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Water distribution networks (WDNs) must deliver water to its customers 24/7. Disruption of this important service after a strong seismic event impedes post-disaster activities and poses health and sanitation problems. Hence, WDNs must be able to quickly restore services after the occurrence of a major seismic event. This ability to return the water service can be a metric for resilience. The purpose of this paper is to quantify the resilience by developing a framework that translates various restoration strategies into an improved resilience measure for a multisource WDN.

This paper used a quantitative risk assessment method in developing the framework for the resilience quantification of WDN. Prim’s algorithm, Horn’s algorithm and maximum slope method are used for the restoration analysis conducted in this study.

This paper provides resilience indices of the WDN for each repair scenarios. Then, the resilience indices are used to determine the most efficient and optimized repair scenario to restore the hypothetically damaged WDN owing to Level 1 and Level 2 seismic events.

The developed framework of this study only focuses on the robustness, rapidity and resourcefulness properties of resilience.

This study aims to help the water district in the maintenance, repair and evaluation of WDN against seismic events. The results from the study can be used in preparing the disaster management plan of the local water district to repair possible pipelines. This study also serves as a starting point to more complex and comprehensive research about the resilience quantification of WDNs with the consideration of optimal restoration sequence in the future.

The developed framework in the resilience quantification of WDN is original, as it uses optimal restoration strategies to represent the rapidity property of resilience.

Amidst unpredictable and turbulent periods, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, service organization’s responses are required to be innovative, adaptable and resilient. The purpose of this study is to explore the utilization of both reconfiguration and transformational strategies as instruments for cultivating resilience and advancing sustainability in service organizations.

The study examines a proposed resilience model using fuzzy logic. The research also used a semantic differential scale to capture nuanced and intricate attitudes. Finally, to augment the validity of the resilience model, a measurement scale was formulated using business mathematics and expert opinions.

Although investing in resilience training can help organizations gain control and maintain their operations in times of crisis, it may not directly help service organizations understand the external turmoil, seek available resources or create adaptive remedies. Conversely, high levels of reconfiguration and transformation management vigour empower a service organization’s revolutionary, malleable vision, organizational structure and decision-making processes, welcoming talented and innovative employees to enhance capabilities during crises.

The resilience model bestows a comprehensive understanding of the pertinence of building resilience for service organizations identifying the antecedents that influence the adoption of these strategies and introduces a range of theoretical perspectives that empowers service organizations to conceptualize and plan for building resilience. The research guides service organizations to become more resilient to external shocks and adapt to changing circumstances by diversifying their offerings, optimizing their resources and adopting flexible work arrangements. The study elaborates on the enhancement of resilience, increasing innovation, improving efficiency and enhancing customer satisfaction for service organizations to remain competitive and contribute to positive social and economic outcomes through the adoption of both reconfiguration and transformational strategies.

The study also guides the service organizations to become more resilient to external shocks and adapt to changing circumstances by diversifying their offerings, optimizing their resources and adopting flexible work arrangements. Rapid innovation and business model innovation are essential components, enabling service organizations to foster a culture of innovation and remain competitive. In addition, the adoption can lead to improved financial performance, job creation and economic growth, contributing to positive social and economic impacts.

The resilience model bestows a comprehensive understanding of the pertinence of building resilience for service organizations. It identifies the antecedents that influence the adoption of these strategies and introduces a range of theoretical perspectives that empowers service organizations to conceptualize and plan for building resilience. The research also provides a foundation for further investigation into the effectiveness of these strategies and their impact on organizational performance and sustainability. By better preparing service organizations for disruptions and uncertainties, this research triggers ameliorated organizational performance and sustainability.

Within the realm of the service industry, the present investigation has undertaken the development, quantification and scrutiny of both resilience and tenacity. In addition, it has delved into the intricate dynamics surrounding the influencing factors and antecedents that bear upon resilience, elucidating their consequential impact on the operational performance and outlook of service-oriented organizations. The findings derived from this research furnish valuable insights germane to enhancing operational efficacy and surmounting impediments within the sector.

Transport infrastructure resilience is of paramount importance for societies, therefore its quantification is urgently needed. A resilience assessment framework based on well-informed resilience indices is presented and applied for assessing the resilience of representative bridges exposed to earthquakes.

The framework quantifies the robustness of bridges against different seismic hazard scenarios, by using realistic fragility functions and the rapidity of the recovery and/or retrofitting after the occurrence of a certain degree of damage, based on realistic restoration functions.

Two different approaches for the modeling of the restoration tasks are examined. Both direct losses due to structural damage and indirect losses due to traffic disruption are estimated.

A new cost-based resilience index is introduced and alternate approaches for expressing the restoration strategies are examined and assessed. The results facilitate owners to enhance cost-based resilience management toward more resilient infrastructure.

For coastal bridges, the ability to recover traffic functions after the earthquake has crucial implications for post-disaster reconstruction, which makes resilience become a significant index to evaluate the seismic behavior. However, the deterioration of the material is particularly prominent in coastal bridge, which causes the degradation of the seismic behavior. As far, the research studies on resilience of coastal bridges considering multiple degradation factors and different disaster prevention capability are scarce. For further evaluating the seismic behavior of coastal bridge in the long-term context, the seismic resilience is conducted in this paper with considering multiple durability damage.

The fuzzy theory and time-varying fragility analysis are combined in this paper to obtain the life-cycle resilience of coastal bridges.

The results show that durability damage has a remarkable impact on the resilience. After 100 years of service, the seismic resilience of bridge with poor disaster-prevention capability has greatest reduction, about 18%. In addition, the improvement of the disaster prevention capability can stabilize the resilience of the bridge at a higher level.

In this paper, the time-varying fragility analysis of case bridge are evaluated with considering chloride ion erosion and concrete carbonization, firstly. Then, combining fuzzy theory and fragility analysis, the triangular fuzzy values of resilience parameters under different service period are obtained. Finally, the life-cycle resilience of bridge in different disaster prevention capability is analyzed.

This study aims to investigate the relationship between individual-level psychological resources and team resilience in the context of expatriate project management teams. It seeks to understand how personal psychological resources contribute to team resilience and explore the dynamic evolution mechanism of team resilience. The goal is to enhance team resilience among expatriates in a BANI (Brittle, Anxious, Nonlinear, and Incomprehensible) world, where organizations face volatile and uncertain conditions.

An online survey was applied for data collection, and 315 valid samples from Chinese expatriates in international construction projects were utilized for data analysis. A structural equation model (SEM) examines the relationships between personal psychological resources and team resilience. The study identifies five psychological factors influencing team resilience: Employee Resilience, Cross-cultural Adjustment, Self-efficacy, Social Support, and Team Climate. The hypothesized relationships are validated through the SEM analysis. Additionally, a fuzzy cognitive map (FCM) is constructed to explore the dynamic mechanism of team resilience formation based on the results of the SEM.

The SEM analysis confirms that employee resilience, cross-cultural adjustment, and team climate positively impact team resilience. Social support and self-efficacy also have positive effects on team climate. Moreover, team climate is found to fully mediate the relationship between self-efficacy and team resilience, as well as between social support and team resilience. The FCM model provides further insights into the dynamic evolution of team resilience, highlighting the varying impact effects of antecedents during the team resilience development process and the effectiveness of different combinations of intervention strategies.

This study contributes to understanding team resilience by identifying the psychological factors influencing team resilience in expatriate project management teams. The findings emphasize the importance of social support and team climate in promoting team resilience. Interventions targeting team climate are found to facilitate the rapid development of team resilience. In contrast, interventions for social support are necessary for sustainable, long-term high levels of team resilience. Based on the dynamic simulation results, strategies for cultivating team resilience through external intervention and internal adjustment are proposed, focusing on social support and team climate. Implementing these strategies can enhance project management team resilience and improve the core competitiveness of contractors in the BANI era.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how Lean Six Sigma (LSS) may help mitigate the impact of COVID-19 within health care environments. The goals of this study were to understand the current knowledge of LSS and COVID-19 through a systematic review of the current literature, identify the gap in the current knowledge of LSS in COVID-19 mitigation within health care environments and define the principles of LSS, within organizational resilience that support a health care organization’s ability to mitigate the impact of COVID-19.

A narrative literature review was conducted to identify relevant research. A total of 21 subject matter experts (SMEs) meeting the inclusion criteria were approached through a guided interview process. Content analysis was conducted to describe how LSS principles contribute to supporting health care organizations operating in the era of COVID-19.

Study results report that personal safety is the primary subject, followed by supporting dimensions of process redesign, and telemedicine. LSS topics that directly relate to COVID-19 are in four thematic areas: tools, applications, benefits and challenges. Particular areas of application, techniques, challenges and benefits are identified and discussed that could be applied proactively and reactively, to organizational and supply chain resilience to recover from COVID-19.

There were a number of limitations to the generalizability of this work. The sample size was small and purposeful, thus, external validity of the study results are not determined. The SMEs in this study have not implemented the practices noted in the results at the time of the study, and knowledge of results is limited to the study aims.

This study of LSS principles and COVID-19 has implications for practitioners and offers specific guidance for areas of health care adoption of LSS techniques and tools that benefit patient safety, challenges for the user to be mindful of and potential benefits in resilience of operations in the era of COVID-19.

The maritime industry is increasingly impacted by the Internet of things (IoT) through the automation of ships and port activities. This increased automation creates new security vulnerabilities for the maritime industry in cyberspace. Any obstruction in the global supply chain due to a cyberattack can cause catastrophic problems in the global economy. This paper aims to review automatic identification systems (AISs) aboard ships for cyber issues and weaknesses.

The authors do so by comparing the results of two receiver systems of the AIS in the Port of Houston; the JAMSS system aboard the Space Station and the “Harborlights” system for traffic control in the Port.

The authors find that inconsistent information is presented on the location of same ships at the same time in the Port. Upon further investigation with pilots, the authors find that these inconsistencies may be the result of the strength of power with which an AIS is transmitted. It appears the power may be reduced to the AIS in port but that it varies within port and varies by pilot operators. This practice may open the AIS system for tampering.

Further, this inconsistency may require further policy regulation to properly address cyber information in a port.

People with autism and their families struggle with travel because of its complexity. This study aims to promote travel participation by exploring the travel needs and patterns of people with autism and their families.

A total of 28 participants were interviewed. Data were analyzed via constructivist grounded theory.

People with autism and their families displayed five travel patterns: mutual support, relatives’ visitation, independent travel, expanded socialization and package tours. These patterns were adopted in a stepwise fashion as the autistic individuals’ abilities improved. The travel challenges and support needs of Chinese autistic people and their families were identified.

The findings can inform accessibility tourism, promote an understanding of autistic people’s tourism activities among the public and industry marketers and offer strategic guidance about family travel for this population.

This effort responds to a call to investigate disability-related issues. The study evaluated the travel behavior of people with autism and their families, from a developmental perspective, presenting a new angle in research on accessibility tourism.

The COVID-19 pandemic offered a unique glimpse into the resilience of construction projects, shedding light on several learning opportunities. The purpose of this paper is to develop propositions for the improvement of resilient performance in construction in the post-pandemic era.

The propositions were developed based on an empirical study in Brazil. Data collection involved the analysis of regulations, interviews with health experts, managers, and workers, in addition to non-participant observations of the use of 37 control practices in 39 construction sites comparing the work-as-imagined and the work-as-done. The practices were classified in a hierarchy of controls.

Seven propositions for the improvement of resilient performance were developed, addressing collaboration between construction companies, slack resources, new health and safety practices, production planning and control, digital technologies, visual management, and organizational culture. These propositions emphasize organizational support for resilience. This is in contrast to the nature of most observed practices (57%) that relied on administrative controls and personal protective equipment, which are measures dependent on behaviors that resemble resilience at the individual level.

Although much has been studied on COVID-19 implications for construction projects, previous empirical studies have not adopted the organizational resilience perspective as the main theoretical background.

This paper aims to deal with the thermal resistance of multilayer nonwovens. The effect of fibre denier, cross-sectional shape and positioning within the layers were analysed with respect to the thermal resistance. Moreover, effect of compression on thermal resistance of the multilayer nonwoven structure have also be studied.

The study involves multiple layering of thermal bonded nonwoven webs and the effect of fibre denier and positioning of different nonwovens from the hot plate. To avoid the increase in thermal resistance because of the air gaps between layers, the nonwovens were enclosed within an acrylic frame to compress them to a thickness of 12 mm. Compressional behaviour of the nonwovens were tested at a rate of 5 mm/min with peak compressive load of 50 N. Multilayer nonwoven assemblies were tested for thermal resistance with compressive pressure of 3.5 gf/cm² and compared with that tested at zero pressure.

In the study, three-layered nonwoven structure, provided better thermal resistance than their single component counterparts. The structural characteristic of the multilayer nonwovens affected the conductive, convective and the radiative heat transfer. In a multi-layer nonwoven, the top most layer should have the finest fibre as possible. Second preference may be given to the middle and followed by bottom layers in terms of fibre fineness. However, fine solid fibres performed poorly in terms of compression and recovery resulting in poor thermal resistance under compressive load.

The experimental approach of controlling thickness while evaluating the thermal resistance will help in nullify the effect of air gaps between the layer interface, thus focussing on the effect of fibre denier and the positioning of nonwovens. This paper also discusses the unique properties of fine solid fibre and hollow fibres and their role in providing better thermal insulation for extreme cold weather applications.