provide evidence of the feasibility and practicability of the developed model, but also test the acceptability and rationale of the developed model from the industry perspective. Valuable knowledge and experience from employees were extracted and utilized through the proposed model to rank the optimal maintenance policy based on the capability to reduce failure.

The practicality of the MPS model is justified through an implementation in the palm oil industry. The application of the MPS model can also be extended to other manufacturing industries.

In this chapter, we review four methods for identifying function and addressing function in intervention. These include functional analysis, the Functional-Assessment-Based Intervention (FABI) Model, the Competing Pathways Model, and the Prevent-Teach-Reinforce Model. For each, we describe the methods and procedures used to identify function and design intervention support, briefly review supporting evidence, and identify the advantages and limitations associated with each approach.

The purpose of this paper is to gain an in-depth understanding of the research progress, hotspots and future trends in the field of functional clothing.

The records of 4,153 pieces of literature related to functional clothing were retrieved from Web of Science by using a comprehensive retrieval strategy. A piece of software, CiteSpace was used as a tool to visualize the results of specific terms, such as author, institution and keyword. By analyzing the knowledge maps with several indicators, the intellectual basis and research fronts for the functional clothing domain could then be demonstrated.

The result indicated that functional clothing was a popular research field, with approximately 500 papers published worldwide in 2020. Its main research area was material science and involved public environmental and occupational health, engineering, etc. showing the characteristic of multi-interdisciplinary. Textile Research Journal and International Journal of Clothing Science and Technology were the top two journals in this field. The USA, China, Australia, England and Germany have been active and frequently cooperating with each other. Donghua University, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and NASA, with the largest number of publications, were identified as the main research drivers. According to the co-citation analysis, thermal stress, nanogenerator and electrospinning were the topics of most cited articles during the past 20 years.

The findings identified smart clothing and protective clothing to be the research frontiers in the field of functional clothing, which deserved further study in the future.

The outcomes offered an overview of the research status and future trends of the functional clothing field. It could not only provide scholars with convenience in identifying research hotspots and building potential cooperation in the follow-up research, but also assist beginners in searching core scholars and literature of great significance.

Training in interpersonal communication helps in enhancing customer service experience. The Functional Fluency model of transactional analysis provides training inputs by which employees can monitor their response with the customers and thereby improve this customer experience. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

The integration of the Functional Fluency model with “Gap 3” of the SERVAQUAL model.

The “Gap 3” in the SERVAQUAL model is about service delivery affected due to poor interpersonal communication by employees. Here the Functional Fluency model helps in identifying the dominant response style and the variables emergent for a group of frontline staff. This can help in designing training programs that will assist in employees enhancing their interpersonal communication from positive functioning and being cautious or exercise restraint on the negative functioning of Functional Fluency model.

The research limitation is that since the model provides a pen-picture on the communication response style of a large group of employees on the 54 descriptors of the Functional Fluency model, a broad training program may be designed for the group. Second, a large group is sought for implication to take shape.

General communication response style may be identified for different groups and based on this a training module or program based on Functional Fluency may be designed specific to each group.

The importance of the Functional Fluency model in providing an evaluation and resolve on the nature of communication responses, during customer-employee interactions, to enhance service delivery in bridging the Gap 3 of the SERVAQUAL model.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze and forecast the Chinese term structure of interest rates using functional principal component analysis (FPCA).

The authors propose an FPCA-K model using FPCA. The forecasting of the yield curve is based on modeling functional principal component (FPC) scores as standard scalar time series models. The authors evaluate the out-of-sample forecast performance using the root mean square and mean absolute errors.

Monthly yield data from January 2002 to December 2016 are used in this paper. The authors find that in the full sample, the first two FPCs account for 98.68 percent of the total variation in the yield curve. The authors then construct an FPCA-K model using the leading principal components. The authors find that the FPCA-K model compares favorably with the functional signal plus noise model, the dynamic Nelson-Siegel models and the random walk model in the out-of-sample forecasting.

The authors propose a functional approach to analyzing and forecasting the yield curve, which effectively utilizes the smoothness assumption and conveniently addresses the missing-data issue.

To the best knowledge, the authors are the first to use FPCA in the modeling and forecasting of yield curves.

The objective of this study is to propose a functional framework for hydrological applications by treating flood hydrographs as functional data. Discrete flow data are transformed into a smoothing hydrograph curve, which can be analysed at any time interval. The concept of functional data considered the entire curve concerning time as a single observation. This chapter briefly discussed the idea of descriptive statistics, principal components and outliers in a functional framework. These methods were illustrated in the flood study at Sungai Kelantan River Basin, Malaysia. The results showed that five main components accounted for almost 73.8% of the overall flow variance. Based on the results of the factor scores, the hydrograph curves for the years 1988, 1993 and 2014 may be said to have a unique cluster of their own, while the rest of the years which consider having the same pattern. Due to various shapes and magnitudes, the hydrograph curves of 1988 and 2014 are considered outliers. In conclusion, the functional framework has shown that it is capable of representing a wide range of hydrographs and is capable of extracting additional information found in the hydrograph curve that cannot possibly be captured using classical statistical methods.

This paper aims to the precise critical interpretation of gender roles portrayed in the three selected TV advertisements shown in Bangladesh.

The analysis begins with the theoretical framework of gender roles analysis here in this paper: Goffman’s gender stereotypes hypothesis which is used to identify and analyse the thematic features present in the ads. After critically examining the hypothesis, Kress and Van Leeuwen’s systemic functional analysis framework is used to analyse the semiotic feature to interpret the signs and symbols. After that, Fairclough’s stylistic analysis of discourse analysis is used to find out these features in the advertisements to search the cultural, political implications. Finally, the paper uses Pope’s The Rape of the Lock and it is Cultural-Ecofeminist Analysis of Francois d’Eaubonne.

This paper tries to connect with the above-mentioned frameworks from a contextual point of view to predict the future progression of the gender representations and their implications in the coming years to check whether the changes in gender roles are reflected in the society or not.

Both in houses and workplaces, women empowerment, more female entrepreneurs in the working forces will bring out a change in the minds of people about the stereotypes and make more women inclusive and the women-friendly environment in Bangladesh and South Asian Countries.