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A finite element formulation for flexure of isotropic plates based on a recent refined theory is developed. The refined theory incorporates effects of transverse shear, transverse normal stress and transverse normal strain. The Galerkin finite element method was used to develop the finite element equations for both plate bending and inplane problems. The performance of the proposed finite element model was evaluated by solving problems of uniformly loaded thick plates with different support conditions. The results of the present formulation are compared with Mindlin/Reissner and elasticity solutions.

A new finite element model has been developed for the analysis of thick beams that incorporates the influence of transverse normal strain in addition to the effect of transverse shear strain. It has been shown that the inclusion of the normal strain effect into Timoshenko beam formulation, in the new model, results in the modification of the element force vector only, where a new term is added, while keeping the flexural and shear contributions to the element stiffness matrix unchanged. Comparisons between closed form solutions, Timoshenko beam results and the results of the new model for isotropic beams of depth to span ratio of up to 0.5, show that the new development reduces the errors with respect to exact solutions to almost a half at a very little extra expense.

Continuous fiber thermoplastics are recyclable and have excellent specific strength and stiffness, making them desirable materials for use in structural components. Recent advancements in continuous fiber additive manufacturing processes allow designers to make notches or perforations during printing, eliminating the need for labor-intensive and long drilling processes, which cause delaminations and premature failure. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the potential of continuous fiber 3D printing in creating notches for structural composites.

This study evaluates the notching process in nylon-based continuous-glass fiber thermoplastic composites through mechanical drilling and three-dimensional (3D) printing. Three different sample configurations were tested for tensile and fracture characteristics: Un-notched; with notches drilled mechanically; and with notches printed using a 3D printer, with the fibers routed around the notch. Further, finite element models were used to understand the stress concentration around the notches.

The tensile strength of notched samples was lower than that of unnotched samples in both 3D-printed and mechanically drilled cases. The presence of substantial delamination in mechanically drilled samples led to a 15% decrease in strength compared to 3D-printed samples. The increase in notch size resulted in a decrease in strength, as anticipated.

The techniques developed in this study may be easily applied to comparable situations involving several types of continuous fiber thermoplastic composites.

Both experimental and computational modeling results indicate that delamination because of the drilling process is the prime factor responsible for the significant decrease in residual strength. Furthermore, it also showed that the steering of the fiber around the notch had a minimal impact, and augmenting the stiffness in proximity to the notch can alleviate stress concentration.

The aim of this study was to examine whether, when a person reads, there is a boost to all material related to the context in Najdi Arabic (NA) as was found in English in was found in Rodd et al. (2013). The study employs Arabic language features of orthographic style and diglossia to answer the research question.

Forty-two participants were asked to come on two sessions to complete a reading task, a filler task and a word recognition task. The word recognition task included 14 homographs that could mean one thing in Modern Standard Arabic and another in NA.

The findings show that the assumption that all related materials are ready to be used when readers are exposed to the context is not valid for the two Arabic variants.

One limitation of this study was that the participants were all female.

The findings could help writers write better texts to help individuals who struggle with reading comprehension whether it is because of dyslexia, Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) as when researchers understand how priming works, they might be able to help readers in their reading fluency and comprehension (Rodd et al., 2016). This could be by producing better texts to comprehend or using semantic priming in classroom setups.

Financial inclusion is an issue of importance and increasing concern worldwide, particularly to policymakers across Africa and the rest of the developing world. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the level of usage of formal financial services among Ghanaian agricultural households as well as factors influencing these levels.

Financial inclusion indicators associated with the usage of formal financial services are selected from the 2017 Ghana Living Standard Survey. Using these indicators, an index measuring the level of usage of formal financial services is developed. A multinomial logistic regression model is implemented to analyze the possible effect that farm and household characteristics have on index measures.

Usage of formal financial services is very low among agricultural households, with many households using no financial products or services. Household expenditure, education, religion, geographic location, and the use of informal financial services were found to be consistent factors impacting household financial inclusion levels.

Findings may assist policymakers in designing policy schemes aimed at improving access to and usage of financial services for Ghanaian agricultural households. This may lead to a more inclusive financial system with the potential to improve the livelihood of agricultural households and contribute to Ghana's overall economic development.

A household-level index measuring usage of formal financial services was developed and characteristics influencing said index measures were examined, providing a more holistic view and understanding of factors influencing usage decisions.

This paper aims to investigate the potential challenges that hinder the effective transfer and sharing of tacit knowledge (knowledge communication [KC]) within a construction supply chain (CSC).

This study identifies six challenges (through literature review) with 15 positive correlations between them. Quantitative methodology is used to validate those challenges and correlations between challenges. First, data are collected through semi-structured e-survey questionnaire. Afterwards, a Frequency and Kruskal–Wallis H test is run for initial validation of identified challenges. A correlation analysis is used to highlight the taxonomic relations between those challenges. Finally, the study establishes the rank order of the first and following challenges.

This study highlights that traditional ways of working with construction organisations are the predominant challenge that hinders effective transferring and sharing of tacit knowledge. The cause of challenges is the fragmented nature of CSC. Also, it brings out the correlation between those challenges. The study draws the conclusion and recommendation to implement KC within a CSC.

The study highlights the challenges that hinder KC in a construction process of a CSC. It establishes that the fragmented nature of the construction sector is not the first challenge that hinders implementation of transferring and sharing of tacit knowledge but somewhat traditional organisation structures and working processes. This is the first paper that investigates and tests the challenges in four dimensions and establishes the rank order of challenges with crucial distinction in a KC approach within a CSC.

Even though it is widely used, reinforced concrete (RC) is susceptible to damage from various environmental factors. The hazard of a fire attack is particularly severe because it may cause the whole structure to collapse. Furthermore, repairing and strengthening existing structures with high-performance concrete (HPC) has become essential from both technical and financial points of view. In particular, studying the postfire behavior of HPC with normal strength concrete substrate requires experimental and numerical investigations. Accordingly, this study aims to numerically investigate the post-fire behavior of reinforced composite RC slabs.

Consequently, in this study, a numerical analysis was carried out to ascertain the flexural behavior of simply supported RC slabs strengthened with HPC and exposed to a particularly high temperature of 600°C for 2 h. This behavior was investigated and analyzed in the presence of a number of parameters, such as HPC types (fiber-reinforced, 0.5% steel, polypropylene fibers [PPF], hybrid fibers), strengthening side (tension or compression), strengthening layer thickness, slab thickness, boundary conditions, reinforcement ratio and yield strength of reinforcement.

The results showed that traction-separation and full-bond models can achieve accuracy compared with experimental results. Also, the fiber type significantly affects the postfire performance of RC slab strengthened with HPC, where the inclusion of hybrid fiber recorded the highest ultimate load. While adding PPF to HPC showed a rapid decrease in the load-deflection curve after reaching the ultimate load.

The proposed model accurately predicted the thermomechanical behavior of RC slabs strengthened with HPC after being exposed to the fire regarding load-deflection response, crack pattern and failure mode. Moreover, the considered independent parametric variables significantly affect the composite slabs’ behavior.

The purpose of the paper is to investigate the critical success factors (CSFs) associated with the effectiveness of transfer and sharing of tacit knowledge in lean and agile construction processes.

The study identifies ten CSFs that initiate the transferring and sharing of tacit knowledge. The CSFs are validated through quantitative study. This study recruited project managers, executives, consultants and other managers that are directly involved in the management of a construction project. It recruits the respondents those have background and experience from disciplines such as lean construction, agile construction, construction supply chain (CSC) and knowledge management in lean, agile and CSC. The data collected through self-administrative questionnaire are categorised as ordinal data to analyse in SPSS with frequency and Kruskal–Wallis H test, Spearman’s correlation analysis and a rank-order analysis is done to establish the level of importance of those factors.

Initially, “Trust between construction organisations” is identified as the foremost CSF. Moreover, other CSFs such as motivation, leadership capabilities, business strategies and organisational capabilities follow trust.

This is the first study that investigates and establishes the CSFs that are essential to initiate transferring and sharing tacit knowledge in a lean and in an agile construction processes.