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Value management (VM) has become a useful tool for achieving sustainability in many countries. This paper aims to assess VM implementation and its activities towards achieving sustainable building projects in Egypt. Data were obtained from the literature, followed by a qualitative approach through a semi-structured interview and a quantitative approach via a questionnaire survey. In Cairo and Giza, data were collected from a sample of 200 building professionals using a questionnaire, while exploration of the country’s VM activities practice was completed using exploratory factor analysis (EFA), including descriptive statistics such as “frequency analysis” and ”measures of central tendencies”. The results show that VM awareness was demonstrated by 64% of the sample, which means that they know about VM. On the other hand, most respondents, 85.3%, did not adopt VM and did not receive any VM training. The results also show, through EFA, that the correlations between these activities show five main components: an information phase, a function phase, a creativity phase, an evaluation phase, and a development/presentation phase. This study will help building professionals to eliminate unwanted costs and enhance project sustainability by adopting VM in building projects in developing countries. Finally, the results of this study will enhance building management through the implementation of VM elements, with a view to ensuring value for money and meeting sustainability goals.

Thermoacoustic refrigeration systems are one of the best alternative solutions for conventional refrigeration systems that are harmful to the environment and humans due to global warming and ozone layer depletion issues. Thermoacoustic technology can be considered a renewable and clean technology with a promising future for its many advantages. A thermoacoustic refrigerator converts acoustic energy to thermal energy (creating a cooling effect). In the present research, the focus is on the design of a standing-wave thermoacoustic refrigerator driven by an ordinary loudspeaker using the numerical simulation program DELTAEC with the concern of building the apparatus at a low cost. In addition, investigating the influence of some crucial parameters on cooling power and thermal/overall performance. Hence, the designed thermoacoustic refrigerator performed well in respect of cooling power and coefficient of performance. It has achieved a cooling power of 134.34 W with a temperature difference between the ambient and cold heat exchangers of 25 K at a COP of 1.956 and the overall efficiency (electrical power converted into cooling power) amounted to 113.43%. The achieved cooling power and COP could be significant when compared to others’ results.

The construction industry significantly impacts the environment and uses natural resources that negatively impact the built environment. Conversely, green buildings can lead to several environmental, social, and economic benefits. The paper explores the barriers that impede the implementation of sustainable construction projects in Iraq. It draws on a literature review in the field of sustainable construction, as well as a survey of construction industry professionals in Iraq. A total of 17 major barriers to sustainable construction projects are identified and classified into four groups to reduce the environmental impacts of construction activities. The variance inflation factor (VIF) values of dimensions were less than 3.5, indicating that they independently contribute to the second-order constructs. Therefore, it is essential to implement green building practices, such as using energy-efficient materials and systems, adopting energy-efficient designs, and using renewable energy sources. Furthermore, the findings suggest that sustainable construction practices can also help improve quality of life.

Lean 4.0 (L4.0) is a transformed form of traditional lean to suit Industry 4.0’s (I4.0) requirements. The L4.0 has a great deal of potential to match the I4.0’s challenges in terms of speed, dynamics, and efficacy once it has been digitalized. The study aims to identify and model the L4.0 CSFs for successful lean implementations in SMEs to suit I4.0 needs. The thorough analysis of the literature led to the identification of the L4.0 CSFs. The expert panel from SMEs was involved in selecting the relevant 22 L4.0 CSFs that suited the needs of manufacturing SMEs. Based on the feedback of the expert panel, a questionnaire survey was carried out. Further, collected responses were analyzed using an exploratory factor analysis (EFA). The EFA results identified four major groups: ‘worker-enabled technologies’, ‘IT-enabled technologies’, ‘management’, and ‘L4.0’ related CSFs. Furthermore, the study uses partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to simulate the L4.0 CSFs and identify the influence of each CSF toward successful lean implementation. The PLS-SEM results confirm that the lean CSFs have positive effects on successful lean implementation. The present research contributes to enhancing the knowledge and L4.0 practices of manufacturing SMEs. The results show that successful implementation will promote ‘productivity improvements (PI)’, ‘waste reduction (WR)’, ‘competitive advantage (CA)’, and ‘sustainable manufacturing system (SMS)’.

The construction sector is recognized as one of the most dangerous industries in the world. The situation is worsening in Iraq, as a result of a lack of attention to safety in the building industry and the poor implementation of safety programs. This research aims to identify the critical safety factors (CSFs) of safety program implementation in the Iraqi construction industry. The CSFs were first identified from a review of literature before being verified by construction practitioners, using semi-structured interviews. A questionnaire, based on the verified CSFs, was distributed to construction practitioners in Iraq. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used to analyze the quantitative data, and the results show that the CSFs can be categorized into four constructs: worker involvement, safety prevention and control system, safety arrangement, and management commitment. Following that, partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was executed to establish the connection between safety program implementation and overall project success. The result confirms that safety program implementation has a significant, positive impact on project success. This article contributes to knowledge and practice by identifying the CSFs for implementing safety programs in the Iraqi construction industry. The successful implementation of a safety program not only improves safety performance, but also helps to meet other project goals.

Developing sustainable smart cities (SSCs) is crucial to modern urban growth, as recognised in various international policies and literature. With Abu Dhabi as a focus, this research aims to identify and evaluate the primary obstacles that hinder the creation of intelligent and sustainable cities. By categorising and ranking these barriers, the study seeks to prioritise the most significant hindrances to smart city development. The research analysed 31 barriers, classified them into six groups, and examined them through existing literature. Semi‐structured interviews with stakeholders responsible for implementing the SSC strategy provided additional valuable insights. The study used the Partial Least Squares Path Modelling method to prioritise the selected barriers. The results showed that the most significant barriers to SSC development were in the Economic category, followed by Technology, Governance, Social, Legal, Ethical, and Environmental barriers. This research provides valuable insights for policymakers and the Abu Dhabi government to eliminate obstacles that hinder SSC development initiatives. Sustainable smart city (SSC) development has gained widespread recognition as a critical aspect of modern and sustainable urban growth in various international policies and literature. The study identified and examined 31 barriers to SSC development in Abu Dhabi and categorised them into six groups. The study discovered that the most significant barrier to SSC development is the Economic category, followed by technology, governance, social, legal, and ethical, and environmental barriers.

The construction industries’ unsafe conditions require increased efforts to improve safety performance to prevent and reduce accident rates. Safety performance in the Iraqi construction industry is notoriously poor. Despite this condition, safety research has so far been neglected. Implementing a safety program is a proven initial step to improve safety. Therefore, the aim of this study is to identify the key elements of a safety program in the Iraqi construction industry. To verify and validate a list of safety program elements identified in the literature review, a mixed method approach was used by using interviews and questionnaire surveys. A final list of 25 elements were then analyzed using exploratory factor analysis. The analysis found that these elements can be grouped into four interrelated dimensions: management commitment and employee involvement, worksite analysis, hazard prevention and control systems, and safety and health training. This study contributes to the body of knowledge on safety in the Iraqi construction sector, a research area which has not been adequately investigated previously. They also help decision-makers focus on key elements that are needed to start improving safety performance in this context.

The construction industry has always been considered as one of the most hazardous industries globally. The condition is worse in developing countries due to poor implementation of safety management. To overcome this problem, there is a need to focus on improving the implementation of safety programs. This paper aims to identify the factors that have the potential to influence the implementation of safety programs in construction projects in developing countries. An extensive review of literature found 21 critical success factors. Sixteen semi-structured interviews with experts in the Iraqi construction industry was conducted to gain in-depth insight and understanding of these factors. The interviewees confirmed the relevance of the success factors and emphasized on the importance of several factors, including management commitment, safety training, the enforcement of safety rules and regulations, and stakeholder collaboration. Technology is a new factor identified by the interviewees. The findings can used in the Iraqi construction industries and in developing countries to support the implementation of safety programs.

Fluid mixtures in real life exist in two forms: miscible and immiscible. Separation of these mixtures using chemical agents or thermal energy has both environmental and economic disadvantages. The high cost and the environmental damage caused by the traditional separation techniques have stimulated both academia and industry to seek alternatives. The emergence of microfluidics offers robust solutions for a broad span of transport problems due to the high surface to volume ratio and reduced length scales. Particularly, the separation efficiency increases significantly due to the aforementioned feature. However, there is still a pressing need of passive separations for the sake of energy minimization and environmental safety. This work focuses on passive separation of both miscible and immiscible mixtures through the surface forces in microchannels. In the miscible case two fluids of physical properties imitating those of water and ethanol are investigated using the multi-range multi-components Shan-Chen Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) for a 2D channel. The variations of the fluid-fluid and fluid-solid interaction coefficients of both fluids, the relaxation times, and the spacing between the walls are examined under static conditions. The uneven interactions are considered with static as well as flow conditions. Because the surface forces are of intermolecular nature, their spacial range is short and did not exceed 30nm in our study. Therefore, we added solid posts distributed in patterns. The addition of these features enhanced the density jumps significantly between the upper and lower halves of the channel. In the immiscible case we studied how uneven wetting conditions influence two-phase flow in a 3D T-shaped microchannel. The D3Q27 LBM model with Shan-Chen forcing was used to control the contact angles of the lower and upper halves of the channel separately. The feasibility of separation was examined by constructing the breakup and non-breakup regimes for capillary numbers (Ca) ranging from 0.002 to 0.3 and droplet lengths (L0) ranging from 1.5 to 4 times the width of the channel (W = 30μm). The difference between the upper and lower contact angles has the strongest impact on the breakup and non-breakup regimes. The geometrical parameters represented by the main channel aspect ratio (AR) and side to main channel width ratio (WR) are also significant players as they shift the border of the breakup area significantly.