scholarly journals Major Factors Causing Construction Delays in Mecca

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ghazi Saad A Elawi ◽  
Mohammed Algahtany ◽  
Dean Kashiwagi ◽  
Kenneth Sullivan
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Infrastructure Projects ◽  
Average Delay ◽  
Gulf Countries ◽  
Underground Utilities ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Research Gap ◽  
Major Factors ◽  
The City ◽  
Holy City

Delays are a major cause for concern in the construction industry in Saudi Arabia. This paper identifies the main causes of delay in infrastructure projects in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, and compares these with projects around the country and other Gulf countries. Data was obtained from 49 infrastructure projects undertaken by the owner and were analyzed quantitatively to understand the causes and severity of delay. 10 risk factors were identified and were grouped into four categories. Average delay in infrastructure projects in Mecca was found to be 39% of the estimated projects schedules. The most severe cause of delay was found to be the land acquisition factor. This highlights the critical land ownership and acquisition issues that are prevailing in the city. Additionally, other factors that contribute to delay include contractors’ lack of expertise, haphazard underground utilities (line services), and re-designing. It is concluded that the majority of project delays were caused from the owner’s side as compared to contractors, consultants, and other project’s stakeholders. This finding matched with the research findings of the Gulf Countries Construction (GCC) industry’s literature. This study fills an important practice and research gap for improving the efficiency in delivering infrastructure projects in the holy city of Mecca and Gulf countries at large.

Towards a Customized¬ Awareness Campaign to Educate the Public about COVID-19: Development and Validation of a Messaging Campaign to Promote Precautionary Behavior Using Geospatial Intelligence in Saudi Arabia (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mayda Alrige ◽  
Hind Bitar Bitar ◽  
Maram Meccawi ◽  
Balakrishnan Mullachery
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Content Validity ◽  
Awareness Campaign ◽  
Artificial Intelligence Technique ◽  
The Public ◽  
High Infection ◽  
Local Map ◽  
The City ◽  
Intelligence Technique

BACKGROUND Designing a health promotion campaign is never an easy task, especially during a pandemic of a highly infectious disease, such as Covid-19. In Saudi Arabia, many attempts have been made toward raising the public awareness about Covid-19 infection-level and its precautionary health measures that have to be taken. Although this is useful, most of the health information delivered through the national dashboard and the awareness campaign are very generic and not necessarily make the impact we like to see on individuals’ behavior. OBJECTIVE The objective of this study is to build and validate a customized awareness campaign to promote precautionary health behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic. The customization is realized by utilizing a geospatial artificial intelligence technique called Space-Time Cube (STC) technique. METHODS This research has been conducted in two sequential phases. In the first phase, an initial library of thirty-two messages was developed and validated to promote precautionary messages during the COVID-19 pandemic. This phase was guided by the Fogg Behavior Model (FBM) for behavior change. In phase 2, we applied STC as a Geospatial Artificial Intelligence technique to create a local map for one city representing three different profiles for the city districts. The model was built using COVID-19 clinical data. RESULTS Thirty-two messages were developed based on resources from the World Health Organization and the Ministry of Health in Saudi Arabia. The enumerated content validity of the messages was established through the utilization of Content Validity Index (CVI). Thirty-two messages were found to have acceptable content validity (I-CVI=.87). The geospatial intelligence technique that we used showed three profiles for the districts of Jeddah city: one for high infection, another for moderate infection, and the third for low infection. Combining the results from the first and second phases, a customized awareness campaign was created. This awareness campaign would be used to educate the public regarding the precautionary health behaviors that should be taken, and hence help in reducing the number of positive cases in the city of Jeddah. CONCLUSIONS This research delineates the two main phases to developing a health awareness messaging campaign. The messaging campaign, grounded in FBM, was customized by utilizing Geospatial Artificial Intelligence to create a local map with three district profiles: high-infection, moderate-infection, and low-infection. Locals of each district will be targeted by the campaign based on the level of infection in their district as well as other shared characteristics. Customizing health messages is very prominent in health communication research. This research provides a legitimate approach to customize health messages during the pandemic of COVID-19.

The Holy City

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Oldfield
Keyword(s):  
City Of God ◽  
Religious Buildings ◽  
Church Hierarchy ◽  
Patron Saints ◽  
Heavenly City ◽  
The City ◽  
Holy City

This chapter examines praise of cities through the prism of their religious virtues. It does so through the two main, but interrelated, approaches within which the medieval city was linked to the sacred. The first embedded the role of the city within wider Christian narratives about man’s salvation. It was invariably rooted in biblical and other patristic texts (particularly St Augustine’s City of God) and later connected to medieval Christian thinking on Jerusalem, the Heavenly City, and the triumph of Christianity. The second approach drilled down onto specific manifestations of the sacred character of a particular city—its patron saints, its religious buildings and shrines, its religious officials, its place within the universal Church hierarchy, and its pious citizenry.

scholarly journals Analyzing User Digital Emotions from a Holy versus Non-Pilgrimage City in Saudi Arabia on Twitter Platform

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (15) ◽  
pp. 6846
Author(s):  
Kashish Ara Shakil ◽  
Kahkashan Tabassum ◽  
Fawziah S. Alqahtani ◽  
Mudasir Ahmad Wani
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Behavioral Differences ◽  
Initial Attempt ◽  
Bilingual Dictionary ◽  
Metropolitan Cities ◽  
Emotion Lexicon ◽  
User Data ◽  
Regional Location ◽  
Media Platform ◽  
Holy City

Humans are the product of what society and their environment conditions them into being. People living in metropolitan cities have a very fast-paced life and are constantly exposed to different situations. A social media platform enables individuals to express their emotions and sentiments and thus acts as a reservoir for the digital emotion footprints of its users. This study proposes that the user data available on Twitter has the potential to showcase the contrasting emotions of people residing in a pilgrimage city versus those residing in other, non-pilgrimage areas. We collected the Arabic geolocated tweets of users living in Mecca (holy city) and Riyadh (non-pilgrimage city). The user emotions were classified on the basis of Plutchik’s eight basic emotion categories, Fear, Anger, Sadness, Joy, Surprise, Disgust, Trust, and Anticipation. A new bilingual dictionary, AEELex (Arabic English Emotion Lexicon), was designed to determine emotions derived from user tweets. AEELex has been validated on commonly known and popular lexicons. An emotion analysis revealed that people living in Mecca had more positivity than those residing in Riyadh. Anticipation was the emotion that was dominant or most expressed in both places. However, a larger proportion of users living in Mecca fell under this category. The proposed analysis was an initial attempt toward studying the emotional and behavioral differences between users living in different cities of Saudi Arabia. This study has several other important applications. First, the emotion-based study could contribute to the development of a machine learning-based model for predicting depression in netizens. Second, behavioral appearances mined from the text could benefit efforts to identify the regional location of a particular user.

Cleaner Environment Approach by the Utilization of Low Calcium Wood Ash in Geopolymer Concrete

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kadarkarai Arunkumar ◽  
Muthiah Muthukannan ◽  
Arunachalam Suresh Kumar ◽  
Arunasankar Chithambar Ganesh ◽  
Rangaswamy Kanniga Devi
Keyword(s):  
Fly Ash ◽  
Microstructural Characterization ◽  
Wood Ash ◽  
Geopolymer Concrete ◽  
X Ray Diffraction ◽  
High Potassium ◽  
Waste Wood ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Research Gap ◽  
The Impact

The waste disposal issues were the most severe problems that could cause global warming, which depletes the environment. The research hypothesis was to find the suitability and sustainability of utilizing the waste by-products in the invention of green geopolymer concrete to eliminate the tremendous effects caused by the wastes. Due to the increased demand for fly ash in recent years, the requirement of high alkaline activators, and elevated temperature for curing, there was a research gap to find an alternative binder. The novelty of this research was to utilize the waste wood ash, which is available plenty in nearby hotels and has an inbuilt composition of high potassium that can act as a self alkaline activator. Waste wood ash procured from the local hotels was replaced with fly ash by 0 to 100% at 10% intervals. The setting and mechanical characteristics were found on the prolonged ages to understand the influence of waste wood ash. Microstructural characterization was found using Scanning Electron Microscope and X-Ray Diffraction Analysis to define the impact of waste wood ash in the microstructure. The research findings showed that replacing 30% waste wood ash with fly ash attained better performance in setting properties and all mechanical parameters. The obtained optimum mix could provide the best alternative for fly ash in geopolymer to eliminate the economic thrust by the requirement of alkaline activators and deploy the environmental impact caused by the waste wood ash.

RESEARCH RESULTS FOR QUALITY SCHOOLING: BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN RESEARCH AND PRACTICE

2016 ◽  
pp. 206-214
Author(s):  
Sona Ahuja
Keyword(s):  
School Education ◽  
School Teachers ◽  
School Practices ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Research Results ◽  
Academic Practices ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Major Factors ◽  
Quality In Education

The quest for quality in education has been an avowed goal worldwide. The improvement of quality in school education depends largely on the research conducted in this field. The present study was conducted to know the extent of awareness of school teachers regarding researches conducted in school education and the problems faced by them in using the research results. The findings indicate that the teachers do not use research findings because they are not fully aware about the researches conducted, some of them do not understand the terminology used, while others find it difficult to access as these are printed in scattered form at different places. This study highlights some of the major factors accounting for the gaps that exist between the research and school practices and presents some strategic implementations to bridge this gap. The focus of the study is on getting research-based academic and non-academic practices into the hands of professionals for quality schooling.

Determinant factors of culinary creative business performance in the city of Makassar

2021 ◽  
Vol 42 (04) ◽  
pp. 44-53
Author(s):  
ST HATIDJA ◽  
◽  
Amiruddin TAWE ◽  
Chalid I. MUSA ◽  
La HALISU ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Structural Equation ◽  
Business Performance ◽  
Dynamic Capabilities ◽  
Sampling Method ◽  
Sampling Technique ◽  
Simple Random Sampling ◽  
Full Data ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Modelling Techniques ◽  
The City

The purpose of this study is to analyze how the capabilities of business performance in creative culinary ventures in Makassar City, Indonesia. Data were obtained from sources using a questionnaire distributed to 1,402 entrepreneurs in the small and medium business category. The sampling method is probability sampling with simple random sampling technique. The number of samples in this study was determined using the Slovin formula of 311 people, totalling 197 respondents who received the questionnaire in full. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics with structural equation modelling techniques. The research findings explain dynamic capabilities that are important for enhancing innovation and business performance, as well as to assist future researchers to examine other factors that are predictors in improving business performance.

scholarly journals Barriers to special care patients with mental illness receiving oral healthcare. A cross sectional study in the Holy City of Makkah, Saudi Arabia

2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 419-423 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohsen Aljabri ◽  
Ibrahim Gadibalban ◽  
Aboelezz Kalboush ◽  
Hesham Sadek ◽  
Hassan Abed
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Special Care ◽  
Sectional Study ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Holy City

Site response assessment at the city of Al Khobar, eastern Saudi Arabia, from microtremor and borehole data

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
pp. 10015-10030
Author(s):  
M. Alharbi ◽  
M. Fnais ◽  
A. Al-Amri ◽  
Kamal Abdelrahman ◽  
Meinrat O. Andreae ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Site Response ◽  
Response Assessment ◽  
Borehole Data ◽  
The City

scholarly journals Punching out: exploring justifications for employment land conversions in the GTA

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Cogliano
Keyword(s):  
Smart Growth ◽  
Land Conversion ◽  
Transit Oriented Development ◽  
Planning Policy ◽  
Policy Goals ◽  
Planning Framework ◽  
Support Employment ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
The City

The current planning framework in the Province of Ontario is based on principles of “smart growth” including transit oriented development, intensification, and a focus on building complete communities. While the advancement of these principles has been positive in certain cases, the literature identifies that industrial lands may face redevelopment pressure as smart growth principles are adopted. This paper provides the opportunity to assess the extent of which this is the case in the context of the City of Markham. A content analysis of twelve employment land conversion applications provides for an on-the-ground case study of how the planning framework in Ontario, informed by smart growth principles, is leveraged by developers to support employment land conversions. Research findings include conflicting interpretations, among stakeholders, of planning policy goals related to employment land. Recommendations include the need for a more consistent articulation of policy goals and a rethink of traditional zoning strategies for industrial lands.

scholarly journals Sacred Spaces in a Holy City. Crossing Religious Boundaries in Istanbul at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 34-56
Author(s):  
Méropi Anastassiadou-Dumont
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
Local Economy ◽  
First Century ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Sacred Spaces ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
The City ◽  
Holy City

The article examines Muslim pilgrimages to Christian places of worship in Istanbul after the 1950s. It aims to answer whether and how the Ottoman heritage of cultural diversity fits or does not fit with the pattern of the nation-state. After a brief bibliographic overview of the issue of shared sacred spaces, the presentation assembles, as a first step, some of the key elements of Istanbul’s multi-secular links with religious practices: the sanctity of the city both for Christianity and Islam; the long tradition of pilgrimages and their importance for the local economy; meanings and etymologies of the word pilgrimage in the most common languages of the Ottoman space; and the silence of the nineteenth century’s Greek sources concerning the sharing of worship. The second part focuses more specifically on some OrthodoxGreek sacred spaces in Istanbul increasingly frequented by Muslims during the last decades.

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