Search results

Exposure to poor indoor air in refurbished buildings is a matter of health concern due to the growing concentrations of various contaminants as a result of building airtightness without amendment of ventilation, or the use of building materials such as glue, paint, thinner and varnishes. Recent studies have been conducted to measure indoor air pollutants and assess the health risks affecting the quality of life, productivity and well-being of human beings. However, limited review studies have been recently conducted to provide an overview of the state of knowledge. This study aims to conduct a scoping review of indoor air quality (IAQ) in the context of refurbished or energy-retrofitted buildings.

A systematic screening process based on the PRISMA protocol was followed to extract relevant articles. Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar and PubMed were searched using customised search formulas. Among 276 potentially relevant records, 38 studies were included in the final review covering a period from 2015 to 2022.

Researchers mapped out the measured compounds in the selected studies and found that carbon dioxide (CO₂) (11%) and total volatile organic compounds (11%) were among the most commonly measured contaminants. Two trends of research were found including (1) the impact of ventilative properties on IAQ and (2) the impact of introducing building materials on IAQ.

The contribution of this study lies in summarising evidence on IAQ measurements in refurbished buildings, discussing recent advancements, revealing significant gaps and limitations, identifying the trends of research and drawing conclusions regarding future research directions on the topic.

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between knowledge-oriented leadership (KOL) and business performance (BP) in a knowledge-intensive industry and further investigate, heretofore neglected, a mediating effect of intellectual capital and sustainable competitive advantage in the relationship between KOL and BP.

A quantitative approach was adopted to conduct the present study. Data were collected from the full-service branches of private banks in Tehran, Iran. A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to ascertain the validity and reliability of the observed items, and a structural equation model was employed for testing the proposed hypotheses.

The findings revealed that both intellectual capital and sustainable competitive advantage fully mediate the influence of KOL on branch performance.

The study was conducted in the banking sector in Iran. Therefore, our conclusions may not be applicable to other countries. Future studies should be carried out with samples from other contexts. Moreover, as the study was cross-sectional, the causal relationships could not be inferred directly.

In this study, we found that knowledge-oriented leaders should increase their investment in intellectual capital to gain competitive advantage and improve branch performance.

This study contributes to advanced research on KOL by trying to explain how intellectual capital and sustainable competitive advantage can influence the relationship between KOL and BP in a knowledge-intensive service industry.

This study aims to evaluate the amount of entropy generation around the NACA 0012 airfoil. This study takes place in four angles of attack of 0°, 5°, 10° and 16° and turbulent regime. Also, the variation in the amount of generated entropy by the changes in temperature and Mach number is investigated.

The governing equations are solved using computational fluid dynamics techniques. The continuity, momentum and energy equations and the equations of the SST k-ω turbulence model are solved. The entropy generation at different angles of attack is calculated and compared. The effect of various parameters in the generation of entropy is presented.

Results show that the major part of the entropy generation is at the tip of the airfoil. Also, increasing the angle of attack will increase the entropy generation. Also, results show that with increasing the temperature of air colliding with the airfoil, the production of entropy decreases.

Entropy generation is investigated in the NACA 0012 airfoil at various angles of attack and turbulent flow using the SST turbulence model. Also, the effects of temperature and Mach number on the entropy generation are investigated.

The purpose of this study is to explore the association between intake of different types of dietary fats with breast cancer (BC) risk in Iranian women.

A total of 540 women (180 women with BC and 360 healthy women) were recruited from Shohadaye Tajrish hospital, Tehran, Iran. Data on anthropometric measurements, physical activity, smoking and alcohol consumption were collected. The food frequency questionnaire was used to assess the intake of fatty acids including saturated fatty acids, mono unsaturated fatty acids, poly unsaturated fatty acids, macronutrients, total fat, cholesterol, and calorie.

The cases had significantly higher BMI (29.19 ± 3.2 vs 27.27 kg/m2 ± 2.8) and higher intake of calorie (2737 ± 925 vs 2315 ± 1066 kcal/d, P = 0.01), carbohydrate (402 ± 125 vs 312 ± 170 kcal/d, P = 0.01) and ω−6 fatty acids (5.45 ± 6.9 vs 3.39 ± 0.59 g/d, P = 0.001) compared to the control group . Higher consumption of ω−6 fatty acids was related with higher risk of BC (OR = 5.429, CI95%:2.5–11.79, P = 0.001) The association between BC and intake of omega-6 fatty acids remained significant after adjustments for age, BMI, for using alcohol drinks, smoking, physical activity, calorie intake, protein intake and carbohydrate intake.

There are insufficient studies to investigate the association of different types of fatty acids with BC. This study found that higher omega-6 fatty acids intake was associated with increased risk of BC in women.

The aim of this study is to develop a spiritual intelligence scale from an Islamic perspective. In addition, this research explores the relationship of spiritual intelligence from an Islamic perspective with emotional intelligence among the students of higher learning institutions in Malaysia.

Data were collected from 250 students from different higher learning institutions in Malaysia.

The findings of the study show the relationships of spiritual intelligence from an Islamic perspective and emotional intelligence. Statistically significant relationships were found between four dimensions of spiritual intelligence from an Islamic perspective (e.g. transcendental awareness, meaning of life, patience and forgiveness) and emotional intelligence.

The contribution of human intelligence in the development higher learning institution is remarkable. Most research found on spiritual intelligence is from traditional and Western perspective with very limited studies found from an Islamic perspective. The purpose of the current study is to construct a spiritual intelligence from an Islamic perspective and empirically validate the items. The study also looks for relationships of spiritual intelligence from an Islamic perspective and emotional intelligence among the students of higher learning institutions.