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The damage humans caused to the environment post the industrial revolution fostered developing sustainability-rating systems – a number of evaluation instruments that focus on various factors to evaluate buildings and small-scale urban developments. Nevertheless, no buildings are certified in Bahrain, the environmentally challenged country in the Arabian Gulf. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This study assesses 11 sustainability-rating systems: LEED, Green Globes, BREEAM, DGNB, SBTool, WELL, CASBEE, Green Star, HQE, GSAS and the Pearl Rating System (PRS). These were selected because of their international applicability, popularity and importance. The study adopts a system of criteria using a comparative review and cross-comparisons to draw conclusions on the compliance of the selected systems to the Bahraini context and assesses the need and importance of a customised sustainability-rating tool.

The study concluded that LEED is the most comprehensive, international and versatile sustainability-rating system. It is also the most popular. Nevertheless, the PRS is the most relevant to the Bahraini context and is the easiest to access.

This paper provides a deep understanding of sustainability-rating tools and introduces a methodology of comparison that can be used as a reference when choosing between tools.

Rating tools for the built environment were designed to engage consumers and enhance sustainability and resilience. However, the intended outcomes of these rating systems appear to have limited implementation in the residential new housing market in Australia. The purpose of this paper is to investigate consumers’ motivations and experiences who have purchased houses that are situated in a sustainability-based certified development and will have been required to comply with mandatory dwelling certification.

The paper explores the awareness and perception of sustainability ratings and whether the motivations for purchasing in the sustainably certified development have heightened their awareness of sustainability and the resilience of new housing. This has been investigated through a pilot study of consumers who have purchased land in a certified estate and built a new home, through an online survey.

The findings reveal that the rating systems are at present not having the desired influence as first thought; that is, to inform consumers of the sustainability of a dwelling or property and to instigate trust of the environmental credentials of the property.

This illuminating case study of participants who have purchased a sustainable rated development demonstrates that regardless of their concern for environmental issues, consumers have both low awareness and trust in the ratings. Despite this, consumers do seek value from these credentials to the overall property.

This study aims to illustrate the disconnect in engagement between developers, builders and new home buyers in relation to sustainability certification and implementation.

The dynamic support database (DSD) clinical support tool structures the risk of admission rating for individuals with intellectual disabilities. This study aims to investigate inter-rater reliability between multi-disciplinary health care professionals within the North West of England.

A small-scale quantitative study investigated reliability between raters on the DSD clinical support tool. A data set of 60 rating tools for 30 individuals was used. Descriptive statistics and Kappa coefficient explored agreement.

The DSD clinical support tool was found to have strong inter-rater reliability between individual items and the differences between individual scores were spread suggesting variance found could not be attributed to specific questions. Strong inter-rater reliability was found in the overall ratings.

Results suggest the DSD clinical support tool provides stratification for risk of admission ratings independent of who completes it. Future studies could investigate inter-rater reliability between organisations, i.e. health and social care professionals, and use a larger data sample to ensure generalisability. Replication of the study within child and adolescent services using the children’s DSD clinical support tool is also recommended.

The DSD clinical support tool has been implemented within the child and adult intellectual disability services across the North West. As more teams across England consider its implementation, the study provides reassurance that coding agreement is high, allowing for stratification for risk of admission independent of the rater.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a tool design for assembly and disassembly using rating factors. Design engineers need an automated tool to effectively analyze the ease of assembly and disassembly of the products or subassemblies. A good assembly design helps in easier disassembly and thus makes it easier to service, repair and maintain. Reuse and recycling aspects are given importance in the present days due to environmental regulations. Designers now use the life cycle design of the products. This creates an environment for the successful application of design for manufacturing, assembly and disassembly tools. This paper addresses some of those issues.

The analysis of a product design for ease of assembly/disassembly depends largely on whether the product is to be assembled/disassembled manually, with automation or a combination of these. For example, the criteria for ease of automatic feeding and orienting are much more stringent than those for manual handling of parts. The new design for assembly/disassembly (DFA/DFD) evaluation tool explained here enables the designer to review the existing design. This paper examines the existing techniques in the area of DFA/DFD and suggests a new methodology based on rating factors. Excel is used to create the interface for the user. Other popular methods were examined such as Boothroyd-Dewhurst, Lucas. Access, reuse, removal, tool, task and time method and assembly score method (Poli) were used as a base for this study.

The end result of this research is a new approach linked to assembly/disassembly rating score.

The new DFA/DFD evaluation tool enables the designer to review the existing DFA and DFD difficulties.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the clinical perspective of the practicality, utility and face-validity of the dynamic support database (DSD) Red, Amber, Green (RAG) rating support tool within adult learning disabilities services in a North West NHS Foundation Trust. The aim of the current project is to evaluate the practicality, utility and face-validity of the DSD RAG rating support tool, as reported by clinicians who have been employing it.

A mixed-methods design was utilised by asking clinicians to complete a questionnaire in relation to the DSD Support Tool. Questionnaires were distributed across three community learning disability teams within the North West. A total of 50 clinicians completed the questionnaire which included rated responses for quantitative analysis and free-text comments for qualitative analysis.

Positive ratings given by clinicians suggested good practicality, utility and face-validity in relation to the tool. Analysis of the free-text comments suggested that the tool supported clinical judgement in a standardised way and helped discussions with commissioners. Feedback also provided insights into how the DSD support tool could be improved.

Further investigation would be required to yield higher numbers of participation across NHS Trusts to add reliability to the present findings.

The DSD support tool has been used within the NHS Foundation Trust for the last 12 months however the practicality, utility and face-validity of the tool had not been explored from the clinician perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the IC Rating™ approach as a management consulting approach to measure intellectual capital and to report on the implementation and experience in one case study firm.

The paper describes the IC Rating™ model in the context of the exiting literature in the field of IC measurement and uses a case study to demonstrate its practical application.

Based on the presented case study as well as implementations in other organizations we find the IC Rating™ model a useful tool to facilitate the analysis and discussion about intellectual capital in organizations.

The article gives a complementary view to the most commonly used score card methods and guidelines for intangibles on how intangibles can be measured. IC Rating™ focuses on the comparability between companies and industries as well as a simplification of how to interpret intangible measures.

The original idea for the paper was to answer the question “Why do companies really need to measure and develop intangibles?”. The answer is “To improve company financial performance”. The IC Rating™ methodology is therefore based on the answers to two other questions: “Which parameters does an executive manager need to have insightful knowledge of, in order to make the right decisions for the future?” and “From where and whom should the executive manager receive this information?”.

The purpose of this paper is to establish gaps in training, involve staff in the implementation process by incorporating their views on what is helpful and what can be improved, as well as provide information that might be helpful to other sites who are considering implementing the START:AV.

The current study is the first to examine a START:AV implementation and survey a multi-disciplinary team on their views about implementation in a medium secure service for adolescents in the UK. The survey was adapted from the one used by Collins et al. (2008). Once surveys were received the qualitative information was collated to explore themes, and frequency analysis was undertaken on the quantitative information.

The staff survey on the implementation of the START:AV highlighted a number of strengths and challenges. There was significant support for the START:AV in relation to it being a dynamic assessment to measure change, that focuses equally on strengths and vulnerabilities, making the process individualised. Users of the START:AV reported that the process of rating the START:AV as a team improved communication, teamwork, generated discussion and improved the detailed understanding of the patient being rated. Staff felt it was generally straightforward to use in terms of strengths and vulnerability ratings, but some difficulties emerged regarding making finer distinctions in ratings as well as completing risk formulations, highlighting further training needs. There was also some confusion about differentiating between certain strengths and vulnerabilities, leading to “double ratings”. Other difficulties highlighted centred on time and increasing workload.

The main limitation of the study relates to the low response rate to the survey (31 per cent).

Recommendations for implementation and evaluation of new risk assessment procedures are made.

The current study is the first to examine a START:AV implementation and survey a multi-disciplinary team on their views about implementation in a medium secure service for adolescents in the UK.

This review paper reveals the literature on ultrasonic, chemical-assisted ultrasonic and rotary ultrasonic machining (USM) of glass material. The purpose of this review paper is to understand and describe the working principle, mechanism of material removal, experimental investigation, applications and influence of input parameters on machining characteristics. The literature reveals that the ultrasonic machines have been generally preferred for the glass and brittle work materials. Some other non-traditional machining processes may thermally damage the work surface. Through these USM, neither thermal effects nor residual stresses have been generated on the machined surface.

Various input parameters have the significant role in machine performance characteristics. For the optimization of output response, several input parameters have been critically investigated by the various researcher.

Some advance types of glasses such as polycarbonate bulletproof glass, acrylic heat-resistant glass and glass-clad polycarbonate bulletproof glass still need some further investigation because these materials have vast applications in automobile, aerospace and space industries.

Review paper will be beneficial for industrial application and the various young researcher. Paper reveals the detail literature review on traditional ultrasonic, chemical assisted ultrasonic and rotary USM of glass and glass composite materials.

This paper aims to make the case for the development of an adaptive reuse rating tool targeted to new building design that maximises the embedded adaptive reuse potential of these buildings later in their life, thereby adding to built environment sustainability.

This exploratory study retrospectively analyses successful adaptive reuse projects to establish and test a multi-criteria decision-making model for new design projects. This paper contains a report on the final stages of the research methodology (quantitative approach) used in the development of the adaptSTAR model that critically assesses the list of design criteria identified in the first stage of the study. Improvements to the case studies that would have further enhanced their reuse potential later in life are proposed. The results are compared to an established decision tool (adaptive reuse potential [ARP] model) to determine their level of consistency.

The findings of this research show that design criteria can be identified and weighted according to seven categories to calculate a building’s adaptive reuse star rating. Both the adaptSTAR and ARP models exhibit a strong relationship and are positively correlated.

The research demonstrates that by applying adaptSTAR to new designs, it will contribute to greater sustainability for the built environment in the long term via reducing the rate of building obsolescence.

Green Star is becoming a broadly accepted mark of design quality and environmental sustainability. Compared to other green tools, Green Star is considered as one of main streams green assessment tools, which cover almost sustainable criteria. Simultaneously, building information modelling (BIM) has also been introduced into the industry. BIM is expected to aid designers to shift the construction industry towards more environmentally and economically sustainable construction practice. Whilst the aspirations of Green Star rating and BIM implementation are broadly aligned, in the context of New Zealand this has led to some disconnects in design strategy and process. The purpose of this paper is to improve the practicality of BIM implementations for delivering Green Star certification in New Zealand.

The extensive literature review is conducted through a series of incremental steps. A conceptual framework focussing on the relationship between benefits and challenges of BIM and Green Star is then developed.

BIM supports practitioners to achieve the majority of Green Star criteria (75 per cent). Energy efficiency criterion is the key factor affecting the assessment process of Green Star and National Australian Built Environment Rating System in New Zealand. Research questions about lessening the challenges which can be encountered during the BIM and Green Star implementation are developed.

This paper is limited to a conceptual research. Further empirical research should be conducted to validate and modify the conceptual framework and the propositions presented in this paper to provide an initial insight into BIM and Green Star connectivity within the context of New Zealand.

This paper provided a clear picture for investors, developers, practitioners about benefits and challenges of BIM and Green Star implementation. The outcomes are anticipated to deliver visions for shifting the country further towards development of sustainable future cities.