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Low back disorder is one of the most prevalent and costly injuries in the construction industry. Back-support exoskeletons are increasingly perceived as promising solutions. However, the intended benefits of exoskeletons may not be realized if intention-to-use the device is low. Social influence could increase intention-to-use exoskeletons. This study aims to evaluate the impact of social influence on construction workers' intention-to-use back-support exoskeletons.

A field study involving 37 construction workers was conducted, with workers who used exoskeleton for one week, and their peers and supervisors. Data were collected using questionnaires and semi-structured interviews, and analyzed using descriptive statistics and thematic analysis, respectively.

The workers felt that the exoskeleton is easy to use and the functions are well integrated. Workers' intention-to-use exoskeleton was mainly influenced by employers providing and requiring the use of the device. The attitude of the workers and the perception of peers and supervisors did not have a significant impact on workers' intention-to-use exoskeleton, whereas the subjective norm of construction workers had a positive impact on the intention-to-use exoskeletons.

The study involved only 37 workers, including 15 workers who used the exoskeleton, and 14 peers and 8 supervisors of the workers.

This study contributes to existing knowledge on the influence of social influence on intention-to-use exoskeletons. The study also highlights how exoskeleton designs and the construction workplace can influence behavioral intention-to-use exoskeletons.

This study aims to investigate the impact of active back-support exoskeletons on muscle activity and range of motion during carpentry tasks, focusing on addressing back disorders in the construction sector. The purpose is to understand how exoskeletons can serve as ergonomic solutions in the construction industry.

Sixteen participants engaged in simulated carpentry framing tasks under “no-exoskeleton” and “active-exoskeleton”. The study measured muscle activity and range of motion during tasks such as measuring, assembly, moving, lifting, installing and nailing. This experimental design was chosen to assess the effectiveness of the exoskeleton in different carpentry scenarios.

The results indicate that the active back-support exoskeleton reduced the back’s range of motion by 3%–26% during various tasks, suggesting its impact on movement limitations. Additionally, the exoskeleton led to reduced muscle activity in most muscles, with task-specific variations. There was an increase in muscle activity by 1–35%, during measuring and assembly tasks, revealing nuanced effects.

The findings may be task-specific, however, the absence of a consistent correlation between muscle activity and range of motion suggests potential complexities that warrant further investigation.

This research contributes to the understanding of exoskeletons in construction, emphasizing that task-specific designs are crucial for addressing unique work requirements. The study provides valuable data on the diverse effects of exoskeletons in different carpentry tasks.

There is a growing mismatch between the skill demands of the industry and the offerings of academia. One way of reducing this mismatch is by improving collaborations between practitioners and instructors using web-networking platforms. However, it is important to understand practitioners’ considerations while collaborating with instructors. Therefore, this study identified these considerations in order to infer inputs for the design of the graphical user interface (GUI) of a web-based platform for connecting instructors and practitioners.

A mixed method was adopted through a survey and focus group. A survey was used to capture practitioners’ considerations while collaborating with instructors for student development, and a focus group helped uncover an in-depth understanding of the study phenomena. The data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics and thematic analysis.

The results show the willingness of practitioners to collaborate with instructors for student development, the ways by which practitioners are willing to meet instructors' course-support needs and their considerations in deciding to do so. Slight differences were observed between the results of the survey and the focus group regarding the ranking of the practitioners’ considerations. The study highlighted demographic differences in practitioners’ considerations when deciding on meeting instructors' course-support needs. The results provide a basis to deduce the GUI inputs of web-networking platforms for connecting instructors and practitioners.

This study revealed practitioners’ design needs and GUI inputs to facilitate the design of web-networking platforms for connecting instructors and practitioners. This study also contributes to user interface design principles, theories on individual differences and practitioners’ involvement in student professional development.

This study aims to address the key issues concerning supplier selection in traditional construction procurement by proposing an innovative, novel, state-of-the-art prototype plugin building information modelling – supplier search and ranking (BIM-SSR) and an associated conceptual framework. It enhances building information modelling (BIM) capabilities through web crawling and analytical hierarchy processes (AHP). It uses the World Wide Web to procure construction material suppliers.

Prevalent issues in traditional procurement of material suppliers have been identified through a rigorous literature review. Field experts vetted these issues. A framework has been presented to address these issues based on integrated web crawling and AHP as a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) method. A BIM prototype (BIM-SSR) has been developed using Python and plugged into Autodesk Revit to automate the search and evaluation of material suppliers based on precise material specifications from the BIM design. The BIM-SSR prototype is tested through a case study and validated by field professionals for its efficiency in tackling the identified issues.

Thirteen key issues have been identified concerning traditional construction procurement pertinent to supplier selection. Best-value procurement was encouraged by identifying supplier selection criteria such as cost, delivery time, experience, compliance with quality management standards, warranties, and claim period. The presented BIM-SSR prototype has an efficiency of 80%–95% in addressing the issues identified in this study and 97.5% effectiveness in improving the overall procurement management process.

The BIM-SSR prototype developed in this study is a novel and innovative addition to the body of knowledge that has been integrated into Autodesk Revit as a Plugin. Automation of supplier search and selection through digital technologies, including web crawling and integration of traditionally accepted MCDM methods such as AHP in BIM, is another innovation in the current study. Overall, this study presents a holistic, innovative system, from conceptual design to practical implementation and demonstration. This is one of the steps to help the traditional construction procurement process evolve into a more modern and digital procurement.

The contributions of Islam to human civilization, spanning theology, philosophy, politics, economy, sociology and science, find ample documentation in several historical records. This paper aims to critically examine the catalytic role played by Islam’s social well-being and economic justice in advancing peaceful coexistence.

This exploration is carried out through a systematic literature review using the PRISMA framework. The paper addresses three core thematic research questions, with the intent of offering a comprehensive contribution to both the theory and application of Islamic Studies. To acquire essential data, a qualitative research approach focused on documentation, particularly the collection of non-numerical data from secondary sources, including the Qur’an, Hadith and scholarly articles, was used.

The systematic literature review led to three notable insights. Firstly, the promotion of social well-being by Islam contributes positively to peaceful coexistence across various global regions. Secondly, Islam’s emphasis on economic justice also plays a constructive role in nurturing peaceful coexistence in diverse geographical areas. Thirdly, the alignment between Islam’s promotion of social well-being and economic justice, following the principles of Maqasid al-Shari’ah and the five international principles of peaceful coexistence, lays the groundwork for prospective theoretical inquiries.

This study provides a pioneering perspective by systematically integrating Islamic principles with international frameworks for peaceful coexistence through the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta Analysis (PRISMA) methodology. It offers a unique contribution by presenting how Islam’s intrinsic values of social well-being and economic justice using Maqasidul Shari’ah indicators serve as catalysts for promoting global harmony and social stability. By bridging religious tenets with universal coexistence principles, the study sets a foundational framework for interdisciplinary and policy-driven discourse on achieving sustainable peace through faith-based social and economic structures.

This study aims to assess the accessibility of women to health-care facilities in the rural areas with a view to unties possible recommendation of enhancing its service delivery. It provides an insight into the levels of satisfaction of the services provided by conventional health-care providers in the area where the majority in the developing countries concentrated. The study unravels the reasons for the low patronage of regular health-care facilities to boost unscientific ones by rural women.

The study relies on extensive field work conducted in the study area mainly rural nature. data was sourced by questionnaire, mainly administered on the women in the area and field observation. Data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics.

The paper provides information on the low socio-economic attributes of rural women. It is further showed that medical facilities and personnel were not relatively available and performed in health-care centres to the satisfaction of the users. Poor roads, poor human relation, low quality of services, inadequate medical personnel and drug shortage hindrance to women accessing appropriate health-care facilities in the rural areas. Rural women, therefore, opted for self-medication folk medicine, disguising and spiritual remedies. Health-care facilities suffered poor patronage as a result of these obstacles The study recommended proper overhauling of health-care facilities.

The paper builds a relationship on the reasons for health-care facilities neglect in the rural area in developing countries and revealed unscientific means by which health care needs are realised rural women.

Creating our built environment is largely the responsibility of the dynamic and complex construction industry. This business is made up of a wide range of people who work together to construct buildings and infrastructure projects, from contractors and labourers to architects and engineers. Aside from its observable results, the construction sector has a particular culture and atmosphere that are formed by a special fusion of history, creativity and teamwork. The culture and environment in which the construction industry functions are the main topics of this section of the book.

Mobilizing domestic resources has been a daunting task for the Nigerian government given its growing fiscal responsibilities and the limited domestic resources at its disposal. However, little is known empirically about the role trade misinvoicing plays in this regard. Hence, this study evaluates the effect of trade misinvoicing on domestic resource mobilization in Nigeria.

Sourcing annual data spanning 1981–2018 on key variables of interest, this study adopts the Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS) estimation method to evaluate the effect of trade misinvoicing on domestic resource mobilization in Nigeria.

In conformity with extant studies, the result reveals that trade misinvoicing adversely affects domestic resource mobilization. It also showed that domestic resources are highly sensitive to the dynamics of trade misinvoicing in Nigeria. Other determinants of domestic resource mobilization in Nigeria include public debt, official development assistance, trade openness and inflation.

The study suggests the need to take expeditious and pragmatic actions against the rising tides of trade misinvoicing in Nigeria with a view to improving the volume of domestic resources required for financing development objectives. This will facilitate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and enable Nigeria to maximally enjoy gains from trade.

There is an overwhelming evidence on the effect of foreign capital inflows on the Nigerian economy but, little is known about the effects of foreign capital outflows. Specifically, there is a dearth of studies on the effect of trade misinvoicing on domestic resource mobilization, particularly for Nigeria. Therefore, this study fills this knowledge gap by evaluating the effect of trade misinvoicing on domestic resource mobilization in Nigeria.

This study attempts to examine the factors that influence user intention to adopt e-procurement in the Nigerian public sector.

A well-structured questionnaire was used to collect primary data from 278 procurement and information technology (IT) departments’ officials of key federal government ministries and agencies. The technology acceptance model (TAM) model was adopted and extended with security-related factors, namely perceived trust and perceived security. A partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) approach was used to test and validate the model.

The results indicated that perceived usefulness is the best predictor of users’ intention to adopt e-procurement, followed by perceived security and perceived trust. In contrast, however, perceived ease of use was found to have a significant negative effect on the intention to adopt e-procurement.

This study is among the first in the Nigerian public sector context to evaluate users’ perceptions on e-procurement adoption with the use of a distinctive research model (TAM). The study's findings contribute to a better understanding of the factors influencing the adoption of e-procurement in the Nigerian public sector.

This article explores the empirical support for the claim that Islam, described by Allah as a standard creed, is inherently compatible with inclusivity and sustainable development. Focusing on Nigeria’s multi-religious context, the research aims to assess the impact of Islam’s social well-being and economic justice on peaceful coexistence.

Data from 273 academics and professionals were collected and analysed using a quantitative survey research design.

The results show that the social well-being of Islam, which includes the protection of religion, life and progeny, has a significant and positive association with peaceful coexistence. Similarly, Islam’s economic justice, which includes protecting intellect/intellectual resources and wealth, also shows a substantial and positive association with peaceful coexistence in Nigeria. Aligning the principles of peaceful coexistence with Islam’s Maqasid al-Shari’ah framework (MSF) proves to be a way to strengthen the connection between social well-being and economic justice and thus improve peaceful coexistence in a multi-religious society. Control variables such as age and marital status also have positive associations with POC, while gender, education level and religion have different effects. Overall, the impact of Islam’s social well-being and economic justice, represented by the five protective principles called Maqasidul Shari’ah, has a positive association with peaceful coexistence, with the protection of progeny having the strongest influence.

Aligning the principles of peaceful coexistence with Islam’s Maqasid al-Shari’ah framework (MSF) emerges as an avenue to strengthen the connection between social well-being and economic justice, thereby enhancing peaceful coexistence in a multi-religious society. Despite its modest scope, this study contributes valuable insights to the literature on Islam’s social well-being, economic justice and the role of Maqasid al-Shari’ah in promoting peace in diverse societies.

The study’s novelty lies in the empirical evidence it provides for the claim that the principles of Islam, specifically referencing the Maqasidul Shari’ah principles, are inherently compatible with inclusivity and sustainable development.