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The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic has tested the resilience of the construction industry, putting the safety of workers and overall businesses at risk. This study aims to explore the different strategies adopted by construction companies to protect the health and well-being of employees, security of the construction sites and projects, and keep the overall business operational amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

A preliminary study that involves field study and survey research was used to collect data for the study. The results from the preliminary analysis served as inputs for constructing the questionnaire, which was analyzed using descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis and reliability analysis.

The results reveal that the key underlying measures put in place by construction businesses include restricted site access, support bubbling of office and site staff, enhanced hygiene and social distancing protocol, contract risk identification and mitigation, self-isolation measures and heightened construction site safety. Along with a further discussion of the underlying measures, the top-rated strategies that were adopted by construction firms are also discussed in the paper.

As many construction companies remained opened handling essential projects amid the pandemic, the study presents the effective and efficient strategies that were used in plowing through the trying times. This study provides the opportunity for construction companies that escaped the early impacts of Covid-19 due to site closure and policymakers to learn from the strategies adopted by construction companies that were operational amid the pandemic.

The construction industry in emerging economies have suffered from productivity issues related to poor resource management as a result of theft. Therefore, this study aims to carry out an exploratory factor analysis of the key causes of theft in the construction industry in Nigeria.

The methodology entailed a review of the literature which identified 58 causes of construction theft. The causes were operationalized through a Likert-scale questionnaire survey, which was revised in a pilot study with ten industry experts. The questionnaire was further distributed to experienced construction professionals in Nigeria. A total of 63 respondents participated in the study, and the results were analyzed through an exploratory factor analysis.

A Kruskal–Wallis test showed no difference in perception of the various group of respondents, while Cronbach alpha test indicated an acceptable level of internal consistency and reliability. The top causes from the literature review were determined through descriptive statistics. However, a Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin measurement resulted in the exclusion of ten causes, and exploratory factor analysis yielded twenty causes in six dominant factors that together account for 55.7% of the variance. The six dominant factors were general theft prevention measures, site security measures, site layout planning, management of materials and equipment, construction project management and policy and safety management.

The limited amount of research on construction site theft in emerging construction environments such as Nigeria contributes to poor construction productivity. This study advances our knowledge of construction site theft and is of significant value to construction stakeholders in effective material and resource management through theft mitigation measures.

This study was conducted to identify and explore the leadership styles and the leadership outcomes of the middle management nurses in a large tertiary hospital in Ibadan, the capital of Oyo state of Nigeria. This study aims to explore and describe the perception of staff nurses (SNs) about their nurse managers’ (NMs) leadership styles, to investigate the leadership outcomes of NMs as perceived by their SNs and to investigate what are the best predictors of the leadership outcomes among the perceived leadership styles.

Thirty-six variables of the MLQ-5X were compressed into the nine psychological constructs, as proposed by Avolio and Bass (2004). Four items of each of the nine sub-scales were combined together, to form the independent variables. The nine items of the leadership outcomes were compressed into three composite variables as: the Leader’s perceived influence as being effective in leading the group variable, it has four items; the Leader’s perceived influence as being satisfactory to the group being led variable, it has two items; and lastly, the Leader’s perceived influence to encourage the staff.

When all the three leadership sub-scales were combined as one total leadership outcome, the regression analysis showed that four leadership constructs were the predictors of the leadership outcome, that is, idealized attribute (ß = 0.173, p = 0.011), intellectual stimulation (ß = 0.171, p = 0.016), individualized consideration (ß = 0.240, p = 0.001) and contingent reward (ß = 0.194, p = 0.006). The coefficients and the p-values of the remaining five leadership constructs are as shown in Table 1.

This study has many limitations. One, the respondents were not randomly sampled, so the results cannot be generalized outside of UCH, Nigeria. It is also a one-time survey.

Managers who regularly practice transformational leadership (TFL) would be able to encourage their SNs to put in their best for the greater good of the organization. In this study, three sub-scales of the TFL, that is, idealized attribute, intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration were found to be strong predictors of leadership outcomes. Leaders who are able to treat their staff with care and concern for the individual, able to mentor, advise, coach and develop their staff are likely to also see improved staff satisfaction and extra effort in staff performance. This is especially necessary in sub-Saharan African countries, including Nigeria.

It is therefore strongly recommended that middle management nurses in UCH should continue to strive and improve on their TFL skills as well as their contingent reward styles of leadership. Vesterinen et al. (2012) said that NMs who can observe their own behaviour and its effects on employees can adjust to a better leadership style. In particular, individualized consideration skills such as coaching, mentoring, advising, developing and showing concern for the individual needs of their staff would encourage SNs to put in extra effort and be more satisfied with their leaders.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is his original research work and it has never been published elsewhere. The whole work was however submitted for a PhD thesis to the University of Salford.

Refugee and immigrant youth (RIY) experience multifaceted challenges, but also have the potential to become resilient. Most of the existing literature focuses on the challenges these RIY face with limited attention to their agency and resilience. This study aims to assess the factors that predict RIY’s resilience among refugee and immigrant youth in Montreal, Canada.

A sample of 93 RIY in Montreal was surveyed. A questionnaire consisting of validated scales was used for data collection.

The study found a positive correlation between educational level, personal resilience and relational resilience (p < 0.001). However, ethnicity did not have a significant correlation with the participant’s general level of resilience (p > 0.001). Cultural, religious, family, community ties, age and time lived in Montréal were found to be predictors of general resilience, relational resilience and personal resilience of the RIY (p < 0.001).

The study concluded that factors such as cultural, religious and community ties are major predictors of the resilience of RIY in Montreal. Hence, the need for mental health practitioners and resettlement organizations that work with RIY to focus on reconceptualizing resilience to incorporate the cultural, religious and community ties of RIY. This will help in developing services and programs that are culturally sensitive and effective in fostering the resilience of RIY.

The challenges facing the productivity of Nigeria's refineries have generated much academic discourse. This study was carried out to develop a causal loop model showing the interrelationships of the multiple factors driving the poor performance of the refineries. Using a framework of political, economic, social and technical (PEST) factors, the developed model helped identify leverage points for policy intervention in the system.

A mixed-method approach was adopted to collect quantitative data from 118 refinery workers and qualitative data from 14 participants polled from the various Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) subsidiaries. The quantitative data were analysed through structural equation modelling (SEM) to prioritise the more significant factors, while the qualitative data were analysed by content analysis to further validate the questionnaire findings and provide clearer contexts for the operationalisation of the factors.

The structural equation model identified several PEST factors such as government interference, political indecision, funding issues, spare parts costs, pipeline vandalism, oil theft, maintenance issues as some of the significant factors affecting the performance of the refineries. The interviews validated these findings and provided richer contexts on how these factors operate within system. A causal loop model was developed based on these findings to identify key leverage points upon which policy intervention through best practice, management autonomy and stakeholder satisfaction was proposed to address these challenges.

The study uncovers that the factors which affect the performance of the refineries have significant multiple interrelationships, the understanding of which is crucial for developing effective solutions by policymakers.

The findings of this study lay important foundations for a deeper understanding of how PEST factors interact to drive suboptimal performance across NNPC refineries.

The causal loop model developed in this study provides a new approach to viewing and analysing the associated factors affecting the performance of Nigeria's refineries from a non-linear perspective.

This study examines the barriers impeding the implementation of circular economy (CE) practices in the Nigerian architecture, engineering, construction and operation (AECO) industry across diverse regions of Nigeria.

The study adopts a quantitative approach using a five-Likert scale questionnaire (Google Forms), utilizing various analytical tools, encompassing descriptive and inferential statistics. This methodological approach allows for a multifaceted exploration of the intricacies surrounding the barriers to circular CE.

The study identifies and examines 24 CE barriers which are determined to be significant to the implementation of CE. These barriers were categorized into four categories: “Economic”, “Market and Information”, “Policy and Operational” and “ product development”.

The adopted sampling technique may restrict the generalizability of the findings within and beyond the selected regions. Furthermore, while the analytical methods offer a comprehensive analysis, they may not capture the nuanced intricacies that qualitative methodology could provide. However, the findings can be applied to other developing countries with characteristics similar to those of the Nigerian construction industry.

The study’s findings are significant for stakeholders such as policymakers, industry and academia. By elucidating CE-specific barriers, the research facilitates the formulation of targeted and tailored strategies, fostering the integration of CE principles in the Nigerian construction industry.

This study presents novel insights into the barriers hindering the implementation of CE in the Nigerian construction industry. Offering tailored strategies and categorizing barriers into clusters adds a unique perspective to CE literature, particularly in developing countries.

The purpose of the study is to develop a geometry-based energy estimation method for surrogate and metamodels to be used in the early design phase of buildings.

Optimizing building form and design variables in the early stages of the architectural design process, particularly during the conceptual phase, can significantly enhance overall design performance and energy efficiency at minimal cost. This study introduces a novel decomposition method for evaluating building energy performance by simplifying complex building forms into basic geometric shapes.

The developed method is applied to certain cases of design variation under specified boundary conditions, and the accuracy of heating and cooling energy loads is calculated with simulated energy models of these cases. As a result of the calculation, accuracy rates between 84.30 and 99.98% were founded.

This paper proposes a prediction model with a geometric identification method for an innovative geometry-based surrogate modeling method. This method also provides a way for artificial intelligence-based prediction models used in surrogate models to create a dataset and can be used in the training in future works.

The purpose of this study is to estimate the profitability of rice production for irrigated and rain-fed farmers; determine the factors that influence farmers' decision to participate in irrigation and the impact of irrigation on rice farmers' profitability in northern Ghana.

Using cross-sectional data collected from 543 rice farmers in northern Ghana, the study employed both non-parametric (cost benefit analysis) and parametric (endogenous switching regression) approaches to analyse the data.

The empirical results reveal a significant difference between the profits of irrigated (GHS 2442.30) and rain-fed farmers (GHS 576.20), as well as the cost-benefit ratios between irrigators (2.53) and rain-fed farmers (1.37). Also, participation in irrigation was found to be influenced by relatively small farm size and off-farm income; while profitability was influenced by membership in a farmer-based organization, access to agricultural extension services and perception of decreasing rainfall intensity. Irrigation also had a positive significant net impact on profitability of rice production.

The results provide justification for development partners and the government of Ghana through the “one-village-one-dam” policy, to invest in irrigation in northern Ghana in order to improve household welfare as well as build resilience for sustainable production systems.

This study is the first of its kind to provide a robust analysis of the difference in profits of rain-fed and irrigated rice farmers while estimating the determinants of Ghanaian farmers' choice of either of the regimes within a bias-corrected framework.

This study aims to investigate the relationship between patient satisfaction (PS) and the parameters in healthcare and supply chain management (HLSCM).

The structural equation modeling (SEM) and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) method have been employed to identify correlation and possible configuration of causal factors that influence PS, including lack of resilience (LS), lack of visibility (LV), cost management (CM) and integration and interoperability (II).

The results from SEM confirmed that PS is highly correlated with lack of visibility, CM and II as critical parameters. Moreover, fsQCA findings state that the configuration of high levels of both resilience and lack of visibility, as well as high levels of II, are crucial for PS.

The researchers also identified the configuration of factors that lead to low PS. The study’s results could assist healthcare providers in improving their supply chain operations, resulting in more effective and efficient healthcare service delivery and ultimately improving PS.

The fsQCA method used in the study provides a more nuanced understanding of the complex interplay between these factors. The inclusion of supply chain management characteristics as parameters in the evaluation of PS is a novel aspect of this research. Previous studies largely focused on more traditional factors such as physical care, waiting times and hospital amenities. By considering supply chain management factors, this study provides insights into an under-explored area of PS research, which has important implications for healthcare providers looking to improve their operations and PS.