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Construction materials comprise a major part of the total construction cost. Given the importance of bitumen as a fundamental material in construction projects, it is imperative to have an accurate forecast of its consumption in the planning and material sourcing phases on the project. This study aims to introduce a flexible genetic algorithm-fuzzy regression approach for forecasting the future bitumen consumption.

In the proposed approach, the parameter tuning process is performed on all parameters of genetic algorithm (GA), and the finest coefficients with minimum errors are identified. Moreover, the fuzzy regression (FR) model is used for estimation. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) is used for selecting among GA, FR or conventional regression (CR). To show the applicability of the proposed approach, Iran’s bitumen consumption data in the period of 1991-2006 are used as a case study.

Production, import, export, road construction and price are considered as the input data used in the present study. It was concluded that, among all the forecasting methods used in this study, GA was the best method for estimating.

The proposed approach outperforms the conventional forecasting methods for the case of bitumen which is a fundamental economic ingredient in road construction projects. This approach is flexible, in terms of amount and uncertainty of the input data, and can be easily adapted for forecasting other materials and in different construction projects. It can have important implications for the managers and policy makers in the construction market where accurate estimation of the raw material demand is crucial.

This is the first in this field introducing a flexible GA-FR approach for improving bitumen consumption estimation in the construction literature. The proposed approach’s significance has two folds. Firstly, it is completely flexible. Secondly, it uses CRs as an alternative approach for estimation because of its dynamic structure.

This paper aims to empirically investigate the role of market-based transformative service initiatives (TSIs) during the refugee crisis and shed light on how such TSIs increase inclusion of refugees in service systems by using market forces while creating broader benefits for service organizations themselves.

This paper uses the case of the World Food Program’s (WFP) Dalili smartphone application targeting Syrian refugees in the context of Lebanon. A mixed-methods approach, including in-depth interviews with the retail managers of the local supermarkets and statistical cross- and intra-regional analysis on the retailing mix elements of the local supermarkets was adopted for the empirical investigation.

The results show that the WFP’s Dalili TSI increases service inclusion of refugees by facilitating their access to the essential food services easier and at affordable prices and helps them integrate into the host community. Furthermore, such market-based TSIs were shown to have broader benefits for other stakeholders in the food retail ecosystem including retailers and nonrefugee shoppers as they are successful in improving the retailing management standards of the participating supermarkets by decreasing the average retail price of the merchandise, increasing their variety and assortment, increasing promotional offers and improving the customer service level.

This research fills the gap in the literature for empirical investigation on the impact mechanism of market-based TSIs on service inclusion and well-being of refugees. In contrast to the majority of TSIs studied in the literature that are designed by governments or nonprofit organizations in the areas such as higher education, health care and humanitarian aids, this study focuses on the case of TSIs developed by supranational organizations using market forces in the food retail ecosystem. Furthermore, the findings suggest that TSIs could also benefit the service organizations that offer such initiatives.

The findings of this paper have implications for service organizations and policymakers and their ability to design effective market-based TSIs during the refugee crisis.

The studied case in the context of TSIs in the food retail ecosystem and the empirical approach used are academically novel. Moreover, focusing on the refugee crisis in the Middle East region is rather understudied in the service research literature.

This study aimed at exploring the antecedents of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers' self-efficacy (SE). That is, the main purpose was to deeply delve into the main variables and latent which lead to a high sense of SE among teachers of English as a foreign language.

A phenomenological inquiry was employed to explore the antecedents of language teachers from their eyes. In this study, the phenomenon is SE antecedents. The researchers employed this method to help identify the meaning behind the human experience as it is related to a phenomenon or notable collective occurrence. A semistructured interview checklist was developed, carefully worded, reviewed by five teacher educators known as experts in qualitative research methodology and teacher education and edited based on the experts' feedback

The findings showed that the antecedents of SE can be categorized into personal variables, educational variables and institutional variables. Personal variables include verbal intelligence, language proficiency and some other traits. The institutional variables include support from administration, support from colleagues, support from the community and quality of work life. The educational antecedents include preservice and in-service training courses. Preservice training courses included the following: the courses on general language skills, courses on teaching methods, practicum courses, etc.

This study was undertaken in a specific context and the participants are specific. Almost all studies on SE are quantitative, and this qualitative study explored the antecedents of teachers' SE from their own eyes. Some of the explored studies were not mentioned in any of the related studies.

This paper aims to investigation of processes for Pb²⁺ elimination from water/wastewater as a significant public health issue in many parts of world. The removal of Pb²⁺ ions by various nanocomposites has been explained from water/wastewaters. ZnO-based nanocomposites, as eco-friendly nanoparticles with unique physicochemical properties, have received increased attention to remove Pb²⁺ ions from water/wastewaters.

In this review, different ZnO-based nanocomposites were reviewed for their application in the removal of Pb²⁺ ions from the aqueous solution, typically for wastewater treatment using methodology, such as adsorption. This review focused on the ZnO-based nanocomposites for removing Pb²⁺ ions from water and wastewaters systems.

The ZnO-based nanocomposite was prepared by different methods, such as electrospinning, hydrothermal/alkali hydrothermal, direct precipitation and polymerization. Depending on the preparation method, various types of ZnO-based nanocomposites like ZnO-metal (Cu/ZnO, ZnO/ZnS, ZnO/Fe), ZnO-nonmetal (PVA/ZnO, Talc/ZnO) and ZnO-metal/nonmetal (ZnO/Na-Y zeolite) were obtained with different morphologies. The effects of operational parameters and adsorption mechanisms were discussed in the review.

The findings may be greatly useful in the application of the ZnO-based nanocomposite in the fields of organic and inorganic pollutants adsorption.

The present study is novel, because it investigated the morphological and structural properties of the synthesized ZnO-based nanocomposite using different methods and studied the capability of green-synthesized ZnO-based nanocomposite to remove Pb²⁺ ions as water contaminants.

The current review can be used for the development of environmental pollution control measures.

This paper reviews the rapidly developing field of nanocomposite technology.

Silicone softeners are widely used in the textile industry to improve the performance of textile products. The thermal characteristics and flammability of polyester fabrics can be influenced by these compounds, which need to be considered, as important issues of human safety. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the changes induced on the polyester fibre by silicone softener treatment using a pad/dry/cure method.

The fibres were first treated with nano‐ and microemulsion silicone softeners. The influence of the silicone emulsion type on thermal properties and flammability of the resultant samples were investigated by various analytical techniques, namely, the differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), dynamical mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA) and horizontal flammability test (HFT).

Results showed that the silicone softeners increase the thermal degradation and flammability of the polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate.

The paper's study of thermal and flammability of the silicone‐treated sample is novel and can be used to optimize the properties of silicone polymers during production and consumption.

This study aims to introduce and evaluate a model of host community support for sustainable tourism development (SSTD) based on the influential factors contributing to community support in a biosphere reserve.

Partial least squares structural equation modeling using SmartPLS 3 software is applied to analyze data collected from 473 residents of the Miankaleh Biosphere Reserve, Iran.

The findings reveal that the locals’ community support is affected by their level of environmental awareness, opportunity and attitudes toward SSTD. However, the results do not reveal an influence of environmental knowledge and community attachment on SSTD. The findings enrich the existing literature on community attitude predictors by showing that locals’ SSTD level is not consistently based on common predictors. Such support strongly depends on host communities’ attitudes toward supporting tourism, which is definitely not the same among residents. It is imperative to know whether people’s attitudes arise from a desire to protect the area or for reasons of self-interest.

The findings provide further support for the tenets of the segmentation approach and challenge existing knowledge on host communities’ attitudes about factors influencing residents toward SSTD. The findings have several practical implications regarding community participation for regional and national authorities and destination policymakers.

采用SmartPLS3软件建立偏最小二乘结构方程模型, 对从伊朗米安卡莱生物圈保护区的473名居民获得的数据进行分析。

本研究旨在介绍和评估基于影响促进生物圈保护内社区支持的可持续旅游发展(SSTD)的东道社区支持模型。

结果表明, 本地社区的环境意识水平、机会和对SSTD的态度影响着社区支持。然而, 研究结果并没有揭示环境知识和社区依恋对SSTD的影响。

这一发现丰富了现有的关于社区态度预测因子的文献, 表明当地人的SSTD并不一致基于共同的预测因子。这种支持很大程度上取决于东道社区对支持旅游的态度, 这在居民中肯定是不一样的。有必要了解人们的态度是出于保护该地区的愿望还是出于自身利益的原因。此外, 研究结果为细分方法的原则提供了进一步的支持, 并挑战了关于东道社区对影响居民SSTD态度的现有认知。

Se aplica un modelo de ecuaciones estructurales por mínimos cuadrados parciales con el programa SmartPLS 3 para analizar los datos recogidos de 473 residentes de la reserva de la biosfera de Miankaleh (Irán).

Esta investigación pretende introducir y evaluar un modelo de apoyo de la comunidad anfitriona al desarrollo del turismo sostenible (SSTD) basado en los factores que contribuyen al apoyo de la comunidad en una reserva de la biosfera.

Los resultados revelan que el apoyo de la comunidad local se ve afectado por su nivel de concienciación medioambiental, sus oportunidades y sus actitudes hacia el desarrollo del turismo sostenible. Sin embargo, los resultados no muestran una influencia del conocimiento medioambiental y el apego de la comunidad sobre el desarrollo turístico sostenible.

Los resultados enriquecen la literatura existente sobre predictores de la actitud de la comunidad al mostrar que el nivel de desarrollo turístico sostenible de los autóctonos no se basa únicamente en factores tradicionales. Dicho apoyo depende en gran medida de las actitudes de las comunidades anfitrionas hacia el apoyo al turismo y éste no es el mismo entre los residentes. Es necesario conocer si la actitud de los individuos surge de un deseo de proteger la zona o por razones de interés propio. Además, los resultados corroboran los principios del enfoque de segmentación y retan los conocimientos existentes sobre las actitudes de las comunidades anfitrionas acerca de los factores de los residentes sobre el desarrollo turístico sostenible.

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is a non-parametric model that is developed for evaluating the relative efficiency of a set of homogeneous decision-making units that each unit transforms multiple inputs into multiple outputs. However, usually the decision-making units are not completely similar. The purpose of this paper is to propose an algorithm for DEA applications when considered DMUs are non-homogeneous.

To reach this aim, an algorithm is designed to mitigate the impact of heterogeneity on efficiency evaluation. Using fuzzy C-means algorithm, a fuzzy clustering is obtained for DMUs based on their inputs and outputs. Then, the fuzzy C-means based DEA approach is used for finding the efficiency of DMUs in different clusters. Finally, the different efficiencies of each DMU are aggregated based on the membership values of DMUs in clusters.

Heterogeneity causes some positive impact on some DMUs while it has negative impact on other ones. The proposed method mitigates this undesirable impact and a different distribution of efficiency score is obtained that neglects this unintended impacts.

The proposed method can be applied in DEA applications with a large number of DMUs in different situations, where some of them enjoyed the good environmental conditions, while others suffered from bad conditions. Therefore, a better assessment of real performance can be obtained.

The paper proposed a hybrid algorithm combination of fuzzy C-means clustering method with classic DEA models for the first time.

This paper aims to present an account and discussion of Imam Ali’s view on poverty and socio-economic justice. The concept of socio-economic justice is of utmost importance in Islamic teachings.

This exercise is based on examining Nahj al-Balagha, a tenth century collection of sermons and letters of Imam Ali Ibn Abutalib.

First, in Imam Ali’s view, socially just outcomes can only be achieved through just means and procedures. Second, acute and visible inequalities and side-by-side co-existence of extreme wealth and poverty in a society point to the existence of socio-economic injustices. Third, a society that is suffering from severe and continuous socio-economic injustices or, in other words, acute poverty and inequality will cease to prosper and develop. Fourth, the main objective of an Islamic governance system is to adopt policies, institutions and procedures that would reduce or eliminate socio-economic injustices. A government that fails to reduce socio-economic injustices, in Imam Ali’s view, has failed in its main mission of protecting the rights of the public and ensuring their prosperity. Finally, regardless of government action or inaction, each individual in a society is also responsible to reduce socio-economic injustices to the best of his/her knowledge and ability.

This paper aims to present the first comprehensive account of Imam Ali’s view on poverty and socio-economic justice and it could prove to be practically useful to modern Muslims and non-Muslims alike, whatever their position in society.

The purpose of this paper is to conduct a structured review of the literature on the factors affecting the strategic thinking of an organization. This study offers some theoretical insights by analysing the divergent or analogous views of authors on these factors by analysing the empirical studies carried out in the literature.

An empirical method of conducting a structured literature review has been adopted in this study. Theory context characteristic methodology framework and meta-analysis are the methodologies applied to analyse the different empirical studies conducted in the literature and determine the variation or similarities in the views of authors over the same factor based on their effect sizes. This study analyses over 45 different empirical studies in the literature conducted on the factors affecting strategic thinking.

This study explains how the factors have been similarly or differently explained by the authors in the literature. This analysis gives a better understanding of the factors affecting strategic thinking and quantitatively amalgamates the current empirical studies carried out in the literature. The effects sizes generated for each factor helps in determining the homogeneous or heterogeneous nature of the factor.

The study is limited only to analyse the homogeneity or heterogeneity of the factors affecting strategic thinking at an organisational level. This study can be further extended by analysing the type of effect these factors have on the strategic thinking of the organisation.

The findings of this study identify the homogeneity or heterogeneity of the factors affecting strategic thinking in an organisation. This helps the top management to concentrate on these factors, which might develop a strategic thinking nature in the organisation, leading to the better formation of strategies, and successfully implement them in their businesses.

The study fills the unattended gaps in the literature by analysing the homogeneous and heterogeneous nature of the factors affecting the strategic thinking of an organisation.