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The purpose of this paper is to present the construction process innovations that enabled the successful delivery of the hybrid mass timber high-rise building in Canada, the Brock Commons Tallwood House at the University of British Columbia. It is one of a set of papers examining the project, including companion papers that describe innovations in the mass timber design process and the impact of these innovations on construction performance. The focus of this paper is on innovation in the construction phase and its relationship to innovations implemented in previous project phases.

A mixed-method, longitudinal case study approach was used in this research project to investigate and document the Tallwood House project over a three-year period. Both quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis techniques were used. Members of the research team observed prefabrication and construction, conducted periodic interviews and reviewed project artefacts.

The research identified three innovation “clusters,” including the use of innovative tools, techniques and strategies in the design and construction processes and the role they played in delivering the project. The “clusters” were further characterized according to the type of “connectivity” they afforded, either facilitation, operationalization or materialization. These two perspectives support a compounding view on innovation and help to understand how it can flow throughout a project’s life cycle and across its supply chain. Three process-based innovations were initiated during the design phase, integrated design process, building information modeling and virtual design and construction and flowed through to the construction phase. These were seen to enable the creation of connections that were crucial to the overall success of the project. These innovations were operationalized and enacted through the construction phase as design for manufacturing and assembly and prefabrication, staged construction and just-in-time delivery, integration of safety and risk management and a rigorous quality control and quality assurance process. Finally, a full-scale mock-up was produced for practice and constructability assessment, materializing the radical product innovation that was the mass timber structure. These strategies are used together for a synergistic and integrated approach to increase productivity, expedite the construction schedule and develop an innovative building product.

This paper details an in-depth investigation into the diffusion dynamics of multiple systemic innovations for the construction process of a unique building project, the tools and techniques used by the construction manager and team, and the challenges, solutions and lessons learned.

The purpose of this paper is to study the design process innovations that enabled the successful delivery of a hybrid, mass-timber high-rise building in Canada, the Brock Commons Tallwood House at the University of British Columbia. It is one of a set of papers examining the project, including companion papers that describe innovations used during the mass timber construction process and the impact of these innovations on construction performance.

A mixed-method, longitudinal case study approach was used in this research project to investigate and document the Tallwood House project over a three-year period. Both quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis techniques were used. Graduate student researchers were embedded within the project team to observe meetings and decision-making and to conduct periodic interviews.

The research highlights a case of a balanced triple-helix system that provided a context for the successful “clustering” of product and process innovation, which were developed and implemented to flow throughout the project’s lifecycle and across its supply chain to provide benefits at each stage. Four significant process-based innovations were implemented at the design phase of the building project to support radical product innovation: an integrated design process, virtual design and construction, designing for manufacturing and assembling and a rigorous quality control and quality assurance process. The product innovations developed through these process innovations were the structural system and the prefabricated envelope system. The context of innovation was seen to allow this “clustering,” which is believed to be a key condition of success and enabled the efficient and successful delivery of the project. Generally, the approach was successful; however, some factors including the number of stakeholders and good-faith collaboration may limit the replicability of these strategies.

This paper presents an in-depth investigation into the instantiation of an innovation system, identified as a balanced triple-helix system, which enabled and facilitated the design and decision-making process for a radical product innovation. Moreover, this paper describes the deployment of a “cluster” of process innovations that flowed throughout the project’s lifecycle and across the project supply chain. This was seen as a key factor in ensuring the successful delivery of the project.

This study evaluates the efficiency and productivity change of 39 electricity distribution companies in Iran over the period 2005-2014. For purposes of electricity management and utilization of scarce resources, Iran’s 33 provinces have been classified into five regions by the Ministry of the Interior. Analyzing the efficiency of distribution companies across these regions yields significant understanding of these resources and helps policymakers to generate more informed decisions.

The proposed method of this study develops nonparametric data envelopment analysis (DEA) with the consideration of geographic classification, size and type of company. At the first stage, a DEA model is used to estimate the relative technical efficiency and productivity change of these companies. At the second stage, distributions of efficiency improvements are examined based on geographic classification, size and type of the company type. A stability test is also conducted to verify the proposed model’s robustness.

The results demonstrate that the average technical efficiency of the companies increased during the years 2006-2009, but decreased during 2010-2014. The productivity measurement reveals that low efficiency change was the largest contributor to the small increase in productivity change rather than technology change. In addition, testing the hypothesis that the large and small companies have statistically the same efficiency scores revealed no statistical difference among them. Moreover, another test did not detect a difference among companies at the urban and provincial levels.

By applying this approach, policymakers and practitioners in the power industry at the country and corporate level can effectively compare the efficiency and productivity changes among electricity distribution companies, and therefore generate more informed decisions.

The paper’s novel concept applies DEA to Iran’s electricity distribution companies and analyzes them by examining geographic classification, size and the type of the companies. In addition, a stability test is conducted and productivity changes are estimated.

Concern for health, safety and environment (HSE) is increasing in many developing countries, especially in energy industries. Improving power plants efficiencies in terms of HSE issues requires considering these issues in performance assessment of power generation units. This study aims to discuss the use of data envelopment analysis methodology for the performance assessment of electrical power plants in Iran by considering HSE and conventional indicators.

Installed capacity, fuel consumption, labor cost, internal power, forced outage hours, operating hours and total power generation along with HSE indices are taken into consideration for determining the efficiency of 20 electric power plants or decision-making units (DMUs). Moreover, DMUs are ranked based on their relative efficiency scores.

Results show that HSE factors are significant in performance assessment of the power plants studied in this research, and among HSE factors, health has the most powerful impact on the efficiency of the power plants.

The approach of this study could be used for continuous improvement of combined HSE and conventional factors. It would also help managers to have better comprehension of key shaping factors in terms of HSE.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relative merits of thesis consultation with a librarian prior to graduate submission and to explore whether thesis consultation has a significant impact on the quality of the theses submitted by postgraduate students.

This study uses a quantitative case study approach. The total number of thesis scrutiny reports written by librarians between 2009 and 2014 has been reviewed for errors found in theses. Errors have been classified as referencing errors and formatting errors. These have been compiled in a spreadsheet and analyzed using the SPSS statistical package.

This paper highlights that thesis consultation has had a positive impact on the quality of the theses students submitted for examination at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus. Thesis consultation with a strong focus on referencing clearly assisted students learning and applying different citation styles. There was a decrease in the number of referencing errors over time. Not much difference was seen in terms of formatting errors. Further tests showed that there was a statistically significant positive relationship between thesis consultation and the number of referencing errors made by graduate students.

This study may have implications for the engagement of academic libraries with their graduate communities. With thesis consultation, a librarian may scrutinize the same thesis more than once. Although this may increase the workload of librarians, thesis consultation/scrutiny will have a positive impact on the quality of research produced by graduate students.

This study shows that students benefited from thesis consultation and there was a significant reduction in citation errors. In reviewing the literature, it has been noted that research done in the area of thesis consultation was very limited; hence, this study significantly contributes to the body of knowledge that presently exists.

Man has always faced natural hazards and thus attempted to reduce their financial and loss-of-life damages. Assuring sustainable development in the post-disaster reconstruction of areas requires predictive measurements (i.e. vulnerability assessment). This study aims to assess the outcomes of relocating villages after the 2005 flood in the east of Golestan Province in Iran through sustainable development.

This study is an applied research combining qualitative content analysis and quantitative cross-sectional surveys. The statistical population comprises the inhabitants of Faraghi New Town (formed by aggregating 11 villages) and the villagers returning to their former rural settlement. The independent samples t-test was used to compare the outcomes of reconstruction for the samples. Data were collected using a questionnaire and in-depth interviews with the residents. The gathered data were analyzed by content analysis.

The results indicate that building new settlements – while reducing physical vulnerability – cannot be classified as a step toward sustainable development in economic and social aspects because the increasing trend of migration to urban areas, return to former villages, tribal disparities, reduced production, increased bank debts and increased urban insecurity are among the primary adverse social and economic consequences of rural relocations. This finding helps to assist planners and post-disaster designers to reconstruct more sustainable societies.

This study tries to investigate the effects of post-disaster reconstruction in rural settlement in Iran through sustainable development aspects for the first time. It would benefit for policymaking and urban planners and designers to make more resilient societies after disasters.

The purpose of this study is to benchmark the performance of state-owned coal-fired power plants (CFPPs) and test whether plant-specific knowledge in terms of quality of coal, size, age and make of plant contribute to an improvement in plant efficiency.

The methodology that is utilized in the study follows a nonparametric approach of data envelopment analysis (DEA) with sensitivity analysis and Tobit regression model. The input-oriented DEA models are applied to evaluate the overall, pure technical and scale efficiencies of the CFPPs. Further, slack analysis is conducted to identify modes to improve the efficiency of the inefficient plants. Sensitivity analysis based on peer count and the removal of variables is carried out to identify the benchmark power plant. Through Tobit and bootstrap-truncated regression model, the paper investigates whether a plant's specific knowledge influences its efficiency.

The DEA analysis demonstrates that nine plants are technically purely efficient.The slack analysis reveals that reducing the consumption of oil is the most effective way to improve the efficiency of inefficient plants. Mattur plant is the benchmark for most of the inefficient plants. Regression result suggests that quality of coal and size of plant significantly affect the inefficiency of the sample plants. Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited MAKE plant achieved higher efficiency in comparison to mixed MAKE.

This study is one of the few published studies that benchmark the performance of state-owned CFPPs. This research carried out taking some new uncontrollable parameters of power plant utilities of India. Research work also identifies the possible causes of inefficiency and provides measures to improve the efficiency of the inefficient power plant.

Established data revealed a relationship between obesity and increasing the risk of mortality and morbidity of chronic diseases. There are conflicting data regarding the association between adherence of dietary approach to stop hypertension (DASH) and obesity. Therefore, this study aims to investigate this relationship among a large sample of Iranian adults.

This cross-sectional study was performed by 10,693 individuals; 6750 individuals related to Yazd Health Study living in the urban area and 3943 individuals related to Shahedieh cohort study living in the suburb area. Dietary intake was evaluated by using a validated food frequency questionnaire. In all participants, anthropometric indices including body mass index were measured. The DASH score was considered using gender-specific quintiles of DASH items. To evaluate the relationship of DASH diet and obesity, multivariate logistic regression analysis was used.

By adjusting confounders, participants in highest quintiles of DASH diet were compared to the lowest have lower odds of obesity in suburb area (odds ratio [OR]: 0.78; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.63, 0.96), in urban (OR: 0.71; 95% CI: 0.52, 0.99) and in whole population of both studies (OR: 0.75; 95% CI: 0.63, 0.90). Besides, more compliance of women to this diet in urban (OR: 0.64; 95% CI: 0.48, 0.85) and population of both studies (OR: 0.77; 95% CI: 0.62, 0.96) were associated with reduced odds of central obesity.

Considering this study limitations, the following can be mentioned: in this cross-sectional study, the causal relationship between DASH diet and obesity could not be assessed. Consequently, further prospective studies are required in this area. Second, although a valid food frequency questionnaire was used, but there was a measurement error and an error in the classification of people participating in the study. Moreover, we cannot reject the possibility of residual confounding bias because unknown or unmeasured confounders may exist that affected our results. Finally, our participants with odds of obesity might have been advised to reduce their fat intake, which led them to alter their dietary habits. However, such possibility cannot be resolved in a cross-sectional study.

DASH dietary pattern could decrease odds of obesity in both urban and suburb area and central obesity in urban area only. Further prospective studies are needed for causal conclusion.