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Aims to assess the surgeons' communication skills with patients in the orthopaedic department of the authors' district general hospital.

A departmental prospective audit was conducted involving all consultants and middle grade surgeons. Then authors used a validated questionnaire (Doctors' Interpersonal Skills Questionnaire (DISQ)) completed by patients and analysed independently. Feedback was obtained through individual confidential reports and a study group meeting.

A total of 402 patient evaluations were received and the average interpersonal skills index was 72 per cent ranging between 55 per cent and 87 per cent. The highest scores were given for respect shown, warmth of greeting and patients' confidence in the surgeon's abilities. The lowest scores were given for time given to patients to express their concerns.

The research has an incomplete audit circle. A second audit is required following appropriate training to alleviate the deficiencies reported in the first audit and prove the benefit.

This audit highlighted important deficiencies in our interpersonal skills that could potentially be addressed by way of targeted training. This kind of assessment should become an essential part of the annual appraisal process of all hospital doctors.

This paper is the first to report the results of a departmental assessment process of hospital doctors using the DISQ.

Research on institutional logics has missed the opportunity to understand how and why societies may fundamentally differ in their material and symbolic systems. In this chapter, the authors offer a qualitative examination of the implementation of infrastructure public–private partnership (PPP) projects in the Arab state of Qatar. The authors illustrate how the macrofoundations of Qatari society are rooted in the notion of tribe, an inter-institutional system under which the intertwined institutional orders of the state, the market, and the family have historically developed and operated. Their study sheds light on how these macrofoundations shape the processes and mechanisms that underpin the resistance to the introduction of innovative organizational forms. The chapter makes two contributions. First, it identifies how “foreign” organizational forms rooted in Western institutional orders trigger adverse reactions from societies characterized by different institutional orders. Second, it demonstrates the challenge of implementing PPPs in an institutional context that is unfavorable to them and where actors seek to preserve the supremacy of the extant inter-institutional system.

The objective of this study is to assess whether pro-health herbal probiotics, ascorbic acid and allicin added to the finishing diets of hybrid pig influenced the intramuscular fat (IMF) content in longissimus lumborum (LL) muscle, the fatty acid profile and lipid quality indices, as it has an impact on human health.

After 80 days of equal fattening, the pigs were divided into the control group (CT, n = 30 received commercially allowed and applicable antibiotics) and the experimental group (EX, n = 30), which until 95 days of rearing were supplied with fermented herbs extract (FHE Multikraft® Austria) with probiotics Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus plantarum, L-ascorbic acid and extract of garlic (10% allicin). After slaughter, crude fat content and fatty acid profile were determined in LL muscle samples, and on that basis lipid indices were calculated.

Supplementation with FHE, probiotics, L-ascorbic acid and allicin has significantly impacted the crude fat content in the meat and the percentage of fatty acids content: tricosanoic (C23:0), heptadecanoid (C17:1 n-7), eicosanic (C22:1 11cis n-9) and eicosatrienoic (C20:3 11cis n-3), in comparison to CT group. Amongst lipid quality indices, IMF in LL of pigs from EX group, the C18:2 n-6/C18:3 n-3 ratio is characterised by a significantly higher value and thus is more beneficial to the health of the consumer.

The authors have indicated that using FHE, probiotic supplements with ascorbic acid and allicin in commercial fattening of pigs, as an alternative for antibiotic growth promoters (AGP), improves the fatty acid profile of the meat.

Sharing and exchanging information between project participants are basic requirements for developing construction plans. An isolated construction planning knowledge‐based system is no more useful and beneficial than any another ‘island of automation’ unless the integration with other construction applications are addressed. This paper proposes conceptual data and process models for a construction planning system, CONPLAN (Intelligent CONstruction PLANning), which works within a fully Integrated Construction Environment (ICE). An object oriented methodology (James Martin) has been used to establish generic construction models within which other construction applications can be integrated. This paper also introduces briefly the modularized approach that has been adopted to integrate the various construction applications over the project life cycle.

Information technology in construction (ITC) has become a key topic in the last two decades, gaining wide acceptance and is being implemented in the construction research domains as a tool to assist decision makers. Defining the trends of ITC application over the years is essential to provide researchers with a background of what has been done and to shed light on what direction to take in the future application of ITC. This paper presents a holistic view of ITC applications in construction during the last ten years. It describes survey results in the application of information technology in construction, which have been published in twelve scientific journals between 1992 and 2001. This paper focuses primarily on nine ITC tools. It describes their integration, and their use in forty‐three construction applications.

Heritage buildings, as any other buildings are subject to decay and deterioration. This issue increases significantly when a country undergoes complicated circumstances of unrest, as is the case in Iraq. The purpose of this study is to rethink the maintenance approach to heritage buildings in Iraq from a systematic management standpoint. It proposes the development of a management system through the functions of proper planning, organizing, directing and controlling. The study aims to scrutinize the weak areas of performance in the investigated work process in Iraq and provide suggestions to address them.

The paper opted for an exploratory study, using interviews with responsible people in Iraqi heritage buildings administration to investigate the procedures applied on maintenance work for the heritage buildings. Besides, maintenance reports were reviewed and three case studies of buildings recently assigned for maintenance were visited and examined to identify the current course of actions at work and to uncover the points of weakness and strength.

The researchers identified a kind of unreal planning in the maintenance process, which appeared to be a manifestation of corrective maintenance (CM) rather than a preventive one. Such an aspect was highlighted due to several causes, among which most important were as follow (1) the lack of sufficient allocated budgets and (2) the shortage of hand labor and building technicians in this field, including professionals with an architectural training background, who could make practical choices to heritage maintenance thus preventing improper solutions that would harm the authenticity of the asset. Such factors could be mitigated if a good maintenance management system is to be adopted. A proposed system is hereby suggested, upgrading the current guideline and laws by the specialized authorities in addition to recommending the application of digital documentation.

This paper fulfills an identified need to study how maintenance management system can be applied for heritage buildings

Audio-visual translation (AVT) is recognized as the most vibrant type of translation. While AVT plays a vital function in the field of translation, its significance within cultural studies hasn’t been thoroughly investigated. This research aims to uncover the predominant techniques employed in translating idiomatic expressions found in subtitled movies from English to Arabic.

The corpus utilized in the current study consisted of five movies. The dialog in the chosen English films was examined to identify idiomatic expressions. The occurrence and proportion of each approach employed in translating English idioms into Arabic were calculated.

The findings of this investigation unveiled that the most common technique employed by translators to render idioms was retaining both similar meaning and similar form. The second approach involved maintaining a similar meaning while altering the form. The third method involved paraphrasing for translation. The fourth strategy was compensation-based translation. When dealing with verb and object idioms as well as similes, the predominant techniques were retaining both similar meaning and similar form, followed by a similar meaning but different form approach. Compound idioms were translated using paraphrasing, similar meaning but different form and similar meaning but different form strategies.

The research was constrained to examining the utilization of subtitles for the translation of five films. The films and corresponding Arabic subtitles were obtained and saved in plain text formats. Solely idiomatic expressions were scrutinized to determine the translation approaches employed through the use of subtitles.

Globally, consumer’s inclination towards functional foods had noticed due to their greater health consciousness coupled with enhanced health-care cost. The fact that probiotics could promote a healthier gut microbiome led projection of probiotic foods as functional foods and had emerged as an important dietary strategy for improved human health. It had established that ice cream was a better carrier for probiotics than fermented milked due to greater stability of probiotics in ice cream matrix. Global demand for ice cream boomed and probiotic ice cream could have been one of the most demanded functional foods. The purpose of this paper was to review the technological aspects and factors affecting probiotic viability and to standardize methodology to produce functional probiotic ice cream.

Attempt was made to search the literature (review and researched papers) to identify diverse factors affecting the probiotic viability and major technological challenge faced during formulation of probiotic ice cream. Keywords used for data searched included dairy-based functional foods, ice cream variants, probiotic ice cream, factors affecting probiotic viability and health benefits of probiotic ice cream.

Retention of probiotic viability at a level of >10⁶ cfu/ml is a prerequisite for functional probiotic ice creams. Functional probiotic ice cream could have been produced with the modification of basic mix and modulating technological parameters during processing and freezing. Functionality can be further enhanced with the inclusion of certain nutraceutical components such as prebiotics, antioxidant, phenolic compounds and dietary fibres. Based upon reviewed literature, suggested method for the manufacture of functional probiotic ice cream involved freezing of a probiotic ice cream mix obtained by blending 10% probiotic fermented milk with 90% non-fermented plain ice cream mix for higher probiotic viability. Probiotic ice cream with functional features, comparable with traditional ice cream in terms of technological and sensory properties could be produced and can crop up as a novel functional food.

Probiotic ice cream with functional features may attract food manufacturers to cater health-conscious consumers.

Energy analysis (EA) within a building information modelling (BIM) enables consistent data integration in central repositories and eases information exchange, reducing rework. However, data loss during information exchange from different BIM uses or disciplines is frequent. Therefore, a holistic approach for different BIM uses enables a coherent life cycle information flow. The life cycle information flow drives the reduction of data loss and model rework and enhances the seamless reuse of information. The latter requires a specification of the EA key performance indicators (KPIs) and integrating those in the process.

The paper presents a set of KPIs extracted from the developed EA process maps and interviews with expert stakeholders. These KPIs stem from the literature review and link to the benefits of EA through industry expert review. The study includes (1) development and validation of EA process maps adjusted to requirements from different stakeholders. (2) KPIs aligned with the EA process map, (3) identification of the drivers that can facilitate life cycle information exchange and (4) opportunities and obstacles for EA within BIM-enabled projects.

This paper depicts a viable alternative for EA process maps and KPIs in a BIM-enabled AEC design industry. The findings of this paper showcase the need for an EA within BIM with these KPIs integrated for a more effective process conforming to the current Open BIM Alliance guidance and contributing towards sustainable life cycle information flow.

The limitation of the research is the challenge of generalising the developed EA process maps; however, it can be adjusted to fit defined organisational use. The findings deduced from the developed EA process map only show KPIs to have the ability to facilitate adequate information flow during EA.

The AEC industry will benefit from the findings of this primary research as the industry will be able to contrast its process maps and KPIs to those developed in the paper.

This paper benefits the societal values in EA for the built environment in the design stages. The subsequent life cycle information flow will help achieve a consistent information set and decarbonised built environment.

The paper offers a practical overview of process maps and KPIs to embed EA into BIM, reducing the information loss and rework needed in the practice of this integration. The applicability of the solution is contrasted by consultation with experts and literature.

This paper aims to address the speed and flux tracking problem of an induction motor (IM) drive that propels an electric vehicle (EV). A new continuous control law is developed for an IM drive by using the backstepping design associated with the Robust Integral Sign of the Error (RISE) technique.

First, the rotor field-oriented IM dynamic model is derived. Then, a RISE-backstepping approach is proposed to compensate for the load torque disturbance under the assumptions that the disturbances are C² class functions with bounded time derivatives.

The numerical validation results have presented good control performances in terms of speed and flux reference tracking. It is also robust against load disturbances rejection and IM parameters variation compared to the conventional Field-Oriented Control design. Besides, the asymptotic stability and the boundedness of the closed-loop signals is guaranteed in the context of Lyapunov.

A very relevant strategy based on a conjunction of the backstepping design with the RISE technique is proposed for an IM drive. The approach remains simple and can be scaled to different applications.