Construction projects are complicated in nature and require many considerations in contractor selection. One of the complicated interactions is that between performance with the project size, and contractor financial status, and size of projects contracted. At the prequalification stage, the financial requirements restrict the contractors to meet minimum limits in financial criteria such as net worth, working capital and annual turnover, etc. In construction projects, however, there are cases when contractors meet these requirements but show low performance in practice. The model used in the study predicts the performance by training of a neural network. The data used in the study are 72 of the most recent roadwork projects in Bahrain. The results are shown in terms of the sensitivity of changing one variable on the performance of all the 72 projects. These results can reflect on the methods currently used on contractors’ assessments in the tendering stage and support decision-makers in assessing contractors and selecting the best bidders.
Abstract
Nowadays, the world adopts a philosophy that relates to environmental conservation. This philosophy can be achieved through providing environmentally friendly products while satisfying customers' needs as well. To attain that, a new systems and programs need to be applied in a scientific manner, and total quality environmental management (TQEM) is among these concepts. The research aimed to analyze the Relationship between (TQEM) Practices and its effect on Flexible Manufacturing in Badush factory. The research sample includes managers and head of divisions at top, middle and front line management levels which were (27) working in Badush factory. To achieve the objectives of the study, the descriptive anal
... Show MoreBackground: five clinical phases were described in patients with chronic (HBV) infection: HBeAg- positive HBV infection, HBeAg- positive chronic HB, HBeAg negative HBV infection, HBeAg-negative CHB and occult HBV infection. Aim: This study aimed to determine the incidence of the unclassified phase (gray zone) in chronic hepatitis B patients and its significant in the clinical practice. Patients and methods: The study was conducted retrospectively on 109 patients' who have HBsAg positive for more than 6 months. The data recorded include; HbeAg and anti-HBe Ab, ultrasound of the abdomen, HBV DNA load and alanine aminotransferase (ALT), accordingly; we classify the patients to known clinical phases. Patients who were unfit one of these phases
... Show MoreThe dose rate for bremsstrahlung radiation from beta particles with energy (1.710) MeV and (2.28) MeV which comes from (32P and 90Y) beta source respectively have been calculated through six materials (polyethylene, wood, aluminum, iron, tungsten and lead) for first shielding material with thickness (x=1) mm which are putting between beta sources and second shield (polyethylene, aluminum and lead) with thickness (1, 2 &4) mm have been calculated. The distance between beta source and second shield is constant (D=1) cm. This dose rate was found by program called Rad Pro Calculator (version 3.26). The results of dose rate of beta particles were plotted as a function to the atomic number (Z) for first shield materials for each
... Show MoreThe game theory has been applied to all situations where agents’ (people or companies) actions are utility-maximizing, and the collaborative offshoot of game theory has proven to be a robust tool for creating effective collaboration strategies in a broad range of applications. In this paper first, we employ the Banzhaf values to show the potential cost to waste producers in the case of a cooperation and to reduce the overall costs of processing non-recyclable waste during cooperation between producers. Secondly, we propose an application of the methodology to study a case for five waste producers' waste management in the Al-Mahmudiya factory with the aim of displaying the potential cost to waste producers in case of cooperatio
... Show MoreThe purpose of this study was to evaluate the anesthetic effectiveness of a buccal infiltration technique combined with local massage (using 2% lidocaine) in the extraction of mandibular premolars to be utilized as an alternative to the conventional inferior alveolar nerve block.
Patients eligible included any subject with a clinical indication for tooth extraction of the mandibular 1st or 2nd premolars. All patients were anesthetized buccally by local infiltration technique followed by an external pressure applied for 1 min directly over the injection area. In each case, another local
This study aims to characterize traumatic spinal cord injury (TSCI) neurophysiologically using an intramuscular fine-wire electromyography (EMG) electrode pair. EMG data were collected from an agonist-antagonist pair of tail muscles of Macaca fasicularis, pre- and post-lesion, and for a treatment and control group. The EMG signals were decomposed into multi-resolution subsets using wavelet transforms (WT), then the relative power (RP) was calculated for each individual reconstructed EMG sub-band. Linear mixed models were developed to test three hypotheses: (i) asymmetrical volitional activity of left and right side tail muscles (ii) the effect of the experimental TSCI on the frequency content of the EMG signal, (iii) and the effect
... Show MoreThis study is concerned with making comparison in using different geostatistical methods for porosity distribution of upper shale member - Zubair formation in Luhais oil field which was chosen to study.
Kriging, Gaussian random function simulation and sequential Gaussian simulation geostatistical methods were adopted in this study. After preparing all needed data which are contour map, well heads of 12 wells, well tops and porosity from CPI log. Petrel software 2009 was used for porosity distribution of mentioned formation in methods that are showed above. Comparisons were made among these three methods in order to choose the best one, the comparing cri
The experiments were conducted in laboratory conditions of a temperature of 25± 2C and relative moisture of 40± 5 % to evaluate the effectiveness of the cinnamon, lavender and clove essential oils on some biological life aspects of cowpea beetle, C. maculates. Results of the obligative experiment for the effect of the oils on insect adult killing showed that the concentration of 5% caused a mortality percentage averaged 13.33% of the insect males. The mortality percentage of the insect females was 11.3% for the cinnamon and lavender oils. The lavender oil had the lowest effect on adult killing, not exceeding 0. For the effect of the oils on egg laying, clove oil affected the number of eggs highly at the concentration of 5%, result
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