Controlling cost in construction projects is an essential issue. This study investigates the most critical problems that cause weakness in cost control in Iraqi construction projects. The quantitative technique was used by conducting a survey directed to professionals who work on construction projects. One hundred and sixty-four questionnaire forms were distributed to private sector companies, government companies, and government institutions, and the responses were subjected to the required statistical analysis. The results indicate that the most influential factors are the weakness in keeping up with the use of modern concepts, methods, and technologies, the delay in receiving the amounts due for work done from the owner, fluctuations in market prices, the lack of knowledge and the inefficient use of currently available tools and technology, and the security situation in the country. The results indicate that the Iraqi construction projects suffer from weakness in cost control, which causes them to stop or delay their delivery, and this needs serious and quick solutions. One of the most important solutions is the adoption of modern technologies and their inclusion in the construction sector and the development of special systems for managing costs that are appropriate to the Iraqi construction environment.
Foreign direct investment has seen increasing interest worldwide, especially in developing economies. However, statistics have shown that Yemen received fluctuating FDI inflows during the period under study. Against this background, this research seeks to determine the relationship and impact of interest rates on FDI flows. The study also found other determinants that greatly affected FDI inflows in Yemen for the period 1990-2018. Study data collected from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund databases. It also ensured that the time series were made balanced and interconnected, and then the Auto Regressive Distributed Lag method used in the analysis. The results showed that the interest rates and
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Globally, Sustainability is very quickly becoming a fundamental requirement of the construction industry as it delivers its projects; whether buildings or infrastructures. Throughout more than two decades, many modeling schemes, evaluation tools, and rating systems have been introduced en route to realizing sustainable construction. Many of these, however, lack consensus on evaluation criteria, a robust scientific model that captures the logic behind their sustainability performance evaluation, and therefore experience discrepancies between rated results and actual performance. Moreover, very few of the evaluation tools available satisfactorily address infrastructure projects. The res
A high percentage of existing buildings in Iraq are traditional buildings, yet there is approximately no such green building in Baghdad or other governorates. Most of these buildings require urgent upgrading to increase their performance (operationally, economically, and environmentally), also the building owners looking for identifying and implementing many of the green building measures to reduce the operational and maintenance costs of their buildings. The decision-makers need to support the possibility of achieving sustainable measures of existing building rating systems such as LEED or BREEAM, and that would require an optimization model. The goal of this study is to maximize the
This study examined the imperative construction: the command, the interrogative, the prohibition, the call, and the wish. In the Diwan of Al-Shamakh bin Dirar; where the poetic verses were monitored in each of the topics of the student's creation, and the rhetorical meanings that he came out with. What is new in this study is that it is the first to study the demanded composition in the poetry of a glorious poet, Al-Shammakh bin Dirar Al-Dhubyani. As his poetry did not receive such a study, it sought to employ what was written by rhetoric scholars, in an attempt to explore the demanded composition in the poetry of Al-Shamakh. The study adopted the descriptive analytical approach, which is based on counting the number of times the poet us
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Uncertainty, the deeply-rooted fact that surrounding the investment environment, especially the stock market which just prices have taken a specific trend until they moved to another one for its up or down. This means that the volatility characteristic of financial market requires the rational investor an argument led towards the adoption of planned acts to gain greater benefit in the goal of wealth maximizing. There is no possibility to achieve this goal without the burden of uncertainty and the risk of systematic fluctuations of investment returns in the financial market after the facts of efficient diversification have pro
... Show MoreIn this study, the physical, and mechanical properties of low-cost and biocomposites were evaluated. The walnut shell and date palm frond fibers were thermally treated in an oven at a temperature of 70°C and then chemically treated with NaOH and distilled water solution, after these treatments, the biocomposite materials will be thermally treated again at 50°C. This procedure was performed for three types of biocomposite; Walnut shell Fiber Reinforced Polymer (WFRP), Date palm Fiber Reinforced Polymer (DFRP), and Hybrid Fiber Reinforced Polymer (HFRP), whereas the biocomposite sheets consisting of 30% biofibers and 70% unsaturated polyester, the mechanical test specimens were cut by a CNC machine according to ASTM standards. The e
... Show MoreThe first successful implementation of Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) was published a little over a decade ago. It is time to review the progress that has been made in this research area. This paper provides taxonomy for classifying Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) implementation of ANNs. Different implementation techniques and design issues are discussed, such as obtaining a suitable activation function and numerical truncation technique trade-off, the improvement of the learning algorithm to reduce the cost of neuron and in result the total cost and the total speed of the complete ANN. Finally, the implementation of a complete very fast circuit for the pattern of English Digit Numbers NN has four layers of 70 nodes (neurons) o
... Show MoreThe first successful implementation of Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) was published a little over a decade ago. It is time to review the progress that has been made in this research area. This paper provides taxonomy for classifying Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) implementation of ANNs. Different implementation techniques and design issues are discussed, such as obtaining a suitable activation function and numerical truncation technique trade-off, the improvement of the learning algorithm to reduce the cost of neuron and in result the total cost and the total speed of the complete ANN. Finally, the implementation of a complete very fast circuit for the pattern of English Digit Numbers NN has four layers of 70 nodes (neurons) o
... Show MoreWorld statistics proved that the most of work dangerous accidents, which causes death, are occurred in the construction works. These accidents related to many causes such as loss of workers experience and ignoring rules of safety requirements, especially young workers. Due to the risk of accidents that may occur in the site of work, the idea of this study crystallized to show the relationship between the age of worker and number of injuries and accidents, to identify the causes of these injuries, and to put the appropriate solutions to avoid or reduce the risk of work injuries. Also, the research shows the main principles of safety requirements to forming a clear picture about the subject of the study. A questioner form was prepared to c
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