• Journal of Construction Engineering and Project Management
• /
• v.3 no.4
• /
• pp.35-40
• /
• 2013

Currently, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is the epicentre of building services engineering encapsulating the construction industry. On rise of technological advancements, engineers have the ease to thoroughly investigate engineering aspects. Not only engineers, but other stakeholders, tender related people, financial analysts work in parallel as well. However, there are some factors that are stumbling blocks in the way of progression including delaying factors in the construction industry. The paper provides deep insights of delaying factors regarding public building projects of the KSA. Collection of primary data was carried out by conducting a survey which comprised of 63 chief delay factors. Professionals related to construction industry were asked for ranking the factors in terms of their frequency of occurrence and degree of impact. Seven groups of risk factors are categorized and a correlation analysis is performed by identifying the correlation amongst the variables. Finally, 31 leading delay factors are extracted and reported.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.17 no.sup3
• /
• pp.167-174
• /
• 2016

One of the major causes of morbidity and mortality in breast cancer patients is delay in seeking help. Leventhal's self-regulation model provides an appropriate framework to assess delay in seeking help. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between "illness perception" and "help seeking delay" in breast cancer patients based on Leventhal's self-regulation model. In this correlational descriptive study with convenience sampling conducted in 2013, participants were 120 women with breast cancer who were diagnosed in the last year and referred to chemotherapy and radiotherapy centers in Rasht, Iran. Data collection scales included demographic data, Revised Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ-R)and a researcher made questionnaire to measure the delay in seeking help. Pre-hospital delay (help seeking delay) was evaluated in 3 phases (assessment, disease, behavior). The data were analyzed using SPSS-19. The mean (SD) age calculated for the patients was $47.3{\pm}10.2$. Some 43% of the patients had a high school or higher education level and 82% were married. The "pre-hospital delay" was reported ${\geq}3months$. Logistic regression analysis showed that none of the illness perception components were correlated with appraisal and behavioral delay phases. In the illness delay phase, "time line" (p-value =0.04) and "risk factors"(p-value=0.03) had significant effects on reducing and "psychological attributions" had significant effects on increasing the delay (p-value =0.01). "Illness coherence" was correlated with decreased pre-hospital patient delay (p-value<0.01). Women's perceptions of breast cancer influences delay in seeking help. In addition to verifying the validity of Leventhal's self-regulation model in explaining delay in seeking help, the results signify the importance of the "illness delay phase" (decision to seek help) and educational interventions-counseling for women in the community.

• Childhood Kidney Diseases
• /
• v.25 no.1
• /
• pp.1-7
• /
• 2021

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) in children is associated with various complications, including poor growth and development, mineral bone disorder, cardiovascular disease, kidney failure, and mortality. Slowing down the progression of CKD is important since CKD is often not curable. Prospective cohort studies have been conducted to understand the progression and outcomes of CKD in children, and these studies have identified non-modifiable and modifiable risk factors. Recognition of known risk factors and early intervention are important to delay the progression of kidney function decline in children.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
• /
• v.36 no.4
• /
• pp.360-365
• /
• 2009

Over the last five years, we have conducted research on risk assessment of domestically developed genetically modified (GM) crops and found a number of factors which could delay risk assessment process. In this review, we described such cases and discussed the problem of transgene cassette integration, the lack of information on vectors, the poor quality control in seed production and absence of bioinformatic analysis on amino acid sequence homology before GM crop development. To solve these problems, we have suggested the introduction of the screening system of elite event before risk assessment process and quality control strategies for GM seed production. In addition, we suggested that the developers of GM crops should understand the importance of risk assessment and management for the commercialization of those crops and consider the biological and ecological characteristics of host plants. Consistent communications may need to be established between GM crop developers, risk assessors and risk managers at the initial stages of GM crop development to reduce trial-and-errors.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
• /
• v.7 no.8
• /
• pp.61-67
• /
• 2020

This paper examines whether the combination of risk management and audit committee functions are associated with audit report lag. Audit report lag is considered an important aspect of the financial reporting. The financial reports are the main source of information for shareholders through which they make their decisions and it assists in reducing the information asymmetry. As the internal control mechanisms substitute the external ones, the internal board committees formed by the board of directors can reduce the audit work and, consequently, reduces the audit report lag. A key committee is the risk management committee. This paper examines whether the combination of risk management and audit committee functions are associated with audit report lag. We posit that a combination of such functions in one committee refereed as audit committee affects the audit report delay. Data were obtained from 198 manufacturing companies listed on the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) for the years 2016-2018. A pooled OLS regression analysis shows that a combination of risk management and audit committee functions in a stand-alone committee named "audit committee" is associated with longer audit report lag. The outcomes suggest companies should prioritize the establishment of standalone risk management committee with activities separated from those of audit committees.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
• /
• v.42 no.2
• /
• pp.9-17
• /
• 2019

In order to deal with high uncertainty and variability in emergency medical centers, many researchers have developed various models for their operational planning and scheduling. However, most of the models just provide static plans without any risk measures as their results, and thus the users often lose the opportunity to analyze how much risk the patients have, whether the plan is still implementable or how the plan should be changed when an unexpected event happens. In this study, we construct a simulation model combined with a risk-based planning and scheduling module designed by Simio LLC. In addition to static schedules, it provides possibility of treatment delay for each patient as a risk measure, and updates the schedule to avoid the risk when it is needed. By using the simulation model, the users can experiment various scenarios in operations quickly, and also can make a decision not based on their past experience or intuition but based on scientific estimation of risks even in urgent situations. An example of such an operational decision making process is demonstrated for a real mid-size emergency medical center located in Seoul, Republic of Korea. The model is designed for temporal short-term planning especially, but it can be expanded for long-term planning also with some appropriate adjustments.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
• /
• v.43 no.1
• /
• pp.30-38
• /
• 2013

Purpose: The study was done to explore variations in physiologic parameters of the stratum corneum (SC) of the dorsal hand and cord area during early days of life in high-risk newborns. Methods: In this longitudinal study, a total of 77 high-risk newborns were assessed for pH, temperature and hydration of the SC of the dorsal hand and the cord area on the $1^{st}$, $2^{nd}$, $3^{rd}$, $5^{th}$ and $7^{th}$ days of life. Results: Results showed that an acid mantle (AM) was formed in 57.1% for dorsal hand and 35.1% for cord area, implying significant delay regardless of decrease in pH (F=103.60, p<.001), and hydration (F=4.00, p=.003) across days in both areas. Peripheral hypothermia with low hydration level was also observed in both areas. There was a positive relation between hydration and temperature (.14

• Journal of Communications and Networks
• /
• v.16 no.5
• /
• pp.548-558
• /
• 2014

Load distribution is vital to the performance of multipath transport. The task becomes more challenging in real-time multimedia applications (RTMA), which impose stringent delay requirements. Two key issues to be addressed are: 1) How to minimize end-to-end delay and 2) how to alleviate packet reordering that incurs additional recovery time at the receiver. In this paper, we propose sub-packet based multipath load distribution (SPMLD), a new model that splits traffic at the granularity of sub-packet. Our SPMLD model aims to minimize total packet delay by effectively aggregating multiple parallel paths as a single virtual path. First, we formulate the packet splitting over multiple paths as a constrained optimization problem and derive its solution based on progressive approximation method. Second, in the solution, we analyze queuing delay by introducing D/M/1 model and obtain the expression of dynamic packet splitting ratio for each path. Third, in order to describe SPMLD's scheduling policy, we propose two distributed algorithms respectively implemented in the source and destination nodes. We evaluate the performance of SPMLD through extensive simulations in QualNet using real-time H.264 video streaming. Experimental results demonstrate that: SPMLD outperforms previous flow and packet based load distribution models in terms of video peak signal-to-noise ratio, total packet delay, end-to-end delay, and risk of packet reordering. Besides, SPMLD's extra overhead is tiny compared to the input video streaming.

• Industrial Engineering and Management Systems
• /
• v.15 no.4
• /
• pp.335-344
• /
• 2016

Construction project is a competitive business with high risk especially in developing countries like Iran which faces with many problems such as delay and time and costs increases. Thus, the first priority here is to determine the causes of prolongation of construction projects and to evaluate their importance. Khuzestan Steel Company (KSC) has made important contribution to the projects in Iran and in turn is required to finish them on time. In this study, an attempt was made to investigate the causes of delay in implementation of construction projects held by this company. Data was collected through questionnaire distributed among the sample including 10 owners, 10 consultants and 15 con-tractors. Accordingly, participants rated the causes in the questionnaire so the most important priorities of each area were specified using TOPSIS method. The results showed that according to the employers, consultants and contractors' viewpoints, the most important reason for delays in construction projects of KSC is related to the financial matters. Hence, according to the results obtained, causes for delays in the company's projects are largely related to the drilling permits and long administrative cycle to renew them. Besides, continuous production of steel in this company is another reason to delays of construction projects.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
• /
• 2020.12a
• /
• pp.50-59
• /
• 2020

The 21st century is witnessing a rapid growth of tall buildings in urban centers globally to create more urban space for an anticipated urban population. Tall buildings, however suffer from incessant delays and sometimes total abandonment. Consequently, this study investigated and ranked the causes of delay in tall building projects, while focusing on the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Initially, 36 common delay causes investigated globally were categorized into 9 groups, and then further ranked utilizing the Relative Importance Index (RII) through a questionnaire survey. Tall building professionals in the GCC countries (Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar) were contacted. The respondents' categories include Consultants, Contractors, and Clients' Representatives/Facility Managers. The results reveal that the top three causes include "client's cash flow problems/delays in contractor's payment", "contractor's financial difficulties", and "poor site organization and coordination between various parties". The findings from this study could help construction professionals develop guidelines and controls for delay mitigation, as well as support them in risk-based decision making in the planning of tall building projects.