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Determining the suitable material and accurate thickness of the thermal insulation layer used in exterior walls during the design phase of a building can be challenging. This study aims to determine suitable material and optimum thickness for the insulation layer considering both operational and embodied factors by a comprehensive assessment of the energy, economic and environmental (3E) parameters.

First, the energy model of an existing building was created by using Autodesk Revit software according to the as-built floor layout to evaluate the impact of five alternative insulating materials in varying thickness values. Second, using the results derived from the model, a thorough evaluation was conducted to ascertain the optimal insulation material and thickness through individual analysis of 3E factors, followed by a comprehensive analysis considering the three aforementioned factors simultaneously.

The findings indicated that polyurethane with 13 cm thickness, rockwool with 10 cm thickness and EPS with 20 cm thickness were the best states based on energy consumption, cost and environmental footprint, respectively. After completing the 3E investigation, the 15-cm-thick mineral wool insulation was presented as the ideal state.

This study explores how suitable material and thickness of insulating material can be determined in advance during the design phase of a building, which is a lot more accurate and cost-effective than applying insulating materials by assumed thickness in the construction phase.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is unique in investigating the advantages of using thermally insulating materials in the context of a mosque structure, taking into account its distinctive attributes that deviate from those of typical buildings. Furthermore, there has been no prior analysis of the cost and sustainability implications of these materials concerning the characteristics of subtropical monsoon climate.

This paper revolves around the central question: is it possible to do “proper ethnography” without complete participant observation? The authors draw upon a student's experiences of negotiating National Health Service (NHS) ethical approval requirements and access into the student's research field, a British NHS hospital and having to adapt data collection methods for the student's doctoral research. The authors examine some of the positional (insider/outsider, native gone academic), methodological (long-term/interrupted, overt/covert) and contextual challenges that threatened the student's ethnographic study.

The paper draws on reflexive vignettes written during the student's doctorate, capturing significant moments and issues within the student's research.

The authors highlight the temporal, practical, ethical and emotional challenges faced in attempting an ethnography of nursing culture within a highly regulated research environment. Having revealed the student's experience of researching this specific culture and finding ways to overcome these challenges, the authors conclude that the contemporary ethnographer needs to be increasingly flexible, opportunistic and somewhat covert.

The authors argue that it is possible to do “proper” and “good” ethnography without complete participant observation – it is not the method, the observation, that is the essence of ethnography, but whether the researcher achieves real understanding through thick descriptions of the culture that explain “what is really going on here”.

The authors hope to assist doctoral students engage in “good” ethnographic research within (potentially) risk-averse host organisations, such as the NHS, whilst being located in neo-liberal performative academic organisations (Foster, 2017; McCann et al., 2020). The authors wish to contribute to the journal to ensure good ethnography is accessible and achievable to (particularly) doctoral researchers who have to navigate complex challenges exacerbated by pressures in both the host and home cultures. The authors wish to see doctoral researchers survive and thrive in producing good organisational ethnographies to ensure such research is published (Watson 2012), cognisant of the pressures and targets to publish in top-ranked journals (Jones et al. 2020).

Having identified key challenges, the authors demonstrate how these can be addressed to ensure ethnography remains accessible to and achievable for, doctoral researchers, particularly in healthcare organisations. The authors conclude that understanding can be attained in what they propose as a hybrid form of “propportune” ethnography that blends the aim of the essence of “proper” anthropological approaches with the “opportunism” of contemporary data collection solutions.

Nowadays, residential buildings have become increasingly important due to the growing communities. The purpose of this study is to investigate the behavior of a steel structural framing system that incorporates lightweight load-bearing walls and slabs, and to compare the weight of materials used in cold-formed and hot-finished steel structural systems for affordable housing.

Four types of models consisting of 243 members were simulated. Model 1 is a cold-formed steel structural framing system, while Model 2 is a hot-finished steel structural framing system. Both Models 1 and 2 use lightweight wall panels and lightweight composite slabs. Models 3 and 4 are made with brick walls and precast reinforced concrete systems, respectively. These structures use different wall and slab materials, namely, brick walls and precast reinforced concrete. The analysis includes bending behavior, buckling resistance, shear resistance and torsional rotation analysis.

This study found that using thinner steel sections can increase the deflection value. Meanwhile, increasing member length and the ratio of slenderness will decrease buckling resistance. As the applied load increases, buckling deformation also increases. Furthermore, decreasing shear area causes a reduction in shear resistance. Thicker sections and the use of lightweight materials can decrease the torsional rotation value.

The weight comparison of the steel structures shows that Model 1, which is a cold-formed steel structure with lightweight wall panels and lightweight composite slabs, is the most suitable model due to its lightweight and affordability for housing. This model can also be used as a reference for the optimal design of modular structural framing using cold-formed steel materials in the field of civil engineering and as a promotional tool.

Niobium Nitride (NbN) was interesting material for its applications in the medicinal tools or tools field (corresponding to saline serum media) as well as in mechanical properties. The aim of this work was depositing NbN thin films on two types of substrates (stainless steel (SS304) and silicon (100)) using plasma technique at varied powers (100–150 W).

DC magnetron sputtering technique at different powers were used to synthesis NbN films. Film structure was studied using X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern. Rutherford elastic backscattering and energy dispersive X-ray were used to examine the deposited film composition. The films morphology was studied via atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy images. Corrosion resistance of the three NbN/SS304 films was studied in 0.9% NaCl environment (physiological standard saline).

All properties could be controlled by the modification of DC power, where the crystallinity of samples was changed and consequently the corrosion and microhardness were modified, which correlated with the power. NbN film deposited at higher power (150 W) has shown better corrosion resistance (0.9% NaCl), which had smaller grain size (smoother) and was thicker.

The NbN films have a preferred orientation (111) matching to cubic structure phase. Corrosion resistance was enhanced for the NbN films compared to SS304 substrates (noncoating). Therefore, NbN films deposited on SS304 substrate could be applied as medicinal tools as well as in mechanical fields.

The aim of this study is to determine the fracture behavior of wool felt and fabric based epoxy composites and their responses to electromagnetic waves.

Notched and unnotched tensile tests of composites made of wool only and hybridized with a glass fiber layer were carried out, and fracture behavior and toughness at macro scale were determined. They were exposed to electromagnetic waves between 8 and 18 GHz frequencies using two horn antennas.

The keratin and lignin layer on the surface of the wool felt caused lower values to be obtained compared to the mechanical values given by pure epoxy. However, the use of wool felt in the symmetry layer of the laminated composite material provided higher mechanical values than the composite with glass fiber in the symmetry layer due to the mechanical interlocking it created. The use of wool in fabric form resulted in an increase in the modulus of elasticity, but no change in fracture toughness was observed. As a result of the electromagnetic analysis, it was also seen in the electromagnetic analysis that the transmittance of the materials was high, and the reflectance was low throughout the applied frequency range. Hence, it was concluded that all of the manufactured materials could be used as radome material over a wide band.

Sheep wool is an easy-to-supply and low-cost material. In this paper, it is presented that sheep wool can be evaluated as a biocomposite material and used for radome applications.

The combined evaluation of felt and fabric forms of a natural and inexpensive reinforcing element such as sheep wool and the combined evaluation of fracture mechanics and electromagnetic absorption properties will contribute to the evaluation of biocomposites in aviation.

Rising damp affects the deterioration and conservation of architectural heritage. Air cavities built next to the base of these buildings on an unsaturated floor can reduce the damage to foundations and walls due to this. These are passive systems, which are usually designed with no objective data to show their functioning and effectiveness. This is why the authors are presenting this study.

This study is presented starting with simple field equipment for representative types for a previous cataloguing of cases in Spain. The physical parameters of the air in this research are air speed and evaporation in the cavities and the base, taking the local climate and the particular formal and construction characteristics of each case study as a reference.

The results of the analysis validate the method and the efficiency of such cavities, whose performance is greater in systems with a variety of features, that is to say, those which work by thermal or wind flow rather than those which only use hygric flow.

This work is novel because there are not in situ experimental works which prove the functioning and effectiveness of these systems.

Tapered steel sections are widely used in house building design due to their structural efficiency and aesthetic appearance. Due to the practical usage of web tapering specifications in the metal building industry, fabrication and material expenses are analyzed to achieve geometric and economic productivity. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of utilizing web profiles with openings in reducing the weight of steel beams.

In this paper, the nonlinear analysis of the bending behavior of a tapered steel section with an opening was studied by finite element analysis. The results were then compared with those of the tapered steel section without an opening in terms of displacement and yield moment.

The bending capacity of a tapered steel section was analyzed using finite element analysis. Results showed that the tapered steel section without openings had a higher bending capacity compared to the section with various sizes of web openings. The results also showed that decreasing the number of openings would increase the bending capacity, whereas increasing the size of the opening would decrease it. The difference in the yield moment between the tapered steel section with and without openings was only 15.818%. A total of 60 nonlinear analyses were conducted to investigate the effect of the number and size of web openings, flange thickness and web thickness on the bending behavior. However, this study showed that web opening with octagon shape and 0.6D size of web opening, where D is the depth of section, showed the best section in terms of yield moment and volume reduction compared to other opening size and shape.

It is also found that tapered steel section has better moment resistance in thicker flange and web. The study is valuable for engineers and designers who work with steel structures and need to optimize the performance of tapered steel sections with web openings.

The durability of concrete containing recycled aggregates, sourced from concrete specimens that have been tested in laboratory testing facilities, remains understudied. This paper aims to present the results of experiments investigating the effect of incorporating such type of concrete waste on the strength and durability-related properties of concrete.

A total of 77 concrete cylinders sized Ø100 × 200 mm with varying amount of recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) (0%–100% by volume, at 25% increments) and maximum aggregate size (12.5, 19.0 and 25.0 mm) were fabricated and tested for slump, compressive strength, sorptivity and electrical resistivity. Disk-shaped specimens, 50-mm thick, were cut from the original cylinders for sorptivity and resistivity tests. Analysis of variance and post hoc test were conducted to detect statistical variability among the data.

Compared to regular concrete, a reduction of slump (by 18.6%), strength (15.1%), secondary sorptivity (31.5%) and resistivity (17.0%) were observed from concrete containing 100% RCA. Statistical analyses indicate that these differences are significant. In general, an aggregate size of 19 mm was found to produce the optimum value of slump, compressive strength and sorptivity in regular and RCA-added concrete.

The results of this study suggest that comparable properties of normal concrete were still achieved by replacing 25% of coarse aggregate volume with 19-mm RCA, which was processed from laboratory-tested concrete samples. Therefore, such material can be considered as a potential and sustainable alternative to crushed gravel for use in light or nonstructural concrete construction.

Reputation transfer between countries and companies, and its impact on the internationalization process of organizations is an emerging topic in the international business and marketing field. Using the resource-based view (RBV) and institutional theory as a theoretical framework, this study aims to describe the relationship between Colombia's reputation and its companies' perception from the perspective of the food and software industries.

This qualitative, exploratory and descriptive study is based on data collected through the application of 24 interviews with experts and Colombian and global company's leaders. An analysis of the concepts, categories and relationships was conducted, followed by thick descriptions.

There is reputation transfer between countries and organizations in the following cases: (1) during initial stages of the internationalization process, (2) within companies and industries that share values with the country of origin perceptions and (3) when the country of origin institutional context leverages the reputation transfer between companies and countries.

It contributes to the field by helping to the conceptualization of the process and adding important elements to the transfer process, such as actors and values, especially in country repositioning cases.

The study provides inputs to policymakers for the creation of the country brand and the management of country image, and to businesses in their corporate image and reputation strategies.

The uniqueness of this paper is based on the analysis of reputation transfer in an emerging country that is repositioning its image and reputation.

This study aims to analyze why listed Taiwanese firms uniquely rejected the early adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in 2012. It investigates the underlying decision-making processes behind this policy reluctance to further understand the continuous phenomenon of rare voluntary IFRS adoption.

It reports on fieldwork evidence obtained in situ by in-depth interviewing in Mandarin. It uses qualitative methods, complemented by quantitative cost-benefit metrics of IFRS adoption. It presents five diverse illustrative case-study vignettes, using a judgment sample based on expert opinion.

While the net-benefits of implementing IFRS varied across firms, this study’s unanimous finding was that no firms (in the sample or population) adopted IFRS early, despite stated intentions to the contrary. The key reasons for shunning early IFRS adoption were found to be frequent changes in regulations, insufficient benefits from adopting IFRS and the undermining of comparability across companies, compounded with scarce preparation time. Further, this study found that the Taiwanese accounting regulator’s reluctance toward IFRS adoption, partly caused by a long-standing US influence, contributed to this anomalous outcome.

This study recommends two critical policy changes: more realistic timelines and less frequent regulatory changes.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the reasons behind the anomaly of no early adoption of IFRS in Taiwan, using new primary data and illustrative case studies. Its novelty lies in extending understanding beyond the existing quantitative literature on accounting standards, using new “thick” qualitative evidence on motives for such choices and decision-making processes, which have been neglected in previous work.